[Solved] Human Resource Management

Assignment Prompt & Instructions

– ## HRMD640ColumbusHRISDatabase1.xls

– ## AssignmentInstructions.docx

– ## HRMD640FinalExamCaseStudy.pdf

– Rubric3.png
– Rubric2.png
– Rubric1.png
– HRMD640ColumbusCarpentryEmployeeHandbook.pdf

**## HRMD640ColumbusHRISDatabase1.xls**

[removed]

**## AssignmentInstructions.docx**

Details

Please download the three files you need for this assignment:

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/8556abe7-6b25-4f4f-91cf-3e22de6986f0.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry: Employee Handbook](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/199d1a01-9da7-44b6-994f-280a0b3af977.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus HRIS Database](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/f1e41672-6f53-44ad-a326-84789c593826.html) (XL)

Instructions

This assignment requires you to use oral reports from managers and employees, and from the HRIS database to answer the questions.  You are to use BOTH sets of data to support your answers.

1. Is there a turnover “problem” in Columbus Custom Carpentry among the following occupations?  If so, explain why.

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

2. Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations (Hint: Compare the job description for the production tech. to the job descriptions in the market data to find the correct match for the production tech.)?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

3. Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

4. If you were to redesign any ONE job in Columbus Custom Carpentry, discuss which job you would redesign, why you would redesign it, and how you would redesign it.

5. Are there pay disparities between males and females in the following jobs?

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

Given your answers to ALL the previous questions, exactly how would you rectify the key issues within Columbus Custom Carpentry?  Support your plan of action with resources/references.

**## HRMD640FinalExamCaseStudy.pdf**

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 3

columbuS cuStom carPeNtry caSe overview

This case is presented as close as possible to the way you may encounter it in
working life. Your role is that of a newly hired HR manager. You will learn about the
company by reading the employee handbook, talking with various employees and
reviewing the human resource information system (HRIS) database.

When you first join an organization, you will have an idea of what the organization
is like, and there will be a few things of which you feel certain, but your list of
unknowns will be much longer. Each interaction with employees provides more
data, but you will find that not everyone agrees on the facts of a particular situation.
Sometimes you may find that the people you are speaking with do not know the
information you are asking about; at other times, they know a great deal about
the issue but choose to manage the information they provide to you for their own
benefit.

We will not intentionally mislead you in this case, but do not expect everything to
fall neatly into place. Uncertainty, differences of opinion and competing priorities
are the norm in the professional world.

In your role as the HR manager, you are expected to analyze the situation, identify
the problems and develop workable solutions. For the purpose of this case, you are
asked to provide a written and oral presentation to the company president (your
professor). While there is no single best answer, you must identify the key issues so
that the solutions you propose are appropriate to the situation.

Columbus Custom Carpentry is a small, successful company. Recently, though, labor
costs per unit have risen faster than gross revenue per unit. The company president
has also found that human resource issues are taking up more and more of his time
and frequently result in production problems. Both overtime and late shipments are
increasing. Until now, the president’s administrative assistant has handled all HR-
related administrative activities. You are the newly hired HR manager.

Subject matter knowledge you will apply in this case includes:

Internal and external pay equity. n

Job grades and pay range/structure creation. n

Market pricing using salary data. n

Turnover. n

Job analysis and job description development. n

Student Materials

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 5

Monday, 8:00 a.m.

Anthony Cooney, president/CEO
“Welcome to the Columbus Custom Carpentry family. We have a busy day laid
out for you, so I won’t take up too much of your time. You will begin with
Barbara Duff, my administrative assistant. She will take you through our employee
orientation and get you set up for payroll and benefits. Next, Matt Lee from
accounting will give you your computer password and explain our network and
backup procedures. The rest of your day will be devoted to meetings with various
employees so you can get to know everyone and learn more about our company.

“We had talked during your interview about the employee issues we are having, and
I hope your outside perspective will help us get a better understanding of what the
underlying problems really are. I would like to meet again on Friday, and you can
give me a preliminary idea of what you see as the primary issues. After that, we’ll
give you a couple more weeks to develop an action plan to deal with these problems.
That may seem like a very fast schedule, but I want you to jump on this before
your time gets filled up with other activities. I recently read about the concept of
a ‘honeymoon’ during an HR manager’s first 100 days. The article indicated that
during this period, you are able to accomplish things that will become impossible
later. I want—we need—to make the most of this opportunity.”

Monday, 8:15 a.m.

Barbara Duff, president’s administrative assistant
“I have been doing the employment tasks and record keeping. I’m sure you will
find everything in order. I’ll take you through the regular orientation and benefits
enrollment process. I’m glad you are here, because I have been asking Mr. Cooney
for help for quite a long time; all this HR stuff keeps me from getting my real job
done. We will get started by completing the I-9 form.”

A couple of videos and reams of benefit forms later, she gives you the employee
handbook and returns to her desk.

Monday, 10:00 a.m.

Matt Lee, accounting database administrator
Matt meets you at your office to go over the company network and show you how to
access the HRIS database. At this company, the HRIS is an Excel file maintained by
the president’s administrative assistant. Your e-mail inbox has already been created
and contains 87 messages. As he is leaving, Matt says, “I’ve been doing the payroll
because we didn’t have an HR department. Now that you are here, we should talk
about transitioning that function over to you.”

Monday, 10:30 a.m.

