Exclusive Partnership with Fortunes 100 Best Companies - Dissertation Example

The Possibility of an Exclusive Partnership with Fortune’s 100 Best Companies This study looks at the possibility of entering into an exclusive partnership of hiring process with Fortune’s 100 best companies to work with. The list identified is for 2010 and 2008 for comparison of certain characteristics such as job growth performances. In the exclusive partnership, one of the terms are the possibility of hiring graduates from BA and BSBA courses from the analyst’s alma mater. Study also looks at the possibility of getting an agreement with all or only some of the companies from the list. A recommendation is arrived at the conclusion saying that an exclusive partnership with all of the 100 best list of companies are possible contenders for an exclusive contract because of varied reasons presented. 1. Introduction Statement of the problem. The feasibility of establishing an exclusive partnership with the companies listed in the Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best companies to work for is being requested for purposes of better work performance. Scope. The feasibility will cover areas of questioning whether any or all of these Companies could be potential employees for graduates of BA or BSA courses from my alma mater. If so, the study should provide an answer to whether there are specific companies that the agency should establish an exclusive relationship with. Limitations. The study will be limited to the companies listed in the Fortune 100 Best List. Areas of study will focus on job growth opportunities, career opportunities and career development. Background My work in the national placement agency calls for looking at applicants who are graduates of either BA or BSA from my alma mater. My alma mater is a Business School whose curriculum is geared towards learning of the business environment and its applied application. My expertise is in working with adults who have experience in business applications and those who have graduated from this course in my school. The reason for choosing my alma mater as the criteria for selection is because of my learned knowledge from this university and that I know the graduates from this university will have the same measure of appreciation on the course. In order to enhance my performance in the agency, some resources have to be tapped. The study covered the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For. The Organization. To understand the need for this study, the areas of operation of the National Employment Agency is presented. The National Employment Agency is an executive agency attached to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy. Its activities are covered by the Act of Employment Promotion Regulation and other legislative acts. (NEA, n.d.) According to NEA’s charter, their services are free of charge to all physical and legal entities, e.g. individuals in labor bureaus, subsidiaries, out of office work places and others. In a nutshell, NEA offers the following services to employers: Labor market information and consultation Appropriate candidates for open positions from companies Use of stimulation, employment and training measures and programs Opportunities for staff training NEA also offers the following services for jobseekers: Information and consultation on finding work Mediation in the search for work - home and abroad Support in your career orientation, development and training Support in establishing your own enterprise Enrollment in appropriate employment and training measures, and training Motivation training and psychological support 2. Methodology Mechanisms used in this study are review of published literature, data gathering from website sources, academic journals and books in order to answer the questions above.. 