AUGUST 2021_ EXAMINATION

TAKE HOME EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER

PROGRAMME Bachelor of Commerce Honours

MODULE Human Resource and Labour Relations Management

BCH_HRLM_14 August 2021_S2

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

• Students are required to carefully read and fully understand the questions before

answering them.

• Students must answer the questions fully but concisely and as directly as possible using

sufficient research and application.

• Students should follow all specific instructions for individual questions (e.g., “list”, “in point

form”, “show all workings”).

• The mark allocation is there to show you the weighting and length of each question.

• The assessment must be your own work only, plagiarism cases will be investigated.

• Students are to read the examination requirements, rules and instructions on the Home

Page of the Regent Online platform.

• An additional 15 minutes have been granted for set up and reading time.

DATE: 14 August 2021 TIME: 13h00_17h00

DURATION: 4Hours MARKS: 100

EXAMINER: MODERATOR:
Kazi T Ramdial S Dr

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QUESTION ONE [40]
Read the following article and answer the questions that follow:

The new top challenge for HR teams: Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

The pandemic and economic uncertainty makes long-range employee planning more difficult.
The emphasis, for now, is on agility to respond to the unforeseen.

HR teams played active roles in 2020 as companies reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and
engaged in workplace equity conversations brought on by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Those who helped their companies adapt the fastest to the fundamental changes caused by
these events were the ones that ultimately thrived.

But a new test awaits HR teams in 2021. Leaders will be tasked with holding their
organisations accountable to greater diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts. At the same time,
many challenges remain in keeping employees engaged and their well-being high in both
remote and hybrid workplaces.

The accelerated changes that upended organisations at the start of the pandemic will remain
in 2021. But now that workers have adapted to these shifts, HR teams must rethink their talent
approaches. Visier, my HR tech company, surveyed HR thought leaders from our clients and
leveraged third-party research and identified these three top challenges for people managers
in the coming year.

PROBLEM-SOLVING THROUGH UNCERTAINTY

Your HR team cannot fall back into strategic workforce planning that scopes years-long
initiatives. These plans need to instead focus on weeks- and months-long plans with agility at
their core.

Looking back at previous recessions, we know that businesses with an agile approach to
workforce planning emerge stronger from a crisis than their competitors. HR leaders should
mirror these examples by preparing for multiple scenarios. Whether your organisation
experiences splits, zero growth, slow growth or rapid growth, understanding all possibilities
will help your organisation remain resilient.

Leverage workforce planning technology to generate hypothetical situations you can build
contingency plans around. Also, develop skills information on employees to determine multiple
business needs they can fill outside of their typical role, based on the demands of the business.

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People analytics—the practice of collecting and transforming HR data and organisational data
into actionable insights—can help identify candidates for reskilled positions needed by your
organisation.

D&I ACTION, NOT TALK

D&I initiatives must be a core component of all enterprises. Companies that fall short on these
efforts risk incurring fines, bad press and class action lawsuits. In fact, new SEC rules and ISO
metrics are being used to promote better accountability and reporting in workforce
management. Additionally, both employees and the public are demanding corporations
address outstanding core issues around D&I.

Your company probably already has a wealth of data that can help create an impactful D&I
strategy. Layered operational analytics like hiring, promotion, and pay equity data can help
determine real areas of improvement. And tools such as employee pulse surveys and
behavioral resources like organisational network analytics can uncover insights directly from
employees.

Employee data can provide answers to your organisation’s D&I questions. With clear answers,
you can make talent decisions that improve your entire employee lifecycle. Use data to go
beyond blanket numbers and dissect the various factors related to all of your company’s
workforce groups. Closely examine your business processes to stay ahead of risks that could
negatively impact your diversity efforts and keep leaders accountable. D&I should be a total
business initiative, not just an HR initiative.

NEW EXPECTATIONS AROUND EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

The employee experience left the confines of the office when teams shifted to working
remotely at scale in early 2020. Office culture was brought into homes, which meant employee
well-being and safety needed to be fostered at a distance. As a result, employees now need
to know your organisation supports them as they navigate at-home childcare responsibilities,
increased health risks and a weakened economy. If not, you risk losing workers to a more
flexible and supportive career option.

Company cultures are typically built with an organic, habit-based framework. To better meet
employee needs in a remote or hybrid work environment in 2021, implement a culture-by-
design approach. Take the elements signature to your company’s culture and identify

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opportunities to retain them in our current work environments. Successful execution of culture-
by-design lies in a people-first approach fueled by data insights.

Combine data from sources such as human capital management platforms, well-being tools
and employee engagement surveys to determine where employees need your support. These
insights can help address personal stressors your employees deal with, like at-home childcare,
for example, to provide flexible PTO and scheduling. Organisational network analysis (ONA)
can also supply a real-time view of employee communication and help you understand how
team dynamics change in a remote or hybrid work environment.

2020 taught us that everything can change overnight. Let 2021 be the year your organisation
readies itself for all possibilities with an agile foundation for decision-making built with real-
time data. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable, make D&I a core component of
employee engagement and put people first to rethink your talent approach for sustained
success. (Source:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90591627/the-new-top-challenge-for-hr-teams-get-comfortable-with-being-
uncomfortable)

Questions:
1.1 Evaluate the roles and functions HR require in order to deal with the above
challenges. (20)
1.2 Critically discuss the challenges facing human resource management in 2021
and beyond. (20)

QUESTION TWO [30]

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

An interesting analysis by Gallup suggests that only 2 in 10 employees say their performance
is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. The other 80% of employees
have probably echoed a sentiment that has finally made its way to the custodians of
performance policies in organisations worldwide.

In the last few years, organisations around the world have radically changed the way they
manage and develop employee performance. Performance Development historically has been
a complex mechanism - the idea of relegating an entire year of an employee's life to one
number (THE rating!) has been up for a fundamental discussion time and again

Performance development was always envisaged as a marathon of activities through the year
but in most cases, it turned out to be a 100-metre sprint that more or less started and ended

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with the annual review. Reviews often looked back at things that happened in the past, with
little focus on the future - Not only was this demoralizing but was also unactionable.

Further, the annual meeting between the manager and their team members tends to focus on
issues of pay and promotion with no one thinking about development and growth. With the
changing nuances, annual reviews will still happen - albeit, the most effective ones being those
that are a culmination of all the regular conversations that have happened between the
manager and the employee over the year.

Questions:
2.1 In light of the above, assess the various purposes of performance management. (15)
2.2 “Only 2 in 10 employees say their performance is managed in a way that motivates
them to do outstanding work”. Analyse the various reasons why performance
management may be demotivating to employees. (15)

QUESTION THREE [30]

As shared by our friends at Oculus Quest 2 for Business, virtual reality (VR) offers a
"superpower." It's true, you gain a superpower when you put on the headset which can
instantly teleport you to new places and deeply stirring experiences. Do you want to swim with
dolphins? Climb Mt. Everest? Take a ride on a roller coaster? Virtual world experiences are
growing in availability; immediately adding excitement to your own reality. And, in the market
we serve, learning and development, our VR provides a remarkable environment for bringing
people together to have fun, collaborate, and learn despite their distance or the restrictions for
connecting in person.

With reference to this:

3.1. Explain the opportunities virtual reality offers for learning and development in
contemporary organisations (15)

3.2. Provide recommendations as to how a specific organisation of your choice may

utilise VR for their training purposes. (15)

END OF QUESTION PAPER

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