Mike Cooney, chief financial officer (CFO)
“We operate in a narrow niche market. We have to maintain a price advantage
over the true custom manufacturers, or our customers will have no reason not
to take advantage of the wider choices and individualized solutions. This means

6 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

that efficiency of operations is our primary competitive advantage. If we lose that
operating cost advantage, our business plan collapses like a house of cards.

“We cannot produce at the incredibly low-cost level maintained by the mass market
manufacturers. We would not get costs that low even if we mimicked their limited
product lines and quality levels. We compete with them by creating styles and
options that they don’t offer. Finding the balance between production costs and
proliferation of models is a continuing struggle.

“We need to cut out the current levels of overtime to maintain our cost structure. It
is not clear why we need this overtime. Our labor hours per unit made have stopped
going down and are even up somewhat. Adding overtime to that increases our labor
cost per hour as well. Turnover has been useful in the past, allowing us to replace
higher-paid workers with more lower-paid new hires, but the pattern seems to be
changing, and now it is our new hires who are leaving. The warehouse manager
wants to increase wages in his area, but that raises our costs per labor hour without
explaining how it will help us get our total costs down.”

Monday, 11:30 a.m. (lunch meeting)

Derwin Boyer, manufacturing manager
“A variety of people issues are hindering our productivity. We have bottlenecks in
the warehouse areas. These bottlenecks spill into our manufacturing area because
we have to pull people off assembly work to get their own raw materials or to move
finished product out of the production area. This also means that we are doing
with more expensive manufacturing labor what should be done with less expensive
warehouse labor. To operate at our needed levels of efficiency, employees need to be
doing the jobs they are trained for. Driving around on a forklift just to find materials
or to find a place to put finished units is not efficient.

“We operate under the concept of mass customization. Using modular parts, we can
produce designs with features that appear to the end user as custom work but have
the manufacturing advantages of mass production.

“The assembly jigs we have developed are the heart of our system. You can think
of them as big clamps. They hold the material in just the right arrangement. If the
assembler puts in the wrong part, the jig will not close, preventing the assembler
from wasting materials. Once the materials are in place, the jig closes and a single
lever pull will drill any needed holes in the right place, in the right size and to
the proper depth. It is fast, mistake-free and simple for the operator. Much of our
assembly is gluing. Here is where the big clamp analogy is the closest. Once the jig
is locked with just a couple of levers, proper clamping pressure is applied at exactly
the right places. Assemblers no longer spend time placing individual clamps. Once
closed, the jigs are tilted upright and rolled on their own rollers to a drying area. If
they are to get painted, the paint hanger goes on before the jig is released and no
one even has to touch the door unit until it is crated. Zero damage and zero waste in
this part of the process.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 7

Monday, 1:30 p.m.

John Brown, manufacturing supervisor
“It is hard to keep the guys working efficiently. We are always running out of
raw materials, or the finished product builds up and I have to pull guys off the
production floor to deal with it. The warehouse manager doesn’t do his job, but if I
have my guys take loads over, he complains that they did not get stacked right and
that the damage is our fault.”

Monday, 2:00 p.m.

Cary Dobbins, warehouse manager
“We are treated like stepchildren; the manufacturing department pays more and
has the best equipment. If I do get a good employee, this person transfers to
manufacturing at the first opportunity. I tried blocking a transfer once, but the
employee got mad and quit. If we get behind, manufacturing just drops product
anywhere, and when it gets damaged, they blame it on us. They think anybody can
do our job, but they can’t seem to put a blue crate into a blue bin without hitting
something.

“I waste time interviewing and training when I should be working on the crating
jig project that is supposed to reduce our damage ratio and make packing easier. My
best guys can pack better than the jig right now, but I have to train new people all
the time, and some just don’t seem to get it. Crating may not be rocket science, but
putting nails in crooked damages the doors. Miss a corner—and the whole thing
will fall apart the first time we try to move it. People get the idea that because it is
manual labor rather than an automated machine, it is simpler. The opposite is closer
to the truth. My forklift drivers don’t want to do crating because it has so much
bending over and lifting that it is much harder physically than their regular work.
The crating jig should make it possible for less-skilled people to do the crating job.
This will eventually allow us to save money both on labor costs and the cost of
replacing damaged goods.”

Monday, 3:00 p.m.

Brandon Swift, marketing manager
“It is critical that we are seen by our customers as top quality because we charge
more than the prices they see at the big-box stores. Damaged goods and shipping
problems reflect poorly on our product, even if it is good quality. How many end
users can truly judge the quality of our product? Not many; it’s all perception.

“We work directly with the homeowners in the design process, but the builders are
the ones who refer the homeowners, do the sizing, place the orders and install the
product. They are the ones who take the heat for shipping delays or damage. When
they need service, parts or replacements, they want them now, not tomorrow or the
day after. Time is money to contractors. We have to win on design but deliver at a
price that makes our products a better value.”

8 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Monday, 3:45 p.m.

Stephen Moore, crater (new hire)
“I took this job to get off of second shift, but I am hoping to transfer to the
manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me
about this place, but they make you start in the warehouse and work your way up.
What I don’t get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift job; running the
forklift is easier work. Besides, working on the crating jig is really like working
in the manufacturing side, where they use similar jigs to make the doors. The
manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with
my family in the evening, but if I don’t get that transfer and the raise that goes with
it, I will have to get a second job to make ends meet.”

