Human Resource Management

Case -1 Siemens builds strategy –oriented HR system

Siemens is a 150-year-old German company, but it’s not the company it was even a few
years ago. Until recently, Siemens focused on producing electrical products. Today the
firm has diversified into software, engineering and services . it is also global , with more
than 4000000 employees working in 190 countries . in other words Siemens became a
world leader by pursuing a corporate strategy that emphasized diversifying into high-tech
products and services, and doing so on a global basis.

With a corporate strategy like that, human resources management plays a big role
at Siemens. Sophisticated engineering and services require more focus on employee
selection, training and compensation than in the average firm , and globalization requires
delivering these services globally. Siemens sums up the basic themes of its HR strategy
in several points. These include:

1. A living company is a learning company . The high-tech nature of siemens’

business means that employees must be able to learn on a continuing basis.
Hands –on apprenticeship training around the word to help facilities this. It also
offers employees extensive continuing education and management development
2. Global teamwork is the key to developing and using all the potential of the firm’s
human resources.
Because it is so important for employees throughout Siemens to feel free to work
together and interact, employees have to understand the whole process, not just
bits and pieces. To support this, Siemens provides extensive training and
development . it also ensures that all employees feel they are part of a strong ,
unifying corporate identify. For example HR uses cross-border, cross-cultural
experiences as prerequisites for career advances .
3. A climate of mutual respect is the basis of all relationship- within the company and
with society.
Siemens contends that the wealth of nationalities , cultures, languages and outlook
represented by its employees is one of its most valuable assets. It therefore
engages in numerous HR activities aimed at building openness , transparency ,
and fairness, and supporting diversity.

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Questions:-

1. Based on the information in this case, provide examples for Siemens of at

least four strategically required organizational outcomes and four required
workforce competencies and behaviors.

Ans: Strategically required organizational outcomes would be the following:

1) An employee selection and compensation system that attracts and retains the
human talent necessary to support global diversification into high-tech products and
services;

2) A “learning company” in which employees are able to learn on a continuing basis;

3) A culture of global teamwork which will develop and use all the potential of the firm’s
human resources;

4) A climate of mutual respect in a global organization. Workforce competencies and

behaviors could include: 1) openness to learning; 2) teamwork skills; 3) cross-cultural
experience; 4) openness, respect, and appreciation for workforce diversity.

2. Identify at least four of the strategically relevant HR system policies and

activites that Siemens has instituted in order to help HR contribute to achieving
Siemens’ strategic goals.

Ans: 1) Training and development activities to support continuous learning through a

system of combined classroom and hands-on apprenticeship training to support
technical learning;

2) Continuing education and management development to develop skills necessary

for global teamwork and appreciation for cultural diversity;

3) Enhanced internal selection process which includes pre-requisites of cross-border

and cross-cultural experiences for career advancement;

4) Organizational development activities aimed at building openness, transparency,

fairness, and diversity support.

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3. Provide a brief illustrative strategy map for Siemens.

Ans: Student answers will vary but the strategy map should answer the following
questions:

1) What overall goals does Siemens want to achieve?

2) What must Siemens do operationally to achieve its goals? and

3) What employee attitudes and behaviors will produce these operational outcomes?

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Case -2 The carter cleaning company

The high performance work system quality

As a recent graduate and as a person who keeps up with the business press, Jennifer is
familiar with the benefits of programs such as total quality management and high
performance work systems.

Jack has actually installed a total quality program of sorts at carter, and it has been in
place for about 5 years this program takes the form of employ meeting. Jack holds
employee meetings periodically, but particularly when there is a serious problem in store
such as poor quality work or machine breakdowns. When problems like these arise,
instead of trying diagnose them himself or with Jennifer, he contacts all the employees in
that store and meets with them as soon as the store closes.

Hourly employees get extra pay for this meetings. The meetings have been useful helping
jack to identify and rectify several problems. For example: in one store all the fine white
blouses were coming outlooking dingy. It turned out that the cleaners-spotter had been
ignoring the company rule that required cleaning the perchloroethylene cleaning fluid
before washing items like these. As a result, these fine white blouses were being washed
in cleaning fluid that had residue from other, earlier washes.

Jennifer now wonders whether these employee meetings should be expanded to give the
employees and even bigger role in managing the carters stores quality. “ we cant be
everywhere watching everything all the time,” she said to her father . “ yes, but this people
only earn about $8 to $15 per hour. Will they really want to act like mini managers?” he
replied.

