Management Skills 1- Assessment 2
CASE STUDY:
‘GOOD HEALTH’- A HEALTH, LEISURE AND FITNESS CLUB.
Introduction
Students will be assessed via a case study based project. You will assume the role of a Business Sandwich Placement student who has been employed by an organisation called ‘Good Health’ to recruit and select staff for its new ‘flagship’ Health, Leisure and Fitness club in the UK. This Private Club will be the first of six to open in a 12 month period.
Aim
The purpose of this assignment is to develop knowledge and understanding of practical recruitment selection and induction issues, whilst considering the wider business context within a case study.
Learning outcomes.
On successful completion of this assessment you will be able to:
Understand the systematic methods for recruiting, selecting and retaining staff.
Understand the systematic methods for training/learning/development needs of both individuals and groups
Assessment Criteria
You will produce a business report based on the case study and the analysis you carry out. The instructions that follow outline the criteria by which your coursework will be assessed.
Guidelines.
The key issue will be to ensure you put together a well presented set of materials which enable the organisation to recruit, select and induct sufficient numbers of new workers within appropriate time scales, thus enabling the organisation to open its new club on schedule.
You must produce a business style report with relevant sections and sub sections, with appropriate bibliography and references.
You need to aim for a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding appendices- but see guidelines). Any appendices must be relevant to the main text and referred to where appropriate.
You must identify ALL your sources of information and reference your material using the Harvard Referencing System. A full bibliography and references section is needed at the end of your report – you will lose marks if you do not reference properly.
Possible sources of information:
1* Course textbooks
2* Lectures & tutorials
3* Academic & Practitioner Journals
4* The internet
5* National newspapers
6* Interviews e.g. with employees, managers, customers
7* Information gained from other Health Clubs.
Please remember !
Do not hesitate to contact your tutor if you have any concerns, but do not leave it until the last moment!
Always keep a copy of your work.
Don’t leave your preparation for this assignment until the last minute – it requires too much research and you will not receive an extension for difficulties you experience in receiving information from companies.
Complete the self assessment template attached and submit it with the assignment.
Please remember the word count is 2,000 words and University Policy allows students to be plus 10 % or minus 10 % either side of the word count specified.
ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
CASE STUDY- ‘GOOD HEALTH’.
You are the newly appointed Business Sandwich Placement student for a company called ‘Good Health’.
You will be recruiting and developing staff for the new Canary Wharf Club which opens in June 2015. This modern health, leisure and fitness centre will be the first of six to open in a 12 month period. Therefore the organisation is looking to develop some standard materials including job descriptions, person specifications, interview questions, recruitment techniques and induction plans.
This organisation is part of a successful retail company in the UK which has a great reputation for quality goods and services which now wishes to diversify its offerings to the UK marketplace. ‘Good Health’ intends to compete with ‘Fitness First’, ‘Nuffield Health’ and ‘David Lloyd Centres’ amongst others and firmly believes it can eventually overtake them in the market-place. Eventually the parent company could install these clubs in newly built retail stores to provide a complete customer service.
It is your company’s strategy to entice both customers (and staff) away from other health, leisure and fitness clubs and much attention has been paid to the management factors which have contributed to the success of these operations.
You have been asked to develop recruitment, selection and induction processes which will enable ‘Good Health’ to attract and retain quality staff.
From research on competitors’ employment practices you have gained the following views:-
1. Staff are well trained and are encouraged to focus on being professional and helping customers relax.
2. Staff are encouraged to use their initiative and ‘discretionary behaviour’ is encouraged and recognised.
3. Some competitors have stated ‘corporate values’ such as honesty, integrity and fairness underpinning relations with both staff and customers.
4. Staff training and development is seen by competitors as being a central element in the corporate strategy. There was an emphasis on recruiting staff with the right attitude who were then likely to be engaged with the values of the organisation.
