INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

COVER SHEET

UTS: MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINE GROUP

SUBJECT NUMBER SUBJECT NAME

HR21720 Human Resource Management

SEMINAR DAY AND TIME LECTURERS NAME

Tuesday, Spring 2014

Jackie Gorrick
STUDENT UTS ID NUMBER STUDENT’S TELEPHONE NUMBER

00004301 0421053685
STUDENT’S SURNAME STUDENT’S FIRST NAME

Chen Charlie Xiao Wei

STUDENT’S EMAIL ADDRESS
Chen Charlie
chenxw@tpg.com.au

Note: Legitimate cooperation between students on assignments is encouraged, since it can be a real aid to understanding. It is
legitimate for students to discuss assignment questions at a general level, provided everybody involved makes some
contribution. However, students must produce their own individual written solutions. Copying someone else’s work is plagiarism,
and is unacceptable. If you sign the declaration below and it is found that the work submitted is not your own work the University
may impose penalties.

Declaration: I declare that this assignment is my individual work. I have not copied from any other student’s work or from any
other source except where due acknowledgment is made explicitly in the text, nor has any part been written for me by another
person.

If this assignment is submitted after the due date I understand that it will incur a penalty for lateness unless I have previously
had an extension of time approved and have attached the written confirmation of this extension.

Signature of Student Date 05/10/2014

DUE DATE RECEIVED DATE

7/10/2014

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Introduction
This reflective essay aims to examine my role and practice in the HR leadership Team as a
HR Performance Analysis Manager of the Crystal Palace Hotel during the period of the
Human Resource Simulation exercise. Based on the understanding of the objective of
simulation and with reference to the record keeping duties outlined in the table of page 6
of the HR Management Student Manual, I suggested that we use a simplified organization
structure which will enable us to distribute responsibilities based on each team member’s
strengths.
The author’s intention is to use this essay to document the journey of his study of the HR
Management and those in conjunction with the team activities in the HRManagement
Simulation.
The simulation requires us to analyse the information provided by the system to run a HR
department of a simulated hotel over a two years period and make a series of decisions
pertaining to staffing, wages, benefits, training and programs; as well as special decisions
that related to social responsibility, business ethics issues, environment forces and other
HR related topics.

Apparatus
The HR management Simulation (Interpretive Simulations@)

The HRManagement Simulation is an interactive computer based program which allows

students to take on the role of Human Resource Director (decision maker) for a growing
hospitality organization. It offers students near real-life management experience with
decisions that affect compensation, turnover, productivity, diversity, morale, quality,
accident rate, grievances, fringe benefits, absenteeism, and budget utilization. The
simulation allows us to make connections between HR principles and how those principles
can be used in real business (Smith et al. 2012, p. 6).
The HR Management Case
The organization and business is growing in the past few years. The HR department and its
contribution did not seem to keep pace with the company growth. The CEO asked the new
hired HR Director to ‘get this organization moving’. The HR Director needs to ensure the
changes/decisions he made will assist the entire organization to reach the goals and
objectives of the business (Smith et al. 2012, p. 6).

The Preparation before the Decision Making Process Started

All three of us are full time employees and did not have too much time to have face to face
meeting. In order to overcome this challenge, I created a team share drop box folder on the
Internet which will enable us to share information and ideas in a productive way. We have
leveraged this platform for team discussion, documentation sharing, which appeared to be
a key element of our decision making process.

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In order to share the work load and responsibility during the lifecycle of the game, I
created a simplified HR leadership team structure (Refer figure 1).

