Maples: Human Resources and Maple Leaf

Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. was established in 1969 in Mario Mancini. It is one of the key manufacturers of leather and vinyl shoes in Wilmington Ontario. Currently, it hires more than 400 employees in its Ontario plant and 380 employees in offices and warehouses all over the world. Robert Clark is the president and chief shareholder in Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. As a matter of fact, he has to re-evaluate the position of human resources manager and select a new people who will replace current manager John McAllister. Tim Lance was the only people to observe the present and future role of Maple Leaf’s human resources department and gave the recommendations on proper implantation plans and assistance this company solve the existing problems and meet some future challenges.

Lance recognized that human resources function was seen very differently, so he interviewed with three key senior managers (Tim McDonald, general manager, finance; Pat Lim, general manager, marketing; Robert Clark, president). In addition, Lance interviews with the three key employees who are Jane Reynolds, special assistant to the human resources manager; Tony Rezkov, manager of administration and security; and Joseph McDonald, the industrial relations officer in the human resources s department.

In order to select a right people in Maple Leaf Company, Lance needs to well understand current requirements of human resources positions from different views. Due to time constraints, Lance was scheduled to complete this project himself and had a meeting with Robert Clark about the summary of his findings and recommendations. Therefore, in the final section I mentioned an implementation plan which included effective actions to select right human resources manager.

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Problem Statement

The problem with Maples Leaf Shoes Ltd. was that the company needs to select a right human resources manager who should be an expert on people and company. On one hand, this person should play an important and leading role in employee job planning, organizational design, and other important activities. Moreover, new human resources manager need to make plans strategies and handles the short and long-term challenges by facing global completion, labor and production cost, and development for employees. On the other hand, this person need to good at with company’s human resources activities.

For example he/ she need to open a new situation to work with four unions. According to the other managers’ said, there has been an increasing degree of worsen relations between Maple Leaf company and unions during the last several months. So human resources manager should take responsibility to solve these problems and take the effective actions to enhance the situation.

Analysis of Alternatives

This section presents with two different ways in which the problem can be resolved. Based on problem statement, this case study gave alternatives analysis A and B.

Plan A: Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. should recruit an expert human resources manager from head-hunting company.

Firstly, new human resources manager has to meet a lot of requirements which related to employment: planning career, keeping employee records, reviewing employee performance, supporting training and development, enforcing company policy and regulations, etc.

Secondly, this person must promote Maple Leaf’s production processes by improving company’s efficiency and competitiveness in the current and future level.

Compared with the Chinese and the Mexicans on the labour costs, company need to be redesigned and pay more attention on technological upgrading and improving employee productivity.

Thirdly, new human resource manager need to have strong skills to deal with unions in the future. This is a big issues for this company, because human resource department communicate with four major unions, especially two unions are militant. Through Maple Leaf employees are pretty good and communications with several years, union leaderships exist a lot of problems. The new human resources manager must good at communicate with four unions in the next few years.

Plan B: Like a lot of companies, Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. should have a standard that people are generally promoted from within. There are three key employees in the human resources department: Jane Reynolds, Tony Rezkov and Joseph McDonald. According to Lance’s opinion, Reynolds was more productive and familiar with human resources department. If this company promote Reynolds, she will quickly understand and manage this department. Otherwise, company can promote the other person who is qualified and fit with this position from alterative departments.

Compare and contrast with Plan A and Plan B

Advantages of Plan A

In Plan A, Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. needs to choose a qualified, professional and knowledgeable person to replace current human resources manager John. This person should have a degree of human resources management, and he also should have at least three years of working experiences in the field of human resources. He/ She will bring new ideas or opinions which based on his/her previous experiences to Maple Leaf Company. In addition, he/she will build new relationships with four unions.

Disadvantages of Plan A

At the same time, Plan A will generate other problems or issues for this company. For instance, new manager does not familiar with Maple Leaf Company itself, environment and cultural. Every new staff member cannot quickly fit the current environment. They need to spend more time on researching current company and establishing working experience with other managers and staff. When new manager deals with other department, it maybe generates new serious problems. Moreover, he/she also does not familiar with his/her duties and responsibilities in this company, so he/she need to learn a lot of new things. Sometimes his/her previous working experience will not fit this company’s requirements.

