Case 1-

The Strategic Role of Human Resources Management

Jack Nelsons 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 two months. She did, however, 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 some-thing was wrong, but she didnt know
what. For one thing, she explained, employee turnover was too high, and no sooner had one employee
been put 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 was generally regarded
as a well-run institution that had grown from 27 to 191 employees in the past eight years. The more he
thought about the matter, the more puzzled Nelson became. He couldnt quite put his finger on the
problem, and he didnt know whether to report his findings to the president.

Questions

1. What do you think is causing some of the problems in the banks branches?

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

3.. What specific functions should an HR unit carry out? What HR functions would then be required by
supervisors and other line managers? What role should the Internet play in the new HR organization?
Case 2

Integration and Transfer of HR Functions Using HRIS Jack Newman had recently been appointed regional
director of Boomerang Water Corporation, a major service utility in Australia. Jacks previous
appointment was with a large manufacturing company in the United States, where he had made a
reputation for himself as a visionary specializing in customer service and performance management.
Jack was the youngest person and only non-Australian ever to be appointed as a director at Boomerang
Water Corporation. This particular region of the utility employed approximately 2000 workers engaged
in the customer service and maintenance provision side of the business. These employ-ees operated in
groups of about 30 workers. One supervisor managed each work group. These groups were located in
five departments across the region, with each department specializing in a particular customer service
or maintenance function. The region serviced about 500 000 customers. A central division controlled the
human resource management functions for the region. This division was located in the regions main
town. Elaine MacVain headed the HR division. Elaine had been with the utility for nearly 25 years and
over these years had developed a reputation for running a strong, controlled division that provided the
customer service and maintenance department with a diversity of HR services. Elaine considered the
main focus of the division to be to process day-to-day HR transactions and maintain employee records.
Elaine managed a staff of 10 HR professionals who processed employee data that included workers pay,
leave entitlements and requests, and shift work entitlements. The HR department was responsible for
recruitment and selection, the performance management system, occupational health and safety
records, and career planning. Ron Locat, a member of Elaines division, had developed a stand-alone
HRIS to maintain the HR departments records. Ron had little formal IT training but had undergone in-
house training in the use of Microsoft Access and had used Access to create the divisions database
system. Elaine and the other members of the HR division did not have a high level of IT literacy, but they
could operate the Access system that Ron had developed. Elaine was grateful for the work Ron had put
into the database system and felt indebted to him for the support that he gave to the HR staff. A major
focus of the utility was training the customer service and maintenance employees. The utility had a pro-
motion system based on the employees level of technical skills. Employees were promoted to higher
levels of competency and pay scales on completion of skills training. Peter Noall, who had been with
the utility for about four years, headed the training division, which had three staff in addition to Peter.
One staff member was an ex-technical college teacher, and two had been technical supervisors in the
organization. Due to the small size of the training division, Peter was forced to outsource much of the
organizations training needs. Work safety was a major responsibility of Peters, and he was very proud of
the organizations safety record. Peter had contracted the purchase of an expensive, dedicated training
database system to support the organizations training function. The system provided the training
division with a powerful tool with which to profile the total skills base of the organization, identify
present and future training needs, track employees competency levels, and evaluate training outcomes
in relation to productivity gains. The training division was proud of its use of high-level technology to
support strategic training initiatives. On commencing his appointment, Jack Newman decided his
immediate focus was on improving the organizations customer service. He engaged the Fast Track
Immediate Success consultancy group to run a number of focus groups and conduct a strategic analysis
related to the delivery of customer service. Eddie Wanton from Fast Track organized focus groups within
the HR division and the training division and ran three focus groups of 20 randomly selected supervisors.
Eddies report to Jack Newman included the following concerns and recommendations aimed to improve
customer service.

Report from Fast Track

Concern 1: At present, customer complaints are directed to work group supervisors.

Recommendation: Introduce a new division dedicated to customer service quality.

Concern 2: Customer service is not supported by an integration of customer feedback, work group
practices, training, and HR strategies.

Recommendation: Link the new customer service quality division to HR, training, and work group
supervision.

Concern 3: At present, the HR division has sole responsibility for performance management, not the
training division or work group supervisors.

Recommendation: Link performance management responsibilities to work group supervisors via

training plans and HR recruitment strategies.

Concern 4: Communications among the HR division, training division, and work group supervisors are
low level and infrequent.

