Managing People and Teams: Case Studies and Recommendations

This report presents three case studies focused on human resource management within a company setting. As a Senior HR Executive, the report emphasizes the importance of monitoring human aspects such as skill development, employee motivation, building effective teams, and handling crisis situations. The report follows a standard business report structure, beginning with an executive summary, table of contents, introduction, case studies, and a conclusion. The first case study examines performance management, employee motivation, and recommendations for the board, with an emphasis on transparency and communication. The second case study tackles organizational communication, particularly in geographically dispersed operations, and offers strategies to mitigate the impact of executive resignations. The third case study addresses a talent gap crisis, proposing a crisis management team based on Tuckman’s theory of team development, and provides recommendations for hiring practices and skill assessment. Each case study concludes with specific recommendations tailored to the nature and scale of the business, aiming to improve HR practices and organizational outcomes.

Running head: MANAGING PEOPLE AND TEAM
Managing People and Team
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Executive summary
This report contains three case studies that deal with handling human resources of a company. As
a Senior HR Executive it is very important to monitor all the human aspects that are related to
the organization. Skill development, motivation, building of teams and dealing with crisis
situations are some of the aspects that are being discussed in this report. The recommendations
that are supplied to the board at the end of each case study depend on the nature of the business
and the scale of the organization. The report follows the structure of a standard business report
style it begins with a table of contents which gives an idea to the reader about the structure that
has been followed then an introduction to the topic has been supplied. This is followed by the
case studies and a conclusion. The references that are used are supplied in the reference list.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Case one...........................................................................................................................................3
Initiative...........................................................................................................................................4
Recommendations to the board.......................................................................................................5
Case two:.........................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations to the board:......................................................................................................6
Case three.........................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................9
The format...................................................................................................................................9
Function of the team:.................................................................................................................10
Rewards.....................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference list:................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Human resource management deals with managing people who are associated with the
business organization. It does not only deal with hiring people it also deals with handling crisis
situations that deals with the people related to the organization. This report deals with three types
of case studies and accordingly recommendations have been stated.
Case one: The human resource of any organization plays the key role in growth development as
well as daily operation of the business hence the efficiency of the work force is very important
for a business organization. It helps the company achieve the goals and objectives. Hence Human
resources, has a significant place in the improvement of the productivity of the employees it is
also important because in a mining company health and safety of the employees is also very
crucial. Performance management is a way to access the efficiency of the resources of the
organization. Every company has its own method and procedure it follows to evaluate and
monitor the preference delivered by the employees. This may be dependent on the nature of the
work, nature of the business, scale of operation etc. Managing the performance of the employees
ensure that the resource is working on high efficiency level and the production of the employee
is optimum in terms of the circumstance and the capability of the person. Performance
management has various types of benefits for the organization: every company has aims and
objective and the performance management of the employees have a direct effect and impact on
keeping up with the alignment of goals that the company has set. Motivation on the other hand
depends on the intrinsic as well as extrinsic environment of the employees (Deci & Ryan, 2014).
Motivation is very important for an employee to ensure high productivity and performance hence
it is interrelated. Monitoring of the performance helps the resource to understand the sections he
or she has to improve because feedback is a significant part of performance management. It

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provides assistance to both the employer and employee in understanding the gaps in performance
as well as the gaps in the administration of the organization. There are several factors that affect
the motivation level o the employees, one of the important factor is the work culture and work
environment along with the transparency in performance evaluation. Most of the time the
feedback from performance management by the higher authorities reflects the increment and
monetary allowance that the employees receive, hence this directly impacts the motivation level
of the person who is being evaluated. Appreciations of performance is recognized and rewarded
only when performance management initiatives are taken and people will be motivated if they
find that their efforts are being recognized by the organization. In an organization motivation can
be of two types one is to perform and the other is to be in the job and both these aspects need to
be balanced by the management of the enterprise. According to the Herzberg's two-factor theory
of motivation there are two set of factors which causes satisfaction and there are factors that
stops dissatisfaction for a person towards working in an organization (Alshmemri et al., 2017).
Initiative
As a mining company there are many people who are working on the field, inspecting
and monitoring their performance, grievances and challenges is key to motivate as well as drive
the person to improve the work. As there are rotational staff in the organization the managing of
their performance should be weekly based by the immediate mentor or senior under whom a
person has been hired. Leave scheduled and hours of working are the two factors that will be
given maximum attention in order to evaluate the performance of the people who are working on
the field. To motivate the people the feedback from the immediate mentor in terms of
appreciation or bonus for people who are exceptional in their job.

