1. Scenario 2: Human Resources Management
A task for HALF of the Cohort (The half not doing Scenario 1)
ColmarCo has come to recognise that as a Company ‘it’ does not make profits, rather
the profits achieved are the sum total of the quality of decisions being made by its
staff. It is concerned that although decision-making can always be improved by
having better and more timely information, THE critical thing is to have the RIGHT
PEOPLE in place to make and take these decisions, to invest in them in terms of
training and professional development and to motivate them to put these new skills
into practice and develop their ColmarCo careers long-term.
ColmarCo is, however, somewhat alarmed to realise that the rate of staff turnover is
rising, and is especially evident in the first few months after appointment and that it is
beginning to cost the company a considerable amount in real money and loss of
performance to consistently replace such staff.
It has therefore commissioned a team to investigate the matter and to learn from
industry best practice.
It needs to know the following:
1. The REAL ‘costs’ of labour turnover in industry – what does it really cost a
company to lose a potentially good manager, not just in terms of the cost or
recruitment agencies and vacancy promotion, but also in terms of things like
impact on company image and the moral of staff remaining, lost productivity,
stress of operating short-handed ……..etc. Then advocate a strategy to
ColmarCo designed to systematically reduce these costs.
2. What to produce in terms of (pre-selection stage) recruitment
information/material to attract the best possible crop of applicants for the
position in question. [Imagine a specific ColmarCo management post]
remembering that recruitment and selection is a two-way process: Colmar Co is
recruiting and selecting potential employees from the ‘pool’ of available labour
AND the applicant is going through a process of selecting ColmarCo from the
‘pool’ of available employers as a potential place to devote his/her energies
perhaps for a considerable period of time and meet his or her personal
professional career objectives]. How can ColmarCo ensure it meets both its own
objectives AND that of the applicant?
3. How to develop the best possible system of selection to select the best
candidate for a mid/senior Management post? (As above… imagine a
specific ColmarCo Post). In many management posts, managers may well be in
charge of the effective, efficient & economic use of assets (buildings / planes etc)
worth millions of Euros and of a considerable number of staff whose performance
is critical to producing the financial results the company and its shareholders
require. That is a lot of trust to put in a person based upon a couple of sides of cv
and the traditional, relatively short, interview, isn’t it? You have a pile of
applications on your desk – how can you develop a process that ensures you will
eventually offer the post to the candidate who is likely to deliver the best results?

2. 4. What are the real motivators to enhance a manager’s performance and keep
him/her wanting to develop his/her career with ColmarCo? It is easy to
imagine that salary is the only motivator….. but motivational researchers like
Hertzberg (inter alia) suggest that salary is a ‘hygiene factor’: one needs a fair
salary to attract a good candidate in the first place, but after engagement basic
salary ceases to be much of a motivator. So what IS it that motivates managers
strongly to perform for the company and how can ColmarCo best put this into
practice?
Spilt into teams of THREE and address one of the above (ensuring no duplication)
Each team will present its findings and recommendations in turn to a ColmarCo
Senior Management Workshop (31st Jan). The workshop will last one hour. All the
team contributions plus questions MUST be completed in 60 minutes. Each team
therefore has no more than 15 minutes to get its message across. [NB. Reflect upon
the experience of the Sustainability Workshop and my comments about interacting
with your audience and talking to them in terms of their experience].
I will then give each team feedback which will help you prepare a written submission
to the company to be submitted in class on 7th Feb. This written submission will be a
joint submission of ALL FOUR TEAMS of one united document based upon a
synthesis of your respective teamwork entitled:
“ColmarCo – Turning Around (labour) Turnover:
Rethinking Recruitment; Superlative Selection & Maximising Motivation”
The aim of this document is to give ColmarCo a template upon which to build and
dramatically improve its HRM practices………
50% marks for the Team Presentation / 50% for the Group written report.