HRM Case Study Analysis

CASE 1

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Case questions and answers

Question.no.1

Discuss what a manager should do in each of the two Michigan cases.

Answer:

Office Equipment repair technician

Although it is risky but the manager should give him a second chance, because by the nature

of job (i.e. job of technician) it does not seem that he would be in direct contact with potential

victims. It is risky because the job is a field job that is visiting other organizations and

repairing their equipments. It is also possible that other organizations might have potential

victims in their equipment area. If the technician does something wrong, the image of the

employer may get harmed. The manager should test the employee’s future intentions through

a question answer session, and if he appears to be honest and responsible about his future

actions, then he should be give him a second chance.

School bus driver

The employer must be removed him from employment as he is in direct contact with

potential victims on daily basis and it is never certain when he will repeat his past illegal acts

no matter how hard working he is as the safety issues must be first considered.

Question.no.2

What circumstances might lead you to make different decisions in different cases under

Megan’s Law?

Answer:

Office Equipment repair technician

Our decision is to rehire him because; it does not seem that he would be in direct contact with

potential victims. Our decision would be different if the employee would be in direct contact

with potential victims, for example. if he would be doing such jobs like, health care

facilitating (e.g., nurse or aide), day caring and schooling (e.g., teacher), security (e.g.,

guard), social and mental health facilities (e.g., social or mental health worker), taxi and bus

services (e.g., drivers), and recreational facilities (e.g., fitness trainer).


School bus driver

Our decision is to fire him from the job. Our decision would be different if:

1. The employee had mentioned his conviction in the application form.

2. The employee would not be having any direct contact with the potential victims.

Management Dilemma

Hiring of new employees who have been convicted sex offenders and a decision to retain or

fire the existing employees who have been sex offenders in the past.

Associated Facts

Megan’s Law provides that all states are required to have all convicted sex offenders

register so that residents are aware of their presence in a neighborhood.

In Michigan, the Attorney General released the names of 200 registered sex offenders

who had been using MySpace.

In some states, it is illegal for employers to use any information found on the Megan’s

Law website for purpose of employment.

The EEOC says that the use of conviction records in employment decisions has an

adverse impact on African American and Hispanic males.

For certain jobs employers are required to check registry such as jobs which includes

positions in health care facilities and hospital, day cares and schools, security, social

and metal health facilities, taxi and bus services and recreational facilities

Management response or Associated Actions

Management can hire sex offenders who are convicted or registered, only for jobs

through which they do not have access to potential victims.

If the nature of job is so that sex offenders have direct access to potential victims, than

management should not rely completely upon Megan’s Law website but they can do

background check on selected employee upon their agreement from past employers,

social security number, credit history, drug test, educational and certification record.

Before hiring, management is supposed to test the employee from every perspective

including all the three tests that include ability, personality and honesty/integrity tests.

Along with this the company can include disclaimers the application form like if the


company later comes to know that the employee was involved in illegal sexual

activities he will be fired.

The company should be having intelligent enough anchors that they figure out at the

time of interviewing if someone is falsifying his previous records or performance.

As background check is an expensive procedure therefore only employees who have

been finalized for the job should be processed through the process of background

check.

It is necessary to inform an employee about the background check, take his

permission and explain him the reason for doing so.


Case 2



Question.no.1

The case introduces three companies of every different size with three different onboarding

approaches. What differences do you see in their approaches? What similarities?

Answer:

There are three companies discussed in the case, Sun Microsystems, El Paso Corporation and

Zimmerman Advertising. All the three companies have changed their Onboarding styles and

have introduced a better and more efficient system that provides the employee with all

relevant information within a month of employment. Furthermore, similarities and

differences in their approaches are discussed below in detail.

Organization Sun Microsystems El Paso Corporation Zimmerman

Advertising

Orientation

Style

New employees begin

their orientation sessions

after being hired with a

computer game.

New hires attend a first-

day orientation and then

another a month later.

New hires log on and

learn from the new

hire website what the

company does.

Involvement

of CEO

The CEO of Sun

Microsystems welcomes

the new hires through a

video.

Involvement of CEO at El

Paso corporation is not

visible.

At Zimmerman, new

hires have one hour

one meeting with

CEO on the first day.

Problems

with old

onboarding

system

Employee’s first day at

work consisted mostly of

filling out paperwork

Some new employees

waited 2 weeks to get e-

mail about the updates

regarding their jobs.

People who worked

remotely sometimes

waited weeks or months

before meeting their

managers.

New employees were

sitting idle because they

didn’t have tools to work

New employees had

no clear

understanding of what

the company is all

about.


Interaction

with other

coworkers.

