Background of the James River Air Conditioning Company
For the purpose of this task, I chose the human resource department at the James River Air Conditioning Company. The company specializes in commercial and home comfort air conditioning systems in addition to building automation systems. The company stands upon the philosophy of an entrepreneurial spirit that seeks to provide world class service. The mission of the Company is to do what it says it will do, when it says it will do it. It also ensures that whatever it does has a positive outcome from everyone concerned. The company uses a practical energy strategy that makes sense to customers in terms of sustainability and reduction of foreign oil dependence.
The human resource department seeks to ensure that employees strive to achieve the overall objectives of the company. The company as well as the human resource department has customer based objectives.
I settled on this particular company due to its size. The company does not have a large workforce and revenue base. The process of selecting a suitable organization for this assignment involved online research. The key words used for the search were ‘small companies in the US’ and ‘top small companies’. Due to the nature of the assignment, the research was only limited to the management human resource department at the company.
The types of human, physical and financial resources used to achieve organizational objectives
Management of human resource department is selected for the purpose of completing this task. As the manager of the human resource department, I will be responsible for executing several responsibilities including dismissal, training, and recruitment of employees. I will also be in charge of remuneration and other related duties.
For effective management of a department there are resources needed. These resources enable the manager to meet the strategic goals of the organization, fulfill expectation of stakeholders, and meet market needs. The resources are classified into three main categories: human, physical, and financial resources. Financial resources include the existing funds and the ability to raise more funds. The table below summarizes the financial resources needed for managing the department.
Human resources are essential for meeting organizational goals. The skill base of the organization is the central focus of the human resources. The skill base has to be sufficient to meet the chosen strategies of the business. It should also be flexible enough to meet new requirements that emerge due to the dynamic nature of the market. Therefore, two types of human resources are needed for effective management of the department. They include existing staffing resources and changes required to the existing staff.
With regards to physical resources, there is a wide range of operation within the department that requires physical capability to deliver on targeted goals. The information technology system is the major physical resource for the department because of the need to integrate the functions of other departments with that of my department. There is also need for facilities that include offices and office equipments.
An annual plan of the human and physical resources to meet the objectives
The first objective identified is customer satisfaction. This objective relates to the organization’s mission and strategy in the sense that the company strives to satisfy the needs of the customers through providing world class service and ensuring that its products make sense to customers’ needs. The second identified objective is efficiency. This relates to the company’s mission, vision, and strategy in the sense that through efficient operation, the department helps the organization to meet its goals and live according to its mission statement. The third identified objective is customer retention.
The plan for using resources over the course of one year is a key process for successful management of the department and achieving strategies. Through the plan, I will be able to meet the above set objectives and review the progress. The plan will limit my commitment to budget allocation. The process of planning resources is done based on individual resources. This implies that planning for human resource is done separate from planning for financial and physical resources.
Human resource planning for the department involves the following processes: strategic planning, resource strategy, scenario planning, forecasting demand and supply of human resource, and analyzing labor turnover and work environment. All the above processes are limited to the department and not the whole organization.
The department has a total of six staff members each performing particular duties. Throughout the year, the performance measures over the 12 month period for each of the staff members are as shown in the table below.
The department requires six main employees as human resources. They include:
- The department head
- The department head deputy
- Staff associate secretariat
- Talent acquisition officer
- Learning and development officer
- Compensation and benefits officer
These six staff members only head the main functions of the department. They hold the office on an expert basis but may be required to have other staff members assisting them. Despite the size of the organization, the roles may become overwhelming for the six staff members. Therefore, the office of the department head and his deputy might require additional staff for administrative support, employment diversity duties, frontline officer for research and computing, and frontline officer for general infrastructure and administration. The compensation and benefit office may also require additional workforce in monitoring, informatics, health insurance, and social welfare. The learning and development office may require an assistant to help in the duties involved. The talent acquisition office may also require additional workforce in recruitment, student training, and record keeping. This is in order to ensure that all the staff members in every unit of the organization function to achieve the overall strategies and goals of the organization.
