Assignment 2: LASA 1—Human Resource Planning

Writing Assignment

Review Juanita’s World Parts 1-5, which are found in the Weeks 1 and 2 lectures, and write a 5-7 page paper. Pretend you are Juanita and develop a human resource plan to share with your boss. Develop a scenario which analyzes and summarizes the current situation for the employer. You are to create details that make this scenario more realistic and support your response to the issues and questions presented below.

Your paper should include the following:

Evaluate the cultural issues that need to be addressed

Analyze the ethical considerations that apply

Describe the organization’s current hiring needs and projected hiring needs for the coming year

Develop a recruitment plan for fulfilling the company’s current and future hiring needs

Explain the plan the company should follow to manage employee performance

Identify at least 4 laws or regulations that apply to the company. Explain the actions Juanita’s company has to take to ensure they are conforming to the requirements of these identified laws and regulations.

Provide a recommendation for the organization on how they can motivate employees while adhering to the legal and regulatory requirement and maintain a safe and healthy work environment.

Write a 5 to 7-page paper in Word format. Use at least three resources to justify your responses. Apply current APA standards for writing style to your work.

Part 1:

Juanita is meeting with her new boss, Rich Ryblessi, the Director of Regional Services. Rich highlights his concerns in the following areas: analysis and design of work, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits, employee relations, personnel policies, compliance with laws, and strategies for supporting the mission.

At the end of the meeting Juanita returns to her office and reflects on the meeting. As best as she can determine, HR has typically been relegated to simply processing paperwork and counseling people who had questions about issues like health insurance and paychecks. And although Rich has identified many important areas for HR, Juanita senses that he really expects no more from her than he did of the previous HR Manager. However, Juanita believes she can and should contribute more to the mission and vision and can help Rich overcome a number of challenges.

Part 2:

Yesterday was a bit of a surprise for Juanita as she sensed a gap between what her boss said he wanted and what he conveyed as expectations and limits on her authority. It is now Day 2 and she is excited and ready to go with her early afternoon appointment with fundraising’s Director of Development.

As she is reviewing past reports on fundraising efforts and success a visitor stops in to see her. When Melissa, introduces herself Juanita finds that she is the previous HR Manager who left the organization about 3 months earlier. Juanita perceives this is an ideal time to glean what she can about challenges and opportunities. While speaking with Melissa, Juanita finds out who the real workers are and who just seems to be filling a spot. She learns that since resources are limited they have struggled to find qualified and committed personnel to fill numerous important positions. Juanita finds that the people do care…a lot…about the mission but hardly think beyond their current circumstances and most are discouraged with their perceived lack of impact on their community. When Juanita questions Melissa about why she left she finds that Melissa had aspired to have greater responsibility and make a bigger impact but felt limited in her role in this organization. In a way, this confirmed for Juanita that she would definitely have to speak with Rich sooner than later to be sure she understood her authority to do all she thought she was hired to do.

As she visits with Jackie, the Director of Development, she learns that the economy has had a negative impact on their historical donor base. Cash gifts are down and have been trending down for about 2 years. Gifts in kind, like food, are up but since it is perishable they must distribute it quickly or it must be thrown away. And, since gifts are down they have had to rely more heavily on volunteers. This means their drivers and those who distribute food are less consistent and reliable. This is beginning to impact their gifts from donors since they are finding out that much of what they are giving is being thrown away.

As Juanita sits in her office at the end of the day she feels she is beginning to understand the complexity of the issues. It seems she has limited authority over areas that most HR Managers have and that the lack of cash is negatively impacting their ability to hire and retain the right people. Since she cannot control the availability of cash she will have to come up with some innovative ways to better hire and retain the right people.