Written Assignment 1: Case Study
Length: 1500 words: Two 500-word memos, one 500-word analysis
This assignment requires you to write two memos as well as a reflection on the second memo.
Memo 1: Job Analysis and Design, Recruitment and Selection
You are a human resource consultant. Write a 500-word memo to the manager of the organization. In this memo, you should:
1. Outline the product/service provided by the company and the workflow required to deliver it.
2. Summarize the three jobs required by the workflow.
For the job that requires the highest level of hiring each year, your should:
3. Identify the three most important KSAs applicants must have.
4. Recommend how to recruit applicants and explain why you selected this method(s).
5. Recommend how to assess applicant’s possession of these KSAs and explain why you
selected this method(s).
6. Explain how you will make selection decisions among multiple candidates.
Ensure that you use appropriate course concepts, theories, and terminology in your memo.
Memo 2: Case Study on Job Redesign
You are a HR practitioner in a medium-sized company that operates several restaurants. Each restaurant hires approximately 25 new serving staff each year. Recently, a local newspaper ran an excoriating feature on local “breastaurants.” Breastaurants are restaurants that sexual objectify their servers.
This sexualization occurs in the selection process (e.g., picking stereotypically attractive women), mandating uniform requirements (e.g., tight-fitting or revealing clothing), and regulating server behaviour towards customers (e.g., expecting flirtatious behaviour). Interviews with servers indicates they experience a high level of unwanted sexual advances. The servers report that their concerns about patron behaviour are dismissed by managers as “part of the job”. Some servers report depression arising from feelings of powerlessness, ambivalence and self-blame.
One of your company’s restaurants (the After Dark Lounge and Restaurant) was identified as in the newspaper article an example of a breastaurant. The HR manager (Kelly Smith) manager was concerned about this coverage and asked you to look into the hiring practices of the After Dark Lounge and Restaurant.
The After Dark Lounge and Restaurant uses standardized and company approved advertisements, job specifications, and job descriptions. A review of hiring records suggests that 95% of the servers hired by the manager (Brad Doolan) over the past five years have been female. A brief visit one evening confirms newspaper reports that the servers are young, female, attractive, and wear revealing clothing.
The other restaurants your company operates appear to hire approximately an equal number of male and female servers. The managers of these restaurants require serving staff to wear standardized uniforms. These uniforms vary between restaurants, but are much less revealing than the clothing worn by staff at the After Dark Lounge and Restaurant.
The HR manager is concerned that the After Dark Lounge and Restaurant is being operated in a way that poses organizational risk. The HR manager has directed you to write a memo to her that she can use to advocate with the CEO for change. Your memo needs to address the following topics:
1. What are the three main organizational risks associated with management practices at the After Dark Lounge and Restaurant?
2. What organizational practices give rise to these risks?
3. What changes do you recommend in HR planning, job design, recruitment, and selection practices to mitigate these risks?
4. What criteria will you use to know if you have successfully mitigated the three main organizational risks?
Write a 500-word memo to the HR manager in response to this request by the end of the week. Ensure that you use appropriate course concepts, theories, and terminology in your memo.
Reflection on Memo 2
After writing Memo 2, reflect on and analyze your memo, and address the following questions in about 500 words:
a. Which of the organizational risks that you identified were you most concerned by? And why were you most concerned by this risk?
b. What risks for the organization do your proposed changes in HR planning, job design, recruitment, and selection themselves pose?
b. Why did you choose the criteria that you did to know if you have successfully mitigated the three main organizational risks?
c. Justify the recommendation you have made about Brad Doolan (the restaurant manager)?
Written Assignment 2: Short Answer
Length: Approximately 500 words
Instructions
This assignment requires you to write one memo.
Memo 1: Job Analysis and Design, Recruitment and Selection
You are a human resource consultant. Write a 500-word memo to the manager of the organization. This memo should focus on the position your wrote about in Memo 1 in the first written assignment . In this memo, you should:
1. Outline the three topics you would cover when orienting the worker, including:
• why you chose these topics,
• the training objectives associated with them,
• the method or technique you would use to achieve the objectives, and
• how you would measure the result of the orientation
.
2. Outline the three aspects of the position upon which you would assess the workers’ performance, including:
• why you chose these aspects of the job to assess,
• the performance expectations or goals for each aspect you will assess,
• what appraisal method you chose and why you chose it, and
• the two sources of error most likely to affect your appraisal.
3. The wages and benefits that should be provided for this position and why you are making this recommendation.
Ensure that you use appropriate course concepts, theories, and terminology in your memo.
Written Assignment 3: Case Study
Length: 1200 words: 700-word memo, 500-word analysis
Case
You are an HR practitioner for a public library. The library employees are represented by the Civil Service Union (CSU). There is a collective agreement between the library and CSU that expires one year from now. One of the employee groups in the bargaining unit are student pages. Student pages are high-school students who are under the age of 18. They perform a variety of clerical tasks in libraries on a part-time basis.
The collective agreement between CSU and the Library sets out the terms and conditions of the pages’ employment. The relevant passage reads:
Student Pages
The rates of pay for student pages shall be as follows:
• Step 1: Minimum wage plus 10%
• Step 2: Minimum wage plus 20%
• Step 3: Minimum wage plus 30%
Minimum wage means the minimum wage established from time to time by the provincial government.
Employment as a student page shall terminate on the 18th birthday of a student page or their graduation from Grade 12, whichever is first.
Job Duties: The main duties and responsibilities of a Student Page are:
• Sort library materials, load materials onto book trucks, and shelve materials.
• Gather unshelved material and re-shelve it.
• Straighten shelves and check to ensure books are correctly shelved.
• Check in returned materials and process holds, although such work shall not constitute more than 50% of their workload.
Pay Administration: Student pages shall serve a six (6) month probationary period. A successful annual performance appraisal shall make a page eligible to move up one step on the pay grid.
Vacation: Student pages are entitled to two (2) weeks of vacation.
Other Leaves and Benefits: Student pages are not eligible for the other leave provisions or the benefits outlined in the collective agreement.
The library employees approximately 100 student pages, with roughly 33 pages aging-out of the program each year.
The newly elected conservative government has introduced legislation that rolls back various labour law entitlements effective next week. One of the changes is the introduction of a new minimum wage for youth under 18 that is $2 per hour lower than the $15 per hour minimum wage for workers aged 18 and over.
Under these changes, the pages’ wages will be reduced. For example, at present, pages on step 1 earn $16.50 per hour ($15 plus 10%). Next week, these pages will earn $14.30 per hour ($13 plus 10%). This is a 13.3% reduction in their hourly pay.
The HR manager, Ashok Kumar, is concerned that lowering the pages’ wages poses organizational risks that he must draw to the attention of the library’s senior executives. The HR Manager directs you to write a memo to him regarding this change. Your memo must:
1. Summarize the issue.
2. Identify at least two organizational risks associated with lowering the wages paid to student pages.
3. Identify at least one option that would allow the library to avoid lowering the wages of student pages and the risk(s) associated with the option(s) you developed.
4. Recommend a course of action (either lower the minimum wage or adopt an option to avoid lowering the minimum wage) and provide a rationale for your recommendation.
Write a 700-word memo to the HR manager in response to this request by the end of the week. Ensure that you use appropriate course concepts, theories, and terminology in your memo.
