Please answer all 5 cases and all 4 questions in each case.

Case 1:

RTS Bank, Toronto, Canada was started in April 1999. Over the past 22 years it has grown from a small retail bank to a full-service banking institution offering services to Canadian customers in both retail (such as individuals or small businesses) and commercial banking – large corporations and institutions. From one branch in April 1999 with twenty-five employees to over 650 branches; commercial and wealth management services with over 7500 employees in Canada, the success story continues. The Canadian Operations goes by the brand name RTS.

In November 2020, a new President & CEO, May Wade took over the leadership of RTS Bank and with that came new ambitions of expanding into new markets. May had previously worked in New York for 10 years and was keen to expand RTS Bank operations into USA.

RTS Bank is very profitable and was able to fund the acquisition of a small banks in USA (that was available for lower than market price due to the pandemic situation). In Jan 2021, RTS Bank acquired ABC Bank, a New York state local bank in USA with forty-five retail branches and 750 employees and changed the name to RTS USA.

The US operations had various issues i.e., high turnover, low morale, lawsuits for wrongful dismissal and discrimination etc. While the customer base was becoming more diverse the employee composition was very homogeneous and male dominated. The organization structure was designed that all branch managers reported to the COO of US operations.

May had a clear vision for the US operations – stream line the branch operations by letting the branch managers focus on growing the business and leave people management to HR. Introduce a new organization structure with fifteen branch managers reporting to a District Vice President, who in turn reported to the COO US Operations. May saw growth opportunity in New York state for commercial business and wanted to start commercial operations as well with over fifty new employees to be hired in New York city and five in each of the forty-five branches. May also knew that the key to success was on building strong customer relations and tapping into the diverse customers of New York.

Aya, Vice President Retail Operations Canada is being promoted as COO, RTS USA and will be based in New York city.

As the new COO, Aya was being introduced to all the employees in the New York office. When she was introduced to Ruth, she was curious about her work and asked her what the Customer Relations Management (CRM) software she was using did. Ruth replied that she really did not know what the CRM software was capable to do or what it did. She explained that she had only been working there for two months. She did, however, know precisely how the software worked. According to her supervisor, she was an excellent employee.

At one of the branch offices, the manager in charge spoke to Aya confidentially, telling her that “something was wrong,” but she did not know what. For one thing, she explained, employee turnover was too high, and no sooner had one employee been put on the job that another one resigned. With customers to see and loans to be made, she continued, she had little time to collaborate with the new employees as they came and went. All branch managers hired their own employees without communication with the New York office or other branches. When an opening developed, the supervisor tried to find a suitable employee to replace the worker who had quit.

After touring the forty-five branches and finding similar problems in many of them, Aya wondered what the Toronto Head Office should do or what action she should take. RTS Bank Canada was regarded as a well-run institution that had grown from 25 to 7500 employees during the past 22 years. With the growth came aspirations of employees to grow as well and one growing concern was the lack of career opportunities especially for branch managers and retail staff. The Canadian operations was truly diverse and so was the customer base; and had received numerous Customer Service Excellence Awards for the past 10 years.

You are the CHRO of RTS Bank and are required to prepare a report for May, President and CEO by answering the four questions given below.

1. Identify and explain the issues and challenges facing RTS Bank and RTS USA and provide solutions? (5 marks)
2. Explain in detail how would you go about designing the job of the District Vice President and redesigning the job of the branch manager in the US operations? (5 marks)
3. Design a recruitment and selection strategy for RTS Bank and RTS USA? What would be the main aspects on which you would focus? (5 marks)
4. Design a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy for RTS and RTS USA. How would you go about convincing the branch managers of RTS USA to implement the strategy? (5 marks)

 

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Case 2

Can-Tech is a 25-million-dollar IT services company head officed in Markham, ON. The company was started in 2015 with ten employees and has grown to 1500 employees, with clients from the fortune five hundred companies based on North America and support services operations in India and Philippines. The company has a reputation for well-designed software and excellent IT support services and has earned the trust of clients. It is this trust that has opened new business opportunities during the current pandemic – setting up a work from home infrastructure for the client’s employees. Can-Teck has never done this work but does not want to miss the opportunity that has been provided to them by ten clients, totaling 5500 employees. A new business unit has been created with leadership in Markham and a technical team operating from India and Philippines. The leadership team will need to focus on client business needs, relationship and developing new business. The technical team will need to focus on client relationship, technical needs, and implementation. The leadership team will comprise 1 – Executive Vice President, 5 Directors and 10 Managers; the technical team will comprise 1 – Director, 5 Managers and 25 IT specialists.

 

 

 

As the CHRO, you are required to apply the strategic model for training and development and prepare a report to the President & CEO.