Figure 1: Team C HR Leadership Org. Chart

TITLE RESPONSIBILITY
HR Director: David Fox Ultimate decision maker, Budget
Control, Wage rates, employee benefits
and distribution of the funding, etc.
Performance Analysis Manager: Charlie Chen Draft goals/Strategy document;
Collection and analysis of all relevant
data, create data analysis reports in
each quarter using SWAT
methodology for supporting SMART
decisions
Performance Planning manager: Nick Carson Research Text book, relevant articles
on the Internet, Simulation guide in
order to support SMART decision in
each period.
Table 1: Team C HR Leadership Roles and Responsibilities

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Goal and Strategies Formulation
‘Five major components of the strategic management process are relevant to strategy
formulation’ (Kramar et al 2012, p.61).
I researched references and found a simplified strategy formulation process on page 61 of
the text book. The team used this well-structured work flow to guide our goals and
strategies creation.
External Analysis
 Opportunities
 Threats

Strategic
Mission Goals Choice

Internal Analysis
 Strengths
 Weaknesses

HR Input

Figure 2: Source: adapted from Kramar et al 2012, p. 61)

SWOT Analysis
‘A SWOT analysis involves identifying an organization’s strengths and weakness and the
opportunities and threats in its external environment’ (Kramar et al. 2012, p.6).
‘Many of the opportunities and threats in the external environment are people related. It is
HR role to keep close tabs on the external environment for human resource-related

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opportunities and threats, especially those directly related to HR function: potential labour
shortages, competitor wage rates’ and etc. (Kramar et al. 2012, p.61).
It was hard for us to create goals and strategies at the beginning of the simulation without
a constructive way to process information from difference resources. I leveraged the
methodology learnt from previous UTS EMBA course and developed a SWOT matrix
tables at the beginning of the simulation, in which all simulation related information were
arranged in a constructive way, thus enabling us to analyse the current situation at the
beginning of the game (refer: Figure 3).
POSITIVE NEGATIVE

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
• CEO willing to change • no policy on promotion
• allacated budget for HR improvement • bandaid apporach to fillout vancies in uper level of management
•hired some new blood for uper level of management • unmanaged training by each department is kind of waiste money
• average quality • low marle
INTERNAL • Business growing • higher accodent rate
• • Productivity low
• • Employee turnover rate higher
• • Grievance rate higher
• •Very meager benefits
• • higher cost of overtime
• • lack of female and minority workers

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
• Expention in past few years • compatitors
• Stable labour market • cost of labour
• Econmic ccondition is good •
• unemployment rate aveage •
EXTERNAL • HR Resource Information System •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •
• •

Figure 3: SWOT Analysis at the beginning of the HRManagement Simulation

The above SWOT matrix was the foundation of our goals and strategies. It provided
powerful visual picture of what we were facing in the beginning of the simulation. It
helped me to define correlation between Strengths, weaknesses as well as threats and
opportunities. Without above SWOT analysis diagram there will no our winning Goals
and Strategies.
Here is the list of my considerations when I was creating the Goals and Strategies for
Crystal Palace Hotel (the company we created for the game):
Staffing: HR department needs to provide a sufficient headcount of all job levels in
order to meet production goals and reduce the overtime cost.
Source of staff: hire from labour market: pros: experienced staff of each level may
not require training; cons: cost of hiring. Internal promotion: pros: no hiring cost,
cons: requires job training (cost).

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 Demographics: One of the problems facing the new hired HR Director is ‘the lack
of females and minorities at all job levels’ (Smith et al. 2012, p. 11).
‘The efficacy of diversity management depends on demonstrating the value-added
organizational benefits of diversity-related initiatives and of a more diverse
workforce’ (Hanks 2011). I determined that we need to boost our female and
minority employees in our workforce.

