Human Resource Report

Human Resource Report

 For every business, it is vital to have effective human resource management strategies to ensure that there is no labour surplus or shortage. The concept of human resource management is broad as it entails topics such as compensation, benefits and employee motivation, performance management, training, safety, career development, Turnover management, among other subtopics. Human resource plays a key role in managing people and the workplace environment. At some point, human resources managers are faced with a decision to downsize or recruits. In the case incident, the franchise owner requires proper examination and forecast of labour situation to decide whether to downsize or recruit. Perhaps a qualitative and quantitative analysis of franchise would provide the owner with a forecast of labour demand before downsizing, by calculating employee turnover level in stores and online-based, a glimpse of labour shortage or surplus is provided.  In this report, analysis of a franchise based on its current labour supply is given. From the analysis, a clear plan is given to address the forecast labour shortage or surplus. The strategic plan entails human resource aspects such as training, career development, turnover management and rewards. At the conclusion, a recommendation is given on the best cause of action for the franchise owner.

Analysis of Case Incident (The Franchise)

Providing a clear forecast of labour shortage or surplus for the franchise owner requires both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the current labour situation. According to the case, the sporting goods chain business is significantly affected by technology. Dessler, Sutherland & Cole (2005) shows that the online sales have registered 30% increase in sales resulting to annual revenue of $300,000 with only a team of five full-time remote online workers operating from their homes. On the other hand, for optimum profitability and success, the store requires a team of highly qualified personnel that takes away significant franchise revenue in terms of rewards and salary. The store requires, a store manager, assistant manager, five departmental managers and twenty customer services representatives. Despite the high demand for quality labour, the store’s annual revenue is $1 200,000, which represents a 20% decline (Dessler, Sutherland & Cole 2005).  From the case, maintaining both streams of sales would be more profitable than closing one and forecasting on the other. It is therefore essential for the franchise owner to keep the store productivity and grow the online business. A decision to keep both requires a forecast of demand for labour for both stores and online environment for the next three years, and this can be done through human resource planning expertise.

Assessment of labour demand and supply

Valeau & Paillé (2019) points out that it is essential to assess the online marketing environment to know the future demand and supply of sporting goods. Further, there is a need to prepare human resource inventory for the franchise, make a plan for recruiting, hiring, educating, compensating and scheduling online workers. With a 30% increase in online sales, there is a potential to grow an online business. This would require additional online workers in the future.  Assuming a 30% turnover level in the next three years, the franchise will realize a shortage of workers in the future. The solution to online workers shortage requires the implementation of human resource strategies that help maintain labour supply at equilibrium. According to the franchise case study, currently, the total number of employees sums to eighty-one. Based on the store’s decline in sales and return, there is a need to downsize for high profitability. Assuming a 15% turnover rate annually, the total number of employees will reduce significantly, leading to a shortage of supply. In a nutshell, the franchisee will have a shortage of labour supply. This implies that the firm will suffer consequences of labour shortage if the condition is not addressed as early as possible. It may lead to an upward effect on wages. Consequently, high wages feed into higher inflation among other demerits. Solving the shortage of labour requires a critical examination of human resource strategies that help stabilize labour. The owner of the franchise should consider scheduling employees, compensation, appraisal and reward system, training, career development, total reward and turnover management.

Dessler, Sutherland & Cole (2005) points out that the first step the franchise owner should consider is workforce planning and employment to combat labour shortage. In human resource management, workforce planning is a tool to assure the future availability of workforce to carry on organizational activities. The process involves assessment of supply and demand to ensure that there are enough human resources to provide continued smooth operation of the organization. If the franchise employs a guided process in workforce planning and employment, both short and long term goals can be identified. This helps to conduct a proper need analysis that helps identify future workforce needs. Assessing labour demand involves knowing the amount of labour you want with their expected reward, the volume of work and job description. Knowing job description enables the franchise owner to hire people with relevant job qualifications.

Further, it will also help to know the kind and amount of reward workers would be given. Employment planning is essential for it helps the organization cope with changes in human resource personnel. Planning is the face of change. Coping with organizational changes due to labour demand shifts is essential, it enables human resource managers to take inventory who they employ, provides a glimpse of how the labour market is like and enhances organizational adaptation to other changes in technology. The franchise should be able to adapt to all dimensions of changes in the business, both internal and external. Apart from internal labour changes, external changes may include socio-cultural, economic forces, political and legal environment.

Recruitment, Training and career development

The obvious way of combating labour shortage is through recruitment and hiring new qualified personnel. In the above case, there is a forecast of labour shortage for both online business and stores. It is recommended that the franchise owner conducts the recruitment of talented employees and ensure that top talent fit needs. Every business undergoing labour shortage should search, select and recruit the most capable applicants to fill open job vacancies. Through human resource strategies, determine the company needs, assess the available labour market, announce vacancies and hire most qualified candidates to join the firm and fulfil the workload. The human resource manager responsible for hiring labourers should follow the process of recruitment strictly. Dessler, Sutherland & Cole (2005) noted that the first step involves identifying job vacancies, analyzing job requirements, reviewing applications, screening, and shortlisting and selecting the most qualified candidates.

