Jack Nelson’s Problem

As a new member of the board of directors for a local bank, Jack Nelson was being
introduced to all the employees in the home office. When he was introduced to Ruth Johnson,
he was curious about her work and asked her what the machine she was using did. Johnson
replied that she really did not know what the machine was called or what it did. She explained
that she had only been working there for 2 months. However, she did know precisely how to
operate the machine. According to her supervisor, she was an excellent employee.
At one of the branch offices, the supervisor in charge spoke to Nelson confidentially,
telling him that “something was wrong,” but she didn’t know what. For one thing, she
explained, employee turnover was too high, and no sooner had one employee been up on the
job than another one resigned. With customers to see and loans to be made, she continued, she
had little time to work with the new employees as they came and went.
All branch supervisors hired their own employees without communication with the home
office or other branches. When an opening developed, the supervisor tried to find a suitable
employee to replace the worker who had quit.
After touring the 22 branches and finding similar problems in many of them, Nelson
wondered what the home office should do or what action he should take. The banking firm
generally was regarded as being a well-run institution that had grown from 27 to 191 employees
during the past 8 years. The more he thought about the matter, the more puzzled Nelson
became. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the problem, and he didn’t know whether to report
his findings to the president.

Questions:
1. What do you think is causing some of the problems in the bank’s home office and
branches?
Since employee turnover is high, there definitely has to be a problem in the employees’
dissatisfaction with their work. The reasons for this dissatisfaction can range from a low salary
to a bad work environment. Furthermore, In one of the branch offices, the supervisor stated
that “with customers to see and loans to be made, she had little time to work with the new
employees as they came and went.” This means that training is inadequate, and the employees
are less equipped with the knowledge and expertise needed to be successful, which can lead to
poor performance. Since the employees seem to have the skills needed (Johnson precisely knew
how to operate the machine, but did not know the name of machine), the problem here comes
from the administration’s inability to help train the employees - not so much the employee’s
lack of human capital.

2. Do you think setting up an HR unit in the main office would help?

Setting up an HR unit in the main office would definitely help. First of all, it can create
a company-wide set of standards for employees that would fulfill the needs of the firm. In the
passage, it was stated that employees are hired without communication with the home office
or other branches. This means that the lacks a universal definition of what is required from an
employee - this disorganization is detrimental to the company as a whole. With an HR unit
standardizing the job description and the qualifications needed from an employee, it could find
better candidates, thus lowering the turnover rate. The passage also states that supervisors did
not have time to work with new employees, and they mainly focused on replacing workers who
quit. Having the HR unit could also help retain the employees, and it would work to be that
support system that would give the employees the attention they need.
 3. What specific functions should an HR unit carry out? What HR functions would
then be carried out by supervisors and other line managers? What role should the
internet play in the new HR organization?

The HR unit could be in charge of recruiting and lead the initial screening process. It
could screen through the resumes and even phone interviews. By upholding a standardized set
of required qualifications, it could weed out the employees that would not be a good fit for the
company. The candidates that make the first cut would then be given to the supervisors and
line managers to choose from through a second-round interview. This helps the supervisors
because they seem to be very busy (judging from the passage), and it would be more time-
efficient with a smaller pool of candidates to choose from. Another specific function the HR
unit can carry out is a well-organized training procedure or orientation that works to inform the
newly hired employees of company knowledge and insight of the company from a bigger
picture. After the training, lines managers can then fill the employees in on their specific roles.
Here, the training serves to set a strong foundation for the needed expertise.
In terms of the role of the internet, it can be that link that connects the different branches
and universalizes employee standards. This includes web pages on what is expected of an
employee such as moral conduct, company policies, and even overall knowledge of the
company. The internet also can be used as an outlet for training - online streaming or even
teleconferencing would helpful ways to serve as a medium for training. The internet can finally
be used to find prospective candidates with the emergence of social media, and HR can use it
to gain maximum exposure to good prospects.

Siemens Case Study

Question 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. Four strategically required organizational outcomes:

i) Siemens positions itself to be a diversified global company in high technology. To uphold

its vision, Siemens needs to become number one a learning company, an organization that
maintains abreast of the newest technology and the knowledge that creates it.

ii) Siemens has to be an organization that forges effective global teamwork in order to gain
leverage from the diversity of its people and business.

iii) To become globally successful Siemens has to be the organization that champions the
culture of mutual respect for diversity within the organization and with the society.

iv) Being a knowledge driven company Siemens shall be the organization which appreciates
its human capital as its most valuable assets.

Four required workforce competencies and behaviors

First, Siemens requires its workforce to love knowledge and engage in continuous learning in
order to preserve the organization’s lead on technology development.

