SECTION A $[100$ MARKS$]$

Read the case study carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Organisational Staffing at Revive Equipment

Innocentia Mpofu stepped into the role of CEO of Revive Equipment $2$ years ago when her father, Karabo, retired. Revive

Equipment is a supplier of medical equipment and supplies to care facilities and home care patients. The company has a

large warehouse, a fleet of delivery vehicles, four retail locations, and approximately $180$ employees with a very low

turnover. Innocentia has a degree in finance and had $10$ years of experience with a large hospital group before joining

Revive Equipment $5$ years ago. She had the company on solid financial ground when Karabo retired, and the leadership

transition went smoothly. Her first challenge came a few months later as the employees who had been with the company

since Karabo started it nearly $25$ years earlier started to retire. Within a year, nearly $20\%$ of the managers and

supervisors retired, and keeping fully staffed became a challenge. Experienced employees moved into management

positions, creating openings in many areas, especially delivery and equipment repair. Those jobs took months to fill

because qualified applicants were hard to find.

As a result of the staffing problems, the time to complete and deliver customer orders began to increase significantly and

so did customer complaints. Customer service staff reported that established home care customers wondered how they

could get their old delivery people to return. A common issue involved products being delivered without necessary related

consumable items being supplied too. These items were not specifically ordered, but previous drivers knew that they

were necessary and carried supplies in their vans in case they were needed. Supervisors commented that they were

spending considerable amounts of time checking the work of new employees who didn$$t have the maths skills or

decision$-$making skills necessary for ordering and inventory. New employees weren$$t too happy either. Daniella Naidoo,

the HR Director, was receiving complaints from the new hires that the work was much more challenging than they were

led to believe.

When Innocentia met with Daniella to try to determine how to fix the problem, she asked if they needed to re$-$examine

their recruiting methods and selection criteria. Daniella had several ideas for expanding recruitment but said that their

selection criteria were sound. $$Right before your dad retired, I had the experienced supervisors look the job descriptions

over before they retired. You know we lost a lot of experienced supervisors, and they knew this place inside and out.$$

Daniella went on to explain that the job descriptions had been created by Karabo many years ago and were reviewed

regularly by supervisors over the years.

Frustrated, Innocentia called a managers$$ meeting to address the complaints of the customers and new employees. Many

agreed that the new employees weren$$t of the same calibre as past hires. Some managers felt that the new hires would

eventually get up to speed. Others said that it was a common problem everywhere and they would just have to get used

to it$,$ and one manager wanted to fire all of them and start over. Innocentia directed Daniella to research ways to improve

the quality of the applicant pool for future openings.

After the meeting, Neo, a driver supervisor, stopped by Innocentia$$s office and asked to talk to her. $$I don$$t want to cause

any problems. I know those guys are your dad$$s friends and all, but the job descriptions for my drivers aren$$t exactly

wrong, but they aren$$t right either.$$ When Innocentia pressed for more information, Neo explained that the job descriptions

were very vague. $$They don$$t include any specific mathematical ability, customer service skills or related work

experience. The list of responsibilities just includes product delivery. There isn$$t anything in it about keeping an inventory

of supplies in the van or providing good customer service.$$ Further conversation revealed that the experienced drivers

were making the newer drivers responsible for loading the vans in the morning and cleaning them in the evening. $$They

say it$$s because they$$re responsible for safety and need to review procedures, but everyone knows they just sit around

and talk.$$

Innocentia was left to wonder what her next move should be$.$

$($Adapted from: Verhulst, S$.$L$.$ and DeCenzo, D$.$A$.(2022)$ Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. Fourteenth

Edition. Hoboken: Wiley.$)$

QUESTION $1(25$ Marks$)$

Discuss the extent to which the five steps of the HR planning process are evident in the case study.

QUESTION $2(25$ Marks$)$

Discuss Revive Equipment$$s approach to job analysis and make recommendations for its improvement.

QUESTION $3(25$ Marks$)$

Critically discuss Revive Equipment$$s use of both internal and external recruitment.

QUESTION $4(25$ Marks$)$

You are a Talent Management Specialist who has been contracted