Monday, 4:00 p.m.

Nathan Smith, production technician (manufacturing assembly)
“When I first got here, we made the doors from scratch. You could take pride in a
door you made yourself. Now we just throw parts into a jig and stick them together.
It allows new people to make a quality door with little training, but it is kind of sad
for those of us who consider ourselves craftsmen. Most of my old co-workers have
moved into the housing industry as finish carpenters. I came from there originally,
and I’m afraid of going back just in time to lose my job due to a downturn in the
housing market.”

Monday 4:15 p.m.

Jeffery Green, raw materials warehouse
“I like running the forklift in raw materials. I know I could make a little more in
production, but I think it would be boring doing the same thing all day. We have
a good team in my area; most of us have been here awhile and know our jobs. The
supervisor spends most of his time working on orders and inventory issues rather
than standing over us. I like that. It’s not the same in production. The supervisors
are always on their tails, and if anything goes wrong, there is lots of yelling. They are
always trying to blame other departments because they are under so much pressure
to produce. They’ll switch models on the fly, then complain that we don’t have the
parts bin correctly stocked. The worst is when they try to help. Talk about screwing
things up in a hurry! We should take away all of their forklift licenses.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 9

additioNal reSourceS

Internet Resources
Internet Based Benefit and Compensation Administration | ERI Distance Learning
Center | www.eridlc.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=textbook.main (free Internet-
based text)

DLC Business Glossary | ERI Distance Learning Center | http://eridlc.com
/index.cfm?Fuseaction=resource.glossary&trkid=292-49 (free Internet-based
dictionary of compensation terms)

Occupational Wages and Employment | Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)
Program | www.lmi.state.oh.us/oeS/oes.htm (from the Ohio government wage
site)

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) | U.S. Department of Labor |
Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/jlt/home.htm

National Compensation Survey | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | http://data.bls.gov/PdQ/outside.jsp?survey=nc

National Compensation Survey: Guide for Evaluating Your Firm’s Jobs and Pay |
U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp
/ncbr0004.pdf

National Compensation Survey: Compensation Cost Trends | U.S. Department of
Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/home.htm

Salary.com | www.salary.com (free online salary information for the private sector)

PayScale.com | www.payscale.com (free real-time salary reports)

Salary Search | http://salarysearch.blr.com (free salary data)

BLS Occupational Handbook | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm

Hewitt Total Compensation Center | www.totalcompensationcenter.com/tcc
/home/select_site.jsp (model of a salary structure)

ERI Distance Learning Center | www.eridlc.com (various compensation
educational resources)

Salary.com | www.salary.com/advice/layouthtmls/advl_display_cat14_Ser65_
Par142.html (advice on salary structures)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/agedata.asp (calculator for
age data)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/Salaryranges.asp
(calculator for a salary range)

WorldatWork | www.worldatwork.org

10 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Society for Human Resource Management | www.shrm.org

IFEBP | www.ifebp.org

Compensation consulting companies; general research, no free surveys are available
through these sources:

www.hewittassociates.com/intl/Na/en-uS/default.aspx

www.wwds.com

www.imercer.com/default.aspx?page=home&tab=1&newregionid=100

Other Resources
Purushotham, D.P., & Wilson, S. (2004). Building pay structures. Scottsdale, AZ:
WorldatWork. Available as a download/e-book.

Stoskopf, G. (2002, 4th Quarter). Choosing the best salary structure for your
organization. World at Work Journal, 11, 4.

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**HRMD640ColumbusCarpentryEmployeeHandbook.pdf**

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**HRMD640ColumbusCarpentryEmployeeHandbook.pdf**

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**## HRMD640ColumbusHRISDatabase1.xls**

[removed]

**## AssignmentInstructions.docx**

Details

Please download the three files you need for this assignment:

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/8556abe7-6b25-4f4f-91cf-3e22de6986f0.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry: Employee Handbook](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/199d1a01-9da7-44b6-994f-280a0b3af977.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus HRIS Database](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/f1e41672-6f53-44ad-a326-84789c593826.html) (XL)

Instructions

This assignment requires you to use oral reports from managers and employees, and from the HRIS database to answer the questions.  You are to use BOTH sets of data to support your answers.

1. Is there a turnover “problem” in Columbus Custom Carpentry among the following occupations?  If so, explain why.

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

2. Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations (Hint: Compare the job description for the production tech. to the job descriptions in the market data to find the correct match for the production tech.)?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

3. Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

4. If you were to redesign any ONE job in Columbus Custom Carpentry, discuss which job you would redesign, why you would redesign it, and how you would redesign it.

5. Are there pay disparities between males and females in the following jobs?

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

Given your answers to ALL the previous questions, exactly how would you rectify the key issues within Columbus Custom Carpentry?  Support your plan of action with resources/references.

**## HRMD640FinalExamCaseStudy.pdf**

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 3

columbuS cuStom carPeNtry caSe overview

This case is presented as close as possible to the way you may encounter it in
working life. Your role is that of a newly hired HR manager. You will learn about the
company by reading the employee handbook, talking with various employees and
reviewing the human resource information system (HRIS) database.

