External Consultancy for Staffing Services - Case Study Example

?EXTERNAL CONSULTANCY FOR STAFFING SERVICES of Many companies seek to alter their strategic business and corporateplans to move away from the traditional methods and create a homogeneous performance plan. Tanglewood seeks to change its staffing quantity and quality strategies to fit the current state of the market. That is the aim of this case study illustration: Staffing Levels Acquire or Develop Talent According to Kammeyer-Mueller (2012), the company does not operate extensively on a flexible work force because it wants to create a strong culture. Moreover, it is seen that there are some management teams that have a high level responsibility than others depending on the vertical position held. Therefore, it is highly advised that the company adopts the culture of both acquisition and development of talent. This is the case because since all employees, full time or part time, are part of the workforce, there will always be vacancies that can never be filled by someone already present in the company. That is why the company human resource has to source from the external professionals. After acquiring this talent, it is highly recommended that the company develops this talent to the level of operation required. This is the only way to develop the culture of the company because Saari, Lise and Timothy (2004) indicated that employees tend to be part of a company culture when they are developed within the company. Top managers like the regional managers should therefore never be acquired but developed from within. Lag or Lead System The company should strictly continue with the lead system. Human resource experts indicate that customers tend to be part of a company when all its stores are operating in a homogeneous way. Tanglewood is experiencing a situation where some branch HR managers are adapting their own way of running their branches. It is this lack of uniformity that creates customer confusion among the different branches (Cooper & Burke, 2011). No doubt the company had to hire a consulting firm to help develop the missing team work. Given the competitive industry that the company is operating in, it is easy for huge companies like Wal-Mart to acquire Tanglewood one day. Another advantage of leading is that the company president is able to easily co-ordinate all the branch activities since there is a high rate of cognizable and unified operating systems. With the company operating 243 stores in 15 divisions, lack of homogeneity can create a drop in communication between the stores. Moreover, the company elements were taken from those of the other firms in the industry. A strong counterproductive initiative by any of the competitors based on these elements would be extremely dangerous to the company. External or Internal Hiring The company organizational structure is said to be that which a familiar hierarchy. It is said to be a deceptive structure in that most of the decisions come from the subordinates. Moreover, there is always a directive that assistant store managers should always give instructions to their juniors. Therefore, owing to this, the company is supposed to create two hiring avenues. The first avenue is where the senior management teams are never hired from the external setting. Secondly, the very junior management teams like the store and operations associates are hired from the external setting. This is important to making sure that the culture of the company is developed. In view of Wilton (2010), when a vacant position opens aup at the top management, there is need to promote someone in the repective lower position to cover up for that. The resultant view will be that each employee in the respective lower position will be promoted leaving the lowest position vacant. This is the position that would involve external hiring. Core or Flexible Workforce From the case information, the company is said to maintain a core work force, whether temporary or permanent. From a professional perspective, much as it is the will of the company to develop a core work force, there are situations that require flexibility and contingency approach. This should be done to such minimal levels that it should only be applicable in situations of contingency matters. However, maintenance of a core work force gives the workers a sense of belonging in the company. It makes the workers give their all in making the company operates at full potential (Edwards, Scott, & Raju, 2003). At inception, the company is said to promote the culture of employee freedom in decision making. The president indicated that “If you tell someone exactly what to do, you’re only getting half an employee. If you give someone the space to make their own decisions, you’re getting a whole person.” The company should therefore promote this by remaining core to its workforce. Hire or Retain The company as seen earlier has a culture of promoting the current labor force in it to senior positions. The environmental scan in Washington, which could be a sample representative of the other states indicate that there are very many highly qualified professionals in the market (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The company usually hires high caliber professionals in town and transfers them to remote areas on promotion grounds. Moreover, the lower level retail section is known by graduates as an intimidating chore because of the long hours put in it and the low pay realized. The company has also realized a certain percentage of employee turnovers. To this effect, the company has the obligation of looking into the issues that cause the turnover so that the retention rate can be highly maximized. To maintain a strong culture as was maintained by the company pioneers, the rate of retention must be highly reduced. Hiring cannot be avoided but should be done at the lower levels and a high rate of retention done at the managerial level (Saari & Judge, 2004). National or Global There seems to be lack of cohesive and homogenous decisions when it comes to decisions related to operations in the different regions in the country. For instance, there are places that could not be determined as whether they are full regions or not like the issue of the different regions of Washington. This is important because it determines the level of human resource endowment that should be allocated in these places. For instance, in Washington, there are some issues that have not been fully determined; scanning for requirements in labor, labor availability, environmental scans and gaps available and development of the required action plans. Given that the company is still not sure about this internal issue, it would be unwise to globalize itself before these are settled. The company is therefore advised to create globalization as one of its corporate strategies. Meanwhile, it should solve the current management expansion and regional human resource endowments (Cooper & Burke, 2011). This will stabilize the internal situation and then the company would carry out globalization, first to the Americas and then to the rest of the world. Attract or Relocate Attraction of qualified staff is important for the company given that there are other high ranking companies in the industry. Competition for the best management teams is a valuable thing for the companies in that industry. The company has not had a strong corporate staffing function. Most of the staff members in any company would always like to stay in urban areas where they have accessibility to high caliber