HRM410 Course Project: First part due in Week 4 – Final part due in Week 8

To create an original Strategic Staffing Handbook that contains many of the vital tools used in the staffing process. This manual should be written with management in mind as the audience. Although the HR department will likely own the handbook, it will be shared with hiring managers to assist them with understanding the company’s philosophy, methodology, and practice on staffing.  This is a course project, worth half of your grade for the course, with two deliverables. First, Parts 1 – 4 in Week 4 – for 200 points). Next, the overall consolidated project, in Week 8, for 300 points.

Turnitin reports will be monitored, and no more than 20% of your paper should be quoted or borrowed from outside sources.   APA 6th Ed. should be used to format and cite your work. 

Project Instructions.

You are the new HR Business Partner at a medium-size organization and it is your job to create an original (not copied from the text or other sources) handbook with many of the tools needed in the strategic staffing process. The body of the project should develop the following staffing tools. Organize your paper through use of headings, which correspond to the following topics and tools:

1. Provide the brief background of your organization (you can use a real one or fictitious one.) Introduce the company to which the strategic staffing handbook applies.  Talk about things such as the number of employees, years in business, strategic focus, mission, the types of positions this company has, and it’s purpose in the industry.  End with a strong thesis statement that sets the stage for the rest of the handbook.  In other words the last one or two sentences of this section should summarize what you plan to talk about in this document.

2. Define strategic staffing, as it pertains to your organization. (TCOs 1 and 2).

Transition from the introduction where you talked about the company to talking about what the definition of strategic staffing is, why it’s important to staff strategically and how you will go about making sure that strategic staffing happens in your company. You will cite things you use to help you develop the definition of strategic staffing. Explain how staffing structure, policies, practices, procedures, information systems, budgets and legal reporting requirements can be implemented as an integrated staffing management system to help organizations meet their strategic goals. At the end of the section, you need to transition into the job analysis section, where you discuss the importance of having job analysis in place in order to effectively staff the organization.

3. Job Analysis (TCO 4). Identify the components of a complete job analysis (job content, requirements, competencies, compensation) and explain how the different parts of an integrated staffing management system contributes to each component. Explain how your organization will perform job analysis (i.e.  method, timing, and who). If JA will be done differently at different levels of the organization, be sure to explain that difference.

4. Legal Aspects of Staffing. (TCO 3) Given the possible vulnerabilities in today’s litigious environment, identify and describe the laws and regulations that affect the recruiting and selection process. (Include at least 3 laws/regulations that pertain to recruiting or selection, and explain their pertinence to your company’s strategy on staffing, in plain language geared to your middle managers and hiring managers).

5. Recruiting (TCO 5). Describe the decisions involved in planning for effective recruitment, including sources (internal, external), types, and messages.

After putting a job analysis in place for all positions in an organization, we know what we are looking for in regards to KSAs needed for a position when hiring. Given this information, you can discuss the method(s) for recruiting you would use.  Discuss what method(s) you might use and the importance of the method(s) you have chosen.  How would you use that method? Provide the rationale behind why that method is appropriate for your organization.  In this section you would cite information related to what your recruiting method(s) are, and how they might be used.  Your rationale may also be cited, but is likely that that is how the info is related to your company and thus would not be cited, as it is original work. You will also include an example of a position posting, as it may appear “on” or “in” the method you chose to recruit.  This position posting is focused on one position in the organization, thus, this entire section can be focused on one position if you desire.

6. Selecting the right Candidates. (TCO 6).

After recruiting quality candidates, organizations have to decide what tools it will use to select the candidate(s) to hire.  These tools consist of a variety of assessments, such as interviews, personality testing, among many others.  All selection tools chosen, must be job relevant.  What methods will you use to select the right candidates for your organization?

a  Discuss the interview process your company will use during hiring. Discuss who will be involved, why, and provide a list of interview questions (at least 8) which are legal, non-generic, and specific to the position (you posted above) in the organization – develop these questions for the position you mentioned in the job posting earlier in the handbook. Explain to managers how to create similar questions for other jobs they will need to fill. If you use the questions from the Week 5 assignment, be sure they are specific to the job posted above.

b. State what pre-employment tests and assessments will be allowed and used at your organization. Provide the names of at least three such tests or assessments, and provide details about their use. Explain the philosophy of the company towards these tests/assessments, and guide managers in their use. (i.e. performance, personality, honesty and integrity, background, criminal, drug tests, etc.).  Please make sure to note which assessments cannot be implemented until after a conditional offer of employment. This section should include a balance of assessments (or selection tools) you will use both before and after an offer.

7. Performance Management (TCO 7).  Describe how ongoing evaluation and review contribute to the retention of successful employees. Identify and describe the method and process of job performance review your company will use. Provide instructions for calibration of performance appraisal across the company.

8. Retention. (TCO 8). Retaining successful employees allows an organization to minimize the costs associated with recruitment and training of new employees, identify how workforce management practices (workforce team formation, more horizontal organizational charts, etc.) can affect effective staffing decisions that meet organizational needs for flexibility and encourage employee retention.  Discuss the things your organization will put in place to help retain high quality employees.

9. Provide a closing summary to the paper. This summary should be directed to your instructor – summarize the main points and utility of the handbook you created, and provide information on what you found hard, or easy, about the assignment. What did you learn from this? What new ideas did you come up with? What would you like to find out more about?

In the end, you should have a Strategic Staffing Handbook that you can reference in the future. Build this assignment for yourself!

Project Tips and Templates.

1. The course project should be 12-15 full pages in length, double-spaced.

2. Locate and download the project template from doc-sharing. You must use this for this project.

3. In Week 4 – you should complete and submit parts 1-4 above as your initial draft. Your instructor will provide feedback to let you know if you are on the right track, as well as ideas for improvement. This is worth 200 points.

4. On Wednesday of Week 8, you should complete and submit the entire project. This is worth 300 additional points. Make any requested changes to sections 1-4, and submit everything as a new, consolidated assignment.

5. Download the grading rubrics from doc-sharing. This explains how your professor will grade the draft and the final project.

Be sure to note the deadlines for the draft and the final project! The draft is due at the end of Week 4. The final project is due on Saturday of Week 8!