Employee Turnover: The current turnover rate was higher which made the cost per
unit higher. I believe we should reduce the turnover rate via improving morale,
increasing the training budget and adding benefits.
Higher staff turnover is usually caused by multiple reasons and the most important reasons
are lack of motivation and lack of engagement.
I developed a formula that mathematically explained the relationship among engagement,
motivation and satisfaction (EMS). The EMS of employee can be calculated to a
quantitative outcome by following formula:
EMS = {[(PS+CF)/2] x Autonomy x Recognition)}/10
PS=Professional skills
CF-Culture fit (team work, positive attitudes, etc.)
Autonomy= freedom to do the right thing with support from colleagues and line managers
Recognition=contribution be recognized and rewarded, sufficient personal reviews and
promotion
(Rating Scale: 5=high; 3=medium; 1=low)
The above formula demonstrated that recognition (related to engagement and motivation)
has a positive correlation with EMS which has a direct impact on employee satification
and company performance.
Productivity: I believe in order to maximize profit for the shareholder we need to
make sure the productivity to be as high as possible via a lower turnover rate,
improve the quality of the service and reduce any grievances within the workforce.

Wages: Apparently wage rates of the company are below average compared with
other businesses in the local community. My initial thought was to spend money on
staff training and employee participation program and to boost employee benefits
that should be good enough to improve productivity and lower turnover rate.
However, the quarter 1 result proved that I was wrong from the simulation formula
perspective.

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Figure 4 provide a clear picture that we have changed our strategies after we
received results of period 1. The mistake I made actually helped us to discover an
important element of the simulation. I suggested that we should gradually increase
the wages of all levels.

Figure 4: team C Quarterly Wage Increases Analysis

Employee Benefits: The firm has inadequate employee benefits which may also
have a negative impact on employee morale, turnover and indirect negative impact
on productivity. Frank DiBernardino (2011) believes the higher productivity has a
direct link with the higher HCROI.

Figure 5: Productivity vs. Human Capital ROI (source: DiBrnardino, F., 2011)

Based on the outcome of my research, I suggested that we should gradually increase

our employee benefits when we have positive cash flow (refer to strategies b
section).

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The reason I focus on health insurance benefit was I believe that employees will use
this benefits to make sure they and their family member(s) have a good health
which will indirectly reduce the absenteeism and staff turnover. The result of the
simulation has proved that my assumption was correct.

Figure 6: team C Quarterly Employment Benefits

Staff Training: Based on my 20 years’ experience in the business, adequate job

training for employees is the key to successful business (regardless of internal
promotion or new hiring). Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) training is
fundamental element of the hospitality industry. ‘Line Managers and employees
need a good understanding of the sources of risks in a workplace so that they may
be eliminated or controlled’ (Kramar et al. 2012, p.139). I insisted in that we have to
allocate sufficient funds for training promoted internal employees and new hires
from the market. Figure 7 provides a clear picture of consistent funding training is
one of our core strategy.

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 Figure 7: team C Quarterly Training Expenditures

Programs: I firmly believe these 6 programs provided by the simulation serving

different purposes with little overlap between some of them. However they should
all provide positive impacts on:
 Work place self-direction and
 Staff performance management.
‘Over the past 20 years, employee engagement has become generally accepted as
one indicator of business performance’ (Coco, et al. 2011, p. 20). We should not
hesitate to fund those programs within the budget constraint.

Figure 8: team C quarterly Program Expenditures

Special Decisions: we utilized the theoretical knowledge acquired from the
classroom, text book, Internet research and our practical experience (members of

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 this team have over 10-20 years’ real life experience in HR management) to analyse
the situation and make decisions in each quarter.

Based on the above considerations, I have created Goals and Strategies (refer to
Appendix B) for the leadership team of the Crystal Palace Hotel. I distributed the
soft copies to other team members and asked for any feedback.