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Questions:-

1. Would you recommend that the Carters expand their quality program? If so,
specifically what form should it take?

Ans: Most students will agree that there are opportunities to expand the quality
program. The employee meeting approach is a good start in terms of utilizing high-
involvement organizational practices. There are opportunities to maximize the
overall quality of their human capital.

For example, training seems to be an obvious area to improve in terms of

educating and building awareness about basic standards and procedures.

2. Assume the Carters want to institute a high performance work system as a

test program in one of their stores. Write a one-page outline summarizing
important HR practices you think they should focus on.

Ans: Students should include some of the following ideas in their outline: The
types of HR practices they would implement to improve quality, productivity,
financial performance; methods for job enrichment; strategies for implementing
and leveraging a team-based organization; ways to implement and facilitate high
commitment work practices; employee development and skill building activities to
foster increased competency and capability in the workforce; a compensation
program which provides incentives (for example, profit sharing, pay for
performance) for achieving major goals and financial targets.

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Chapter 4: Application case The Flood

1. Should Phil and Linda ignore the old-timers protests and write the job descriptions as they see fit?
Why? Why not? How would you go about resolving the differences?
Ans:

No, Phil & Linda should never ignore the old-timers’ protest. Since its the old–timers who have full
knowledge about the tasks, duties & responsibilities they used to perform. Ignoring them may result to
turbulence among the workers and they’ll feel cheated hence leading to lower productivity.
Writing job description without the information acquired from old-timers would be like climbing
mountain without a guide. Since they know the nature and requirement of the job very well, they must
be asked about the information of the job before writing a job description.
To resolve the problem I would have used a questionnaire with both structured as well as open-ended
questions. That would have lead to lesser confusion and misinterpretation by Phil & Maybelline. (The
Job Information Sheet is given below which consist of both structured and unstructured questions)

2. How would you have conducted the job analysis? What should Phil do now?
Ans:
I would have conducted the job analysis in one of the two ways. Either I would have used questionnaire
(with both structured as well as unstructured questions) or the interview method.
In the interview method, after collecting the information, I would further proceeded to get the
information reviewed and verified by the immediate supervisor of the interviewee and the interviewee.
Phil should now use the information, which is verified and reviewed by supervisor and worker both, for
the training purpose of the new worker. The information consists of task, duties & responsibilities of the
workers. When the workers will be trained accordingly they’ll know what to do and how to do, resulting
in lesser confusion and time-wastage

Chapter 4: Job Analysis Continuing Case: The carter cleaning

company: The job description
1. What should be the format and final form of the store manager’s job description?

Ans:

The format noted in figure 4-6 could be a reasonable format to use. Students may recommend that Jen
should include a “standards of performance” section in the job description. This lists the standards the
employee is expected to achieve under each of the job description’s main duties and responsibilities,
and would address the problem of employees not understanding company policies, procedures, and
expectations. In addition, students may recommend that Jennifer instead take a competency-based
approach which describes the job in terms of the measurable, observable, behavioral competencies that
an employee doing that job must exhibit. Because competency analysis focuses more on “how” the
worker meets the job’s objectives or actually accomplishes the work, it is more worker focused.

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2. Was it practical to specify standards and procedures in the body of the job description, or should
these be kept separately?

Ans:

They do not need to be kept separately, and in fact both Jen and the employees would be better served
by incorporating standards and procedures into the body of the description. The exception to this would
be if the standards and procedures are so complex or involved that it becomes more pragmatic to
maintain a separate procedure manual.

3.How should Jen go about collecting the information required for the standards, procedures, and job
description?

Ans:

She should first go about conducting the job analysis, collecting information about the work activities,
human behaviors, machines, tools, equipment, and work aids, performance standards, job context, and
human requirements. The best methods for collecting this information in this case are through
interview, questionnaires, observation, diaries/logs maintained by employees. In addition, she should
ensure that she is identifying the essential functions of the job, and that the descriptions comply with
the law.

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Chapter 4: Translating Strategy into HR Policies & Practices:

Improving Performance at the Hotel Paris
1. Based on the hotel’s stated strategy, list at least four more important employee
behaviors important for the Hotel Paris’s staff to exhibit.