Advantages of Plan B

If Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. prefer to Plan B, of course, new manager used to be a staff in this company. He/she not only familiars with the whole company’s cultural, history and environment, but also understands each manager and staff. He/she understand his/her duties and responsibilities in human resources department. He/ She also know the other staff members’ work characteristic, so he/she will work smoothly. New manager do not need to spend time on basic tasks and simple relationships, so he/she will more productive in this company. It is very good for Maple Leaf Company to encourage staff members. If this company choose plan B, it means every employee has opportunities to be promoted in this company. In order to get higher position, more and more employees will work hard. In fact, it is potential to improve employees’ confidence with this company.

Disadvantages of Plan B

New manager maybe do not have enough knowledge and skills on human resource department. Maple Leaf Company needs to train new people how to do a human resources manager. Moreover, new manager do not have strong relationships with four unions, because he/she deal with those unions before. It is very possible to delay solving the problem between Maple Leaf Company and unions. Comparing and contrasting with these two plans, I think Plan B is better than Plan A, because new human resources manager can quickly adapt Maple Leaf Company’s environment. For instance, Jane Reynold, assistant of human resources manager, who understands the advantages and disadvantages of Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd,.

This company needs to support computer hardware or software to employees who really need use PC in the adequate job. At the same time, other managers and staff do not need to spend time on building relationships with new person. In addition, the staff not only can be encouraged and promoted in this company, but also they recognize that there are a lot of opportunities in the future.

Recommendations

Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. needs to hire a new human resources manager who replace John and came from inside of this company or from head-hunting company. He/ She have to achieve a lot of requirements from present, shareholders, five key managers and staff in the other department, and subordinates in human resources department.

Educational Requirement

To become Maple Leaf Company’s human resources manager, a master degree or bachelor degree in a field related to human resources s management or business management. Recommended would employ those who have a higher educational degree and have certification by Human resources Professional (CHRP). In addition, this person maybe needs to meet some other certification requirements.

Work Experience Requirement

New human resources manager should have a minimum of three years of work experience in Human resources at a professional level. For example, there are some basic requirements about paying employees, keeping employee records, planning employee career (benefits administration, performance reviews, training, and skill assessment), policy enforcement, organizational design, and other development activities. Moreover, some of the requirements for the future human resources manager includes that he/ she must upgrade company’s production processes in order to improve company’s efficiency and competitiveness and reduce costs. He/ She perform the tasks and contribute to the growth of the company.

Personal Skills

New human resources manager needs to change the bad situation with four unions and open a new situation to understand care and deal with those unions. In current, there has been an increasing degree of bad relations between four unions and Maple Leaf Company. The new manager should take the responsibility to solve some of these problems and take the initiative to improve the situation.

Implementation

As we know, human resource management is very essential to develop and manage a company’s most valuable asset and its employees. Human resource managers probably control the most important functions in companies, because they are working with recruitment, salaries, benefits and other main activities. Therefore, Maple Leaf Company needs to pay attention on selection of human resources manager who will play a leadership and developmental role in the current and future.

With that in mind, I make an action and implementation plan for section of human resources in Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. are the following:

1. Prepare a checklist and requirements for hunting the human resources manager I think Maple Leaf Company needs to prepare a checklist which shows all requirements from present, shareholders, other managers and staff. Though it is step 1, it is the beginning step. I think the final decision will base on the requirements in step 1.
2. Maybe need to collect more requirements and information about this position from other managers and staff In order to complete step1, Lance maybe needs to pay more attention on other managers and staff’s opinions. For example, there are five key managers in Maple Leaf Company. However, Lance only talked with three managers. Andre Cardin, manager of design & Research, was on vacation. Production manager, bob Smith, is investigating the possible of growing the company’s operations in Montreal and Winnipeg. In my opinion, if Lance will talk with them, he will add some key information and requirements to the final list.
3. Contact with professional head-hunting company and tell them all requirements of human resources position Head-hunting company is another way to recommend professional talents to Maple Leaf Company. Many companies ask head-hunting company to help them find someone who fits the position.
4. Conduct interior engagement first when it recruits new human resources manager At the same time, the company should provide the opportunities for its interior staff members. It not only finds a right employee who fit this job, but also encourages every employee in this company.
5. Compare and contrast every candidates According to above steps, company will compare and contrast each interviewee and make a decision on new human resource manager.
6. Get the right people vii. Training, learning and development New human resource manager need to familiar his/her duties, responsibilities and functions on human resources department. He/ She needs to take training program and learns new knowledge and skills.

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