HR Gms Cgms: A Case

HR GMS

CGMS: A Case Study in HRM

Consolidated Global Mining Services (CGMS) is a highly successful firm, indeed a leader in its industry and sector. However, like all industries, it is today contextualized by a global recession that carries with it far-reaching consequences. These are consequences felt by industrial firms at every level, and most particularly where personnel are concerned. Often, in times of economic austerity, sacrifices must be made and job security might be threatened. As the discussion hereafter considers though, for an industry leader such as CGMS, layoffs and downsizing are a decidedly unattractive option. This forms the basis for the dilemma facing the company's Human Resources department, which clearly must undertake a carefully constructed approach to reversing the troubling trends within the company while preparing for a return to greater success in more robust economic times.

Problem Statement:

This denotes a clear conflict of interests between the company's warranted desire to retain its carefully recruited, highly qualified and thoroughly loyal staff of roughly 1000 employees and the imperative to control costs and refine its approach to the distribution of labor. With a diminished availability of projects in the anemic economy, the case history on CGMS reports that too many qualified employees sit idly while the company saps its existing resources. This problem is perhaps best articulated by the company's operations manager Peter Newcomb, who observes that "our main difficulty at the moment is deciding whether to keep people on and lose money, or let them go, perhaps never to get them back again. But yes, there is a bit of a work imbalance. Equipment orders have slowed down, and demand for servicing has increased. We may need to reorganise in some way'. (Stone, p. 2) the recommendations hereafter are intended to provide medium and long-term strategies for how best to go about this reorganization.

Recommendations:

In many ways, CGMS is in quite an opportune position. While its prospects have waned along with the flux of the economy in general, its leadership has made it quite clear that it retains a great deal of resources, an untarnished reputation within its field, good standings with its creditors, extremely highly corporate morale and an existing staff of distinguished performers within the field. These characteristics all denote a certain flexibility not afforded to less secure firms in the current economic climate. That said, the company's leadership has also been quite clear about the urgent signs that some changes must be made to adjust for the effects of the economy. The two most important needs which emerge from the discussion are the need for greater integration of Enterprise Resource Planning it system and Human Resource data and for an improved distribution of project labor. This points to the need for a refined HRIMS approach which integrates HR demands and ERP properties into a form more prone to accurate analysis.

Fortunately, in the medium-term, there are changes which can be made to address both areas simultaneously. First and foremost, it is clear that the HR outlook at CGMS would benefit considerably from an overhaul and updating of the company's admittedly obsolescent it system. Simultaneously, it is clear that in times of economic turbulence, it may no longer be expedient to allow so many independent parts of the organization to work without a centralizing oversight. Therefore, we consider some strategic ways of re-imagining the distribution of labor where it might be possible to promote cost reduction while improving the utilization of personnel. An article by Baker (2007) offers a recommendation which would called for the evolution of CGMS into a 'shared service organization.' (SSO) This would recast the responsibilities of each department with a service orientation toward a set of singular company goals, the intention being to create better focus within departments and more interdependence in managing projects while simultaneously protecting the autonomy of daily operations within each department. According to Baker, "properly implemented shared services organizations (SSOs) can help HR organizations to reduce process costs by up to 80%, while generating similar improvements in internal customer satisfaction, productivity, and quality, according to 2006 Enterprise Book of Numbers." (Baker, p. 1)

For CGMS though, this will require above all else an improved optimization of departmental use and the use of personnel there within. While the company cannot necessary prevent the immediate deterioration of its project market, it can find ways to better utilize personnel across these various projects such that payroll resources and talents are not wasted on idle time. Clearly, though CGMS is a highly competent firm, its it systems are left wanting for lack of recent updates. This denotes a chance for a medium-term transformation which centers on the implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and which includes an emphasis on streamlining workflow under the new Shared Services structure. According to Open Source ERP (2010), such systems are highly adaptable to a wide range of data concerning personnel and their various attributes within the context of the company. Open Source ERP reports that "the HR management module is a component covering many other HR aspects from application to retirement. The system records basic demographic and address data, selection, training and development, capabilities and skills management, compensation planning records and other related activities. Leading edge systems provide the ability to 'read' applications and enter relevant data to applicable database fields, notify employers and provide position management and position control. " (Open Source ERP, p. 1)

Aspects such as the compilation of information on training and skills sets as well as instruments designed to refine 'position management' and 'position control,' are constructed to help companies like CGMS to make more optimal use of the talents on hand. The result should be, in the medium-term, a coalescence to greater efficiency within the context of individual projects. It should also promote a more constructive distribution of skills to prevent downtime. And certainly, one of the justifications for taking this approach is the relative sturdiness of the firm on the whole. Because there is such a significant segment of the firm's staff which has been subject to idleness, this is perhaps the most appropriate juncture to engage in a set of training objectives designed to improve end-user compatibility with the new system and to acclimate personnel to the shifts in operational strategy predicated on the implementation of the Shared Services model.

Often with enhanced on-site training, there are myriad risks pertaining to morale, productivity and use of labor resources. Given the dilemma facing CGMS however, this strikes the HR department as the ideal chance to enhance the skill sets and economic value of personnel in anticipation of a future return to economic prolificacy. Indeed, at this point in its history, the company seems in the opportune position to benefit from increasing the ability of personnel to contribute as conditions improve. This approach is consistent with the findings in our research, which suggest that if given the time and resources -- which are both clearly available in abundance here -- an organization and its personnel will benefit significantly from a sound internal training regimen. According to Heathfield (2011), "internal training and development leaps the huge barriers that encumber external training. Internal training reflects a solid knowledge of the organization's culture. Internal training uses real life examples, problems and challenges that participants encounter every day at work. Successful internal training identifies the exact skills and knowledge that participants need to succeed in their jobs." (Heathfield, p. 1)

This is of value because one of the greatest virtues available to CGMS is the quality and commitment of its personnel. Quite clearly, there is justification for identifying redundancies, engaging in layoffs and creating a leaner staff. However, this is an unattractive option given the degree of success enjoyed by the company on the strength of its personnel. As the case history points out, the company's leadership cannot abide layoffs or downsizing due to the clear benefits afforded it by its highly recruited and experienced employees. However, dramatic changes in company orientation can bring about resistance even amongst members of the most well-adjusted staff. This is why the clarity and role-orientation provided by effective internal training are of so much value to the present process. This will not only serve to familiarize personnel with the new ERP system in development but this will also keep personnel abreast of changes in the company's strategic orientation, leadership organization and labor distribution. This kind of clarity can prevent the uncertainty and job insecurity that ultimately breed resentment and diminished performance. Just as the company cannot afford to rest on its laurels, it can ill-afford a staff that is either idle or unhappy.

This is important where the pursuit of long-term goals is concerned as well. Here, training will not just center on improving the ability of personnel to work with the new it system. Instead, CGMS will utilize the HRM attributes of the ERP system in order to identify those personnel whose skills sets are best utilized in the creation of a new Sustainability Research & Development department. In addition to using this new department to create project assignments for otherwise idle personnel, this would become an essential path to preparing CGMS for competition in the long-term future. While the company's eroding schedule of future projects suggests economic downturn, it also underscores the risk of working in the fossil fuel sector. With future environmental and conservation concerns promising to impact mining operations such as those upon which CGMS depends, the company's newly minted R&D department would emphasize projects aimed at reducing the carbon footprint created by mining operations as well as investigating alternative fuel sources. Given the company's extensive resources and highly qualified personnel, it may have the opportunity to posture itself as a leader of future energy efficiency efforts. Ultimately, internal training and some measure of ERP-informed recruitment would be necessary to actualize this objective.