Simulation Changes Project

I am a Human Resource specialist at Perma Power Solutions (PPS). Our company sales wireless battery-mats, batteries, and is going to launch the new product on the market, nuclear cells with the extended life cycle. The general responsibilities of the HR specialist are to ensure that the company’s departments perform efficiently, and tasks are assigned correctly, considering each department specification. The Human Resource specialist also reports to the Managing Director about inside and outside projects’ results as well as informs the top management about employees’ outputs.

However, my responsibilities are far broader, and as a member of the management team, I have in-depth controlling assignments. The first one is the supervising staff attendance. This responsibility requires managing a Time Record sheet for non-managerial staff and provides precise information for the payment calculation. Another responsibility is controlling labor relations, what needs to implement leadership skills, and keep abreast of labor issues and union activity. One of the essential duty is payroll performance. Within this task, I supposed to calculate payroll for each employee and provide financial reports to the Finance Assistant and Logistics department. Moreover, each payment report contained information about employees present and supposed to subtract fees, an amount of ¼ of daily pay for each block of 30 minutes of absence. Moreover, this responsibility is connected with Payroll Authorisation, which requires signing and submitting the monthly Payroll to the Finance department. After submission, the balance sheet is to be checked, and only then salaries have to consider with status “paid.”

Despite the fact that I am to provide precise information about the efficiency of the workplace and achieve results, I am also requested to inform employees about their lateness or absent. In case of any disciplinary disorder, I obliged to manage the disciplinary procedure, and take further action, such as verbal warning and dismissal.

Regardless of the Disciplinary Action responsibility, HR specialist contacts and supports employees, who are on redundancy, as they should be paid one extra session’s pay at their current salary level. While obtaining this duty, I supposed to control the dismissal compensating process, and inform the Managing Director about any related changes or issues.

For this project, the company obliged me to create a Payroll sheet and a Time Record report. Furthermore, I have to track each employee progress, by making Role Descriptions. In addition to these duties, I will provide an Organisation Chart and the TRKW Fact sheet about our project, and its results.

Project Simulation Changes Summary

During the three day simulation, our company has several changes, which were planned according to the project strategy, and unplanned, as the situation inside departments and on the market changed according to implemented solutions.

The significant change was the correct organization of the workplace for each department to keep them focused on the current assignment, and maintain efficiently with the high-level output. The related unplanned change was initial support of each unit, as the breach in operational process was found, and led to the decrease in sales. Another situational change during the last day of simulation was the price correction, due to the market demand, and customers’ requests. The previous difference done by our team was the revision of the release date, as last changes required time for implementation, and drove to deadline extension.

In what ways was I effective in dealing with change this week?

• • Day 1

In the first day of the simulation, our team showed a lack of communication skill and did not understand how the project must be implemented, and what changes must be taken into consideration. I seize the opportunity to establish a communication link between each member of the team and allow them to make debates about further tasks and assignments. Moreover, I tried to delegate some responsibilities to employees, as this would help my team to became more involved. I suggested that such inside dialogue would map my employees, as the discussion of the project could lead to the brainstorming, and deliver them the idea of some changes (Turner). Despite the fact that the first customer of the first day of the simulation canceled the order, I appreciate the effort of our team to improve the situation. Besides, I focused myself on emotional attribution to our team, and dealt with disappointment, by concentrating on why the first order was rejected and how to empower my employees using the open dialogues. (Maravelas). For instance, after a calm, public discussion, Lena called back the client and convinced him to make a request. After the first order of the day, we got other orders, and all employees from the Sales department succeed to deliver them, even the amount of ordered products was not enough to cover our targets.

• • Day 2

During the second day of the simulation, I realized the breach in the departments’ organizational process and managed to solve this problem. The first issue to be reconsidered was the inefficiency of the team during the first day. I saw the problem hidden in the lack of communication and well-establish links between different working groups. As a result, I organized a roundtable for all employees, to involve them in sales operations, and enable them to stay focused on our mission. Furthermore, I organize another table for heads from each department that we could discuss further steps and strategy and do not interrupt personnel from their assignments. This change was made as an answer to the question, why these departments could not work together as one unit (Weisbord). This separation as well as the organization of the workplace, helped the company to get the big order from Sony, as our sales managers started to perform on the high stakes. Another achievement of the second day was establishing partnerships with Apple and Samsung. The Sales department reacted quickly to these two orders and organized the delivery with top rated quality. Moreover, our sales managers contacted Apple and Samsung representation and asked them to split their orders. Such step helped us to avoid logistics failure and gave us additional time to provide efficient and in time shipment to new clients. Furthermore, the traditional sense of urgent as well as the creation of the short-term plan to win helped people to continue these requests, and did not miss the opportunity to get orders (Kotter, 1996). While orders from two manufacturers were in process, our company faced employee shortage, as some of them had training devoted to our new nuclear batteries. Still, each department tried to help, and the problem was solved, and we did not lose customers and orders. The second day finished without margin profit, as we did not reach the target in sales. The workplace had been organized properly, and each employee became involved in the process, understanding that our success depends on everyone’s efforts and inputs. This understanding was a result, which can be seen in the Flywheel Effect, when people line up, energized by the results, gained from a small success from the partnership with Apple and Samsung (Collins).

