The Sports Board Unlimited Progressive Case Study

The Sports Board Unlimited (fictitious)

Learning Objective(s):

The case is designed to help the student think through issues associated with developing
and sustaining an HR department to support a company facing multiple HR issues. The
student will be able to:
- Align HR initiatives with corporate strategy
- Develop initiatives to address the current external situation
- Develop a complete HR organization structure with roles and responsibilities and
then adjust the structure to support The Sports Board Unlimited
- Develop a basic staffing plan
- Develop a basic talent development plan
- Determine and support a pay and benefits plan
- Determine future HR requirements

Note: Students will need to draw on their experience and conduct research beyond their text.

Case Overview
You are hired as the HR Director for The Sports Board Unlimited (fictitious) which
manufactures and sells sporting equipment for the consumer market. Their products
include paddle boards (new through an acquisition), surf boards, wake boards, knee
boards, snow boards, skate boards, water skis, and snow skis. They sell through
distributors but are also developing a growing on-line presence so consumers can buy
direct.
The sporting goods industry is highly competitive and the company historically followed a
market penetration strategy (using greater marketing efforts to increase market share in its
current markets). Now, they are looking to expand their products and just acquired a firm
making paddle boards. While continuing to improve current products and develop/acquire
new products to be a market leader (product development strategy), they emphasize
growth, innovation, and the development/modification of new products. To respond to the
competitive market and meet customer changing demands, they must be flexible, and have
a flat, and more decentralized organizational structure.
The Sports Board is located 45 miles from a more major metropolitan city with a couple
two-year colleges, a trade school and one university. Given their type of product portfolio,
they are close to a large inland lake. The current unemployment rate is 12.1%. The issue
of the pandemic is a major contributor to the area high unemployment rate. Even with the
pandemic, sales for most products remain strong as consumers use the outdoor sports as
a way to safely move beyond some restrictions.

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The owner and President is committed to keeping the organization local and more family
oriented. The Sports Board has either mainly hired friends or promoted within, many of
which are unskilled workers and not trained for their positions. However the situation is
changing. As the infection rate rises, many employees are not able to come to work. For
production, working from home is not an option. This has resulted in the need to remake
the work environment to ensure safe working conditions. Also, as technology changes,
many workers need to develop new skills to support new production methods as well as
some managerial/administrative workers being able to work from home.

Several local companies including The Sports Board have experienced recent labor issues.
The racial demographic makeup of The Sports Board is 78% white, while the local labor
market population is approximately 41% minority. Promotions to management have been
based on seniority/tenure. There is a growing minority population that has not been
accepted into the community. The President and four managers are white males. The only
female supervisor works in the customer service department. All other management
positions are filled by white males. Lately, The Sports Board has been hiring more
millennials resulting in three generations (millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers) with
differing values and motivators. This has resulted in communication issues, conflict
between the employees of different generations and between management and these
employees. This has resulted in lower job satisfaction, productivity and increased turnover
even in these demanding times. To add to this, The Sports Board only offers the legally
required benefits, which millennials feel is inadequate.

Given the current situation, production workers are demanding premium pay and safer
working conditions based on their fear of contracting COVID 19.

The Sports Board currently employs 241 employees, not including HR but does include
employees from the acquisition. Prior to the acquisition the workforce totaled 176. Due to
increased product demand and the addition of some new products, output needs to be
increased by 37%. New product development must be accelerated to maintain a
competitive advantage. Marketing (including new product development) and Sales
continues to sell products to an expanding market, but the effort has been mostly through
sales professionals. All of the employees in manufacturing (including quality control),
customer service, and operations (responsible for shipping and receiving – distribution,
including raw materials, components parts and finished goods inventory; and maintenance
and cleaning) have a minimum of a high school education or GED. Some skills training
courses are provided by the company. Refer to the organizational chart (Figure 1) for more
details.

The recent acquisition has resulted in some duplication of functions, most notably in the
areas of HR, accounting/finance, marketing and production. While some individuals and
their skills would need to be retained, the redundancy needs to be addressed. In addition,
the sale of knee boards has plummeted as consumer interests have shifted resulting in the
dropping of this product.

