Human Resource Plan

Angels Destiny LLC Solo HR

Curline Registe
OMM 618: Human Resource Management
Dr. David Britton
September 22, 2015

CONTENTS

1. Introduction 2. Company Structure an History 3. Legal Regulations 4. Plan of Assessment 5. Methods of Advertising 6. Hiring Process 7. Interview and Selection Process 8. Orientation 9. Training 10. Compensation and Benefits 11. Performance and Appraisal System 12. Conclusion

An Organization needs several different branches to function as a whole. The HR Department is just one section of an organization that is needed to make all things work accordingly. This HR plan shows the structure of how a Solo HR operation facilitates the employees needs within the organization. HR is necessary to the company as it pertains to profitability, which in turn requires some type of strategic planning to help guide the employees in a successful direction. As you will find that this HR plan explains various steps that are taken to ensure the success of the HR Department as it utilizes its many functions. The different functions are detailed as to what they do and who they are beneficial to. In order to achieve success HR follows best practice in its planning and design phase. A Solo HR Department faces challenges when attempting to develop and implement a strategic model that is expected to align with the organizations core values and missions. This essay will seek to show how effective a well designed HR plan can be to an organization that is looking to be successful.
Company Structure and History
Angels Destiny LLC is a GA based freight brokering company, that was established in 2008 for the sole purpose of moving freight in and around the continental US. A Freight Brokering Company acts as a middleman between a shipping company and a federal motor carrier (Fmcsa.dot.gov). A shipping company is a company that has shipping needs and no way of moving the freight. A carrier company is a moving company that moves freight for the shipping companies. The Freight Broker is neither the shipper nor the carrier but actually works as the middleman for a fee. So basically the broker connects the shipper with the carrier to get the load moved. The company was designed to employ 12 Agents, to cover all of the states. There is one HR representative, one office manager, and the owner is the Broker. All the agents are trained by the Broker on how to locate and move freights. They are also trained on how to negotiate rates and how to complete the necessary paperwork. The HR representative is tasked with conducting the normal HR functions to accommodate the employees while helping the company to be more profitable. The HR Representative conducts the recruiting and retention, design the benefits and compensation and executes the training and development plan.
The office manager is in charge of the daily running of the office (Book keeping, data entry, escalated situations etc.) and is at the agent’s disposal for any assistance they may need getting the freight moved. The moving of Freight from one place to another requires documentation. These documents include but is not limited to bill of Laden, Invoice, Agreement for Transportation Brokerage and the shipper/carrier agreement and are prepared by the Office manager who has a choice of using a standard form or creating a new one. Once all the paperwork is in order then the Broker gives the order for the Office Manger to Print copies and file them in their respective cabinets. Templates of the forms are also stored in a database.
The Broker is the owner of the company and is equipped with special Freight Brokering skill sets, license, certificates and is bonded by a factoring company. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) which is an agency under the United States Department of Transportation defines a freight Broker as legal property broker. The FMCSA requires the broker to obtain A Broker’s Authority, A Surety Bond, A Processing Agent and file a Unified Carrier Registration (UCR). The Broker is like the CEO/CFO of the company and signs off on all monetary transactions and performs the company’s accounting duties. The Broker also conducts the training sessions after they are prepared and scheduled by the HR representative. HR representative recruits but the Broker has the final word when it comes to hiring an individual. Both parties work closely to ensure that the work gets done while the company remain in compliance with the rules and regulations. Legal Regulations The alignment of the Solo HR Plan has Federal guidelines from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association that is considered when tweaking the company’s policy and procedure. Once the policy and procedure manuals along with training and orientation material are in place then HR is ready to begin work. Legal regulations are then outlined. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has guidelines for HR to adhere to since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 & 1991 regulates all of the functions of HR (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). Title VII act which ensures that people have equal opportunity in the workplace is another guideline that HR has to comply with. HR plan includes a mandatory policy forbidding any form of discrimination. According to the EEOC guidelines job applicants cannot be categorized based on origin, religion, age, sex, color or disabilities (www.eeoc.gov). HR stays up to date with current events and makes the necessary changes as they come about regarding the local and federal regulations. Theses regulations are not just applicable when recruiting but they also apply to benefits and compensation, layoffs, promotion, training and discipline as it pertains to the employment conditions and terms (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). HR takes these regulations seriously to avoid violation. Plans of Assessment It is very easy for a company to be accused of violation, so HR has methods that are set in place to assess the workers and make sure everyone is on the same page. HR is prepared to accommodate different types of employees. Therefore, majors are set in place to assess the employees. The FMCSA has