28th June, 2015

Group Assignment Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

Managers and HR Professionals at Sands Corporation- Friends or Foes?

Sands Corporation has come a long way from being a small scale organization to a medium sized one,
with a resultant increase in employee strength and a more intricate relationship between different
departments. The subsequent change in the role of HR department has been met with allegations made
by several supervisors vis--vis employee hiring, attrition, compensation and training. Assuming that
the allegations are true, the following recommendations should be considered by Sands Corporation.
Reason for HR
Setup
Federal
Compliance

Complex
organization
al setup
Communica
tion gap
between HR
deptt. and
supervisors
Legal issues

HR
Responsibility
Workforce
diversity

Conflict

Proposed Solution

Inappropriate
job fit.

Hiring

Lose out on
good
candidates due
to slow
processing.

Compensation

Attrition of
high
performers
due to pay
limit.

Employee
Appraisal

Allegedly
untrue
appraisals.

Training

Programs
waste time
since they are
not job
oriented.

Attitude
surveys

Managers are
deterred from
taking tough
decisions.

HR department should have an initial consultation

with supervising mangers to determine the required
job criteria.
Preliminary screening should be done by HR while
final screening should be a collective responsibility of
both supervisors and HR.
Larger pool of candidates should be considered.
HR should abet a fast track paper process in case of
highly talented candidates.
HR should use a more holistic sample space in its
surveys and an appropriate change in reward criteria
should then be considered.
Non-financial rewards should be given in case of
budgetary constraints.
HR should give concrete assurances to supervisors
that further investigations will not take place if they
adequately justify their reasons for appraisal ratings.
To disincentivize medium scores, supervisors should
be held accountable for any score, and not just high &
low ratings.
Classification (technical, managerial etc.) of
employees should be done followed by tailor-made
training programs.
HR should continue developmental efforts to work
towards a sustainable workforce, while taking
feedback from both employees and their supervisors
on utility of the training programs.
HR should conduct attitude surveys among both
workers and managers, and launch investigates to
solve any discrepancies that may arise.

If the above mentioned recommendations are adopted and the line managers and HR Department start
recognizing and acknowledging each others roles as important and interdependent, these issues can
be resolved.