When you first join an organization, you will have an idea of what the organization
is like, and there will be a few things of which you feel certain, but your list of
unknowns will be much longer. Each interaction with employees provides more
data, but you will find that not everyone agrees on the facts of a particular situation.
Sometimes you may find that the people you are speaking with do not know the
information you are asking about; at other times, they know a great deal about
the issue but choose to manage the information they provide to you for their own
benefit.

We will not intentionally mislead you in this case, but do not expect everything to
fall neatly into place. Uncertainty, differences of opinion and competing priorities
are the norm in the professional world.

In your role as the HR manager, you are expected to analyze the situation, identify
the problems and develop workable solutions. For the purpose of this case, you are
asked to provide a written and oral presentation to the company president (your
professor). While there is no single best answer, you must identify the key issues so
that the solutions you propose are appropriate to the situation.

Columbus Custom Carpentry is a small, successful company. Recently, though, labor
costs per unit have risen faster than gross revenue per unit. The company president
has also found that human resource issues are taking up more and more of his time
and frequently result in production problems. Both overtime and late shipments are
increasing. Until now, the president’s administrative assistant has handled all HR-
related administrative activities. You are the newly hired HR manager.

Subject matter knowledge you will apply in this case includes:

Internal and external pay equity. n

Job grades and pay range/structure creation. n

Market pricing using salary data. n

Turnover. n

Job analysis and job description development. n

Student Materials

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 5

Monday, 8:00 a.m.

Anthony Cooney, president/CEO
“Welcome to the Columbus Custom Carpentry family. We have a busy day laid
out for you, so I won’t take up too much of your time. You will begin with
Barbara Duff, my administrative assistant. She will take you through our employee
orientation and get you set up for payroll and benefits. Next, Matt Lee from
accounting will give you your computer password and explain our network and
backup procedures. The rest of your day will be devoted to meetings with various
employees so you can get to know everyone and learn more about our company.

“We had talked during your interview about the employee issues we are having, and
I hope your outside perspective will help us get a better understanding of what the
underlying problems really are. I would like to meet again on Friday, and you can
give me a preliminary idea of what you see as the primary issues. After that, we’ll
give you a couple more weeks to develop an action plan to deal with these problems.
That may seem like a very fast schedule, but I want you to jump on this before
your time gets filled up with other activities. I recently read about the concept of
a ‘honeymoon’ during an HR manager’s first 100 days. The article indicated that
during this period, you are able to accomplish things that will become impossible
later. I want—we need—to make the most of this opportunity.”

Monday, 8:15 a.m.

Barbara Duff, president’s administrative assistant
“I have been doing the employment tasks and record keeping. I’m sure you will
find everything in order. I’ll take you through the regular orientation and benefits
enrollment process. I’m glad you are here, because I have been asking Mr. Cooney
for help for quite a long time; all this HR stuff keeps me from getting my real job
done. We will get started by completing the I-9 form.”

A couple of videos and reams of benefit forms later, she gives you the employee
handbook and returns to her desk.

Monday, 10:00 a.m.

Matt Lee, accounting database administrator
Matt meets you at your office to go over the company network and show you how to
access the HRIS database. At this company, the HRIS is an Excel file maintained by
the president’s administrative assistant. Your e-mail inbox has already been created
and contains 87 messages. As he is leaving, Matt says, “I’ve been doing the payroll
because we didn’t have an HR department. Now that you are here, we should talk
about transitioning that function over to you.”

Monday, 10:30 a.m.

Mike Cooney, chief financial officer (CFO)
“We operate in a narrow niche market. We have to maintain a price advantage
over the true custom manufacturers, or our customers will have no reason not
to take advantage of the wider choices and individualized solutions. This means

6 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

that efficiency of operations is our primary competitive advantage. If we lose that
operating cost advantage, our business plan collapses like a house of cards.

“We cannot produce at the incredibly low-cost level maintained by the mass market
manufacturers. We would not get costs that low even if we mimicked their limited
product lines and quality levels. We compete with them by creating styles and
options that they don’t offer. Finding the balance between production costs and
proliferation of models is a continuing struggle.

“We need to cut out the current levels of overtime to maintain our cost structure. It
is not clear why we need this overtime. Our labor hours per unit made have stopped
going down and are even up somewhat. Adding overtime to that increases our labor
cost per hour as well. Turnover has been useful in the past, allowing us to replace
higher-paid workers with more lower-paid new hires, but the pattern seems to be
changing, and now it is our new hires who are leaving. The warehouse manager
wants to increase wages in his area, but that raises our costs per labor hour without
explaining how it will help us get our total costs down.”

Monday, 11:30 a.m. (lunch meeting)

Derwin Boyer, manufacturing manager
“A variety of people issues are hindering our productivity. We have bottlenecks in
the warehouse areas. These bottlenecks spill into our manufacturing area because
we have to pull people off assembly work to get their own raw materials or to move
finished product out of the production area. This also means that we are doing
with more expensive manufacturing labor what should be done with less expensive
warehouse labor. To operate at our needed levels of efficiency, employees need to be
doing the jobs they are trained for. Driving around on a forklift just to find materials
or to find a place to put finished units is not efficient.

“We operate under the concept of mass customization. Using modular parts, we can
produce designs with features that appear to the end user as custom work but have
the manufacturing advantages of mass production.

