About the Game
The HR Strategizer Corona Challenge is a business simulation game based on the airline industry and the challenges faced during the current COVID-19 pandemic, but the same principles can apply to any industry and future games may focus on other industries.
The custom-built Salesforce Lightning framework, and game content, can be adapted to suit similar games for other industries. Contact us for more information.
The Simulated Business Processes
To familiarize players with the airline environment and understand the fictitious company structure the HR Strategizer game starts with an Annual Report outlining the company’s objectives for the coming year together with the challenges it expects to encounter from an operational perspective.
The P&L start point is based on the last period in the previous financial year. Using the table below as an example, during that period the airline made a small loss (1.83% of revenue). That period forms the budget base for the 2020 year and the figures are cycled across 10 financial periods. The budget projections for the full 2020 year indicate a potential loss of $501 million, or 3.08% of revenue.
The budget/Forecast detail ($ millions) contained in the Annual Report is shown below. The objective of the game is to reverse the forecasted prediction by making the right strategic decisions on matters involving human resources.
The budget base is impacted by external and internal influences. Players in the HR Strategizer game are given the external influences. They are out of HR’s control. The financial impact of the internal influences can be managed effectively if the right advice is given to company management. External influences that impact the company’s operation are the result of political, economic and forces of nature events and may be updated by the Game Master during the game. Those influences are pre-built into the cycled figures (shown in the diagram above) and players cannot modify the external influences. The budget base is the same for everyone. It is the internal influences resulting from workforce issues that will change the result and can be managed by the right HR strategic decisions. How well that is done is the purpose of the game.
The Subject and Format of the Game
The hypothetical airline’s operational performance, reflected in their Profit and Loss Statement, is the competitive subject of the HR Strategizer game. The game simulates how HR deal with issues and provide advice to management and quantifies how the advice will influence the financial performance of the airline. Participation is by teams or individuals.
Decisions required
The game requires participants to make decisions. Decisions relate to HR metric information supplied to the CET Airline’s company Board. Decision categories are shown below:
|
Number of Issues |
Number of Scenarios to choose from |
|
3 |
3 |
|
3 |
3 |
|
3 |
3 |
|
3 |
3 |
|
3 |
3 |
|
3 |
3 |
For each HR metric category players are called upon to decide between three scenarios, for three separate issues. There are five reporting periods for input and the financial impact is projected over ten periods (in order to gain the full strategic impact). At the end of the ten periods the team with the best financial result is the winner.
Impact Measurement
The financial impact of decisions on revenue and costs are calculated for the Profit &Loss items below:
P&L Item |
Input |
Impact Calculation |
Revenue |
|
|
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
Costs |
|
|
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
|
5 periods |
10 Periods |
Summary
There will be 18 issues requiring a decision, each with 3 scenarios, for a total of 54 items per round of the Blockchain Challenge.
There will be 5 rounds of input. That means 54 items each time for a total of 270 inputs. That means the results will not be influenced by "lucky answers": Paticipants must understand the strategic importance of each answer and the top performers can truly claim excellence in strategic thinking as part of their resume.
The Corona Challenge program calculates the financial impact of each input item over the 10 periods, so the program is massive but can be customised for clients wishing to run a session in-house. .
Special Note for Employers
For participating teams there is feedback available for each scenario chosen to explaain why one decision was better than another, in the context of the airline industry. The feedback would be provided after each round and employers are invited to obtain more detail at info@hrstrategizer.com
Apply to join the HR Strategizer