3. Analysis 3.1 The Fortune 100 Best companies to work for The first step in analyzing is to know the 100 best companies to work for listed in the Fortune Magazine. This magazine publishes regularly a list of 100 best companies to work for. Fortune Magazine based their rankings from an employee survey in America. According to Levering Robert and Milton Moskowitch of Fortune, they follow certain procedures in selecting the companies. First, a nomination for inclusion in the 100 best list is conducted thru internet, then the process of selection is conducted. According to the guidelines, a company to be eligible in the listing must be established for at least 7 years and must have a minimum of 1.000 employees in the U.S. Sources said that the Fortune survey in 2010 is conducted from among the 343 companies in America. First set of survey questions are based on a trust index about management’s credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other part of the survey questionnaire is based on culture audit that asked about pay and benefit programs and on series of open ended questions about hiring, communication and diversity. The Fortune 100 best companies to work for, February 2010 and 2008 listings are attached as an annex. The perception of the employees based on the replies from the questionnaire are manifested in their choices of ranking. It could be surmised from the data that size of a company is not a factor to top the ranking. For instance, SAS company tops the list and has overtaken large size companies like Edward Jones and Wegmans Food Markets. It has also been found out from the data that the job growth opportunities cannot be predicted by the number of the employees of the company. Take the example of Dream Works Animation Company who is smaller by size from among its counterpart but has 13% of job growth opportunities. Clearly, from the comparison coming from the list, potential companies for employment could readily be identified. 3.2 Can all the companies listed be considered as appropriate companies for exclusive partnership? This question needs a deeper analysis because there are several factors not readily available for the study. For instance, when the 2010 listings is compared with the 2008, it will be noted that there are more companies who experienced negative job growth in 2010. There are 35 companies listed with negative job growth in 2010 as compared with 28 companies in 2008. The reasons for deviation are not covered by the study. Likewise, rankings of the companies do not follow the same order in the years observed. SAS Institute in 2010 is ranked first with a job growth opportunity of 2%, whereas in 2008, the company is in the 28th position and having a negative 1% of job growth opportunity. This is a critical consideration in determining exclusive partnership with because of the changes in the economic development and technology that possibly affects the operation of the companies in the list. 3.3 Matching the applicant’s education with career opportunities of companies listed. a. Knowledge acquired by a BA or BSBA graduate The Bachelor of Science in Business Administration is designed to give graduate with solid understanding of the art of craft in business. The BSBA curriculum in the City University of Seattle, for example, tailors its program “in the fundamentals of business, learning the softer skills of communication, cultural fluency, teamwork, and maximization of technology”. The knowledge gathered from this curriculum could be applied to the field of government service, industry, manufacturing, education, commerce, health-services and non-profit organizations. b. Career opportunities in the selected companies Generally, applicants are interested to know basic information about the company that mostly pertains to pay, benefits and job growth opportunities in the company. As shown in the list, job growth opportunities are not the same with all the companies. Reasons perceived are maybe due to the technicality of the work required by the position and the difficulty of the work being done. Career opportunities are often mentioned in hiring process and stated in advertisement for hiring of the companies. But what are career opportunities really? The term has been defined as a career or area in which one is qualified after graduation. (mondofacto. 2009) Under this context, a graduate of a BSBA curriculum is expected to establish a career in the business area. An example of a career opportunity are the global career opportunities offered by the Colgate Palmolive along the areas of Finance, Human Resource, Information Technology, Legal, Marketing, Research and Development, Sales and Customer Development and the Supply Chain. c. Career development Some applicants are more interested in career developments in choosing a company. Why is this important for an applicant and what is its meaning? First let us have a definition of career development. It has been defined as an organized planning method used to match the needs of the business with the career goals of the employee. (Faria, Allison, n.d) What is career development? Sources said that by a career development plan help the employees