Human Resource Planning

for New Locations of Mother Earth Foods
Abstract
Mother Earth Foods Company plans to open five new store locations, all scheduled to open in two months. Currently no human resource ( HR) tasks have been completed to begin the process to staff these new locations. Jenna has just been hired and has been asked to complete all tasks necessary in order for the new locations to open at the scheduled time. Through this review, Jenna will address all of the various sectors that will need to be completed and she will include what she recommends and what other options are available. The various sectors that will be included are; compensation, training, recruitment, hiring, and benefits.Along with her specific recommendations, Jenna will also spell out the advantages and disadvantages for the various options. At the end of the review, Jenna?s HR strategic plan will be available for review by management along with the time constrains needed to complete all tasks while remaining in compliance with all State and Federal Rules and Regulations.

Human Resource Planning for New Locations of Mother Earth Foods
Mother Earth Foods is a quick developing company that offers organically grown food to consumers. This company?s mission is to have an organization that does no harm to earth. Jenna is working to prepare the company for opening five new locations in two months. To begin the process Jenna needs to become familiar with the labor market in the area of Portland, Maine. In order to do this, Jenna should research websites such as the Bureau of Labor and Statistics or Maine?s Department of Labor which offers a Labor Market Digest each month, to see what the past and current trends are and what the current demands are in this location.
Before determining the wage/salary that is going to be offered, Jenna needs to find out if the company is going to be offering benefits to its employees. Offering no benefits is going to require a higher salary since employees are going to have to pay for benefits out of pocket. Often, benefits are offered to attract and retain employees. If it is decided to offer benefits for employees, then Jenna is required to work with the various health insurance companies to work on what benefits will be offered and available to employees. It will also need to be decided as to how much the company is going to cover for benefits and what the cost is going to be per employee. This will all be taken into account when determining the wage/salary that is going to be offered to the various employees.

When determining the compensation for the new employees there are five major components. The first component that needs to be completed is a job analysis. A job analysis is when positions are analyzed to find out what the exact duties are. ?Job analysis techniques include the use of interviews, questionnaires, and observation.? (“Hr guide to,” 2000) Once the job analysis is completed, a detailed job description needs to be developed which will includes all the duties that the employee will be performing. This can be time consuming considering there are numerous positions within the company. A job evaluation will need to be developed. A job evaluation is a comparison of positions used to assure that the level of compensation for specific positions is correct. Once this is completed, the pay structure needs to be determined.In order to complete this, the first step is to number of hours and days that the employee is needed to work needs to be decided upon. Deciding whether the new employees are going to be hourly or salary will be another thing that needs to be completed. Most of the time in this industry, management is set on a salary basis and the other employees are paid on an hourly rate. When setting the wages/salary, Jenna must comply with the Federal Minimum Wage set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and State minimum wage amount that is determined for every employee. In Maine, the current minimum wage rate is $7.50 which is higher than the federal rate. (“Minimum wage laws,” 2010). Determining whether the employees will be exempt or non-exempt