Managers should be able to proactively identify key challenges around staffing, performance management, and compensation in order to construct strategies and plans for addressing these challenges. This starts with what I call analyzing your “HR landscape.” In fact, in the capstone project for the HRM specialization, you will be asked to undertake this kind of assessment as a foundation for developing specific practices for effectively managing people. So let’s gain some practice doing some of this in this assignment.

For this assessment, you will need to focus on a specific organization. This can be the organization you work for, or it can be an organization for which you can find information through media reports, online searches, or personal contacts. Depending on the level of your information, you can focus on the organization as a whole or on a specific part of the organization (including your work group if you want). Whatever you are focusing on will be called the “unit” for the remainder of this project.

Your submission will contain eight things (this might sound like a lot, but the project is broken down into very focused steps):

1. A description of the scope of the unit you are focusing on.
2. A description of the mission or key responsibilities of this unit.
3. A description of one important set of employees in this unit.
4. An analysis of the main motivators for this important set of employees.
5. An identification of the key HR priorities for managing this important set of employees.
6. An identification and justification of the type of HR strategy that would be most effective for managing these employees.
7. An identification and justification of the types of managerial styles that would be best suited for managing these employees.
8. An analysis of the internal and external influences that shape the strategies that you recommend in questions 6 and 7.