Reference no: EM132888045

Sinha is a senior employee of S & S Law Firm having its head office at Delhi and branches at all major cities in the country. The managing partner of the firm asked Sinha to head its southern branch at Bangalore. The firm has been quite successful since its inception in 1950s, but has witnessed high turnover among its younger staff in the last five years. The managing partner is convinced that the problem is not salary, because a recent survey indicated that the firm's salary structure is competitive with that of other major firms. Driven by this incomprehension, the managing partner wants Sinha to find out the real reasons.

Having settled in Bangalore, Sinha met the four senior managers to determine why the branch has had such a high attrition rate among the younger staff. Krishna, aged 46, states that the younger staff lacks dedication and fails to appreciate the career opportunities provided by the firm. Gowda, aged 52, says the younger employees are always complaining about the lack of meaningful feedback on their performance, and many have mentioned that they would like to have a sponsor in the organization to assist with their development. Gowda further explains that the firm does provide performance rating to its staff and the previous manager had always maintained an open-door policy. Manohar, aged 39, says he has received complaints that training is not relevant and is generally dull. He explains that various persons in the firm who worked with training from time to time acted mainly on guidance from Delhi. Shobha, aged 35, says she believes that the root of the problem is the absence of an HR department. However, she says that when the idea was mentioned to the managing partner in Delhi, it was totally rejected.

Questions:

Do you think that the S & S Law Firm needs an HR department? If yes, what should be its role?

How would you sell the idea of the HR department to the managing partner?

What type of organizational structure would you recommend?