Recommendation: Introduce an organization structure that seamlessly integrates and promotes

strategic communication between HR, training, and work group supervision.

Concern 5: The HR division and the training division have created tightly controlled centres of
knowledge that do not directly inform work group supervisors.

Recommendation: Introduce the transfer of targeted HR and training responsibilities directly to work
group supervisors.

Eddie Wantons Recommended Strategy

Introduce a database information system that will seamlessly integrate HR functions, training functions,
and customer service functions. Use the information system to develop strategic links between these
functions. Use the new information system to break down information channel barriers between the HR
and training divisions. Use the system to devolve appropriate HR and training operations to work group
supervisors. Create a new customer service quality division and use the new IT system to integrate it
with the other divisions and work group supervisors. In short, change the organizations communication
and information architecture to promote the integration of cross divisional information sharing, decision
making, and control.

Questions
1. How can the assignment of a champion facilitate the introduction of the new HRIS? Is Jack Newman
the best person to act as champion?

2. Why have the HR and training divisions built quite different database systems? What are the
difficulties involved in integrating the functions of these divisions? \

3. What are the advantages of integrating the functions of the HR division, training division, and those of
the work group supervisors?

4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Boomerang Water Corporation buying an off the
shelf integrated HR database system?

5. In what ways may the transfer of some HR functions to work group supervisors improve the efficiency
of the HR division? In what ways may work group supervisors be advantaged or disadvantaged by the
transfer of HR functions?

Source: G. Dessler, J. Griffiths, and B. Lloyd Walker, Human\ Resources Management, 2nd ed. (Frenchs
Forest, New South Wales: Pearson Education Australia, 2004), pp. 9799. KeyT
CASE 3

What Is a Human Resources Consultant to Do? Anthony LePage is the owner of a local recruitment
agency that has an established presence in the northern Ontario market. He is looking to expand its
service offerings to include consulting services to small businesses. A recent marketing blitz advertising
this new service has led to a new partnership with a large local manufacturing business. After the
meeting with the owner of the manufacturing business, the mandate is clear that the owner is seeking
the agency’s assistance in creating and writing job descriptions for all of the positions within the
company. Some of these positions include administrative assistants, sales, engineering, and skilled
trades, along with many others. There are more than 100 descriptions to write. The owner would like to
see a sample job description within one week before he signs the contract to complete the remainder of
the job descriptions. Anthony LePage has just hired you as the human resources consultant in charge of
producing this job description sample for his new client and has asked you to answer the following
questions.

Questions

1. Outline what the crucial differences are between a job description and a job specification.

2. The owner of the business has heard that qualitative methods produce the best job descriptions.
Would you attempt to persuade him otherwise?

3. Develop a sample job description for the position of administrative assistant for the owner and
explain why you included the various sections that you did.

4. The owner has heard from some of his colleagues about the use of competencies. He wants to know
what they are and if these should be incorporated into the job descriptions he requires.

Case 4

How to Downsize Successfully While Using HRP Fundamentals A successful franchise owner of a
prestigious sporting goods chain is feeling the effects of technology, with more and more online sales
and less and less customers in the shops. Locally there are three stores, and typically each store needs
the following positions staffed for optimum profitability and success: a store manager, an assistant
manager, five department managers, and 20 customer service representatives, averaging $1 200 000 in
annual revenue. However, there has been a trend of 20 percent sales decline in stores, with an increase
of 30 percent sales online (last year the online revenue stream was $300 000). The franchise owner was
able to handle all of the online sales with a team of five full-time remote workers (working from home)
last year. The owner wants each store to maintain their productivity, which he measures as the revenue
per employee. He also thinks that there is potential to grow the online business. Please help the owner
by answering the following questions.
Questions

1. Using your HR planning expertise, forecast the demand of labour in the stores and the online
environment over the next three years.

2. Assuming an annual 15 percent turnover level of in-store workers and a 30 percent turnover level of
online-focused employees, determine HR supply estimates over the next three years.

3. Do you forecast a labour shortage or surplus? Develop a clear plan to help address the forecasted
labour shortage or surplus.

