Accenture and Zappos - Strategy for Maximizing Employee Job Satisfaction - Case Study Example

Accenture and Zappos Case studies

Accenture case study summary

Accenture is a consultancy firm which is based in Atlanta and it deals with information technology systems. The company has a large number of employees with more than 60,000 employees given jobs in this company straight out of college. It is believed that the company loses most of its employees to the top companies in the country. However, this is not the case because most of the top employees are taken by the clients to whom they offer their services to. The workers establish a large network of clients when they are doing their work which may need them to travel all over in search for clients. Due to that large network which is established, they find themselves grabbing away from the clients. The company has a program which is used for new employees who start working for the company. The company has a career counselor program which assists the new employees. The counselors who are assigned to the employees simply are employees who have a higher rank in the organization and assist in mentoring the young employees. The mentors or the counselors used should be from the same line of functionality in the business since they must guide the employees on the ways which they should achieve their business goals easily (Zappos). Most of the companies use the formal way of introducing new workers in the job specified whereby they hire people to mentor but Accenture just uses the internal employees. The counselors have different functions in making sure that the clients are satisfied. They explain the various career options which are offered by the company which makes it easy for the workers in the company. They also explain to the workers about the working environment and how best the workers can be connected and feel like they belong to the organization. The skills which every counsellor has are very important in the development of their careers. This is because counselors with higher skills are paid more than the other counselors who have few skills.

Questions

3.1 What can the company do to reduce the number of consultants who leave their work for the client firms? Would these strategies used have unintended drawbacks?

The company has to table a good offer for the workers who usually start off in the company to avoid from leaving the company. This is very important because it assists the workers in motivation and also in making sure they are not easily sourced out. The offer may be in terms of financial or non-financial services (Zappos). The financial services which are offered by the company include using bonuses on the employees who work better and also raising their salaries. Generally, the salary offered to the employees needs to be high which makes them to stick to the firm. The non-financial services which are offered involve praising the workers who work better and introducing awards to those employees who are good in terms of services. This assists in lifting the profitability of the firm since it boosts the morale of the workers. The other strategy which is used by the company should be aimed at making sure that the college graduates who are chosen to the company have the necessary skills and the working environment should be changed to be in such a way that it accommodates them (Zappos). This will make them feel like they belong to that organization which automatically improves the level of profitability of the organization. Also, this makes the workers focused on the main goals of the organization since their morale is boosted on the process.

These strategies may have unintended drawbacks to the organization because the expenses of the organization generally increase as a result of involvement in the financial ways of motivation. This affects the profitability of the organization at the expense of making the workers happy. Keeping the workers happy by changing the business environment to suit the new workers may also have an effect to the senior employees since they may find the environment weirder to work with since they are exposed to different environments.

3.2 silver lining of Accenture when consultants leave to work for their clients? Can they benefit the firm in any way?

A case whereby the workers can leave their work to work for the client firms is when the business environment is better in the client firms and also the pay is high. In such a case, the employees will be automatically tempted to leave the firm to work for the client firm where they feel like they belong. Further in the case, when the workers are motivated in a better way may assist in making them go for greener pastures.

The fact that the employees have left the firm and choose to work for the other company can assist the firm since it reduces the expenses incurred by the firm and also it reduces the number of employees who depend on the firm (Zappos). Since the firm employs 60,000 employees every year, then employees leaving the firm forms an avenue of employing more workers for the firm.

3.3 other firms are reluctant in placing the formal counselling like Accenture assuming it can be passed informally through supervisors. What are the arguments of formalizing the process just like Accenture has done?

The formalization of the process of employment assists the firm in improving generally because it provides a good mentorship program for its employees, unlike in cases whereby the mentorship is provided by the supervisors. The formalization of the process offers professional skills to the workers who work in the organization which makes them to be better employees as compared to the competing firm workers. Further still, it helps in providing a good sense of belonging, unlike the supervisors who use in appropriate ways of mentoring the workers. They may use forceful ways of keeping the workers focused, unlike the counselors who usually encourage.

Zappos case study

Zappos as a company is said to promote weirdness which makes the company employ to employ and maintain only those workers who are satisfied to its business environment. If the employees in this company feel like they are not satisfied with the business environment in the organization, then they are given an easy way out of the organization. They may also feel uncomfortable with the workers in the organization, and the organizational activities which can make them resent the organization. Through “the offer”, the workers are given an easy way out of the organization easily and find other ways which they can find employment opportunities. The training period in the organization is usually set at 4 weeks in the organization whereby the workers are given an overview of the company, its strategies and the approach which they should take in offering the customer services. During that period, the workers are offered a full salary for their work. After one week of working the workers are offered a full salary for the month, which is $2000 and a bonus of $2000 if they choose to quit (Zappos). The bonus has been increasing over the years from the initial value which was set at $100 then $500 and $1000 which later changed to $2000. All these changes have made the bonus to be very appropriate for the workers. 3% of the workers are said to have quit after the first week and 97% have remained in the organization even after that initial offer of $2000. The company shows a lot of diligence while employing and also it maximizes on the satisfaction of its employees in the business environment.

Questions

4.1 What do you think of the offer as a strategy for maximizing job satisfaction?

The offer is a good strategy which is used in providing job satisfaction since it gives the workers an easy way out with no losses at all. It’s a good strategy in cases whereby the firm wants to keep a good relationship with its employees since initially they are given a chance to quit if the business environment does not suit them and also they are given cash bonuses in the process. This strategy shows that the business is committed to offering quality services to its customers and also its aims at maximizing the satisfaction of its employees.

4.2 can this strategy be used by other organizations?

Apart from being used in Zappos, this strategy can be used elsewhere in other firms, especially to the firms which are aimed at providing quality services and they require the maximum cooperation of the workers in achieving that. It can also be a way of ascertaining the strengths of the workers in an organization and finding the appropriate ways which the workers can coexist in the business environment.

4.3 do you think the policy of “the offer” needs to evolve and in what ways?

This policy of the offer needs to evolve because considering that 3% of the employees have quit after being offered that money, it shows that the company is making losses by offering free money to the workers with job training skills. If more than 20% of the workers default and fail to comply with the organization, then losses made by the company will be significant and may pull the organization down. The offer should be reduced or eradicated completely. The replacement to this strategy can be another strategy which aims at job satisfaction of the employees in a better way than offering them money. This can be through offering bonuses to the workers and also making the interview process direct to the point of the job description for the employees to choose they want to work with the company or not.