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Final Case Study
Brianna Mair, Daniel Salmers, and Makaela Wolsegger
Durham College
HRM 5204
Dr. Graham
April 11, 2021
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Part 1 – The Strategic Plan
We recommend that Asha Co. employs both acquisition and incremental growth
strategies for current and future success, respectfully. The company already plans to expand their
product line to keep up with market demand; however, there are concerns that they may not be
able to keep up with technological advances due to their production equipment, techniques, and
processes being out of date. To remain competitive, Asha Co. must either gain access to current
technology and facilities, or upgrade their current facilities.
Acquisition is the process whereby one company gains ownership of another company
(Belcourt & Podolsky, 2019). Acquisition of the manufacturing business is the most immediate
way to improve their current technology; compared to upgrading all of the currently used
technology and retraining staff. Although acquiring an entire manufacturing company is costly,
Asha Co. would also be acquiring all of the competencies and knowledge possessed by the
current workers. All the staff currently employed by the company to be acquired are already
trained on how to utilize the machines and technologies; therefore, they could immediately begin
generating revenue without much additional training (Entrepreneur, 2015). Acquiring the
manufacturing business whose production line and facilities are up-to-date is just the first step in
the company successfully accommodating the intended growth of their product line. Access to
this updated technology would allow Asha Co. to produce their products more efficiently and,
hopefully, earn higher profits which would then support the future incremental growth strategy.
The implementation of the incremental growth strategy, which can be attained by
expanding the client base, increasing products and services, and changing the distribution
networks or using technology, would require Asha Co. to further expand their product lines to
attract a larger client base (Belcourt & Podolsky, 2019). Furthermore, it would be recommended
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that Asha Co. upgrade outdated technology to accommodate demand. Implementing these two
strategies contributes to a more sustainable and continual growth cycle where updating
technology allows the expansion of products, resulting in a larger client base, increased profits
and better trained staff.
The ability to expand their product lines through the use of their newly updated
technology will allow Asha Co. to remain successful and competitive in the future by reaching a
larger, more diverse pool of customers with different interests and needs. In order to achieve
their plan for long term success, given the current situation, the specific changes that are required
include updating their technology through the acquisition of the manufacturing company,
training their employees on the new technology, and expanding their product lines to reach a
larger client base. It is key that the company pays attention to changing market demands as the
market for outdoor activity goods grows. Taking advantage of the changing interests of their
customers will ensure that Asha Co. remains relevant in a growing, competitive market.
Some possible barriers to success are funding for upgrading technology and training staff,
potential staff resistance, and possible manufacturing staff layoffs. Upgrading current
manufacturing technology and retraining staff to be competent in using this new technology
takes time and money. If Asha Co. is not prepared to fund these structural changes, they may be
required to lay off newer manufacturing employees, or staff who are underperforming.
Part 2 - The Human Resources Plan
The current strengths of Ahsa Co.’s workforce include their motivation, loyalty, and low
turnover rate, possibly as a result of the high levels of internal promotion. Unfortunately, there is
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a clear lack of cohesion and high levels of inefficiency among the workforce, specifically in the
manufacturing department. There are also undefined job roles within the various departments,
leading to ambiguity regarding employee roles, responsibilities, and the competencies required
for success. Training and development within the company is not up to industry standards and
the resulting inefficiency costs Asha Co. a great deal of unnecessary overtime pay. It is evident
that some departments are lacking in skill, such as the accounting department, whereas other
departments are being assigned responsibilities that they are not qualified to take on, such as the
human resources and marketing departments. In order to gain a competitive advantage, Asha Co.
should seek to develop a more highly skilled workforce. The first step is to conduct a needs
analysis to collect information regarding the organization, the HR department, and the current
technical environment including the hardware and operating systems used (Belcourt & Podolsky,
2019, p. 214). The needs analysis will reveal gaps between the organization’s current state and
it’s desired (more competitive) state, including the gaps between employee performance and
desired performance (Belcourt & Podolsky, 2019, p. 214). Following the needs analysis, Asha
Co. must reexamine the job descriptions used within the company using a job analysis. The lack
of clearly defined positions and the random assignment of responsibilities and tasks to
unqualified staff is taking a toll on the effective functioning of various departments within the
organization. By performing a job analysis for each position, Asha Co., and it’s employees, will
better understand the expectations of each job and the relevant job-attributes that are required to
perform successfully (Belcourt & Podolsky, 2019, p. 140).
