Reference no: EM132539552

BSBHRM602 Manage Human Resources Strategic Planning - Vocational Training Institute

Assessment Task 2: Human Resources Strategic Plan Project Task summary

This assessment task requires you to conduct research and develop a briefing report to inform the development of the Human Resources Strategic Plan for a fictitious business, King Edward VII College. You must then present the briefing report to the management team to seek feedback and approval and develop the Human Resources Strategic Plan.

This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in VTI.

Required
• Computer and Microsoft Office (or similar program)
• Access to the Internet for research
• Meeting participants
• Space for a meeting
• Access to a whiteboard or butchers paper to write up ideas
• Human Resources Briefing Report Template
• Human Resources Strategic Plan Template
• Risk Management Plan Template
• Strategic and Operational Plan
• Workforce Information 2017
• Workforce Information 2018

Assessment Task 2 Instructions

Carefully read the following:
King Edward VII College has been operating for five years. The college is based in the Melbourne CBD, with about 500 students enrolled. It offers a range of courses in management, marketing, human resources and international business. Courses are offered at all levels from Certificate II to Graduate Diploma. The college is very popular due to its competitive pricing structure, innovative teaching methods and state of the art facilities.
Due to its success, the college plans to establish two additional campuses, one in Brisbane and one in Sydney. The Brisbane campus will commence operating in January 2018 and Sydney in mid-2018. Campus locations are already in place, with the process being overseen mainly by the CEO and the Finance Manager. No staff have been employed as yet, but it is anticipated that each campus will require a receptionist, a student services officer and 4 trainers. Existing staff at the Melbourne campus will complete all other staff functions until such time as student numbers increase substantially. It is anticipated that maximum student numbers will be up to 50 students at each of the new campuses.
The College currently employs 24 staff members including the CEO, a Marketing Manager and Marketing Assistant, Human Resources Manager, Finance Manager, Administration Manager, Office Assistant, Receptionist, Academic Manager, Student Services Officer, and approximately 14 trainers.
Further details regarding the above staff, as well as the staff turnover statistics, are provided in the Workforce Information document.
King Edward VII College understands the overall importance of strategic planning for human resources and, given the company's expansion plans, a Human Resources Strategic Plan is now required.

The status of key areas of human resources is as follows:
• Equal employment opportunity and diversity: equal employment opportunity is implicit in recruiting staff and in the workplace but there is no formal policy or strategy in place or arrangements for flexible working arrangements.
• Human resources information systems: the current human resources system is basic. Staff files are kept in a filing cabinet and payroll is managed through accounting software. There is interest in migrating to an advanced HR information system as the business grows and has multiple sites. Costs need to be identified.
• Induction is limited to a couple of hours at the beginning of an employee's employment. There is no follow up.
• Job analysis and design: no formal systems in place.
• Occupational health and safety: policies and procedures and processes are in place. However, no formal training system or ongoing development systems are in place
• Performance management: while performance management is indicated in the company's strategic plan, it is sporadic and depends on the manager. Clearer procedures and systems need to be put in place and there also needs to be some attention to reward and recognition schemes.
• Professional development: professional development onus is on the staff with no formal systems in place. Any professional development undertaken by staff is not always recorded although staff are supposed to complete a professional development register. An online system for recording professional development and that is linked to the human resources information system would be useful. There is no current budget for professional development and an annual amount needs to be identified per staff member.
• Recruitment and selection: there are a desire to identify recruitment and selection strategies that ensure the recruitment of quality staff.
• Staff retention and succession planning: no formal systems are in place.

Complete the following activities:

Activity 1. Write a Human Resources Briefing Report

Prior to developing the Human Resources Strategic Plan, you are required to develop a briefing report to present to the CEO and Senior Managers.

To do this you are required to thoroughly review the King Edward VII College's Strategic and Operational Plan that sets out the College's strategic objectives and operational priorities, as well as Workforce information and then conduct additional research so that you can develop your briefing report.

