Finding the Best HRM Strategy for an E-Business Startup

Introduction

The problem now is that E-businesses startups and practically all startups everywhere need to find the best workforce possible early in order to help the company take off right from the launch. Startups must become productive early in order to bring the required revenue needed in those dreadful five years of hardships during their early existence.

This paper first walks the reader through the normal tasks involved with the recruiting and selection practice, explaining what elements are considered necessary parts of the employment agreements. Next the bulk of this research should persuade the reading audience to believe that through organizational development strategies, it is possible for a startup to build its character and culture that allow it to bond with its employees. Appropriate human resource requirement planning will help the company find employees with the right personal characteristics to facilitate an innovative working environment.

This research will use the job descriptions and specifications of a startup called Homemadestuff.com (see Appendix) as an example of one type of HR requirement planning. The work done in this plan gives illustration and details of the information needed by HR professionals to make good HR requirement determinations.  This research explains how this pre-planning, and the effective use of proven HR strategies should enable startups to be large revenue producers early in the game.

There are HR strategies that are being used by successful startups which have assisted them through their early existence. These strategies have helped them find their organizational uniqueness and the best organizational blueprint that fits its character. By these organizations keeping their cultural integrity they have been able to retain good employees until retirement, from the startup through the expansion phases of its organizational lifecycle. This research strives to find this proof, exploring for the possibility that strategic HRM strategies, when coupled with acceptable counseling and mentoring practices are be the best path for startup to take in developing family-type organizations. In an effort to prove that these organization will later be called the best employers, the type that draw in the most diverse and highly-qualified knowledge workers.  

Human Resource Planning

Aligning Homemadestuff’s overall strategic plan with its human resource requirement estimate is a major step that has to be completed before anything else (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor, 2005). For startups it is a good idea to start with as much information as possible about the workforce that is needed during this phase to determine the company’s human resource requirements. There are several different methods to conduct human resource planning for startups enterprises.  This research paper uses a Job description plan from Homemadestuff (see Appendix). This plan as discussed by Jung (1999) covers the quantitative (Job positions) and the qualitative (Job description, and its requirements specification) base data needed to determine the real personnel requirements. This plan details the Personnel requirements of the company after the expansion p

hase. For the start-up phase this research will use the personnel requirements for the only one regional office, which have the competencies needed to allow the company to take root.  The plan is to seed the business and fill other regional branches as the company expands by using the recruiting, selection, and professional development methods discussed in this research paper.

According to research done by Voigt, Weissbach, Boehm, and Roecken, (2005) of the 30 (24 in former East Germany/new states, and 6 in the west/ old states) startups that were accompanied, the norm for most startups was to do all of the HR management themselves without the use of a sourcing consultant or interim-HR manager.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that paying for the services of sourcing consultants is not a good idea.  Most startups don’t feel the real need to use such consultants because of the high fees that consulting firms and individuals charge their costumers. Some startups may think this to be too costly an idea because of the other costs that are connected with getting things started.  Olfert (2003) explains that for small businesses normally the human resource management is done by the owner-manager. A. Kottolli (2006) strengthens this statement in an article done on Silicon Valley startups:

Silicon Valley startups typically do not tend to have a strong HR departments - at best HR department will be staffed by one or two persons, yet the founders of the company have usually incorporated the best HR practices - this is done by sheer experience of the founders or is driven by venture capitalists or lawyers or consultants who are deeply involved in any startup. It is this ecosystem which gives Silicon Valley companies a better chance for success. The HR policies and organization development practices at these startups makes them "built-to-last".

 

Recruiting

            After all of the HR requirement planning has been done, we now have an idea of how many employees and what qualification they will have to have it’s time to do some head-hunting. Two different methods are basically used to find the required personnel when new jobs need to be filled within a company, internal and external recruiting methods (Olfert, 2003).

            Internal methods support the HR practices of companies that have already been established and they explain the practices used to find personnel within the company to fill empty positions. Four approaches to finding human resources internally are discussed by Jung (1999) and Olfert (2003), they are: (a) internal job opening announcements, (b) transfers, (c) personal development, and (d) having the employees work overtime. As a startup

            Homemadestuff search for its human resources externally, in the marketplace.  Jung (1999) explains that external methods can be done either actively or passively. Passive recruitment usually occurs when a company has a large amount of workers and is not in dire need of new employees. These recruitment approaches include: working with local labor administrations, looking through resumes of interested candidates that have applied for work in the past, or using personnel leasing or employer arrangement firms to fill temporary jobs that have a duration of up to six months (in Germany). The costs, Jung (1999) says, are much higher when one chooses to use temporary workers over other passive external recruitment approaches, but one advantage of doing so is the flexibility enjoyed by the employer with their employment policy. 

