Assessment Purpose

The primary purpose of this assessment is for students to develop skills in applying HRM frameworks and models to analyse a workplace case study that is experiencing competitive challenges influencing the role of HR. The assessment requires you to analyse the case study and respond to the case study discussion questions.

The secondary purpose of this assessment is to give students the opportunity to enhance their research, analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of argument development and report writing.

Before starting this assessment, please read the assessment rubric (at the end of this document) and refer to Academic Learning Centre and CQU Library Help pages for the guidelines regarding writing academic reports. You should always check the course website for course-specific instructions, which may be updated continuously.

Assessment Task

This assessment requires you to identify and discuss HR planning and recruitment in a particular sector of the labour market.

Select an industry (or specific organisation) as the case study for your report. Identify some of the key challenges for planning and recruiting the workforce for this industry. Your report should draw on material from Weeks 1-5, and make reference to factors such as HR strategies of the sector, the HR Planning challenges for the sector (such as labour supply and demand, demographic issues such as ageing workforces and diversity),and the recruitment strategies and challenges for the sector (such as where the sector gets recruits, sourcing from internal or external labour markets, employer branding etc.

Students are expected to engage in extensive research within the academic literature to develop an argument with appropriate theoretical discussion and references. You must cite at least ten relevant peer reviewed journal articles. You can cite other academic references such as books, conference papers, and book chapters but these will NOT be counted as part of the ten journal articles.

Report format

Title page: It contains the name of the report, who prepared the report, for whom the report was prepared, the nature of the report, the date the report was prepared.

Executive summary (ideally be approx. 50-100 words): The executive summary is a one page (or less) statement of a report's purpose, findings and recommendations, enabling the reader to see the "big picture" without getting absorbed in technicalities.

Table of contents: List the page numbers for headings and sub headings of the report.

Introduction (approx. 200 words): The introduction consists of two or three paragraphs in which the aims, structure and methodology of the report are outlined. It states clearly the purpose or main task of the report and what the reader can expect. Please include a thesis statement that clearly mentions the main purpose of the report and your argument.

Body of report with Headings and Subheadings (ideally approx. 1300 words): The main body of the report should be structured into logical sections by topic, using headings to organise arguments and evidence.

Conclusion (ideally be approx. 150 words): The conclusion is a brief section in which the writer analyses the significance of the report's findings and reiterates the main points of the report. These findings must derive logically from material presented in the report. A generalisation is then drawn from the specific findings of the research. New information is not included in the conclusion.

References: A Reference List is a listing of all external resources that were consulted and mentioned during research for the report, and information from which is directly referred to in the text of the report. It is strongly recommended to avoid secondary referencing in assessments. Read the references before mentioning in reference list.

APA referencing.