Tips to analysing Cases First read the case, underlining the important points and taking rough notes on what you believe are the main problems and their causes, as we did in class discussions. Start thinking about solutions. If you have the opportunity, share your ideas with others. Second, revisit the case later and reread it$.$ Make additional notes. When there is insufficient information, make reasonable assumptions, state them, and provide a foundation for them. Remember to consider how your proposed solution may affect others. Make sure you don't solve one department's problem while creating another. Write your first draft report and keep it aside. Third, revisit the case later to ensure that it says everything you want it to say and, in the manner, you want.Individual Case study Analysis Assignment Case$-1$ Analyzing Jobs at Custom Carpet CleaningAs the Office Manager at Custom Carpet Cleaning, Bob Huffman must handle a wide range of responsibilities. As the company has grown to over fifty employees, the human resource management practices of the company have become a more significant part of his role. Bob has had little formal education or training in human resources management, but works hard to ensure that the company manages its staff effectively.With a new fiscal year approaching, Bob is examining many aspects of the companys budget. As he reviewed the payroll budget, he noted some wide variations in pay rates of the carpet cleaners across the companys seven locations. He also noted that some of the pay rates seemed to be higher than what the competition pays. Pay rates and pay increases are determined at each location by the local supervisor and as a result, there is not consistency in the companys pay practices.Some of the pay differences may be justified. Different locations work on different types of assignments and the jobs the carpet cleaners do may be different. For example, some locations work primarily at residential clients. Cleaners at these locations work directly with the clients and need strong sales and customer service skills in addition to carpet cleaning skills. Whereas locations that work primarily on commercial property have very little client contact, but they face tougher cleaning challenges and must have stronger technical skills.However, Bob does not have a good understanding of which locations have which kinds of responsibilities. He has done some research online and believes that a good starting point for examining the companys compensation practice would be to conduct a job analysis and create written job descriptions. Based on what he learned through his research, he has decided to create a questionnaire to complete the job analysis process and he will ask one cleaner from each location to complete it$.$ The questionnaire asks the employee to explain the tasks they complete and how they complete them. It also asks the employee to describe any equipment used. Bob plans to use the information collected in the questionnaires to create written job descriptions. Once he has the job descriptions complete, he will use them to help determine if internal pay rates are consistent and if the company is paying competitively in the market$\mathrm{.}1.$ Do you think Bobs approach to job analysis will be effective in creating useful job descriptions?$2.$ What can be done to improve this job analysis process?$3.$ What kind of pay policy would be beneficial for Bob to stay competitive in the market?Case$-2$ Cutting Costs at Elite Financial ServicesAs Albert Johnson, Director of Compensation at Elite Financial Services, examines the annual budget, he is concerned about the rising cost of the healthcare insurance the company provides to its employees. In response to some recent challenges in the marketplace, Elites CEO has sent out the directive to cut costs wherever possible. The companys healthcare insurance benefit accounts for more than one third of the overall benefits budget and Albert thinks that there may be some opportunity for savings.Elite Financial Services provides financial planning support to a variety of clients. Unlike many of their competitors, Elite provides healthcare insurance to all of their Financial Planners and also to the entire administrative staff. The company provides a basic fee$-$for$-$ service indemnity plan for its $275$ employees. The company also provides vision and dental insurance. About $60$ of the employees have single coverage, $75$ cover themselves and their spouse and the remaining employees have full family coverage.Over the past ten years, Elite has had to compete with other leaders in their industry for talented Financial Planners. As a result, the companys priority in the past has been to make the company benefit program as attractive as possible to current and future employees. Pay for Financial Planners is based primarily upon incentives and therefore, offering a generous benefit program allowed Elite to attract and retain top Financial Planners. However, Albert is aware that several competitors are seeking to reduce healthcare insurance program costs as well, and therefore making changes should not hurt their position in the market.In an attempt to keep the costs low for the employees, the plan deductibles and coinsurance are relatively low. These factors have led to fairly high premiums and Elite currently pays $90\%$ of the premiums for all of their insurance offerings, leaving just $10\%$ for the employees to contribute to the premium. Finally, Elite has done very little in the past to manage the cost of their healthcare insurance benefit. For example, their experience ratings have impacted the companys premiums as employees have high usage rates of their benefits. Albert is certain there are many opportunities to cut costs, he just has to decide where to begin$\mathrm{.}1.$ What can Elite do to lower their healthcare insurance costs?$2.$ Will making changes to the companys healthcare insurance benefit affect thecompanys ability to recruit and retain employees?