            Because of Homemadestuff’s need of acquiring a workforce quickly, the active recruitment approaches discussed by Jung (1999) would be most useful. Active approaches, which I will discuss in detail next, they include the following:

Job Advertisements: These are the type of advertisements that we are all too familiar with, they should include: job title, employer details, location, role and purpose, responsibility or nature of the role, ideal candidate profile (industryappointment.com, 2008), and which written form the resume should have (Jung, 1999). These advertisements can be placed in trade journals, newspapers, internet job search engines.  The best place to place these ads will have to do greatly with the profile of the employee being sought.

College recruiting: Normally colleges have a student placement service where students seeking employment register. The students then schedule preliminary interviews with prospective employers.  These students are then invited to the work site and are given more information about the employer and get a chance to meet some potential supervisors (Mary Cook, 1992).

Public Relations (PR): Public relations work supports not only active recruitment but later also passive recruitment. PR measures can include the following: open house, tours of the worksites, trade/job fairs, mail circulars/billboard notices, and personal contact to potential new employees.

Before taking any steps alone it is of some importance to look into the use of head-hunters or executive searchers to find highly qualified workers for a business startup. Entrepreneurs will find it interesting to know what the advantages and disadvantages of using consultants are. According to a Wikipedia (2008) article the advantages of using consultants to help in the employee recruitment phase outweigh the disadvantages. One major advantage is that the employer can save the cost tied to making the mistake of hiring the wrong people.  Jung (1999) explains in his book that most sourcing consultants have a large network base of many other clients or companies.  This network helps to assure that the right man is chosen for the job the first time. This is something that Homemadestuff’s manager should look into before trying to find executive level employees through chance.   

Choosing the right applicants

In order for Homemadestuff to make sure that they are hiring the best and most qualified employees for the startup phase there has to be a method in place to lighten the paperwork chaos. If the recruitment phase has went off correctly then there could be hundreds resumes of potential candidates that need to evaluated and eliminated. According to both Olfert (2003) and Jung (1999) special criteria should be used to filter and evaluate resumes. The main objective of the first process is filter out applicants (Hildebrandt, 2008). Knowing more about this process is a sure way for candidates to ensure good resume preparation. Following is a break down of the evaluation and selection process according to Olfert (2003).

1st Phase – Rough Inspection:  This is a very basic check of the orderly format and outer characteristics of the resume in which the evaluators are: checking for completeness, checking for loose or missing pages or information, unclean or grubby appearance, crumbly or crinkled pages, etc.

2nd Phase - Detailed Evaluation: This part of the evaluation looks deeper at the job requirements and the qualifications of each candidate.  The use of a standardized evaluation checklist for each job opening is of great help the evaluators during this phase. Other points of interest here are things like the amount of weight given to the evaluation criteria.  For example, grade averages might weigh more for a fresh college graduate than for a candidate with years of experience in the field (Jung, 2003).

3rd Phase – Interview and Testing: After a candidate has made it to this evaluation there are a number of different interviewing and testing methods that can be used to further eliminate the wrong candidates (Jung, 1999; Olfert, 2003; Kaser, Brooks & Brooks, 2007).  

It is good business practice to register the receipt of each resume and record its movement throughout the evaluation process. All candidates that are not hired should have their resumes returned to them with a letter stating why they were not chosen for the job.  The other candidates should receive their resumes either after the face-to-face interview or not at all if accepted for the job.   These resumes are kept instead by the HR department in their personnel file (Olfert, 2003).  

Employment Agreement

            The conditions set forth in the employment agreements between Homemadestuff and its employees will play a large role in molding the work environment. For this reason, in order for Homemadestuff to work out good employment agreements it will need to understand the requirements of each job position. To help find synergy between the work agreement and requirements of each job position it is evident that using the services of a sourcing consultant (Dr. Staedtler, 2001), or an interim HR manager (Edelkraut, 2001) has its advantages. One advantage is the amount of experience these professionals bring to the table. They should not only be able to help formulate the different types of employment agreements and the arrangements therein, but keep managers from falling into legal pitfalls. Legal aspects are easily overlooked, and the ramifications if not considered, even by the most well-meaning owner-manager could be enormous.