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2. If time permits, spend some time prior to class observing the front-desk clerk at a local
hotel. In any case, create a job description for a Hotel Paris front-desk clerk.

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Chapter 5: application case Finding People Who Are Passionate

About What They Do
1. Identify some of the established recruiting techniques that underlie Trilogy’s unconventional
approach to attracting talent.

Answer:

Employee recruiting means finding and attracting applicants for the employer’s open position.

Recruitment process has great importance in every organization for finding the best employee for the
open position. Trilogy actively recruits potential employees early in the hiring cycle.

Their techniques include—

-Reviewing resumes (reviewed over 15000 resumes in a year),

-Attending job and career fairs,

-Conducting on campus interviews (over 4,000),

-Flying in prospects for interviews, and

-Having more personalized procedures for handling top recruits.

1. Reviewing resumes

Every year Trilogy reviews thousands of resumes. In a year Trilogy reviewed 15000 resumes. Because
there are lot of choices to select from Trilogy becomes more selective to pick the best from the pool of
candidates. But one of the disadvantages of this step is that, the company need to spend a lot for
maintaining the large pool of candidates.

2. Attending job and career fairs

Trilogy attends job and career fairs to attract large pool of candidates. They go to different college
career fairs to attract fresh talented college graduates to their company.

3. Conducting on campus interviews

For conducting campus interviews, the employers send a representative to college campuses to
prescreen applicants and creating an applicant pool from the graduating class. The company recruitment
has two main goals. One is to determine if the candidate is worthy of future consideration and the other
aim is to attract good candidates. The problem is that on-campus recruiting is expensive and time
consuming if done right. In a year, Trilogy conducted 4000 on-campus interviews.

4. Having more personalized procedures for handling top recruits

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Trilogy arranges special arrangements for the top recruits. Top recruits and significant others are taken
to fly in to Austin for standard three day preliminary visit. A typical day might start with tough interviews
but end with mountain biking, roller blading or laser tag.

2. What particular Elements of Trilogy’s culture most likely appeal to the kind of employees it seeks?
How does it convey those elements to job prospects?

Answer:

Trilogy tries to seek freshest, least experienced people in job market who are talented, ambitious and
have entrepreneurial instincts. For appealing these employees, Trilogy maintains a unique and unusual
culture; like- the company sponsors events and trips for the employees etc.

* No dress code

* No regular work schedule

* Self-directed scheduling

* Company sponsors events and trips for the employees etc.

Many of its approaches to business practices are unusual, but in trilogy’s fast changing and highly
competitive environment they seem to work. Trilogy gives their employees full freedom. But when it
comes to work, the company believe in “just do it now” attitude. No matter how the employees spend
their time in the office, they finish their work in time.

3. Would Trilogy be an appealing employer for you? Why or why not? If not, what would it take for
you to accept a job offer from Trilogy?

Answer:

Yes, Trilogy is indeed an appealing employer for me.

Because, it believes that the people are everything. In trilogy- I can have full freedom to work, can make
my own hours, can spend time to socialize with people, can go to trips, and a lot.

4. What suggestions would you make to Trilogy for improving its recruiting process?

Answer:

I have some several suggestions for Trilogy to improve their recruiting process. It seems that trilogy is
only interested in recruiting new and fresh employees, which can cost bad effect to Trilogy’s business
condition. New employees don’t have any experience and they need a lot of training. And when it
comes to training, the company needs to pay a huge amount for it. But if the company uses experienced
employees, the cost may become less. On the other hand, if the company uses internal recruiting
sources, like- rehiring, job posting, giving promotion and external sources, like- advertising, employment

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agencies and internet; they can reduce their recruiting cost and can have a large pool of candidates to
choose from.

Chapter 5: continuing case Carter Cleaning Company Getting Better Applicants

1. First, how would you recommend we go about reducing the turnover in our stores?

Ans.

Recruiting and retaining plays a very important role in an organization’s efficiency and profitability.. High
employee turn over affects companies in a number of ways and are very common in jobs that only
require a high school diploma. Every time an employee leaves, he takes with him a major share of
valuable organizational knowledge with him. Employees constantly leaving does not give a sense of
loyalty from the owners and can discourage others to stay. They must come up with an competitive
advantage against competitors that will boost morale, integrity. Recruiting many will give them options
and raise them options and possibly raise the bar on being qualified,. But if direct and indirect costs are
considered, replacing an employee comes with heavy cost in terms of money and time. High turnover
results in employer/managers active involvement in recruiting and training which in affects the
efficiency of the business also.

