Strategic Human Resource Management

Applications Exercise

Company - Triclass Nems LLC

Triclass Nems is a fit-out, window display, permanent units and signage production
company. Established in 2014 by its directors, Mr Fafa Khan and Mr Dunbar Bawoomani, as
a print production company, it has grown on to become a key and preferred partner among
premium clients who are looking out for quick and quality execution of their promotional
requirements. Clients trust Triclass Nems, to deliver, when the requirement requires high end
fabrication and especially when there is shortage of time. Triclass Nems works with clients
directly and design agencies as well. With a team strength of 220 and an annual turnover of 8
million USD, Triclass Nems is considered as a premium player among custom fabrication
and fit-out companies.

Triclass Nems has many approaches in its bag, that help it, in being a company, to be
associated with. From a client’s perspective, Triclass Nems delivers in a very short span of
time. Irrespective of the load on the production floor, the company chooses to take up new
projects and opts to strategize as to how it can get the execution done; outsourcing the jobs to
one of its preferred vendors to deliver promptly to the client. Since Triclass Nems is a
preferred partner for a few of their clients (key accounts), regular business is guaranteed
every year. From an employee’s angle, Triclass Nems holds the record of paying salaries on
time in its entire history of 9 years. This is a major requirement for many employees and
hence, many have stayed with the company and grown with it. Timely payments to suppliers
is one of the main reasons for vendors to choose to work with Triclass Nems.

With many advantages to its name, there are a few challenges faced by Triclass Nems as
well. One of the major challenges faced by Triclass Nems, post Covid, is stakeholder
satisfaction. The very reason that elevated the company among its peers was becoming a
threat. Clients, employees and suppliers alike find it difficult to work with Triclass Nems.
Clients feel that quality is not up to the mark. Employees feel that they are not being
compensated fairly and suppliers feel that the documentation process is tedious.

Triclass Nems, currently has 2 main objectives.

1. It plans to address key stakeholder concerns - satisfaction levels
2. It has a goal of becoming a 28-million-dollar company by the end of 2028

The company already has some plans in place to achieve this. They just need to be
streamlined and aligned better with the 2 main objectives and the plans need to be strategized
in line with the goals.

Applications Exercise 1 - Define The Organization’s Strategy and Tasks

Strategy Focus for Triclass Nems - Reduce customer complaints and increase satisfaction
among all stakeholders.

Articulate strategy - Triclass Nems aims to concentrate on delivering high quality at quick
turnaround times and thus regain the trust it has lost among its clients. Also, by addressing
the key reasons why all the stakeholders are concerned, the company aims to better the
satisfaction levels among stakeholders and keep them happy.
Translating strategies to tasks - To implement this strategy, Triclass Nems must:
1. Put processes in place to review each project after execution to gather data. Analyze
the data and find out reasons for complaints, if any and come up with an action plan
as to how the mistakes can be avoided in future projects. If the reasons are simple,
action plans are crisp and clear, if the reasons are complex, a mini strategy (like a
project plan) needs to be implemented or a proper process needs to be initiated.
2. Cultivate a culture of accountability in the organization. People should have a sense of
connect with the organization and own up their individual work. This way,
supervisors need to spend time in monitoring and instead can focus on delivering
quality output. With accountability comes a feeling of getting things done right, first
time. Employees will go the extra mile to tackle situations with ownership. This can
lead to fewer mistakes over time and improve satisfaction levels among clients.
3. Improve communication with clients and keep them updated. The company should
put up proper processes and design a proactive communication flow to ensure that
clients get updates of their projects regularly.
4. Employee training to become a priority so that employees keep upgrading their skills
thereby enhancing competence levels of everyone in the organizations. The company
has to focus on making ‘Continuous development’ as a key approach going forward.

Identify Requisite Capabilities/Skills - To achieve the mentioned strategic tasks, Triclass