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And for people who are permanent employee should e analyzed and sent a report of
productivity on a four months basis. This evaluation can be followed by an increment at the end
of the last quarter. The increment of the employees should depend on the performance that has
been evaluated by the seniors. The rate of increase in the salary will be directly dependent on the
productivity of the employee (Ashkanasy et al., 2016).
Recommendations to the board
 The board has to understand that the organization is operates on the basis of two types of
employees one is permanent and the other is temporary who work on a contractual basis,
the initiative that has been aforementioned has to implemented.
 There should be a transparency in the evaluation process in order to keep the terms and
conditions clear from the organization’s perspective.
 Meetings should be held with the managers and seniors along with the person who is
being evaluated to discuss aspect of the marking.
 Appreciations from the seniors and management acts as inspiration and drives a person to
be more efficient.

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Case two: Communication in an organization has a significant role to play in the development
and growth of the company in the industry. Especially for companies who have operation sites
located geographically away from the head quarters. For a mining company the daily operations
take place in the sites and on the field the people who work in the field are the ones who are
responsible for the developing the company. This communication should not only be with the
senior management level employees but also the people who work on the ground level. The
higher management of the organization should be well communicated with all the sites of
operation so as to understand the barriers in the process as well as monitor the efficiency and
performance of the employees (Kew & Stredwick, 2017). According to the Pestel analysis of the
organization is used to determine the external environment of the organization. The crisis that
has been discussed is all the factors that impact the organization and are not under the control of
the business. The issue in the case study deals with the political. In order to mitigate the situation
of executives leaving form site location the organization can be take a one on one motivational
and discussion session understanding the problems faced by the person and the company y
should try to come to a decision where both the organization as well as the employee id in a
situation of satisfaction. Since the employees concerned in this matter are higher level associates
the company should also understand that these people will not leave the company for small
grievances, the situation that has been discussed has serious threats associated with it. The
company can offer a change in the position or transfer to stop the person from resigning
(Thomas, 2013).
Recommendations to the board:
 To evaluate and analyze critically the situation and take steps accordingly

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 Before rejecting or accepting a resignation the higher management of the company
should have a face to face meeting with the employee
 Increment in terms of position, money as well as facilities can be offered to prevent the
employee from leaving the organization. The expertise and the performance rate of the
employee will play an important role in the incentive and the offerings made by the
organization.
 The background and the dependency of the employee should also be kept in mind. For
example if a person is having family and children should be treated differently and should
be given different allowance than a person whose family is not completely dependent on
him or her.
 To combat the reason of leave the person should be approached will a viable solution. For
example: if the economic crisis is the reason then a monetary boost is may help the
person change his or her mind but if the issue is regarding the presence of ISIS then face
to face understanding and handling of the situation might help.

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Case three: A situation of emergency which is caused by an unexpected and sudden
occurrence within the internal or external business environment can be termed as crisis.
Human resource is an internal business factor but external environment has a lot of impact on
the employee turnover of the company. If the employee turnover of the organization is high
then the situation becomes a crisis. To understand the gap that has been created in the
organization in terms of employee satisfaction, work culture in the organization, motivation
etc should be analyzed. But the crisis that has been discussed in the case study is substantial
talent gap that has risen in the company which has resulted in the low performance of the
overall operations of the business (Glendon et al., 2016) the industry is skill driven and hence
the gap in the skills is a huge issue for the organization. According to the society of human
resource management, the people who are associated with the industries such as mining
manufacturing as well as construction etc have the greatest gap are those of heavily skilled
workers. The issues that have been understood in the organization lack of available
applicants, a shortage of experience and a lack of technical competencies or hard skills.
These gaps are difficult to monitor by a person as these have been observed in several sites of
operation hence a crisis management team is required to identify the problems and solve
them accordingly. Bridging the talent gap is an increasingly significant issue that is being
faced by many originations (Albrecht et al., 2015). Based on the Tuckman’s theory of team
development, the crisis management team will be formed. The five stages in this process is
forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The team is being formed and hence
the focus is on the first stage where people of similar skill set are brought together in the