The following is the financial plan for the next 12 months. It is based on projections and forecasted data.
The plan considers the unit rate for all departmental expenses. The financials requirements are aimed at increasing return on investment through both human and financial capital.
The department currently has 6 staff members and the following are its major financial requirements:
- The cost on remuneration and benefits for the staff.
- Cost of training other employees and staff members within the organization
- Administrative support and overhead cost
- Cost of running physical facilities within the department
- Cost of maintaining physical facilities
The estimated budget summary for the whole year is therefore is $102,000. It is inclusive of additional cost required for any adjustments of staff members within the department. The estimation also includes the cost of maintaining and using physical resources such as office equipments.
The sources of the resources in the annual plan
The organization relies majorly on sales and stakeholder capital for funding. These two are its major sources of finance. Human capital is based on the recruitment process.
Every business plan has to be developed in terms of real tangible outcomes. The outcomes have to be real and measurable to the market and the customers. This is because a firm is obligated to both its customers and the market. The measurement of the outcome is to be done both horizontally and vertically within all the layers of an organization. All the expected outcomes have to be measured continually even if they involve external parties including channel partners and suppliers. A business plan must also develop an analysis of the market. This is where management utilizes tools of analysis to obtain important information about the market.
Based on the findings, decisions can be made to plan on strategic action. A plan should be able to show the strengths of the business, its weaknesses, the opportunities, and threats within the external business environment.
The kind of leadership within the department should be one that encourages: personal thoughts, collaboration, effective communication, consensus, and evaluative input toward solving a problem with a positive impact in the environment it have applied. This style of leadership stimulates motivation by stirring emotional intelligence in organizational members toward the attainment of a specific goal with positive implication in the overall organizational performance. The internal leadership targets the development of talent to attain the full potential of a team under the influence of corporate culture. It is supported on an organization’s infrastructure and embedded in its corporate culture for effectiveness.
The company’s strength relies mostly in its ability to increase both utilization and rates while maintaining or improving its cost structure. It also relies on its ability to appropriately allocating resources to markets where it provides value. The company needs to examine how it allocates its resources for various business operations. This will help in reducing cost, increasing asset productivity, and focusing on future investment. The company also banks its success on recruitment and retention of its workforce.
Improving cost effectiveness of the supply chain is essential for effective performance. The supply chain has complexities and risks involved in it. Amidst the complexities, supply chain should focus on increasing coordination among the various levels involved. The company needs to develop an approach to supply chain management which is driven on measurements. The metrics used in measuring performance have been described and the company needs to conduct regular monitoring of its operations. Supply chain management is also faced with numerous risks which can cause the company to incur hefty costs. Risk management programs should be in effect helping the company to identify and mitigate risks, and to make accurate forecast
Cost effective measures in the manufacturing unit of the company can improve the effectiveness of supply chain management. The cost effective measures for improving operations in the manufacturing facilities include: ensuring delivery of finished products on time, effective management of inventory, ensuring availability of materials, reducing the rate of defects, and improving plant utilization. Another point of concern is that all these requirements are competing and the company is expected to balance all of them at the same time reducing risks and checking costs
There are various methods which can be used to provide an overview of the performance of supply chain in terms of all the key aspects involved. The metrics do not only have to measure cost and expenditure incurred in the supply chain process, but also measure operational aspects and key supplier information. In order for the firm to meet its strategic goals, the use of the metrics will be helpful in keeping track of the progress. The supply chain strategy used has to assist the firms in meeting its general requirements. Some of the areas to be considered when evaluating the performance of supply chain in the firm include: quality of products, defects in products, stock outs, and productivity.
The contingency arrangements to ensure the organisation continues to operate in the event of a resource supply failure
The part of the organization handling human resource is very important and has to remain stable even in the event of a resource failure. The possible resource failures in the department could include: system break down, disruption in supply chain, and employee turnover.
