Human Resources II– Major Project – Transformational Business Plan

Leadership in Occupational Health and Wellness

 

Introduction

As stated in our text book, most organizations are facing six main competitive challenges that human

resources departments must be aware of and work to address. These include: (1) globalization, (2)

embracing new technology, (3) managing change, (4) developing human capital, (5) responding to the

market, and (6) containing costs. Addressing these challenges often requires transformational change

which, in turn, can involve the entire workforce.

Human Resources plays a key strategic role in organizations “helping to build the strongest team and

culture possible to meet organizational goals and create a sustainable advantage”.

Increasingly HR is asked to lead major change initiatives for the organization. Major change initiatives

can be associated with areas such as; improving organizational culture, performance management,

employee engagement, employee development, diversity, health and wellness and total rewards.

These initiatives can be transformational for an organization and often involve significant investments

and impact every person in the organization.

To be effective Human Resource professionals must work closely with senior management (board

members, executive/senior leaders) to educate, inspire, influence and gain full and complete “buy in” to

the importance of these key strategic or transformational initiatives. As we discovered in HR I, HR

professionals must be effective leading change and understanding business needs as well as HR

practices.

Assignment Overview

This assignment will allow you to develop and communicate a transformational business plan for a

major strategic HR initiative. Once the plan is developed you will submit your business plan to your

Executive Team. The Executive Team must then decide on whether the initiative should be one of the

major strategic investments and goals over the next three years.

 

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Situation

You work as an HR consultant for a fairly large energy services organization based in Alberta, Canada

with approximately 1,000 employees. The company is called Yourway Energy Services (YES). Note: this is

a fictional name and company.

The company has traditionally focused on exploration and development of fossil-based fuels (natural

gas and oil) and recently has shifted and expanded into renewal energy (solar and wind). The company is

changing dramatically, and this has put pressure on all staff to learn new jobs/technologies/markets or

leave the organization if they are not able to adapt.

Stress leaves and mental health issues have doubled in the past two years and accidents and sick leave

are well above industry averages.

Business Plan Topic – Occupational Health/Safety and Wellness

Yourway Energy Solutions (YES) has traditionally focused on physical safety and injury prevention on the

job sites. Their approach could be described as more as “minimal compliance” or “reactive vs. proactive”

and they have not invested more than needed to comply with laws and regulations.

All they have invested in is basic safety and first aid training, hazardous waste handling and procedures

if an injury occurs on the job site. There has been little to no training for office workers or to deal with

mental health issues and addictions. With the recent growth and change to renewal energy the

workforce has expanded and at the same time the incidents per 100 employees of health and safety

related issues has grown.

As an example, in the last year YES experienced 4 accident related injuries per 100 employees, with an

average of 17 days off work per incident. That was 25% higher than the previous five-year average.

An average of 7 sick days per employee per year this was 33% higher than previous year averages.

Stress leaves have doubled over the past three years  Workers Compensation Insurance rates increased

by 25% over two years due to the increased number of accidents

Fortunately, no fatalities had occurred at YES in the past 5 years, however, the Executive Team and

Board of Directors were getting very concerned about these trends and the increasing costs. They were

also noticing that their reputation as an employer was being hurt as they tried to attract new

employees.

One law suit had been filed against the company by an injured worker and overall staff turnover was

increasing and morale was low. They felt as an organization they were too “reactive vs. proactive” in

terms of health and wellness and that their programs were out of date and out of touch with other

leading companies.

 

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Your Assignment

Once again, you work as an HR Consultant at YES supporting a number of managers and teams at YES.

You have been asked to lead this “Special Assignment” and a team that will develop Business Plan ideas

to transform Occupational Health and Safety practices at YES.

YES wants to become a leader in this area and significantly reduce safety incidents and costs. They want

to better support employees and their families.

The Executive feel this could be a good investment, however, there must also be a positive business case

and tangible benefits associated with the investment/new ongoing costs. The company has other

investment priorities and not everyone on the Executive Team feels this is a high priority unless the

benefits can be substantiated and measured.

The assignment is to be completed by 5 students working together and will be worth 30% of your total

grade as follows:

 

The Business Plan Document (30%)

The Business Plan Ideas Document is your major deliverable and should be comprehensive in nature,

well researched, professional, compelling/audience focused and follow standards for effective business

communication.

Your Report is to be point form listing all your ideas. It only needs to be three pages long, at the most

(plus your Reference listing page).

The Groups with the best ideas and the most ideas will receive the highest grades.

*List your ideas/recommendations to improve the Safety Program.

*List your ideas/recommendations to improve the Health Program

*List your ideas/recommendations on how you would Communicate the Plan.

*List benchmarked sources and any other websites/books/documents, where you researched and

sourced information (Reference Listing).