Human Resource Management Case Study: Analysis of HS Furniture Co.

This case study provides a comprehensive analysis of the human resource challenges faced by HS Furniture Co., a small company nearing bankruptcy. It identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats through a SWOT analysis, highlighting issues such as lack of strategic planning, inexperienced leadership, and employee retention problems. The study examines the roles of an HR manager, recruitment and selection processes, and recommends changes to improve HR practices, including emphasizing employee training, implementing performance appraisal systems, and establishing an independent HR department. The document is contributed by a student and available on Desklib, which offers a variety of study tools and solved assignments for students.

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HR MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY
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Q1. SWOT Analysis on HS Furniture Co.
The HS Furniture Co. is a small company facing bankruptcy. Before this financial
misfortune, the organization was characterized by the following strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats.
Strengths
 The company had a lot of return customers. This is evidenced by the fact that it was the
leading furniture business in the area. This also means that they are offering the best
customer service which is a direct reflection to their sales hence the leading furture
business in the area.
 Customer satisfaction is another strength for this organization. It served the local market
well because of its ability to adapt to new trends. The firm also incorporated innovative
designs to come up with compact and assembled furniture that met all customer demands.
 Good employee-manager relationship (Truss, Mankin and Kelliher, 2012). This creates a
conducive working environment that ensures business success. A manager who supports
and empathizes with its employees will definitely motivate and encourage them to give
their best at work. Good employee manager relationship also saves costs in hiring new
employees every other time and also gives the company a good public relations to the
public.

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Weaknesses
 Lack of a strategic plan. The perception that having a strategic plan or formal HR policies
would make the business inflexible limits the organization because of the insufficient HR
functions which are critical to any modern business.
 Inexperienced Leadership. Experienced company managers know the importance of HR
department in an organization (Armstrong, 2013).
 Lack of goal setting for employees. Employees should have specific objectives that
would translate to company goals. Lack of these goals fails to give the company a sense
of direction. Once the management don’t set up limits to where and what they expect
from their employees, a lot seems to get lost in terms of company resources.
 Lack of performance appraisal or performance management system. This is necessary for
monitoring and evaluating employee performance. Employees feel very motivated when
they are appraised every once in a while. Appraisals motivates and makes employees feel
important to the company and thus bring their best to work.
Opportunities
 Taking advantage of technological development. Everyone has a phone that has internet
with that in mind the company should take advantage. Social media can be used for
marketing, networking, and also customer feedback. It plays a major role in the company
as its easier to get feedback, both positive and ngative. The social media helps in
identifying customer needs especially in the constant change in consumer demand.
 Company’s strong market position is an opportunity for the business to grow.

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 Joint Business venture. This was an opportunity for HS Furniture Co. to expand to
international markets such as Indonesia.
Threats
 Competitors. The company faced stiff competition from other furniture companies that
incorporated latest technology and had cheaper products.
 Debts. The numerous debts owed by the company threatens its survival. Bankruptcy is
inevitable with many credit industries demanding payment of their loans.
Q2. The HR Problems facing HS Furniture Co.
Many Human Resource departments in organizations face a number of problems either in
running the unit or enforcing the policies. HS Furniture Co. is no exception. Some of issues
faced by the firm are discussed in this section. One of the primary problem is employee retention
issues. Most people perceive that the primary goal of HR is to look for new talents. This is not
entirely true because most of the activities of the department involves retaining the already
trained workers (Leonard, 2018). HS Furniture Co. faced this problem when its workers
contemplated termination of their contracts and as a result went on a strike. The ultimate result
would be to train more workers which would cost a lot of money.
Another problem is in the recruitment function of the HR department. Selecting and
employing the best qualified personnel was a big issue for the HS Furniture Co. The organization
could not get the appropriate professionals for the vacant positions that were available in the
Darwin Office. The Human Resource therefore, ended up hiring university graduates for all the
11 positions. This decision was influenced by the weak labour market in the region. It ended up