regid regulations, so HR has to be careful of the applicant mindset. A pre employment test is administered. This helps HR determine what level of training is needed for the employee. The test also assesses the applicant’s competency, personality and communication skills. This is necessary when working in the Freight Brokering field. HR has to check and make sure that the applicant is diverse and exhibits cultural awareness because the job will require a lot of comingling. This one reason why the organization makes it clear what the hiring criteria is, just in case the hiring practices are questioned or accused of discrimination (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). The advertisement is kept simple and people without experience are welcome to apply. Methods of Advertising Angels Destiny LLC is a small company and with its solo HR operations recruiting is made simple. The mediums used are word a mouth, Posters at the Department of Labor Office, Temp Agencies, social network (Facebook, twitter & LinkedIn) Job sites (Indeed & The Ladder) and ad in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Gwinnett Daily post. The company do not hire internally since there is no one to hire internally. The Majority of the employees are Agents and the vacant position is for an agent of course unless the Office Manager’s position becomes available. Once or twice per year HR gets invited to Job Fairs where candidates can submit a resume for job consideration if needs be. HR is fully aware that the company needs to attract a diverse qualified talent pool in order to maintain a high retention rate and increase profit margin. When companies hire people who are not the best fit for the position, the turnover rate tend to cost the company a lot of unnecessary spending. HR strategizes when it comes to talent acquisition.
Hiring Process/Recruitment
The hiring process or recruitment can be very difficult this is why the HR Representative works closely with the Broker when it comes to the decision making. Recruitment in a nut shell is “the process of finding suitable job applicants using advertisements, employment agencies and word of mouth” according to the book entitled The Human Resource Management, written by Raymond J. Stone. The HR Representative is versed in recruiting, but the Broker needs to make sure that the potential candidate has the correct concept of what the business is about. Making sure that the talent is the right fit is a very crucial to HRM, especially when it comes to making the right decision for the organization (Youssef-Morgan, & Stark, 2014). Recruiting can be costly and consumes a lot of time. The simple fact of deciding what is best for the company when it comes to how many people to hire, what type of skills they need to have, which medium to use for advertisement and that all job postings are in compliance with the local and federal guidelines. In a collaborative effort the HR operation of one engages the Broker in order to get a better understanding of the company’s policy and procedures before moving forward with the HR plan. Once the company’s core principals are fully outlined HR then prepare the necessary documents regarding Freight Movement. Interview and Selection Resumes are reviewed by HR and a list of applicants are selected. Once the HR representative identifies the qualified talents they are invited for an interview. Onsite interview is the norm. The candidate is scheduled for a traditional face to face interview with the HR representative, the Office Manager and the Broker. The HR personal sits in on the interview so he or she can give feedback about the talents cultural fit. The Office Manager is there because he or she will be working directly with the talent and needs to make sure that the candidate possesses the correct set of values. The Broker is the person who conducts the actual interview. This is a Freight Brokering firm so the position is for a Freight Agent. The interview process will assess the candidate to get a feel of where their head is. There are certain qualities that an agent should possess and these traits will be identified during the interview. The broker is seeking people with the technical skills that are needed to perform the job task. The interview questions will include but is not limited to: 1. Have you ever worked in this position before? 2. Can you work on your own, without being micromanaged? 3. How would you handle an irate carrier/shipper? 4. Share a time when your manager was unavailable and you had to made a split second decision. Orientation 0 After the interviews have concluded the Broker reviews both the HR representative and the Office Managers notes then make a final decision. The chosen candidate receives a call from HR with a salary offer and if the candidate accepts the offer then they are invited to orientation. Orientation his held for eight hours. The day is divided in to three sessions, Welcome and Briefing with the Broker, Benefits and compensation with the HR Representative and policy and procedures with the Office Manager. All sessions are conducted following the guidelines that protects employees in the workplace. During orientation the new hires are introduced to the work life benefits that the company offers and the flexible, stress free, healthy opportunities that allows time for family and social commitments in their daily routine (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). 