Nems need to focus on the following capabilities:
1. Specialized competencies - for Triclass Nems to become better at execution in its
current situation, it has to focus on coming up with training mechanisms to address
the issue of quality when time is a concern. Triclass Nems is currently known for its
execution of last-minute jobs. It wants to change this image with its clients in the long
term. However, in the present scenario, Triclass Nems needs to work on becoming
very efficient and effective in its current mode of operations. The company needs to
draw up a strategy and training program. Also it needs to align people to this mode of
operation, which till now it was not embracing.
2. Coordination - For the competencies framework to get implemented successfully,
firstly, the head of operations has to clearly articulate the way forward to his core
team of the Operations Manager, Assistant Manager and the Planning Engineer. Once
they are all on the same page, this has to be shared with the 2 sub departments -
Production Coordinators and the Foremen of all the departments. Once this has been
clearly articulated, the HR Dept has to be involved in the same. The HR Dept along
with the Operational core team should devise the execution plan for this strategy of
proper training of staff to perform well for last minute jobs.
3. Managerial Competence - The operations team and the HR team are on the same page
in terms of how they want to deal with this strategy. Managers might need training in
terms of how they can train their people. In fact, they might even have to get training
as to how they need to approach this entire situation of training people. This can be
achieved by utilizing the services of an external coach or a mentor who has extensive
experience in these subjects.
4. Commitment - The operations team is highly frustrated because of how things are
panning out in the company. They keep discussing about various approaches that can
change how things are operating in the company. With the new found approach, they
would be highly committed to make this happen. The production manager is
especially frustrated with the quality issues being reported to him from the client side.
The entire operations team would be willing to give their everything to this cause.
 5. Communication - Currently in the organization, people hesitate to communicate their
thought openly. They come up with a few ideas here and there but are not presenting
them as a solid plan. Once this approach of training everyone is clear to all, they first
need to be communicated with, internally and clearly. Once there is clarity in the core
team’s understanding, the next step would be to get this communication rolled down
to all other stakeholders, especially the front-line workers. Overall, as an organization,
all people need to be on the same page for this objective to be achieved. The
management needs to change its approach and stand in a few aspects, and
communicate this clearly to all the employees. It should also take necessary steps to
win the trust of people by showing them the change. From here, slowly, the
management needs to delegate and trust the respective teams to execute and deliver.
6. Creativity - Among the 13 values listed in the values framework at Triclass Nems,
Innovation is a key value to achieve its goal of USD 28 million company.
Historically, Triclass Nems’ execution is very good in terms of repeated projects. But
when something out of the blue comes up, the company struggles and because of this,
it sometimes loses its face in front of the client. To address this, the company has
initiated a special department for this and nominated one of its senior most employees
exclusively to head this department. But this is not sufficient. The organization needs
to scale up its efforts to innovate better. First step is to explore better ways of doing
the same processes. Specific trainings to be initiated in each of the departments. The
R&D Dept needs to be strengthened.
7. Capacity management - Triclass Nems values the importance of proper planning.
Hence, it invested in getting a Planning Engineer on board. However, it is not
investing enough time in planning for current requirements as well as for the future.
For this, there needs to be shift in the approach of the management. Current planning
methods and processes are not respected by the management. Management feels that
there needs to be significant improvement in the process of the planning. The
Production teams feel that their planning is good and they always complain that they
keep getting newer requirements with unrealistic timelines, which, they claim that
they are able to achieve. First of all, the management and the production teams need
to be on the same page and the production teams need to be clearly trained to sync
with the expectation of the management. Here, the support of the coach or the mentor
would play a huge role in streamlining the same. After this, slowly, step by step,
capacity management can be strategized and dealt with.

Applications Exercise 2 - Diagnosing The Organization’s Alignment with the Strategic