do their jobs efficiently aside from being beneficial to employees who want to move up in the company and work for promotion. Companies who have designs for career development of employees looks at the skills, experience and knowledge in order to provide them with the best possible work. Thus, it becomes the duty of the management that the needs of the company coincide with the employees career goals in order to have balanced atmosphere goals, source said. (Wisegeek) Going to the 100 Best List, there is an indication that these companies provide career development plans. An example is Ernst Young & LLP, that has been in Fortune’s list for the past 11 years. Ernst Young and LLP is a global services provider that is reported “to be passionate in helping people achieve their potentials.” (Ernst & Young, 2009) 4. Findings and recommendations Clearly, there are advantage points showing the importance of having an exclusive partnerships with the companies listed in Fortune Magazine as Best companies to work for. Key points found in the study Fortune 100 best companies to work for is an ideal listing to start with for job seekers because companies are found to be stable. The study found out that job growth opportunities vary and does not depend on its size. There are instances in the study that a small sized company provided more job growth opportunities than the large sized companies. The study also found out that ranking of companies is not permanent, however reasons were not pinpointed. A company may top the list for this year, but in subsequent year, it will be found in the lower rank status. This pattern of ranking formed part of the recommendation that all of the companies are most likely candidates for an exclusive arrangement of hiring process. Career opportunities found in the company information welcomes graduates from BA and BSBA courses as there are diverse work classification available in a large company. Career development is significant factor in job satisfaction of an employee and that this should be provided by employer during the course of the employer’s employment. The listing identifies characteristics of the companies and the benefits it provides the job seekers. NEA’s partnership with Fortune’s 100 best lists is recommended because of the following points: a. NEA can establish a database of information to make a study of appropriate choices of companies that matches the skills of jobseekers b. The wealth of information gathered thru the exclusive partnership can help NEA develop training programs that will help both companies and job seekers. c. The partnership can tailor a career development program that can assist the employees improve their skills and performance. d. One of the basic duties of NEA for job seekers and employers are accomplished, that of providing appropriate candidates for employment on jobs available in the listed companies; and for the job seekers, giving information on finding employment. Annex 1 Fortune’s Best 100 Companies to work for in 2010 Rank Company Job growth U.S. employees 1 SAS 2% 5,487 2 Edward Jones 8% 37,079 3 Wegmans Food Markets 0% 36,770 4 Google N.A.% N.A. 5 Nugget Market -16% 1,342 6 DreamWorks Animation SKG 13% 1,825 7 NetApp 0% 5,033 8 Boston Consulting Group 3% 1,737 9 Qualcomm 3% 12,255 10 Camden Property Trust -6% 1,743 11 Robert W. Baird & Co. 6% 2,286 12 Bingham McCutchen -7% 1,859 13 W. L. Gore & Associates 5% 5,764 14 Recreational Equipment -6% 8,640 15 Zappos.com -21% 1,300 16 Cisco 0% 37,276 17 Methodist Hospital System 6% 11,145 18 Whole Foods Market -9% 47,478 19 Genentech 2% 11,146 20 Devon Energy 4% 3,912 21 NuStar Energy 4% 1,375 22 Johnson Financial Group 1% 1,316 23 Umpqua Bank 8% 1,836 24 Goldman Sachs Group -13% 12,243 25 Novo Nordisk 10% 3,360 26 CHG Healthcare Services -12% 1,142 27 Scottrade 22% 2,409 28 JM Family Enterprises -18% 3,772 29 Quicken Loans 0% 2,893 30 Alston & Bird 7% 1,842 31 PCL Construction Enterprises -10% 3,970 32 Baptist Health South Florida 11% 11,729 33 Shared Technologies -21% 1,243 34 Chesapeake Energy 20% 7,720 35 American Fidelity Assurance Co. -1% 1,502 36 Container Store -9% 3,233 37 Aflac -3% 4,353 38 Scooter Store 51% 2,173 39 TDIndustries 7% 1,588 40 Scripps Health 15% 11,444 41 QuikTrip 5% 10,311 42 Adobe Systems -4% 4,065 43 Salesforce.com 21% 2,361 44 Ernst & Young -4% 24,815 45 USAA -1% 21,999 46 OhioHealth 3% 12,128 47 J. M. Smucker 44% 4,521 48 FactSet Research Systems 9% 1,322 49 Mercedes-Benz USA 0% 1,612 50 King's Daughters Medical Center 