After the job analysis, Asha Co. can examine whether employees are sufficiently skilled
and knowledgeable in their positions. Providing training to employees in order to refine and
improve their KSAOs would support the efficient functioning of each department. For example,
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the information systems department’s primary functions include billing, payroll, and purchasing,
and there is no human resources information system (HRIS). In order to improve this
department, Asha Co. should implement an HRIS and train its staff (both the information
systems department and HR staff) on how to use the new software.
Part of ensuring that all employees are competent in their roles is the implementation of a
succession management plan. Currently, staff appear to be assigned roles somewhat randomly
(the top position in the HR department is held by a sales representative who inherited the
position after the former incumbent retired). It is critical that Asha Co. groom top talent to take
on key positions within the company to prevent unqualified workers from taking on
responsibilities outside of their competencies. A succession management plan also ensures that
employees’ career goals are recognized and respected, and that employees are not placed in a
position they would not be willing to take otherwise. If employees are moved suddenly, it is
critical that Asha Co. provides sufficient training for the employees to succeed in their newly
assigned role.
Tying into the necessity of a succession management plan, there are also issues with
Asha Co.’s recruitment and selection processes. The marketing department is made up of sales
representatives and their managers. In addition, one manager has been given responsibility for
the company’s advertising program. Clearly, these employees are not qualified to perform
marketing functions for the organization. It is important that Asha Co. reevaluates their
recruitment and selection functions so that they are obtaining the top, most qualified candidates.
By seeking out skilled workers, Asha Co. can ensure that each department is composed of
employees with the proper qualifications and KSAOs. In addition, the research team has
evidently been lacking in their product development. We suggest that Asha Co. seek to hire one
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or two more experienced researchers to help address the lack of productivity. These new
employees should be familiar with the trends in the outdoor activity industry (such as how
demand changes with the seasons), and should remain up to date with advancements in the
industry that could help Asha Co. remain competitive. Recruitment and selections functions
should also be collapsed and made the responsibility of the HR department to ensure that all
candidates have the same experience with the company. Department managers may be involved
in this process, but the HR department should spearhead these operations.
Asha Co. must next determine whether it is fairly compensating it’s workers. Currently,
the manufacturing workers are paid hourly and are able to easily take advantage of their
available overtime pay. As such, Asha Co. should examine their current policies surrounding
overtime hours and pay. We recommend either renegotiating the current collective agreement for
the union workers to include salaries, or to adjust the policies relating to overtime pay to prohibit
employees from working additional hours at their own will. Employees should be able to
complete their assigned workload in a specified number of hours. In order to avoid paying
unnecessary overtime, it may be helpful to implement an overtime hours request policy in which
employees may request to work overtime at the discretion of the department manager.
We recommend that Asha Co. outsource its accounting, marketing functions. Although
this may result in layoffs, we suggest that the current accounting and marketing employees be
reassigned, if possible, to other departments within the organization. If necessary, Asha Co.
should provide training to these staff so that they can succeed in their new roles. This would
prevent Asha Co. from having to lay off the employees in these departments; although it would
likely cost a significant amount of money to retrain all the employees. It is important that Asha
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Co. monopolize these employees’ current skills and transfer staff to positions where they can
utilize their transferable skills.
Once again, the most prominent barrier to successfully achieving the specified goals is
funding and staff resistance. In order to save money, Asha Co. should outsource it’s accounting
and marketing department and reassign its current staff to alternate positions. Asha Co. currently
has a small amount of debt, but the processes mentioned above can be costly. Viewing
restructuring and training as investments for long-term success, resulting in increased
productivity and revenue can address this barrier by changing the perspective from overspending
or losing money into an investment for future gains. To address staff resistance, we suggest that
Asha Co, keep an open and transparent line of communication to keep staff at ease during all the
potential changes. Moreover, being transparent about the reasons for these changes and the
subsequent benefits, such as a more rigorous training process to expand employee KSAOs,
reduced overtime to avoid staff burnout, and an improved merit pay system, should help to ease
any negative feelings or thoughts employees may have.
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References
Belcourt, M., & Podolsky, M. (2019). Strategic Human Resources Planning (7th Ed.). Nelson Education
Ltd.
Entrepreneur (2015). Should You Start a Business From Scratch or Buy an Existing Business?.
retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240606