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process to handle the crisis that has been created. Further on the group can be viewed to
develop in the process as in the theory (Natvig & Stark 2016).
Recommendation
Selection criteria: The selection criteria while hiring people for a specific vacancy should
have proper guidelines. According to the job role and the position that is available for
vacancy the criteria should be made. The skills and qualification of the applicant should be
paid most importance followed by the work experience, if the person concerned has a
significantly high amount of experience then that should counter balance the qualification.
The nature of the person should also be evaluated by have a one on one discussion with the
person who is responsible for the hire.
The company can hire people who are retired to join the organization in higher
management with flexible work arrangement this is a good option for the company as people
who are retired will have a good amount of skill set.
Another criteria that the company should keep in mind while hiring a person is the urge
to learn, it is most common that a person will be unaware of the proceedings of the
organization in the first few weeks of joining but the urge to learn is the key to high
performance.
The format: A person before getting a job should go through a three steps of interviews first
is a skill test to understand the persons understanding of the job role and the work that he or
she is going to perform. , if the person qualifies for the next round a general interview has to
be conducted by the human resource manager of the organization who is conducting the
interview, if the person goes to the next round the manger or the higher authority of the

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respective division should take a face to face interview and only then the person should be
chosen to join the organization. This format should be followed for both permanent as well as
temporary employment.
Function of the team: The function of the crisis management team is to first of all monitor
the format and the selection criteria while hiring anyone in the organization. If the board
agrees to the recommendation then it should be kept in mind that the hiring process will not
be different for any employee be it a junior associate or a field worker or a high level
manger. The terms and conditions of the policies of the company should be explained in
details to the employees who are new recruits so that there is a transparency maintained in
between the employer and the employee. The team will also come up with a performance
evaluation criterion list for various job profiles in the organization.
Rewards: The performance management initiative aforementioned will help the organization
in understand the capability of a persona and reward him or her accordingly. An annual
increment for permanent employees are fixed in the organization where is the people who are
under a contract does not have any extra reward or award associated with the service they are
offering, rather if the company finds that the person under contract is underperforming he or
she can be asked to discontinue.

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Conclusion
Human resource is an integral part of a business entity the people related to a business is
the key in the operations on a daily basis. Team management is a significant attribute on the
other hand as the business always runs on team efforts, the recommendations to the board are
all based on the importance the company gives to the staff and resources. Skill development
and expertise has to be kept in mind while hiring.

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Reference list:
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and
Performance, 2(1), 7-35.
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, P. (2017). Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory. Life
Science Journal, 14(5).
Ashkanasy, N. M., Bennett, R. J., & Martinko, M. J. (Eds.). (2016). Understanding the High
Performance Workplace: The Line Between Motivation and Abuse. Routledge.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2014). The importance of universal psychological needs for
understanding motivation in the workplace. The Oxford handbook of work engagement,
motivation, and self-determination theory, 13-32.
Glendon, A. I., Clarke, S., & McKenna, E. (2016). Human safety and risk management. Crc
Press.
Kew, J., & Stredwick, J. (2017). Business environment: managing in a strategic context. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Thomas, R. (2013). The business environment of human resource management. In Human
resource management. Oxford University Press.
Natvig, D., & Stark, N. L. (2016). A Project Team Analysis Using Tuckman's Model of Small-
Group Development. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(12), 675-681.

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