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costing the organization a great deal because of the employee’s inexperience despite their high
salaries (David, 2018).
Another critical HR issue faced by HS Furniture Co. was on employee training. Training
new workers on their job requirements and expectations is imperative. However, Jane, the head
of HR, left the new recruits on their own because of her confidence in their skill set. At first, the
office worked out fine, but it later ran into major financial problems.
Q3. Roles of HR Manager
The case study addresses the four primary roles of a HR manager: strategic
partner/contributor, administrative expert, employee advocate and change agent. As a strategic
contributor, the HR manager of HS Furniture Co. fails to plan for his functions claiming that a
strategic plan would make the firm inflexible. Similarly, lack of employee goal setting led to lack
of responsibility and accountability in the organization. These cases prove this role of a HR
manager. As an administrative expert, Jane was required to be in charge of the new recruits and
oversee their training. however, she let them figure out their jobs themselves. As an employee
advocate, she was responsible for paying the high salaries to her subordinates. Finally, as a
change agent, she was responsible for taking disciplinary measures to those workers who went
against the company policies. She fired the worker who violated the internet surfing policy.
These cases result in policy changes in the firm.
Q4. The Nature of Recruitment, Selection, Orientation etcetera.
Recruitment and selection is a process of attracting, screening through interviews and
selecting qualified candidates for a position while incorporating employment equity principles
and practices. The primary purpose of selection is to enable the team doing the hiring to apply

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the best practices of recruitment. Poor selection processes and procedures causes the
organization to incur unnecessary costs. Recruitment and selection practices are guided mostly
by the changing nature of corporate structures, production strategies, and international Human
Resources Management policy orientation.
The process of recruitment and selection, training, development and performance
management is critical towards job satisfaction. The recruitment and selection procedure of
based on employee’s personality and explicit job requirement is an archaic strategy that used by
HS Furniture Co. This method has proven to be unreliable because it overlooks some of the
critical areas of considerations such as experience and professionalism. On the other hand, an
unreliable method of assuming that employees will carry out what they are supposed to without
proper training was used by the HR manager of HS Furniture Co. Special training is key
especially for vital departments like the finance and accounting. In addition, Schein (2010) the
job analysis procedure needed to clearly state the process of performance evaluation and
appraisal.
However, the procedure for recruitment and selection, training, development and
performance management used by HS Furniture Co. were effective to some extent. Recruiting
and selecting workers based on their attitudes ensures that the employees can relate well with
their managers, customers and other colleagues. This creates a good working environment. This
explains why the employees of HS Furniture Co. were friendly to each other and their immediate
community (Dhar, 2008). Conversely, failure to train new employees and conduct a performance
appraisal or management process is an ineffective way of running an organization. It reduces
accountability and responsibility of the workers. The consequences of lack of performance
appraisal was the employee’s strike that really hurt the business.

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Q5. Recommended Changes in the HR of HS Furniture Co.
As a HR consultant, I would change the nature of recruitment and selection of HS
Furniture Co. from that based on employee’s personality and explicit job requirement to include
consideration of a worker’s experience and professionalism. I would emphasize on training of
new employees by recommending additional investments on training programs. I would also
implement performance appraisal and management strategies such as rewards and bonuses to
excellent workers to encourage them and others to work hard (Battaglio, n.d.). Having incentives
motivates human beings to improve their job performance. Another important change would be
to ask the company executives to implement an independent human resource department to
handle the recruitment, selection, training, payment of workers, and employee contracts among
others. Explaining the benefits of an HR department would be key to seeing this proposal
through.

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References
Battaglio, R. (n.d.). Public human resource management.
Dhar, R. (2008). Strategic human resource management. New Delhi, India: Excel Books.
David J. W (2015) Employment Law for Human Resources Practice. CENGAGE Learning
Leonard K. (2018). Human Resources Management Strategies. Personal Management. GRIN
Publishing.
P. G.Aquinas (2009) Human Resources Management – Principles and Practices. Vishal Printer,
New Delhi
Schein, E. (2010). Organizational Culture and Leadership. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Truss, C., Mankin, D. and Kelliher, C. (2012). Strategic human resource management. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.