Case 5

Solving a Potential Recruitment Dilemma

Rachel Lucas is the human resources manager of a prestigious accounting firm. Rachel recently
attended a local human resources professionals association meet-ing where recruitment was the topic
up for discussion. At this meeting all aspects of the recruitment process, including recruitment methods
and how to increase diversity through the use of application forms, were to be discussed. Rachel couldnt
wait to apply what she learned at this meeting to her job. While listening to the scheduled speaker for
the even-ing, Rachel started to think about the current recruitment initiatives she was dealing with at
work. The firm was entering its traditional busy season where many clients would need tax returns
completed. This time every year she needed to source and hire quality, qualified candidates to fill 50tax
preparer positions. The partners were relying heavily on her this year to get higher quality candidates
because of the complex returns that would have to be completed, and to have them in place within
three weeks As the speaker was finishing his presentation, Rachel wondered what recruitment process
and techniques she should use. What would be the best decisions for the firm?

Questions

1. Should Rachel use internal or external recruitment techniques to staff these 50 positions?

2. Rachelis hoping to recruit qualified candidates from a variety of diverse demographics. Will she have
to use different recruitment techniques to do this? If so, what ones are the most effective to attract
these candidates (older workers, designated group members, and so on)?

3. Rachel plans on hiring recruiters to assist her in staffing these 50 positions. Knowing the company will
require the recruiters to adhere to the concept of employer branding, describe what steps Rachel should
take to orient the new recruiters to the branding process.
Case 6

The Case of What Should Have Been Known Sunrise Academy, a privately run technical college, has been
operating now for four successful years. Executive Director Ron Phillips is responsible for overseeing the
college. He has just been reviewing the latest enrolment figures and is pleasantly surprised again by the
projected number for the upcoming school year. This will mean that a new professor will be needed in
the business administration program. Ron picks up the phone and calls the director of human resources
to start the process for drafting a job posting to advertise the position both internally and externally. A
week goes by and HR calls Ron to indicate that they have many applications available to be reviewed for
potential interviews. Ron reviews the applicants and a short list is developed and called for interviews.
After a round of four okay, but not spectacular inter-views, Ron was beginning to think they would never
find a good candidate. However, the last interviewee, Rita Miller, turned out to be the successful choice
and was subsequently offered the position. HR checked two references prior to offering Rita the position
in writ-ing. HR also asked Rita to bring an original copy of her Masters of Business Administration degree
once it was received, as this degree was a requirement in the professor posting. Rita brought a copy of
her degree to HR within a week of being offered the position. HRs policy is also to call the issuing
institution to verify degrees. Things became busy in the department so it was nearly two months later
when someone finally checked Ritas degree. The results indicated Ritas degree was forged. HR called
Ron with the news, and Ron has asked you to come in to help him decide what to do next.

Questions

1. Are there any legal implications to be aware of as a result of this selection decision?

2. What should have been done differently in the selection process?

3. How should the background-checking process be improved at Sunrise Academy?

Case 7

A New Compensation Program to Motivate Performance Marilyn Brown started her chain of 10 wedding
boutiques approximately five years ago. She presently operates within southwestern Ontario and has
been enjoying record profits. Marilyns wedding boutiques provide full-service amenities to future
brides, including wedding planning services, custom fittings, and locating hard-to-find wedding dresses.
Marilyns customer service philosophy is that customers are number one and must be satisfied with their
purchases. However, recently there has been a rise in complaints regarding the lack of friendly service
being provided, and three long-standing employees have threatened to leave unless their compensation
is adjusted in response to servicing Marilyns very demanding clients. Currently, Marilyn pays all of her
staff the same base salary of $14 per hour without any benefits. Marilyn feel that this approach
promotes equity and eliminates any perceptions of favouritism between employees regarding
compensation. Since receiving the negative complaints and the threats of some of her staff leaving,
Marilyn has decided she needs to rethink her compensation philosophy, and needs your help.

Questions
1. What are the specific problems with Marilyns cur-rent compensation program?