“The assembly jigs we have developed are the heart of our system. You can think
of them as big clamps. They hold the material in just the right arrangement. If the
assembler puts in the wrong part, the jig will not close, preventing the assembler
from wasting materials. Once the materials are in place, the jig closes and a single
lever pull will drill any needed holes in the right place, in the right size and to
the proper depth. It is fast, mistake-free and simple for the operator. Much of our
assembly is gluing. Here is where the big clamp analogy is the closest. Once the jig
is locked with just a couple of levers, proper clamping pressure is applied at exactly
the right places. Assemblers no longer spend time placing individual clamps. Once
closed, the jigs are tilted upright and rolled on their own rollers to a drying area. If
they are to get painted, the paint hanger goes on before the jig is released and no
one even has to touch the door unit until it is crated. Zero damage and zero waste in
this part of the process.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 7

Monday, 1:30 p.m.

John Brown, manufacturing supervisor
“It is hard to keep the guys working efficiently. We are always running out of
raw materials, or the finished product builds up and I have to pull guys off the
production floor to deal with it. The warehouse manager doesn’t do his job, but if I
have my guys take loads over, he complains that they did not get stacked right and
that the damage is our fault.”

Monday, 2:00 p.m.

Cary Dobbins, warehouse manager
“We are treated like stepchildren; the manufacturing department pays more and
has the best equipment. If I do get a good employee, this person transfers to
manufacturing at the first opportunity. I tried blocking a transfer once, but the
employee got mad and quit. If we get behind, manufacturing just drops product
anywhere, and when it gets damaged, they blame it on us. They think anybody can
do our job, but they can’t seem to put a blue crate into a blue bin without hitting
something.

“I waste time interviewing and training when I should be working on the crating
jig project that is supposed to reduce our damage ratio and make packing easier. My
best guys can pack better than the jig right now, but I have to train new people all
the time, and some just don’t seem to get it. Crating may not be rocket science, but
putting nails in crooked damages the doors. Miss a corner—and the whole thing
will fall apart the first time we try to move it. People get the idea that because it is
manual labor rather than an automated machine, it is simpler. The opposite is closer
to the truth. My forklift drivers don’t want to do crating because it has so much
bending over and lifting that it is much harder physically than their regular work.
The crating jig should make it possible for less-skilled people to do the crating job.
This will eventually allow us to save money both on labor costs and the cost of
replacing damaged goods.”

Monday, 3:00 p.m.

Brandon Swift, marketing manager
“It is critical that we are seen by our customers as top quality because we charge
more than the prices they see at the big-box stores. Damaged goods and shipping
problems reflect poorly on our product, even if it is good quality. How many end
users can truly judge the quality of our product? Not many; it’s all perception.

“We work directly with the homeowners in the design process, but the builders are
the ones who refer the homeowners, do the sizing, place the orders and install the
product. They are the ones who take the heat for shipping delays or damage. When
they need service, parts or replacements, they want them now, not tomorrow or the
day after. Time is money to contractors. We have to win on design but deliver at a
price that makes our products a better value.”

8 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Monday, 3:45 p.m.

Stephen Moore, crater (new hire)
“I took this job to get off of second shift, but I am hoping to transfer to the
manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me
about this place, but they make you start in the warehouse and work your way up.
What I don’t get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift job; running the
forklift is easier work. Besides, working on the crating jig is really like working
in the manufacturing side, where they use similar jigs to make the doors. The
manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with
my family in the evening, but if I don’t get that transfer and the raise that goes with
it, I will have to get a second job to make ends meet.”

Monday, 4:00 p.m.

Nathan Smith, production technician (manufacturing assembly)
“When I first got here, we made the doors from scratch. You could take pride in a
door you made yourself. Now we just throw parts into a jig and stick them together.
It allows new people to make a quality door with little training, but it is kind of sad
for those of us who consider ourselves craftsmen. Most of my old co-workers have
moved into the housing industry as finish carpenters. I came from there originally,
and I’m afraid of going back just in time to lose my job due to a downturn in the
housing market.”

Monday 4:15 p.m.

Jeffery Green, raw materials warehouse
“I like running the forklift in raw materials. I know I could make a little more in
production, but I think it would be boring doing the same thing all day. We have
a good team in my area; most of us have been here awhile and know our jobs. The
supervisor spends most of his time working on orders and inventory issues rather
than standing over us. I like that. It’s not the same in production. The supervisors
are always on their tails, and if anything goes wrong, there is lots of yelling. They are
always trying to blame other departments because they are under so much pressure
to produce. They’ll switch models on the fly, then complain that we don’t have the
parts bin correctly stocked. The worst is when they try to help. Talk about screwing
things up in a hurry! We should take away all of their forklift licenses.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 9

additioNal reSourceS

Internet Resources
Internet Based Benefit and Compensation Administration | ERI Distance Learning
Center | www.eridlc.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=textbook.main (free Internet-
based text)

DLC Business Glossary | ERI Distance Learning Center | http://eridlc.com
/index.cfm?Fuseaction=resource.glossary&trkid=292-49 (free Internet-based
dictionary of compensation terms)

Occupational Wages and Employment | Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)
Program | www.lmi.state.oh.us/oeS/oes.htm (from the Ohio government wage
site)

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) | U.S. Department of Labor |
Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/jlt/home.htm

National Compensation Survey | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | http://data.bls.gov/PdQ/outside.jsp?survey=nc

National Compensation Survey: Guide for Evaluating Your Firm’s Jobs and Pay |
U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp
/ncbr0004.pdf

