Research Topics: CompuLearn Case Study

CompuLearn Case Study

CompuLearn Case Study   CompuLearn is a UK based, private sector provider of teaching and learning programmes to a growing international market. It provides IT based learning packages in business and management. The company works in partnership with UK universities which validate its programmes, so that the students can obtain a recognised, UK based qualification on the successful completion of a programme of study. CompuLearn’s mission is to be the market leader in e-learning delivery of university validated programmes, and to become the foremost learning company in the world.   The employee base of CompuLearn is relatively small, given its market share and influence in the world. Based in Preston, Lancashire, it employs 50 staff and the majority of these works in the Preston Headquarters office. The roles there cover Programme Development, Customer Service, HR, Marketing, Finance, Sales, IT support and Quality Assurance. There is an office in each of the main trading areas –one in Nairobi, one in Mumbai and one in Dubai.   CompuLearn is currently in an extended period of growth and searching for new product and market opportunities. Its main market is in the Middle-East, Asia and Africa. It operates through and with 200 education centres in 30 countries. Its newly identified business strategy is to extent this to 500 education centres in 60 countries within three years. Internationally the rewards are competitive to remain attractive to the IT industry. The HR is to attract and select talent, train, develop, reward and retain these IT experts and other high calibre staff. Unfortunately, there is a high turnover in the IT section in the UK, which HR has not yet been able to address. New staffing the UK often leaves the company within the first month of employment. The reason most frequently given when people leave is ‘new job with better pay’. Training and development is very limited at CompuLearn. The trend for a number of years has been to recruit highly trained IT and other specialist staff rather than provide in-house training and development opportunities. To a limited extent this has been workable; however, in recent times it has become clear that the managers in CompuLearn have very limited management skills (despite their technical expertise). There have been several serious incidents between staff and line managers where arguments have broken out within the office accommodation. This is frequently been sparked by a line manager criticising an employee publically for a mistake made, or an instruction not followed. CompuLearn does not have an appraisal system in place for any employees.   There is a total training budget of £25,000 available to staff, but this has almost exclusively been spent on training for sales staff, who have previously been described as ‘the jewel of this company’ by the Managing Director. (Who originally came from a sales and marketing background himself). Many of the Preston HQ Staff do not have a particularly comfortable relationship with the UK university staff who is responsible for validating courses for CompuLearn. The academic staffs have reported finding CompuLearn staff ‘brash pushy and ill-informed’. In turn, the HQ staffs find academic ‘unrealistic’ and ‘not living in the real world.’   The HR Director has been with the company for ten years. She knows everyone in the company and is efficient in managing the personnel records, giving advice to staff and managers about policies and procedures, but she has no particular expertise in devising long-term plans for the management of people within CompuLearn. She realise that she needs external help and advice. She has approached your Human Resource Consultancy Company to provide advice on an appropriate human resource strategy to support this growth and the changing emphasis of the mission and vision of the company.       Write a report from the consultancy company to the HR Director proposing an overall HR strategy to support the growth of CompuLearn. You should identify which elements of the strategy will be short- term and which will be long-term. In the final part of the report you should make clear recommendation as to how this proposed two-stage strategy can be implemented. You should clearly specify which HR practice needs to be introduced or improved to enable the strategy to be successful. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CompuLearn Case Study

CompuLearn Case Study CompuLearn is a UK based, private sector provider of teaching and learning programmes to a growing international...