COURSE PROJECT HRM 1283 – Fall 2014 You have recently been hired as an HR Consultant in the new HR Department of Outrage Video Games. Outrage is a 5 year old, upstart company, run by two very bright young men - Will Bates – President, and his best friend Steve Cobbs, Vice President. This is a very exciting change for you because Outrage, which literally started in the basement of Will’s mother’s house, controls a number of the top video games in the North America, including the number 1 hit, Millennium Massacre. The growth of this company has been phenomenal, and you are looking forward to working with some young leaders, especially in such a fun industry. You knew this was going to be a different place to work because your hiring interview with Will and Steve was a little unusual. You expected to have to wow them with your HR expertise, but in fact, were asked very little about HR. Rather, the discussion quickly turned to the video game business, and given that you love video games, a very animated conversation ensued. It surprised you to learn that Will and Steve started off as computer geeks, turned into programmers, and eventually ended up running a company, without having to take any management courses. It seemed normal for Will and Steve to interview you because you will be supporting the management team, but apparently they feel so strongly about the people that work there, they have done all of the hiring of staff - usually referrals from existing employees. The HR department that you will be joining is made up of 4 people including yourself. The other 3 people will report to you. They do mostly compensation and benefits work related to transactions like issuing salary cheques, and processing benefits applications and changes. When you are introduced to the group, they seem a bit harried and don’t have a lot of time to talk. Everywhere there are signs asking “Is Lorna Dead?…Bring Back Lorna”. You think that this is a bit of a joke, but Will tells you that Lorna used to work in the section, but when she left to have a baby, they really haven’t had time to hire anyone else. Besides, with overtime 3 nights a week, the work is getting done just fine. Will and Steve told you that they have some great ideas regarding some additional directions that they would like the company to take, but are a little reluctant to pursue expansion because they have a feeling that there may be some human resource problems that need addressing before the company moves ahead. While they really couldn’t tell you what they are, they would really like to meet with you tomorrow to hear your ideas. You know that you cannot meet with Will and Steve without doing some fact finding, and after explaining this carefully, the bosses decide to give you 2 weeks to do some research. During the two week period you obtained the following information: There are currently 95 employees at Outrage, 40 programmers (junior and senior), 15 in CD reproduction,.

1. COURSE PROJECT
HRM 1283 – Fall 2014
You have recently been hired as an HR Consultant in the new
HR Department of Outrage Video Games. Outrage is a 5 year
old, upstart company, run by two very bright young men - Will
Bates – President, and his best friend Steve Cobbs, Vice
President. This is a very exciting change for you because
Outrage, which literally started in the basement of Will’s
mother’s house, controls a number of the top video games in the
North America, including the number 1 hit, Millennium
Massacre. The growth of this company has been phenomenal,
and you are looking forward to working with some young
leaders, especially in such a fun industry.
You knew this was going to be a different place to work because
your hiring interview with Will and Steve was a little unusual.
You expected to have to wow them with your HR expertise, but
in fact, were asked very little about HR. Rather, the discussion
quickly turned to the video game business, and given that you
love video games, a very animated conversation ensued. It
surprised you to learn that Will and Steve started off as
computer geeks, turned into programmers, and eventually ended
up running a company, without having to take any management
courses.
It seemed normal for Will and Steve to interview you because
you will be supporting the management team, but apparently
they feel so strongly about the people that work there, they have
done all of the hiring of staff - usually referrals from existing
employees.
The HR department that you will be joining is made up of 4
people including yourself. The other 3 people will report to