National Compensation Survey: Compensation Cost Trends | U.S. Department of
Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/home.htm

Salary.com | www.salary.com (free online salary information for the private sector)

PayScale.com | www.payscale.com (free real-time salary reports)

Salary Search | http://salarysearch.blr.com (free salary data)

BLS Occupational Handbook | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm

Hewitt Total Compensation Center | www.totalcompensationcenter.com/tcc
/home/select_site.jsp (model of a salary structure)

ERI Distance Learning Center | www.eridlc.com (various compensation
educational resources)

Salary.com | www.salary.com/advice/layouthtmls/advl_display_cat14_Ser65_
Par142.html (advice on salary structures)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/agedata.asp (calculator for
age data)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/Salaryranges.asp
(calculator for a salary range)

WorldatWork | www.worldatwork.org

10 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Society for Human Resource Management | www.shrm.org

IFEBP | www.ifebp.org

Compensation consulting companies; general research, no free surveys are available
through these sources:

www.hewittassociates.com/intl/Na/en-uS/default.aspx

www.wwds.com

www.imercer.com/default.aspx?page=home&tab=1&newregionid=100

Other Resources
Purushotham, D.P., & Wilson, S. (2004). Building pay structures. Scottsdale, AZ:
WorldatWork. Available as a download/e-book.

Stoskopf, G. (2002, 4th Quarter). Choosing the best salary structure for your
organization. World at Work Journal, 11, 4.

**Rubric3.png**

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**HRMD640ColumbusCarpentryEmployeeHandbook.pdf**

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**## HRMD640ColumbusHRISDatabase1.xls**

[removed]

**## AssignmentInstructions.docx**

Details

Please download the three files you need for this assignment:

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/8556abe7-6b25-4f4f-91cf-3e22de6986f0.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus Custom Carpentry: Employee Handbook](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/199d1a01-9da7-44b6-994f-280a0b3af977.html) (PDF)

·
[Columbus HRIS Database](https://leocontent.umgc.edu/content/dam/permalink/f1e41672-6f53-44ad-a326-84789c593826.html) (XL)

Instructions

This assignment requires you to use oral reports from managers and employees, and from the HRIS database to answer the questions.  You are to use BOTH sets of data to support your answers.

1. Is there a turnover “problem” in Columbus Custom Carpentry among the following occupations?  If so, explain why.

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

2. Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the production techs overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations (Hint: Compare the job description for the production tech. to the job descriptions in the market data to find the correct match for the production tech.)?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

3. Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to other jobs WITHIN the organization?  Are the craters overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly relative to their counterparts in OTHER organizations?  Explain, discuss, and support your answers.

4. If you were to redesign any ONE job in Columbus Custom Carpentry, discuss which job you would redesign, why you would redesign it, and how you would redesign it.

5. Are there pay disparities between males and females in the following jobs?

· Forklift operators

· Craters

· Production Techs

· Machine Operators

Given your answers to ALL the previous questions, exactly how would you rectify the key issues within Columbus Custom Carpentry?  Support your plan of action with resources/references.

**## HRMD640FinalExamCaseStudy.pdf**

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 3

columbuS cuStom carPeNtry caSe overview

This case is presented as close as possible to the way you may encounter it in
working life. Your role is that of a newly hired HR manager. You will learn about the
company by reading the employee handbook, talking with various employees and
reviewing the human resource information system (HRIS) database.

When you first join an organization, you will have an idea of what the organization
is like, and there will be a few things of which you feel certain, but your list of
unknowns will be much longer. Each interaction with employees provides more
data, but you will find that not everyone agrees on the facts of a particular situation.
Sometimes you may find that the people you are speaking with do not know the
information you are asking about; at other times, they know a great deal about
the issue but choose to manage the information they provide to you for their own
benefit.

We will not intentionally mislead you in this case, but do not expect everything to
fall neatly into place. Uncertainty, differences of opinion and competing priorities
are the norm in the professional world.

In your role as the HR manager, you are expected to analyze the situation, identify
the problems and develop workable solutions. For the purpose of this case, you are
asked to provide a written and oral presentation to the company president (your
professor). While there is no single best answer, you must identify the key issues so
that the solutions you propose are appropriate to the situation.

Columbus Custom Carpentry is a small, successful company. Recently, though, labor
costs per unit have risen faster than gross revenue per unit. The company president
has also found that human resource issues are taking up more and more of his time
and frequently result in production problems. Both overtime and late shipments are
increasing. Until now, the president’s administrative assistant has handled all HR-
related administrative activities. You are the newly hired HR manager.

Subject matter knowledge you will apply in this case includes:

Internal and external pay equity. n

Job grades and pay range/structure creation. n

Market pricing using salary data. n

Turnover. n

Job analysis and job description development. n

Student Materials

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 5

Monday, 8:00 a.m.

Anthony Cooney, president/CEO
“Welcome to the Columbus Custom Carpentry family. We have a busy day laid
out for you, so I won’t take up too much of your time. You will begin with
Barbara Duff, my administrative assistant. She will take you through our employee
orientation and get you set up for payroll and benefits. Next, Matt Lee from
accounting will give you your computer password and explain our network and
backup procedures. The rest of your day will be devoted to meetings with various
employees so you can get to know everyone and learn more about our company.

