DIPLOMA PROGRAMMES

FINAL EXAMINATION
AUGUST 2020 SEMESTER

MODULE NAME : HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

MODULE CODE : HRM40104/HRM40204
EXAM DATE : 4th DECEMBER 2020
EXAM TIME : 3:00PM -5:00PM
This paper consists of SIX (6) printed pages, inclusive of this page.

Candidate Number 0338941

Tutorial Group
1

Instruction to Candidates
1. Complete the front cover of the examination answer booklet and question booklet.
2. Answer ALL questions..
3. This paper is in TWO (2) sections.

Section Marks

Section A (20 Multiple Choice Questions) 40 Marks

Section B (Scenario-based Questions) 60 Marks

100 Marks

4. Non-programmable electronic calculators may be used.

5. Severe disciplinary action will be taken against those caught violating examination rules.
Examination Material:
1. Answer Booklet

DO NOT TURN THIS PAGE UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.

THIS PAPER MUST NOT BE REMOVED FROM THE EXAMINATION HALL.
TO BE RETURNED AT THE END OF THE EXAMINATION.

Page 1 of 3

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE
SECTION B- SCENARIO BASED QUESTIONS (60 marks)
Answer all questions

COVID-19 and HR
It seems that we can’t get enough of COVID-19 news. Day after day, we are bombarded non-stop
with news of infection counts, death rates, plunging economies, unemployment, etc. Worldwide,
governments are instituting quarantines, stay-home order and movement restrictions.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced organisations into the most significant social experiment of
the future of work in action. It has brought about the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.
It has produced some fairly positive results and has allowed some business to survive, whereas
those that fail to adapt, faced a much harder time.
Companies have adapted accordingly: issuing work-from-home orders, adopting video
conferencing technology, while closing offices and doing business online. Google and Facebook
have asked their staff to be ready to stay home for all of 2020. Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO told
employees to prepare to work remotely to the end of the year. A Google spokeswoman confirmed
that most staff is expected to work from home till 2021.
But the impact of work is far more profound than just changing where people work; it is also
fundamentally altering what work is perform and how it is done. Many workers are doing tasks
they never could have imagine or thought of. Across the globe, people have turned their
bedrooms or living rooms into their workspaces.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a human crisis that brings the need for human resources to be at the
forefront ensuring success in sailing through the crisis. HR need to re-define their business and
people strategies in such challenging times. HR need to realign the workforce with the
organisation.
As the curve of COVID-19 begin to level-off, employees recover, and government lockdown orders
begin to expire, businesses are now being confronted by the complexities of returning employees
to work in a manner that is safe and ensure business continuity.
Post COVID-19 workplace will never be the same again.
(Adapted from: HR Asia, Issue 39, 2020. COVID-19 and HR - Moving towards a new paradigm)

Question 1

During trying times, employees often bear the consequences. Describe FIVE (5) actions taken by
companies that were not able to sustain the economic fallout during the pandemic.
(15 marks)

Question 2

Discuss FIVE (5) challenges faced by employees as they are forced to work-from-home.

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE
1. Flow of communication
At the point when you work from home, straightforwardness is undermined. You presently don't
have the opportunity to proceed to check with your colleagues, examine a venture over improvised
quick rests, or have face to face or gathering gatherings. Correspondence is one of the most basic
parts of a work culture. It keeps each colleague refreshed and keeps up a solid work process.

2. Distractions at home
In spite of the fact that it gives adaptability, work from home can carry with it a great deal of
interruptions — the buzzing about of a family, a TV playing out of sight or children sneaking
around. Indeed, even consistent warnings on your telephone can occupy you and influence your
work from home profitability. It gets hard to work productively in an individual setting.

3. Lack of motivation
Working in disengagement is testing. The workplace gives affirmation, which is fulfilling and
persuading. At the point when you work from home, you need to work on your natural inspiration.
The commitment level, subsequently, can corrupt if Employees' requirements are not dealt with.
Absence of inspiration influences fill in as well as detrimentally affects psychological wellness.

4. Technology hiccups
You don't have your office overseer to fix your frameworks or web association when you are work
from home. That turns into an additional duty. Numerous public WiFi hotspots can likewise be
patchy. It is excruciating when you don't have a quick and stable association. Likewise, video
conferencing devices are not generally solid and can frequently leave you disappointed in a
gathering.

5. Work-life balance
Work from home eliminates the conventional technique for working; you at this point don't make
the drive for work or finish your every day task at a clear period. You become more mindful of the
requirements and obligations that you have at your home. Overseeing kids or doing family tasks
additionally adds to your need list. To adjust all that adequately can be a dubious work and a
tedious one.

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE
 (15 marks)
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Question 3

Working from home may disengage employees from the company. Suggest THREE (3) initiatives
that HR can implement to ensure employees feel engaged as they work from home. Provide
relevant examples.

1) Schedule Virtual Development and Social Events

Proficient advancement occasions like gatherings and meetups are consistently occurring on
virtual stages. This idea can be utilized inside distant labor forces to set up a more extensive
feeling of network and data sharing. Associations can support successive group gatherings or
even virtual social hours as an option in contrast to actual office gatherings. Planning discretionary
virtual occasions can let Employees interface outside of the typical work conversations and make
a feeling of cooperation.

2) Deploy an Employee Engagement App

Employees need inspiration when they work from home. They can feel desolate and get baffled
occasionally, as they are remaining at home without anyone else. HR needs to guarantee the
workers are keeping up an uplifting attitude and saving great wellbeing for legitimate employment
commitment. To help in this issue, the CircleCare representative commitment application is
working with numerous organizations. It empowers workers and encourages them to accomplish
wellbeing objectives. With this application, HR can support Employees and keep them drew in to
work. It's an incredible apparatus to build representative efficiency and more associations need to
utilize this application to help their workers.

3) Stay Adaptable
HR leaders and managers must be happy to tune in and be available to change with the goal for
groups to stay profitable while work from home, This may mean executing new computerized
arrangements or just speaking with representatives regularly to see any significant occasions that
occur in their lives or to perceive and commend their triumphs. For commitment, all things
considered keeping a heartbeat on the labor force and understanding the progressions that
happen in representatives over the long run is pivotal. That way, HR can adjust its approaches to
intently mirror the needs a lot of its far off labor force.

(15 marks)

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE
Question 4

Define strategic human resource management and discuss its importance to organisation
especially during this pandemic.

Strategic human resource management is the association between an organization's human

resources and its procedures, destinations, and objectives. The point of strategic human resource
management is to:

 Advance adaptability, development, and upper hand.

 Build up a fit for reason hierarchical culture.
 Improve business execution.

All together for strategic human resource management to be compelling, human resources (HR)
must assume a fundamental function as a strategic accomplice when organization arrangements
are made and actualized. Strategic HR can be shown all through various exercises, for example,
recruiting, preparing, and remunerating workers.

(15 marks)

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE
Page 3 of 3

Human Resource Management

HRM40104/40204
Ding Li Min
202008FE