2. Provide a detailed list of recommendations concerning how we should go about increasing our pool
of acceptable job applicants so we no longer face the need to hire almost anyone who walks in the
door. (Recommendations regarding the latter should include completely worded online and hard-copy
advertisements and recommendations regarding any other recruiting strategies you would suggest we
use.)

Answer:

a. Completely worded classified ads. Students will vary in their creative approaches. A good
teaching method is to have them email their ads to each other and have the students rank order
which ad they would apply to. Determine what made the ad attractive and ask the other
students to modify the ad according to what they just learned.

b. Recommendations concerning any other recruiting strategies you suggest they

use. Students will offer a wide variety of suggestions. Among the likely responses are: radio
ads, flyers/handbills, and direct mail to former employees (we miss you—maybe the grass didn’t
turn out to be greener on the other side). Some students will consider target marketing. For
example, Jennifer could re-engineer the job to fewer hours and recruit part time workers,
greatly increasing the pool of potential employees.

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1. Given the hotel’s stated employee preferences, what recruiting sources would
you suggest they use, and why?

Ans.

Though the local paper may bring in applicants, the development of a succession plan will ensure that
lower-level employees are ready to move into higher levels when an opening occurs. College
recruitment and employee referral may also be a good resource. The company should begin
using selection testing, particularly in the areas of integrity and conscientiousness testing.

2. What would a Hotel Paris help wanted ad look like?

Ans.

Elements from these should be incorporated into student responses, which will vary. The hotel should
consider developing a recognizable logo and color scheme, along with a standard format for ads. That
format’s use should be mandatory across the various hotels.

3. How would you suggest they measure the effectiveness of their recruiting efforts?

Ans.

The number of qualified applicants per position, percentage of jobs filled from within, the offer-to-
acceptance ratio, acceptance by recruiting source, turnover by recruiting source, and selection
test results by recruiting source are used by other hotels, and should be considered for use by
Hotel Paris.

7.17 How would you explain the nature of the panel interview Maria had to endure? Specifically, do
you think it reflected a well-thought-out interviewing strategy on the part of the firm, or
carelessness on the part of the firm's management?

The type of interview Maria had to endure was a stress interview which was done to test Maria’s ability
to handle stressful situations. I don’t know exactly whether it was a very well-thought-out interviewing
strategy because of the questions which were asked, as they could have sounded biased and sexist; so
there definitely was carelessness. I surely would design a stress interview at Apex Environmental but
making sure the questions are not offended to the potential employees; the employee shall be
bombarded with different questions but not as personal and discriminating as were asked in the case of
Maria.

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7.18. Would you take the job offer if you were Maria? If you're not sure, is there any
additional information that would help you make your decision, and if so, what is it?

Maria needs additional information. What she does know is the nature of the job and the clear fit with
her training and skills. The additional information that she should seek involves the number of women
who work at Apex, the levels of management which they have attained, and the satisfaction of
those women with their treatment by the Apex management. The fact that the entire interview panel
was composed of men and their choice of questions leaves us with reservations about how she
would be treated once hired.

7.19. The job of applications engineer for which Maria was applying requires: (1) excellent
technical skills with respect to mechanical engineering; (2) a commitment to working in the
area of pollution control; (3) the ability to deal well and confidently with customers who have
engineering problems; (4) a willingness to travel worldwide; and (5) a very intelligent and well-
balanced personality. What questions would you ask when interviewing applicants for the job?

 What do you expect from this company?

 How and where do you see yourself in next 5 years?
 Why did you leave your previous job?
 What did you like the most about your previous job?
 What did you not like about your previous job?
 Why do you think we should hire you?
 What type of environment do you prefer to work in?
 Do you believe you have the potential to take this company to a higher status?
 What are your career based goals?
 Do you have any question regarding the job?

Continuing Case: The carter cleaning company: The better interview

1. In general, what can Jen do to improve her employee interviewing practices? Should she develop
interview forms that list questions for management and non-management jobs, and if so what form
should these take and what questions should be included? Should she initiate a computer-based
interview approach, and if so why and specifically, how?
Ans:
The company has an inadequate, unstructured way of interviewing and hiring. One solution students
could suggest is to utilize a structured interview guide as a tool that managers could use to improve
their interviewing practices. Have students brainstorm a list of questions to be included in the
structured interview guide. Computer-based approach is also a possibility, students should explore the
pros and cons of this given the nature of the organization and weigh the cost/benefit of utilization of
this technology.

