Assignment 1: Phase I – Business Assessment: AN ASSESSMENT OF GLADWELL GROCERY STORES

QUESTION

Assignment 1: Phase I – Business Assessment

Read the details of the Gladwell Grocery Stores case scenario. In this assignment, you will provide Mr. Bell with an assessment of the current business based on the details of the scenario. You will describe the company in terms of size, industry, type of business, number of stores, etc., and explain to Mr. Bell why you think Gladwell Grocery Stores can benefit from an HRIS.

Assume your role as an HR consultant, and prepare a business assessment that addresses the following criteria.

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

Introduction

1. Assess the current situation for the company, focusing on the issues that the HR manager is currently facing from not having an HRIS in place.

Business Assessment

1. Develop a business assessment for the company, focusing on managing employees from an HR perspective in a grocery store environment and retail industry.

Identifiable Issues

1. Create a list of the key HR functions that you believe will be beneficial to the organization. From the list, choose one (1) HR function that will be the focus of your business proposal moving forward. Explain the main reasons why you chose that HR function and validate your reasoning with research and theory.

Conclusion

1. Explain two to three (2-3) reasons why the company would benefit from adopting an HRIS. Focus on how the HRIS would address the HR function you identified in your business assessment.
2. Use at least (2) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

6. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
   1. Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.

1. 1. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, your professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
   2. Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Analyze the strategy of the organization, the HR strategy, and HR programs with HRIS.
• Analyze key elements of the design in database HR relationships and evaluate system considerations in the design.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in human resource information systems.
• Write clearly and concisely about human resource information systems using proper writing mechanics.

Assignment Overview

Over the course of the next several weeks, you will go through the different phases of implementing an HRIS for the hypothetical company, Gladwell Grocery Stores. Read the case scenario details for Gladwell Grocery Stores below, and refer back to the information for each phase of the implementation. The HRIS implementation is separated into the four (4) phases described in the table below.

Gladwell Grocery Stores Case Scenario

Gladwell Grocery Stores has ten (10) stores in upstate New York. They have approximately 400 – 440 employees. Most of the employees are part time, with approximately 45% of them full time. The operations manager, Tom Bell, also acts as the HR manager and travels to each location each week to take care of recruiting, scheduling, hiring, and answering questions for the employees as needed. He also takes care of payroll using Excel spreadsheets and has computer software to print payroll checks.

Mr. Bell approaches you, an independent HR consultant and owner of your own consulting firm, for a proposal. He would like to greatly reduce his travel to each location each week, due to the increase in gasoline costs. He is curious to know if there is anything you can suggest in helping him complete his HR tasks more efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. He hopes there is some way he can do part of his HR tasks from his office instead of traveling to each location every week.

ANSWER

AN ASSESSMENT OF GLADWELL GROCERY STORES

Introduction

The provided case scenario gives information on a grocery store business, Gladwell Grocery Stores, which does not have a human resources department. The business’ operations manager, Tom Bell, performs the HR operations for the business, including traveling to all the business’s ten locations. Mr. Bell carries out the functions of a human resource manager without the help of a human resource information system, commonly abbreviated as HRIS, having to manage the firm’s recruitment operations, scheduling, hiring, and answering of questions brought forward by employees. He constantly suffers from problems such as fatigue due to overworking and handling numerous tasks, and high costs of traveling to each of the firm’s stores every week, to handle HR functions, especially with increasing gasoline costs. These challenges have adversely reduced the efficiency of HR services delivery to Gladwell Stores employees, and the distribution of these services is not cost-effective.

Business Assessment

Gladwell Grocery Stores belongs to the Supermarkets and Grocery Stores industry, which deals with food retail. Because no yearly incomes or profits are provided, the firm can be classified as a small business, as it only has an average of a total of 400-440 employees (DeLone, 1981). Gladwell has ten stores spread out in New York. This means that the firm manages employees working in the various outlets from one office, which may be looked at as the headquarters. Employees of retail business such as Gladwell require close supervision and management, as they deal with the direct sale of products, and handle many customers in their daily operations. Improper management of retail industry employees has many detrimental consequences, the most common one being ending up with unengaged workers on the sales outlets. This leads to very minimal output, i.e., minimum interactions with customers, having adverse effects on the volume of sales made (Jackson, Schuler, Werner, 2009). Consumer engagement is invaluable in boosting customer satisfaction in the retail food industry.

HR Functions

The various challenges that Gladwell Grocery Stores is facing can be totaled by introducing a human resource department, with qualified HR personnel. Introduction of a human resource information system may also help with the management of the stores’ employees, as it is evident that Mr. Bell cannot manage all the 400 employees by himself. HR departments play various roles in a firm, roles which when properly managed, result in a satisfied workforce that is well prepared for customer handling. The primary functions of a human resource department, which would be of utmost benefit to Gladwell Stores include:

• Recruitment and training, which includes receiving employee requisitions from the firm’s outlets, advertising for the open position, conducting interviews and induction of the new employees into the firm.
• Managing payrolls and employee benefits, which includes calculation of each employee’s dues and the disbursement of the salaries each payday. In small businesses, this is an HR department’s primary role (Werner, DeSimone, 2011).
• Record keeping. Income, purchases, inventory, and other purchases records that are extremely important in any firm are kept by the human resource personnel.
• Employee relations and improvement plans. The human resource department manages disputes between workers or between employees and their managers. It also prepares performance improvement plans to help employees better understand their jobs and how to perform them, and meet their targets (Noe, 2002).
• Planning, organizing, and scheduling. The HR department is tasked with the duty of compiling business plans and scheduling of tasks and meetings. It ensures that programs do not crash and that all operations occur within the set period.

Of the above human resource functions, I would argue that one of the most important functions is managing employee benefits and payroll. Poor management of these results in employee demotivation, hence dismal performance. Gladwell Grocery Stores has tasked this vital function to Mr. Bell. He is, however, experiencing difficulties in managing the role of the over 400 employees. Improper management and control of employee wages and payroll may result in severe fraud and lawsuits filed by discontented employees (Vona, 2011). It is therefore of utmost importance to properly manage this function.

Conclusion

Gladwell Grocery Stores would benefit mainly from employing a human resource officer or team to manage their employees. Also, the implementation of an HRIS would help in easing the burden Mr. Bell currently shoulders, trying to control each outlet of the firm. First, human resource information systems offer a software solution for businesses by facilitating communication by the provision of an easily-accessible location for uploading a firm’s policies, announcements, and links to other forms of communication. This would reduce the need for Mr. Bell to make weekly visits to Gladwell’s outlets. Paperwork is also largely reduced. Second, HRIS helps in automation and management of payroll and accounting activities (Troshani, Jerram, Rao Hill, 2011). Some systems offer employees an interface where they can access and update their personal information and time-off balances, and also access their payroll information. This would ease the work of an HR officer at Gladwell Grocery Stores.

References

DeLone, W. H. (1981). Firm size and the characteristics of computer use. Mis Quarterly, 65   77.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Werner, S. (2009). Managing human resources (p. 358). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Werner, J. M., & DeSimone, R. L. (2011). Human resource development. Cengage Learning.

Noe, R. A. (2002). Employee training and development.

Vona, L. W. (2011). The fraud audit: responding to the risk of fraud in core business systems (Vol. 16). John Wiley & Sons.

Troshani, I., Jerram, C., & Rao Hill, S. (2011). Exploring the public sector adoption of HRIS. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 111(3), 470-488.