Documentation of the Decision Making Processes during the Lifecycle

of the HR Game
In order to document the decision making process of the team, I created a word format
document and constantly added contents (before or after our leadership team meeting in
each quarter). I believe this document should act as a diary of our decision making process
of each quarter.
Online tools (such as Drop Box, email, text message and online chat) has been used
extensively for knowledge sharing and collaboration with other team members. We have
disagreement and compromises during the decision making process. I leveraged my
business analysis skills and used raw data from the simulation web site to create
comparison graphic charts and share them with the team (refer to Appendix C). Based on
our analysis of the results in each quarter, we have made a few strategy adjustments. The
funding of the HR Information System was not in the initial strategy plan. David believed
that we should invest in this tool in order to improve ‘decision-making in all areas of the
HR function’ (Smith, et al. 2012, p. 17).
We were the second last from the overall score perspective after quarter 1. We managed
to move to an overall score of 6/7 in quarter 3/4. We have been hit hard from higher
turnover and unit cost, lower productivity, morale, etc. when we did not increase workers’
wages in quarter 1.
After I received the mark sheet of Goals and Strategies from the lecturer, I realized that we
had not paid attention to the balanced score card approach. I also realized that I ignored
the basic/biological needs of human being that elaborated by Maslow’s needs Hierarchy
(Buchaman & Huczynski 2010, p. 268).

Balanced Scorecard Approach

In order to redefine the role of Human Resource Management in a transitioning economy
and modern society, researchers need to create a new HR Management approach. HR
Management cannot be restricted to just staff management.
The HR Management department needs to demonstrate it can contribute to the strategic
success of the company. A balanced scorecard is a tool which can ‘align an organization
behind vision of success, and get people working on the right things and focusing on
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results’ (Rohm 2008). It actually moved ‘HR from focusing on doable(s) to deliverables’
(Beatty 2003). HR has been engaged in building competencies, aligning practices and
integrating its systems to provide the workforce with a competitive edge (Beatty 2008).
My balanced scorecard approach in this simulation is to map the business objectives and
the HR contribution and to work out their co-relationship.
Business Objectives HR Contribution
Improve Customer Satisfaction Staff training, job design, Job analysis
Cost reduction Reduce overtime, turnover, absenteeism,
accident rate,
Improve employee satisfaction Increase wage, benefits, employee participation
program and performance Appraisal system
Make sure hiring right person, in the right job at
the right time
Enhance Information and data Implement HR data Management System
process
Diverse workforce/corporate Increase female and minority workers in all
social responsibility levels
Enhance internal New employee orientation program; Internal
communication Grievance Procedure, etc.
Table 2: Balanced Score Card
By reviewing our decision making process in the first 4 quarters, and with reference to
Rohm’s (2008) article ‘Using the Balanced Scorecard to Align Your Organization’. I drive
the decision making process of this leadership team is a simplified balanced Scorecard
approach. Figure 5 illustrates our decision making process.

Figure 9: Team C balanced Scorecard Approach

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The ultimate visions of this leadership team are:
 Provide the best HR service to support business to achieve its goals and objectives
 To attract talented people in all levels from community to work for us and make the
organization become the choice of employees
 Together we will make the hotel become the customer’s choice in the community

Conclusion
I have learnt to identify which variables are most important and to concentrate budget on
those important elements (Smith, et al. 2012, p. 6).
I see myself as a facilitator who is able to drive the decision making process and to work
with others to create and implement the strategy as well as achieve the goals and
objectives.
I also created and maintained the team meeting minute’s document used it as a repository
of team collaboration for each quarter and drive our decision process. The team meeting
minutes and those analytical diagrams (crated by me) become vital elements for our
decision making process during the lifecycle of simulation.
By end of period 4, the strategies, I have created for the company, laid solid foundation for
our later achievement in the simulation (by end of period, our total score was second
highest).
The persistent funding in staff training as well as employee participation (and other 5
programs) have been paid off by dramatically reduced accident rate and absenteeism (refer

Figure 10. Dramatically Reduced Accident and Absenteeism rates

Most of our KPI figures are better than industry average, in essence this team does reached
its goals and objectives by the end of quarter 4 (refer Appendix A).

