HR strategic and consulting roles
matador
Module 1: Linking Human Resources Management to the Strategic
Plan
Your instructor may ask you to respond to one or more the case scenarios below. If your
instructor does not ask you to respond to these case scenarios, you can still respond on your
own to help you study for the course.
Human Solutions Software, Inc.
You have just received exciting news. You have been appointed to be the new human resources
manager for Human Solutions Software, Inc. (HSS).
Located in Maryland, HSS is a fairly new firm that started two years ago when several software
developers and business people got together to develop simplified software for organizations to
keep track of their human resource functions. Initially there were five part-time
employee/owners, but HSS soon secured several government contracts that had a cumulative
worth of over $10 million, and a number of corporate contracts also are pending. By the end of
the first year HSS had 35 employees and in the next year added another 30, plus several
individuals they contract with to do specific tasks during high-demand periods.
During these first two years, the human resource functions have been handled primarily by one
of the original founders, who has a degree in accounting and management. He has consulted at
times about human resource functions with a general-practice attorney whom the company
keeps on retainer to answer legal questions. Almost all of the company's founders agree that the
company needs a human resource professional to manage their human resource functions.
About half of the company's employees are computer professionals and about half are clerical,
management, and marketing people. The organization is run by the five founders and is
incorporated with those five comprising the board of directors. Although there is an officially
designated president, management decisions are usually made by consensus of the five
founders.
HSS has been projected to grow quickly in the next few years, with a total of 100 employees in
the next year and more than 200 employees in five years. These figures are not backed up by
anything concrete, however; they are merely guesses. Most of the founders are beginning to
realize that they need a strategic plan and a more formal decision-making structure. Hiring you
as the human resources manager is one of the first steps to a more formally organized company.
In-Depth Scenario 1
There is debate among the founders at HSS as to the role the new HR department should play in
decision-making and in strategic-plan development. The founder who has been taking care of
human resources functions says that HR needs only to keep track of pay and benefits, so there is
no need for HR to be involved in decisions about the future of HSS. Another of the founders says
she thinks that HR should play a big role in future planning for HSS and that HR should also be
providing support for training and motivation of employees as well as a way to evaluate
employees' performance.
At the end of your first week at HSS, the founder who wants an expanded role for HR comes into your office and closes the door behind her. She asks you to draft a memo justifying why HR
should be involved in the strategic-planning efforts and outlining the different roles HR can play
in the management of HSS. She also tells you about how the founder who managed HR in the
past fought against hiring you because he thought you were overqualified to manage the
"limited" HR needs of HSS.
Part 1
Write a report in which you justify HR's role in drafting a strategic plan. The report should be
clear enough so people will read it, but complete enough to convince the founders of the
importance of a professional HR function being part of the strategic plan at HSS.
The founder who wants an expanded role for HR is concerned that the other founders might see
your report as self-serving, so she sees it as important for you to find and use other sources that
support what you say in the memo. You must show the founders that what you say is accepted
practice at other companies.
Part 2
The founder also wants you to make a presentation to the board based on the above report, so
you must prepare PowerPoint slides and any appropriate charts and graphs to support HR's role
in strategic planning.