Read case and answer questions below. Minimum length is one-full page college writing, which is double spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 font.

Chapter 1 CASE

You are the HR Manager for a small print shop which markets printing and promotional marketing materials to businesses. ACME print employs 30 employees. You have 10 employees who work in the plant printing marketing and promotional materials, plus shipping and receiving. The remaining 20 employees work in functions such as accounting/finance, sales and marketing, general administration, operations and HR. ACME pays plant employees $15-$20 per hour and the 20 employees working in the office earn $40,000-$120,000 per year. The top marketing/sales employees make over $100,000 due to commissions on sales. ACME offers Health & Dental Insurance (company pays 50% of costs), life insurance, vacations (max out at 4-wks, if employed over 20 years), 401K plan with 50% match.

The President of the company has assigned you the task of reviewing ACMEs employees and forecast hiring needs over the next 3 years as the company rapidly grows 10% per year. In 2020, when Covid hit, ACME was able to maintain all employees as business fell, but over the past 6 months the business has dramatically grown. Keep in mind, you are in a very competitive environment and you can only raise prices to customers minimally and ACME is a relatively small company that has limited financial resources. Here are some of the issues:

• ACME President believes that some employees are looking for other employment due to the labor shortage and great opportunities elsewhere.
• Half of your Office employees were working from home during 2020 and returned to the office a few days a week, but like the flexibility of working from home.
• 30% of your employees will most likely retire in the next 3-5 years, so this will create a brain drain from the company as well as trying to replace those workers during a labor shortage. The balance of employees will not retire for 10-30 years, but still need to retain those employees.
• The cost of healthcare has increased 7-10% per year, so ACME either needs to cut health benefits or switch employees to contractors-higher pay, but no benefits.

QUESTIONS:

1. Point out which changes in the overall economy that are occurring in the business that affect HRM.
2. How would you address the problem of potentially losing employees who might be looking for other jobs in this tight labor market?
3. How will you create a work environment and compensation package to attract new employees. You will need hire 10-20 employees over the next year as growth continues, maybe more if ACME loses some employees.
4. What types of programs will you develop to make sure there is an easy transition when employees start to retire? Can you convince older employees who can retire to stay?
5. What will be the economic impact to businesses as Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964 retire over the next 10 years.
6. What are some pros and cons of telecommuting?
7. Can you establish fair flexible work arrangements like telecommuting for some employees? Which jobs or functions are more able to work productively remotely? What other flexible arrangements could you offer these employees, even plant workers?
8. What are some of the benefits of moving some workers to a contract basis?
9. Are there any creative ways to address the high cost of health insurance costs without making existing employees angry. Remember, you will need to attract new employees as ACME grows.