Question

Yogurt Yak (YY) was founded in the basement of Mary Seldon’s home in Ottawa in 2018. Mary was between jobs trying to keep costs down when she created the first batch of Yogurt that became the winning formula for YY. Albert Water, a friend of Mary, dropped by to help Mary move to an apartment and was treated to a taste of the yogurt. The product was an instant success leading to a highly profitable business. The success of YYs yogurts was due to the natural ingredients used in production. Many other manufactures included gelatin, colouring and chemical additives that customers did not want in their food. The yogurt also had an amazing taste that was recognized in multiple food awards. The company was small and hired all local employees. By January 2020 YY had 150 employees. Mary and Albert started thinking about expanding the product line to include three cheeses and a cheese bread. The cheeses and bread had already been market tested and won awards in Europe in food contests.

You have been hired to build the HR department. When you met with the Mary and Albert you were told the following:

 We hired quickly and paid employees the going rate at the time for similar jobs in similar nearby companies.

o For all 140 food employees working on the production line and shipping the pay is minimum wage $14.00/hour. Approximately $26,000/year to $30,000/year depending on number of days and hours worked.

o Eight employees are in management all receiving the same pay of $60,000/year

o We pay ourselves (Mary and Albert) $80,000 each plus we own 100 per cent of the company shares. Our aim to put as much of the company profits back into the company growth.

 We have dental, vision and pharmaceutical benefits where the employee is covered for 80 per cent of their costs with dollar limits for each on the maximum coverage.

 Vacation time is the amount legislated by the Ontario government – no more.

 There have been no pay increases and no performance evaluations since the company was started because the growth has been fast. Nothing is written down. When there is an issue Albert or Mary talk to the employee and that has worked.

 There is no official HR department – up to now Albert did everything and he admitted that he could have done more but he did not have the time.

 You ask to see the HR employee files and were told the only information they have is in one file that has each employee’s pay information and nothing else.

 There is an issue with employee absenteeism and turnover – this Mary believes is impacting the company financially and in terms of quality and growth opportunities. Some employees are leaving going to other local companies. Mary and Albert don’t know why but they are guessing it has something to do with how they are dealing with HR and this has spurred them to hire you.

 There are some health and safety measures in place.

 Both Mary and Albert are reluctant to outsource the HR designing and management so instead they hired you. They understand some HR activities maybe better outsourced but you will have to limit and make a case to them for any outsourcing. 4 The reason they don’t want to outsource is they believe HR is critical to the success and growth of the company so they want a say in how HR is designed and managed. By outsourcing they feel they would have less input.

-There is no union yet.

Question: Explain how you would integrate HR ideas as covered in class/the course into the organization. Step by step how would you do it (i.e. outline the steps with explanation) and what would you do and why. There will be three HR employees, that you will need to hire, as well as you as the Director of HR. With justification you can change or establish any organizational HR elements (e.g. compensation, benefits, hiring, selection, performance manage etc.). The goal is to make HR complement and support the growth and success of the company going forward and to fit the company’s strategic plan. Recognize that currently YY has next to no HR elements/policies/procedures in place other than the hiring and paying of employees. Even how the hiring was done is unclear since the person who did most of the hiring has left YY.

Answer 1

Human Resource plays a vital role in companies and organisations.Using their expertise, they can perform number of jobs that helps organisation in the path of their growth and success.To integrate HR team in YY, I would have to go through many steps as there has been no HR elements in the organisation. Building a HR team is quite a time-taking process but the benefits it has are numerous.The steps that I would undertake in building a small HR team are :

Initiate and build a department plan : A basic plan of the structural design of the team that is being built.Here, the design is to have three employees in the whole HR team and I as the director of that team . so the four of us will constitute as the Human Resource department of Yoghurt Yak.

Create a recruiting procedure : As there is no information regarding the hiring process in YY , it is important for me to build one as soon as possible for the organisation.This would not include just hiring decisions but also the the whole process of staffing i.e. designing a recruiting procedure stating various sources of supply of manpower and motivating a larger group of people to submit applications in the company. The source of recruitment most suitable for us would be notice boards and recommendation of employees. It also includes the selection decision for which the main task is to analyse the kind of personnel we need in our organisation. Conducting interviews, orientation and training programs for any new employee would be a key feature of our organisation.

Determine and decide remuneration and benefits : This includes all the old employees and also the for the new employees that will be hired in future in YY. It includes deciding the pay structure. Formulating a pay structure has to be based on :  any wage act of government , fair enough to meet employee needs and competitive .I would keep the salary not very high but according to the work remembering that the organisation's plan is to put back into it and not spend so much money in all these. Also to decide the benefits to be given to employees like insurance , compensation etc.We would only have health insurance for our employees and also will make a fund for workers compensation to meet any liability in future.

Contour rules and regulations for safety and health : It is important to make sure that the workplace is safe for employees and does not have any adverse effect on their health.It is also important to design a workplace that complies with federal and state compliance to be legal. This step would include creating emergency action plan , emergancy exits and routes. Also to give employees training for maintaing safety and preventing any kind of injuries.We would also train our employees in wearing handgloves and other equipments for safety and hygiene as we are producing a food product, it is essential for us to maintain hygiene.

Assignment of duties and employee relationships : Every employee should be clearly instructed on thir roles and jobs and to whom they have to report their worki.e. to make them clear about employee relationship ,which is good for both organisation as the employees would be focussed and for the employee too as there will be no confusion in their mind.

Formulate training, development and performance appraisal programms : It is of vital importance to make sure employees are able to grow in our organisation so that they develop a belongingness to it and perform well. Training should be given to them and their performance should be measured and appreciated.We would give them training on maintaing quality of food and hygiene.

Determine core values : Deciding to find out and build the core values of our organisation so as to have a support for me to build policies and strategies for our organisation.The core values of our company is to follow legal and social rules and think about our customers first. To provide the best qualty with taste is our bottom line.

Create an action plan : As I got to know that no diary is maintained here in YY , my action plan would be to write every transaction , to write about employee details and hiring process and the values , vision/mission of our organisation so as to maintain the records of everything.

The HR employees I will hire will help me in carrying out these actions and take a follow up. The qualities that I will look in these 3 employees are - Responsible , able to co-ordinate and formulate plans, do planning , organise operations in the premises, can take interviews and focus on devoting themselves to their work.