The 2008 Scenarios That Impacted on Williamson Tea Company Negatively - Case Study Example

Running Head: CONTRIBUTE TO STRATEGIC DIRECTION Student name: Student number: Course title: Lecturer: Date: The 2008 scenarios that impacted on our company negatively The Williamson Tea company A few years back there was a triumphant line of expediency to our various Tealeaves repositories’ country wide. At certain point, mid of the year 2007, our company staff realized that our repositories were now patronized by a few individuals. This trend was observed until the beginning of the year 2008. This was passed along to the team concerned with management where the information reached my desk. As a manager I took the first initiative of directing all the repositories tellers to informally keep up to date with the proportions of the companies products purchased from the repositories on a daily basis. It happened that the hypothesis appeared to be the truth, most of our products seemed to loose grip on most of the consumers, and especially our esteemed customers. This information was also disseminated to supervisors to confirm if this was the trend, and the report was the same. This got higher level organization attention and they started to be in awe why this was taking place. The graph above shows the total Tealeaves purchased in tones in all the months of the year 2008. The data collected in all the repositories of the company spread countrywide. As it can be observed there was a decline in all the grades of the Tealeaves. Ultimately the management came up with the decision that this was a too outsized group of budding customers to drop, and a resolution was eventually reached to study this occurrence and to discern why it was happening, and if something could be done as regards it. Another scenario was about the number employees whose role majorly is to harvest tea from the farm, weigh, transport, process, and packing of the tea. The number started to decline with time. It was a rainy season and as usual we as an organization expected to recruit new labor force due to increased tasks. However, instead the company suffered a major blow since no one came to request for any vacancy as opposed to earlier years where people came to seek for employment without the company running a job advert. The same information on the scenario was also passed along to management panel and they asked the personnel office to keep an eye on the proportions of women and men patronizing the office to seek for any form of employment in the company during the peak season. It was to the amazement of the management to realize that what the company has least been expecting in the past years has finally happened, almost nil report on the number of job seekers visiting the company’s branches country wide was recorded. This also got the attention of higher level of administration. The graph shows clearly the total number of employees at the end of the year. Therefore the total number of employees as at December 2008 was barely 20000. The graph above shows the number the total number of job seekers in the year 2008. The data shows that there was a decline in the total number of those seeking for an opportunity in the company. The management finally resolved that this was embarrassing and that the operation of the organization was going to be hampered, and a decision was in the long run made to study the occurrence and why it was happening, and if something could be done a propos it. Primary research at Williamson Company The research into the facets of the working environment was crucial for Williamson Company. It was required to make sure that the services and its products met the changing and the diverse requirements of the customers. I took the lead in ensuring that our employees get a high level of contentment. The up to date research taught me that if the working environment is excellent, the employees are possible to be productive. This was very crucial for the consumers of our products. To be effectual in the research in the research I had to find efficient ways of acquiring precise information. This majorly was on the part the sale processes. One of the ways that I had to use to acquire a primary research was through our esteemed staff and customers. The sales department continuously collected information through debates with the potential and existing customers. As a manager I had to use a focus group to single out the factors that have affected the productivity and the performance of the workers’ in the work environment. This outcome was to form a basis for assessing the users view and to improve our services and products. Through the use of survey to acquire quantitative data, it enabled me to ascertain why customers opted for our competitors other than us. The secondary research This helped me to establish various ways of improving our existing products and creating new products that guarantees an engaged and productive labor force. This convinced me of attaining a cutthroat edge over our competitors. My survey concerned itself on the type of aspects of the working environment had a great impact on improvement of performance of employees. I had come up data that showed how employees retort to work environment and realized that employees are of three types: That 30% of our employees work with enthusiasm and felt a deep connection with our organization. They impel innovation and progress the organization frontward. That 51% of our employees are basically looked into. They catnap walk during their workday setting time, other than passion and energy, into their job. That 19% of our employees are not only discontented at work. They are actively working out their discontentment. These workers therefore undermine what the 30% of their colleagues are accomplishing. Out of this I realized that in order for our company to have a cutthroat edge over our competitors it was important that our firm possess resources such as trademarks and patents, the know how on the proprietary, the installation of customer based, the firm reputation, and equity of brand. I also realized that our company as been slow than our competitors in delivering its products to the market. This thus meant that that our company has not fully utilized its resources. This plus our resources forms the basis of competencies that are distinctive that facilitates efficiency, innovation, responsiveness of customers, and quality. This can therefore be influenced to create an advantage of cost or advantage of differentiation. In my research I realized that the advantage of cost and differentiation can be established by applying capabilities and resources to attain either a structure of cost that is low or a product that is differentiated. This led me to coming up with a strategy for the company that is competitive. I also realized that the company had to create value by carrying out a series of actions that is termed as chain of value. And to attain a competitive gain, our company must carry out more than one value creation tasks in a manner that makes on the whole value as compared to our competitors. It is worth noting that the research was boosted by the knowledge of the five forces of porter. This included understanding the power of supply of rival company and the general business environment, the threats