• • Day 3

The third day of the simulation started with the launch of the new product, nuclear batteries. Sales and marketing departments developed the plan how to interest potential customers to use our products. However, we failed to attract new customers; thus I and heads from each office proposed to decrease the price per unit. Moreover, we made an offer to everyone, who was interested in buying our new batteries, which our company would send a specialist to instruct and guide firms about our products. The last strategic plan helped us to find new customers, and increase prices for 20% to reach our target, $5 million margin profit.

In what ways was I ineffective in dealing with change this week?

• • Day 1

My inefficiency based on lack of experience in the supply chain management, ability to measure response, and organize well-planned time management.

The first day was overwhelmed with small and unexpected failures. First of all, I should set more comprehensive targets for my employees, and only then allow debates. This step supposed to help them to discuss more specialized topics as well as pushed them to develop the joint plan of action. The joint venture of each department would save time, and it is believed that the workspace had to be organized during the first day, instead of during the second one. Moreover, after discussion of some specific ideas and topic, the sales manager, Lena did not reject our first order, even when the amount was below the expected minimum. Furthermore, the experience in the supply chain management helped me to consider that our problem is also in the logistic system, and that is why we often failed to make delivery in time. I believe that if I made organizational changes in the Logistics and improved our shipment procedure. Another issue that showed my inefficiency was that R&D department failed to get permission to launch new batteries. I supposed that if I took control over this process, we could place our product on the market without postponement.

I supposed that the major problem was that I did not correctly restate the question, and did not clarify the primary objectives of my team. Moreover, I did not see the nature of the problem, which was covered in the supply chain of the company. Such misleading did not allow me to specify the exact problem, and cause failure during the first day of the simulation (Turner).

• • Day 2

The second day required my skills in time management, as two employees from R&D, packer, and dispatcher from Logistics had training about nuclear batteries. I did not manage to check the daily assignment list. As a result, I was suppressed to work on the line and involve people from other departments to cover the shortage. Despite being flexible and participating in different duties, I showed irresponsibility to allow such misunderstanding to happen.

• • Day 3

The third day began with the new batteries launch, yet our marketing department did not have developed strategy. I managed to organize our team to evaluate the most direct approach to complete the project; thus I took into consideration only price value but not needs and demand of our customers. This strategy caused a decrease among potential customer, and what is more our unsolved shipment problem still disturbed our clients. Moreover, I was focused on achieving the target sales and did not consider the opportunity to improve overall service quality with the launch of nuclear batteries. Furthermore, we got orders only because our customers needed long-term cells, and it can be stated that such tactics inefficient for long-term partnerships and contracts. Also, the current offer about specialist required more planning and probably will insist us to establish the new department or involve outside companies to cooperate.

What attitudes and behaviors do I need to change to make myself more effective as a change leader in the future?

After analyzing problems related to my inefficiency, I can state that I need to improve my motivation and gain experience or knowledge in the leadership studies and supply chain management.

Taking into account these facts, I have to improve my communication skills without which it would be impossible to select the proper candidates and communicate with my team. The excellent communication skills would also be a great assistant in establishing a good connection with management as well as social media. The position of change leader, will not tolerate the flabby personality, who is afraid to make conflicts. The individual who corresponds to this post should act as a confidant for employees, he or she should be convincing and believable. Besides that, the real change maker should possess excellent skills in conflict management and decision making. Being introverted and shy will also prevent me from proper execution of my working tasks. Therefore, I should treat the external world more affably and work on my interaction with other people.

I believe that I should become more flexible in my attitude to employees as well as I have to be able to listen to my team members and take into consideration their advice, proposals, and requests. With such skill, I can efficiently evaluate targets and missions for each department, as knowledge about their field of activity will help me to see the scenery broader, and do not over helm departments with additional duties. Moreover, the information about each member skills and requests will allow me to deliver assignments to those who can manage them without problem or difficulties.

I supposed that the best background analysis could be the SWOT analysis. This approach could help us to define strengths of our product and production process, such as quality, innovation, long-term life cycle. Moreover, the SWOT could provide a brief description of our weaknesses as well as we could solve them or improve our situation before the simulation has begun. What is more, this method could bring us the vision of possible opportunities and threats that means that my team and I could predict how the customers and the market would react on our batteries (Collins & Porras).

