Davenport HRM700 week 7 assignment

Course PowerPoint PresentationWith your group partners you are to act as a consulting firm and develop a narrated PowerPoint presentation for High Growth Industries (HGI) management via Blackboard’s Collaborate Classroom. Shirley Stevenson, recently hired HR Vice President has asked you to come into HGI and provide her and HGI’s senior management a review and recommendation for the next two to three years. She has requested a SWOT Analysis of HGI’s situation, an Operational Plan Analysis, and a Strategic Plan making recommendations.Running
Head: HIGH GROWTH INDUSTRIES (HGI) CASE OVERVIEW
Ver.: February 25, 2013
High Growth Industries (HGI) Case Overview
High
Growth Industries (HGI) is a regionally accredited chain of daycare centers in
northern California with headquarters in San Francisco. HGI has established an
excellent reputation during more than 30 years of service and has worked hard
to achieve its motto to “foster high growth for your child.” It was recently
awarded its largest contract ever; in just six months, HGI will be the sole
provider of daycare services for all central and northern California state
agencies. HGI currently operates 17 daycare centers, mostly near San Francisco,
Sacramento, and Napa Valley. These centers employ approximately 163 teachers,
childcare specialists, and aides. Thirteen centers are more than 15 years old,
and 60 percent of workers have been with HGI for more than 10 years. Centers
range in size from two to 19 employees. Shirley Stevenson was recently hired as
HGI’s first Vice President of Human Resources. She left an HR director position
in a major manufacturing organization out of boredom. With an HR degree and 20
years of progressive HR experience in various industries, she claims to have
seen it all.
She
has always been quite successful and eagerly anticipates the challenge that
HGI’s president said would be there for her. Yet she cannot help feel somewhat
uneasy at the enormity of all future tasks and in building the HR function.

The
current HR department is in a shambles. She was unable to find an affirmative
action plan, training documents, or other basic personnel information,
including I-9s. Although the company has been unionized for the better part of
20 years, labor contracts are available for only the past five years. The
teachers’ union attempted to strike two years ago over wages and conditions,
although the specialists/aides union appears less militant. Each union is a
union shop. Both contracts expire January 1 of next year.

In
the past, the president and each center’s managers performed all of the
organization’s personnel functions by the seat of their pants. Recruiting was
done by word-of-mouth, performance appraisals rarely occurred, and the
president was the chief union negotiator. “Management by walking around” is
constantly practiced;
the
president visits each childcare center every month. Most managers are happy
with this management style and the flexibility it provides them. The data
surrounding HGI’s upcoming expansion are astounding. HGI will be adding between
1,200 and 1,500 daycare workers, and a commensurate number of support staff.
There will be approximately 40 new daycare facilities, some as far as 350 miles
away. Shirley is now wondering if enough skilled and certified teachers are
available.