Task
1. How effective is the function whose unique competencies are critical to the execution
of the strategic task?
 One of the most important functions whose unique competencies that are critical to
the execution of the strategic tasks is the Production Team. And currently the
production team is operating at around 65% capacity. There are various reasons for
the same. The production team must comprise of a blend of skilled and semi-skilled
workers with helpers comprising of a minor chunk. But the current team composition
is the other way around. The number of skilled workers is very less, followed by the
head count of the semi-skilled workers and the strength of the unskilled workers is
very high. This has led to imbalance in the capacity requirement. Moreover, the
organization has not been able to implement a salary structure framework, with grade
system, pay to suit grade and other mechanisms. Also, the learning and development
 function of the organization, that needs to work on improving the competencies of the
production team, needs to be strengthened as well.
2. Does your organization achieve the coordination or teamwork between functions,
businesses, regions, or line and staff departments that you identified as critical to
accomplishment of the strategic task?
 Currently the organization is trying to improve the coordination between the various
intra-business and inter-business functions. Currently the organization has categorized
its business functions into the Production and the Non-Production departments. The
Non-Production departments include the Business Development Function (referred to
as the Sales Department), the Finance Function, The Procurement Dept, Estimation
Vertical, Design Department and the Human Resources Function. The Production
department makes up for the major chunk of the work force. A few departments to be
mentioned for the purpose of representation would be VM, Joinery, Acrylic, Painting,
Metal & Signage along with other departments like HSE, QC, Logistics, to name a
few. Most of the times, there seems to be a synergy between the various teams but at
times there creeps in a disconnect between them and the client’s requirement is lost,
project focus loses its importance and these things lead to errors in output. The
organization needs to take a top-down approach in ensuring that the coordination
between departments is improved. This has to start from the top management.
3. Does the organization have sufficient managerial and interpersonal skills to manage
requisite coordination? Examine the skills of the top management team that provides
the context for coordination, as well as the skills of broader employee groups.
 The organization currently has a lack in the managerial and interpersonal skills
required to manage the coordination aspects discussed earlier. The 2 directors, who
are basically, the top management, don’t have technical knowledge. They micro-
manage all the employees a lot which results in accountability not being taken up by
the concerned people. Also, the Operations Manager and the Production Manager
need to upgrade their skillsets in terms of team management and interpersonal aspects
so as to enable the smooth coordination.
4. Does the organization have sufficient commitment from employee groups critical to
the achievement of the strategic task?
 There is quite a level of commitment from the senior staff at Triclass Nems, however
not all people are even aware of the organization objectives and targets to eliminate
the pain points. These aspects need to be articulated clearly and communicated
effectively so as to make people understand the need for change and then, sufficient
commitment needs to be taken from the various employee groups.
5. Do people in your organization express their viewpoint directly and candidly, and
attempt to inquire into the validity of their own viewpoint and that of others?
 The answer to this question is again a yes and a no. Some of the employees who don’t
fear consequences express their opinions without any inhibitions, but most of the staff
hesitate to share their perspectives. Also, sometimes, the ones who share their points
of view are blindsided and are not open to inquire or validate which causes the issue
of just rejecting other thought processes.
6. What are the barriers to creativity and innovation?
 Egoistic among people is one of the major concerns in Triclass Nems for creativity
and innovation. People don’t look at the solution that is offered but are concerned
more about who gave the solution and the kind of recognition he or she receives.
Also, sometimes when ideas are shared by team members, managers and leaders shun
the view points outright in a very evident way which demotivates the person who is
sharing. This causes to go a few steps back in suggesting in the future
 7. How well does your leadership team develop agreement about priorities and allocate
resources? Is there a perceived mismatch between top management’s stated priorities
and perceptions of lower levels about adequacy of resources?
 The leadership team at Triclass Nems has an amazing vision and mission and are
committed to approach all situations with a values mindset. However, they are too
concerned sometimes about how things may pan out and they get heavily involved in
operational stuff and start micro managing things. Since they don’t have the necessary
technical knowhow, they are sometimes not able to gauge the prioritization and
allocation of resources. Sometimes the other members of the leadership team or the
core team also have a challenge in planning and prioritization. Because of the
difference in opinions, many a times, there is total disconnect between what the
management’s stated priorities are and the adequacy of resources in the minds of the
lower level employees.
8. Describe which elements of the organization’s architecture—structure, systems, staff,
style, or shared values—are causing deficiencies identified in the preceding
questions? Describe how they are affecting negatively organizational capability.
Check your answers by asking whether these Ss are aligned with strategy?
 The organization structure is pretty clear and there is no issue in this regard. But the
systems that are in place help in doing things right but at times end up affecting the
right things. Staff are often motivated when they join but because of certain
approaches, over a period of time, they feel that they are not cared for. This leads to
them being disconnected from a lot of initiatives at the organization. Sometimes the
style of approach from the management is not liked by the employees and this leads to
dissatisfaction among employees. Sometimes employees feel that shared values are
just on paper and not practiced by all in most of the circumstances. Many employees
don’t even know that there is a system of shared values in the organization. These are
some of the reasons why there are deficiencies which have been listed in the
preceding questions. All these aspects are directly or indirectly affecting the
organizational capability. Because of disconnect of employees with the organization
vision, their accountability and productivity are taking a huge hit. Sometimes they feel
that the management lacks apathy and this makes them have a careless attitude.
Overall, there is a lot of alignment needed for the organization to align these Ss with
strategy.