Work contracts that are made in Germany can be either verbal or written, the types of contracts found by this research however, have two different written forms, and they differ as permanent or term employment contracts. The requirements of each job description will determine which of these to forms should be used. As a rule of thumb, all employment contracts or agreements should cover the following points: (a) Start date of employment, probation period, work times or schedule, notice of termination, vacation entitlement, leave entitlement, (b) Type of work, wage group, overtime obligation, transfer conditions and leave of absence, (c) The types of salary or hourly wage and deductions or expenses, and (d) Explain different conflicts of interest like second jobs, and pledges of discretion (Jung, 1999).

These agreements are more inclined to reduce the conflicts that might occur between the employer and employee the more detailed and legally acceptable they are formulated. 

Organizational Development

Now that Homemadestuff has a fired up and ready team of able bodied employees that are ready to take on the tasks set before them, the company managers should ask themselves some serious questions about the real disposition of their workforce. Have they been afforded the opportunity to be tried and tested, or does the leadership assume that they are just going to be able to dive in and start work as if they have be working there forever?

Because of the non-linear, chaotic nature of startups, Tsai & Lan (2005, ¶1) suggest that it “… is completely at odds with the wisdom of life cycle theory.” Their research goes on to explain that, “An organization’s deep structure is even more important than its visible surface structure.  This deep structure includes, for instance, managers’ intentions and the organization’s identity.” (p.6)

According to W. Tracy (1994) in situations where there might be confusion about direction or purpose, or information flow and decision making are confused or ineffective then it is a great time to implement OD methods.  Tracy (1994) goes on to explain that the earlier meanings of OD had more to do with focus on creating work environments that are people-oriented – that is exactly the proof that this research is looking for.  Today OD has become more aligned with the productivity and profitability of a business. Tracy (1994) explains that OD is not a program but more of a change process that is: (a) Planned, (b) Based upon data, (c) Ideally supported form the top, (d) Managed collaboratively from all levels, (e) Oriented to change positively an organization’s culture to enhance goal achievement (in Homemadestuff’s case help build a culture and find its identity), (f) Intended for the long term, (g) Focused on changing knowledge, behavior, processes, and/or structures. (h) Created from an appropriate blend of behavioral and system science techniques, research and theory.

D. Myers (1998) describes defines OD in this way:

The OD process … generally includes a needs-determination phase in which areas are identified where various methods in HRM could be used to increase an organization’s effectiveness.  The need determination phase generally includes an analysis of organizational goals, strategies, and accomplishments. (p.983)

 

Homemadestuff’s vision is to be the most productive business of its type and acquire an aggressive 80% of the market share in this sector within the first 10 years.  In order to accomplish this, Homemadestuff should start implementing HR strategies that enable this to happen early in the organization’s lifecycle. Without active leadership participation long lasting HR strategies don’t have a fighting chance to become imbedded in the organizations culture. Finding the company’s identity and developing and fostering a people-oriented organizational culture will be of utmost importance in order for it to reach its goals. According to the research on startups conducted by M. Voigt, et al. (2005) some of the problems faced by startups are caused by:  (a) not having clear role definitions within the organization, (b) lack of an explicit Human Resource Development (HRD) strategy, and  (c) poor team training efforts. Tsai & Lan (2005) explain the importance of being ready available to the individuals in the organization.  Relationships seem to be a very important part of organizational development. According to Tsai & Lan (2005, p. 6) “Relationships can also be termed the path to organizational construction. Information can be created and transferred, and identity can be expanded, as soon as an organization has relationships.”

  Homemadestuff wants to avoid these problems by becoming proactive instead of reactive by getting an early start on Organizational Development (OD). Tracy (1994) explains that using OD methods to create or re-create an effective and lasting organizational culture and identity will help formulate overarching reachable company goals that are attainable. Kottolli (2006) says this about getting an early start on articulating goals:

By articulating enduring overarching goals from the outset and by creating a powerful sense of belonging, the Commitment model can help companies avoid or minimize the "Post partum depression" syndrome that sometimes accompanies an IPO, release of the first product, or achievement of other key corporate milestones.