2. you. They do mostly compensation and benefits work related to
transactions like issuing salary cheques, and processing benefits
applications and changes. When you are introduced to the
group, they seem a bit harried and don’t have a lot of time to
talk. Everywhere there are signs asking “Is Lorna
Dead?…Bring Back Lorna”. You think that this is a bit of a
joke, but Will tells you that Lorna used to work in the section,
but when she left to have a baby, they really haven’t had time to
hire anyone else. Besides, with overtime 3 nights a week, the
work is getting done just fine.
Will and Steve told you that they have some great ideas
regarding some additional directions that they would like the
company to take, but are a little reluctant to pursue expansion
because they have a feeling that there may be some human
resource problems that need addressing before the company
moves ahead. While they really couldn’t tell you what they are,
they would really like to meet with you tomorrow to hear your
ideas.
You know that you cannot meet with Will and Steve without
doing some fact finding, and after explaining this carefully, the
bosses decide to give you 2 weeks to do some research. During
the two week period you obtained the following information:
There are currently 95 employees at Outrage, 40 programmers
(junior and senior), 15 in CD reproduction, 20 involved in
packing and shipping activities, 10 in sales, and 10 involved in
administrative functions - accounts payable, accounts
receivable, etc.
In management, there are the following personnel: Will Bates
(president), Steve Cobbs (Vice President), Norm Russell
(Accounting Manager), Jack Belkin (Production Manager), Ron
Ballonie (Sales Manager), and 5 project team managers for
programming - David Boscoe, James Carleton, Larry Stevens,

3. Sean Miller and Paul Westlake. The following is the
organization chart:
Norm Russell
Accounting
Manager
Ron Ballonie
Sales
Manager
David Boscoe
Production Team
Manager
James Carleton
Production Team
Manager
Sean Miller
Production Team
Manager
Paul Westlake
Production Team
Manager
Larry Stevens
Production Team
Manager
Jack Belkin
Production
Manager
Will Bates
President
Steve Cobbs
Vice Pres

4. Hiring for the most part has been done by word of mouth -
people who already worked for Outrage recommended other
people. Will and Steve generally accepted these referrals from
existing employees, if they got along well with them during the
interview and thought they would fit in with a young high tech
company. This seemed to work quite well for a length of time,
but now Will and Steve have several concerns and they are not
sure how to handle them. Many of the early Programmers stayed
with the company because they had backgrounds like Will and
Steve and enjoyed the environment. Lately however, Outrage

5. has lost 8 of its 40 programmers - these were a mixture of
senior and junior programmers.
Will is not sure why these people left. Some just gave notice
and left, and some had had a discussion with Will about raises.
There didn’t seem to have been very much dialogue. Will told
you that his compensation formula was to offer employees 10%
more than they made on their previous job, and a yearly
increment of 7% if people came to him and asked for it. He said
that his formula had worked well in the early stages of the
company and no one complained. When you had a look at the
pay information, you found that salaries for programmers were
‘all over the map.’ Some junior programmers were earning as
much as seniors, there was a $25,000/year spread between the
lowest and highest paid programmer and salary could not
necessarily be matched to seniority.
Benefits are handled by a private company that Steve’s cousin
works for. Your understanding is that this arrangement was
made because Will and Steve didn’t know anything about
handling benefits and this was the first option that was
presented to them. Steve’s cousin provided them with a very
comprehensive set of benefits, so they did not get a second
opinion. Everything was fine until recently when comments
were made about the type of benefits being offered.
Will and Steve have expressed major concern about the
programming teams not meeting deadlines on their projects and
this is having a disastrous effect on the timing of a new
product’s readiness for market. Will has made it clear that all
of the project managers started with the company as
programmers and just sort of fell into these jobs. Things have
happened so quickly with the new video game that not much
training has been given to any of the Managers. In interviewing
the Managers, you find that two, whose deadlines are mostly
met, have been so desperate for training that they even took

6. courses externally, without reimbursement from the company.
Courses have included time management, project management
and how to lead.
Coming into the office later in the week, you bump into a young
man by the name of Salim. He seems lost. You quickly find out
that he was hired about 4 weeks ago as a junior programmer,
has just finished school and this is his first full time job. He is
a little frustrated. He tells you that the people are very nice and
he is delighted to be working for this company, but he has spent
a lot of time just trying to find everything from the lunchroom
to office supplies. Everybody is just so busy that he has had
problems getting someone to ‘show him the ropes’. He also
tells you that he asked for a job description and was told that no
one has a job description in the company…a programmer is a
programmer.
He seems so desperate that you stop and show him where things
are, and make sure that his desk is set up. While chatting you
discover that he is a little nervous about his pay because he has
yet to be paid; you call one of your pay people to help him out.
It turns out that it is not unusual for a new employee to wait up
to 6 weeks for their first cheque and that his should be in any
time now. He is so grateful for the assistance that you tell him
if he has any other problems not specifically related to his work
duties, to give you a call.
After your discussion with Salim, you review the HR records,
and also happen to talk to the accounting manager. It is true
that there are no formal job descriptions, but there are outlines,
drafted by Will and Steve, that identify the basic job function
and responsibility of all jobs. These outlines are about ¼ to ½
pages in length.
While you were helping get Salim set up, you noticed that a lot
of the furniture is obviously not ergonomically correct and a lot

