Senior management is often approached by an outside party with a
proposal that purports to, and seems to, solve a major and growing
problem. It is the job of management to perform independent research
and analysis to weigh whether or not the offer will provide an overall
net benefit without generating a new set of problems. In this
assignment, you need to objectively assess if it will benefit your
company to outsource its entire HR function.
Prompt
You are the Deputy Manager of Human Resources for ”Scooterpie,” a
creator and marketer of interactive, educational programs and
applications for various levels of the K-12 market. Founded just over 7
years ago, your creative team’s anticipation of core market needs is
the best in the industry, and annual sales this year are expected to top
$70 million. Some $12 million of the increase from last year comes
from your acquisition of a competitor based in Westport, Ireland. You
intend to use that EU base as a springboard to penetrate the European
market over the next 5 years.
Naturally, your employment growth has kept pace with sales. You now
have 215 employees, 49 of which are based in Ireland. Attracting and
retaining qualified personnel will be a key issue for the foreseeable
future for the following reasons.
Plans to deeply penetrate the EU market depend upon finding
qualified, multilingual employees who understand that
larger-than-America market.
Your employee expertise needs to shift due to market changes in
the U.S. So far, you have had minimal need for salespeople and
marketers in the U.S., as the bulk of your sales were obtained via
educational trade fairs and specialized distributors. Now, you realize
that the explosion of private schools, home schooling, and vouchers has
fragmented traditional markets. Future U.S. growth depends on
understanding these changes and what attributes future decision makers
are seeking in their educational software.
Both of these factors, on top of organic growth, will challenge your current HR practices and capacity.
While your boss is on her required 2-week annual vacation, you are
approached by EverHire, inc. A Toronto-based company with clients and
operations in over 35 countries, Everhire promises to assist your
company by taking over the entire HR function for approximately 95% of
your employees (only the very senior managers would be exempt).
Functions to be transferred include the entire hiring (and firing)
process, benefits management, required tax and other regulatory forms
and functions, and all employee training and grievance settlement.
Scooterpie would be relieved of all of the legal and regulatory
requirements and exposure, as well as the daily hassle of hiring and
onboarding.
EverHire’s fee for this service, under a 5-year contract, can be
either a flat fee per employee, or a percentage add-on to payroll when
EverHire bills Scooterpie bi-weekly to cover that payroll. Scooterpie
would be held harmless for any violations of employment or related law.
In a paper of 1,000-1,500 words, please do the following:
Spend a maximum of one page listing and explaining no fewer than
three benefits the proposed arrangement could convey to Scooterpie.
Spend a maximum of one page listing and explaining no fewer
than three problems the proposed arrangement could create to Scooterpie.
Research and briefly summarize two real-world examples where
such an outsourcing has been done by a major company: one instance in
which it appears to have worked, and one instance in which it did not
work as projected.
Make and defend your recommendation for the proposal in no more
than two pages. If you recommend accepting it, include two contract
provisions that you recommend, along with your justification. If you
recommend rejecting it, include two contract provisions (with
explanation) that would make the offer more palatable.
Related Lessons
If you’d like to review Study.com course material for this assignment, please refer to the following lessons:
Human Resource Management vs. Personnel Management
Human Resource Information Systems: Costs & Benefits to Employees, HR and Organizations
Human Resource Management (HRM): Laws & Regulations
Managing in International Companies
Five Phases of Strategic Human Resource Metrics Analytic
Exploring Costs and Benefits to Outsourcing the HR Function
Formatting & Sources
Please write your paper in the APA format. You may refer to the course material for supporting evidence, but you must also use three
outside sources and cite them using APA format. Please include a mix of
both primary and secondary sources, with at least one source from a
scholarly peer-reviewed journal . If you use any Study.com lessons as
sources, please also cite them in APA (including the lesson title and
instructor’s name).
Primary sources are first-hand accounts such as interviews,
advertisements, speeches, company documents, statements, and press
releases published by the company in question.
Secondary sources come from peer-reviewed scholarly journals,
such as The Journal of Human Resources. You may use sources like JSTOR,
Google Scholar, and Gartner to find articles from these journals.
Secondary sources may also come from reputable websites with .gov, .edu,
or .org in the domain. (Wikipedia is not a reputable source, though the
sources listed in Wikipedia articles may be acceptable.)
