Domonique arrived at the office extra early, like every day since she started three weeks ago. It seemed Sweet Styles Clothing Inc. was very particular about punctuality. It was quite a rush this Monday morning to get her 3 year old son to the daycare and park three blocks away and walk in the blasting wind and rain. She was the new HR Manager and was proud of that! She had worked so hard over the years and this new role and title was a good career move. Well, at least she had thought so at first. Dominique had two interviews as part of the selection process and she thought those went well so she was hopeful to get the job. She was thrilled when the phone call with the offer came in. She did negotiate a bit more money on the salary to bring her to $75,000 per year which was not exactly where she wanted to be in the pay range but it was alright. There had not been tests or background checks as part of the process, but Domonique knew she was well qualified. She had received her MBA two years ago and had been working in Human Resources in Employee Relations for six years already, as an HR Assistant, and then as HR Team Lead. She went to the washroom which was out in the hallway beside the elevators to first to fix her hair and makeup and was surprised to see that the bathroom garbage was still there and paper towels that had missed the garbage were on the floor. She would have to ask about that today. She could add to her list of questions that she had started for her new boss, Daniel. She had not seen him much since starting her new job. She had just been given a username and password so she could log in to her computer and then there were some forms to fill out and a video to watch introducing her to the company. The video had an old look and feel and Domonique found it quite boring. Just then, the bathroom door swung open and in walked Cathleen. "Oh, you scared me!" Domonique said and Cathleen laughed. "Sorry about that." Cathleen said. "Wow, this is a bit of a mess." "Right, I was going to ask about that. Do cleaners come the take care of things each day or how does that work?" Domonique asked carefully. "No, we never know when they are coming. It is an outside company we have contracted with and sometimes they are not exactly what we need." Cathleen explained. Domonique went back into the office and went to add to her list of questions for her boss. Soon there were voices at the reception desk that did not seem very happy. Domonique turned down her radio to listen. There seemed to be a problem with someone getting paid, or not getting paid correctly. 

Domonique had not actually seen her first pay stub either as she did not know how to get it and no paper one arrived in her mail slot. It must be electronic but she did not know how to access it. She decided to go out to the reception area to see if she could help Anya at the front desk. Anya, the receptionist, said she did not know how to find out information about pay or salaries and that the upset employee would have to come back later. Anya offered to take their name and phone number and have someone get back to them. Even though Anya had been there for over a year now it was so difficult to access anything and she preferred to let things go to voicemail and forward the message to another Human Resources staff member in the office. There were 22 people on the HR Team at Sweet Styles in downtown Vancouver. Many of the hiring staff were out at retail locations within Vancouver and all over BC as well. Domonique asked Anya her own pay related question about how to get her pay stub. Anya laughed and asked if she had her username and password. "Is it the same as my computer log in username and password?" Domonique asked Anya. "No, we d0 not have single sign on here." Anya informed her. "You will have to put in a ticket with IT to get it." Putting in the ticket took longer than Domonique would have expected and then she finally got the right information and had to go back and see Anya again. This was getting embarrassing. Anya followed Domonique back to her office and helped her get to the employee self service and find her paystub. Domonique had gotten paid on Friday but it was less than she thought it would be and did she did not know why. 

