Whirlpool of Voluntary Retirement Schemes ( VRS)

Case Study in Human Resource Management

Industry : Manufacturing Industry: Well established, smooth running, multi-crore manufacturing giant, aspiring to be the "No.1" on not only business fronts but political and management horizons too. You are about to complete tenth year of service in this business house. You are happy and expecting a second promotion. Situation: One fine day you board the bus in the morning to notice a very special silence. All the chirping, joking, gossiping has come to a stand still .You get to know that your company has accepted the VRS recommendations by the central government. Your bus partner enquires about your age and the number of years of service. Grapevine: The company may shut down this plant possibly in the next fiscal year due to taxation and infrastructure problems. To begin with they want to cut down the manpower, beginning with managerial cadre, then the vendors followed by the workers Facts: Earlier the govt did not allow job termination so easily. The recently elected govt. has a commitment of "job creation" in their electoral "Magna charta" of promises One brainy idea has come in the form of termination of "old, experienced but sometimes difficult" employees under the disguise of offering "golden shake hand" or "voluntary retirement" Contrast: On one side the country is facing grave shortage of skilled, experienced manpower on the other they are promoting schemes like VRS!! Challenge:

You have family of five to support. You have to shoulder a housing loan and a car loan. Having spent ten years in a particular industry it may not be easy to find a new job. VRS is for the employees above forty years of age and / or have completed ten years of service. Maximum package of Rs Five lacs is for those having completed 15 years and above. You can get a max. Of 2.90 Lacs. Only. Once you accept VRS, getting a new job may not be easy. If you do not opt for a VRS, possibility of transfer to a remote place or you may be asked to resign , and go without any compensation being in management cadre.

Case Study Questions Task : You have to make your choice and justify it in not more than five sentences.

New skills for MATRIX

A case study on Learning, Training and Development
Industry : Retail

Alok shook his head when he saw the client getting restless as Prakash bungled again trying to complete a sales transaction on the new MATRIX software system. Alok Dhir is the manager of the Men'sWear store of Fortune Group well known known for their world class retail store chains. Alok was selected as a management trainee by Fortune at the MBA campus three years ago and is now one of the younger group managers having over 25 full-time and parttime employees including two supervisors for the two units - Leisure wear and Formal wear. Prakash a commerce graduate is 5 years older than Alok with about that many years more experience than Alok in retail trade. After years of hard work as a sales representative Prakash was rewarded for his excellent people skills and promoted as the supervisor of Leisure wear unit a year ago. Six months ago Fortune began a systems migration program to replace the existing decentralized store based computer and information software with MATRIX, an enterprise wide integrated system. As a result of this migration there were major changes required in each employee's work, especially those in sales. They had to learn operating the new system and complete all transactions at point of sale while the customer waited across the counter. As the implementation date of MATRIX approached an extensive 3 days training program was organized; first for managers and supervisors and then for the other sales representatives. Alok and Prakash attended the training together. The trainers demonstrated and explained every process and transaction in detail, each participant was given time to practice and a basic user manual provided to each participant. Alok was happy as Prakash who had not worked much with computers approached the training with enthusiasm. It is now over a month since MATRIX was introduced. Alok is disappointed because in spite of the training and time spent on demo terminals, Prakash has not mastered the new system and it is affecting his performance as well as the store's customer service. Initially Prakash sought his assistance many times to complete the same set of transactions. When Alok asked Prakash to refer to the user manual, Prakash said it was not very useful and he had misplaced it. Alok frequently observed Prakash getting stuck and using a trial and error process or seeking help from other sales associates. Alok is now sensing that Prakash is feeling uncomfortable and stressed. He is not seeking Alok's help anymore. Prakash's discomfort with the system has added additional burden on other employees besides affecting customer service. Alok knows he has to take action quickly. He wants to help but thinks that Prakash also has to take some initiative and show progress or he may be forced to take some drastic action.

Case Study Questions Is this a training or learning problem? What do you think? What can Alok do to help Prakash? What should be Alok's line of action for the next few weeks?

Job Evaluation Redesign at Bayer Group

job evaluation , compensation & benefits, Managing Change, M&A , ODD,strategic management,teams and groups
Industry : Chemicals Bayer Corporation is a subsidiary of Bayer Group AG, a Germany-based global chemical company. Several years ago, Bayer Corporation was created by combining three different operating companies, each with its own markets, products, and culturesMobay Chemicals, Miles, Inc., and Agfa. Bayer executives recognized that compensation systems were a critical component of creating a corporate culture that embodies the values and visions developed during the strategic planning for the new firm. Once the merger of the three entities had occurred, a new organizational structure was implemented. This structure had fewer layers and levels, and was developed to give Bayer employees the flexibility to move across organizational units and internationally. Bayer, like many organizations today, compensated people for doing specific jobs. But they wanted to reward people for their flexibility in playing different roles in the organization and moving between jobs. At the same time, Bayer executives wanted a simple compensation system that was tied to the core values and culture that Bayer hoped would evolve.