5. Standards of operations and management were seen to be high at competitors with cleanliness and hygiene given particular attention. Staff presentation was also recognised to be important with fashionable ‘corporate wear’ seen to be part of the culture of the organisation. Applicants who failed to satisfy presentational ‘standards’ would not be recruited.
YOUR BRIEF.
It is ‘Good Health’s intention to open up their first ever UK centre in June 2015. This ‘flagship’ centre will employ up to 40 staff, some of whom may have some previous experience of working in the leisure sector and will be employed on a range of contracts including freelance, part-time, ‘fixed term’ and permanent . It has even been suggested that to fit the theme of the centres, staff are referred to as co-workers by management to emphasise teamwork, cooperation and partnership in working (like the parent retail company).
It is your job to develop suitable materials to help support the recruitment, selection and induction of staff initially to the first centre. These processes will form the basis of a Managers’ Employment Handbook or Guide.
You have been asked to initially work on materials relevant to Receptionist/Customer Service staff who will be sat at a reception which staff and customers will need to pass through on arrival at the centre. These reception based staff will need to multi task managing phone calls, e-mails and counter enquiries from customers and potential customers. They would be responsible for giving advice on classes available, class schedules, opening times, membership fees as well as taking bookings and payments plus issuing locker keys and dealing with general enquiries. These staff would need to work shift patterns seven days per week- 6.30 am- to 22.00 pm 9no one to work more than a 7 hour shift) and will need a good understanding of the centre’s operations as well as an ability to develop good working relationship with other staff such as fitness trainers, class instructors, cleaning and catering staff etc.
The corporate HR Director would therefore like to see a provisional set of recruitment, selection and induction materials which you need to present to him/her in a business report.
The word total for each section below is simply a guide for you when completing this work.
Therefore please produce the following:-
1) A Job Description.
You will need to provide a simple job description for the Reception/Customer Service Advisor
300 words maximum.
2) A Person Specification.
You will need to develop a person specification from the job description for the above role.
300 words maximum.
Both 1 and 2 can be completed by using guidelines either available in lecture/tutorial materials or textbooks. You might find that such materials are also available on competitor company websites.
3) Interview Questions and Ideal Answers.
The organisation wants to standardise the types of questions and tasks used to recruit and select staff for the organisation.
You need to devise five significant questions for the Receptionist/Customer Service Advisor. These questions must be appropriate given the levels of qualification and experience you are seeking.
You will need to then give a brief justification for your choice of question i.e. its relevance to the background information/person specification you have been given in the brief.
Finally, you will need to state underneath each question what exactly you are looking for in each answer.
600 words maximum.
4) Alternative/additional Selection Methods for the Receptionist/Customer Service Advisor.
As well as traditional interviews the organisation also wishes to use further selection processes for those candidates who have successfully ‘passed’ their interview questions. This means some practical activities need to be organised for candidates to demonstrate their competence and skills to carry out the role. You need to devise some other recruitment exercises for this role. After each exercise, please state what exactly you are looking for in each response from each candidate.
400 words maximum.
5) Induction Plan
Each new member of staff will attend a three hour induction training session. Please develop a set of topics that will need to be covered during the session. Please list the topics, and underneath each topic please give an indication of what will be discussed and what information will be given to new starters.
400 words maximum
6) Bibliography.
Remember you need to support any ideas, plans or strategies with evidence of either research or reading.
Students should aim for around five or six sources including textbooks and website but please be welcome to include further materials if relevant.
You will be expected to have read text books as well as researched business organisations as part of this assignment.
Failure to provide references may result in you failing this assessment.
And Finally-
It is permissible to make assumptions by clearly adding to the case details, provided the circumstances of the case are not changed.
Please don’t leave your preparation of this assignment until the last moment.
Don’t forget to check out the competition by visiting their web pages or even visiting one of their centres !
Please do not fill your appendix with materials downloaded from competitors unless they add value to your work. Please obtain materials, but keep them for your private use. You must however reference any materials acquired from business organisations that you have researched. Failure to acknowledge these materials is plagiarism.
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