If Homemadestuff changes their organizational blueprint later this could lead to high attrition levels. This has happened before with Motorola when 45+ engineers left Motorola to join Intel when their CEO, Mark McDermott was hired by Intel. This proves that it is important for Homemadestuff to find the initial organizational blueprint that suits the situation and environment of the organization and the team of people bringing it together, not just for the moment, but for the future as well (A. Kottolli, 2006).  Kottolli explains in his article done on Silicon Valley start-ups that, “Most founders envision creating a strong family-like feeling and intense emotional bond with the workforce.” Therefore, it is important for a startup to find their identity and not to change their culture with time but to keep integrity if it is to keep good people on the payroll until retirement. This is done by building a family-like culture that is less formal and more dedicated to the overall success of the startup (Kottolli).

Human Resources Development

The goals and process of Human Resource Development (HRD) is to “prepare employees to maximize both their utility to the organization and their job satisfaction” (Myers, 1998, p. 844). As a company striving to become a Long-Term Investor in human capital Homemadestuff’s utmost priority is developing and maintaining a relationship with our employees who are “… investments who will provide valuable returns to the organization in the near term as well as for many years into the future” (R. Agarwal and T.W. Ferratt, 2006, p. 35). HRD encompasses training, education, and learning which involves the skills, abilities, and knowledge needed to perform a job (Myers, 1998). As Myers (1998) also makes clear, HRD is an essential part of career planning and helps the organization achieve diversity management. Homemadestuff is confident that it hired the most qualified people it could in the region, but there could be some deficiencies in their work performance. For example there may be certain software that will be used in the web development department that these new team members have not used, or have little real working knowledge of.  In order to start a training program that does not turn into a money pit, but instead has a large return of investment, a needs determination should be conducted. Myers (1998) in his explanation of this uses a needs survey that is used to gather information identified by management or immediate supervisors. These are the results of daily observation and evaluation. Other experts on the other hand like W. Tracey (1994) calls it a needs assessment and explains a method that follows a methodical 8 step process which includes data collection and a process of eliminating or resolving potential societal and client requirement problems. Homemadestuff understands that the individual situation within an organization will dictate which method is chosen, and that all of these methods are useless if conducted in a vacuum without a clear understanding of what the organization does and its mission (D. Tobin, 1998).

Because of the huge amount of money spent on employee training, it is necessary to ensure that there is a balance of return of profit and the cost of this training (Tobin, 1998).  Tobin explains that companies are spending millions of dollars on “training programs” that are meant to be some sort of employee employment incentive.  He goes on to say that these employees are sent to these programs but if they can’t return to their jobs and “… make a noticeable and positive difference in solving business problems and meeting competitive business challenges head-on” (p.6), then the return on investment doesn’t figure and training programs are the first to be cut when the company needs to reduce its budget. It is understandable then that training programs need to be well planned, assessed and reevaluated to prove their effectiveness.

Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRM)

Because of the large changes that technology has made to the business world more and more experts are now finding flaws in traditional HRM, and HRD in particular. These experts all agree that HRM, HRD, and Leadership development should be more aligned with an organization’s strategy (Fulmer & Bleak, 2008; Wilson, 2005; Sims, 2002).

If HRD is treated as a strategic activity then the organizational strategy will dictate the type of training that is needed if any. If for instance an organization’s primary strategy is to be innovative then the HRM strategies implemented should ensure that creativity can flourish.  On the same token, the implications for employee recruitment should ensure that the employees hired are more innovative and can adapt better to constant change, and tolerate unpredictability (J. Wilson, 2005). 

According to R. Sims (2002) there are four steps to the SHRM process:

(a) Determine the impact of the organization’s objectives on specific organizational units. (b) Define the knowledge, skills, expertise, and total number of employees required to achieve the organizational and functional or department objectives. (c) Determine the additional human requirements in light of the organization’s current human resources. (d) Develop specific action plans to meet the anticipated human resource needs. (p 31)

 

So the implications for Homemadestuff is that its main strategy for its IT Team is to make quality Web applications and for it’s costumer’s Internet presence; so the HRM plans should be geared to recruit, select, train, and retain good Web designers.  The sales and costumer service department should be able to sale Homemadestuff’s services and relate to its costumers so they need to learn to be the best marketing representatives.  This goes on and on throughout the organization until an overall plan has been conceived that can be qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated and aligned with Homemadestuff’s goals.