“We had talked during your interview about the employee issues we are having, and
I hope your outside perspective will help us get a better understanding of what the
underlying problems really are. I would like to meet again on Friday, and you can
give me a preliminary idea of what you see as the primary issues. After that, we’ll
give you a couple more weeks to develop an action plan to deal with these problems.
That may seem like a very fast schedule, but I want you to jump on this before
your time gets filled up with other activities. I recently read about the concept of
a ‘honeymoon’ during an HR manager’s first 100 days. The article indicated that
during this period, you are able to accomplish things that will become impossible
later. I want—we need—to make the most of this opportunity.”

Monday, 8:15 a.m.

Barbara Duff, president’s administrative assistant
“I have been doing the employment tasks and record keeping. I’m sure you will
find everything in order. I’ll take you through the regular orientation and benefits
enrollment process. I’m glad you are here, because I have been asking Mr. Cooney
for help for quite a long time; all this HR stuff keeps me from getting my real job
done. We will get started by completing the I-9 form.”

A couple of videos and reams of benefit forms later, she gives you the employee
handbook and returns to her desk.

Monday, 10:00 a.m.

Matt Lee, accounting database administrator
Matt meets you at your office to go over the company network and show you how to
access the HRIS database. At this company, the HRIS is an Excel file maintained by
the president’s administrative assistant. Your e-mail inbox has already been created
and contains 87 messages. As he is leaving, Matt says, “I’ve been doing the payroll
because we didn’t have an HR department. Now that you are here, we should talk
about transitioning that function over to you.”

Monday, 10:30 a.m.

Mike Cooney, chief financial officer (CFO)
“We operate in a narrow niche market. We have to maintain a price advantage
over the true custom manufacturers, or our customers will have no reason not
to take advantage of the wider choices and individualized solutions. This means

6 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

that efficiency of operations is our primary competitive advantage. If we lose that
operating cost advantage, our business plan collapses like a house of cards.

“We cannot produce at the incredibly low-cost level maintained by the mass market
manufacturers. We would not get costs that low even if we mimicked their limited
product lines and quality levels. We compete with them by creating styles and
options that they don’t offer. Finding the balance between production costs and
proliferation of models is a continuing struggle.

“We need to cut out the current levels of overtime to maintain our cost structure. It
is not clear why we need this overtime. Our labor hours per unit made have stopped
going down and are even up somewhat. Adding overtime to that increases our labor
cost per hour as well. Turnover has been useful in the past, allowing us to replace
higher-paid workers with more lower-paid new hires, but the pattern seems to be
changing, and now it is our new hires who are leaving. The warehouse manager
wants to increase wages in his area, but that raises our costs per labor hour without
explaining how it will help us get our total costs down.”

Monday, 11:30 a.m. (lunch meeting)

Derwin Boyer, manufacturing manager
“A variety of people issues are hindering our productivity. We have bottlenecks in
the warehouse areas. These bottlenecks spill into our manufacturing area because
we have to pull people off assembly work to get their own raw materials or to move
finished product out of the production area. This also means that we are doing
with more expensive manufacturing labor what should be done with less expensive
warehouse labor. To operate at our needed levels of efficiency, employees need to be
doing the jobs they are trained for. Driving around on a forklift just to find materials
or to find a place to put finished units is not efficient.

“We operate under the concept of mass customization. Using modular parts, we can
produce designs with features that appear to the end user as custom work but have
the manufacturing advantages of mass production.

“The assembly jigs we have developed are the heart of our system. You can think
of them as big clamps. They hold the material in just the right arrangement. If the
assembler puts in the wrong part, the jig will not close, preventing the assembler
from wasting materials. Once the materials are in place, the jig closes and a single
lever pull will drill any needed holes in the right place, in the right size and to
the proper depth. It is fast, mistake-free and simple for the operator. Much of our
assembly is gluing. Here is where the big clamp analogy is the closest. Once the jig
is locked with just a couple of levers, proper clamping pressure is applied at exactly
the right places. Assemblers no longer spend time placing individual clamps. Once
closed, the jigs are tilted upright and rolled on their own rollers to a drying area. If
they are to get painted, the paint hanger goes on before the jig is released and no
one even has to touch the door unit until it is crated. Zero damage and zero waste in
this part of the process.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 7

Monday, 1:30 p.m.

John Brown, manufacturing supervisor
“It is hard to keep the guys working efficiently. We are always running out of
raw materials, or the finished product builds up and I have to pull guys off the
production floor to deal with it. The warehouse manager doesn’t do his job, but if I
have my guys take loads over, he complains that they did not get stacked right and
that the damage is our fault.”

Monday, 2:00 p.m.

Cary Dobbins, warehouse manager
“We are treated like stepchildren; the manufacturing department pays more and
has the best equipment. If I do get a good employee, this person transfers to
manufacturing at the first opportunity. I tried blocking a transfer once, but the
employee got mad and quit. If we get behind, manufacturing just drops product
anywhere, and when it gets damaged, they blame it on us. They think anybody can
do our job, but they can’t seem to put a blue crate into a blue bin without hitting
something.

