BMA121 Managing People: HRM Strategies, Employee Selection & TLR Case

This assignment provides solutions to various questions related to Human Resource Management (HRM). It covers strategies for selecting graduate business students, alternative employee selection techniques using examples from Australian organizations, and methods to reduce the research-practice gap in employee selection, referencing 'The Last Resort' case study. The assignment also addresses training and development challenges, particularly for women and younger employees, and includes a memorandum example for a newly appointed manager. Furthermore, it discusses the positive contributions of mentoring strategies, designs a training and development strategy for the tourism area, and outlines HR strategies for employee retention. The assignment concludes with an examination of performance management, reward strategies for younger employees, and methods to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of reward management systems, all within the context of 'The Last Resort'.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Q. A Chief Executive Officer asks you to provide a specific strategy for selecting
graduate business students to work a professional service firm. Clearly describe the
strategy you would recommend to her.
A. The best way to attract and recruit business graduate students to working with a firm
is through intimate working with the students’ universities. Employers can form liaisons with
the universities in case they want to advertise any vacancy through various career forums and
academic departments that are active in the university. In the present context of the scenario
mentioned above, it is advised that the employers form a good professional relationship with
the universities. The first step in this regard is to start career-counseling programs in the
university followed by internship programs with the university students. The internship
programs would allow the employers to gauge the potential of the students and then
determine if they can be given a permanent place in the firm and select accordingly.
Q. If selection interviews are not well conducted, they can have low validity in
predicting job performance. Using two Australian organisations (one large and one a
SME) as examples, provide arguments to support the use of alternative selection
techniques.
A. There are many alternative selection techniques that have emerged over the years
apart from the traditional ones. Telstra is one of the largest telecommunications industry of
Australia. Apart from the traditional selection techniques, Telstra make use of psychometric
tests that helps the employers to assess the applicants’ aptitude and IQ as well as determine
the personality of the applicants (Jepsen, Knox and Townsend 2015). The Telstra use of the
Revelian test has helped the company to select better efficient employees for the firm. On the
other hand, Capricorn Society, a small scale enterprise of Australia follows the traditional
selection techniques of short-listing resumes and then conducting interviews. This technique

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has proved to be less effective for the company emphasizing on the need for the application
of alternative techniques of selection.
Q. What could be done to reduce the research-practice gap in the area of employee
selection? Provide practical examples (you may use The Last Resort to do this).
A. First and foremost, one must upgrade the technologies used in the employee selection.
With the emergence of a digital age, it has become very important to acquire a diverse culture
of employees. This can be done through video interviews and through other technological
resources. Moreover, the criteria and preference for applicants to be considered should
mentioned in a more clear manner as can be seen with The Last Resort. The Last Resort
mentions clearly its criteria for applicants and the desires that can incline the employers
towards the applicants.
Q. Describe the training and development challenges for The Last Resort. In particular
provide methods that could facilitate improved opportunities for women and younger
employees.
A. The main challenges that The Last Resort faces in sphere of training and development
are the maintenance of a cost-effective, integrated and strategic framework. Moreover, The
Last Resort needs to conduct more extensive research on the individual skills of the
employees. With regard to the women and the young employees of the organization, the
Human Resource (HR) must conduct weekly training programs to ensure the enhancement of
the skills. The women must be trained extensively in hospitality through training programs.
The young employees must be given training in order to understand and define the nature of
the organization. The young employees can be trained to enhance their skills in the
management of tourists.

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Q. Write a memorandum to a newly appointed manager in a medium sized organisation
(you may use The Last Resort) who has a technical qualification (but no qualifications
or experience in management or human resources) explaining why they should
participate in a training and development programme to improve their people
management skills.
A.
MEMORANDUM
To: Clark Harris (Sales Manager)
From: Joe Simons (HR Manager)
Date: August 24, 2018
Subject: Training and Development Program
There is a training and development program organized by the firm for the improvement of
the management skills of the employees. It is important that you participate in the program.
The training and development program will help you to learn the nature of the organization
and how it functions. It will help you acquire organizational skills that are essential for your
job role. The program will be beneficial for you as it would help you to improve and gain
skills for efficient management of the people of your team.
Kindly, consider the above and enroll for the training and development program.
Q. Explain to the General Manager of a medium to large organisation (you may use
The Last Resort) how a mentoring strategy could positively contribute to employee
engagement and the organisation's performance?

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A. A good and effective mentoring strategy helps the employees to settle with an
organization’s surroundings and acquire a good start to the employee experience. The
employees benefit on a large scale from individual guidance giving them perspectives about
the organization’s functions and operations. It familiarizes the employees with the
organization and also helps them to improve their skills. To state the case of The Last Resort,
proper mentoring in hospitality and in the skills of the chefs would help them to improve the
organizations’ performance since there has been a considerable decline in the performance of
the chef.
Q. You, as the HR manager of The Last Resort, have been asked to design a training
and development strategy for the tourism area. Explain the process you would use and
the main principles that would inform your approach?
A. The training and development strategy design in the sphere of the tourism would
include four essential paradigms. First, the program would include an orientation program for
the employees which would help the employees to identify with the organization and its
operational processes. This would help in the employee retention. Second, the program would
include a training program for the newly hired employees to train them in effective business
management skills. This would help in employee motivation as well as help increase the
organizational performance of the organization. Third, the program would include training in
particular skills of the employees which would enhance the individual skills of the
employees. Fourth, the program would involve training employees in technical skills as that
would help the employees to be motivated and to be efficient in using the advanced
technologies increasing the organizational performance.

