Devry HRM340 2022 March Assignments Latest (Full)

Oct 31, 2024

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HRM340 Human Resource Information Systems

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Week 2 Assignment  

Case Study

GLOBAL ISSUES IN A MULTINATIONAL COMPANY

Introduction:

A large MNE in the cookware industry was having difficulties maintaining its market share due to a number of mergers among other competing firms in the industry. As a result, the management of the MNE asked the IHRM department for some suggestions as to how personnel costs could be trimmed. However, there was one constraint established by tradition in the company. The MNE had never had a layoff of employees in its history, and the CEO refused to use this option to reduce personnel costs. One of the complicating factors was the different labor legislation, as well as the very different cultures in the 29 countries in which the MNE did business.

Case Study:

A large MNE in the cookware industry was having difficulties maintaining its market share due to a number of mergers among other competing firms in the industry. The MNE, with corporate headquarters in Canada, had production plants in 15 countries and a company presence in a total of 29 countries. Although the firm had a number of competitors, its product was considered as having the highest quality—the Mercedes of cookware. The firm was family owned and founded in 1937. The most pressing problem was how the firm could stay competitive in the marketplace and stop decreases in sales. Naturally, it was highly desirable to increase sales beyond annual averages, but, first, the firm had to change something to stabilize its place in the market.

Examining the problem, the CEO and the corporate board, consisting of all the corporate vice presidents as well as the CEOs of all the international locations, concluded that it was necessary to reduce operating costs by 5% to 6% to remain competitive. Thus, it was decided to determine if these cost savings could be achieved in operations, raw materials, finances, or HR.

The MNE managers examined the latest production technology in their industry. The firm discovered that its technology was fairly current and the few technological changes available would only help decrease costs by less than 1%. However, these modifications to their current technology were very expensive and did not appear to have a favorable return on investment (ROI).

Trying to obtain better financing was nearly impossible since the MNE had very favorable financing currently. The same was true for raw materials, since a decision to use cheaper materials would greatly reduce the quality of the company’s products.

As a result, the management of the MNE asked the IHRM department for some suggestions as to how personnel costs could be trimmed. However, there was one constraint established by tradition in the company. The MNE had never had a layoff of employees in its history, and the CEO refused to use this option to reduce personnel costs. One of the complicating factors was the different labor legislation as well as the very different cultures in the 29 countries in which the MNE did business.

Case Study Questions:

How would you approach a solution to this problem for the MNE?

Assuming that reducing personnel costs is the best, and probably only, way to reduce overall corporate costs, what specific programs would you suggest to reduce costs? Why?

How would an HRIS for the MNE aid in finding HR programs to help solve this problem?

What would be the most important data to access in the HRIS for the units and divisions of the MNE to determine feasible HR programs?

Are the problems of reducing personnel costs for an MNE different from those for a domestic-only company? Explain.

 

 

 

 

HRM340 Human Resource Information Systems

Week 4 Assignment  

Grandview Global Financial Services, Inc.

Grandview Global Financial Services is an international corporation providing multiple financial services. Although it is one of the smaller players in the field, the firm has about 20,000 employees worldwide. Corporate strategy has focused on serving a niche market comprising high-net-worth individuals, providing them with all the wealth management services they require. These services include investments, insurance, banking, real estate, financial planning, and related services.

The linchpin making all these services work well is the quality of the employees—the degree to which they are motivated to provide “over-the-top” attention to clients’ needs. Clients have come to expect this level of service regardless of where they might happen to be and regardless of the time. Because of clients’ high expectations, every employee is expected to provide flawless service.

As it has expanded globally, Grandview has hired employees from all the countries in which it does business. Although all employees are expected to speak English, business is conducted in nine different languages in 45 locations. Grandview has invested heavily in developing a uniform corporate culture but has not succeeded in doing so in all locations.

One difficulty has been the PM and reward systems. Each geographic area developed its own PM tools, which reflect the national culture and the past experiences of local employees. There are a variety of systems using different performance criteria. Most of the PM materials are in Microsoft Word. Some of the systems seem to work all right, although others do not. None of the systems are coordinated, except to the extent that those final performance ratings are sent to the Grandview corporate HR department. There has been enormous pushback and noncompliance with PM policies from the employees because of the difficulty of the paper performance process as well as the nine different languages being used worldwide.