This briefing report will be presented at a meeting with the CEO and Senior Managers. Their approval is needed to move forward with the project.
The briefing report should be about two pages long. It should also address the following:
• An overview of King Edward VII College's human resource requirements for the next three years, as identified from the scenario information and Strategic and Operational Plan and workforce information you have been provided with. This should include the College's overall human resource strategic direction, objectives and targets.
• Identification and analysis of emerging trends and practices that may impact on human resources management in King Edward VII College, and strategies to address these.
• A review of new technology relevant to the human resourcing of King Edward VII College and impacts on job roles and design.
• A review of any recent and potential changes to industrial and legal requirements that will impact on the King Edward VII College workforce.
• A review of the number and type of staff that will be needed to meet the company's strategic direction and skill requirements for new and existing staff. You should also consider and review the range of options for sourcing staff and discuss the costs and benefits of each approach. Include a discussion of at least three options.
• The philosophies and values you believe underpin or should underpin King Edward VII College's human resources management, as well as the policies and procedures that are required to ensure this. Review the scenario information to identify gaps in existing policies, procedures and systems.
• Recommended human resources strategic directions based on scenario information, research conducted and review of Strategic Plan. As a minimum, your Human Resources Strategic Plan should include three priority areas and objectives and targets.
• Identification of the technology and systems required to support the recommended human
resource programs and practices documented in the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
Use the Human Resources Briefing Report Template provided to develop your report.

Activity 2. Submit Human Resources Briefing Report to the CEO and Senior Managers (your assessor).

Activity 3. Conduct meeting
In this part of the assessment task, you are required to conduct the meeting to discuss the briefing report you have developed to inform the development of the Human Resources Strategic Plan, as well as to ensure that you have senior management input and support for the proposed content for the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
Your assessor will play the role of the CEO and your assessor will identify four fellow students to play the roles of Marketing Manager, Finance Manager, Administration Manager and Academic Manager.
Your assessor will play the role of the CEO and your assessor will identify four fellow students to play the roles of Marketing Manager, Finance Manager, Administration Manager and Academic Manager.
At the meeting, you are required to:
• Provide an introduction to the meeting and state the purpose of the meeting.
• Explain the key points from the briefing paper, as well as provide the opportunity for questions.
• Seek input on all aspects of the briefing paper for the development of the Human Resources Strategic Plan including:
o Asking Managers about their preferences for human resources requirements, including all of those explored in the report.
o Discussing the philosophies, values and polices that you have identified for King Edward VII College's human resources management and then agreeing on those that should be documented in the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
o Discussing strategic objectives and targets for human resource services to be documented in the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
o Confirming the required technology and systems to support human resource programs and practices agreed upon.
• Write ideas up on a whiteboard or butchers paper. You will need to use the ideas you write up to develop the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
• Demonstrate effective interpersonal and communication skills including:
o Speaking clearly and concisely
o Using effective non-verbal communication skills to assist with understanding
o Asking questions to identify required information
o Responding to questions
o Use of active listening techniques to confirm understanding.
The management team (your assessor and fellow students) will also provide feedback on some additional areas for consideration in the development of the Strategic Plan. You will need to incorporate this into the development of the Strategic Plan.

Activity 3. Develop the Human Resources Strategic Plan
You are now required to develop the Human Resources Strategic Plan using your research and input from the meeting. Use the template provided by your assessor to develop your plan, ensuring that you complete all sections of the plan and clearly state strategic objectives and targets.

Use the Human Resources Strategic Plan Template to guide your work.

Activity 4. Develop a Risk Management Plan.
You are also required to develop a risk management plan to identify the risks that may be associated with the Human Resources Strategic Plan and risk management strategies that can be used to control risk. Identify potential risks and risk management strategies related to the strategies and actions in your Human Resources Strategic Plan.
Use the Risk Management Plan Template to guide your work.
5. Obtain support for the Human Resources Strategic Plan
Submit your Human Resources Strategic Plan and Risk Management Plan to the Management Team (your assessor).

Assessment Task 3: Human Resources Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Project

Task summary
For this assessment, you are required to monitor, implement and evaluate the Human Resources Strategic Plan.
Required
• Computer and Microsoft Office (or similar program)
• Access to the Internet for research
• Workforce Information 2017
• Workforce Information 2018
• Focus Group Results
• Exit Interview Results
• Work Life Balance Report and Action Plan Template
• Health and Safety Policy and Procedures

Complete the following activities:

Activity 1 Develop an Organisational Climate Survey
In order to implement the human resources strategic plan, you are required to develop an organisational climate survey. While the organisational climate survey is designed to seek feedback in relation actions outlined in the human resources strategic plan, the intention is to also gain feedback on overall employee satisfaction to assist with future workforce planning initiatives.
Design a survey using SurveyMonkey that:
• includes at least 12 questions about general satisfaction with the workplace.
• Includes at least eight questions about satisfaction with new initiatives.
• allows employees to provide an answer based on a five-point scale.

