Karolina's study blog

Posts

Trigger 3: How to market a start-up

Our last trigger dealt with Slush, the biggest networking event. Such networking events can be extremely useful for start-ups and small companies to gain attention, investors and raise the customer base. When coming up with the learning objectives, we focused on these main advantages of networking events and we decided to study the following: 1. The importance of networking 2. How to pitch your start-up to investors 3. Important marketing tools and how to use them 1. The importance of networking While studying at Haaga-Helia, I've heard multiple times how important it is to network effectively for our future working life and the quote 'your network is your net worth' has become widely used. For start-ups this is true even more. Dreamstake says the following about why to even bother with networking: ' You are an entrepreneur and you have an idea that you think will change the world. However, at this stage no-one knows you. They listen t

Case 9: HR Strategy and Planning- Ethics and Outsourcing

After learning about various areas of HR, we also have to learn about human resources in a wider context of the company and the overall environment in which the company operates. As all other fields of business, also HR faces challenges that it didn't have to deal with in the past. The first area of challenges are environmental . When I hear 'environmental' I immediately associate it with nature, climate changes etc. In the case of HR it is more about the overall situation (not only) in the working life, or in other words, those are factors that the department itself cannot directly change , rather it has to be prepared for those problems and have strategies to deal with them. The business world overall is changing very rapidly and that of course affects also the work of HR. Further, the rise of Internet also plays its role. We have heard from our guest speaker, how important it is nowadays to understand and be able to use the eHRM tools. With the raisin

CASE 8: Labor Union and Labor Law

Knowing and understanding the labor law is one of the key elements of HR. Nowadays, companies have to be especially aware of discrimination claims. This is very problematic because. especially dangerous can be discrimination based on appearances. Many jobs, where the employees are in direct contact with customers require these employees to have a strict dress code and in some cases even to hide their tattoos or piercings. These 'accessories' are usually perceived as negative in the society. Also, in some jobs customers have certain expectations regarding the people, who serve them: a female shop assistant in a makeup store will appeal much more reliable if she will look well put together with precise makeup. That's why I find it legitimate to require from the employer to define the required dress code. However, the dress code always has to be justifiable regarding the type of jobs and not based on unreasonable requirements. Employers have to especially aware of the

CASE 7: Exit Management

There are several ways an employment can come to an end. Managing so-called employee separation is crucial for a company in order to avoid not only costly lawsuits but also to keep employee morale and engagement at a high level. Naturally, employees, who feel their job at the company is constantly threatened, are not likely to give their best performance. One specific of today's job market is a relatively high turnover rate ( the portion of employees that leave the company ) . I see that the generation of my parents is not very willing to change their jobs. Most of the people have worked for 2-3 companies at the maximum and there is even a large portion of people, who have worked for a single company for their whole life. I think it is due to that my parents' generation values job security much more than the access to new experience a challenge. On the other hand, the 'young' workforce wants to learn new things, try different tasks. Those turnovers are very cos

Trigger 3: Improving the reverse logistics process

With our third trigger we are looking at a different aspect of logistics- reverse logistics. Cerasis defines reverse logistics as ' the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal'. So in other words, reverse logistics deals with what to do with a product after it has served its purpose for a customer. With the increasing problem of waste companies are more and more responsible for managing the final stage a product life cycle. Our PBL Team decided on the following learning objectives to study this topic: How to implement the 3 R's model in the reverse logistics process Pros and cons of e-commerce and regular stores from the logistics point of view Which legislative aspects you have to take into account when dealing with reverse logistics in Europe How can home decor companies reduce their returns 1. The implementation of the 3 R's model in the reverse logistics process The R

CASE 6: Total Rewards and Employee Engagement

The amount of money a company uses to pay workers' salaries is usually the most significant cost. In fact it can make up to 60% of company's costs in manufacturing companies. Salary is also the main reason why people even go to work and a common reason why people change their jobs. Thus it is extremely important to establish an effective compensation policy and to communicate it well with the employees. A compensation has three components: based compensation (the fixed amount that an employee receives every month), pay incentives (reward for good performance, bonuses, profit sharing,...) and indirect compensation, also called benefits (health insurance, paid vacation,...). While designing the compensation system, the company has to consider several factors: Firstly, the company has to reach internal (fairness among the company) and external (fairness among other employers) equity. In order for the pay to be perceived as fair by employees, the wage should follow the