BUS Strategic HR

Business 306 – Assignment 1: HR ConsultationFresh Price Accounting, Inc., is a well-known accounting firm that provides exceptional services
to businesses and individuals but is notorious for being a difficult place to work. Employee
turnover is at an all-time high and the company recently had a lawsuit filed against them for
mismanagement of employees.
To improve, they’ve reached out to you, an HR consultant, to help them identify ways they can
change their management of human resources. To learn more about the problems occurring,
you’ve done some research by interviewing the employees that work at Fresh Price Accounting,
Inc., and have discovered the following complaints made within the last calendar year:
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More than 68% of current employees stated that there is little motivation to work
harder than what is expected of them.
87% of employees identified in a questionnaire that they felt they couldn’t take
extended leave to care for an illness or the illness of a family member for fear they
would lose their jobs.
4 employees were fired shortly after incurring a disability or announcing a pregnancy.
91% of the company is comprised of white males. Individuals that represent a different
race, gender, speak a different language, or are not originally from the United States felt
‘unwelcomed’ and ‘misunderstood’.
62% of current employees that left the company in less than 6 months cited that they
felt inadequately trained for the position they were hired for.
As their HR consultant, you’ve been asked to relay the findings of your research in a brief
report. The company’s executives want the report to identify the main issues experienced by
the company and provide suggestions for how to make improvements. Make sure to provide
rationale and examples from sources to support your findings and recommendations.
The report should be 1500 to 2000 words in length and well-researched as it will serve as an
overview of both the current human resource management practices as well as your proposed
improvements.
Sources & Formatting
Please write your paper in the APA format. As part of your research, you may refer to the
course material for supporting evidence, but you must also use at least four credible, outside
sources and cite them using APA format. Please include a mix of both primary and secondary
sources, with at least one source from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal. If you use any
Study.com lessons as sources, please also cite them in APA (including the lesson title and
instructor’s name).
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Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews, advertisements, speeches,
company documents, statements, and press releases published by the company in
question.
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, such as the Journal of
Management. You may use sources like JSTOR, Google Scholar, and Social Science
Research Network to find articles from these journals. Secondary sources may also
come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a
reputable source, though the sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)
Business 306 – Assignment 2: Assessing Whether to Outsource the HR Function
About this Assignment
Senior management is often approached by an outside party with a proposal that purports to,
and seems to, solve a major and growing problem. It is the job of management to perform
independent research and analysis to weigh whether or not the offer will provide an overall net
benefit without generating a new set of problems. In this assignment, you need to objectively
assess if it will benefit your company to outsource its entire HR function.
Prompt
You are the Deputy Manager of Human Resources for ”Scooterpie,” a creator and marketer of
interactive, educational programs and applications for various levels of the K-12 market.
Founded just over 7 years ago, your creative team’s anticipation of core market needs is the
best in the industry, and annual sales this year are expected to top $70 million. Some $12
million of the increase from last year comes from your acquisition of a competitor based in
Westport, Ireland. You intend to use that EU base as a springboard to penetrate the European
market over the next 5 years.
Naturally, your employment growth has kept pace with sales. You now have 215 employees, 49
of which are based in Ireland. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel will be a key issue for
the foreseeable future for the following reasons.
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Plans to deeply penetrate the EU market depend upon finding qualified, multilingual
employees who understand that larger-than-America market.
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Your employee expertise needs to shift due to market changes in the U.S. So far, you
have had minimal need for salespeople and marketers in the U.S., as the bulk of your
sales were obtained via educational trade fairs and specialized distributors. Now, you
realize that the explosion of private schools, home schooling, and vouchers has
fragmented traditional markets. Future U.S. growth depends on understanding these
changes and what attributes future decision makers are seeking in their educational
software.
Both of these factors, on top of organic growth, will challenge your current HR practices and
capacity.
While your boss is on her required 2-week annual vacation, you are approached by EverHire,
inc. A Toronto-based company with clients and operations in over 35 countries, Everhire
promises to assist your company by taking over the entire HR function for approximately 95%
of your employees (only the very senior managers would be exempt). Functions to be
transferred include the entire hiring (and firing) process, benefits management, required tax
and other regulatory forms and functions, and all employee training and grievance settlement.
Scooterpie would be relieved of all of the legal and regulatory requirements and exposure, as
well as the daily hassle of hiring and onboarding.
EverHire’s fee for this service, under a 5-year contract, can be either a flat fee per employee, or
a percentage add-on to payroll when EverHire bills Scooterpie bi-weekly to cover that payroll.
Scooterpie would be held harmless for any violations of employment or related law.
In a paper of 1,000-1,500 words, please do the following:
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Spend a maximum of one page listing and explaining no fewer than three benefits the
proposed arrangement could convey to Scooterpie.
Spend a maximum of one page listing and explaining no fewer than three problems the
proposed arrangement could create to Scooterpie.
Research and briefly summarize two real-world examples where such an outsourcing
has been done by a major company: one instance in which it appears to have worked,
and one instance in which it did not work as projected.
Make and defend your recommendation for the proposal in no more than two pages. If
you recommend accepting it, include two contract provisions that you recommend,
along with your justification. If you recommend rejecting it, include two contract
provisions (with explanation) that would make the offer more palatable.
Formatting & Sources
Please write your paper in the APA format. You may refer to the course material for supporting
evidence, but you must also use three outside sources and cite them using APA format. Please
include a mix of both primary and secondary sources, with at least one source from a scholarly
peer-reviewed journal . If you use any Study.com lessons as sources, please also cite them in
APA (including the lesson title and instructor’s name).
•
Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews, advertisements, speeches,
company documents, statements, and press releases published by the company in
question.
•
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals, such as The Journal of
Human Resources. You may use sources like JSTOR, Google Scholar, and Gartner to find
articles from these journals. Secondary sources may also come from reputable websites
with .gov, .edu, or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the
sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)