7. of the programmers seem to have wrist braces. The equipment
room is a complete nightmare of cable, cords, old keyboards and
computer parts - an accident waiting to happen. In a brief
meeting with the accounting manager, he advises that although
there is no specific budget for new furniture, the company can
certainly afford it. All a manager has to do is ask.
You make a comment to Norm about the equipment room and
ask what the Health and Safety Committee has to say about it.
You learn that even though a committee was set up a couple of
years ago, that some of the members have left the company and
the others haven’t met in a very long time. Also during your
discussion with Norm, he laughingly tells you that the office
grapevine has it that a union has approached several of the
programmers. When you ask him what other managers are
hearing, Norm has no idea, but he does comment that since
people are so well paid in the company, the union is barking up
the wrong tree.
During your second week, Will calls you and asks if you would
sit in on a hiring interview for a programming positions, as Will
and Steve would like you involved in this process from now on.
When you arrive, you learn that the interview is to replace a
junior programmer who left in the last week. When you ask to
review the application, Will and Steve tell you not to worry, the
candidate is a friend of one of the current programmers, and is
bringing the résumé with her. When you asked what questions
they would like you to ask, Will and Steve tell you that they
normally “just wing it…there isn’t a lot to worry about when a
current employee does the referral.”
You attend the interview, only to find that it was practically a
repeat of the one that you went through. There are very few
questions relating to the actual job for which the person is being
interviewed and the discussion quickly switches to video games
and what direction the company is taking at this time. The

8. candidate seemed to get along very well with Will and Steve
and they offer her a job during the interview.
You decide to have some get acquainted interviews with some
of the staff and given that the programming area appears to be
the hot spot in the company, you decide to start with the
production team managers first. Two of the five team managers,
Paul and James, confide that they are very unhappy. They were
“having a blast” as programmers and when Will and Steve asked
them to lead one of the product projects, they were flattered and
wanted to help out any way they could. The quickly found out
that dealing with staff was very difficult and time consuming
and that planning who would do what and by when was a
complex process. Doing all of this, and having something ready
by a deadline, was almost too much for these two people. They
did not have any project management or leadership training, but
when they asked Steve and Will if the company could send them
on training, they were told several times that things were really
very busy. They would have to wait for a few more months.
An interview with a third manager, David, was very strained to
start out with. David appears very intimidated by you and half
way through the interview, he finally breaks down and
confesses that he is having marriage problems right now, is
fighting a cocaine addiction and doesn’t know where to turn.
The company’s wellness program is non-existent and he does
not feel comfortable talking with his family doctor, because the
doctor is very close friends with his parents. He also feels that
because of the doctor’s age and religious background, he may
not be very sensitive about the addiction issue. He also
intimates during the conversation that he is “not the only one at
Outrage who has an addiction problem”.
Given the fact that there is no internal help available at
Outrage, that this person needs help immediately and that it
took a lot for him to even tell you about the addiction, you ask

9. him if he would be willing to see a local physician that you
know from previous HR work. You tell him that this doctor has
dealt with patients with addiction issues and can access other
assistance for him. Dave agrees, you get him an appointment
with the physician before he leaves your office and he thanks
you very much for listening to him and being willing to help
him out. He also wonders if, because of your job function in
the company, whether you will need to tell Will and Steve about
his situation.
Your interviews with the remaining two project managers, Larry
and Sean, go reasonably well. These two are meeting their
deadlines, have taken project management and leadership
courses at night, and they appear to have made the transition
successfully to this type of position. Both are concerned,
however, that they are not being paid the going rate in the
industry for the type of work that they are doing. They both
have had contacts through school, and through the internet and
feel that their wage levels are about 15 - 20% below the
industry rate. They would like to stay with Outrage, but not
with this kind of financial sacrifice. Neither have had a
discussion with Will or Steve because they both know about
Will’s pay formula, and they do not think that their discussions
will be successful. Larry has confided that he is waiting to hear
about the outcome of a recent interview.
Your two weeks are now up and you have a meeting scheduled
with Will and Steve to outline the issues that you have
identified, and to provide an initial plan regarding how to
proceed in dealing with these with these issues.
YOU’RE TASK …
Individually or in groups of up to 4 people, please fully