7% 3,263 51 Microsoft 2% 54,923 52 Booz Allen Hamilton 13% 21,303 53 Nordstrom -8% 45,853 54 Paychex 2% 12,456 55 Mayo Clinic 0% 41,839 56 CarMax -16% 13,030 57 DPR Construction -2% 1,142 58 Four Seasons Hotels -9% 12,345 59 Monsanto 5% 10,772 60 Indiana Regional Medical Center 3% 1,200 61 Brocade Communications Systems 39% 2,873 62 Kimley-Horn -19% 1,808 63 Southern Ohio Medical Center 8% 2,286 64 Stew Leonard's -6% 2,037 65 Arnold & Porter 1% 1,295 66 Plante & Moran 1% 1,547 67 EOG Resources -4% 1,725 68 Men's Wearhouse -9% 14,764 69 MITRE 2% 6,572 70 Deloitte 1% 39,065 71 PricewaterhouseCoopers 1% 29,387 72 McCormick and Company 2% 2,799 73 American Express -10% 27,265 74 Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 13% 6,536 75 Perkins Coie -3% 1,680 76 Balfour Beatty Construction -12% 1,514 77 Baker Donelson -1% 1,127 78 Mattel -9% 5,293 79 Meridian Health 12% 7,099 80 Build-A-Bear Workshop -14% 4,588 81 Atlantic Health 2% 7,114 82 Marriott International -10% 110,091 83 S. C. Johnson & Son 0% 3,343 84 Accenture -7% 30,000 85 Arkansas Children's Hospital 8% 3,733 86 Publix Super Markets 2% 139,578 87 National Instruments 2% 2,568 88 KPMG -7% 20,972 89 Bright Horizons 0% 14,497 90 General Mills -2% 16,681 91 FedEx -4% 218,770 92 Gilbane -11% 1,934 93 Starbucks Coffee -27% 116,357 94 Intuit -7% 6,710 95 Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe -8% 1,481 96 LifeBridge Health 5% 6,350 97 Herman Miller -8% 5,186 98 Intel 0% 43,905 99 Winchester Hospital 4% 2,027 100 Colgate-Palmolive 2% 5,366 Fortune’s Best 100 Companies to work for 2008 Rank Company Job US Growth employees 1 Google 60% 8,134 2 Quicken Loans 68% 4,920 3 Wegmans Food Markets 4% 35,302 4 Edward Jones 5% 31,451 5 Genentech 9% 10,842 6 Cisco Systems 17% 32,160 7 Starbucks 15% 134,013 8 Qualcomm 15% 10,095 9 Goldman Sachs 10% 13,764 10 Methodist Hospital System 11% 10,481 11 Boston Consulting Group 8% 1,543 12 Nugget Markets 20% 1,322 13 Umpqua Bank 25% 1,788 14 Network Appliance 25% 4,481 15 W. L. Gore & Associates 6% 5,211 16 Whole Foods Market 11% 41,385 17 David Weekley Homes -11% 1,450 18 OhioHealth 4% 11,254 19 Arnold & Porter -3% 1,272 20 Container Store 5% 3,019 21 Principal Financial Group 3% 13,438 22 American Century Investments -5% 1,694 23 JM Family Enterprises 4% 4,609 24 American Fidelity Assurance 1% 1,376 25 Shared Technologies 28% 1,401 26 Stew Leonard's 13% 2,282 27 S.C. Johnson & Son 0% 3,419 28 QuikTrip -5% 9,630 29 SAS Institute -1% 5,153 30 Aflac 5% 4,475 31 Alston & Bird 0% 1,762 32 Rackspace Managed Hosting 38% 1,443 33 Station Casinos 6% 14,920 34 Recreational Equipment (REI) 19% 9,137 35 TDIndustries 19% 1,595 36 Nordstrom 0% 49,769 37 Johnson Financial Group 12% 1,259 38 Kimley-Horn & Associates 9% 2,368 39 Robert W. Baird 0% 2,093 40 Adobe Systems 8% 3,900 41 Bingham McCutchen 0% 1,652 42 MITRE 5% 6,037 43 Intuit 11% 7,635 44 Plante & Moran 0% 1,522 45 Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 3% 5,427 46 CarMax 13% 14,223 47 J. M. Smucker 7% 3,042 48 Devon Energy 15% 3,368 49 Griffin Hospital 4% 1,133 50 Camden Property Trust -5% 1,894 51 Paychex 7% 11,622 52 FactSet Research Systems 21% 1,102 53 Vision Service Plan 6% 2,052 54 CH2M HILL -2% 15,674 55 Perkins Coie 6% 1,629 56 Scripps Health 6% 11,223 57 Ernst & Young 4% 25,947 58 Scottrade 13% 1,584 59 Mayo Clinic 4% 41,004 60 Alcon Laboratories 6% 6,848 61 Chesapeake Energy 15% 5,752 62 American Express 4% 30,162 63 King's Daughters Medical Center 13% 2,934 64 EOG Resources 17% 1,388 65 Russell Investments 5% 1,267 66 Nixon Peabody 9% 1,728 67 Valero Energy -8% 17,488 68 eBay 13% 7,769 69 General Mills -2% 17,090 70 Mattel 2% 5,000 71 KPMG 8% 22,857 72 Marriott International -2% 123,203 73 David Evans & Associates 9% 1,085 74 Granite Construction 6% 4,650 75 Southern Ohio Medical Center 7% 2,032 76 Arkansas Children's Hospital 8% 3,283 77 PCL Construction Enterprises 18% 3,558 78 Navy Federal Credit Union 15% 6,069 79 National Instruments 3% 2,353 80 Healthways 42% 3,730 81 Booz Allen Hamilton 7% 17,650 82 Nike 4% 14,570 83 AstraZeneca 5% 12,810 84 Stanley 7% 2,756 85 Lehigh Valley Hospital & Health Network 9% 8,420 86 Microsoft 8% 47,645 87 Yahoo 16% 7,915 88 Four Seasons Hotels 21% 12,851 89 Bright Horizons Family Solutions 7% 14,660 90 PricewaterhouseCoopers 5% 29,818 91 Publix Super Markets 5% 142,084 92 Milliken -8% 8,800 93 Erickson Retirement Communities 14% 10,248 94 Baptist Health South Fla. 4% 9,838 95 Deloitte & Touche USA 7% 36,517 96 Herman Miller 14% 6,063 97 FedEx 8% 228,211 98 Sherwin-Williams 1% 29,554 99 SRA International 6% 5,200 100 Texas Instruments -1% 15,051 From the February 4, 2008 issue List of references Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. City University of Seattle. Viewed 13 June 2010 from http://www.cityu.edu/programs/som/bsba.htm Ernst & Young.