Scenario ASSIGNMENT QUESTION W. E. Ltd is a large electronics company, which manufactures internal circuitry for a range of digital devices. The company is based in the UK, where it currently has a facility for research, design and development of its products. This facility employs 170 staff, mainly technical experts. The company has also outsourced its main production to Spain, where it has a manufacturing plant employing 800 workers, most of them being semi-skilled process workers. The company also has a small facility in Germany which develops more sophisticated software for use in more advanced domestic appliances. This facility employs 35 highly skilled IT experts. The company has grown rapidly in the last five years from just one factory in the UK, employing 250 staff of all technical abilities to its current size of more than 1,000 staff in multiple countries. The variety of work coming through the company’s order books is wide ranging and there is a constant need to adapt to new technology and ensure that staff are kept up to speed with the latest developments in design and manufacturing processes. As a result of the rapid expansion in recent years, the CEO feels that the company is losing its ability to maintain high standards of individual performance amongst its workers and high standards of collective performance as a company. It is vital that the company maintains its tradition of high quality production in order to maintain its reputation in the wider, international market in which it is now operating. As the Human Resources Manager, you have been asked by the CEO to prepare a report for the Board of Directors. The CEO has asked you to outline a strategic plan for developing Human Resource within the company in order that it can maintain its competitive position. He has also requested an assessment of how this strategy can be implemented across the company’s various international locations, examining all the issues that might arise with such a geographically and culturally diverse workforce. He is keen to understand how best to tackle the long-term issue of ongoing Human Resource Development, and whether there will be a need to establish a stand-alone Human Resource Development department within the company. He has also asked you to examine whether there is an ‘off-the-shelf’ system that can be introduced to the company which will enable a set-quality standard to be applied across the business in terms of Human Resource Development (Please note: W. E. Ltd is not a real company. This fictitious company has been created for the purposes of this assignment.) Tasks Write a report for the Board of Directors.
In this report you should cover the following: 1. Identify and explain how the company can adopt a more strategic approach to Human Resource Development using the HRD Cycle, ensuring you demonstrate how the HRD Cycle could be applied to the company in this scenario. (30 marks) 2. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the company using an off-the-shelf strategic HRD solution such as the Investors in People standard, and evaluate any problems that might arise during implementation. (30 marks) 3. Identify, analyse and evaluate the design options available for managing the company’s Human Resource Development function. (30 Marks) 4. The structure of the report should be as follows; summary, introduction, body (research, analysis of findings), conclusion, recommendations, references and appendices. (10 marks) Assessment criteria: •Knowledge and understanding of the key theories of adult learning, the methods of analysing and identifying training and development needs, and the variety of both formal and informal human resource development interventions available 
 •Writing a structured, logical report. 
 •Ability to identify, analyse and evaluate the issues concerning all 
sections of the workforce in the scenario. 
 •Applying appropriate theory to this case-study to demonstrate practical 
solutions to the problems. 
 •Clarity of expression (grammar, spelling, punctuation, precision).