There are a number of different types of training strategies that Homemadestuff will consider when choosing the best type for the departmental objectives stated above. Myers (1998) seems to have the best list of frequently used on and off-the-job training methods.  For frequently used on-the-job training methods Meyers list the following: (a) Apprenticeship programs, (b) Coaching, (c) Internship/Trainee programs, (d) Job instruction method, (e) Job rotation, and (f) Mentoring.  For frequently used off-the-job methods he lists: (a) Audiovisual Courses, (b) Behavioral modeling, (c) Case method, (d) College courses, (e) Conferences, (f) Correspondence courses, (g) Lectures, (h) Professional education, (i) Programmed instruction, (j) Role playing, (k) Simulation, and (l) Vestibule training. Detailing every different type of training here would expand the boundaries of this research paper. Nonetheless, it is interesting to research what types of training are available to choose from. If the needs determinations discussed in an earlier section (no matter which method used) are done appropriately then the data gathered from these determinations will dictate which training and of what type should be used in any one situation. 

In order for Homemadestuff to implement good leadership development strategies this early in the game it must consider the services of business consultants similar to Duke Corporate Education. R. Fulmer et al. (2008, p. 66) discusses a process developed by Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE) that engages its clients in five critical conversations about their leadership development strategies.  The discussions are comprised of the following key issues: (1) Determining the organization’s destination: “The major objective is to create a shared view of the desired future of the organization, along with some specific ways of recognizing success.” (2)  Defining guiding principles and current reality: “… identify the values or principles that define the organization’s culture.” (3) Creating the new leadership blueprint: “… looks at the organization’s existing portfolio of programs and its experiences and then compares that with the proposed leadership design.” (4) Reviewing and aligning the infrastructure: “… involves reviewing, adjusting, and aligning the infrastructure required to support the new leadership-development strategy.” (5) Measuring: “… focuses conversation on determining how success will be measured, what specific results are expected, and which behaviors should be changed.”

As one can see, Homemadestuff wants to implement the best HR strategies possible to assure quick success. As the company grows, finding the right leadership development tactics are important when the goal is to fill upcoming positions with homegrown leaders.  One way to aid those leadership development tactics is to have a solid, legal, and effective development appraisal, and performance counseling program in place that can survive court tests.

Performance and Development Counseling and Appraisals

Although there are various different types of counseling that should be conducted as a part of the overall HRM function, like financial counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, ethic standard counseling, and many others. Performance counseling/appraisals programs are being used in successful organizations as an evaluation and promotion tool (Sims, 2002, p. 200).  As can be seen in the US Army for instance performance counseling and the resulting evaluation are used extensively for promotion and enumeration (US Department of the Army, 2006). Sims ( says in his book, Organizational Success Through Effective Human Resources Management that the, “…basic goal of any appraisal system is to provide valid and reliable measures of employee performance along several dimensions.” Not all counseling and appraisal systems are doing what they were intended to do. Sims speaks of a checklist appraisal that is used with some HRM departments that have the disadvantages of being hard to understand by the counselor, difficult to prepare for every job description, and are to static in that there is now way for the counselors to adjust the answers. What Sims says that you see more often now is Management by Objectives (MBO) in which an employee meets periodically with his or her manager and they discuss the goals that are expected of the employee during a certain amount of time. This method is similar to the performance counseling conducted in the US Army. Sims goes on to say that no management tool is perfect and that MBO probably wouldn’t be appropriate for an assembly-line worker or in situations where there is little or no job flexibility.  Because performance appraisals play such a large role in equal employment compliance Sims (2002, p. 212) explains the elements of a legally defensible performance appraisal which include many of the same elements as those used by the US Army. These elements are: (a) Appraisals must be based on job analysis, (b) must be absent of disparate impact and evidence of validity, (c) must have formal evaluation criteria that limit managerial validity, (d) must be a formal rating instrument, (e) Rater must have personal knowledge of and contact with the appraised individual, (f) Supervisors must be trained on how to conduct appraisals, (g) There must be a review process that prevents one manager acting alone from controlling an employee’s career, and (h) The counseling must help poor performers improve. Sims also explains that there should be a system developed in the organization “… to demonstrate, beyond reasonable doubt, that a given individual employee was sanctioned, rewarded, punished, terminated, or remanded for training on a basis of performance-related reasons rather than nonperformance-related factors such as sex or race (p. 212).”At Homemadestuff all employees and especially those who are considered for promotion into higher positions in the organization will be assigned a mentor (usually their direct supervisor or manager) that will be responsible for that employee’s professional development. When effective development appraisal, and performance counseling programs are used by managers and supervisors at Homemadestuff, and the evaluations are completed without bias, these programs should create a healthy relationship between the mentors and their subordinates.