1. Phase one: Needs Assessment (5 marks)
2. Phase two: Design (5 marks)
3. Phase three: Implementation (5 marks)
4. Phase four: Evaluation (5 marks)

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Case 3

A Canadian confectionaries company based in Burlington has a sales team of 350 based across Ontario. The Ontario sales operations is headed by an Executive Vice President (EVP), 10 District Vice Presidents (DVPs), 250 sales personnel (SP) (1 DVP manages twenty-five sales personnel as direct reports), fifty-five drivers and thirty-four support staff (SS) that are responsible for office work – coordination, accounts, and distribution. The company has seen a decline in sales and bills receivable from clients in 2019 – 2020. The EVP has hired the services of Strategic Human Capital (SHC), a HR consulting company to conduct a detailed analysis of the mediocre performance. SHC has completed the analysis and identified that a lack of a performance management system is the main cause of the problem. The EVP is impressed with the findings and has commissioned SHC to design and implement a performance management system.

You are the Senior Consultant at SHC and are required to prepare a detailed Performance Management plan for the EVP.

1. What are the key features of the performance management system? Explain and provide details. (5 marks)
2. How will you ensure that the system designed is both valid and reliable? Explain. (5 marks)
3. Design a performance evaluation system for 250 sales personnel. Explain in detail the possible reasons for the system to fail (5 marks)
4. Identify and explain the support that needs to be designed and implemented for employees and managers to ensure a successful performance appraisal cycle for 2021. (5 marks)

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Case 4

Sanzi Inc is a marketing and advertising company started on Jan 2, 2021, in the distillery district of Downtown Toronto and currently employs thirty-six people. The workforce is composed of coop students, recent graduates of creative arts and design, and young professionals with 2-3 years’ experience in the advertising field. The demographic mix reflects the diversity of GTA – race, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, religions etc. The energy, creative talent and arduous work of employees is starting to make a positive impression with clients. The company is making an impact with their thinking outside the box campaigns. As the HR Manager, you have been involved in hiring most of the employees and are pleased with their performance. You are sitting in your office and starting to believe that the right work culture is taking shape when you hear a knock on your office door – It is Olu. Olu is a coop student, she works 2 days a week while studying at the local University to complete her degree in business. What you hear from Olu shocks you. Olu is Black and in a live-in relationship with a white woman, as is out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She informs you of the racist comments by employees, and the inappropriate questions about her sexual orientation by both men and women in the company. When the team goes out for lunch to the local food court, no one sits or talks to with her, and she is never invited to the after-office trips to the local pub (she confesses to be a zythophile-a person who loves beer).

While she enjoys the content of her job, the context – office culture is starting to feel a little uncomfortable and is considering resigning.

As the HR Manager, you were not expecting to hear this about the company you helped build and a culture you shaped. You also fully understand that something needs to be done without impacting the positive performance.

1. What are the issues and challenges facing the company? (5 Marks)
2. What do you think needs to be done? Explain the reasons for your choices. (5 marks)
3. How do you plan to go about implementing the solutions and what issues and challenges do you foresee during implementation? (5 marks)
4. How do you plan to measure and evaluate the success? (5 marks)

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Case 5

John Markham is a biochemist who now works as a manager with Drugs from Bugs (DFB), an innovative international pharmaceutical firm. John has been with DFB for the past 10 years. He is married and has two children (a daughter in high school and a son in middle school. His wife, Anya, is a certified general accountant who works for a major accounting firm in the Toronto Area. Their combined household income is $150,000/-. The president of DFB has asked John to become the managing director of DFB’s operations in Israel. The government there has just offered several incentives to international pharmaceutical firms that make Israel a highly desirable location in which to operate.

John is keen on increasing the business in Israel, but he has concerns about his future with the company. He has heard that life in Israel can be fascinating, but also quite difficult for someone who has never lived outside Canada.

John has received a memo from Anne Monty, DFB’s Vice President of HR: “John, I hear there are quite a few good websites about Israel. You might want to check them out. Meanwhile, I have asked the Israeli Tourist Board to forward some material to you. Are you free for lunch next week? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Cheers, Anne”

Source: Groschl, S (2007). Strategic International HRM, In M. Belcourt & K. McBey (Eds), Strategic Human Resources Planning. Toronto. Thomson Nelson, 317

1. Is the President of DFB right in offering the Managing Director role to John, what could go wrong with this selection? (5 marks)
2. What should John consider before accepting the offer, what should he be prepared for that may go wrong? (5 marks)
3. Evaluate the pre-departure suggestions provided by DFB’s vice president of HR. If any, what kind of additional help and training would you offer to John? How should John use the Hofstede model to educate and inform himself for the assignment? (5 marks)
4. Should John take his family with him, and if so, how should they prepare for life in Israel? (5 marks)