Identifying a Theft:

Michelle, the owner of a real estate business in Fremantle is currently

facing an issue in regards to her staff. She has reason to believe that her
property manager (Margaret) has been secretly increasing fees and
pocketing the difference. Despite Margaret's initial impressions over the
first five months in this role, in which she has tidied up all accounts and
dealt with customer complaints efficiently, one customer recently inquired
with Michelle over a recent fee increase (which was not authorised by
Michelle). In order for Michelle to make the right decision moving forward,
she needs to determine if there has been a theft of not. She can do this by
looking at all the clients Margaret has dealt with over the last five months
to see if any other customers had an increase in fees recently. Michelle
will have to cross examine the client's paperwork in the office with the
paper work the client actually received. Once Michelle has called all
clients to confirm their fee values, she would be able to determine
whether Margaret was stealing from her company or not.
If a theft did not occur (the client which inquired about the fee increase
was the only client that had an increase in fees), Michelle needs to
implement a better accounting/record system for the office. This will allow
client information to be recorded accurately and prevent a similar
situation from occurring in the future. One method which should be
implemented is that Michelle should review all of Margaret's work before it
is filed away, checking for any abnormal increases in fees or other
relevant information. Another procedure to implement is to include a
clause in real estate contract which outlines that any fee increases must
be approved and signed by the firm's owner (i.e. Michelle). This allows
clients to identify when unauthorised fee increases have occurred and
they can then query them with Michelle.
If Michelle has collected enough evidence from Margaret's previous clients
to prove a theft has occurred, she should then confront Margaret on this
matter. As the evidence would be overwhelming, Margaret would most
likely confess to this crime as it is clear that she committed it. Michelle
should contact the police in regards to this issue as it is a criminal offense
to commit fraud. In most employment contracts, as in likely with
Margaret's employment contract, it would contain a clause that allows the
employer (Michelle) to terminate Margaret's employment when such a
crime has been committed. Michelle now needs to find anew property
manager. Prior to this, Michelle should implement new procedures and
systems to prevent such a fraud from occurring in the future. These
procedures include regularly reviewing manager's work, regular reports
(so all information is disclosed), control systems, segregation of tasks (e.g.
property manager writes up fee report, Michelle must approve it and
another person sends it out to the client) and also delegation (allows
Michelle time to plan and develop market opportunities)(Mazzaro &
Reboud 2011). Once these procedures are in place, it will make it

extremely difficult for one of Michelle's employees to commit fraud within

her business.

Human Resource Management:

On the assumption that Margaret committed the crime, Michelle will then
need to find a new property manager. As is evident from Michelle's
previous unsuccessful attempts in hiring a new property manager, it is
unlikely that she has the relevant knowledge and skills in human
resourcing in order to pick out the right person for the firm's property
manager position. Michelle needs to set human resources management
policies in place as it is vital to the long term success of her business
(Mazzarol &Reboud 2011). To find the right person for the property
manager position, Michelle would have to recruit this employee by
matching their skills, education and experience against the roles required
in the offered position (Mazzarol & Reboud 2011).Interviews would also
need to be undertaken to assess the viability of an applicant and in
particular if they have the personality/capacity to fit into this small
business (Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). As Michelle doesn't have any human
resources skills/experience and she has had previous unsuccessful
attempts with hiring a property manager in the past, her best option
would be to outsource the firm's human resourcing needs in order to find
the right person for this position and future positions.
An example of a type of firm Michelle could outsource her human
resources to is HR4U. This is a human resources consultancy firm which
works with small-medium business to achieve their human resource
needs. Payment is based on a monthly subscription and the premium
package comes to $200 a month, or $2.400 per year (GST not included).
As Michelle has less than fourteen employees, the monthly cost comes to
$200 instead of $15 per employee (as there is a minimum subscription
value)(HR4U Packages 2014). The premium package provides the firm
with consultation advice on how to abide by relevant legislation (such as
Fair Work Act and Occupational Health and Safety requirements), prepare
all relevant documents (such as job offers and contracts), design induction
processes, workforce planning advice, recruitment process advice, design
recruitment tools and also assistance with recruitment strategies (HR4U
Packages 2014). The premium package allows Michelle to have
professional external human resource advice at a fraction of the cost of
employing a human resources manager. Other advantages include advice
on abiding by relevant legislation such as the Fair Work Act as
contravening this act will result in penalties of up to $10,200 for

individuals and $51,000 for a company (HR4U Packages 2014). Overall, as

Michelle is operating a profitable business, it would be advisable to
outsource human resources to a company like the one previously
discussed. This will allow professional human resource experts to work
towards finding an appropriate property manager, as Michelle currently
does not have the relevant skills to do so.
Improving Managerial Skills:
In order for Michelle to improve her business and to prevent illegal
business practices from happening in the future (i.e. fraud),she needs to
increase her managerial skills. One way for Michelle to improve her
business is by increasing the value of her employees through increasing
their performance. This can be done by implementing performance
monitoring and review systems to increase employee productivity
(Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). The performance review process consists of six
steps including identifying key result areas, setting performance
standards, identify those affected by key result areas, subordinate briefs
colleagues, monthly performance review and quarterly performance on
appraisal (Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). A diagram of this performance
improvement process can be found in the Appendix A. By implementing
this performance improvement process, over the course of each
employee's time at Michelle's firm, they will be able to monitor their
performance and look to improve in the future. This process will improve
the employee's value to the firm as their skills and knowledge will
increase overtime, which results in a better-rounded professional that will
impact customers' experience with the firm in a positive way. Michelle can
also use the performance improvement process to review her own
performance and strive to increase her own performance in the future.
This will also work towards increasing Michelle's managerial skills. As
Michelle doesn't have a significant amount of human resourcing
experience, by outsourcing the firm's human resourcing, Michelle can
receive advice and guidance on how to implement this performance
improvement process into her firm.
Michelle can further increase her managerial skills through developing her
team, by engaging in team building activities and also by adjusting her
management style to meet the needs of the firm. Michelle should
implement adequate training and team development processes through
team building professional development days, in order to facilitate a good
sense of team work within her firm (Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). For
Michelle's firm to achieve higher levels of success, this could be
dependent on organisational structures that take advantage of teamwork
(Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). Michelle should look at setting up teamwork
professional development days in order to encourage more team work in
the workplace with the aim of helping the firm continue to be successful.
This is one way Michelle can increase her managerial skills as she could
work towards building a more team orientated firm, to lead the business
into greater success in the future. Michelle could also increase her

managerial skills by adjusting her management style to meet her

customer's needs. According to the situational leadership model (which
can be found in Appendix B), there are four leadership styles that
managers can implement. These include directing, coaching, participating
and delegating styles (Mazzarol & Reboud 2011). Michelle should adjust
her leadership approach depending on the task at hand. For example,
when Michelle has clear instructions for her workers to follow she would
implement the directing style as opposed to when work can be delegated
work out in which the employee makes all the decisions (delegating style
for tasks that require less managerial input from Michelle). Michelle could
also look at implementing the coaching and participation leadership styles
when she wants to guide workers as to why they are completing their
tasks (coaching style) and also when she wants her team to generate
ideas to help reach a mutual decision (participation style) (Mazzarol &
Reboud 2011). Michelle should look at implementing the situational
leadership model in her business and so adjust her leadership style
depending on the type of work at hand, in order to achieve a successful
outcome for the customer. This is another way Michelle can increase her
managerial skills.