services. Therefore, the company should make it a habit and culture to attract the best human resource there is in the market by offering a competitive pay package and effective welfare. Relocation should be by mutual agreement but there are likely no workers that would dispute relocation if it amounts to a promotion. The mutual agreement spoken of is in line with the difficulty that some of the employees have in adapting to the corporate culture at the company (Wilton, 2010). Since the company usually suffers from a drop in human resource and an influx at other times, it should be made possible for some employees to be relocated to other zones when a drop in HR is experienced. Overstaff or Understaff Fluctuations in the economy and the seasonal changes in demand for the company products have meant that the company carries a high number of employees during certain accounting periods compared to other times when there is a deficit. A solution to this problem would be to maintain a considerable and permanent number of middle to senior management employees. The proposal would be that most of the permanent employees remain permanent. The junior retail sections are supposed to contain a program where seasonal employment is made possible in which case, from the historical experience, the company is aware of the times when there is an influx and a deficiency. During these times, the company is supposed to hire on temporary basis to take care of the high demand. The number of employees is therefore supposed to remain at optimum to allow for seasonal adjustments whenever a contingent situation arises (Cooper & Burke, 2011). Hire or Acquire To hire or acquire human resource at the company depends on the situation and seasonal changes in demand and supply. There is reported a situation of staff turnover rate when performance indicators are correlated against the survey data of 153 managers of the company. This is a sample worthy of communication to the idea of whether to hire or acquire employees. With the realized turnover, when there is a staff member leaving the firm at managerial level, then the company is supposed to make a replacement from the immediate junior employee under him/her. If the chain goes on until the low level positions are missing workers, then the season has to be determined. If the season is that where the demand is high, then some employees at retail levels need to be hired. A new employee, already in existent in the market as seen in the Washington case is only to be acquired if all the available alternative choices have been exhausted (Saari & Judge, 2004). Staffing Quality Person/Job or Person/Organization Match The match between the different staff members at the company has been fair. Following the culture of the company, there has been high rate of retention of employees. However, just like in any other organization, staff turnover has been inevitable. Some turnover has not been because of poor pay but the need to look for a better challenge in the job market. The company however has reservations that do not create an extensive job match between the employees and their jobs. There is a mixed combination of factors as far as the employee-job match is concerned. There are some senior employees that get so much experience that they professionally overgrow their current positions. The company is supposed to have a situation where it finances some personal takes in life like financing the further education of senior employees. In doing so, there will be an effective and competitive match between the chores done, the qualifications with reference to the other companies in the industry (Edwards, Scott, & Raju, 2003). Specific or General KSAOs The knowledge, skills, and abilities and other capabilities have been developed over the years in the company management team. In Washington where the company has its basic roots, there is said to be high caliber professionals in the market. The company has a very profound organizational structure. The employment satisfaction survey indicates that once hired, the company develops the managers the Tanglewood way (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). It is only concerned that the supervisory procedures work effectively. The employee satisfaction survey indicate that much as the company is one of the market leaders in payment, its benefits scheme does not match the KSAOs of the respective employees. Therefore, if there is any improvement that needs to be done, then the company must focus on the benefits scheme. It has to be noted that some top managers resigned because the company could not finance their MBA education. It should therefore increase the contribution to the senior employee benefits (Edwards, Scott, & Raju, 2003). Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality The workforce quality has been arranged in such a way that all the departmental areas are given the respective work that they are specialized in. For instance, the qualifications for softlines, hardlines and operations managers may be the same but the training done in the capacity of Tanglewood way defines the specific jobs that will be done at the respective offices. However, in the wake of maintaining the company culture, there are possibilities that some of the low level employees are promoted when a vacant position comes up. The change in the position may jeopardize the quality especially when the changes are done in a short period of time (Wilton, 2010). The company can therefore consider external sourcing of the required HR work force that suits the ability and experience required at the respective positions. This does not require a lot of changes as the company human resource are fairly good. Only in rare positions should such a situation be handled as such especially in contingency matters. Active or Passive Diversity The company policy is based on innovation as per the personal view of the employees. They are allowed to their own creations and are therefore improving the quality of the goods created. Therefore, there is supposed to be active diversity that is limited by a well co-ordinated supervisory team. Top managers have constantly complained that there are things within their jurisdiction that are done without their knowledge. This is due to the autonomous innovations that have been allowed at the company. Therefore, to create safety, good employee relations and respect at the work place, there is supposed to be a well regulated diversity at the company (Cooper & Burke, 2011). Another form of diversity comes in the wake of origin of the employees. This company employs the whites, blacks and non-white Americans (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). In a largely cosmopolitan country like America, this should be encouraged as it has a customer view. It means that if the company fails to employ blacks, the black customer base may not want to associate with the company. References Cooper, C. L., & Burke, R. J. (2011). Human Resource Management in Small Business: Achieving Peak Performance. London: Edward Elgar Publishing. Edwards, J. E., Scott, J. C., & Raju, N. S. (2003). The Human Resources Program-Evaluation Handbook. New York: SAGE. Kammeyer-Mueller, J. (2012). Tanglewood Casebook for use with Staffing Organizations. Florida: Warrington College of Business. Saari, L. M., & Judge, T. A. (2004). EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES AND JOB SATISFACTION. Human Resource Management, 43(4), 395-407. Wilton, N. (2010). An Introduction to Human Resource Management. London: SAGE. Read More