HGI
organization consist of the following functional areas:
·
?Chief executive officer.
·
?HR vice president: Shirley Stevenson’s
new position.
·
?Legal staff: Focus on all legal issues
within the corporation, including teacher certification, labor
·
issues (EEO, wage and hour, legal
ability to work, safety, etc.).
·
?Marketing vice president: Focus on
increasing the client base, both short-term, and long-term.
·
?Chief financial officer: Focus on
budgetary and other financial issues, seeking ways to keep costs
·
low. Should examine cost-saving
potential in operations, teachers, and support staff.
·
?Managers of individual daycare centers:
Responsible for the daily operations of each center.
·
?Middle management (such as accounting,
purchasing, etc.): Responsible for specific functions.
·
?Training director: Responsible for
teacher and support staff training (either conducting the training
·
internally or finding budgetary sources
for training).
·
?Union leadership: Elected by the
teachers, specialists, and aides themselves. A union shop requires
·
all workers to join the union shortly
after becoming employed.
·
?Workers: These are primarily the
teachers, specialists, and aides who work with the children. (They
·
do not necessarily have the same goals
as the union leaders.)
·
HIGH
GROWTH INDUSTRIES (HGI) CASE OVERVIEW PAGE 2 OF 3
·
To help Shirley get her hands around
this situation, she has called on your consulting group to assist. She has
·
asked for your group to first carry out
a SWOT analysis of HGI’s HR situation. She described the process
·
that she would like to see as:
·
First, provide aSWOT Analysisof
HGI’s situation.
·
?Strengths are those tangible and
intangible qualities that enable an organization to achieve its
·
mission. These include human
competencies, services, and process capabilities.
·
?Weaknesses are those activities,
services or other factors that block the organization from fulfilling
·
its mission.
·
?Opportunities present themselves
through the environment in which an organization operates. They
·
may be generated by the appearance of
new trends in the marketplace, technology or demographics.
·
?Threats are external to the
organization. Unlike weaknesses, they cannot be directly controlled; in
·
fact, they exploit weaknesses and
increase vulnerability.
·
Second, she has asked for your group to
devise anOperational Plan Analysisto suggest steps to be taken to
·
deal and to minimize the problems,
based on the SWOT analysis, with a review of:
·
?Legal issues, including I-9s,
affirmative action and EEO, teacher certification, etc.
·
?Contract negotiation, labor relations,
union certification/decertification, and other labor issues.
·
?HR staff development.
·
?Teacher staffing and diversity.
·
?Documentation, both past and future.
·
?Compensation.
·
?New vs. old: respect loyal employees
while simultaneously embracing change.
·
?HR vice president; personal style,
department style.
·
?Communication needs and corporate
culture issues.
·
?Effect of changes on both operations
managers and the CEO.
·
?Budget.
·
?Training needs
·
?Methods of getting employ and management
buy-in.
·
?Use of consultants or other short-term
support staff (e.g., retired executives).
And
last she suggests aStrategic Planmaking recommendations not only for the areas mentioned
above, but to get entire organizational buy-in for the next two to three years.
She would like to see your recommendations and a timeline so that she plans for
implementation and budgeting.
Your
group’s consulting assignment is to address these problems based on your study
ofManaging Human Resourcesand to develop a narrated PowerPoint presentation (Executive
presentation) that will be present to her and the Chief Executive Officers via
Blackboard’s Collaborate Classroom. Shirley has asked that it not be longer
than 25 minutes in length.
Your
analysis should follow the case model described below:
?Describe a Synopsis of the Situation: background information
about this case, and an overview of the case as you understand it or assume it
to be.
?Present Key Issues: Define the key issues/factors and the
roles of the Key Players. You should include only those issues that affect the
identified problem.
?Define the Problem(s): Identify one key problem. While there
may be several problems and a
multitude
of symptoms, attempt to identify one problem, the resolution of which would
alleviate
most
of the symptoms found in the case.
?Alternative Solutions: Develop alternative solutions to the
defined problem. This should not be a laundry list of actions one could take to
address every symptom, but alternative actions that could correct the problem
at hand. Identify the pros and cons of implementing each alternative.
HIGH GROWTH INDUSTRIES (HGI) CASE
OVERVIEW PAGE 3 OF 3
?Selected Solution to the Problem: Select several of the
alternatives and explain why it would be best.
?Implementation/Recommendations: Identify how to implement
the selected solution and what the expected results (positive and negative)
might be. Your job is to identify an action plan.
General Guidelines:
1.
Your final group analysis will be presented as a narrated PowerPoint
presentation in the Blackboard Collaborate Classroom, not longer than 25
minutes.
2.
Use the information learned to develop and agree upon a group approach.
3.
Spend more time on Recommendations than Synopsis of Situation. This is where you
demonstrate your problem solving abilities. Be sure you (a) identify
alternatives, (b) evaluate each alternative, and (c) recommend the alternative
you think is best.
4.
Be specific in your recommendations. Develop specific recommendations logically
and be sure your recommendations are well defended by your analysis. Avoid
using generalizations, clichés, and ambiguous statements. Remember that any
number of answers is possible and so your professor is most concerned about how
your reasoning led to your recommendations and how well you develop and support
your ideas.
5.
Do not overlook implementation. Many good analyses receive poor evaluations
because they do not include a discussion of implementation. Your analysis will
be much stronger when you discuss how your recommendation can be implemented.
Include some of the specific actions needed to achieve the objectives you are
proposing.
6.
Specifically state your assumptions. Cases, like all real business situations,
involve incomplete information. Therefore, it is important that you clearly
state any assumptions you make in your analysis.
7.
Include a title slide that lists each participating team members name and a
reference slide that indicates the outside resources used to prepare your
presentation. One team member should upload your final PowerPoint through the
assignment manager for grading. All participating team members will receive the
same grade.
8.
Present your narrated case project via the Collaborate Live Classroom, much
like you are presenting your findings and recommendations directly to Shirley
Stevenson. Make sure you record your presentation so the instructor is able to
view it. There is a practice area for each group.
9.
As a team, present your PowerPoint in Live Classroom. Create an introductory
overview and then each team member can address specific sections of your
findings and recommendations—see the items presented above. The final
presentation should be uploaded and presented in your teams via Blackboard
Collaborate.
10.
Try to be professional as possible. Visualize yourselves as a consulting group
who really want to help this organization and to make a good impression so this
can become a lasting consulting opportunity.
11?Present
and record your narrated presentation via Blackboard Collaborate. You will need a microphone and speakers or a
headset with a microphone to record the presentation.
12?Your
last recorded presentation by date and time will be the presentation that will
be reviewed and graded using the associated scoring rubric.