Rewards systems are similarly localized. Base pay, incentive systems, and benefits have grown up in each geographic location in accord with local market practices, laws, and customs. The complexity and number of Excel spreadsheets needed to manage the financial targets and the resulting compensation plans for that many employees have created perceived and actual inequities. It is difficult to transfer employees across geographic areas because of the different systems in place, and awareness that employees in different locations have very different terms and conditions has created morale problems.

Corporate HR has PM and rewards modules in its HRIS covering U.S. employees, but this takes care of only about 60% of Grandview’s employee population. An executive rewards module does cover about 2,000 senior executives worldwide, but all foreign data are sent from different locations and entered into the module at headquarters. Part of the historic reason for this process involves the legal requirements concerning privacy of information in the EU and some other locales; it is easier to get executives to grant permission for the transmission of specific data when those data are used to calculate stock option awards and other executive incentive payments granted by the corporation.

Corporate HR would like to move away from local systems and institute a corporatewide system that relies neither on Word documents for performance reviews nor on Excel spreadsheets for the resulting compensation plans that result from the overall performance ratings. It was thought that common systems for PM and rewards would support a more unified culture and help translate Grandview’s corporate strategy into individual performance plans worldwide.

The ideal system would be a Web-based, multilingual, integrated PM and compensation system. The PM system would be accessible by managers and their direct reports and would be tied to corporate strategy and the current business plan. Managers and their direct reports could access the system at any time to see performance criteria, measures, and standards and to look at current progress against standards. The rewards and benefits modules, although based on local law and customs, would be standardized with respect to process, fostering a more uniform rewards culture. It is critical to HR managers that the technology selected is flexible enough so that yearly changes to the application could be made efficiently and legal requirements in different locations could be accommodated, as well as changes in those requirements.

Because the performance goals are based on financial targets, and employees’ merit and incentive payments are directly related to employee performance as well as Grandview’s overall results, all necessary functionality for the compensation process should be built into the performance system. At year end, results should be able to be imported directly from corporate financial systems and used to generate performance reviews and compensation plans for the employees. The resultant pay increases and bonus payments would be fed directly into the payroll system already in use by Grandview in the United States and abroad. The system administrators should be able to ensure worldwide compliance with the performance process directly from the system through a variety of reports.

Case Study Questions

What is the role of PM in establishing and maintaining corporate culture?

What is the role of compensation and benefits in establishing and maintaining corporate culture?

Since laws, labor markets, and customs relevant to PM, compensation, and benefits differ from country to country, does it make sense to try to maintain a common global process for managing each of these areas?

Given all the cross-country differences, why would a global organization want to have a common HRIS?

 

HRM340 Human Resource Information Systems

Week 6 Assignment  

Talent Management at CalleetaCO

Introduction:

Jan is facing a difficult situation due to shareholder restlessness over financial returns slowing due to increasing employee costs. This case highlights the key business issues that arise for human resource administration with HRIS. The case also showcases how HR operations contribute to the company’s success. Lastly, the case gives students the opportunity to connect the balanced scorecard with the value that it provides for an organization.

Case Study:

Jan Samson, CEO at CalleetaCO, sat staring at the now-empty boardroom. Her board of directors had reacted negatively to Jan’s growth proposals for expanding CalleetaCO globally, leaving Jan with a big problem. Shareholders, who had bought its stock as the radio frequency identification (RFID) manufacturer led the boom in new uses for its products, were restless as financial returns slowed. In addition, board members expressed concern that CalleetaCO plants in Mexico and Vietnam were becoming the targets of activists who advocated that organizations ensure that the humane working conditions common in the United States be established in American-owned offshore facilities. Finally, board members demanded that Jan move immediately to rein in the employee costs of the U.S. operation. Those costs were growing at a rate of 12% annually, compared with an industry average of 4%. HR Vice President John Nosmas defended his practice of hiring the best, paying them well, and providing them with expensive benefit programs to keep them developing the innovative products the market demanded. However, board members were adamant and demanded a plan at the next meeting, only six weeks away.

