Human Resource Management Report: TK Ceramics, Indonesia Expansion

This report analyzes the human resource management practices of TK Ceramics, a company specializing in ceramic bricks. The report examines the company's expansion into the Indonesian market and the implications for its HRM strategies. It discusses the importance of incorporating smooth processes within the organization, including training and development, and counseling. The report also delves into the advantages and disadvantages of hiring existing employees for the new brand, the creation of job descriptions for various roles, and the essential skills required by sales representatives. The analysis highlights the need for market research, suitable sales personnel, and effective communication to achieve the company's goals. The report also covers the importance of product knowledge, effective communication, closing skills, and post-purchase relationships for sales representatives. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the HRM challenges and opportunities associated with TK Ceramics' expansion.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Incorporating smooth processes in the organisation..................................................................2
Advantages and disadvantages of hiring existing employees....................................................4
Creation of job descriptions.......................................................................................................5
Skills of the Sales Representatives.............................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
TK Ceramics is a small-scale company that operates in the Australian Market. The
company supplies ceramic bricks to the market that they operate in. Unlike traditional forms
of distribution of the items of such nature, the company does not offer their tiles for sale
through retail outlets. Instead, the company offers its product to the market through whole
sellers. The ceramic bricks are outsourced from Europe, especially Italy as one of the owners,
Tim Bortolli, had close affinity with the latter. The company employ around 70 staff. The
management of the company have been organising meetings and sessions in order to evaluate
and discuss the new expansions plan. While one of the founders and owners of the company
was touring in the country of Indonesia, she discovered a small business in the region which
produced similar ceramic bricks in the market of Indonesia. Thus, it was decided that that the
company would extend their supply chain to the Indonesian market.
Incorporating smooth processes in the organisation
The efficiency of the employees who are internally facing and facing the customer
facing helps shaping the nature of operation of a company (Punjaisri and Wilson 2017). Thus,
while establishing the new brand for the tiles sourced from Indonesia, the management of the
company would have to ensure that they incorporate the following processes within the
organisation. The way of boosting the or redesigning the internal facing jobs within the
company can be incorporated by carrying out the following;
Training and development
The main aim of training and development of employees is to boost their competency
in performing the tasks that they have been hired to perform in the organisation (Cohen
2017). The employees who were already associated with the company before the
establishment of the brand in Indonesia have to be trained in accordance to the needs that

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operations in the new brand would demand. Since operations would be somewhat different as
a result of establishment of a completely different division, the employee who will be
transferred to new division will require training in terms of their roles and responsibilities in
the organisation.
Counselling
Counselling session would involve the educating the employees about the aims and
goals of the organisation (Pearce 2014). This will help the employees in directing their efforts
to the actual needs of the organisation. This is the reason behind which internal counselling
processes are necessary for improving the competency of the functional division of the newly
established brand.
Reduction of manufacturing cost
The are operational costs that are associated with the operations of the functional
division of the newly established department of the company. However, the materials that
will be sourced from Indonesia would result in reduction of the cost that would reduce the
ultimate cost of production of the ceramic tile supplied by the company.
In order to boost the efficacy of the customer facing jobs, the management of the
company should include the following policies:
Market Research
Carrying out market research helps companies in identifying the trends of the market
(Zikmund et al. 2013). Furthermore, the company and the employees gain awareness about
the behaviour of the customers in the market. Thus, market research should be built in to the
customer facing jobs.
Hiring suitable sales personnel

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While recruiting clients for the vacancies in roles that are related to the customer
facing job, the effectiveness of the same would come into consideration (Hawkins 2016).
Hiring suitable personnel would ensure that the sales personnel will be effective in
influencing and persuading according to the strategies of the company. This would help in
realisation of the managerial goals of increasing the turnover of the company.
Advantages and disadvantages of hiring existing employees
Following are the advantages of hiring existing employee in the newly formulated brand;
 Hiring existing employees ensure that the organisation is able to save time that the
organisation would have otherwise invested in recruiting and hiring new employee in
the organisation (Noe et al. 2017). The employees who would be allocated to newly
formulated divisions already possess knowledge about the job and thus could sink in
to the culture effectively
 Cost: Hiring employees internally would reduce the expenses that the organisation
will be subject to (Porter and Kramer 2019). Thus, organisation look to fulfil
organisational requirement from within the existing pool of employees.
 Contributes to engagement of the employees: Delegating employees in different
wings of the organisation come with different benefits for the employees. It can result
in pay raise and other benefits. Furthermore, the employees get informed about the
level of trust of the management. It leads to engaged employees and gets them
committed to the organisation (Yalabik et al. 2015).
Following are the disadvantages of hiring existing employees:
 Void in the workforce: Hiring employee from other divisions of the company would
result in creation of void in the division from which the employee was hired in.

