A HR manager of Terrain Inc., a personal goods retail company has to go on FMLA leave to care for her mother who suffered a fall. The HR manager asks a HR professional in the department to collaborate on
her behalf with a consultancy firm to provide recommendations to management on employee engagement.
The consultancy firm has conducted a focus group with 15% of support employees and 5% of line employees. The HR professional upon reviewing the firm's work believes the firm's method is insufficient to gather the full information needed to create an effective solution. The HR professional determines that a different data collection method is necessary.
The HR professional chooses to carry out a survey of all employees, proceeds to obtain the support of the CEO, CFO, and COO and makes a presentation to the senior executive team . The senior executive team approves the HR professional's initiative, the survey is carried out, and 85% of the employees respond to the survey. Impressed with the survey exercise, the CEO shares the survey results with the consultancy firm and requests that the firm works closely with the HR professional in the implementation phase.
The consultancy firm's associate who worked on the focus group received the news of the survey results with dismay and is unhappy about the firm's work being pushed aside and the survey being done without communicating with or involving the firm. The associate requires clarification from the HR professional.
How should the HR professional respond to this?