1 Training 2 The Orientation commences with the Broker welcoming the new hire and giving a brief history of the company and over of vacant position. Typically, the agent’s day starts off with a check of the load board which is followed by incoming and outgoing calls from the and to the shippers and carriers. After placing all callers on standby the agent will then try to match carriers with loads based on their location and destination. That means if carrier A is in Atlanta and looking to go to Florida, the agent will match the carrier with a load that is picking up in Atlanta and needs to go to Florida. The agent then communicates the information including the rate to the carrier and if it is acceptable the agent confirms the load with the shipper and start filling out the paper work. If the agent already has a completed carriers and shipper’s agreement on file then a rate confirmation is sent to the shipper which will be returned with a signature. If there is no previous agreement on file, then the agent will obtain one from both parties. The agent then gets the following delivery information before giving the carrier the ok to pick up the load. * Consignee and consignor names and address * Pick up and delivery addresses * Type of Commodity * Telephone number for the dispatch * Expected time of delivery * Total miles to be driven All this information is given to the carrier who will then decided if the load is acceptable (New Freight Broker). If the load is leaving Atlanta and going to 700 miles to Tampa Florida at a rate of $1400, this means the shipper is offering $2.00 per mile. This is a good rate, if the carrier accepts it then the agent contacts the shipper to make sure the load is still available for pick up. If the load is still available, then the agent alerts the driver to go ahead and pick up the load. The agent will calculate the Broker fee which is 15% and charge the shipper or the carrier, depending on which party agreed to pay the fee on this load. Since the agent now owes the carrier $1400.00 if the carrier is responsible to pay then 15% is deducted and the balance paid to the carrier once the load is safely delivered the agent received the bill of laden from the carrier. Compensation and Benefits 3 Angels Destiny LLC Solo HR representative has the pleasure of unfolding the well designed compensation and benefits package to the new hire. The benefits and compensation package includes, Health, Vision, Dental, Work man compensation, twelve paid holidays, two paid personal days, ten paid sick days, and a retirement plan. Extra personal days can also be earned if a worker was asked to work over time, since the company does not pay for over time. If the employee works over for two to five hours, a half of paid personal day is allowed. Personal days can also be earned when an employee successfully move more than ten loads in one day. When the correct documentation is turned in to the company by the carrier, if the records indicate that any one agent is responsible for getting ten loads of freight picked up in a day then the office manager sends this information to HR who in return compensate that employee with a paid personal day. If the employee works over more than five hours then a paid full day is allotted. Introducing a very attractive benefits package to the new hire is an exciting event especially when forms of Herzberg intrinsic motivators are present. These type of motivators seem to have a way of creating conducive positive effect on some employee job performance and their potential to grow. Performance and Appraisal System Organizations takes several different steps to ensure that new hires align with its needs, but there are times when the organization measures employee performance by evaluating and documenting it (Manasa & Reddy, 2009). This is done in an effort to improve career development and the entire organization. Angels Destiny welcomes feedback and conducts a judgmental evaluation every October. Based on the results from the performance and appraisal evaluation the employee is given a ten cent or fifteen cents raise every January and a five hundred dollars bonus twice per year. The bonus is given once in July and the other in December, these are not tax free. The generosity of the company is an attempt to create and tailor Happy and Productive workers who gets satisfaction from the job. The well know hypothesis states that “The most productive performers are the happiest workers (Staw, 1986). The Organization needs elements that can lay a solid foundation that can assess, measure and manage a performance and appraisal system that will encourage both the employee and organization to continue to improve their productivity (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). With all that said, Angels Destiny LLC Solo HR has to be mindful that PA has to be conducted and rewards given without violating any of the federal guidelines. Conclusion HR plan is the process that Angels Destiny LLC utilizes in order to identify present and future HR needs to ensure that the company meets its goals. Basically it is the link that connects HRM and the company strategic planning system. HR plan sometimes set center stage for the company whereas it serves as an important element when it comes to budgeting. It helps the company project its recruitment and training cost among other things. HR plan also sheds light on how the company can best attract, recruit and retain the best talents while keeping up with legislative and economical trends may affect the organization. Angels Destiny LLC HR plan is designed to forecast HR’s future needs and is flexible so changes can be made as needed. The company’s future sometimes rest with HR. HR is faced with commonly asked questions like where the company is headed, how to formulate ways to successfully arrive at the goals and what skill set is needed to get there. This is why training and development is so important to the company and its future. Training the right people to do the job and offering them attractive beneficial compensation while adhering to employment legislative standards has proven to be very rewarding to Angels Destiny LLC.

Reference
Youssef-Morgan, C. M. & Stark, E. (2014) Strategic Human Resource Management: Concepts, Controversies, and Evidence-based Applications:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/commercial-drivers license/compliance#sthash. yzFurCfE.dpuf Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2014). Retrieved from: www.eeoc.gov/employers/coverage_employment_agencies.cfm Gallup.

Manasa, K & Reddy, N. (2009). Role of Training in Improving Performance.

New Freight Broker. Retrieved from: https://newfreightbroker.wordpress.com

Staw, B.M. (1986). Organizational Psychology & the pursuit of the happy productive worker.

Stone, R. J. Human Resource Management 7th edition. Retrieved from: http://www.wiley.com/legacy/Australia/PageProofs/BUS_MAN/3_4/c05TheHumanResourceManagementFunction-TheEmploymentCycle_WEB.pdf