PART A: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

PART A: SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

Question 1.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fallon & Saville Pty. Ltd. has appointed you as their new Human Resource (HR) Manager. The organisation has, until now, treated human resource management (HRM) as a set of distinct and unrelated administrative tasks, and as such has never had a HR Manager before. The CEO has called a special meeting of all managers at Fallon & Saville Pty. Ltd to introduce you. Your task in this meeting is to educate the organisations managers as to why you were hired by explaining to them, in detail, the matters set out below:

Question 1a.

What is human resource management (HRM)? Describe the multiple roles a Human Resource (HR) Manager may perform in their organisation to ensure HRM is conducted effectively.

Please type your answer below adding space as required.

Question 1b.

What is strategic human resource management (SHRM)? Describe the process of SHRM.

Please type your answer below adding space as required.

Question 2.

Having concluded your presentation to the managers of Fallon & Saville Pty. Ltd. you head back to your office. You recognise that many of the managers in the meeting appeared quite sceptical and unconvinced as to the value of your appointment. You realise that you need to get some results, and fast, so you turn your attention to one of the key problems the CEO has tasked you with finding a way to increase productivity, which has been in serious decline for the past 18 months.

Before you can assist in finding a solution, you decide that you first need to get to the bottom of the problem and determine if the decline in productivity is due to a skills issue or other factors. You decide the best place to start your investigation of the problem is to conduct a training needs analysis of the organisations staff. This will require the CEO to approve the resourcing of the process. To ensure she is making an informed decision, she asks you the following questions:

Question 2a.

What is a training needs analysis (TNA)? How is a TNA conducted?

Please type your answer below adding space as required.

Question 2b. How will conducting a TNA help the organisation identify if the productivity problem is due to staff lacking the skills they need to perform their roles or other factors?

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PART B: CASE STUDY

Dude food outlet - A buffet of problems

Le Frenchy Restaurant, located on the main shopping strip of the Sydney suburb of Parramatta, has long been a favourite of the local residents.

For more than 30 years the restaurant has served classic French food to its loyal clientele who come there for dishes such as Duck a l Orange, Bouillabaisse and Beef Bourguignon.

However, as the clientele has gotten older and the demographics of the suburb have changed from that of a family suburb to one favoured by single 25 35 year olds, the business has been in steady decline. Last year the restaurant failed to make a profit for the first time. Not at all helped by the COVID pandemic, restrictions on numbers, and its impact on staff availability, especially in the kitchen.

Three months ago, Delta, a leading international restaurant chain with establishments in more than fifty countries, attracted by the location of the restaurant and the potential market, approached the owner of Le Frenchys restaurant with an attractive offer to buy it. After weeks of negotiations the restaurant was finally sold.

The new owner of the restaurant made a commitment to the previous owner to retain as many of the employees that worked at Le Frenchy as possible.

Most of the employees of the old restaurant have worked for the previous owner for between 10 20 years as part-timers. The cooks are all trained in French cooking, some having worked in France. The floor staff, waiters and bartenders are mainly middle-aged women who work part-time on the restaurants quieter nights (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday). The busy nights were covered by casuals.

The new restaurant, to be called, The Bulls Horns, is aimed at a younger age group than its predecessor. Young professionals in the area with no dependents (children), high salaries and little time to cook. Specialities of the American BBQ restaurant (also sold in all the restaurants it has in Australia and other countries) include smoked ribs, brisket, fried chicken, and a host of burgers including their famous Bulls Horns double burger with loaded fries and slaw. The restaurant will have a bar selling mainly beer but also several complex cocktails. It will also have a desserts bar, with the wait staff having to construct the gastronomical delights!

Delta has invested a great deal of money and hope in this project and see it as the flagship for what they hope will be many more outlets across the country in the next three years.

Huge expenditure has been spent on marketing the Bulls Horns and delaying the opening is not possible. Unless another COVID-related lock down is ordered by the government, the first customers will walk through the door on April 1st 2022.

The HR Manager for the Australasian operations, Sandra Dee, has been given responsibility for ensuring that all human resource issues are sorted out within a tight time frame of one and a half months.