The new employee logs

on to the company’s new

hire website and

connects with other

employees via social

networks.

Although it is mentioned

in the case that, new hires

get an e-mail with links to

everything from ordering

business cards to joining

the credit union. But

interaction with other

employees can be, and

cannot be the part of these

links.

No information is

mentioned in the case

regarding, how new

hires interact with

other employees. It

may be because of the

smaller size of the

organization. i.e.

1000 employees.

Use of

orientation

checklist

Sun Microsystems does

not use any orientation

checklist.

El Paso Corporation does


checklist.

New hires get a 30,

60, and 90-day

training checklist that

must be completed on

time and signed by

their supervisor.

Question .no.2

Are there important ideas missing from all three approaches? If so what are they?

Answer:

Yes. The concept of Evaluation and Follow up is missing, which is also described by the text.

Evaluation:

These three organizations can evaluate the effectiveness of their orientation programs using

the following metrics.

•Tenure turnover rate: what percentage of new hires of 6 months or less left the

organization?

• New hires failure factor: what percentage of the total annual turnover were new hires?

• Employee upgrade rate: what percentage of new employees received a higher performance

rating than previously?

• Development program what percentage of new employees have participation rate moved

on to training for or promotion to higher jobs?

Follow up:

The effectiveness of the orientation can also be evaluated by conducting follow-up interviews

with new employees a few weeks or months after the orientation.


Question.no.3

Which approach sounds best to you? Why?

Answer:

Sun’s onboarding approach is the best in my view because Sun’s approach it:

•Establishes a favorable employee impression of the organization and the job as new hires

begin their orientation with a computer game.

• Provides organization and job information

• Enhances interpersonal acceptance by coworkers and accelerates socialization and

integration of the new employee into the organization when new hire log in and connects

with other employees via social networks.

• Ensures that employee performance and productivity begin more quickly.

Although Sun’s approach sounds great but there cannot always be one particular approach

that is always best. Factors like, nature of work, size of the organization, understanding skills

or ability to learn of new hires, play a very important role for selecting an orientation

approach. For example, there might be some people who are excellent on their areas of work

but may not be comfortable with the technology. In a situation when company’s orientation is

fully technology based, i.e. logging on the company’s website, creating own user account,

filling out forms and etc. Obviously this may develop a feeling of inferiority in the new hires

and might cause quitting of job in the early period of employment.


Management Dilemma

There are three companies discussed in the case, Sun Microsystems, El Paso Corporation and

Zimmerman Advertising. Sun Microsystems through a creative orientation style wanted to

form a better First Impression.El Paso Corporation wanted to have a productive orientation

system that, allows a new hire to work as soon as he is hired, assures that new hires don’t sit

idle. Zimmerman Advertising, a small advertising company wanted new hires to understand

the organization that what the company does, its client philosophy, and about its leadership.

All the three companies had to change their Onboarding styles and had to introduce a better

and more efficient orientation system that provides the employee with all relevant

information within a month of employment.

Associated Facts and Figures


Advertising

Number of

employees

34,000

5,000

1,000

Problems

with old

onboarding

style

Employee’s first day at

work consisted mostly of

filling out paperwork

Some new employees

waited 2 weeks to get e-

mail about the updates

regarding their jobs.

People who worked

remotely sometimes

waited weeks or months

before meeting their

managers.

New employees were

sitting idle because they

didn’t have tools to work

New employees had

no clear

understanding of what

the company is all

about


Management response

The three companies changed their orientation style and implemented a planned orientation

system. The new orientation style of all the companies is discussed below.


Advertising

New

Orientation

Style

New employees begin

their orientation sessions

after being hired with a

computer game.

New hires attend a first-

day orientation and then

another a month later.

New hires log on and

learn from the new

hire website what the

company does.

Involvement

of CEO

The CEO of Sun

Microsystems welcomes

the new hires through a

video.

Involvement of CEO at El

Paso corporation is not

visible.

At Zimmerman, new

hires have one hour

one meeting with

CEO on the first day.

Interaction

with other

coworkers.

The new employee logs

on to the company’s new

hire website and

connects with other

employees via social

networks.

Although it is mentioned

in the case that, new hires

get an e-mail with links to

everything from ordering

business cards to joining

the credit union. But

interaction with other

employees can be, and

cannot be the part of these

links.

No information is

mentioned in the case

regarding, how new

hires interact with

other employees. It

may be because of the

smaller size of the

organization. i.e.

1000 employees.

Use of

orientation

checklist

Sun Microsystems does


checklist.

El Paso Corporation does


checklist.