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Part One: Designing the HR Department

A. Explain the concepts of organizing and organization design. Develop a complete HR

department, indicating each HR unit. For each HR unit, provide typical
roles/responsibilities and job titles. Provide a typical organization chart of a typical HR
department, not for The Sports Board.
B. Given the size of The Sports Board, indicate which jobs you would combine to reduce
the number of employees in HR. Provide new job titles and organization chart for The
Sports Board HR department. Given this change, indicate the total number of staff for
each HR area.
C. Indicate what HR practices are required to support the corporate strategies.
D. Given the recent acquisition, which jobs will you retain? Which jobs will you eliminate
due to redundancy? What criteria will you use to determine who will be terminated?
E. Prepare a 15 minute presentation including discussion on your HR organization for The
Sports Board

Part Two: Developing the Talent Acquisition and Retention Plan

A. Recruitment and retention plan. Given the increase in demand, how many people will
you need to hire and in what functional areas (manufacturing, operations, customer
service, marketing and sales, finance/accounting, and HR).
B. Indicate your rationale for the hiring in each area. Consider turnover. Identify factors
that could be causing turnover. Identify the costs of turnover.
C. Indicate the type of interviews you would conduct and why.
D. Develop strategies to recruit the appropriate applicants, including sources and tools
for recruiting and selection. What is the role of social media in recruiting? Identify
possible areas and types of discrimination in the acquisition process. What steps
would you take to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce (management and
staff)?
E. What can you do to retain current employees? What are the benefits of retention?
F. How will you assess the effectiveness of your recruiting efforts?
G. Given the current situation, what actions will you take to ensure a safe work
environment?
H. Prepare a 15 minute presentation including discussion.

Part Three: Developing a HRD plan

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The Sports Board Unlimited Progressive Case Study
A. Develop a human resource development (HRD) plan. The Sports Board does not
have a formal training program. Given their current situation and the fact that
promotions were due to seniority, your plan should address the needs of:
1. New employees
2. Current employees (for current and future jobs according to any career path)
3. Management group (supervisors and managers)
4. Specifically, how will you address the generational issues?
5. How will the working from home and remote management skills be
addressed?

B. Address the following in your training design process in your paper:

1. Identify the difference between training and learning and
development. How will each be met?
2. Needs assessment: How will you conduct a needs assessment
(method and instruments)?
3. How will the training content be developed or secured?’
4. How will the training be delivered (classroom, intra-net, blended,
self-study, etc) and by whom (internal, external)? What is your rationale for your
decision? Explain your criteria for making your decisions.
5. How (process and instruments) will you evaluate the
effectiveness of your program at all four levels?
C. Prepare a 15 minute presentation including discussion.

Part Four: Developing a Compensation Plan

A. Develop a progressive (more current, appealing, or advanced) yet competitive (as it
relates to other companies seeking to hire employees) compensation (pay and benefits)
plan to address the employee issues and make the company more competitive to
support recruiting and retention. Traditionally, The Sports Board has paid only minimum
wage and the legally required benefits. Consider the following:

1. Your position relative to other companies. Will you meet, lead, or lag the local
market? Will this be the same for all positions? What is our rationale?
2. Identify alternative pay methods and indicate some advantages/disadvantages of
each.
3. What benefits will you offer, including those legally required? What are the costs
of those benefits? What is the rationale for offering those benefits?
4. Outline a communication plan taking into consideration the various audiences
that must be informed.

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5. Given the current situation will you pay a premium for essential workers? If so,
how much and for how long?

B. Prepare a 15 minute presentation explaining your compensation plan.

Part Five: Developing the HR Forecast

A. Develop a three-year forecast (prediction of the future) using the following assumptions:
1. Labor supply/demand becomes more rigorous (that is, demand
increases and supply remains the same or shrinks) and labor costs are increasing.
2. The Sports Board is expanding production and into other
markets, how will this staffing need be met?
3. Demand for The Sports Board products continue to increase;
defects are increasing
4. The workforce is now more diverse, with the increase in hiring
minorities, millennials, and persons from a more alternative workforce
5. The President will be starting another company and wants a
replacement to manage the company while he takes on more of an overseeing role.
6. The company has decided to develop additional products
(diversification) to broaden its portfolio. There is not existing capacity nor do the
existing production lines meet the manufacturing requirements for the new products.
B. Prepare a 15 minute presentation including discussion.

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