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References
Beatty, R. W., Huselid, M. A., Schneier, C. R., 2003, ‘New HR Metrics: Scoring on the
Business Scorecard’, Organisational Dynamics, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 107-121.
Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (eds) 2010, Organizational Behaviour, Pearson
Education Limited, England.
Coco, C. T., 2011, ‘Connecting People Investments and Business Outcomes at Lowe’s’,
HR People & Strategy, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 20.
Dibernardino, F., 2011, ’The Missing Link: Measuring and Managing Financial
Performance of Human Capital Investment’, HR People & Strategy, vol. 34, no. 2, pp.
49.
Hanks, H. S., 2011, ‘Recent Academic Research on People and strategy’, HR People &
Strategy, vol. 34, no. 2, pp.11
Kapiki, S. 2012, ‘Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality: an Exploratory study
among Tourism Stakeholders’, International Journal of Economic Practice and
Theories, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 53-61.
Kramar, R., Bartram, T., De Cieri, H Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerheatt. B., and Wright, P.
2014, ‘Human Resource Management: Strategy, People, Performance’, 4th edn,
McGraw-Hill North Ryde.
Smith, J. R., Golden, P. A. & Deighan, M. 2013, ‘HRManagement-The Human Resource
Management Simulation’, Student manual, Interpretive Simulations, Charlottesville,
Virginia, USA, <http://www.interpretive.com>.
Rohm, H., 2008, ‘Using Balanced Scorecard to Align Your Organization’, Balanced
Scorecard Institute.

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Appendix A: Company Performance vs. Industry Average

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Appendix B: Goals and Strategies of Team C

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Appendix C:
Performance Measures for period 4, ind1:
Company Weighted Score Weighted Score Rank Unit Labor Cost Quality Index Productivity Turnover Morale Accident Rate Grievances Absenteeism Female Pct Minority Pct
The Buckley (a) 77 6 57.87 66 210 6.8 70 275 26 348 15.1 10.4
TLR (b) 79 4 56.81 73 218 6.8 67 268 26 316 16 10.9
Crystal Palace (c) 75 7 57.7 62 215 7.6 63 223 31 302 18.5 14.1
Hotel Corsica (d) 91 1 56.23 69 217 6.8 67 196 17 287 20.4 14.5
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 78 5 57.13 66 217 7.2 60 236 25 370 20.8 15.2
VEC Incorporated (f) 67 8 58.22 61 199 8.8 60 318 18 333 18.9 13.8
Le Plaisir (g) 67 9 58.53 62 212 6.7 55 269 40 249 15.3 10.3
DAT Hotel (h) 89 2 57.09 68 217 6.8 72 207 26 297 19.2 12.8
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 64 10 60.16 58 212 7.5 68 319 34 350 13.2 7
Waterlily Hotel (j) 84 3 59.52 61 208 7.4 70 260 22 263 19.6 15.1

Performance - Quarter 4
Company Pererformance Compare with Industry Average Performance Indicators Comparison
Performance Crystal Palace Hotel Industry Average
300
Employee Benefits 24.8% 22.4%
250
Females 18.5% 17.7%
Minorities 14.1% 12.4% 200
Absenteeism (days) 302 312 150
Turnover 7.6% 7.2% 100
Morale 63 65
50
Grievances 31 27
0
Accident Rate 223 257 Morale Grievances Accident Rate Productivity Quality Labor Cost
Productivity 215 213 per Unit
Quality 62 65
Crystal Palace Hotel 24.8% 18.5% 14.1% 302 7.6% Industry Average 22.4% 17.7% 12.4% 312 7.2%
Labor Cost per Unit 57.7 57.93

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Company Weighted Score
Weighted Score
The Buckley (a) 77
100
TLR (b) 79 80
Crystal Palace (c) 75 60
Hotel Corsica (d) 91 40
20
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 78 0
VEC Incorporated (f) 67
Le Plaisir (g) 67
DAT Hotel (h) 89
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 64
Waterlily Hotel (j) 84

Company Unit Labor Cost

The Buckley (a) 57.87 Unit Labor Cost
TLR (b) 56.81
61
Crystal Palace (c) 57.7 60
59
Hotel Corsica (d) 56.23 58
57
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 57.13 56
55
VEC Incorporated (f) 58.22 54
Le Plaisir (g) 58.53
DAT Hotel (h) 57.09
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 60.16
Waterlily Hotel (j) 59.52

