Reference no: EM133238874
Career development at Electronic Applications
Electronic Applications Corporation is a major producer of silicon chips for the computer industry. It is located southeast of San Francisco in an area of high technology firms. Since its founding in 1972, the company has grown rapidly in terms of sales and profits, thus enhancing its stock price many times over. Human resource policies, however, have tended to lag behind company growth. Emphasis has been on reactive policies to meet the regulatory requirements of external stakeholders such as the federal government. In short, human resources have not been a high priority.
Recently, Harold Sweeney has been hired as director of human resources for the company. Sweeney had previously served as assistant personnel director for a large "blue chip" corporation in southern California. He accepted his present position not only because of an increase in pay and responsibility but also because of what he termed "the challenge of bringing this company from a 1970s human resources mentality to one more compatible with the realities of the 2000s".
Sweeney has been on the job for four months and has been assessing the situation to determine the more significant human resource problems. One problem seems to have been the high turnover among electrical engineers who work in research and development and are the core of the research function. Prior to the 2008-2010 financial crisis, the turnover rate averaged about 30 percent per year over the past three years. As a result of the recent financial crisis, however, unemployment in Silicon Valley has increased to 9.7 percent. Most technology companies are not hiring at all or are only hiring individuals on a highly selective basis. The result is that most employees have decided to stay put in the short term, but will be looking to take advantage of more attractive opportunities elsewhere when and if the economy improves. Sweeney was aware of these intentions and wanted to take steps now to minimize future employee turnover.
In assessing the cause of the problem, Sweeney checked area wage surveys and found Electric Applications paid 5 to 8 percent above the market for various categories of electrical engineers. Since the company did not have a formal exit interview system, he could not check out other possible explanations through that mechanism. However, through informal conversations with a large number of individuals, including the engineers themselves, he learned that many of the engineers felt "dead-ended" in the technical aspects of engineering. In particular, the research and development department had lost some of the younger engineers who had been considered to be on the "fast track". Most had gone to competitors in the local area.
One particular research and development employee who impressed Sweeney was Helen Morgan. Morgan is 29 years old, has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Califonia Institute of Technology, and is studying for her MBA at the University of Santa Clara at night. Helen had been employed for seven years at the Electronic Applications, three in an entry-level engineering position and four as a section chief.
The latter promotion was the highest position in research and development other than the position of director of research and development. Morgan claimed that "the company doesn't really care about its good people". In her view, the present director, Harry James, does not want to allow his "better people" to move up the organisation. He is more interested in keeping them in his own department so he can meet his own departmental goals without having to orient and train new employees. Morgan also claimed she was told she " has a bright future with the company" by both James and the former personnel director. Her performance appraisal has been uniformly excellent. She went on to criticize the company for using an appraisal form with no sections for dealing with employee development.
Morgan recommended that steps be taken to remedy each of the problems she identified. Among, these steps were helping employees identify future development opportunities, rewards for supervisors who successfully mentor subordinates, planning to identify future job opportunities, better communication of job opportunities, identification of career paths and career ladder, great efforts to help employees achieve work/family life balance, childcare assistance, and telecommuting opportunities.
Sweeney checked out the information Morgan had provided him and found it to be accurate. Moreover, he heard through the "grapevine" that she is in line for an excellent position with a nearby competitor. Clearly, he has an even greater challenge than he had anticipated. He realizes he has an immediate problem concerning the high turnover of certain key employees. In addition, Sweeney also has a series of interconnected problems associate with career development. However, he is not quite sure what steps to take and in what order.
Questions
1. Describe and critique the nature and causes of the problem faced by Sweeny.
2. Analyse Nichplson (1990) job transition model, and predict the transition cycle stage for Helen Morgan.
3. Should career development activities be integrated with other human resource management activities? If yes, which ones? Why?
4. Recommend career management interventions Harold Sweeney can implement for employees at Electronic Applications Corporation.
5. How would you position career management on the HR value chain?