Sabe Case Study

SABE Case Study

Homework 2

Submitted by : Mohammed Amine Bekkal

Question 1:

        In order for SABE to implement the new commercial strategy presented in November 2002, the human resources department elaborated different forward planning tools.

 After a staff review was conducted to assess the available staff in each department as well as a study of future needs for the new commercial strategy. One main objective was defined which is to reverse the proportion of commercial to financial advisors in each branch.

The operation is planned to be conducted mainly through internal promotions so that no financial advisors will be recruited from outside the company. In order to evaluate the commercial advisors with potential, the HR director decided to use an assessment grid. Each manager had to fill in the assessments in private along a member of the HR development unit. The commercial advisors were then divided into four subgroups (Potential financial advisor, well suited to their position, require training and require re-motivation)

The next step in the process was to conduct a career development interview for each commercial advisor based on his or her subgroup ranking.

Question 2:

the HR director and M Laurent were optimistic about the idea of reversing the proportion of commercial advisors to financial advisors as it would be a good opportunity to practice the recently signed internal promotion agreement. For the HR director it was an opportunity to advance his career prospects and image. As the first step of internal recruitment was conducted privately and since employees suspected the presence of assessment grids, the HR director had to face the employees’ discontent as well as the legal actions overtaken by the CGT and FO unions.

Question 3:

After analysis of the case I noticed that SABE’s HR department took the decision of keeping the assessment grid evaluation process private. This practice was unethical in my opinion and was later perceived negatively by the employees after suspicions have arisen. Eventually the CGT and FO unions undertake legal actions against the company for the non-disclosure of information, yet the action fails due to lack of evidence.

Another critical practice to be noted from the case is the reliance of SABE on temporary workers to fill the gap in the planned HR forecast. This proved to be a costly solution for the company as well as a bad move in terms of strategy.

Question 4:

SABE started using temporary workers in order to reach the targeted number of financial advisors for 2005. Another reason SABE used temporary workers was to avoid external recruitment so as to keep in line with its HR policy. Another drawback of temporary workers is the minimal experience they have and the lack of motivation and commitment toward the company.

Question 5:

The HRM problems Banks had to deal with since 1970 were mainly related to the flexibility of the workforce. SABE’s case problem can be correlated to the flexibility of workforce in general.