Case Study Scenario:

This is a case study about Human Resources Management challenges faced by a retail organization. Each team is recommended to analyze the scenario and
proposed an appropriate HRM solution(s) to meet these challenges.   About The Organization
AZ Inc is one of the largest retail store chains in the world. At present, they have about 50 retail stores in Malaysia and planning to expand to 150 stores in the
next 36 months.  The chain has a centralized Human Resource Department located in its main office in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, although the HR
processes are managed centrally, there are many HR tasks, policies and procedures that are controlled by the retail store managers or by the regional offices in
each state. Currently, the HR management processes are using Excel spreadsheet to compile reports from various regional offices and stores. This task is being
performed by a team of HR executives at its main office in Kuala Lumpur.

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

Human Resource Management (HRM 501) Assignment Challenges Faced By AZ Inc As a senior HR Manager of AZ Inc, you have discovered various
administrative and HR issues with the retail store sites. Due to high focus on sales revenue and stores profitability, Retail Store Managers have difficulties in
managing the stores in the areas of staff attendance, discipline and critical HR practices.  A team of HR internal auditors has conducted a study and identified 3
major areas with issues that need to be addressed and take immediate actions in the next 3 months. They are:

Challenge 1:
It was reported that are irregularities in the staff attendance data both at the retail stores and regional offices. Sometimes many of the staff did not sign the
attendance register or signed intermittently. During HR audits it was found that some staff signed the attendance register only at the end of the day. Further,
sometimes staff signed the register and then left their post. There was also no mechanism to track the leave data of employees. Employees did not know their
exact leave data. At the end of the year it was revealed that some employees have taken excess leave while some employees worked incessantly, creating
frustration among staff.

Challenge 2:
The HR audit team has found discrepancy in the HR reports as there was no standardization in the reports between head office, regional offices and the retail
stores. HR provided a set of excel sheets and paper-based forms to help store managers maintain data. However, many store managers used and made unique
formats of reports making it difficult to collate the reports. The data thus collated had to be verified over again and again, as there was a tendency for errors to
crop up.

This discrepancy has caused a bigger issue in salary discrepancy. HR and attendance data were used to generate data for payroll. As there were many
discrepancies in HR data and reports, this created several salary discrepancies and caused numerous issues among the employees, thus lowering employee
satisfaction rate and affecting the employee morale.

Challenge 3:
Training and communication have become a big issue at AZ Inc. As the company was growing at a fast pace, training employees on various HR procedures and
policies was becoming increasingly difficult. Thus employees took decisions based on their previous experience or personal insights and created unnecessary
hassles that required HR intervention

Individual Task
1. Analyze the scenario and the challenges that AZ Inc faced. What are the issues facing the firm?
2. Propose appropriate HRM solution(s) to meet these challenges to eliminate the major issues at stake.
The above challenges affected critical business metrics like availability of staff at the stores, customer service, professionalism, and financial. Use all or some of
these metrics as a guideline to your proposal.

Scenario:

You are a specialized advising team from the highly successful Human Resource Consultancy Company known as “On-Target Consulting”. A new technology
company (Bytes Electronics) is preparing to open its Australian operations and the National HR Manager wishes to obtain your advice on how the company
should structure its HR operations.
After some initial conversations with the General Manager of Bytes Electronics (Ms Cutter) your team walked away very concerned as she indicated to you that
Bytes Electronics is “In the business of making computer componentry not making everyone feel good about themselves. They can go to the gym for that. In my
experience of managing a workforce, all you get is conflict so why bother trying to change things. I’m sure the Australian government has laws in place that
reflect my way of thinking”.
After reflecting on Ms Cutter’s comments, your team has concluded you will need to remind Ms Cutter of the strategic role that HR can play within an
organization as well as the importance of understanding HR within the environmental and legal context that Bytes Electronic will be operating in Australia.

As a result you need to prepare a report that answers the following:

1. What is the role of Human Resource Management within modern day organizations? What advantages does HRM provide?
2. Explain to Ms Cutter the different ways in which organizations can view the relationship between Organizations/Capital and Workers/Labor. In considering
this issue, you will need to consider whether HRM operates within a particular framework. You will need to then explain how these different theoretical lenses
might shape the role that HRM has within different organizations.
3. Comment on the legal context that influences HR operations within Australia. Your discussion should include the following:
      • What approach have legislators taken to regulating work in Australia?
      • Do the provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) reflect the comments made by Ms Cutter?
      • What are the various interests and issues that the Australian Government is attempting to balance with its laws? (E.g. regulation of collective bargaining,
work standards, unfair dismissal regime)
4. After considering these issues make recommendations on how Ms Cutter establishes the HR function within her organization to ensure the long-term success
of her organization.

Knowing that Ms Cutter is a seasoned practitioner, you are acutely aware of the importance of justifying your work with academic material in order to convince
her of the legitimacy of your arguments. The CEO of On-Target Consulting, a fellow named Troy, has made it known that any report that merely summarizes
literature rather than engaging in a process of critical evaluation will not be looked upon favorably when performance management review time rolls around!

Summary

The scenario is about Bytes Electronics. Bytes Electronics is planning to take the advice of HR manager in constituting the new HR policy for the company. The
company wants the HR policy in line with the company’s strategy, so that the human resources are more aligned with the company and thus ensuring their
efficiency.