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2. If she implements a training program for her managers, and if so, specifically what should be the
content of such an interview training program? In other words, if she did decide to start training her
management people to be better interviewers, what should she tell them and how should she tell it to
them?
Ans:

The obvious answer to this question is yes, a training program should be designed and delivered.
Students should include suggestions from the section on designing and conducting interview effective
interviews, including training in preparation, utilization of a structured interview process, and
interviewing techniques discussed in this chapter. She should educate managers in the potential pitfalls
that come up in the interviewing process as outlined in the text, and provide opportunity for practice
with mock interviews in the training session so that managers get an opportunity to use the skills they
learn and become comfortable with the process.

Chapter 8
1）What do you think of Apex's training process? Could it help to explain why
employees "do things their way" and if so why?

1. There is a weak accountability system. The person assigned to perform

training is likely to have very low motivation (a departing employee). With no
formal descriptions the trainer will teach "their way" of accomplishing tasks.
There is no training documentation. One receives training in "how to train." There
are no outcome measures to determine if the training was successful.

2）What role do job descriptions play in training in Apex?

2. Job analysis is the procedure through which you determine the duties and
nature of the jobs and the kinds of people who should be hired for them. You can
utilize the information it provides to write job descriptions and job specifications,
which are utilized in recruitment and selection, compensation, performance
appraisal, and training. In another hand Job descriptions set the boundaries of
jobs in terms of required knowledge and skills. It is a description of the task in
adjusting the limits of work in terms with the necessary knowledge and skills. By
understanding the job description, a trainer can define the learning requirements
or the material requirements for new or transitioning employees.

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3）Explain in detail what you would do to improve the training process at Apex.
Make sure to provide specific suggestions, please.

3. They should first be able to identify groups that would create a diverse
workforce. Examples: single parents, older workers, minorities and women,
welfare recipients, and global candidates. In order to retain these employees,
students would first need to understand the needs of each group, and then
create plans and programs that accommodate these specific needs. For
example, to attract and keep single mothers, employers could give employees
schedule flexibility, and train the supervisors to have an increased awareness of
and sensitivity to the challenges single parents face. sourced with consideration
give to the same set of advantages and disadvantages listed above. The training
plans need to be created by training experts familiar with the actual position and
compiled into a training manual applicable to each section...

Every position would have a formal (written) description. Training procedures

would be documented for each position. Supervisors would be formally
accountable for training.
Chapter 8: Training and Developing Employees Continuing Case
: Carter cleaning company
8-21 Specifically, what should the Carters cover in their new employee orientation program, and how
should they convey this information?
The information that should be covered in the Carter Cleaning Centers new employee orientation
program are a tour of the facilities, employee benefits, personnel policies, and safety precautions and
regulations. It should also include the company’s mission and vision, policies and procedures, work
hours, and any password information the employees may need to conduct their jobs. The orientation
ought to be conveyed by endeavoring to draw in the new worker by making them feel invited as they
are currently as they are now part of the group and to help the new employees acclimate to the
company’s culture and way of life at Carter Cleaning Centers.
8-22 In the HR management course Jennifer took, the book suggested using a job instruction sheet to
identify tasks performed by an employee. Should the Carter Cleaning Centers use a form like this for
the counter person’s job? If so, what should the form look like, say for a counter person?

2. Which specific training techniques should Jennifer use to train her pressers, cleaner-spotters,
managers, and counter staff and why?
Answer:
1. For the pressers and cleaner-spotters should be trained using On- the- job training : Coaching
understudy Approach to provide them with the learning and practical skills needed for the job.
2. Managers should first receive Off- the job training :
- lectures: about the products used and e0uipments, And then with:
- management games : to develop problem-solving skills, planning, leadership and cooperation.

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- behavior modeling technique : to know how to deal with different situations.

3. Counter staff should be trained using the following techni0ues :
- lectures: to provide them with the knowledge about type of customers and how to deal with them
appropriately.
- job instruction training : to provide step-by-step, key points and basic tasks training and soft skills.
- behavior modeling technique : to provide the employees’ with communication skills and knowledge to
be able to deal with different types of customers.

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