HR plan - Hyper Local Delivery space via Drones

Assignment Taken

The assignment taken involves charting out an HR suitable plan for the main business objective to become the market leader in the drone delivery service

Case Understanding

The courier company wishes to foray into the hyper local delivery space, shorten the delivery time via short range drones. This will help them gain a competitive advantage over others and for the same, a business plan needs to be developed which will be the guiding light.

BCS Solution Summary

The solution provides an insight into the training plan to be followed, the compensation benefits & how to deal with the change in business model. It is highly crucial to effectively communicate such a business change to each of our employees, so that they are motivated enough to contribute to its success. Moreover, the HR needs to initiate a balanced work life experience with decent salary bouquet benefits so that they stay with us & increase employee loyalty.

Solution

Training Plan:

Training Topics (List & Whys)

• The areas which need overall training of the drone department are -

1. FAA Rules
2. Local Area Rules of the city being operated in
3. Privacy Issues
4. Safety Issues
5. Operational Training

 

These areas are of utmost importance and everyone should be aware of, for Eg – the drone operators should know of the Local area rules so that they don’t violate any law, and the S/W management team is able to manage the drone directly from the control room, if any privacy concern arises. Overall, we have to be safe & judicious enough in our operation and each of the team’s member is responsible for that.

 

• Software Training

1. Required by – S/W Development Team, Drone Operators, Management Team & Support Staff
2. Why – Because S/W is a critical part & require monitoring of end-to-end operations, hence everyone should be aware on how to operate it, in case of any emergency
3. Trainer – Shall be provided by the Vendor
4. No. of Sessions –

	To be decided by the trainer
Per Week	3 working days, 8 hours each allocated for training 2 working days, 8 hours each for hands on practice by everyone

 

1. Exam – Per Day Review shall be conducted to keep a tab on each day’s knowledge transfer & 1 final exam – practical will be conducted at the end of the training program. Those scoring below 60% shall be subjected to extra training hours

 

Change Management:

1. Fear of losing jobs – drones replacing humans
2. This may prove a challenge & give rise to growing resentment among employees.
3. Such concern needs to be effectively communicated first by the top management & a belief needs to be set among the employees that no such thing would eradicate jobs.
4. Clear communication with influence management is required.
5. Moreover, a grievance redressal portal shall be set up which will track employee’s concern regarding changes in policy. This will be time-based redressal i.e.; the grievance shall be addressed in 7 working days. Every concern raised shall be properly numbered so that its progress & resolution can be tracked.

Compensation:

The monetary perks are already given in the case but as an HR, we need to holistically look for the comfort of our employee, hence we even propose the following non-monetary perks to be included in their compensation benefits which will promote organizational citizenship behavior and creation of loyalty and satisfaction towards the organization:

1. Leaves - Paid Medical Leave up to 15 days, 12 annual Sick Leaves, 20 annual Casual Leaves, Unpaid Leave in case of emergency up to 3 months
2. Sabbatical Policy, higher education support & apprenticeship training
3. 50% sponsoring of Digital courses & Professional certification costs, rest 50% to be borne by the employee
4. Maternity leave benefit for 6 months, Paternity leave benefit for 1 month
5. Retirement matching & tuition assistance with flexible childcare options
6. Reward & Recognition on a quarterly basis – WOW cards to best employee
7. Staycation with Family upon achieving a milestone
8. Wellness Program, commuter incentive, vouchers & coupons

Recruitment Plan:

Considering a successful venture in the current city, we also need to expand the business to other places, for which we will need recruit more people into our team. The recruitment process thus should be future sighted & consider the local recruitment laws & regulations.

1. The recruitment for any particular city should start 9 month before & onboarding should be completed 2 weeks before the actual city launch date.
2. Since S/W is already there & S/W management team as well, we need to focus on hiring drone operators & support staff with 2 to 3 management team members.
3. The recruitment for drone pilots should be based on their certification, knowledge (written + personal face to face) & a simulation test.
4. For others, a written test followed by an interview test.
5. Thereby, after their recruitment, they should be regularly engaged through games & activities, competitions to align them to our business’ strategic goals. Also, provide them training in their pre-onboarding phase itself.
6. We can hire drone operators, support staff on contract or as gig workers (as per management’s discretion, to reduce the cost)

HR Activities to initiate a Brand Equity:

To improve upon our brand image & have an increase as one of the best employers, we can initiate the below HR activities once we have expanded to min 2 cities. This will help us drive further onto the public awareness & help us garner talent

1. Conduct workshops & competitions on drone challenges in B. Tech colleges & schools – to enthuse students from a young age
2. Later on, we can even recruit them as drone operators, management team staff if they show exemplary performance
3. Project our employee’s hard work & their contribution onto our social media pages (Internet branding)
4. Internal Employee knowledge transfer sessions – once a month
5. Constantly improve our policies as per the changing needs & demands.
6. Conduct workshops on our strategic business goals & invite innovative ideas on how to further improve the delivery service through drones, from employees themselves. Reward & recognize them for their efforts.

Conclusion

In order to gain a suitable talent, we need to follow the basics plus constantly upgrade ourselves as per the changing world through technology. We need to employ digital recruitment, onboarding solutions & even communication-collaboration tools for a smooth workflow process. Also, since the world is highly VUCA now, we can intend to hire gig workers or contractual employees for our non-critical jobs. Also, an entire policy needs to be documented for such on-roll & off-roll employees, with grievance committee, compensation benefits judiciously distributed. The correct training is very important, that it is understood by the employees. Esp. changes related to local area, FAA rules needs to be constantly monitored.

Attached File Details

View Attachment file (Change Management Training.jpg) View Attachment file (EmployerBranding.jpg) View Attachment file (Training Plan.jpg)