2. Discuss the types of compensation programs and plans available to Marilyn to motivate and retain her
existing staff.

3. Should Marilyn use only one type of compensation plan, or a combination plan for her employees?
Discuss your recommendation in detail

Case 8

Technology Pluss Benefit Dilemma

To stay competitive, many organizations today are choosing to restructure their benefit programs.
Technology Plus is an example of such a company. Technology Plus has 150 employees, including upper
management, skilled tradespersons, sales representatives, and customer service representatives. Five
years ago, this company was enjoying huge profits and could afford its current benefits pro-gram;
however, times have changed, and now they need to find cost savings without laying off any of the staff.
Up to this point, Technology Plus has offered all of its staff a premium benefits program, including much
more than government-required benefits of employment insurance, Canada Pension Plan, workers
compensation, standard vacation of two weeks per year, and access to legislated leaves of absence. It
offers group life insurance of three times salary, accidental death and dismemberment insurance of
three times salary, extended healthcare benefits (with vision care, dental care, hearing aids, and more),
long-term disability of 75 percent of salary (employer paid), and a defined benefit pension plan. It also
provides a wellness program, an employee assistance plan, and many other services, such as subsidized
childcare and assistance with eldercare. However, now the company needs your help in deciding how to
restructure its benefit plan to find significant cost savings but still provide meaningful benefit coverage
for its employees.

Questions

1. In your opinion, what voluntary employer-sponsored benefits should this company maintain, and
which ones should they not maintain?

2. Would a flexible benefit program save this organization money if administered properly.

Case 9

Ramonas Health and Safety Nightmare Ramona McKenzie is on her way to work on a cloudy Monday
morning when she gets the call on her cell phone that no human resources manager wants to receive:
An employee has just been injured at her workplace. While turning into the company driveway, Ramona
sees an ambulance, the injured worker, and a number of other employees surrounding the injured
worker. Ramona parks her car, rushes over to where the employee is lying, and inquires about what
happened. The injured employee informs Ramona that she fell on the way into the building because no
salt had been laid earlier in the morning to melt the ice on the park-ing lot. At this point, the ambulance
takes the injured employee to the hospital and Ramona asks to speak to the plant manager in his office.
Shaken by everything that had occurred, Ramona asks the plant manager to find out why no salt had
been put on the parking lot, as this was the norm after a significant snowfall. The plant manager informs
Ramona that Key Terms burnout, p. 289 due diligence, p. 273 employee wellness program, p. 272
ergonomics, p. 290 lost-time injury rate, p. 272 occupational health and safety legislation, p. 273 post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), p. 289 principle of joint responsibility, p. 273 reasonable cause, p. 275
repetitive strain injuries (RSIs), p. 290 Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), p.
276 he would do this, but also notes that the injured worker was wearing high-heeled shoes while on
her way into the building. He also says that the employee arrived to work unusually early, before any
other workers, since she felt she had a few tasks she wanted to complete for a meeting scheduled at
noon and wanted more time to prepare. She claimed that she informed her supervisor very casually at
the end of the day yesterday that she may be arriving to work early to finish the project by the deadline.
Now that you know the facts of this scenario, please assist Ramona by answering the following
questions.

Questions

1. Could this accident have been prevented? If yes, how? If no, why not?

2. Who is responsible for this accident?

3. What does Ramona have to do to ensure a smooth return to work for the injured worker after the
accident?

Case 10

An Inappropriate Email Roger Miller, the director of human resources for Virtual Reality Media, was
returning to his office after a half-day training session on how to retain and engage todays top talent
when he received a disturbing phone call. Randy, the manager of the multimedia lab, called to let Roger
know about an email he had just been copied on. One of Randys salespeople, John, had sent all of his
fellow staff within the multimedia lab department a very derogatory email about Randy; the email said
that Randy was a useless supervisor who should not be in a management position because he does not
know what he is doing and should be fired. Randy is very upset, and wants Rogerto terminate John. This
is where you come in to help Roger.

Questions

1. Assume you are Roger. Specifically, what should you do now?

2. How should you do it?

3. Is this ajust-cause termination?

Case 11

Unifor Unifor (Canadas largest private sector union) was officially formed on August 31, 2013, through a
merger of two of Canadas most influential unions Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) and the
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).47 In 2016, Unifors asset base was
worth $297 million, with liabilities worth $36 million. It also brought in $121 million in revenue and had
$117 million in expenses.48 Upon inception, Unifor aimed to represent vulnerable, low wage workers.
Unifor established Community Chapters as a new way to reach contingent workers (e.g., freelance,
parttime, and contract). Through these community chapters, individuals or groups can join Unifor and
gain access to health and dental plans as well as group home and auto insurance, and can gain political
representation from Unifors leadership as well as rank and file workers.49 However, from 2013 to 2017,
Unifors member ship remained relatively static at approximately 310 000 members. In January 2018,
Unifor also announced a split from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) based on reported
disagreements about workers rights to select which union represents them. Specifically, Unifor sug
gested that CLC was less concerned about the influence of American unions, and that the national
executive board unanimously agreed to discontinue relations with CLC.50 Questions Based on the
information provided in this case and chapter, as well as from your own research, answer the following

Questions.