Applications Exercise 3 - Design a Strategically Aligned Organizational Model of Your

Company
1. What changes in structure, systems, staff, style (particularly in the leadership team) or
shared values are needed?
 Triclass Nems has an amazing potential to address its pain points and achieve its goal.
However there are some fundamental changes that needs to be incorporated for this to
happen in an efficient, effective and progressive manner. The reporting structure
needs to be really implemented and transfer of respective authority needs to be handed
over for decisions to be taken by concerned people. Trust is one of the core values
listed and this needs to be felt by all staff. Clarity in processes need to be established.
What is expected out of people, especially the reporting formats need to be clearly
defined and shared with help offered where needed so that every one is clear of
expectations. Support needs to be offered to people who are not able to deliver.
Trainings and necessary interventions need to be done to improve the performances. If
things are not working, a respectful exit should explored than just complaining about
performance. Shared values need to be lived by and promoted properly so that all the
 employees are aware and slowly aligned to them. If these changes are implemented,
staff part of the strategy would be taken care of.
2. How would the organization function better after these changes are made? Go beyond
simply naming the elements of organizational architecture that need change. Describe
exactly how the things will function differently to increase one or more capabilities.
 By transferring authority to concerned people and focusing on bigger issues, the
management’s plate will relatively be freed. When management trusts people and
allows them to take decisions, they start feeling valued. By empathizing with others,
management will change the mindset of the people. Management needs to hold people
accountable but the way they do this needs to change. They should be flexible and
accommodative in their approach. These changes may take some time to show fruition
but the impact will be lasting. When people start taking accountability, slowly the
feeling of connect and ownership will get established and strengthened. Currently,
people of position and power feel that they don’t have any value and people who are
not answerable are valued more. This has to change. When decision makers are given
a free hand within defined frameworks, their satisfaction levels improve as they now
will feel that they have a say in decision making. Management must focus on clearly
defining targets and help concerned people in achieving them. Overall, the change in
approach will be a huge deciding factor in change in outcomes.
3. What are the flaws in your new design? What new problems does it create?
 Management needs to be very careful in implementing the changes. There is a
possibility of people starting to take management lightly. This needs to be avoided.
Also, people should still be held accountable in a broader frame work. If not, they
would not work with responsibility.

