Read the fictitious case study below carefully, a number of questions in this assessment will be...

 

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Read the fictitious case study below carefully, a number of questions in this assessment will be based on this case study. More questions in this assessment will be asked about this case study, so keep this in mind when reading it. NEW PROSPECTS FOR ULTRA HARDWARE Vuyo the HR Director at Ultra Hardware and they are based in Johannesburg. The company has been in existence for more than 23 years their total workforce consists of 490 employees. Ultra Hardware sells hardware-related equipment, hardware, paint, basic building material and related products to several retail companies. Their equipment/products are mostly sourced and manufactured locally by a variety of suppliers and distributed country wide. The organisation aims to be the best supplier of hardware products in South Africa and they provide advice to retailers on the best equipment/products to use for various situations/solutions and for this they employ a team of qualified, knowledgeable and experienced employees. The staff at Ultra Hardware is excited about a new group of hardware franchises that they can supply with the required stock. At Ultra Hardware sales representatives are responsible for marketing and selling their products/equipment. They are grouped into teams covering various geographical areas and each team is supported by an administrative staff member that is responsible for processing orders, checking the availability of items and following up on deliveries. Sales representatives are rewarded by means of a minimum basic monthly salary plus commission on their monthly sales and they also receive employee benefits (this includes: a fuel allowance, cell phone allowance and medical aid). Each team has a monthly sales target that they have to meet, if they do not meet this they do not earn commission at all. Administrative staff members in each team only earn a salary and they receive limited employee benefits (medical aid) and they earn no commission. Tintswalo excelled in her sales team and she was promoted to the position of team leader. She is responsible for a sales team consisting of 4 sales team members and their team focuses mainly on large retail chain stores, she has to manage not only their sales and sales targets, but also their performance and report to management monthly regarding their sales targets and team achievements. 8 Ⓒ UNISA HRM3703 Assessment 07 (Semester 1, 2023) Ultra Hardware implemented an HRIS system two years ago. The system integrates and centralises corporate data which can also be shared across functional boundaries. Before the implementation of the HRIS, the company conducted a proper HRIS needs analysis to ensure that they implement the correct system to address their specific needs. Vuyo, the HR Department and their team liaised with various HRIS vendors and assessed each one's system feasibility, they identified the most suitable HRIS product and vendor and worked with that vendor to implement the HRIS. This was done by means of a phased conversion. During the process not all the required documentation was completed which had a huge impact on the implementation process, but this was eventually completed. Ultra Hardware is now able to use this HRIS as it is a single data source with common technology architecture. As Ultra Hardware expanded, additional modules were added to the HRIS to cater for their changed needs. The company uses their HRIS extensively for among others e-learning. Ultra Hardware is doing well and they have landed a number of contracts over the years. However recently they have experienced higher than usual staff turnover. The Board of Directors is concerned and they approach Vuyo for answers and suggestions on how this can be reduced. They also want to know what the possible causes are for this problem. Vuyo discusses this request with his team and requests their input. Additional information about the organisation will be given in the questions that follow. (c) 1.1 From the information in the case study it is clear that Ultra Hardware decided to work with an external vendor to acquire their HRIS. The HR staff at Ultra Hardware had to work closely with their internal IT Department and the external vendors to ensure that the business process requirements and all the technical requirements are provided to the vendor. They thus had to develop a specific document for this purpose. (a) (b) Identify the type of document that they have to develop and briefly describe what the document should entail. (3) Provide five items that Ultra Hardware should have included in the document that they had to prepare about their company (use information from the case study to briefly describe some of these items (5 marks-½ marks are allocated in this question). (5) Discuss three criteria that Ultra Hardware should have used when they selected the HRIS vendor. (6) 1.2 Gladys works in the HR department at Ultra Hardware and her job is to ensure that the HR staff have all the access, information and tools needed to do their jobs. Answer the following questions: (a) In terms of HRIS customers/users, what type of HRIS user is Gladys? (1) (b) Virgil is responsible for entering basic employee information on the HRIS, indicate which type of HRIS user Virgil is and explain the role briefly. (2) (c) Andy is regarded as an HRIS power user, explain this role and indicate how he can support the managers in Ultra Hardware in his capacity as a power user. (2) 1.3 A new employee joins Ultra Hardware and is hesitant to provide his personal information to upload on the HRIS. He speaks to Vuyo and indicates that he does not want everybody in the company to be able to access his personal information or for this information to "fall into the wrong hands". (a) If you were in Vuyo's shoes, what would you say to the employee to address the concerns? Use the relevant legislation to explain how it will ensure that the information does not "fall into the wrong hands". Remember you learnt previously in this module how to properly refer to legislation. (b) What should Ultra Hardware as a company have in place to address this? (4) (3) Read the fictitious case study below carefully, a number of