Human Capital, Talent and Organizational Development Research Assignment
Assignment
You may choose Option A (the supplied fictional NorthStar Global Services case, below) or Option B (an organization from your own experience). You do not need to collect new primary research for Option A.
Option A — supplied fictional case study Northstar Global Services
Northstar is a fictional B2B subscription and services business with 1,200 employees across the UK, UAE and India. Its strategy is to grow digital revenue by 30% over 18 months and increase customer contract renewal from 82% toward 95%. Headcount growth is capped at 5%, and the total people-change budget is £1.2 million over 12 months. These data are illustrative and provided for assessment use.
The executive team is concerned that scarce digital skills, inconsistent leadership and poorly coordinated customer handovers are preventing the business from meeting its ambitions.
| Indicator | Current situation | Why it may matter |
| Overall employee turnover | 18% annually | Loss of knowledge and replacement effort |
| Critical digital-role turnover | 24% annually | High risk in strategically important work |
| Median time to fill scarce roles | 68 days | Vacancies may delay delivery |
| Vacancies filled internally | 22% | Internal progression may be underused |
| Employee pulse index | 63/100 | Potential engagement or work-
design concerns |
| Critical roles with ready-now successor | 3 out of 12 | Weak succession coverage |
| Customer contract renewal | 82% | Direct commercial objective |
| Cloud security capability | 40 needed / 22 ready | Gap of 18 capability units |
| Data product capability | 36 needed / 20 ready | Gap of 16 capability units |
| Enterprise solutions capability | 24 needed / 21 ready | Gap of 3 capability units |
| People leadership capability | 50 needed / 32 ready | Gap of 18 capability units |
Capability units mean people meeting the specified proficiency threshold, not additional headcount required. One employee may hold more than one capability; do not add the gaps together and call that the number of hires.
Additional qualitative evidence
- Sales promises bespoke features before Product confirms feasibility.
- Product teams are rewarded for delivery speed, while handover quality is rarely measured.
- Customer Success is accountable for renewals but has limited authority over onboarding quality.
- Cross-market issues often need executive escalation before decisions are made.
- Some employees report limited internal career opportunities and heavy pressure during customer launches.
- Leaders disagree about whether higher pay, management quality or workload is driving turnover. No causal analysis has yet been completed.
What is not known
The case does not provide salary benchmarking, departmental costs, survey breakdowns or validated causal links between turnover and renewal. You should acknowledge relevant gaps. You may propose further data collection and realistic target assumptions, but must label any invented estimates as illustrative. Do not present assumptions as facts.
Option B — use your own organisation
You may use a current or past employer, client or other organisation you understand sufficiently well. Keep it anonymous if needed. You must still provide a credible business objective, at least THREE numerical metrics with a source or explicit estimation basis, evidence of a people/OD issue, and sufficient context for a feasible 12-month plan. Do not disclose confidential or identifiable employee information. If those data are not available, use Northstar.