Scenario

Janet is the newly appointed HR Representative with Global Plastics, Inc. This organization operates in the United States, Europe, and Asia and has fared worse than its competitors during a recent economic downturn. Janet’s predecessor retired after leading a major reduction in force, causing a significant exodus of key talent. With revenue, quality, and productivity down, management set several goals to address the human resources component of the company’s strategic plan:

• quickly re-invent the Human Resources function
• reposition it as a strategic partner to the business
• improve employee perceptions of her department
• retain top talent and develop a steady but highly-qualified stream of candidates to fill regular as well as critical positions

In her first month on the job Janet discovered the following issues:

• The recent departure of several mission-critical employees disclosed no systematic means of capturing expertise from employees; when they left, their knowledge left with them.
• HR's participation in the onboarding process of new employees was limited to having them attend a half-day orientation session where, between a video and a slide presentation about the company, they filled out benefits-related, payroll, ID and other paper forms. The new employees departed the session with little understanding of the mission and the respective role they each play in supporting and moving the mission forward.
• Aside from providing a coordinating function, human resources had outsourced recruiting to third parties who presented candidates based on their internet postings and other sources. No matter the level of the open position, human resources rarely conducted interviews or assessments before or after handing over the resumes from the outsourced recruiter to the appropriate hiring department. Human Resources would get involved again only when a candidate was selected.
• Training and Development (T&D) had largely been outsourced to several companies that provided generic on-line courses. The assessment of these courses added little value to the employee’s respective position.
• Job titles didn't reflect the work people did, and were used instead as a framework for budgeting and compensation. Many employees were doing unique work requiring different knowledge and skills.
• Job descriptions were inconsistent, long but vague lists consisting of high level duties, responsibilities, and qualifications.
• The Performance Employee Evaluation Program didn't align with anything, was viewed by managers and individual contributors alike as a burdensome annual chore that interfered with people's "real jobs."
• Attracting the top talent remains a continual challenge especially in its overseas operations. The turnover rate remains 20% higher than at Global Plastics US divisions.
• OSHA violations continued to increase over the past 24 months even after the organization committed to reduce the number of workplace safety incidents.

1. You are acting as a HR Consultant. Develop a strategic plan for Global Plastics, Inc. Human Resource department to address the issues Janet discovered and achieve the goals outlined in the scenario. Your strategic plan should include all elements of a strategic plan and address the following:

a. Align each of the issues with the goals in the company’s strategic plan.

b. Establish metrics to measure attainment of each of the goals.

c. Evaluate how the strategy will address each issue identified in the scenario.

1. Strategic human resource management emphasises the need for HR strategies to be:
   1. responsive to the organisation's external environment.
   2. developed with only short-term aims and objectives.
   3. responsive only to internal changes to the organisation's environment
   4. adhered to irrespective of internal and external changes until their objectives have been achieved.

2. The corporate-level strategy that seeks to improve performance by cost cutting, downsizing or re-engineering is known as:

1.retrenchment strategy

2.stability strategy

3. consolidation strategy

4.financial strategy

3. Which of the following techniques for forecasting the internal supply of human resources is concerned with the filling of key management vacancies?

1. replacement charts

2. succession planning

3. Markov analysis

4. skills inventory

4. Which of the following best defines HRM?

1. the focus of human resource management (HRM) is on managing people within the employer-employee relationship to facilitate achieving the organisation’s objectives and satisfying employee needs.

2. the focus of HRM is on achieving an organisation’s goals by using its employees efficiently

3. HRM is concerned with having the right people in the right place at the right time

4. HRM is a set of activities relating to the coordination of an organisation’s human resource

5.Which of the following is NOT a critical factor in HR professionals successfully fulfilling the role of a strategic partner/contributor?

1. Demonstrating how HRM improves business performance and reduces costs

2. The ability to translate business strategy into action

3. Putting the needs and demands of management above those of the employees

4. Being part of the top management team in the organisation

6. The dual role for an HR manager of being an employee advocate and a strategic partner can create tensions because:

1. there will be competition for the resources necessary to fulfil both roles.

2. these roles may not be recognised by the senior managers in the organisation.

3. strategic decisions by the company may have undesirable impacts on employees.

4. the HR manager may not be not skilled in fulfilling both roles effectively.

7. Linking HR planning with corporate strategy allows the HR manager:

1. to understand the role he/she plays within the organisation.

2. to influence the future structure of the organisation’s management.

3. to anticipate and influence the future HR requirements of the organisation.

4. to more clearly understand the impact of increased global competition.

8. Improved childcare facilities, the increased availability of part-time work, and maternity leave are a reflection of:

1. changing social attitudes towards work.

2. increasing numbers of women in the workforce.

3. attempts to reduce levels of employee absenteeism.

4. the requirements of EEO legislation.

9. The corporate-level strategy adopted by Primary Health Care which involved the merger and acquisition of Symbion Health is known as an:

1. low cost strategy

2. competitive takeover

3. growth strategy

4. diversification

10. According to the systematic human resource planning process, the first step is to:

1. identify HR objectives.

2. examine the demand for, and supply of, internal and external human resources.

3. identify critical internal labour shortages.

4. employ experienced external HR consultants.

Gold-I-Locks plc manufactures and sells doors and windows that contain a revolutionary locking mechanism the CEO developed while at university.  You have been provided with the company’s trial balance as at 31 March 2020.  Unfortunately, it was prepared by a junior member of staff and does NOT balance.  

The junior member of staff has identified the following errors but does not know how to correct them:

1. A payment of £150 for electricity was entered in the Bank Account but was not recorded in the Electricity Expense Account.
2. There is a debit in the Rent Expense Account for £718 and a debit to the bank account for the same amount.
3. A sale for £1,200 has been entered correctly in Accounts Receivable but as £120 in the Sales Account.
4. A payment to a supplier of £457 has been correctly recorded in Accounts Payable Account but no other entry has been made.

Required:

1. Prepare journal entries to correct the above errors and prepare a T-account for the Suspense Account showing the entries.

[20 marks]

2. There are two general categories of errors: Those that cause the trial balance not to balance and those that do not affect the trial balance balancing.  Describe one of each type of error, provide an example and describe how you would correct it. [word limit: 100-200 words]

The value of a sports franchise is directly related to the amount of revenue that a franchise can generate. The file here represents the value in 2013 (in $millions) and the annual revenue (in $millions) for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises. (Data extracted from www.forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list.) Suppose you want to develop a simple linear regression model to predict franchise value based on annual revenue generated. What are the values for (1) the proportion of variation in value of a sports franchise that is explained by annual revenue , (2) the sum of squares Y , (3) the sum of squares predicted , (4) the sum of squares error , (5) the intercept A , (6) the slope b , (7) the predicted value of a sports franchise (in $millions) that generates $300 millions of annual revenue , and (8) the standard error of estimate ?

The value of a sports franchise is directly related to the amount of revenue that a franchise can generate. The file here represents the value in 2013 (in $millions) and the annual revenue (in $millions) for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises. (Data extracted from www.forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list.) Suppose you want to develop a simple linear regression model to predict franchise value based on annual revenue generated. What are the values for (1) the proportion of variation in value of a sports franchise that is explained by annual revenue , (2) the sum of squares Y , (3) the sum of squares predicted , (4) the sum of squares error , (5) the intercept A , (6) the slope b , (7) the predicted value of a sports franchise (in $millions) that generates $300 millions of annual revenue , and (8) the standard error of estimate ?

1. Estimate own-price and income elasticities for each state and interpret the results. (Please see tables below)

Wisconsin

If average incomes are expected to rise by 4% in the Midwest in 2019, should O Be Joyful Malting and Cider House focus on increased production in Wisconsin? What else would you like to know before making a decision? Explain your reasoning.

You are the senior human resource professional in a company and part of the senior strategic management team. The company is a service company that operates five teleprofit centers of 300 representatives each in the following Florida cities: Jacksonville, Orlando, Gainesville, Tampa, and Miami. The CEO has asked the senior strategic team to develop a HR plan that will allow the company to grow by two more teleprofit centers, which will be located in Jacksonville, Florida. Considering turnover, length of training, hiring success and learning curve for new employeesdevelop a reasonable “hire ahead” plan, which keeps newly trained employees ready to take the place of employees who leave or are promoted to other positions. The “hire ahead” plan must allow no more than 3% of the employee base in each of the new teleprofit centers to consist of newly trained employees. The following factors should be considered while developing the plan: • There is a human resource budget of $3.5M. • From the HR Budget, $200K will be dedicated for recruiting and selection. • Recruiting costs will increase by 30%, but the HR budget will not increase. • Recruiting will be conducted through Monster, CareerBuilder, Sologig, and in various print publications in the listed cities. • There will be 4500 applications received per month from the recruiting efforts. • Average turnover of the teleprofit representatives in the company is 7% per month. • Average turnover of the teleprofit representatives in Jacksonville is 5% per month. • New representatives receive two weeks of training in the classroom and two weeks of “side-by-side” training before they are on their own. • All trainer positions are exempt. • It takes nine months for a representative to be considered “fully trained”. SELECTION PROCESS Choose as many, or as few, of the following steps to create the selection process that applies best to your plan. All applicants who pass these steps will be hired. o Pre-screening- performed by a human resource assistant (nonexempt position) - cost of $20 per applicant; 95% of applicants prescreened are successful and are passed on to a recruiter. o Interviewing- completed by a recruiter (exempt position) - cost of $70 per applicant; 50% of applicants who are interviewed are successful and are then tested. o Employee testing- administered by a human resource assistant- cost of $30 per applicant; 50% of those tested are successful and will have a drug screening check done. o Drug screening- coordinated by a human resource assistant- cost of $35 per applicant; 95% will have a successful drug screening and then have a background check completed. o Background check- coordinated by a human resource assistant using a third party contracted provider- cost of $25 per applicant; 60% will have a successful background check and will be submitted to a credit check. o Credit check- conducted by a human resource assistant-cost of $35 per applicant; 60% will fail the credit check. ISSUES TO ADDRESS The following list represents a minimum guideline of issues that should be addressed:  How does this current hiring process affect the successful filling of current position vacancies?  What process changes can be made to help your budget concerns?  How many new employees have to be hired each month to meet the objectives of the “hire ahead” plan?  What is happening to the vacancy rate?  What is the vacancy rate?  What can be done to improve your vacancy rate?  What can be done to understand the turnover rate?  What can be done to improve the turnover rate?  How does this scenario affect the bottom line of the company?

I am having trouble answering these 2 questions. What is the vacancy rate? What is happening to the vacancy rate? can u please write 2 detail paragraphs for each question. (Thanks)

Sound is passing perpendicularly through an open window whose dimensions are 1.1 m x 0.75 m. The sound intensity level is 83 dB above the threshold of human hearing. How much sound energy comes through the window in one hour?