questions in this assessment will be based on this case study. More questions in this assessment will be asked about this case study, so keep this in mind when reading it. NEW PROSPECTS FOR ULTRA HARDWARE Vuyo the HR Director at Ultra Hardware and they are based in Johannesburg. The company has been in existence for more than 23 years their total workforce consists of 490 employees. Ultra Hardware sells hardware-related equipment, hardware, paint, basic building material and related products to several retail companies. Their equipment/products are mostly sourced and manufactured locally by a variety of suppliers and distributed country wide. The organisation aims to be the best supplier of hardware products in South Africa and they provide advice to retailers on the best equipment/products to use for various situations/solutions and for this they employ a team of qualified, knowledgeable and experienced employees. The staff at Ultra Hardware is excited about a new group of hardware franchises that they can supply with the required stock. At Ultra Hardware sales representatives are responsible for marketing and selling their products/equipment. They are grouped into teams covering various geographical areas and each team is supported by an administrative staff member that is responsible for processing orders, checking the availability of items and following up on deliveries. Sales representatives are rewarded by means of a minimum basic monthly salary plus commission on their monthly sales and they also receive employee benefits (this includes: a fuel allowance, cell phone allowance and medical aid). Each team has a monthly sales target that they have to meet, if they do not meet this they do not earn commission at all. Administrative staff members in each team only earn a salary and they receive limited employee benefits (medical aid) and they earn no commission. Tintswalo excelled in her sales team and she was promoted to the position of team leader. She is responsible for a sales team consisting of 4 sales team members and their team focuses mainly on large retail chain stores, she has to manage not only their sales and sales targets, but also their performance and report to management monthly regarding their sales targets and team achievements. 8 Ⓒ UNISA HRM3703 Assessment 07 (Semester 1, 2023) Ultra Hardware implemented an HRIS system two years ago. The system integrates and centralises corporate data which can also be shared across functional boundaries. Before the implementation of the HRIS, the company conducted a proper HRIS needs analysis to ensure that they implement the correct system to address their specific needs. Vuyo, the HR Department and their team liaised with various HRIS vendors and assessed each one's system feasibility, they identified the most suitable HRIS product and vendor and worked with that vendor to implement the HRIS. This was done by means of a phased conversion. During the process not all the required documentation was completed which had a huge impact on the implementation process, but this was eventually completed. Ultra Hardware is now able to use this HRIS as it is a single data source with common technology architecture. As Ultra Hardware expanded, additional modules were added to the HRIS to cater for their changed needs. The company uses their HRIS extensively for among others e-learning. Ultra Hardware is doing well and they have landed a number of contracts over the years. However recently they have experienced higher than usual staff turnover. The Board of Directors is concerned and they approach Vuyo for answers and suggestions on how this can be reduced. They also want to know what the possible causes are for this problem. Vuyo discusses this request with his team and requests their input. Additional information about the organisation will be given in the questions that follow. (c) 1.1 From the information in the case study it is clear that Ultra Hardware decided to work with an external vendor to acquire their HRIS. The HR staff at Ultra Hardware had to work closely with their internal IT Department and the external vendors to ensure that the business process requirements and all the technical requirements are provided to the vendor. They thus had to develop a specific document for this purpose. (a) (b) Identify the type of document that they have to develop and briefly describe what the document should entail. (3) Provide five items that Ultra Hardware should have included in the document that they had to prepare about their company (use information from the case study to briefly describe some of these items (5 marks-½ marks are allocated in this question). (5) Discuss three criteria that Ultra Hardware should have used when they selected the HRIS vendor. (6) 1.2 Gladys works in the HR department at Ultra Hardware and her job is to ensure that the HR staff have all the access, information and tools needed to do their jobs. Answer the following questions: (a) In terms of HRIS customers/users, what type of HRIS user is Gladys? (1) (b) Virgil is responsible for entering basic employee information on the HRIS, indicate which type of HRIS user Virgil is and explain the role briefly. (2) (c) Andy is regarded as an HRIS power user, explain this role and indicate how he can support the managers in Ultra Hardware in his capacity as a power user. (2) 1.3 A new employee joins Ultra Hardware and is hesitant to provide his personal information to upload on the HRIS. He speaks to Vuyo and indicates that he does not want everybody in the company to be able to access his personal information or for this information to "fall into the wrong hands". (a) If you were in Vuyo's shoes, what would you say to the employee to address the concerns? Use the relevant legislation to explain how it will ensure that the information does not "fall into the wrong hands". Remember you learnt previously in this module how to properly refer to legislation. (b) What should Ultra Hardware as a company have in place to address this? (4) (3)

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

a The document that Ultra Hardware had to develop in collaboration with their internal IT Department and the external vendors is a System Requirements Specification document This document outlines the ... View the full answer