You and your business partner are owners of Bush Track Lodge, a big, old homestead in a remote area, which you purchased just over twelve months ago and converted into a Bed and Breakfast. It is in bushland near a lake with lots of local flora and fauna. The area offers bush walking, fishing and kayaking. There is also a nearby treetops walk with several tour companies offering hikes and tours to local attractions.
The house has 7 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, 3 sitting areas and a big outside area. The house is old-fashioned but you have renovated and now each room has an en-suite. You have painted the place, stripped and polished the floors and installed a commercial kitchen. You have set up internet and each room has Wi-Fi.
You and your husband are partners in the business. You are in charge of the operational side of the B and B and your husband works outside and also does the bookkeeping and assists in recruitment and staffing. You have hired 3 staff to do the cleaning and gardening. Laundry is outsourced.
You have been operating it successfully for a year with over 90% occupancy and are now looking at expanding to turn the B and B into a tourism attraction offering an authentic Australian, outback farm experience.
You offer a restaurant in an old barn on the property and in the evenings, you are open for typical meals made from locally sourced produce, which attracts not only your own guests but day visitors and at weekends, locals. You employ a chef full time who manages this and also assists with cooking breakfast for the guests.
Your aim in setting up this business was to develop a successful operation that will be a desired tourism destination. Your goal is that in three years time you will be managing a successful business, and will have both a good income as well as a good work/life balance.
Over the next three years, you aim to increase the typical farm activities to offer to visitors including:
Sheep shearing and hay rides. You recently purchased a small flock of sheep with which you intend to supplement your income by producing wool and providing visitors with the experience of watching rounding up sheep and shearing. A local farmer has offered to come and work at weekends to help you with this. He/she can also give visitors a ride on a trailer pulled by a tractor.
Opening a café that sells scones and jam and other local produce to day visitors. Your chef will work on setting up the café and the menu and will cook, in addition to running the barbeque. You will also need to hire 2 part-time persons to work 7 days a week in the café.
Locally produced wine. You are also thinking of purchasing an old winery next to your land and making your own wine. You will need to employ someone to manage this full-time and will employ backpackers to help pick the grapes.
Horse riding. There is an old stable on your property and you plan to buy some horses so that you can offer horse riding to visitors. You realise that you will need to employ a full-time person to look after this.
Tasks:
Read the scenario above and the Bush Track Strategic Plan and Policies and Procedures (in the Appendix) and complete the tasks that follow.
Part A: Create a human resource strategic plan
This part requires you to develop a strategic human resource plan. To enable you to do this, as a business partner, you will develop a strategic human resource plan for approval by your partner, and the bank manager to whom you have applied for a loan for the business expansion.
1. Create a vision of what is possible to achieve within the organisation in terms of its HRM functions in line with the business objectives. List each of the HRM functions you will need to include and write these up as a set of goals with actions on how you plan to achieve them.
2. Meet with your management team to agree on human resource philosophies, values and policies. Your management team consists of you, your partner and the chef. You will do this through meeting with a small group of 3 students who will act as the managers. You will be allowed approximately 30 minutes for this meeting.
In this role play, briefly present your plan, consult ideas and opinions. You must engage and negotiate an agreement, making changes where possible and appropriate.
Your assessor will observe you during the meeting and assess you on your ability to communicate effectively and consult with others
3. Develop the plan with strategic objectives and targets for each of the human resource services. You must do this independently.
4. In your plan, examine options for the provision of human resource services and analyse the costs and benefits of each. You can do this in a table.
5. Write up the above information in the form of a simple plan. There is no particular format you must use but it must be structured logically with logical sections, headings, clear expression, use of tables, graphs as required and free from errors of grammar and spelling. The plan should be about 2 3 pages and should include:
vision and strategic goals priorities for the organisation agreed objectives selected options for staffing based on cost-benefit analysis overall budget estimate based on total number staff to be employed timeframes.
Consult on the plan
Once you have developed your strategic plan, you will be required to meet with relevant stakeholders to get feedback on your draft policy.
You are required to:
1. Deliver a presentation to your management team (approx. 10 minutes) to outline your vision for the organisation, the process you have followed and strategic goals for the organisation, how the goals will be met, staffing options, timeframes and operational details. In this simulation you have to demonstrate that you can work with others to monitor and review the plan and if necessary, adapt the plan for Bush Track Lodge. You will have a total of 30 minutes for this presentation and discussion.
You will get into small groups for this. While you perform the role play, your assessor will record feedback and comments on your skills on a checklist.The purpose of the meeting is to seek agreement from other managers on your proposed Strategic HR Plan. You are to present an overview of your proposed plan that you have developed, invite feedback and reach agreement on the plan. You will then make any changes to your plan.
2. Get agreement on the plan, document the outcomes of the meeting, and revise some aspects of the plan and resubmit if it is not accepted by the meeting of managers. Write up the outcomes of the meeting in the form of minutes.
3. Write an email to your bank manager to accompany the attached Strategic HR Plan, and requesting an appointment to discuss and obtain approval.
It is now twelve months since you implemented the changes in your Strategic Plan including the strategic HR plan. The accommodation is always fully booked and there has started to be a lot of interest in the new activities you are offering. The café is operating smoothly but is not making a profit as most of your guests are away during the day. You have decided that you will concentrate on the restaurant in the evening and will work in the cafe yourself during the day, as required. You will ask the 2 café staff to work in the restaurant in the evenings. You will need to re-train them in food and beverage service as you also have a licence now to serve wine and beer. They will need to do a Responsible Service of Alcohol course which you will pay for, but can do this online. You will also need to hire a person to work in the bar at weekends. The big problem now is lack of accommodation. You have had a lot of enquiries from large parties including families, groups of international visitors and schools. You have read about other similar venues offering camping facilities and have decided to do the same. You intend to build a shower block and will clear spaces so people can pitch a tent or park a campervan.
Your partner will look after the guests this once the area has been set up. However, you will need to hire another part-time gardener to look after the grounds as it will involve mowing, pruning and tree lopping.
1. Read the above scenario and evaluate and review performance of the business against the objectives in your plan that relate to current staff.
2. Meet with the management team to discuss and agree on the required changes, what these were based on, and what needs to be done? You will have 30 minutes for this.
3. Adapt your HR Strategic plan to accommodate the need to hire a new gardener and bar attendant and to retrain the two café staff. Make the required changes to the plan?
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