Company Quality Index

The Buckley (a) 66 Quality Index
TLR (b) 73
80
Crystal Palace (c) 62
60
Hotel Corsica (d) 69 40
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 66 20
VEC Incorporated (f) 61 0
Le Plaisir (g) 62
DAT Hotel (h) 68
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 58
Waterlily Hotel (j) 61

Company Productivity
Productivity
The Buckley (a) 210
TLR (b) 218
220
Crystal Palace (c) 215 215
210
Hotel Corsica (d) 217 205
200
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 217 195
190
VEC Incorporated (f) 199 185
Le Plaisir (g) 212
DAT Hotel (h) 217
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 212
Waterlily Hotel (j) 208

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Company Turnover
Turnover
The Buckley (a) 6.8
9
TLR (b) 6.8 8
7
Crystal Palace (c) 7.6 6
5
Hotel Corsica (d) 6.8 4
3
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 7.2 2
1
0
VEC Incorporated (f) 8.8
Le Plaisir (g) 6.7
DAT Hotel (h) 6.8
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 7.5
Waterlily Hotel (j) 7.4

Company Morale
The Buckley (a) 70 Morale
TLR (b) 67
80
Crystal Palace (c) 63
60
Hotel Corsica (d) 67 40
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 60 20
VEC Incorporated (f) 60 0
Le Plaisir (g) 55
DAT Hotel (h) 72
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 68
Waterlily Hotel (j) 70

Company Accident Rate

The Buckley (a) 275
Accident Rate
TLR (b) 268
350
Crystal Palace (c) 223 300
250
Hotel Corsica (d) 196 200
150
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 236 100
50
VEC Incorporated (f) 318 0
Le Plaisir (g) 269
DAT Hotel (h) 207
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 319
Waterlily Hotel (j) 260

Company Grievances
The Buckley (a) 26 Grievances
TLR (b) 26
40
Crystal Palace (c) 31
30
Hotel Corsica (d) 17 20
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 25 10
VEC Incorporated (f) 18 0
Le Plaisir (g) 40
DAT Hotel (h) 26
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 34
Waterlily Hotel (j) 22

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Company Grievances
Grievances
The Buckley (a) 26
40
TLR (b) 26 35
30
Crystal Palace (c) 31 25
20
Hotel Corsica (d) 17 15
10
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 25 5
0
VEC Incorporated (f) 18
Le Plaisir (g) 40
DAT Hotel (h) 26
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 34
Waterlily Hotel (j) 22

Company Absenteeism
Absenteeism
The Buckley (a) 348
TLR (b) 316 400
Crystal Palace (c) 302 300
Hotel Corsica (d) 287 200
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 370 100
VEC Incorporated (f) 333 0
Le Plaisir (g) 249
DAT Hotel (h) 297
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 350
Waterlily Hotel (j) 263

Company Female Pct Female Pct

The Buckley (a) 15.1
TLR (b) 16 25
Crystal Palace (c) 18.5 20
15
Hotel Corsica (d) 20.4 10
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 20.8 5
0
VEC Incorporated (f) 18.9
Le Plaisir (g) 15.3
DAT Hotel (h) 19.2
Double Tree by Hilton (i) 13.2
Waterlily Hotel (j) 19.6

Company Minority Pct

The Buckley (a) 10.4
Minority Pct
TLR (b) 10.9
16
Crystal Palace (c) 14.1 14
Hotel Corsica (d) 14.5 12
10
The Grand Budapest Hotel (e) 15.2 8
VEC Incorporated (f) 13.8 6
4
Le Plaisir (g) 10.3 2
DAT Hotel (h) 12.8 0

Double Tree by Hilton (i) 7

Waterlily Hotel (j) 15.1

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