1. Assessment 2 Task Instructions ASSESSMENT TWO: REPORT Due Date: Sunday Week 8 11:59 pm Details of Task: Individually or in pairs, assume the role of an HR consultant for your chosen organisation. Prepare a business report for the Senior Management Team of your chosen organisation detailing a HRM strategy for managing employees through an economic crisis. Suggested Steps: After reading through this A2 topic book on Moodle, decide if you will undertake A2 and A3 individually or in a pair. Select an organisation with which you are familiar - it may be one that you do/have worked for or one that can be widely researched through publicly available information. Assume the role of HR consultant, contracted by the chosen organisation to prepare detailing an HRM strategy for managing employees through an economic crisis. In order to complete this task, you will need to research widely. Topics to research include, but are not limited to, HRM's role in strategy, the implications of an economic crisis on employees, HRM and organisations, and your chosen organisation and industry. Academic sources of information are preferred, however this does not preclude the inclusion of non-academic sources as deemed appropriate. Note the minimum references requirement of ten sources, of which at least six should be academic journal articles. Refer to page 38 of the General Guide to Writing Skills 'General Structure of a Business Report' for detail on expectations of the report's structure and content. Suggested content for the body the report includes, but is not limited to: Exploration of the impact of an economic crisis on managing employees, at the operational, managerial and/or strategic levels. Evaluation of ways HRM can manage employees through an economic crisis. A recommendations section that briefly states a strategy your chosen organisation could take to managing employees through an economic crisis. Pair Work - it is expected that the division of work among members will be worked out in an even and fair manner. All members are expected to contribute to both the researching and writing of the report. Word Limit: 2, 000 words (individual) OR 3,500 words (pair) - +/- 10% Value: 30% Presentation Requirements: Report format. Please refer to Assignment Layout and Appearance Guidelines and General Guidelines to Writing and Study Skills (particularly pp. 36-45). APA referencing is to be used. Estimated return date: Two weeks after submission Marking Criteria: Refer to marking rubric Reports Like essays, Reports are crucial assessment tasks. They can be distinguished from essays in terms of their structure, their writing style, their formality, their purpose, and their intended audience. Essays are written in continuous flowing prose comprised of paragraphs with topic sentences. They may be divided into sections with headings sometimes, but these sections are there for the convenience of clarifying the discussion. Both reports and essays have an Introduction, a Body and a Conclusion. They both have in-text and reference list citations and both use evidence. Both use a formal academic writing style. But this is where the similarities end. Reports are always divided into sections, sometimes numbered sections with headings, and each section has a distinct and discrete purpose. Typical sections in a generic report include: Findings: outlines what one found Discussion (or 'Analysis'): analyses the Findings Recommendations: describes what should be done based on the Findings. There are often more sections than this, depending on the kind of report being written. In report writing it is important that the right information goes into the right section. Stylistically, some reports permit the use of bullet point lists, and almost all reports have charts, tables, graphs and other visual devices. These are rare in essays.