Activity 2 Submit survey and link of the survey to all staff (your assessor).

Activity 3 Develop a human resources strategic plan review report
Assume that you are also required to monitor implementation of the plan.
Your assessor will provide you with a template to use to document your review.
Your Review Report should be written in clear and concise English and address the following components:
• An analysis of Workforce Information Data
Review the workforce information for King Edward VII 2018 provided to you and compare it to the 2017 data to identify:
o Current staff turnover rate
o Workforce characteristics, including age, gender and cultural background.
o Comparison with 2018 data to identify changes and to assess performance against 2017 data.
• An analysis of Focus Group Results
Assume that, in addition to the survey you developed, you have already conducted a focus group to determine employee's satisfaction. Review all of the comments from the focus group and comment on overall employee satisfaction, as well as areas of need that should be considered as part of an ongoing review of workforce planning objectives.
• Analysis of Exit Interviews
Review all of the comments from the exit interviews and comment on reasons for leaving and that should be considered as part of an ongoing review of human resources strategic objectives.
• Effectiveness of the Human Resources Strategic Plan
Based on your analysis above, evaluate the effectiveness of the human resources strategic plan to date in terms of the objectives specified in the scenario information.
Identify changes required to objectives and document at least two new objectives and actions for the upcoming year.
Name the document as Review Report.

Activity 4 Submit Review Report to the CEO (your assessor).
Assume that one of actions identified from the employee survey is to:
• Develop the King Edward VII College Work/Life Balance Strategy

Activity 5 Develop Work Life Balance Report and Action Plan
You are now required to implement these additional actions from the Human Resources Strategic Plan and based on the feedback from staff and the Health and Safety Officer.
To do this, you are to conduct research and develop a short report to present to staff about options for the range of potential work/life balance programs that could be implemented and recommendations on which programs you think are most appropriate for King Edward VII College.
Use the Work Life Balance Report and Action Plan Template to guide your work.
You report should be approximately one page long and written in clear and concise English.

Activity 6 Submit your Work Life Balance Report and Action Plan to the management team (your assessor.

Activity 7 Update the Health and Safety Policy and Procedures.
Assume that the Health and Safety Officer has emailed you back and is very supportive of the proposed actions for Work/Life Balance actions. They advise that a further improvement would be to ensure that the actions are formalised in the King Edward VII Health and Safety Policy and Procedure. This should be a policy statement about the organisation's commitment to Work/Life Balance.
Review the Health and Safety Policy and Procedures and update it as recommended by the Health and Safety Officer. The update will be a short statement about the organisation's commitment.

Assume that it is 12 months later, and the work-life balance policies and procedures have been implemented. One of the initiatives implemented was working from home arrangements for some staff members.
Performance indicators relating to the implementation of work-life balance policies are indicated in the Human Resources Strategic Plan as follows:
• High staff satisfaction with working from home arrangements.
• Technology is in place to facilitate working from home arrangements. Key lessons learnt from implementation of the initiative are:
• The implementation of the work-from-home team has been very positive. This can be attributed to the fact that the initiative was very well researched and project managed; and problems that could have become issues were identified and managed as part of the trial.
• Having the right operational technology is important. There are some technology limitations: due to the bandwidth required for the phone and network connection the work-from-home team are unable to utilise tools such as web cams to facilitate meetings.
• Need for clarity with family members about the time and place of work-from-home.
• Need for internal policy considerations to address issues such as, when an employee relocates residence or an employee is selected/applies for a work-from-home position and the college is not able to provide a connection due to connection limitations.

Activity 8. Evaluate performance against Human Resources Strategic Plan objectives.
Based on the information above, develop a short (half a page) evaluation report for the CEO summarising the impact of the working from home arrangements and performance against objectives from the plan. The report should be in your own words and no more than one page.
Name the document as Evaluation Report.

Activity 9. Update your Human Resources Strategic Plan
Include additional actions in your Human Resources Strategic Plan to account for the actions that need to be undertaken based on the scenario information.
Name the document as Updated Human Resources Strategic Plan.

Activity 10. Submit the following to your assessor.
• Updated Health and Safety Policy and Procedures
• Evaluation Report
• Updated Human Resources Strategic Plan