“I waste time interviewing and training when I should be working on the crating
jig project that is supposed to reduce our damage ratio and make packing easier. My
best guys can pack better than the jig right now, but I have to train new people all
the time, and some just don’t seem to get it. Crating may not be rocket science, but
putting nails in crooked damages the doors. Miss a corner—and the whole thing
will fall apart the first time we try to move it. People get the idea that because it is
manual labor rather than an automated machine, it is simpler. The opposite is closer
to the truth. My forklift drivers don’t want to do crating because it has so much
bending over and lifting that it is much harder physically than their regular work.
The crating jig should make it possible for less-skilled people to do the crating job.
This will eventually allow us to save money both on labor costs and the cost of
replacing damaged goods.”

Monday, 3:00 p.m.

Brandon Swift, marketing manager
“It is critical that we are seen by our customers as top quality because we charge
more than the prices they see at the big-box stores. Damaged goods and shipping
problems reflect poorly on our product, even if it is good quality. How many end
users can truly judge the quality of our product? Not many; it’s all perception.

“We work directly with the homeowners in the design process, but the builders are
the ones who refer the homeowners, do the sizing, place the orders and install the
product. They are the ones who take the heat for shipping delays or damage. When
they need service, parts or replacements, they want them now, not tomorrow or the
day after. Time is money to contractors. We have to win on design but deliver at a
price that makes our products a better value.”

8 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Monday, 3:45 p.m.

Stephen Moore, crater (new hire)
“I took this job to get off of second shift, but I am hoping to transfer to the
manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me
about this place, but they make you start in the warehouse and work your way up.
What I don’t get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift job; running the
forklift is easier work. Besides, working on the crating jig is really like working
in the manufacturing side, where they use similar jigs to make the doors. The
manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with
my family in the evening, but if I don’t get that transfer and the raise that goes with
it, I will have to get a second job to make ends meet.”

Monday, 4:00 p.m.

Nathan Smith, production technician (manufacturing assembly)
“When I first got here, we made the doors from scratch. You could take pride in a
door you made yourself. Now we just throw parts into a jig and stick them together.
It allows new people to make a quality door with little training, but it is kind of sad
for those of us who consider ourselves craftsmen. Most of my old co-workers have
moved into the housing industry as finish carpenters. I came from there originally,
and I’m afraid of going back just in time to lose my job due to a downturn in the
housing market.”

Monday 4:15 p.m.

Jeffery Green, raw materials warehouse
“I like running the forklift in raw materials. I know I could make a little more in
production, but I think it would be boring doing the same thing all day. We have
a good team in my area; most of us have been here awhile and know our jobs. The
supervisor spends most of his time working on orders and inventory issues rather
than standing over us. I like that. It’s not the same in production. The supervisors
are always on their tails, and if anything goes wrong, there is lots of yelling. They are
always trying to blame other departments because they are under so much pressure
to produce. They’ll switch models on the fly, then complain that we don’t have the
parts bin correctly stocked. The worst is when they try to help. Talk about screwing
things up in a hurry! We should take away all of their forklift licenses.”

© 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR 9

additioNal reSourceS

Internet Resources
Internet Based Benefit and Compensation Administration | ERI Distance Learning
Center | www.eridlc.com/index.cfm?Fuseaction=textbook.main (free Internet-
based text)

DLC Business Glossary | ERI Distance Learning Center | http://eridlc.com
/index.cfm?Fuseaction=resource.glossary&trkid=292-49 (free Internet-based
dictionary of compensation terms)

Occupational Wages and Employment | Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)
Program | www.lmi.state.oh.us/oeS/oes.htm (from the Ohio government wage
site)

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) | U.S. Department of Labor |
Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/jlt/home.htm

National Compensation Survey | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | http://data.bls.gov/PdQ/outside.jsp?survey=nc

National Compensation Survey: Guide for Evaluating Your Firm’s Jobs and Pay |
U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp
/ncbr0004.pdf

National Compensation Survey: Compensation Cost Trends | U.S. Department of
Labor | Bureau of Labor Statistics | www.bls.gov/ncs/ect/home.htm

Salary.com | www.salary.com (free online salary information for the private sector)

PayScale.com | www.payscale.com (free real-time salary reports)

Salary Search | http://salarysearch.blr.com (free salary data)

BLS Occupational Handbook | U.S. Department of Labor | Bureau of Labor
Statistics | www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm

Hewitt Total Compensation Center | www.totalcompensationcenter.com/tcc
/home/select_site.jsp (model of a salary structure)

ERI Distance Learning Center | www.eridlc.com (various compensation
educational resources)

Salary.com | www.salary.com/advice/layouthtmls/advl_display_cat14_Ser65_
Par142.html (advice on salary structures)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/agedata.asp (calculator for
age data)

Towers Watson Data Services | www.wwds.com/tools/Salaryranges.asp
(calculator for a salary range)

WorldatWork | www.worldatwork.org

10 © 2010 Society for Human Resource Management. douglas Reyes, SPHR

Society for Human Resource Management | www.shrm.org

IFEBP | www.ifebp.org

Compensation consulting companies; general research, no free surveys are available
through these sources:

www.hewittassociates.com/intl/Na/en-uS/default.aspx

www.wwds.com

www.imercer.com/default.aspx?page=home&tab=1&newregionid=100

Other Resources
Purushotham, D.P., & Wilson, S. (2004). Building pay structures. Scottsdale, AZ:
WorldatWork. Available as a download/e-book.

Stoskopf, G. (2002, 4th Quarter). Choosing the best salary structure for your
organization. World at Work Journal, 11, 4.

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**HRMD640ColumbusCarpentryEmployeeHandbook.pdf**

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