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Q. Provide at least three HR strategies that would contribute to the appropriate
retention of professionally qualified employees. You may use The Last Resort as an
example.
A. Three HR strategies to enable employee retention include effective training and
development program, appreciation and acknowledgement of employee value, and effective
management of employee performance (Goetsch and Davis 2014). This can be understood
with respect to The Last Resort. The Last Resort has developed an efficient training and
development program for the employees that helps in employee motivation through the
enhancement of individual and professional skills. The Last Resort also has a plan for
recognizing and rewarding the employees and acknowledging their work. Recognizing the
efforts of the employees and rewarding them through promotions, upraises and such helps in
boosting up the confidence of the employees. The Last Resort also maintains a good
performance management framework through setting of targets, goals and objectives.
Effective communication is also an important way to gain efficient performance
management. All the stated strategies helps in motivating the employees that ensure positive
employee experience which leads to employee retention.
Q. As the HR manager of The Last Resort, you have been asked to design a
performance management approach for supervisory and managerial staff. What factors
would you consider, and what are the main principles that should be used to develop the
approach?
A. The main factors that should be kept in mind while designing an effective
performance management system are effective communication, transparency, simplicity,
practicality, employee participation and objectivity. The performance management principles
requires objectivity, setting of smart goals, assessment of competencies when evaluating

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employees according to their job role and to evaluate and employee on the basis of their
overall contribution towards the organizational performance. Hence as the performance
management system a The Last Resort must be designed that has an objective and unbiased
approach towards the employees. The goals that are to be set should be smart and should be
communicated to the employees in a transparent and simple manner. Furthermore, the
employees must be evaluated according to their competencies and job role and also
encouraged to participate extensively in the organizations operations.
Q. It is argued that younger employees are more interested in a balance between work
and personal factors rather than just higher incomes. Outline the key elements of a
reward strategy for younger professional employees that would attract and retain them.
A. Reward strategy apart from higher incomes for younger professionals who desire a
balance between their work and personal life are as follows. First, the young employees could
be rewarded with flexible work hours of their choice given that it does not hamper the
production of the organization. Second, they can be allowed to work from home one day a
week. Third, they can be provided with family vacation vouchers. Fourth, a provision for a
day pass can be created that would allow them to take a day off work without being asked
any questions. All of the stated measures allows the young employees to find a balance
between their personal and professional life and therefore, will help in motivating them
enabling their retention within the organization.
Q. Why do managers and employees dislike performance reviews? What practical
initiatives could be implemented that would encourage people to look forward to
performance reviews. You may use The Last Resort to illustrate your points.
A. Managers and employees strongly dislike performance reviews. This is because
employees often get de-motivated due to negative feedbacks and other issues like biasness in

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ratings, errors in ratings, hypocrisy of the management, informal and poor communication
regarding feedbacks, mismatch with self-appraisals, and lack proper ethics in the appraisal
standards. Similarly, managers dread performance appraisals since it seems like extra work
and more significantly can often cause dissatisfaction, disturbance and chaos among
employees. Therefore, to improve the performance appraisal systems certain things has to be
improved. There must better clarity and transparence throughout the process. Furthermore,
keeping in mind strategies taken by The Last Resort, there must be channels or provisions to
skillfully deal with complaints or any conflicts that emerge among the employees regarding
the performance review systems. That is to say, there must be systematic, simple and clear
procedure when it comes to performance appraisal.
Q. How would you, as HR Manager for The Last Resort, evaluate the effectiveness of
people management in the organisation?
A. As the HR Manager of The Last Resort, the effectiveness of the people management
can be evaluated by conducting an online survey through an online feedback channels for the
employees it can also be done by carrying out face-to-face interviews with the employees to
ensure a better and more personal approach in understanding the issues of the employees.
These steps would help in the better understanding of the people management process and in
the identification of the problems underlying the system and mitigating them.
Q. How could an organisation such as The Last Resort evaluate if its approach to
reward management is fair and cost-effective?
A. The fairness and the cost-effectiveness of the reward system at The Last Resort can
be evaluated by the analyzing the extent to which it is able to motivate the employees and the
extent of expenditure required for that. Employee feedbacks should be taken on the extent of
their satisfaction in their recognition and appreciation and audits should be done to identify

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extra expenditure in the field of rewarding the employees .This can be done by creating
reward systems on a team level rather than on the individual level. This would ensure
effective teamwork and employee motivation in a system that is cost-effective.
Q. As the HR manager of The Last Resort you are concerned about an increase in
stress-related health problems being reported by staff. Outline a process that you could
undertake to identify major organisational stressors which may be contributing to
employees' experiences of job stress. What organisational and individual techniques
could be recommended to reduce job stress within the organisation?
A. In order to identify the major factors that are causing stress-related health problems
among the employees of The Last Resort, the HR manager must observe employees carefully
in order to identify a pattern related to the stress problems. The employees must be
encouraged to place in front their issues whenever they are stressed out due to any reason in
the work sector. They must be allowed to effectively communicate their stress related issues
in order to identify the major factors that lead to stress among the employees. Job stress can
be reduced in multiple ways. Arrangement of recreational programs like office parties, office
outings, and the presence of recreational provisions like the indoor games can reduce job
stress. A massage therapist can be appointed to reduce the job stress among the employees in
the office hours. There can also be an in house counselor to enable the employees
communicate and deal with their stress-related issues.

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References
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Jepsen, D., Knox-Haly, M. and Townsend, D., 2015. Recruitment practices in Australia: A
review and comparative research agenda. Employment Relations Record, 15(2), p.5.