(2009) http://www.ey.com/US/en/Newsroom/News-releases/EY-again-ranks-among-FORTUNEs-100-Best-Companies-to-Work-For-22-01-09 Faria, Allison.(n.d.) Career Development . Wisegeek, Viewed 13June 2010 from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-career-development.htm : Levering, Robert & Moskowitz, Milton (2010) How we pick the 100 best. Fortune. CNN money.com viewed 13 June 2010 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcomp Mondofacto (2009) Career opportunities. viewed 13 June 2010 from (http://www.mondofacto.com/facts/dictionary?career+opportunities Fortune. (2008) 100 Best Companies to work for. CNN. Money.com. viewed 13 June 2010 fromhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/full_list/index.html Fortune (2010) 100 Best Companies to work for. CNN Money.com. Viewed 13 June 2010 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2010/faq/index.html NEA. Client Charter. NEA. Ministry of Labor and Social Policy viewed 13 June 2010 from http://www.az.government.bg/eng/internal_en.asp?CatID=11/04&WA=AboutUs/Charter_en.htm Imagine you work for a national employment/placement agency. Your clients range from the first-time job seeker to the executive level. You specialize in working with adults who have some work experience and who have just completed a BA or BS degree from your alma mater. The FORTUNE 100 best companies to work for list comes out each year in , mid-January (avaliable at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/). Your supervisor thinks it might be useful and has asked you to prepare a report. Specifically, she wants to know: • Can establishing a working relationship with any or some or all of the companies on the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list help you do your job better? • Are any or some or all of these companies potential employers for the graduates you went to school with? • Are there specific companies that the agency should target to establish an exclusive relationship with? Which ones and why? FORMAT FOR THE FORMAL REPORT Remember your audience as you plan, write, and complete your report. Your audience is under no obligation to read your report: It is up to you understand your audience well enough to craft a document that they will want to read. The formal report assignment is a formal business report and should follow the conventions. Use graphics (tables, charts, pictures, etc.) to assist you in illustrating your findings. Remember, there is some real validity in the phrase, one picture is worth a thousand words. For this report you will want to include: Length= 10 pages 1 inch margins all around Numbered pages with headers Single spaced APA format to include works cited PREFATORY PARTS • title page • letter or memo of transmittal. (Depending on which option you pick, you will need a letter or a memo. Letters go to individuals external to your organization, and memos are for internal correspondence.) • table of contents and list of illustrations • executive summary or synopsis (In academic writing, this is called an abstract.) BODY/TEXT • introduction (must include problem/purpose, scope, background, limitations, organization) • body (this is where you present your findings, discuss them, and interpret them, and what do you recommend). • close (what where the key points? This is your call to action, what you want done.) SUPPLEMENTARY • Appendix, if needed (material referred to but not included in the text which you want your audience to see) • References/Works Cited (listing of your sources) How it will be graded: Name: Title: COMMENTS PREFATORY • cover letter • title page • table of contents • list of illustrations (if applicable) • executive summary BODY/TEXT • introduction (must include problem/purpose, scope, background, limitations, organization) • body (this is where you present your findings, discuss them, and interpret them) summary (what were the key points?) • conclusions/recommendations (this is your call to action -- what do you want done?) SUPPLEMENTARY • Appendix (material that you refer to in the paper but have not included in the text but you want your audience to see) • References/Bibliography (listing of your sources) Read More