1. What type of a union is Unifor? What evidence do you have to support your position?

2. Indicate why Unifor might have initially been inter ested in organizing contingent workers.

3. Why do you think Unifors membership was relatively static for the first five years? Provide at least
two well researched reasons.

Case12

Boss, I Think We Have a Problem Central Steel Door Corporation has been in business for about 20
years, successfully selling a line of steel indus-trial-grade doors as well as the hardware and fittings
required for them. Focusing mostly on the United States and Canada, the company had gradually
increased its presence from the New York City area, first into New England and then down the Atlantic
coast, then through the Midwest and West, and finally into Canada. The companys basic expansion
strategy was always the same: Choose an area, open a distribution centre, hire a regional sales manager,
and then let that regional sales manager help staff the distribution centre and hire local sales reps.
Unfortunately, the companys traditional success in finding sales help for its North American locations
has not extended to its overseas operations. With the introduction of the new European currency in
2002, Mel Fisher, president of Central Steel Door, decided to expand his company abroad into Europe.
However, the expansion has not gone smoothly at all. He tried for three weeks to find a sales manager
by advertising in the Inter-national Herald Tribune, which is read by business people in Europe and by
American expatriates living and working in Europe. Although the ads placed in the Tribune also ran for
about a month on the Tribunes website, Fisher has so far received only five applications. One came from
a possibly viable candidate, whereas four came from candidates whom Fisher refers to as lost souls
people who seem to have spent most of their time travelling aimlessly from country to country sipping
espresso in sidewalk cafs. When asked what he had done for the last three years, one told Fisher he”d
been on a walkabout. Other aspects of his international HR activities have been equally problematic.
Fisher alienated two of his U.S. sales managers by sending them to Europe to temporarily run the
European operations, but neglecting to work out a compensation package that would cover their
relatively high living expenses in Germany and Belgium. One ended up staying the better part of the
year, and Fisher was rudely surprised to be informed by the Belgian government that his sales manager
owed thou-sands of dollars in local taxes. The managers had hired about 10 local people to staff each of
the two distribution centres. However, without full-time local European sales managers, the level of
sales was disappointing, so Fisher decided to fire about half of the distribution centre employees. Thats
when he got an emergency phone call from his temporary sales manager in Germany: I ve just been told
that all these employees should have had written employment agreements and that we cant fire anyone
without at least one years notice, and the local authorities here are really up in arms. Boss, I think we
have a problem.

