Running head: SERVICE REQUEST, PART 1

Service Request, Part 1 Jimmy S. Alexander BSA/375 February 14, 2012 John Woosley

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Service Request, Part 1 Human resources are the greatest assets of any company. You can raise tariffs or prevent MNCs from entering, but one can't stop the employees from leaving if they are dissatisfied. - Narayana Murthy (b. 1946)

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources can be seen as the central nervous system which deals with the employment and the finance of the workers within Riordan Company just as many other great companies that have a great business structure. In the next paragraph, there will be a description of the information-gathering techniques and design methods that would be propose for the project. There are many information-gathering techniques and design methods that are proposed for the projects that will help improve the HR system within the Riordan Manufacturing Company. The first technique is the most common and effective which is the one on one interview. This gives the opportunity to see what the company needs and can present the requirements which the employer Riordan is looking for to help the company become a better success. The best way to pull a successful one on one is to leave the questions open ended and can ask probing questions to uncover the requirements. Group interviews could be a side choice because it puts ever interviewee on the same level and can have more interviews in a shorter period of time. Facilitated sessions can be where a larger group (five or more) people can come in at once given more requirements to the group and can see which people works out best. Some companies use questionnaires which can be more informal but can be given online which give

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the applicants more of a freedom to answer at will but yet get the results which can be used within the hiring process. Prototyping is a modern technique for gathering preliminary requirements that are used to build an initial version of the solution. The last two techniques and methods are known as request for proposals and brainstorming. This is a list of requirements is the for comparison of the capabilities of the company and how close the matches are to the clients needs. Brainstorming is the uncovering requirements as much as they are discovered. Lastly, the information can also be gathered through a process of interviewing top management (executives), middle management (district leaders), and the operational staff (supervisors). Information will be found through system users, procedure manuals, and in-house business documents and reports. Observing system users may not always be a good idea as observation can cause people to change their normal operating behavior such as trying to meet your expectations instead of being their selves. Employees who know they are being observed may be nervous and make more mistakes than normal (Valacich, George, and Hoffer, 2009, Essentials of System Analysis and Design, p. 143). In the next paragraph, the key factors that help ensure the information required for the project is gathered successfully is identified. The key factors that help ensure the information required for the project are the critical ones which are leadership, talents, high expertise corporate structure, and strategic analysis. From the leadership factor, which is the most important elements to hiring the elite, this is where the needs of a very careful definition is as important and as it is very easy to make the definition in the negative perspective, but to allow the management to implement this factor, it has to be defined positive way. The leadership also defines how the organization will approach its employees and work on the human skillful talent structure. Perfect leadership will say what is best for the company and what will help Riordan strive for excellence. Leadership is the

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cornerstone to gathering the information required to help Riordan making it a success. Factoring of talent however is about movement from the human resources with the servicing as the in sourcing and outsourcing supporting function is there to deliver the best potential candidates to hire to the support unit helping to identify the gaps in the organization with right retention and development initiatives ("The main strategic," 2008). However, this factor is a bit controversial factor as it divides employees into several organinized clusters and just one group of employees is a receiver of huge investments into human success when it comes to Riordan Manufacturing, which can bring a bit of a tension to the organization. Factoring helps the weeding out of the important factors which is needed for the main project within the Riordan Manufacturing Company that may have competition that may become an uprising within the company. Generally, the organization does not have money enough to develop all of its employees and the investment must be protected. Next, the High Performance Corporate Culture factor is about a transfer of the responsibilities from the management levels to the individual employees and supporting employees to act individually, but with the mind of the business goals of the organization ("The main strategic," 2008). Now this factor supports the direct link between the individual performance and the performance of the whole organization ("The main strategic," 2008). To elaborate on it more, it is learning about the business passed down from management which creates the order of business and also the guidelines which the employees learn and try to mimic the business to help lead it to more successful accomplishments. Lastly, the Strategic Analysis Factor is about action from the reaction to the business objectives and the following planning activities to the proactive planning in the organization ("The main strategic," 2008). This factor has to follow the strategic tasks defined by the Top Management of the organization. This critical success factor looks easy to implement in the strategic factor, which will help the

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company strive to come up with new and innovative plastic products ("The main strategic," 2008). Even though these factors may not seem as much by just explaining the basics, these key factors are very vital to Riordan manufacturing within the human resources section of this successful organization. In the next section, there will be an explanation of the scope and the feasibility of this project. The scope the scope of the project is to architect and implement a more sophisticated, state-of-the-art information system technology that will integrate all the human resources processes at the different Riordan manufacturing plants into one unified process at the companys headquarters in San Jose, California. The current human resourse system, which was installed in 1992, is simply a part of a financial systems package which keeps track of employees hire dates, tax exemptions, pay rates, anniversary dates, organization information, vacation hours and personal information. Due to the lack of an automated HR system, any changes to these forms of employee information are submitted in writing by that employees manager, and manually entered by a payroll clerk. Training and development records are kept in an Excel worksheet by the Training and Development specialist. The recruiters for Riordan Manufacturing each maintain applicant information for open positions. Employee resumes are kept in a central storage area, and an Excel spreadsheet is used to track the status of applicants. Riordan manufacturing has outsourced workers compensation to a third-party provider which keeps its own records. The current HR system that Riordan manufacturing maintains lacks a central employee database. Each individual manager keeps the files of the employees that are under his or her direct supervision. These managers, in addition to their duties, also have the added responsibilities of tracking FMLA absences and employee requests that fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The compensation manager keeps an Excel spreadsheet

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that tabulates the results of job analyses, salary surveys and individual compensation decisions. Employee relations specialists track information about complaints, grievances, harassment complaints and others, in locked files in their offices. This is evidence that the company maintains a disparate HR system which is not taking any advantage of the current IT tools and systems that would make their operations much more effective, efficient and save the company money. In closing, the human resource system within Riordan Manufacturing has much room for improvement when it comes to the human resources department. Information gathering techniques will also help create better employees that we will use to hire the most elite employees for our company. The key factors that were mention within this paper (which are the leadership, talents, high performance corporate culture, and strategic culture) will help us, the Riordan Company understand and evaluate the front office on how to improve by in house as well as outsource when it comes to the hiring process and help make the company such a huge success within the economy.

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References Murthy, N. (1946). Famous inspirational quotes. Retrieved from http://quotesmotivational-inspirational.blogspot.com/2007/01/quotes-human-resource-quotenarayana.html

The main strategic hr critical success factors. (2008). Retrieved from http://hrmadvice.com/hrmadvice/hr-strategy/the-main-strategic-hr-criticalsuccess-factors.html?&lang=en_us&output=json&sessionid=856b63edb093cf273bc0058855958f38

Valacich. (2009). Essentials of systems analysis and design.