Daniel had been off on Friday so she had nobody to ask and had no idea how to check even though she was the new Human Resources Manager. She had so much to learn! The paystub was pretty basic and Domonique had trouble seeing it, so she looked for a print button and finally found that to send the paystub to the printer. She had no printer herself in her office as they were saving energy so there was one printer for the office down the hallway. When she got to the printer there was no paper there. Oh right, I have to put in my name and ID to get my print jobs. At least this way the printing should not be seen or picked up by someone else. One good thing, she almost rolled her eyes. Domonique was disappointed to see that even though Sweet Styles has benefits, they did not exactly provide them. Half of the Health Benefits, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance was a 50/50 cost share. That was not clear earlier on she realized. And with her young son, the premiums were at the family rates rather than single which made them all quite significant. Then she saw that she had lost pay for the day she took her son for his immunization to which he reacted to. She did not realize that was going to be unpaid at this point. There was an RRSP match plan but that maxed out at an employer amount of $2000 per year. It would have been better to have a pension plan like she had before at her previous job. This new job seemed like a promotion but it will not be quite what she thought. Domonique opened her calendar to get an idea of how booked her week was. Then she saw she had a note for Thursday that she had volunteered for Habitat for Humanity for Thursday and Friday. She had actually committed to that while she was at her last job and many of the staff there were going to go together representing the company. She had just about forgot about it. Another thing to add to my list, she thought. Daniel, the Director of HR, was now in his office so Domonique decided to gather her questions in her notebook and go ask him. He had not been that helpful yet but he just started three months ago himself. It seemed like a lot of people were new. "Good morning Daniel!", Domonique said as she stood in the doorway to his office. "D0 you have time for a few questions this morning?" "Actually no, I am heading out to a breakfast meeting right away. Try to schedule something with Anya." Daniel got up from his desk and put his suit jacket on that was hanging on the back of his chair. Then she remembered that she had somewhat of an important question regarding her time this week. "Daniel, I had previously committed to volunteering for Habitat for Humanity this Thursday and Friday, is that alright to still volunteer?" "Ok sure, I will put down Leave without Pay for those days for you. See you later." And Daniel was gone. Domonique watched her boss walk away down the hall. Darn, she thought. She decided to ask Anya a few more questions. "When can I meet with Daniel?", Domonique asked Anya. Anya looked at the calendar page and was not sure.  It looks like his schedule is pretty blocked off Anya explained. He has not been around much since he started and rumor has it that he is the Vice President's nephew. "We are not even sure he has any HR experience!", Anya laughed. This did not seem like a laughing matter to Domonique. She was really beginning to question this move. She wished there was some sort of orientation but I guess that only happens every six weeks so she had three weeks to go. She decided she had to get to work on her own and move forward on something fitting. She had a pile of Health and Safety reports in her mail box and was not sure why those came to her. Was that part of her new job? She decided to get a few files from the file room and start looking at the incidents. 

Domonique had pulled out the file for a Pally Sahid, but when she opened the file, she saw information about a Cindy Samson first. She double checked the name on the file and then continued to look through the file and found an old performance review page for Pally that said he was meeting expectations, but was not promotable. She turned the form over to read more on the back but it was blank. It was from three years ago and she did not see anything recent. Perhaps the performance reviews were now electronic. The rest of the file did have information about Pally so it was just that one page that belonged in Cindy's employee's file. She took that page and refiled it in the correct file and then decided to ask Anya about the filing error. "Oh, we had some temp agency send someone over to help with the filing when we got so behind six months ago. They did not do a good job! We think we are missing half the papers too. Maybe the temp shredded them!" Anya laughed again. Domonique was starting to feel a bit sick. "Any chance you have a copy of the Strategic Plan I could go over? And perhaps an organization chart?" "That was in progress with Simon, the HR Training and Development Manager, leading that last year but then he got a better offer from Cool Couture Company instead and left us high and dry!" Anya explained, and then added, "I think his position is finally posted now as we had a hiring freeze for a while." "Here is the old strategic plan from 2015. That is all we have because we d0 not know where all the documentation went from our planning sessions from last year when Simon left. No recent organization chart either." Domonique took the copy of the old strategic plan and thanked Anya. Back at her desk she thought she would review the company website again for more information. She had not bookmarked the website yet and there was no easy access so she had to Google it. A few things came up including a news story on the possible use of forced labour in Cambodia for clothing manufacturing for clothes that might be sold at Sweet Styles Inc. among other companies. "Oh no!", Domonique said out loud. She sunk lower in her chair and grabbed her cell phone to call her husband. "I might have made a mistake taking this job!" Domonique said to her husband Carl. This was all getting to be too much! "I might have to call my old boss and ask for my job back!" 

 

Questions 1. List the Top Six HR Issues that are part of this situation at Sweet Styled Inc.

2. Explain the HR Strategies to deal with these problems.