InterClean, Everything a Cleaner World Needs - Essay Example

InterClean is a multi billion dollar company in the industrial cleaning industry. Their executive staffs led by its CEO David Spencer have realized the industry is changing and customers need mof fullre than cleaning products to solve their problems. The customers are looking for solutions and services relating to their cleaning efforts along with consultation about regulatory matters. Very few of the key players have caught on to the industry trend. In order to transform the company faster the firm is in the process of acquiring EnviroTech Inc. InterClean wants to transform the firm from a product based company to include an offering full-based cleaning solutions within six months. The firm faces many challenges ahead particularly in human resources. This report provides a job analysis, a preliminary workforce planning system and an actual selection of employee recruits based on a list of candidates. Job analysis is the procedure used to collect and classify information about the tasks the organization needs to complete (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003). It entails understanding the job activities the employees perform, the work processes in place, the level aptitude of the employees, their communication abilities, as well as other factors that affect the job performance of the human capital of the firm. A company’s human capital is its most valuable asset and its level competency differentiates the success companies from the pretenders. The first step for the administration at InterClean is to evaluate the internal situation of the company prior to implementing any changes or plan of attack. There were many things going wrong at the company before the movement towards transforming the firm. Its human resources were not happy with the decision being made by the company. The overall sales output of the company had gone down. There a new information system that was implemented that the sales staff were obligated to use which was not paying dividend for the sales representation since it slowed down their creativity and lower overall productivity. There was a lack of communication among the employees and feedback system was not in place to retrieved information from the floor employees to be analyzed by the executive staff. The employees did not trust their superiors with the exception of the human resource manager who was in the side of the floor employees since she started out as a sales representative and move her way up the corporate ladder. These organization behavior weaknesses must be kept in mind as the company moves forward towards their new strategic approach in order to eliminate all the waste that was keeping the company stagnant. The new shift of the company of moving towards providing full service solution packages requires the employee to have different competency and skill set in order to succeed in their jobs. Competencies are the specific characteristics needed to succeed in a particular job or assignment (Moneyinstructor, 2005). The traditional sales approach of pushing a product or persuading the customer based price or quality or the use of other selling techniques will not longer satisfied the needs of the company. A list of the skills or abilities that the sales must have or develop to succeed in the new InterClean is illustrated below: Great communication skills Customer orientation Ability to perform teamwork Knowledge of OSHA regulations High ethical standards Patience and ability to retrieve data from customers Fast learner, high spirited Analytical ability Ability to perform market research Ability to understand and synthesize qualitative data These are the main skills the company has to develop in its staff and must look for in the new recruits that will come into the company. In order to achieve the company’s goal workforce planning system must be develop to accomplish the new company mission. Human resource strategic planning is the process of providing capable and motivated people to carry out the organization’s mission and strategy (Schermerhorn, et al., 2003). When the news of the new company strategic direction was released internally to the employees there has lots of resistance to change among the employees of the company. Many feel threaten by the direction of the company. Employee morale at InterClean is low and there is lack of trust between the staff and the managerial staff. The company needs to hire immediate a team of psychologist and counselors to provide group therapies to the employees. These counseling sessions will allow the stress to be air out by letting the employees manifest themselves verbally and speak out about their concerns. This information will be very valuable to the executive staff since in short amount of time they will the feedback they need to understand the employees concern and establish a plan of attack to mediate the situation. There are other key positions that need to be hired in order to make things work at the new InterClean. The company also is dealing with the integration of new sales staff from the acquisition of Envirotech Inc. When two different companies are integrated there is a clash of corporate cultures which can create tension between the different set of employees. Corporate culture is a set of values, beliefs, and relationships between individuals and functions that guide the decisions of the company to achieve its goals (Google, 2008). One solution is for the HR Manager, Janet Durham, to recruit a team of leaders among the sales staff of InterClean to show the new employees the ropes and help them learn about the new corporate culture they are becoming a part of. A key function that is imperative in order for the new plan to have a change to succeed is the training of the employees and the recruiting of new candidates. The company’s president has placed a very hard time constraint of 90-180 days to complete the transformation. The HR department cannot alone handle all the training efforts. The firm must hire outside consultants for training, create its own customized training, and take advantage of online training opportunities to accelerate the process. The company must also evaluate the entire prior to the training to find the glaring weakness in their skills set and prepare the training sessions accordingly. A compensation plan that can get everyone to work together is the implementation of a profit sharing plan for employees at all levels. The HR department received a list of ten candidates to determine if these players have what it takes to become a part of the new InterClean staff. To determine if these candidates are going to become a part of the company or be released of their duties the criteria that will be utilize is if there competencies are aligned with the list provided in this paper of it takes to become success at the new InterClean. The table below summarizes the selection decision made and justification for keeping or firing the employees. Player Criteria Decision Jim Martin Great industry knowledge, reputation taking care customers Keep Shane Hunt Does not like providing follow up to customers or answering customer complaints Fire Tom Gonzales Establishes long term relationship with customers. Extensive industry knowledge Keep Donna Wilson Lack of experience in sanitation products. Does not value long term relationship with customers Fire Mark Pierce Young motivated person with knowledge of the local sanitation marketplace Keep Susan Burnt Very experience salesperson. Values provide after the sale support. Lacks knowledge of the sanitation marketplace Fire Dennis White Aggressive salesman. Expertise in auto sales market Fire Ving Hsu Values customer service. Great at networking Keep Eric Bowden Great team leadership skills. Keeps up with latest industry development Keep Terry Garcia Educational background. Great analytical ability and critical thinking capabilities Keep Achieving change in a corporation is an easy task. It takes commitment from the front office in order to demonstrate the leadership needed to help the members of organization adapt to the changes. In the case of InterClean a suggestion I would give to the CEO is to change the timeline to delay the process and give the team a chance to adapt to the new strategic approach. Instead of maximum of 180 days the firm could have their expectation a bit and allow a maximum of 270 days for implementation. If every goes well the company has chance to achieve tremendous expansion since they are going one of the first companies to provide a full cleaning solution packages which is a new niche in the marketplace. References Google.com (2008). Corporate Culture. Retrieved August 24, 2008 from http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:Corporate+culture&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title Moneyinstructor.com (2005). Workplace Competencies. Retrieved August 24, 2008 from http://www.moneyinstructor.com/art/workcompetencies.asp Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Read More