Conclusion

            In a chaotic and non-linear environment, similar to those shared by business startups of all types it is important to have a HR framework in place from which to build from.  This research’s main objective was to find some proof and examples of research that has been conducted to explain best practices utilized by successful startups. There are many other facets of HRM that weren’t discussed in this paper.  These HRM areas were left out intentionally. Most of these areas deal with routine work that are without doubt a part of good business practices, but were not part of the proof that was found to support the intent of this research.

            As this research suggests, without a willing effort at creating the right work environment within the startup company, the productivity of the workforce could be vulnerable to the wiles of a more reactive type corporate culture. These types of environments tend to redirect the leaders focus on reacting to problems instead of focusing on the more dire problems that face a company in its beginnings (Moore, Burke & Yager, 2006).  

 Interesting for further research in this area would be to find examples of how virtual teams and employment sharing (Beekhuyzen & Bernhardt, 2006) could have a role in the success of startups in the IT industry. It would be interesting to find companies that were founded using nothing but virtual employees, or had nothing but employment sharing employment arrangements. Finding out how they managed their workforce to be as productive as in-the-office employees would be interesting for entrepreneurs that are trying to startup businesses that have modest operating cost.

This research confirms that for any startup some important things to consider are the use of outside help, like business and HR consultants, when planning HRM strategies.  It is proven that the competencies brought to the drawing board by such consultants can make a great difference in the success of HR planning. After reading this paper, entrepreneurs should understand that in the areas of HRM like employer-employee relationships, the company’s identity, and its organizational culture should be formed early in a startup phase of a business endeavor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix

Organizational structure and Job Description of Homemadestuff.com

 

The organization of this Internet company is made up of a hybrid structure with departmentalization by geography.  Because of the different cultural markets within Germany, and the extra large role that Marketing will have in this organization I believe this will be the best structure.  The main goal of this organization is to help people sell their “Homemadestuff”, this “stuff” consists mostly of products that originate from normal people’s hobbies or other activities done for relaxation, giving these people – our future partners – an opportunity to bring these products to market either with their own e-shop Website or as a part of the “Homemadestuff” e-mall.  Being different from “EBay” and other customer-to customer e-Businesses of this sort, Homemadestuff will use its extraordinary costumer service representatives to do face-to-face consulting with potential partners.  Separating the organization into four regional operation centers with one each vice-president residing as regional chief will allow a closer relationship with costumers in each different geographical and cultural market. This will hopefully ensure the success of this business.  Making sure that potential partners are given the best possibilities for their success, and to reach the goals of “Homemadestuff”.

Starting at the top, I will open the curtains to give you a closer look at each operational area.  The curtains will be pulled back on the following areas: President/CEO, all four staff office positions, the regional offices and how they are broke down, and the very special costumer service managers and his representatives.

The President/ CEO

The President is a top level manager that will guide and control all of the organization, whose main objective is to form strategy, planning and is responsible for developing the organization’s overall mission to ensure the long-term success of the organization. During the startup phase the president has to be the driving force, acting as the entire corporate staff. It will be of utmost importance that the President has the multi-talents needed to lead and guide the organization, and help them find their true identity and be able to build a family-like relationship. His constructive efforts should facilitate the structure of Homemadestuff’s organizational culture.  

Director of Human Resources and Personnel

 

 

Our human resources (HR) office must have a clear understanding of our organization’s business objectives and be able to devise and implement policies which will select, develop and retain the right staff needed to meet these objectives. The exact nature of the work activities are likely to include: (a) working closely with all four regions, increasingly in a consultancy role, assisting line managers to understand and implement policies and procedures, (b) developing policies on issues such as working conditions, performance management, equal opportunities, disciplinary procedures and absence management, (c) promoting equality and diversity as part of the culture of the organization, (d) liaising with a wide range of organizations involved in areas such as race relations, disability, gender, age, religion and health and safety, (e) recruiting staff: this includes developing job descriptions, preparing advertisements, checking application forms, short listing, interviewing and selecting candidates, and (f) developing, with line managers, HR planning strategies, which consider immediate and long-term staff requirements in terms of numbers and skill levels (Prospects, 2008).  