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 Opportunity loss: In every industry there are existing pool of clients who have the
capability of performing effectively in companies (Kumar, Dass and Topaloglu 2014).
By recruiting members from within the organisation, the organisation experiences loss
of opportunity in terms of capitalising on the efficient and employable people who are
available for the utilisation of the company.
 Unfavourable organisational culture: The culture within an organisation can get
hampered as a result of constant transfer of workforce from one department or
division to the other. The employees of the company would need time to adjust into
the working culture of the departments that they are assigned in (Zacher and Gielnik
2014). Furthermore, the employee would also need to adjust to the new team
members. Thus, it could be time consuming and could lead to functional
impediments.
Hence, it can be said that hiring employees from the existing pool of employees can
turn out to be helpful for the organisation in terms of minimising the cost associated with
hiring new employee and as a result of the possibility of employee engagement. However,
it has been identified that it could lead to negative implications such as opportunity loss in
terms of hiring highly competent employees. Negative implications could hinder the
smooth operation in terms of culture of the organisation.
Creation of job descriptions
As a result of the motive of expansion of the company the management of the company
have decided to collaborate with suppliers from Indonesia. A possible problem related to
grading of the ceramic tile has been identified. The tiles that the company used to source
from Italy were already graded and thus, the company did not have to grade and check the
quality of the products that they were offering for sale in the market. However, gaining

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association with Indonesian suppliers has resulted in unfavourable implications from the
part of the company. It has been identified that the costs associated with engaging people
in quality and standard check of the products would result in allocation of costs as a result
of which the company would have to increase their expenditure. Furthermore, with the
motive of setting up an additional brand segment in the company has created the
requirement for human capital in the company. With creation of new segregations in a
company, the number of personnel required in such divisions also rises.
Following are the roles that have been created in the company;
 Personnel for quality check in Indonesia
 Human Resource team
 Marketing and sales teams.
For the personnel engaged to quality checking, the job description should state the
favourable factors that the employees would be subject to. Furthermore, the opportunity to
work outside Australia in a country such as Indonesia should be highlighted. The job
description would be to engage in quality check of the ceramic tiles produced in Jakarta.
Thus, the candidates would have to possess qualifications that assist them with the task.
For fulfilling roles in the human resources, the description of the job would be to hire
and manage Human capital in the newly formulated organisation. The candidates would have
to be educated about the requirement of the company and should also be educated about the
strategic objectives of the company. This would enable them to hire clients who have the
skills required to achieve the same goals.
The personnel who would be hired in the division of marketing and sales should also
be informed about the goals of the company. Communication is the key to achievement of
goals of the management. Thus, the personnel should have the ability to effectively

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communicate the motive of the company to the potential consumers. This helps in generation
of increased amount of turnover that the newly formulated brand would generate. The
responsibility of creation of the job description would depend on the efficacy of the existent
employees of the Human resource department of the company. Carrying out the same
successfully would ensure that the newly recruited employee would be able to successfully
contribute to the roles of the company that do not exist yet.
Skills of the Sales Representatives
The sales representatives who have been hired by the company must be adept in the
field that they have been hired in. Regardless of the fact that they are associated to sales in
the floor level or field, they must possess the following skills that help them in effectively
transforming the prospective clients into actual customers. Thus, the skills would be required
by the sales personnel can be categorised as follows;
i. Product Knowledge: The sales personnel are responsible for creation of a point where
the ownership of the product is transferred to the customer. Thus, they must possess
necessary knowledge about the product. This will help them in answering the doubts
of the potential consumers (Mariadoss et al. 2014).
ii. Effective communicator: One of the most important skills that a sales representative
should possess effective communication skills (Narendran and Narendranathan 2013).
The sales representative must be an effective communicator and must have the ability
to explain about the products to the consumers. Thus, communication would help in
creating a favourable relation of with the customers.
iii. Skill of closing: Regardless of the style of operations of the sales representatives, they
must posses the ability of strategic prospecting. They must have the skill in their
repertoire using which they will be able to transform prospective clients into actual

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clients. The sales reps must have the ability to motivate the potential customers
enough to make them arrive at the point of purchase. Generation of sales for the
company is the ultimate goal of the company. Thus, the latter should be able to
persuade the customer enough to close the deal.
iv. Post purchase relationships: Even if the duty of a sales rep is over when they are able
to close a deal, it is their responsibility to maintain favourable relations with the
customers after they have purchased a product of service (Faith and Agwu 2018).
This, helps in ensuring that the effective company and sales personnel relationships,
as a result of which the customers might gain loyalty to the company which would
help in sustaining the company in the long run.
The sales representative working on the field and the on the floor must possess similar
skills. However, the sales representatives who face customers directly rather than facing them
over phone have to possess skills of persuading them face to face (Wasserblat et al. 2014).
The field sales representatives, working of the filed must be aware of the locations where
prospective employees can be found. Furthermore, they should have the skill to commute
efficiently over different locations. A sales representative working on the field need not
possess such skill (Wasserblat et al. 2014).
Conclusion
TK Ceramic is a small-scale company operating in Australia by supplying ceramic
brick on a whole sale basis. They had discussed over their aim of expansion which was
realised when they were able to identify a possible supplier from Jakarta Indonesia. Thus,
they aim to formulate a different brand for increasing the sales of the ceramic bricks. Creation
of the latter resulted in creation of job vacancies which could be fulfilled by the existing

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employee which would have some favourable and some unfavourable implications. Further,
it has been identified that the creation of job descriptions will be important for the fulfilling
the roles in the new wing of the company. There will be a certain degree of involvement of
sales personnel in helping the company achieve its ultimate goal.

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REFERENCES
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