From these three days of simulation, I recognize that my skills and abilities to evaluate problematic fields of company’s activity should be improved. For instance, I believe that professional knowledge about supply chain management will benefit me in future projects. Regardless of this, I will add that the breach in the communication between departments could be solved on the earlier stage of the simulation if I manage to clarify our primary goal. Moreover, I believe that if my team had a clear mission and efficient workplace could make better output if only I correctly delegated responsibilities between employees, and assigned the specific person to the particular task but did not spread one assignment to the whole department.

Also, I should improve my time management skills, as I failed to check the schedule of training, and was insisted on covering the shortage with available sources. Despite the fact that I got experience in the new position, this only proves that I need to be more focused on my duties. Besides, I should improve my leadership skills to be more persuasive, and inspire people to work as a team. I wish to engage my employees in collective achieving of company’s targets, yet I feel that I have much to do with this.

Furthermore, I should reconsider my responsibilities and skills related to the financial sector and price evaluation. During the simulation, we tried to adapt our prices according to the market demand. Still, I did not consider such factors as quality, shipment, and control of our storages supplement.

To add, my team did not evaluate the effort impact, as we did not make a clear statement on what we should focus our sources. The time limitation did not give the opportunity to work through each possible option, and I did not analyze what has the higher rate, and what has lower (Turner).

All in all, I also feel that I did not set proper target, and consider my emphasis on the margin profits as a failure. It can be stated that our company had a reputation among our consumer as trustworthy, yet the failure of delivery and poor quality of this sector impact us and decrease the rate of trustiness. I propose to change my behavior about objectives evaluation, as the only way to succeed is to improve the quality of provided services, the organization of the inside communication, and well prepared planned problem-solving approach.

What do I need to start doing to begin the process of self-improvement?

Undoubtedly, the process of self-improvement could not be determined as a simple one. First of all, I should improve my multitasking skills. In the modern fast-developing world, individuals are required to meet the deadlines and time frames as well as correspond to updates. The specialists who perform one particular task are no longer valuable on the employment market. Therefore, to be the efficient employee I have to combine my abilities to work on different tasks. It will help me save time as well as will become additional training of my professional skill improvement (Alvesson).

Secondly, I should improve my knowledge of business documentation. It will be beneficial in reporting management of performed work. Moreover, it will contribute to my self-organization and will teach me to keep things in the order. It would serve as excellent assistance in the time management as well as help me to organize all required documentation related to the project. The rule with business papers also helps to make information flow between departments more efficient as well as decrease time for departments’ feedbacks.

Thirdly, apart from communication, I should work on compassion. This trait is of the utmost importance for the HR specialist. I should not only learn how to communicate with people but also how to listen and understand them.

One more set of skills I have to work on is flexibility skills. Nonetheless, last-minute changes or mishaps may happen on every job. For that reason, I have to become flexible to be ready to accept changes that occur on my way. Moreover, it would be a great idea to work on a creative problem-solving (Kotter, 2008).

Conclusion

The three-day simulation conducted by me showed that being an HR specialist and change leader is not only a highly responsible occupation but a position, which required excellent knowledge about all process which runs inside the company. Moreover, the evaluation of the outside threats and factors should also be considered by the Human Resources specialist.

This project showed me which skills I should improve and what field of management activities I should reconsider. I believe that developing my communication skills as well as gaining experience in the logistics will help me in my further career path and the upcoming projects. Moreover, I suggest that my time management skills have to be improved, as it is recommended to follow the time frame and deadlines, especially when the new product launches on the market. Furthermore, my workplace organizational skills, as well as leadership abilities, requires more experience. I find my self not confident enough, what results in lack of understanding what my employees need. I want also admit, that I have to learn how to formulate the coherent objectives not only for the whole company, as one unit but also conduct planning concerning personal targets for each worker. In addition to this, I also must improve, y skills of responsibilities reassigning, due to over helming some of the departments, and causing shifting in duties.

Besides, I need to get in-depth knowledge of external market factors such as customer demand evaluation, pricing policies, and preventing competition failure in the target market. Another issue that I should improve is my business documentation applying, as I feel that one of the critical problems during this project was the absence of the information flow between departments. Furthermore, I suggest that in the plan, my performance will be higher than in this one, as I gained valuable experience in the problem-solving process.

What is more, I have to learn how to think critically, as this will help me to define which tasks are with higher priorities, and which can be merged, and conducted, as one task. Also, I hope that during the next project or simulation, I will prepare the well-balanced plan, to make difficult decisions, and to prevent unpleasant and unplanned mistakes. Considering these thoughts, I can state that planning is a valuable skill, which I can obtain only participating in the similar simulation, as this was.

To sum up, I am glad that I participate in such cooperation, as it showed me my strengths and weaknesses. I am considering my ability to organize the workplace as a useful skill that I already have, yet, lack of essential leadership experience led me to make mistakes. I am looking forward to participating in similar projects, believing that each further plan will make me closer to become a professional in a field of Human Resources and Change Leadership.