            Public affairs officers work on behalf of the organization, carrying out tasks such as: (a) monitoring information sources produced by government departments; the think-tanks: non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other bodies, in order to keep clients informed of any developments related to their field of activity, (b) communicating this information on the organization’s intranet, (c) advising on potential responses that may be required, (d) researching, forecasting and evaluating the effects of public policy on an the organization through public sources, political intelligence and personal contacts, (e) writing newsletters, briefings, campaign material and press releases, (f) arranging meetings, (g) attending select committee hearings, party conferences and other events, (h) establishing and maintaining two-way communication with any significant official bodies, (i) maintaining regular contact, in person and in writing, with politicians, civil servants, and/or staff in local authorities and regulatory bodies to brief them on clients' work and concerns, and (j) providing strategic advice to clients (Prospects, 2008).

Training Director

 

 

 

The following is the training director’s duties in our organization: (a) supervise two trainers that will implement training to new employees on a regular basis to included inductions for new staff, and conduct special training seminars, and other formal training, (b) maintain a sharp look-out for any emerging technological advances that can help the organization to succeed, (c) keep the organizations training section of the intranet updated with new information and news from every different functional area, (d) analyzing training needs in conjunction with regional vice-presidents, (e) plan and organize participation by his subordinate trainers to train-the-trainer training who will in turn instruct the organization through interactive training (with help of the IT Group), or seminars and other formal training, (f) schedule schools for selected individuals to receive additional specialization training, (g) maintaining evidence of continuing professional development (CPD) by tracking the continued education of all employees in the organization, and (h) counseling employees as to a proper work/school schedule so that the employee can choose a more flexible work schedule so that they can have proper time for classes (Prospects, 2008).

Director of finances

 

 

 

 

The Director of Finances office which consists of the Director and three subordinates: the budgeting officer, finance officer, and an accountant, their typical work activities are: (a) creating, implementing and monitoring processes and procedures around the creation of monthly forecasts, (b) preparing periodic financial statements, including profit and loss accounts, budgets, cash flows, variance analysis and commentaries, (c) informing strategic decisions and formulating business strategies, (d) implementing corporate governance procedures, risk management and internal controls, (e) designing reward strategies for executives and shareholders, where appropriate, (f) ensuring the efficient use of resources, (g) managing income and expenditure, sales, payroll and stocks, (h) negotiating for major projects, loans and grants, (i) offering professional judgment on financial matters and advising on ways of improving business performance, (j) informing operational decisions, (k) liaising with other staff officers to put the finance view in context, (l) safeguarding tangible and intangible assets, (m) advising on pay and other remuneration issues, including promotion and benefits, (n) undertaking regular salary reviews, (n) negotiating with staff and their representatives on issues relating to pay and conditions, (o) administering payroll and maintaining records relating to staff, (p) interpreting and advising on employment legislation, (q) listening to grievances and implementing disciplinary procedures, and (r) planning and sometimes delivering training (Prospects, 2008).

The Regional Offices

            The regional offices will consist of one vice-president, one marketing officer, one IT team, a customer service department, and an environment manager that might turn out to be an outsourced element rather than an in-house entity.

            The Regional Vice-President is a top level manager that will guide and control the operation of a regional office; his main objective is to implement the strategy and planning of the President, and is responsible for developing the region’s overall mission to ensure the long-term success of his region and the organization. He is on the top of the chain-of-command for his region. Homemadestuff will consist of only one regional office during its startup phase. 