Supply chain disruptions can either be as a result of internal factors or external factors. Internally, there can be poor planning of procurement, poor forecasting and planning of demand, changes in demands by customers within a lead time for procurement, and having a less flexible network of supply chain planning. Externally, there can be too much reliance on a single source of procurement, out sourcing important functions without considering their interdependency and compatibility with other operations in the organization, and extraneous factors such as natural disasters, terrorism, weather, and political events.
Having a lean supply chain planning could offer a solution in case of any supply chain disruptions. The approach is associated with using research and practice as the basis of operations in the department. Through the lean planning approach, it is possible to eliminate wastage and increase value addition on every operation of the department.
Managing the supply chain in the firm is critical for its success and sustainability. Integrated supply chain management covers various areas. The working fields that will help to achieve excellence in supply chain management include logistics processes, cross functional processes, supply chain integration, the IT system, performance management and improvement, and value stream design. All these areas being integrated will help achieve a robust, flexible, effective, efficient, and adaptive supply chain. The management of the firm will look at the critical issues that pose a challenge to the effective management and operation of supply chain and ensure that it works against encountering these challenges.
Avoiding challenges related to change drives for demand will require that the supply chain management focuses on improving the customer collaboration as well as supplier collaboration. The firm needs to understand the demand for its products and ensure that there is collaborative forecasting and planning. In addition, the firm needs to ensure supplier collaboration where the main focus is on improving the process of planning with suppliers. With regards to supplier collaboration, the firm further needs to increase the flexibility and reliability of suppliers as well as supporting the capabilities of suppliers.
Mitigating risks in supply chain management is important to reduce potential disruptions in the future. Disruptions can occur in the following areas: process, control, and environmental. Mitigation of risks is therefore handled through putting in place a risk management program which addresses all these three areas. Environmental risks mainly relate to the external environment upon which the firm works. Both political and legal frameworks pose a challenge to the firm. Mitigating environmental risks might require the firm rethinking the location of its suppliers and the production unit. Process and control risks are mainly internal and can involve changes in technology, organizational culture, leadership, and process. Mitigating internal risks will require that the firm closely monitors its operations and internal business environment in order to reduce uncertainty
Recording the use of human and physical resources
Operating under the modern business environment requires that the company implements strategic management of its financial asset and accounts. The business environment forces the company to be highly competitive. The company has developed a business strategy that is coherent to enable the use of its accounting tools to support the control, decision making, and strategic planning of the organization. Implementation and management of the accounting tools is therefore the most important area of focus in its financial and accounting management. In order to come up with the appropriate financial management tool, the company has put into consideration the delivery channels, the geographical markets, the type of customers, and the identity of its products and services. This is expected to assist with the process of implementation of the financial management tools.
There are many legal considerations that the company has considered before the venturing into the new markets and in readiness of the initial public offering. Even though some of the process simply involve filling out legal forms of business registrations, the company has also gone a step further to seek professional advice from its team of legal experts. The company’s experts have the knowledge of the financial, legal, and economic environment that affects the business in the new markets and when listed for trading in stock exchange markets. The legal experts have advised the company all the possible problems that may arise in the process of its operations. For instance, in the contract and leases the company may be required to sign and the business structure. The human resource department also has to comply with the employment laws within the various countries where the company will establish itself. All these are legal considerations that company seeks to consider before making any move or venture into any market.
Internal operation entails the process, the design and system of the business. The internal operation affects the overall performance and results of the company. In order to come up with an effective internal operation, the company seeks to conduct regular business assessment, quarterly strategic planning, and business revitalization programs. Business assessment refers to assessing and evaluating the environment in which the company is set. Within this evaluation process, the company will be considering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist within the business environment. The entire workforce is expected to be involved in the solution. The expected result of the business assessment is a productive team that is motivated and works towards achieving the strategic goals of the organization. The company also seeks to be conducting quarterly planning. Even though the company is growing to some huge scale, it still wishes to maintain quarterly planning since it is more effective compared to annual planning. A lot of things can be accomplished within the three months or 90 days period that constitute a quarter of a year