Two weeks after beginning the process a number of problems have emerged causing a headache for Sandra and a great deal of hostility between the old employees of Le Frenchy who were kept on and the newly appointed Bulls Horns employees.

The Le Frenchy employees were all paid a flat hourly rate of pay by their old employer ($38 per hour) and a share of the tips that had been paid by customers at the end of each evening. They were all paid cash in hand for their work.

Delta, which prides itself on providing incentives to its employees, lets individual waiters keep tips that have been paid by customers at the end of the night for themselves. This means that a really good waiter can some nights earn more than $200 in tips as well as their normal hourly rate of pay of $45 per hour (before tax). Delta also has a staff member of the month award, which sees the winner get to choose their section of the dining room for the next month. The winner being decided based on the tips each staff member accumulates in any month. The old Le Frenchy staff are angry about this, because most are part-time workers, and work the quieter nights, they think they will never be able to win the award. Even of greater concern to them though is that whilst Deltas the hourly rate is higher than they used to get at Le Frenchy, it wont be after tax is taken out Delta wanting everything done by the book and refusing the same cash in hand system that the old restaurant used.

On learning of the new approach, the Le Frenchy employees have complained to both Sandra Dee and to the union representing hospitality workers, the Caf and Hotel Union of Australia.

Further challenges for Sandra Dee have also emerged. The old Le Frenchy employees had only been trained in a small number of tasks such as clearing tables and taking orders. The Delta method and motto is our team are the most highly trained in the industry. Each employee of Delta across its chain are trained in several different skills from preparing food, basic cooking, waiting on tables, making drinks and responsible service of alcohol, making desserts, and using the cash register. Staff are also expected to use automated touch screen point of service devices for taking orders which are then sent directly to the kitchen, whereas the Le Frenchy staff have only every used pen and paper when taking orders.

The skills mean that the highly flexible team at each store can help in several different areas when it gets really busy. They also get paid more per hour (before tax) than most staff in most other restaurants in the area because of these skills.

The old Le Frenchy employees have little interest in developing new skills or doing jobs differently from what they have done for the last ten to twenty years and have let the newly appointed supervisor known of their displeasure. In fact, they are still refusing to be fitted for their new uniforms, in which they are required to wear jeans with a western shirt and cowboy hat and boots!

Finally, but as big a problem for Sandra Dee are the attitudes of the old Le Frenchy cooks. Old school doesnt begin to describe their behaviour. All men, the Le Frenchy cooking crew take a less than subtle attitude to the role of women in the kitchen. Only good as dishwashers said one of them loudly, less than two days ago. Chefing is a mans job, said another. These comments and the blokey and aggressive behaviour seen on some cooking shows involving lots of screaming and bullying has led to three female chefs (two sent from franchises in the United States to help) walking out en masse and refusing to return if the Le Frenchy chefs stay. Sandra is concerned that Delta may face legal action from the female chefs because of the behaviour of the Le Frenchy cooking crew as they head towards the Bulls Horns Grand Opening. The one remaining sous chef is apparently not happy either, having suggested to Sandra that the harassment isnt restricted to sexist comments, but that she has on two separate occasions, arrived at the restaurant to discover rude pictures of private male body parts stuck to the inside of her locker door. On a further occasion, she tells Sandra, one of the Le Frenchy chefs locked her in the walk-in freezer, and only let her out 10 minutes later! When finally released they were all laughing at her, and in a cry baby voice indicated that she wasnt bright enough to use the internal safety door release. She had tried, but it hadnt worked.

This is a disaster. I really dont know where to start. Sandra confides, to her counterpart, the HR Manager of Deltas American operations. Can you help me? I need a set of fresh eyes. There are so many problems right now Im losing track of everything.

Case Study Questions:

Question 3

As the HR Manager of Deltas American operations, you agree to help Sandra Dee by listing down all of the HR problems you believe she will need to address at the new Bulls Horns restaurant in Paramatta. Using evidence from the case to support your claims, outline the HRM problems you have identified.

Please type your answer below adding space as required.

Question 4

Focussing on two (2) of the HRM problems you have identified at Deltas new Bulls Horns restaurant, what actions would you recommend Sandra Dee take to solve them? Explain.

Please type your answer below adding space as required.

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