Applications Exercise 4 - Develop a Strategic Change Plan

 Consideration of a change strategy
o The first step in defining a change strategy is to assess the need for change -
stakeholders are feeling dissatisfied about the organization. The company needs to
change its approach in a few critical aspects. Since the desired outcome is to have
satisfied stakeholders, this by and large, covers many aspects. Satisfied employees
perform better and in return help in better outputs which in return help in keeping
clients satisfied. This will lead to more business and more cash flow.
o The next step is in strategizing the path of achieving the objectives. Management
approach and change in processes would help a lot in driving the process of achieving
the objectives.
o Stake holder engagement is a very important and critical step in the process. Initially,
the focus should be on employees. They need to be engaged and they need to feel the
difference in approach. Thus the management can get their buy ins which is a very
important step and milestone in the journey.
o By setting up a change management team, an accountability is set up and established
and this will help in tracking and monitoring the strategy progress. This team will also
help in setting up a change management model and developing a detailed plan.
Communication to everyone becomes a very critical step in the progress path.
Implementation of change will happen in phases and the involvement of the coach is
critical in this step as well. Feedback can be obtained by analyzing defined reporting
and metrics. Also, steps need to be established to sustain the progress. Once setup and
set in motion, continuous improvement process would ensure that the strategy
becomes a part of the culture.
 If you are not the general manager, how will you develop the motivation to change in
your general manager and your team?
o If I’m not the general manager, I will first clearly articulate my entire plan, starting
from need to the objectives, a detailed plan and then present it in an action-plan-
oriented way. With proper data establishing various facts, it will be easy for the
general manager to start appreciating the strategy. He needs to be given enough data
and evidences for him to first identify and relate with the problem. I will present
situations and examples of how the treatment from management has affected the
mindset of people. This is a good start.
 If you are the general manager, how will you motivate change without dictating it?
o If I am the general manager, first of all, I would prepare a detailed plan with enough
data establishing various facts. This is very important as a data driven approach will
be something that everyone appreciates. This plan need to be presented in an engaging
way by asking the necessary questions and soliciting the necessary answers. Most of
the answers would be something that would be a part of the plan. If not, this has to be
linked and if it’s a new point, it has to be incorporated. Once people relate with the
pain points from the plan and connect with them, that would be half the battle won.
As I start articulating the plan and sharing the way forward, slowly I will be able to
get their buy ins.
1. Are members of the organization, especially key managers and opinion leaders,
sufficiently dissatisfied with the status quo? Does energy for change exist? If the
answer is no, what interventions should the general manager make to generate energy
for change? What will you do?
 Yes, Key managers and opinion leaders, especially top management are currently
dissatisfied with the status quo. Quality issues in deliveries, delay in deliveries, lack
of accountability among people, carelessness in approach, mistakes in work, these are
the various aspects in the current status quo that has made people frustrated in the
company. Top management and some of the core team members are driven from
within to change this but others need to be given enough reasons and motivations for
them to engage with the strategy sincerely and be a part of the change. I as the general
manager should be very clear in establishing the entire understanding of the situation
in an empathetic manner. This is very important, critical and crucial. I will convince
people with enough facts for them to realize the gravity of the situation and then get
them onboard to be a part of the strategy. Also, by showing the outcomes and making
them visualize the victory, they would be able to motivated enough to join hands and
be a part of the change.
2. In what way will the top management team and other key employees and
constituencies be involved in diagnosis and the development of a strategically aligned
organizational model?
 Top Management and other constituencies will be involved heavily in the diagnosis
and development of the model. They will have to analyze the situations from a neutral
perspective and accept the need to change. They will have to look at the data which
shows the damage happening because of their way of functioning. They will be a part
of the development process of the strategy.
 Develop a sequence of steps for diagnosing and developing your organization’s
capability to implement strategy.
o First of all, a skill matrix process needs to be defined and established to understand
the current capability. This will give a lot of clarity as to where we stand and what has
to be done. The parameters that would be judged on, need to be very clear - both for
 the person who is judging and the person who is being judged. This will help in the
concerned employee to understand and appreciate the findings. This needs to be used
to plan the capacity and capability enhancement plan. After this, timelines need to be
established to hire the concerned people. Also, training plans need to be setup and
established for employees to see a clear path to progress. Feedback mechanisms need
to be setup clearly for monitoring.
Applications Exercise 5 - What Are the Implications for You and Your Role in
Managing Change?
1. If you are the general manager, what are the implications for your own role,
particularly your leadership of the organization, and how will you spend your time?
 If I am the general manager, it becomes a very important and critical thing for me to
initiate this entire strategy. I need to do a lot of research as to why my stakeholders
are dissatisfied. My leadership is under the scanner and I need to go all out in getting
changes done. My planning needs to be impeccable and I need to divide my time
between strategy and operations equally if not more. I need to clearly set up processes
that are clearly articulated and well defined so that implementation is very smooth.
Also, by simplifying the entire documentation, it will be easier to communicate. After
establishing necessary timelines, I need to distribute the work load among the team
members of the change management process. I need to set up processes for tracking
progress as well. An important thing for me would be to infuse trust, faith and belief
in all the people that we are headed in the right direction and with their support, we all
would be able to achieve. They need to be able to see this even before they start
believing in it. This is a very important and critical step in the process. By monitoring
metrics, I will be able to achieve success in implementation of this strategy
2. If you are not the general manager of the organization, what can you do to help your
boss gain new insights about the organization and lead a change process?
 If I am not the general manager, one of the greatest advantages I would have, is access
to the exact feel in the organisation. I may be privy to the information of how exactly
people feel in the organisation. I will be able to collect more data in a better way. This
will help me in setting up a proper and detailed plan. I will explain various incidents
that have occurred and project scenarios for the future. By articulating the
visualization of the completed project, I will be able to give clarity to the entire plan. I
will also list down the execution mechanism and establish the necessary timelines. I
will then also add tracking mechanisms and progress monitoring systems in place. I
will present the entire plan to my general manager first to get his buy in. I will
volunteer to be a part of this change process.
3. Plan in concrete terms the first steps you plan to take when you return to your
organization to begin the change process. What are the personal and organizational
risks?
 I will first discuss with the top management to address their way of approach with
employees. I will discuss elaborately in depth with them as to how they should be
addressing people in the future. The way forward for them needs to be clearly
communicated. The next step is to get their buy in in terms of how their involvement
would be. Once this clarity is established, it will be easier to take the plan forward.
 Personal risk would be to have the director’s buy ins but not being able to actually
observe the necessary changes in behaviour.
 Organizational risk would be that people would not value the new approach and may
start mis using it. By establishing clear consequences, this risk can be mitigated