10. complete the charts found on the next 2 pages. Submit to the
Dropbox no later than November 28, 2016 at 11:00 p.m.
USE WORD OR WORDPERFECT. PLEASE DO NOT USE
Wordpad or Open Office. I am often not able to open these
submissions.
The file name for your submission must be your full last name,
followed by your first name and PR. Do not use commas. e.g.
Verity Donna PR.
If you do your project with someone else, submit it ONCE. It
does not matter who submits it but it must have everyone’s
name on it. In this case, the name of the file should include
everyone’s last name only and PR. e.g. Jones_Smith
_Someoneelse PR.
There is a space on the project for your name. Please fill it in.
When you submit your project, only submit your responses and
not the project outline itself. This keeps the file smaller for
printing.
When doing your project, the issues section has over 50 issues.
In Recruitment, you need eight (8) correct issues for full marks
for this HR area
In Compensation you need eight (8) correct issues for a full
marks for this HR area
In Health and Safety you need eight (8) correct issues for a full
marks for this HR area
In Training and Development, you need six (6) correct issues
for a full marks for this HR area
In Labour Relations, you need three (3) correct issues for a full
marks for this HR area
The “Other” area is treated as a bonus marks area where you
receive 1 mark for each appropriate issue that does not belong

11. in one of the other 5 areas noted above. This will top up your
mark if you are under 40 marks in total for the above 5 sections.
If you already have full marks for the above 5 areas, no marks
will be given in this section.
YOU SHOULD IDENTIFY AS MANY ISSUES AS POSSIBLE
IN EACH OF THE SECTIONS NOTED ABOVE. FOR
EXAMPLE, IF YOU CAN IDENTIFY MORE THAN 8 ISSUES
FOR RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION, SHOW ALL OF THE
ISSUES THAT YOU CAN IDENTIFY.
Do not roll up issues into overall conclusions. While a number
of issues might lead to a certain result, marks are provided for
the individual issues and not the rollup. For example, rather
than saying that interviews are not done well, list the actual
problems that lead you to this conclusion.
Every issue that you identify should have a solution to it.
Again, it is important not to use overall recommendations. Be
specific.
Your project will be marked and returned to you within 7 days
of the due date of the project. This means that you will receive
your marks by Monday December 5, 2016 (unless there are
issues, in which case you will be informed by email). If you
submit your project early, every attempt will be made to return
it to you sooner, but there is no guarantee.
If you choose to work with a partner(s), each of you will receive
the identical grade. You are responsible for your own group
dynamics and I will not become involved. As a result, please
ensure that you align yourselves with others who have the same
goals as you do.
If you decide to break up your group, this must be done well
before the project due date so that members can go on and

12. complete a project by themselves, prior to the due date. This
means that you should establish expectations within your group
right up front, and deal with issues as they arise.
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to send me and email.
PART 1 - 40%
NAME(s):
HR ISSUE
IDENTIFY THE DETAILS IN THE CASE WHICH ARE
PERTINENT TO THIS HR ISSUE. JUST LIST THE FACT
THAT CAUSES YOU SOME CONCERN. DO NOT MAKE
SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO FIX THE PROBLEM.
e.g. under Training and Development – Will and Steve do not
any management training
(expand the chart to accommodate your information)
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
1.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
1.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

13. 1.
LABOUR RELATIONS
1.
OTHER
PART 2 - 50% - 10 for each section
NOW THAT YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED THE ISSUES, IT IS
TIME TO MAKE SOME RECOMMENDATIONS TO WILL
AND STEVE. TAKE EACH OF THE ISSUES THAT YOU
HAVE IDENTIFIED ABOVE AND MAKE SUGGESTION(S)
ON HOW TO FIX IT.
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
1.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
1.

14. HEALTH AND SAFETY
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
LABOUR RELATIONS
1.
OTHER
PART 3 – 10 Marks – WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE
PRIORITY?
What is the one specific thing that you will tell Will and Steve
to do immediately and why?