New hires get a 30,

60, and 90-day

training checklist that

must be completed on

time and signed by

their supervisor.

New orientation style adapted by all three organizations establishes a favorable employee

impression of the organization and provides information about the organization.


Associated Actions

Evaluation and follow up: These companies should evaluate effectiveness of the new

orientation program by, evaluation metrics such as Tenure turnover rate, New hires failure

factor, Employee upgrade rate and Development program, and by conducting follow-up

interviews with new employees a few weeks or months after the orientation.

Consider using mentors: Although e-learning is a good tool but may not always be

successful. All of the three organizations should assign coworkers or peers to serve as

buddies or mentors as part of the new employees’ orientation.

Avoid information overload: One common failing of many orientation programs is

information overload. New workers presented with too many facts may ignore or inaccurately

recall much of the information. In this case, Sun Microsystems should think about not

overloading the information. As other two companies have gaps of month/months between

their orientation sessions.

Use an orientation checklist: An orientation checklist can be used to identify what the new

employee needs to know now and later. From the three organizations only Zimmerman is

currently using orientation checklist. Remaining two of the organization should also consider

using it, whether electronically or in written form.


CASE 3



Question.no.1

The top managers are very busy people. Why was it necessary to involve them in leadership

leverage?

Answer:

Although top managers are busy people, but they are the ones who are the most experienced

people and by having the visionary approach they take decisions for the betterment of the

organizations. So it is very important for the top managers to involve in the leadership

leverage, they are the best assessor, can also judge and evaluate the best and appropriate

talent for the organization.

Question.no.2

The program took 5 years to get to the end point. Is that realistic, or did it take too long?

Explain why the timing may vary.

Answer:

For long term cause and benefit of the organization, yes it seems like a realistic decision as

talent development review group involves the certain steps to be followed to enhance the

development and growth of high potential talent. Yes it may take 5 or fewer years as all the

activities to be performed effectively so the organization would not face the problem of ready

supply of leaders.

Question.no.3

Would you let the names of the high-pos out to the rest of the organization? Why or why not?

Answer:

I would certainly identify the high-pos and assess their quality skills and talent; I may

disclose their names to the rest of the organization because it leaves a good impact and sends

a good message for rest of the people in organization. Remaining people might get motivated

and work hard to be nominated in the next pool of talent considerations. People may improve

their skills even before they appear to be picked for the Review Group.


Management Dilemma

Gunderson Lutheran Health System is a health care delivery company recognizes need of

future leaders who will replace the current senior leaders who are about to retire.

Associated facts

325 bed hospitals, 41 clinics, 1.4M patients and 6834 employees.

Senior managers’ retirement.

Management response

They spent two years building a tiered leadership competency model that included criteria

for executives, directors and managers to ensure the right mix of KSAs. The tiered model

defined behaviors and competencies necessary to demonstrate excellence in each role.

The next step was to identify high-potential talent, in the five years after the program

began, 60 high-po employees at all levels of leadership were identified, assessed, and had

their career paths discussed.

After identifying it’s the time to assess the talent. The high-pos took assessment tools to

identify strengths and development needs.

A variety of tools were used to develop plans for individual high-pos, including stretch

assignments, role expansion, job rotation and different others.

Tracking progress included setting milestone and success metrics to make sure candidates

would build the necessary skills.

Associated Actions

Although Management tracks the progress but it could also use metrics for evaluation of

succession planning, these metrics can include, Percentage of key vacancies filled

internally and job performance of promoted successors

Gunderson Lutheran Health System only looked internally for succession planning, the

company could also hire externally as well, through hiring externally the company might

had got extra ordinary talented people.

There are three development approaches. Job-site approaches, off-site approaches and

learning organizations. The company only went for Job-Site approach. It might had


flourished its future leaders in a better way if it had went for combination of all the

approaches. Because when employees learn from external sources that learn from the

external environment too.


noCsulcnoC

The above mentioned three case studies provide the reader with a basic idea about what role

human resource plays in an organization, how does this department untangle; tangle

situations not only just that, learning from past mistakes and working to make the future of

the company and its employee's career bright. Human resource department comes up with

different strategies and policies with not just contributing towards company benefits but also

highlighting important factors like business ethics, without which no company can ever be

successful in today's competitive world of business.

Sex offenders, 21st century on boarding and leadership leverage; these three case studies have

been analyzed in such a way that certain conclusions can be made out of them. Detail

analysis have been done which are further divided into sub headings for example

management dilemma, management response, associated actions etc, so that the reader can

gain knowledge out of it plus will have an idea regarding how things go about in an

organization when changes occur or unfavorable situation arises.

HRM Case Study Analysis

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