,HRM3701 Assignment 2 Semester 1 2025 - DUE 27
March 2025 ;100 % TRUSTED workings, Expert
Solved, Explanations and Solutions.
MULTIPLE CHOICE,ASSURED EXCELLENCE
Employee layoffs at Hope Regional Medical Centre Hope
Regional Medical Centre is a medium-sized, 400-bed hospital in
Johannesburg. It was established in 1908 by a group of doctors.
The facility has grown gradually over the years and is now the
third largest medical facility in the city. It is entirely nonunion
and has never experienced an employee layoff since its
inception. Robert Perry has been the CEO of the Hope Regional
Medical Centre for 11 years. Eight years ago, he hired Sharon
Dlamini as director of human resources. Dlamini has an MA in
Human Resource Management and has been instrumental in
formalising the institution's human resources’ policies and
procedures. Occupancy rates in Hope Regional Medical Centre
ranged between 76 and 82 percent from 1990 to 2002.
However, since then, occupancy has fallen to 57 percent. This
decline has been experienced throughout the industry and is
the result of changing reimbursement policies, emphasis on
outpatient services, increasing competition, and the financial
meltdown of . The declining occupancy rate has affected this
hospital's revenues to such an extent that it ran a deficit for the
first time last year. The only response to these changes thus far
has been a tightening of requirements for equipment or supply
,purchases. At the most recent quarterly meeting of the Board
of Directors, Perry presented the rather bleak financial picture.
The projected deficit for the coming year was R3,865,000,
Unless some additional revenue sources were identified or
some additional savings were found. The Board's
recommendation, based on the immediate crisis and the need
to generate short- term savings, was to lay off employees. They
recommended that Perry consider laying off up to 10 percent of
the hospital's employees with an emphasis on those in
“nonessential” areas. Perry responded that the centre’s
employees had never been laid off in the history of the
institution. Moreover, he viewed the employees as “family” and
would have great difficulty implementing such a layoff.
Nevertheless, since he had no realistic short-term alternative
for closing the “revenue gap”, Perry reluctantly agreed to
implement a layoff policy that would be as fair as possible to all
employees, provide a guarantee agreement requirement for
those laid off, and find additional revenue sources so that
layouts would be unnecessary in the future. Perry then called
Sharon Dlamini into his office the next morning, shared his
concerns, and asked her to prepare both a short-term plan to
save R 3,000,000 over the next year through staff layoffs, as well
as a long-term plan to avoid layoffs in the future. Dlamini’s
concerns were that the layoffs themselves might be costly in
terms of lost investment in some of the laid off employees,
, higher turnover costs, lost efficiency, potential lawsuits, and
lower morale. She was concerned that the criteria for the
layoffs not only be equitable but also appear to be equitable to
the employees. She also wanted to make sure that those being
laid off received “adequate” notice so that they could make
alternative plans or so the hospital could assist them with
finding alternative employment. Since the hospital had no
previous experience with employee layoffs and no union
contract constraints, her feeling was that both seniority and job
performance should be considered in determining who would
be laid off. Dlamini knew the hospital's performance appraisal
system was inadequate and needed to be revamped. While this
task was high on her “to do” list, she also knew she had to
move ahead with her recommendations on layoffs immediately.
The present performance appraisal system is a traditional
checklist rating scale with a summary rating since there is no
forced distribution, the average ratings of employees in
different departments vary widely. Table 1 shows the summary
ratings of employees in each department. Most supervisors
across all departments rate many of their subordinates either
“satisfactory” or “outstanding”. Dlamini has done a quick review
of those employees whose overall ratings were “unsatisfactory”
or “questionable”. Most are employees with less than three
years of seniority, whereas the “satisfactory” employees have
worked in an average of seven years for Hope Regional Medical
March 2025 ;100 % TRUSTED workings, Expert
Solved, Explanations and Solutions.
MULTIPLE CHOICE,ASSURED EXCELLENCE
Employee layoffs at Hope Regional Medical Centre Hope
Regional Medical Centre is a medium-sized, 400-bed hospital in
Johannesburg. It was established in 1908 by a group of doctors.
The facility has grown gradually over the years and is now the
third largest medical facility in the city. It is entirely nonunion
and has never experienced an employee layoff since its
inception. Robert Perry has been the CEO of the Hope Regional
Medical Centre for 11 years. Eight years ago, he hired Sharon
Dlamini as director of human resources. Dlamini has an MA in
Human Resource Management and has been instrumental in
formalising the institution's human resources’ policies and
procedures. Occupancy rates in Hope Regional Medical Centre
ranged between 76 and 82 percent from 1990 to 2002.
However, since then, occupancy has fallen to 57 percent. This
decline has been experienced throughout the industry and is
the result of changing reimbursement policies, emphasis on
outpatient services, increasing competition, and the financial
meltdown of . The declining occupancy rate has affected this
hospital's revenues to such an extent that it ran a deficit for the
first time last year. The only response to these changes thus far
has been a tightening of requirements for equipment or supply
,purchases. At the most recent quarterly meeting of the Board
of Directors, Perry presented the rather bleak financial picture.
The projected deficit for the coming year was R3,865,000,
Unless some additional revenue sources were identified or
some additional savings were found. The Board's
recommendation, based on the immediate crisis and the need
to generate short- term savings, was to lay off employees. They
recommended that Perry consider laying off up to 10 percent of
the hospital's employees with an emphasis on those in
“nonessential” areas. Perry responded that the centre’s
employees had never been laid off in the history of the
institution. Moreover, he viewed the employees as “family” and
would have great difficulty implementing such a layoff.
Nevertheless, since he had no realistic short-term alternative
for closing the “revenue gap”, Perry reluctantly agreed to
implement a layoff policy that would be as fair as possible to all
employees, provide a guarantee agreement requirement for
those laid off, and find additional revenue sources so that
layouts would be unnecessary in the future. Perry then called
Sharon Dlamini into his office the next morning, shared his
concerns, and asked her to prepare both a short-term plan to
save R 3,000,000 over the next year through staff layoffs, as well
as a long-term plan to avoid layoffs in the future. Dlamini’s
concerns were that the layoffs themselves might be costly in
terms of lost investment in some of the laid off employees,
, higher turnover costs, lost efficiency, potential lawsuits, and
lower morale. She was concerned that the criteria for the
layoffs not only be equitable but also appear to be equitable to
the employees. She also wanted to make sure that those being
laid off received “adequate” notice so that they could make
alternative plans or so the hospital could assist them with
finding alternative employment. Since the hospital had no
previous experience with employee layoffs and no union
contract constraints, her feeling was that both seniority and job
performance should be considered in determining who would
be laid off. Dlamini knew the hospital's performance appraisal
system was inadequate and needed to be revamped. While this
task was high on her “to do” list, she also knew she had to
move ahead with her recommendations on layoffs immediately.
The present performance appraisal system is a traditional
checklist rating scale with a summary rating since there is no
forced distribution, the average ratings of employees in
different departments vary widely. Table 1 shows the summary
ratings of employees in each department. Most supervisors
across all departments rate many of their subordinates either
“satisfactory” or “outstanding”. Dlamini has done a quick review
of those employees whose overall ratings were “unsatisfactory”
or “questionable”. Most are employees with less than three
years of seniority, whereas the “satisfactory” employees have
worked in an average of seven years for Hope Regional Medical