Questions

1. Based on this chapter and the case incident, com-pile a list of 10 international HR mistakes Fisher has
made so far.

2. How would you have gone about hiring a European sales manager? Why?

3. What would you do now if you were Fisher

DESSLER

CHAPTR 18 MANAGING HR IN SMALL AND ENTREPRENURAL FIRM

Netflix Breaks the Rules

Written and copyrighted by Gary Dessler, PhD. Why did Netflix survive as a start-up when the dot-com
bubble burst in the late 1990s? Probably because, from the day he started Netflix, founder Reed
Hastings believed in breaking the rules. His direct-to consumer mail and video streaming business model
certainly helped Netflix to survive. But the firm’s unorthodox human resource management practices
helped the company to attract and keep the high producers who design the products that are the firm’s
lifeblood. Hastings knew that top Silicon Valley workers could choose where they worked, and high pay
is pretty much standard throughout the Valley’s industries. How to set oneself apart? Hastings and his
start-up colleagues believed that a culture that balanced a flexible work environment with few
constraints and high responsibility was the answer. They called the policy “Freedom and Responsibility.”
Just how unorthodox are the Netflix HR practices? Consider this: As a Netflix professional you get
unlimited vacations. One engineer takes 5-week vacations to Europe, because he likes (as he says) to
take his time off in big chunks. (An HR officer must approve time off in excess of 30 days annually.) As a
Netflix employee, your pay isn’t tied to performance appraisals, or even to a compensation plan.
Frequent market salary surveys and pay hikes keep everyone’s pay aligned with Silicon Valley
competitors’. Each employee decides whether to take his or her pay in cash or in Netflix stock. Options
vest immediately. Netflix doesn’t recruit much at college job fairs, instead hiring mostly highly
experienced professionals. There’s no training, professional development, or career planning at Netflix
(except for legally required training, such as diversity training). You’re in charge of your own career. But
with freedom like that comes responsibilities. The company expects its salaried employees to work
hard—to “do the jobs of three or four people,” as one report put it. And Netflix doesn’t have the “frat
party” free-wheeling atmosphere that many dot-coms do. It’s an adult environment. Netflix does not
coddle underperformers. Yearly 360-degree performance reviews provide “direct and honest feedback.”
Those that aren’t cutting it are quickly let go, but (whenever possible) amicably. Rather than the sorts of
litigiousness that often characterize dismissals in other firms (having to prove the person was
incompetent, for instance), Netflix writes a check. The company believes that a handsome severance
payment helps maintain the person’s dignity, makes it easier for supervisors to make tough calls with
underperformers, and, of course, minimizes blowback from those it dismisses. It’s more like a “no-fault
divorce,” as one observer put it. Questions In many respects, the Netflix HR strategy seems like a dream
come true for small businesses. You don’t need a pay plan; instead, you just update each person’s pay
every few months based on market surveys. You offer no training and development. And you don’t track
vacation time, more or less. If someone’s not doing well, you just pay him or her to leave, with no
hassles. Netflix seems to have hit upon its own version of “Netflix High-Performance Work Practices.”
Given that, answer the following questions (please be specific).

1. What (if anything) is it about Netflix that makes its HR practices work for it?
2. Would you suggest using similar practices in other businesses, such as, say, a new restaurant?
Why?
3. List the criteria you would use for deciding whether another company is right for Netflix-type HR
practices.
4. What argument would you make in response to the following: “Netflix just lucked out; they’d
have done even better with conventional HR practices.”

THE NEW HRIS

The Hotel Paris’s competitive strategy is “To use superior guest service to differentiate the Hotel
Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and thus boost
revenues and profitability.” HR manager Lisa Cruz must now formulate functional policies and
activities that support this competitive strategy and boost performance by eliciting the required
employee behaviors and competencies. Challenging economic times in the past few years brought
the drawbacks of the Hotel Paris’s relatively small size into sharp relief. Large chains like Marriott
had vast online reservations capabilities with huge centralized systems that easily and economically
handled reservations requests from throughout the world. By comparison, the Hotel Paris still
handled reservations much as hotels did 15 years ago, either with separate Web sites for each of
their hotel locations, e-mail, or an 800 number. Their human resource management information
systems were similarly primitive. Lisa had managed to install several separate information systems,
such as for performance appraisals. However, as she discussed one day over lunch with the CFO, the
HR systems were not integrated. Therefore, if an employee changed his or her name, for instance,
through marriage, people in Lisa’s office had to execute all those name changes manually on all the
various employee rosters and benefits plans. This lack of integration was bad enough in boom times,
but was worse as the economy soured. The CFO pointed out to her that the amount of money they
were spending on human resource management administration was about 30% higher than it was at
larger chains such as Marriott. He understood that large size brings economies of scale. But he
believed there had to be something they could do to reduce the cost of administering human
resource management. Lisa’s solution was to get the CFO’s approval to have several software
consulting firms including IBM, Accenture, and Oracle provide proposals for how to integrate the
hotel’s HR information systems. After getting the CFO’s and CEO’s approval, they contracted with
one vendor and installed the system.

Questions

1. Using any benchmark data that you can find, including information from this book, what are
some benchmark metrics that Lisa could be using to assess the efficiency of her human resource
management operations? To what extent does the Hotel Paris’s quality service orientation enter
into how Lisa’s metrics should compare?
2. Throughout this book, we’ve discussed various specific examples of how human resource
management departments have been reducing the cost of delivering their services. Keeping in
mind the Hotel Paris’s quality service orientation, please list and explain with examples how Lisa
Cruz could use at least five of these.
3. Focusing only on human resource information systems for a moment, what sorts of systems
would you suggest Lisa consider recommending for the Hotel Paris? Why?
4. Explain with detailed examples how Lisa can use free online and governmental sources to
accomplish at least part of what you propose in your previous answers.
5. Give three examples of fee-based online tools you suggest Lisa use.