Assignment 1: Staffing Plan for a Growing BusinessDue Week 6 and worth 280 points

Please choose from one (1) of the scenarios below. Note: The scenario that you choose in this assignment will be the one (1) with which you continue for Assignment 2.

Scenario 1

You are a Human Resources Manager of an expanding technology company consisting of 170 employees that develops and distributes small electronic devices. Over the past two (2) years, a research group formed, designed, and built prototypes of small remote surveillance cameras used for security. Recently, your company won a contract to build and provide these remote surveillance cameras to various government agencies. The contract will begin with your company supplying these cameras to agencies within your home state. If all orders are fulfilled sufficiently, the contract will be expanded to supplying agencies outside of your home state.

For the immediate future, you will need to secure a larger facility and hire more staff to sustain the first part of the contract. This staff will consist of ten (10) Assembly Technicians, one (1) Certified Quality Control Engineer, one (1) Contract Administrator, and one (1) Office Support Paraprofessional. Meanwhile, there is a contract clause requiring that you provide a staffing plan in order to ensure future product deliveries and sustain the possible future growth.

Scenario 2

You are a former certified education administrator who departed your former position to become the owner of a small, in-home day care consisting of you and a part-time assistant where you care for children from age three (3) to age ten (10). Over the course of time, your demographic population has increased due to significant business growth that has resulted in many families relocating to your area. With more businesses projected to move to the area and the building of new housing developments, it is projected that this growth could be long term.

You have decided that this is a good opportunity to expand your day care business as you have received many inquiries for childcare. In order to comply with your home state regulations, you will require a larger facility and will need to hire additional staff in order to sustain the larger demand for day care. This staff will consist of five (5) Certified Day Care Professionals, one (1) Registered Nurse Professional, five (5) After-School Assistants and one (1) Office Support Paraprofessional. You have secured approval for a bank loan and qualify for future loans for future expansion if your current endeavor is successful. Meanwhile, the state in which you operate has requested that you provide a staffing plan before it will issue licensure for your expanded capacity.

Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of these assignments.

Select one (1) of the scenarios and write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:

1. Identify two (2) types of staffing models that could apply to your chosen scenario and determine which model would be best suited for efficiency, productivity, and possible future growth. Examine the significant effect of each identified staffing model on processes that may be occurring within the organization (e.g., outsourcing, contingent workers, consulting firms, etc.).
2. Predict the major potential legal issues that you may encounter when establishing equal employment opportunities and diversity within the workplace while still aiming to acquire employees with the needed certifications and credentials. Next, explain the method of achieving transparency within your staffing model. Justify your response.
3. Specify three (3) tasks that you need to perform to identify, analyze, and develop job requirements and task statements that you will include in formalized job descriptions. Next, predict the frequency with which you would need to review and adjust these job descriptions as your company progresses. Provide a rationale for your response.
4. Describe three (3) methods to deal with high employee turnover and the availability of employees with required knowledge, skills, or abilities. Next, describe the primary manner in which the described succession-planning methods would be beneficial to your company. Justify your response.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Choose an industry you have not yet written about in this course, and one publicly traded corporation within that industry. Research the company on its own Website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database (http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml), in the University’s online databases, and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze the business-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the business-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
2. Analyze the corporate-level strategies for the corporation you chose to determine the corporate-level strategy you think is most important to the long-term success of the firm and whether or not you judge this to be a good choice. Justify your opinion.
3. Analyze the competitive environment to determine the corporation’s most significant competitor.  Compare their strategies at each level and evaluate which company you think is most likely to be successful in the long term. Justify your choice.
4. Determine whether your choice from Question 3 would differ in slow-cycle and fast-cycle markets.
5. Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

Now that you have evaluated the marketing environment and established some marketing goals for MM, it is time to get started with the new product plan. The first step is to research the mobile phone market. Without knowing who is buying phones in certain market segments, Michelle won’t know how to market MM’s new product. She needs your help to determine who the market is for the new product.

Primary Task Response: Read the dialogue below. Within the Discussion Board area, write 400-600 words that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Michelle knows that MM needs to determine who the target customer is for the new product. She knows that marketing research needs to be done as part of this market segmentation and product development processes, but she is not well-acquainted with some of the details that are involved in the processes. She has stopped by your office to ask some questions.

“Thanks for canceling your other meeting this afternoon,” she says.

“No problem,” you say. “I rescheduled my meeting with multimedia; it actually works out better for them, too.”

“I’ve heard about quantitative and qualitative research, but I’m not sure I really understand the difference between the two,” she begins. “I’m sure there are advantages and disadvantages to each of them, but without knowing, I’m not sure which type of research we need to conduct. What do you think?”

Before you can respond, Michelle’s cell phone vibrates.

“Excuse me, I have to take this,” she says.

Michelle takes her call and then stands up.

“Well, I’m sorry to do this, but I have an emergency that I have to deal with right now,” she says. “Would you do me a favor? Send me a memo that explains the two types of research and include brief explanations about the advantages and disadvantages of each as related to how they could be used by MM. I’d like to be able to speak intelligibly to this at the next board meeting.”

“Sure,” you respond, thinking that this will make for a pretty lengthy e-mail. “I’ll also include how each method can help us define our target market. Will that help?”

“Yes, great idea,” she replies.

“Ok! I’ll get that to you by close of business tomorrow,” you say.

Describe and discuss how grief can impact a marriage, gender, or child. Provide a brief situational example. What should a mental health professional consider when providing intervention strategies for this example?

Article Critique

Locate and review a scholarly article found in a peer-reviewed journal related to HR selection methods, analyzing work, designing jobs, or HR planning. In peer-reviewed journals, the articles were reviewed by other professionals in the field to ensure the accuracy and quality of the articles, which is ideal when writing an article critique.

Research tip: When researching using the databases, you can limit your search to only peer-reviewed articles. To do this, look for the phrase “limit results,” and select “peer-reviewed articles.”

Once you have selected your article, follow the below criteria:

·        There is a minimum requirement of 500 words for the article critique.

·        Write a summary of the article. This should be one to three paragraphs in length, depending on the length of the article. Include the purpose for the article, how research was conducted, the results, and other pertinent information from the article.

·        Identify the selection criteria and methods and how they relate to hiring at the organization in the article.

·        Discuss the meaning or implication of the results of the study that the article covers. This should be one to two paragraphs. This is where you offer your opinion on the article. Discuss any flaws with the article, how you think it could have been better, and what you think it all means.

·        Write one paragraph discussing how the author could expand on the results, what the information means in the big picture, what future research should focus on, or how future research could move the topic forward. Discuss how knowledge in the area could be expanded.

Any sources used, including the textbook and the article, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.