Trouble with internships | Human Resource Management homework help

Week 6 Case Study: Trouble with Internships

In recent years, internships have become more popular among college students. Students realize that simply having a degree is not enough to get a job after graduating – work experience also matters. Internships are forms of temporary employment that respond to work demands in the short term. They are also a way for college students to earn credit towards their degree and work experience before they graduate. Internships are often unpaid, but many companies use them as a recruiting tool for new hires.

With internships growing in popularity, many companies offer pay to their interns in either the form of a low hourly wage or a small stipend. More often than not, the pay that companies offer their interns is not enough to live off and does not correspond to the amount of work the interns are expected to complete.

In 2013 a federal district court judge in New York ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures compensate two unpaid interns who worked on the 2010 movie Black Swan. The plaintiffs claimed that they were doing work that benefited the studio and “did not foster an educational environment” (Greenhouse). Since this ruling there have been two more cases brought to New York’s federal court in which interns are demanding compensation. The first was brought against publishing company Conde Nast for work an intern did for the magazine W. She worked three days a week for ten hours per day. She never received proper training from an employee (she was trained by a fellow intern) and did not gain any educational benefit. At the time, interns at Conde Nast received $550 per semester (less than $1 per hour), but two months after the company was served with a lawsuit they decided to stop paying interns altogether.

In some way, interns can benefit from unpaid internships by receiving college credit, but now many colleges and universities have stopped that practice. For example, no Ivy League institutions allow internships to be applied towards a student’s academic credits.

The future of internships is difficult to predict, but it is possible companies will have no choice but to begin paying interns for their work or to eliminate internships entirely.

Optional Further Reading

Course discussions will take place in your blackboard learning environment. Once you have reviewed the questions below, close this browser tab to return to your blackboard course and click the Discussion links located at the bottom of this week’s content to participate.

Question #1

With the case study in mind, determine the primary manner in which you, as a human resource manager, would formulate an appropriate and non-exploitative experience for interns at your company. Address issues like compensation, working hours, job duties, and training.

Question #1B

From the e-Activity, compare and contrast the approaches that the researched companies take towards training and compensating their interns. Perform a critical analysis to determine which company’s approach you believe is most fair and which company’s approach you believe is most effective. Justify your response.

Week 7 Case Study: Commitment to Diversity

Walgreens Store

In 2002 Walgreens launched a plan to open two distribution centers: one in Connecticut and one in South Carolina. They also announced both would be staffed by a large number of people with disabilities. For example, one of the managers of the South Carolina center has cerebral palsy and struggled to find work anywhere after college. The original plan was to have one third of the centers staffed by employees with a disability but now 40 percent of the South Carolina center and 50 percent of the Connecticut center employees have a disability. According to the senior vice president of Supple Chain and Logistics, the centers that employ people with disabilities are the most cost effective in the entire company, and Walgreens plans to implement the same program in 8,300 stores across the country.

In order to ensure that diversity is a focus in every Walgreens store, the company has appointed a chief diversity officer, Steve Pemberton. Steve Pemberton is responsible for “ensuring that Walgreens demonstrates cultural and workforce diversity, and will take the lead on directing activities to help serve diverse markets and populations, including customers in medically underserved areas, food deserts and urban areas” (Johnsen).

Walgreens announced in 2009 that they would donate $10,000 a year to each of the country’s 111 accredited pharmacy colleges to help increase the diversity among students. In doing this, Walgreens has ensured not only that there will be a more diverse workforce in pharmacies, but also that their own pharmacies will be staffed by a more diverse group.

Optional Further Reading

Course discussions will take place in your blackboard learning environment. Once you have reviewed the questions below, close this browser tab to return to your blackboard course and click the Discussion links located at the bottom of this week’s content to participate.

Question #1

Imagine you are part of the human resource management team responsible for recruiting, training, and overseeing one of the Walgreens stores described in the case study. Predict three (3) challenges that you might face when managing the integration of a workforce made up of 40-50 percent disabled individuals. Propose the steps that you would take to address each of these challenges.

Questions #1B

From the e-Activity, briefly describe the business you researched. Apply the measures that Walgreens has taken to ensure a diverse workforce to this business. Determine whether or not the practices employed by Walgreens would be successful if enacted at the other business. Provide a rationale for your response.

Week 8 Case Study: Amazon’s Seasonal Employees

Many retail organizations face a boom in business around the holiday season. To compensate for this increase in traffic, many organizations hire seasonal workers during their busiest periods. Amazon.com is one such company that hires temporary employees to meet the demands of holiday orders. Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company and hires thousands of seasonal workers every year.

Amazon pays their seasonal workers 94 percent of the starting wages of full-time fulfillment center employees, and seasonal employees are eligible for health benefits for the time duration of their employment.

In 2012, Amazon converted thousands of their seasonal employees to full-time staff. And in 2013 Amazon announced a plan to hire 70,000 full-time seasonal workers at order fulfillment centers around the country, 40 percent more than they had hired in 2012. Therefore, it is likely even more seasonal employees will find themselves with a full-time position with the company.

Further Resources:

Course discussions will take place in your blackboard learning environment. Once you have reviewed the questions below, close this browser tab to return to your blackboard course and click the Discussion links located at the bottom of this week’s content to participate.

Question #1

From the case study, critique Amazon’s compensation packages for seasonal employees using the primary objectives of strategic compensation programs. Determine whether or not Amazon successfully meets each of these objectives. If you find they do not, suggest basic methods by which Amazon could enhance their compensations packages to meet those objectives.

Question #1B

Predict the most serious performance appraisal complications that might arise for seasonal workers like those discussed in the case study. Recommend key strategies that you would use in order to address these complications as an HR manager.

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