Bayer began its transition to a different compensation system by establishing a task force of 14 executives chaired by Bayers Vice-President of Benefits. This Job Advisory Committee, as it was labeled, was to recommend the processes needed to move to a job evaluation system more aligned with the new organization. Job evaluation, the systematic process of determining the internal value of jobs in relation to other jobs, had previously been done in two of the companies using a traditional point factor system; however the third entity had not used a formal job evaluation system.The committee began by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of the existing point system. The committee identified many features of the old system that were working well, particularly the involvement of managers and employees in the job evaluation "pointing" process. But the committee felt that the existing point factors and dimensions were too task based, and they did not reflect the flexibility desired as part of the organizational culture. Also, greater recognition of employees capabilities, not just their jobs and budgetary responsibilities, needed to be considered. Assisted by a major consulting firm over a period of time and a number of meetings, the committee decided to redesign the job evaluation system and focus on work-value competencies. The new work-value clusters defined were:

Improvement opportunity Contribution Capability Expertise and complexity Leadership and integration Relationship-building skills

For these six clusters, the committee identified scales and point values.The process of developing the new factors and points took about a year. Once the new system had been tested by pointing jobs on both the old and new systems, fine-tuning was needed. Ultimately, a cross section of benchmark jobs was pointed using the new system and the results calibrated statistically to the old system, rather than having all jobs in the organization repointed again. The ultimate test of the new job evaluation system has been its acceptance and use throughout Bayer. Based on feedback from managers and employees alike, the new system is working well. Bayers job evaluation system has become the means of aligning its compensation system with the business values of the new corporate culture being created. The compensation plan also supports business strategies and rewards employees as Bayer grows and meets its strategic objectives. Greater recognition of employees capabilities, not just their jobs and budgetary responsibilities, needed to be considered.

Case Study Questions Outline the key accomplishments of the task force in redesigning the job evaluation system.

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What are your views on strategic planning at Bayer Group? "Rewards can be both intrinsic and extrinsic." Does the compensation plan at Bayer support this statement? Post your answer All Answers

Succession Planning at Wadia Group

succession planning, LT&D, human resource management, leadership development
Industry : Hospitality Silvermoon Hotels have been run by the Wadia family since the 1940s. Wadia Group, through it subsidiary companies is also into travel and tourism, event management, and marketing services. Dina Wadia is the present Chief Executive . Her only son and heir apparent, 18 years old Shiraj Wadia recently died in an air crash. Dina has now decided that her successor would be someone outside of her family. As the CEO's position was always held by family members there has been neither internal competition nor grooming of other managers at Silvermoon Hotels for the CEO spot resulting in a deficiency of internal candidates. With the support of the Board, Dina has hired an external firm to lead the search process for her successor, which would consider candidates both inside and outside the company.

Case Study Questions If you are the external firm consultant, how would you approach the selection of the non family CEO?

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Succession planning is important , yet many companies neglect this aspect. Elaborate

"You HR people seem to have no other work. Shouted Praveen, the Managing director of Apex Financial services. You keep coming with great ideas on how to spend money. Where is the money? Now get me the hard facts on why we should change our benefits plan? Continued Praveen. He has reason to lose his cool. Chetan, the HR manager felt it was time to review the benefits and hence he mooted the idea before his boss. Chetan did not expect Praveen to be so intemperate, but he was a bit comforted when Chetan was asked to get back with facts to justify revision of benefits. Back in his office, Chetan called in Maya, his deputy, for help. Questions: 1. Assume that you are a part of the HR team assigned by Chetan and Maya to survey the present range to benefits offered by Apex Financial services. i) Design the questionnaire to survey (with the help of earlier units)

a) Employee perception of the companys present benefits programme. b) The ranking the employees give to the existing or alternative benefits and. c) Any changes the employees want to be introduced to the present programme.
ii) Conduct a survey among the employees by using Maslows hieracly of needs analyse the employee ranking of benefits. 2. Prepare a report for Chetan and Maya on your findings.

A large, well known Candian company had found full depreciation of the equipment which was used to make specialized automobile companies for north-American automobile producers. Although the equipment had been well maintained and worked well, it required to be handled by a large number of labourers. The result was the high labor costs that made the companys brake assemblies, manufacturer, and related products unprofitable. A decision was made to replace the equipment with more highly automated, numerically controlled machine tools. Since the economic value of the old equipment exceeded its value as scrap, the equipment was shipped to the companys Brazilian operations, where labour costs were considerable lower. Upon arrival and after the setting up of a new facility, the company received numerous profitable orders from Brazils rapidly growing automobile industry. Though the labour hours per product remained about the same the lower Brazilian labour rates allowed the new facility to be profitable. Soon a second shift was added and with it problems began. The equipment began to experience a growing downtime because of machine failures and quality- particularly on part dimensions- declined dramatically. At a staff meeting the Brazilian plant manager met his staff, including several industrial engineers who had been trained in Canada and the United States. The engineers argued that the problems were almost certainly caused by maintenance since the machinery had worked well in Canada and initially in Brazil. The HR director agreed that it was perhaps the question of maintenance of the old machinery but he also noted that many of the onmachine instructions and maintenance manuals had not been translated into Portuguese. He also observed that the problems began after the second shift was hired. Questions: 1. From the discussion of job analysis information and job design, what actions would you recommend to HR department? 2. Given the problems associated with the second shift, what differences would you look for between first shift and second shift workers? 3. Since the Canadian workers had considerable experience with the equipment but the workers particularly in second shelf in Brazil had very little experience, what implications do you see for the job design?