CalleetaCO, with its current 1,900 employees spread across three countries (i.e., the United States—1,000, Mexico—200, Vietnam—700), had grown rapidly over its eight-year existence. Although it started as a small entrepreneurial company, CalleetaCO was now challenging the top providers in its industry as it pursued its goal—to become the global leader in RFID products. RFID use exploded after the introduction of memory for passive radio transponders, which led to the production of RFID tags, microchip field radios embedded in products and used for electronic inventory. These tags were replacing traditional bar codes and manual scanning.

Electronic product coding associated with RFID has been embraced by retailers and consumers alike. Retailers such as Gillette, Hewlett-Packard, and Walmart benefit through more rapid restocking, less likelihood of out-of-stock items, and the electronic identification of product expiration dates. In addition, consumers can more easily return purchases.

Applications seem unending. Members of Congress have introduced legislation to track sales of tobacco products using RFID technology, for example. New U.S. passports contain RFID tags. “Swipeless” checkouts, RFID medical alert bracelets, and security identification wristbands are on the horizon. In addition, California is likely to use RFID to comply with the 2005 Real ID Act mandated by Congress (Billingsley, 2007). However, some groups are concerned that RFID proliferation could lead to the surreptitious tracking of an individual’s purchases and other privacy violations, especially since individuals may be unaware that their purchases include RFID devices. In addition, hackers may be able to steal identity information by remotely scanning an individual’s passport, credit card, or driver’s license.

Jan’s company had grown rapidly by perfecting several of these products. To keep the innovations coming, Jan and John Nosmas devised a human capital talent acquisition and retention plan to attract the most highly skilled individuals in the industry. The company had 25 HR recruiters focused solely on identifying potential employees, 17 selection specialists to test and interview them, and above-market compensation and benefits at its U.S. location to retain them: health, dental, and life insurance at no cost to the employee; six weeks of paid vacation annually; elder care; child care; onsite pet boarding; liberal performance bonuses; 401(k) matching at 10%; stock options; and onsite spa and exercise facilities. The programs had been incredibly successful in finding the right people to fuel the company’s innovative products.

With the company’s success had come an even larger HR department. For example, employees regularly stopped by the HR office to chat with their designated HR support representatives (there was one HR support representative for every 10 employees). The employees were thrilled with the personal service and responsiveness to inquiries on everything from health questions to veterinary referrals. Managers had access to their own HR support specialists, who handled everything from performance appraisals and salary increases to filling vacancy requests and overseeing employee discipline. When the company had formed an SSC for information technology and financial services, the HR department had balked at participating because employees were so satisfied with service levels, even though departmental costs were 20% higher than those of counterparts at competitor firms. The firm’s HRIS remained under the control of HR information technology specialists in the department, and there seemed few reasons to pursue portals. However, employees who traveled to Mexico and Vietnam had begun to complain about their inability to access HR support specialists for needed information because of time differences. U.S. expatriate managers from CalleetaCO controlled employees from Mexico and Vietnam at the offshore locations. HRO firms had recently approached John about the possibility of purchasing or managing those locations, but John had not yet explored such a possibility.

Jan picked up the telephone to call John. She explained the problem and asked him to prepare a list of ideas that could help them both demonstrate how successful CalleetaCO’s talent programs had been and meet the board’s requirements for cost controls. Jan knew that she would need to get John to work miracles to help meet the board’s demands. She didn’t want to stop talent searches or above-average total compensation, but board members were unyielding. Unless Jan could develop a successful plan to slow employee expense growth, control the activist stakeholder groups, and ultimately improve earnings, she could easily become the ex-CEO.

Case Study Questions:

What are the key business issues facing Jan?

In what ways are CalleetaCO’s HR operations contributing to the company’s success?

How do these contributions support the company’s strategic goals?

What changes can John make in his HR operations to meet the board’s demands?

Describe whether each of John’s proposed changes will hinder or help CalleetaCO achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Which ones would you choose if you were in John’s position? Defend your choices.How would a balanced scorecard help Jan explain the value of her HR talent approach? Provide sample measures for each of the four categories that would support Jan in her presentation to the board.

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