Vishal Ajmera, PGP35049, Section A

Human Resource Management: Case Study Analysis of Harrison Brothers Corporation

1. How does McCain view her role as human resource manager?
Brenda McCain was the Human Resource Manager at the Westpark store of Harrison Brothers
Corporation. She has several years of experience in retail stores and views herself as the
primary contact for all human resource related topics and issues. She has brought many
changes and new initiatives into the system where earlier many human resource duties were
performed by the operation’s manager. She has developed policies and procedures as a
guideline for the hiring process and spends a lot of time managing the human resource staff.
Brenda’s primary responsibilities are interviewing and hiring applicants, assisting the trainer
with the new employee training classes, and administering the performance evaluation and
career planning processes. She has modified the way employee complaints are dealt with.
Now she is also the sole person responsible for all disciplinary actions, which include gathering
the initial complaint from the supervisor, conducting the investigation and administering the
appropriate discipline. In this was there is consistency in the application of disciplinary rules.
Also, she initiated a system of employee development into the process, where supervisors
are required to discuss career opportunities with the employees.

2. What is Harrison Brothers’ business strategy?

The Harrison Brothers is a multi line traditional department store. Their existing business plan
has been successful and allowed Harrison Brothers to become one of the largest privately
owned retail chains in the U.S with more than 20 stores. Their major products have been
men’s, women’s and children’s clothing. However, the store has considered expanding new
items, adding household furnishings recently. James Harrison, the current CEO has realized
that the company must reposition itself as the market is constantly changing and customers
are now looking for both value and specialisation. The same model that worked in the past
may not work now. He plans to incorporate exciting brand names, excellent sales help, and
frequent sales. Also sales staff who know the merchandise and understands customer
preferences is the need of the hour. Buying expertise also needs to be developed because
fashions and consumer tastes never stay the same. Mr. Harrison has identified that giant
discounters provide attractive lines to customers, and maintaining qualified sales personnel
as key objectives in his transition plan. In brief the five strategic goals are:
a. Convert non selling space into revenue generating selling space.
b. Build up underdeveloped merchandise categories.
c. Invest aggressively in private brands like Polo, Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger.
d. Reduce costs through use of advanced computer systems to project sales and manage
inventory.
e. Improve productivity of sales associates, buyers, and department heads.”
3. What is the structure and staffing of the human resources department?

Currently Harrison Brothers is being led by the CEO, James Harrison. He took over the business
after earning MBA at a prestigious business school. Mr. Harrison is thinking about the future
for Harrison Brothers and would like to shift away from the traditional business strategy which
was followed by Harrison brothers as the market is constantly changing and customers are
now looking for both value and specialisation. He plans to implement new ideas that will
generate more revenue for the store. With that in mind, the store should have a great human
resource department as employee quality and performance would be one of the keys to the
future. He has hired a consultant to access the company’s strength and weakness.

Brenda McCain was the Human Resource Manager at the Westpark store of Harrison Brothers
Corporation. When Brenda first joined the team there was many responsibilities that were
being performed by the operations manager and one of the department heads. Since then
she has reorganized responsibilities and spends much of her time managing the department,
supervising employees and selecting new employees for sales and support jobs. Many of the
employees at Harrison Brothers are part time, older or are in between jobs i.e. if a better job
came along, they would snap it immediately. This has led to high turnover for the store.
Employees are hired based on motivation, personality and drive. There also exists a Trainer,
Joanne Flynn who assures all employees are exposed to selling techniques and different ways
of interacting with customers. The training sessions for new sales person are held once in two
weeks generally and once a week during peak season. To take care of compensation there
also exists a payroll clerk. Manager, Jennifer Daft stated that Brenda and the rest of her staff
seem to be struggling with keeping up with day-to-day operations. Operations manager, Pat
Hartlake believes the human resource department is understaffed and overworked most of
the time and hence is slow in filling the vacant sales position.

4. Analyze the data in Exhibit 1.2. What are its implications?

The data in exhibit 1.2 compares the results of questionnaires completed by HR managers
and non-HR manager where respondents were given a list of human resource responsibilities
and were asked to rate their importance to store performance. The findings reveal that that
staffing is considered to be of equal importance to HR and store managers. This received the
maximum rating and hence everyone more or less agrees that the main role of HR is to ensure
proper and adequate staffing. Also the store managers feel that training the employees is a
more crucial, whereas the HR managers feel that performance management is more vital to
their job. Both the HR managers and the store managers agree that compensation and safety
are not of utmost priority. This may be because of Harrison Brothers being a departmental
store with less chances of any incident and a well-defined compensation policy. However,
stark differences exist in perception of business knowledge and as change managers. The
store managers feel that HR should drive the change as in line with the company’s current
business strategy.
5. Given the organizations size and strategic goals, evaluate the development of the human
resource function at Harrison Brothers. What problems do you see? How could its major
human resource functions be improved?
Given the size of organisation, the HR department seems to be understaffed and overworked
most of the time. With the CEO’s new business strategy there is an enhanced focus on Human
resources. Earlier the human resource was not playing a key role in the organisation. The
operations manager also experienced problems with the human resource unit when they
were not able to recommend decisive action on immediate human resource problems. These
problems were attributed to the operations manager having to perform a dual task of
handling operations and human resource functions and the heightened employee
disillusionment expressed in the high turnover rate. The company recognized the need to
boost its human resource unit to support its strategic goals. Hence once Brenda took over,
major functions such as staffing, training and disciplinary actions were being looked after by
Human resource department. However, the changes made in human resources management
are not sufficient to fully support the company’s strategic goals. Brenda herself felt that the
employee career development assessment remain as problem areas.
The human resource management unit should enhance the assumption of its role as a
key player in the organisation to help achieve the strategic goals of the company. It starts with
identification of human resource issues of the company, the determination of the best
possible solution to these issues through coordination with the other work units. In achieving
the goal of improving the sales performance of personnel, human resource activities have to
improve staffing, training and motivation policies to attract qualified personnel to remain and
contribute their knowledge. It also has to develop good relations with the managers of the
other working units through communication. It also has to organise and streamline all its
activities to include all important functions, particularly employee career development
assessment and policy innovations. Also the human resource department needs to be
adequately staffed so that Brenda and team could off load some of its duties and focus on
other new policies.

6. In light of the existing trends affecting businesses in general and HR in particular, what
changes would you suggest in the functioning of the human resource department?
To start with the human resource department needs to be adequately staffed so that Brenda
and team could off load some of its duties and focus on other new policies. Also Brenda had
new policies in mind but could not be implemented because of work overload. Also the store
managers had certain problems with HR department such as slow response which can be
improved by setting strict deadlines and proper Standard Operating procedures. It also has to
develop good relations with the managers of the other working units through
communication. It also has to organise and streamline all its activities to include all important
functions, particularly employee career development assessment and policy innovations.