Dessler, Sutherland & Cole (2005) points out that after recruitment and well-coming the most qualified candidates, the next step for the franchise is to organize employ training. Before employee training, there is a need for orientation that lays the foundation for the new employee’s entire career with the department. Job orientation enhances confidence and helps in adaptation to the new job. Conducting employee job orientation results in a competent, productive workforce and improves employee retention. Employee training is essential to help recruits understand their new role.  Employee training is undoubtedly necessary for improving workers morale (Valeau & Paillé, 2019). It also helps in attaining job security and enhances job satisfaction. For the franchise with a shortage in labour supply, it is vital to orient and trains the recruits for rapid productivity properly. Moreover, training new workers improves efficiency and overall productivity of the firm. Noteworthy is that trained employees have quantity and quality performance necessary to boost organizational productivity.

Valeau & Paillé (2019) argues that integrated employee training with career development has overwhelming positive results for the business. In order to avoid future labour shortages, the new and existing employees need to be trained, and career development programs conducted. Career development is not a one-point event but a lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure and transition to cultivating determination for required future. All the employees should complete all the five stages of career development such as exploration, establishment, mid and late-career and decline by the help of the organization. There are various reasons why the franchise should help the employees undergo the entire process of career development. First, career development improves the quality of work and increases job performance (Hom, Allen & Griffeth, 2019). At the individual level, career development opens more career opportunities and helps in attaining personal goals.  With dynamics in the labour market, career development enhances adaptation to the changes. In a nutshell, the franchise owner should recruit new employees, orient, train and conduct a persistent career development. Completion of the three steps would increase franchise performance and improve the quality of work.

Turnover Management and Reward system

Regarding human resource management, labour turnover refers to that rate at which employers lose t their employees. Further, turnover refers to period employees tend to stay without seeking other employment opportunities.  In the context of our case study, turnover rate reflects that percentage of both online and store workers that will leave within three years. The franchise owner is required to conduct turnover management which is the act of replacing employees who have resigned with new ones. It also involves actions that aim at maintaining and retain existing employees in the firm. There are various ways of keeping current employees (Valeau & Paillé 2019). The firm should have a sound reward system that ensures employee’s benefits are prioritized. Reducing employee’s turnover requires that the firm hires the right people, and fire those who do not fit the current job description.

The retained employees should well-rewarded to ensure that they are always happy and stay positive. The franchise expects high staff turnover in the next three years, to reduce the rate, the owner should keep compensation and benefits current to align with other firms standards of rewards. Hom, Allen & Griffeth (2019) noted further that there is a need for the human resource manager to encourage generosity and gratitude. This will make the current employees have a feeling of belonging and being recognized. When workers feel special and recognized, they tend to be motivated and have high morale for the job. Besides, if the organization stays flexible, most workers will find a place to fit in and propel firm objectives (Valeau & Paillé 2019). Paying attention to engagement and listening to employees also plays a crucial role in workers retention. Listening and giving employees a chance to talks about their feelings and views concerning organization issues helps to make them feel well-come and accepted hence do not think of moving to other employers. Employers who prioritize employee’s happiness have low staff turnover since the employees feel special and attended to the way they want. For the franchise, there is a need to retain the previous employees so that there will be no extreme labour shortage in the next three years. By following the strategies mentioned above, the franchise owner will have enough labour to run the franchise.

The influence of technology, uncertainty and layoffs on the labour supply should not be overlooked. Based on the case, it is noted that the application of online selling will render most of the employees jobless. Online marketing is cheap and more effective than the use of stores. Further, selling over the internet produces higher returns than stores with few employees. Besides, online marketing is not affected by uncertainties, layoffs, deaths and disabilities (Hom, Allen & Griffeth, 2019). A significant increase in annual revenues was realized due to the application of online marketing of sports gears. Over the internet business enhances personalized customer experience as customers like the convenience of faster delivery and lower prices. With the low cost of expenditure and efficiency on the customer’s side, online stores should be expanded and more capital invested. It, therefore, recommended that apart from solving the labour shortage problem, the sporting franchise should focus on increasing its online sales for performance improvement.

In conclusion, given the current demand and supply in the franchise as realized from quantitative and qualitative analysis, the firm should not downsize due to forecast labour shortage in the next three years. Instead, the franchise owner should focus on retaining existing employees, recruiting qualified personnel for online shops expansion.  For improved performance and retaining both existing and new employees, the franchise need to conduct workers training, career development and reward system review to appease workers to stay. Finally, the firm should adopt technology, especially online marketing, to reduce its demand for labour.

References

Dessler, G., Sutherland, G., & Cole, N. D. (2005). Human resources management in Canada. Pearson Education Canada.

Hom, P. W., Allen, D. G., & Griffeth, R. W. (2019). Employee Retention and Turnover: Why Employees Stay Or Leave. Routledge.

Valeau, P. J., & Paillé, P. (2019). The management of professional employees: linking progressive HRM practices, cognitive orientations and organizational citizenship behaviour. The international journal of human resource management, 30(19), 2705-2731.