SECTION A - Consist of two questions
QUESTION 1:
Two approaches to consulting are: 'Consultant as Expert' and 'Consultant as Facilitator. Explain and compare these approaches.
What factors do you think a consultant should consider when deciding which approach to use? Do you believe that one approach is better than the other? Explain and justify your answer.
QUESTION 2:
Australian Red Cross Blood Service has decided to launch an Employee Exchange Program with Indonesian Red Crescent Blood Service. The program serves to cross skill the employees as a form of promoting a strategy focused on a more donor-friendly environment in the blood services centres in both countries. The program will be of six months duration. The employees will be selected based on an application detailing their interest in the program and what they hope to achieve from participating.
Australian Red Cross Blood Services have engaged your consultancy services to find out what is the best compensation and benefit package that would be suitable to offer to the participants in the program. At the same time, cost effective when compared to a full expatriate packages other global international companies offer.
State what data would you want to collect specifically to provide you with all the information you need to develop your recommendations. Describe in detail what data collection methods would you use, why these data collection methods not others, who is your target sample and how would you engage them in your data collection.
SECTION B - A short case giving you information about a company that has contacted you, a HR consultant, and requested to meet to discuss how your services can support them in addressing the problem.
SmartWorx is one of the world's leading web-based application systems companies and the second largest in Australia. The company was created in 2010 when two pioneer companies, Smart Blue and Worx, merged to become a major force in the industry. Today, the organisation is dedicated to the creation and supply of innovative web-based products and employs over 900 people globally.
The company's mission is to become a global innovator, and its people are at the very heart of this. The merger of Smart Blue and Worx was the catalyst for a period of significant change in the business globally. The merger was quickly followed by a further acquisition which saw the business acquire 200 new sales force professionals from Zadar Ltd in Melbourne. These developments were a key driver for reviewing the organisation's training and development strategy.
The HR Director calls you and after briefly explaining the background of the company, he continues to say "The acquisition of people from Zadar Ltd was both hugely exciting and a challenge for the business. It brought together considerable talent within the industry, which was good for the company, but it also resulted in several different HR processes. The two approaches from SmartWorx and Zadar Ltd existed in parallel for a year, but it soon became clear that this was inefficient and could have a negative impact on employee engagement."
This new reality created a need for the harmonisation and rationalisation of key HR systems. Management has realised there is a need for more consistency in training accessibility and delivery. SmartWorx employees have an allocated training budget and each employee chooses which external courses they want to attend. Zadar Ltd has developed an e-learning course package for their employees to access at any time they choose. There are no indications of how many of Zadar employee use the e-learning course, while SmartWorx know that 87% of their employees spend at least $900 of their $1,000 budget on training courses each year. Neither company measures the effectiveness of their training strategy.
The HR Director requests to set up a meeting with you to discuss this further and identify how your consulting services can be of value. SmartWorx needs your expertise to help identify how to transition from the current status quo of having two training and development strategies into one. The new system will need to provide more consistency over training accessibility and delivery and clearer process to align employee training with SmartWorx talent development strategy rather than leaving the upskilling decision completely based on the proactiveness of the employees to seek training.
You have recently been promoted to a Consultant having joined the company as a Junior Consultant in 2013. you are keen to win this project and meet the client's highest expectations. Write down in 800 words, using diagrams and tables, your preparation notes for the client meeting. Explain the format and content of the meeting, you may want to include some of the following:
- The questions you prepare to ask the client and explain why they are important
- The purpose of data collection and the suggested method for collection
- Any analysis you conduct to get a better understanding of your client (e.g. external/internal context and factors, stakeholder analysis)
- Briefly state how you would describe the project plan if you are commissioned to do the work
- Any other information you as a consultant feel are important to state in a client meeting
- Note: Assume this is the first client meeting with this client
Assignment Files -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6z9vhonc2j6biqr/Assignment%20Files.rar?dl=0