Proposed HR Program for CompuLearn Essay

CompuLearn is a private sector provider of IT-based teaching and learning programmes in business and management based in the UK, with collective headquarters in Preston, Lancashire and with trading centers in Mumbai, Nairobia and Dubai. Its current global market is focused in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, with 200 teaching method centers in 30 countries.CompuLearn partners with UK universities which validates its programs so that students are able to qualify in the University programs malarkying to academic degrees. Its current manpower complement numbers 50 employees mostly based in the merged office in Preston, Lancashire doing the following functions Program Development, Customer Service, HR, Marketing, Finance, sales, IT, Quality Assurance.CompuLearn has embarked on a mission to be market leader in e-learning delivery of University pass programs and foremost learning participation in the world. It is on an expanded growth program and it adopted a raw(a) dodging to exten d to 500 education centers in 60 countries everyplace a span of 3 years. The role of HR is very critical in this new strategy, which is to attract top IT experts. It could be a relatively easy task if not for the following1. There is a high turn over in the IT industry in UK and new employees leave after only one month for a new job that offers better pay.2. CompuLearn has a limited training system in place. Its strategy is to recruit highly trained staff instead of training them in house. The allocated budget for training is almost used up and was used to train the Sales team.3. Employees remove limited management skills as they are mostly technical staff whose training is not in the well-to-do skills development.4. The company does not have a Performance appraisal System in place.5. The staff at the corporate headquarters do not have a comfortable kindred with the staff of the UK universities largely due to complaints of attitude.6. The HR Directors strength is in micro-manag ing and does not have expertise in long- condition management plans for the company employees.The Limitations and Constraints Faced by the CompanyThe HR surgical incision will play a very strategic role in supporting the growth of CompuLearn. Among other things, it needs to address the following limitations and constraints faced by the company, whether internally caused or faced by the industry in general1. The high turn over rate in the IT industry in UK2. The lack of a professional or well-developed training and development program for employees3. The employees limited skills in management, customer receipts and other well-heeled skills4. The lack of a well-placed Performance Appraisal System5. The not-so-friendly attitude of the academic staff of the Universities towards the company employees at the corporate headquarters6. The limited knowledge and skills of the HR Director in long- precondition planning for the management of the employeesRecommendationsThe HR strategies reco mmended are based on the following assumptions1. BudgetThe company is ladders on a limited budget, which is just around 30% of theannual budget of 25,000 Euros.2. Lead DepartmentThe HR Department will take the lead in implementing the strategies. The HR Director shall formally appoint the section heads to serve as lead persons in implementing the strategies in their respective sections. The HR Director has the forfeit hand in creating working committees to participate in the entire process from planning to implementation. The process will be participatory and with some amount of denotation from the employees.3. TimetableThe strategies are proposed for implementation on a focused basis within the first year ( division 1 Month 1 to Month 12). Beginning Year 2 (Month 13) the focus of the activities will be on monitoring, evaluation, and implementation of improvements.4. HR Management Perspective/ModelAvailable literature identify different HR Management models that attempt to expla in the various strategies adopted by different companies. General classifications fall under the soft and hard models, based on the definitions of employees considered as either human or resource. The hard versions consider employees as resource and adopt a rational approach to managing them, aligning their HR strategies with the strategies of the business.The soft version, on the other hand, considers employees as human and adopts strategies to train and develop them (Bratton and Gold, p. 5). The recommendations adopted in this case will be based more on the soft version of human resource management. Focus will be more on training and development as well as in develop commitment from employees. A limited form of the hard version will however allow the HR to link the strategies with the overall corporate strategy of the company.In analyzing the challenge faced by CompuLearn, a simplistic framework was designed around the following questions, based on the limitations/constraints fac ed by the company and to go bad the basis for the strategies1. On the high turn-over rate in the IT industryHow can CompuLearn keep its employees from leaving the company after short- term engagement only? Or how can the company motivate its employees to stay longer?2. On the lack of a professional training and development programShould the company train in-house or continue to hire experts from outside?3. On the employees limited skills in management, customer service, and other soft skills. How can the employees learn the soft skills and apply them at work?4. On the lack of a well-placed Performance Appraisal SystemIs there a need to formulate or adopt a Performance Appraisal System?5. On the not-so-friendly attitude of the academic staff of the Universities towards the company employees at the corporate headquartersHow can there be a more favorable relationship between the two parties? How can the company make the employees appreciate the importance of having good relations wit h the University staff? Can this be done through training or should the company replace those who transact with the University staff with other company employees, either through job rotation or job enrichment?7. On the limited knowledge and skills of the HR Director in long-term planning for the management of the employees. Should the HR Director undertake refresher courses in management? Or should the company hire a new HR person who has the skills in long term planning to assist the HR Director?Below is a presentation of the proposed HR strategies and programs, in matrix form, that can be implemented under the leadership of the HR Director. They are composed of both short term and long term strategies. The short-term strategies are those that can be immediately implemented, within the first six months from the time the recommendations will be adopted. The long term strategies are those that can be adopted over a longer period and on a continuing basis like the periodic reviews of policies and ontogeny a system whereby improvements can take place every so often whenever warranted.It will be observed that most of the strategies will be saucily introduced to the company and it can be expected that certain difficulties will be met. This will include among other things, resistance to the changes to be introduced, the difficulty of the HR Department to implement them for lack of the appropriate knowledge and skills, and with some difficult employees. This is all part of the process of the HR accepting the initial resistanceto the changes. The HR should be firm and consistent but at the same time adopting an attitude of openness and willingness to see through the improvements.Education and training are two significant components of an empowered workforce. The saying that a company is only as good as its weakest employee is very much applicable here. Each employee is responsible for knowing approximately his company and performing according to the expectations s et at the time of his engagement. However, it is the job of HR to find the employees who have the potential to learn more and continuously fall flat them the opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills.