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Human Resource Management Simulation

HRManagement

HRManagement puts your students into the role of HR Director of a growing organization.

See more about the Fall 2012 HRManagement Upgrade!

Overview

The HRManagement Simulation is a competitive simulation where students take on the role of Human Resource Director for a growing organization. It offers students valuable experience with decisions that affect compensation, turnover, productivity, diversity, morale, quality, accident rate, grievances, fringe benefits, absenteeism, and budget utilization. Students will make the connection between HR principles and how those play out in business.

The Case

Groups of 3-5 students take the role of a newly-appointed Human Resource Director of a 500 person company. The company has been growing rapidly and the human resource department and its functions have not kept pace with this growth. The Chief Executive Officer has instructed the HR Director to get the human resource department organized, build a strong HR function, and "get the company moving."

To read the full copy of the case for the simulation, request a Faculty ID here!

Also available with HRManagement is a set of "incidents" (mini-cases) that occur one per period, thus challenging students to consider a variety of issues related to running an HR department. Each of the incidents has an outcome that will affect the student's performance in the simulation. These incidents cover the following topics (and corresponding functional areas):

• Job Analysis (operations) Many employees are confused regarding their job duties.
• Job Design (operations) Possible solutions may capture the energy and creativity of the workforce.
• Recruiting for temporary positions (operations) Product (or service) staff must be augmented to meet next quarter's production.
• Selection of employees (affirmative action) Students must hire one of three applicants for a Level 3 supervisor position.
• Performance appraisal (morale) The CEO requests recommendation for a system of performance appraisal for all supervisors and managers.
• Sexual harassment policy (ethics) Does the sexual harassment policy that has been in effect for several years need to be updated?
• Compensation planning (morale) Select compensation plans for further study by your team.
• Self-managed work teams (operations) The CEO has asked for a recommendation concerning the use of self-managed work teams.
• Employee health, assistance and wellness (social responsibility) Several proposals have been suggested to improve the health and well-being of employees.
• Safety issues (OSHA, operations, morale) The CEO is concerned that the firm may have some safety violations and wants to remedy this.
• Exempt employees (operations, morale, ethics) A review of Level 2 positions indicates that some are eligible for overtime pay, while others are not.
• References: How much do I say? (ethics, social responsibility) A former employee has applied for a position at another company in the community.
• The "Harassment versus Lying" dilemma (ethics) An employee accuses her supervisor of sexual harassment while her supervisor claims the employee lied on her job application.
• The staff decision (affirmative action) Two employees are up for promotion but both have issues that may impact their job performance.
• Wage negotiations (operations, morale) The union representing Level 1 employees begins negotiation for next year's contract.
• Collective bargaining (operations, morale) The CEO has requested recommendations for the upcoming union contract negotiations.
• Crisis management (operations) The CEO has asked how the company would handle a crisis.

For more information about the incidents, contact us.

Objectives

The main objective of HRManagement is to simulate the operation of a human resource department within a budget and market constraints. The students must not only make informed decisions but they must react to the outcomes of their decisions.

HRManagement is designed to help your students understand:

• Overall HR Strategy: What do they want to attempt to accomplish with their given budget?
• HR Operating Decisions: wages, hiring, training, benefits, etc.
• Financial: Management of the HR Department budget, creating and maintaining
• How to manage behavioral elements they encounter in the incidents (see above)

Performance Measures

With HRManagement, instructors have a set of metrics (11 in total) to judge team performance. For full access to all performance measures, request a Faculty ID. In general, team performance can be judged by the following:

• Unit Labor Cost
• Payroll
• Quality Index
• Turnover
• Morale
• Accident Rate
• Grievances
• Female %
• Minority %
• Productivity
• Absenteeism

Each of these areas can be weighted by the instructor and combined to form an overall score to evaluate how their teams perform.

If you are an instructor and would like to review HRManagement for your class, please fill out our Faculty ID Request!