Second, the employees must adopt teamwork and able to blend within the multi-culture
environment of the organization to realize effective global teamwork.
Third, employees must embrace mutual respect and uphold the organizational culture that
promotes diversity.

Fourth, employees must portray dedication to their company at work, demonstrating their
value as the most important asset for the organization.

Question 2 Identify at least for strategically relevant HR system policies and activities
that Siemens has instituted in order to help human resource management contribute to
achieving Siemens’ strategic goals.

Business Strategy:

Training development and activities are continuously in place to support the constant changes
in technology. This is done through a system of combined classroom and hands on
apprenticeship that is applied throughout all offices around the world to ensure cross border
learning is standard and consistent

Skills and Talent Development:

Continuing education and management development to nurture necessary skills for global
teamwork and appreciation of culture diversity is crucial for a very high tech company like
Siemens. Failure to provide this will collapse the entire Human Resource systems that are in
place to support the overall strategic business goals.

Human Resource Strategy System:

Siemens practices Enhanced Internal Selection Process that includes pre-requisites of cross
border and cross cultural experiences for career advancement. This allows the entire
corporation and its employees to work together, interact and understand the whole process, not
in bits and pieces.

The HR Measurement towards goal congruency:

Organizational development activities aimed at building openness, transparency, fairness and

supporting diversity supports the environment of mutual respect within the company and with
society.

Question 3 Provide a brief illustrative outline of a strategy map for Siemens.

Financial Aims

Siemens main objective is to serve its shareholders with maximized profits and returns on
assets. This is done through growing revenue in the production of software, engineering and
services value based products.
Customer Aims

As learning is a continuity requirement at Siemens, it creates a learning corporate environment

and develops mutual respect within the company and also the customers. Providing and
accommodating the expectations of the customers through continuous research of knowledge
attracts and maintains customer loyalty.

Internal Operations and Employee Considerations

Having over 400,000 employees around the world, improvement of wealth nationalities,
culture, language and outlook has ultimately created a diversified work force and dedicated
work teams for Siemens.

The Flood Case Study

Q-1

No, Phil and Linda should never ignore the old timers’ protest. Since it’s the old timers who
have full knowledge about the tasks, duties and responsibilities they used to perform. Ignoring
them may result to turbulence among the workers and the will 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 job description.

To resolve the problem I would have used a questionnaire with both structured as well as open
ended questions. That would have led to lesser confusion and misinterpretation by Phil &
Maybelline.

Q-2

How would you have conducted the job analysis? What should Phil do now?

I would have conducted the job analysis in one of the two ways, either I would have used
questionnaire 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 interviewer and the
interviewee.
Phil should now use the information which is verified and reviewed by the supervisor and
worker both for the training purpose of the new worker. The information consists of tasks,
duties and responsibilities of the workers. When the workers will be trained accordingly they
will know what to do and how to do resulting in lesser confusion and time wastage and increase
in productivity so that Optima Air Filter Company comes back on track.

Case Study

Subject case study: Finding People Who Are Passionate about What They Do.

Question no. 1 Identify some of the established recruitment techniques that

apparently underlie Trilogy’s unconventional approach to
attracting talent.
 Answers : Based on the information in this case, the techniques of Trilogy to
attracting the talent are as follows:

 They depend upon on college recruiting.

 They recruit the freshest or least experience workforce.
Freshest and least experience workforces with average age of 26
years fly to the Austin to the top management of the Trilogy
along with their spouses for three days.
 After the interview in a day they facilitate the employees with
fun things like Dance club, mountain biking etc.
 They facilitate with Computer Science Departments to find the
Ambitious talent.
Question no. 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.

 They recruit college graduate.

 The Average age of employees is 26 Years.
 There is no dress code.
 There is well-stocked kitchen for employees.
 Company sponsored the employees for different events.
 Employees facilitated with three days enjoyment along with
their spouses.
 Employees do fun things like dance club, mountain biking etc.
Question. No.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: I think Trilogy would not an appealing employer for me, at this point in
my life. I’m 30 years of age and a single mother, and the company while
company provides all the facilities to average age of employees 26 and
also their spouses. They can demand for fun things. Therefore in each
point of view it is not flexible for me.

Question. No.4 What suggestions would you make to Trilogy for improving its
recruiting process?

Answer. I would like to give the following suggestions to Trilogy for improving
its recruiting process.

 Decide what position to be filled.

 Perform initial screening interview.
 There is the need of change in age concept.
 Trilogy should focus on abilities and skills of the candidates.
 Building a pool of candidates.
 Receive complete application forms from the candidates.
 Evaluate and investigate their background.
 Final step in the Trilogy must be Interview and offering letters.