Marketing Executive

The work of a marketing executive in our organization typically involves: (a) liaising and building relationships with a range of stakeholders, e.g. customers, suppliers, colleagues, (b) developing advertising opportunities, which can involve placing adverts in national, regional and specialist publications, or on the radio (depending on the organization and the campaign), (c) maintaining and building contacts with the media, (d) writing and distributing press releases, (e) preparing photo shoots, (f) managing the production of marketing materials, including leaflets, posters and flyers - this can involve writing and proofreading copy, and liaising with designers and printers, (g) arranging for the effective distribution of marketing materials, (h) maintaining and updating mailing databases, (i) organizing and attending events and exhibitions, (j) securing sponsorship to assist with the publicity and funding of marketing projects, (k) carrying out market research and customer surveys to assess demand, brand positioning and awareness, (k) evaluating marketing campaigns, (l) monitoring competitor activity, (m) analyzing pricing positions, (n) contributing to long-term marketing plans and strategies, (o) managing budgets, (p) supporting the regional vice-president, and other colleagues, and (q) work closely with the IT Team to help the team to develop the organization and costumer’s Websites by developing the look and feel of the site and be able to communicate the message and brand identity of both the costumer and the organization (Prospects, 2008).

IT Team

 

 

 

 

            The IT Team is an entity within our organization that is made up of three individuals: a Web design Manager, a graphics artist, and a programmer/database administrator.  This team together, is the money makers in each regional office. The Web Design Manager (project manager): (a) Is involved with the project from start to finish, and (b) He or she is in charge of determining and documenting the requirements of a project, and insuring that the project stays on schedule and on budget. The  Graphic designer’s activities are: (a) to create a consistent and visually appealing look for a Web site, and  (b) create Flash animations or design user interfaces for a Web application. The Programmer/Database Administrator’s activities are: (a) being responsible for programming any special applications that may be needed for individual Websites, (b) being responsible for the interactivity of the Websites, and (c) is responsible for the database integration and searchablity of the Websites (Prospects, 2008).

Environment Manager/Network Administrator

 

 

 

 

            An Environment Manager/network administrator has the following as a minimum of duties: (a) supervise a team of two network technicians, (b) understand the monitoring and development of network security systems, (c) research, test, procure, install and configure upgrades to network equipment, (d) implement, and plan network topology, including links between our organization, and partners that have access to the organizations extranet/intranet, (e) know of the system development life cycle, and network designing methods, (f) boast the interpersonal skills necessary to advise and give practical help to other staff involved in various development projects, (g) perform needs analysis, procurement support, installation, training, and problem resolution for the regional office LAN, and (h) take responsibility for the configuration, operation, and administration of network server hardware, operating systems, and communication links.

            A Control Center Operator/Network Technician mostly does the following tasks: (a) assisting the Environment Manager in implementing, managing, and maintaining the organization’s local area network, (b) perform maintenance on the organization’s intranet, (c) assisting organization users that have service problems, and (d) running a Help Desk and Control Center.

Costumer Service Department

 

 

 

 

Our customer services manager’s first priority is to ensure that we satisfy our customers' needs. The main aim of a customer services manager is to provide excellent customer service. At every regional office they work at various levels, from head office to the front end of the business. Their work load includes: helping to develop a customer service policy for the entire organization; managing a team of four customer services representatives; and handle special face-to-face enquiries from customers (Prospects, 2008).

            Although the work will vary, the typical activities of the costumer service representatives are likely to include some or all of the following: (a) providing help and advice to customers, using the organization’s products or services, (b) communicating courteously with customers by telephone, email and face to face, (c) investigating and solving customers' problems (these may be more complex or long-standing problems that have been passed over by customer service assistants), (d) handling customer complaints or any crises, such as security issues or a customer being taken ill, (e) issuing refunds or compensation to customers, (f) keeping accurate records of discussions or correspondence with customers, (g) producing written information for customers, often involving use of computer packages/software, (h) writing reports analyzing the customer service that our organization provides, (i) visiting customers to provide a one-to-one service, (j) developing feedback or complaints procedures for customers to use (k) developing customer service policies and standards for your organization or department, (l) meeting with other managers to discuss possible improvements to customer service provided. (m) being involved in staff recruitment and appraisals, (n) training staff to deliver a high standard of customer service, (o) learning about your organizations’ products or services and keeping up to date with any changes, and  (p) keeping ahead of developments in customer service by reading relevant journals, going to meetings and attending courses (Prospects, 2008).

I think seriously that we can pull this business plan off with the 64 employees that I have listed here.  This is of course is what the full blown staff will eventually look like after the establishment of the core competencies during our startup phase of organizational development, using only one regional office to get the ball rolling. In the best case scenario this business will start in one region in the beginning and eventually break out into other markets after initial and costly induction training of the second regional office. Things should work more smoothly for the third and four regions.  During this time the organizational structure may take more than one revision.

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