posed by those entering into the business, the threat posed by substitute products like coffee, and cocoa. Porter as also enabled me establish a way to understand the buying power of the customers and the degree of competition in the market. Therefore in pursuit of advantage over our competitors, our company through the research as chose to form numerous competitive progresses which include: Exploiting the supplier relationship. Using the distribution channels creatively. This is by employing channels of distribution that are novel to the business. Price change. This is by lowering our prices. Improving the distribution of products. This is by improving product features, implementation of innovations in the process of manufacture and the merchandise itself. The SWOT analysis of Williamson Tea Company as at the year 2008 Opportunities Unsatisfied needs of the customer. Advent of fresh technologies. Strengths Patents Creating a stronger brand name. Improving the reputation of our customers. Advantages of cost realized from know how proprietary. Improving our distribution network and establishing accesses that are favorable. Threats The shift in the taste of consumers from our product. Emergence of alternative products Weaknesses Insufficient protection of patent. Having a brand name that is weak. Customers’ poor reputation. Structure of cost that is high. Inadequate way in to key channels of distribution. After carrying out my research I find that it is imperative for the company in the near future to improve even further the working conditions of its employees. I also found out that the company should improve the state of its machinery and that they should adopt modern technology. This includes mechanizing other tasks like harvesting of tea and also training the workforce to fit into the new technologies. DEVELOPING A WORKPLACE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT The current approaches to diagnostic techniques include: Reengineering the business processes to raise the performance of the organization by redesigning the processes and structure of the organization. Employing benchmarking to come up with a clear position of our organization as far as comparison with performance with other organizations is concerned. Incessant improvement on the satisfaction of the customer through incremental and continuous improvement. Change of culture. This is going to involve the change of the organizations basic norms values, and beliefs among the organizations’ members. The Management of Total Quality (TQM) so as the organization persistently meets or surpasses the requirements of the customer. Evaluation of program to raise the efficiencies of the programs processes thus cutting cost to programs that are quality for cases of accreditation. Strategic planning to single out the direction of strategy in the organization. The future learning requirements in our organization is developing learning culture within the organization includes: employees embracing the need to learn to improve on their skills, organization integrating training as a function of strategy, differentiating training and education by employees, applying the action erudition to wipe out problems related to operation by the organization, improving on cohesiveness of the team and staff feeding the management when they have a need for training. The personal development and learning should also in future be emphasized so as the needs of the employees in relation to satisfaction on personal learning is bettered, have the motivation to learn, the aptitude to learn, to be certain of is own potential to learn, have the depth, speed and breadth of learning. The current range of learning strategies within our organization The current range of learning strategies within our organization encompasses the entire staff of the organization basing on the current needs of the market in relation to the organization. The first strategy of learning within the organization is training the entire staff on the use of windows XP operating systems and the MS office XP suite. This is followed by training of the individual staff basing on the current responsibility held within the organization. Manager employee relations. The manger is expected to update is professional needs in field of HRM and Building/ Construction Industry areas. He is also expected to learn the use of the new laptop computer and software and software. The personnel consultant. The manager is currently studying for the advanced diploma. He also needs to learn on how to use the organizations computing system on how to access information and data and also on how to use the new laptop computer software. Human resource development consultant. The manager is an ongoing student pursuing Arts degree in Psychology. The manager is expected to update the professional needs in HRM and Building industry. The manager is also expected the organizations computing system. Occupational healthy and safety consultant. The manager is expected to learn more on trade unions and disputation resolutions. He also expected to be acquainted with the new lap top computer and software. Reception and clerical/ Administrative support. The manager is expected to learn more on desktop publishing/computer graphics, marketing and selling skills for the HR unit’s programs. These strategies are very much relevant and suitable for our organization since we are geared towards up skilling workforce in our organization in order to meet long term needs of our organizations, future protection of job security of the labor force, and the economy. The current learning programs applied by the organization Our organization strategy on learning favors personalized and customized training curriculums as opposed to one size fits all. However, we have a few of our staff studying in outside colleges on personal arrangement. This is where training is tailor made to suite to our current needs. Our company as setup centers for training within the organization and also provides distance learning through the use of internet. As explained above on the individual professional needs, a comprehensive study program spreading through the entire period of the course for our employees on distance learning and those studying at our workplace studying centers will be developed to ensure the running of the activities of the organization are not hampered. Reacting to the intelligence of the labor market and learning is our concern since it is one of our strategies for workplace learning. The costing and evaluation details for the programs Payback of learning Shown By The performance has increased Increase in productivity Sales have increased Variations have reduced The ratio of service/production to cost of labor has improved Building culture and commitment The turnover on staff has reduced Reduced cases of absenteeism The satisfaction on job as improved Attitude towards work as improved Improved integration of HRD tools Succession and recruitment planning Performance appraisal Analysis on the needs of training Auditing of skills Analysis of skills Reduced cost of recruitment, succession and selection planning Recruitment as improved Improvement on retention rate for an individual. Improved relations between learning completed and promotion. The workforce responsiveness Improvement on satisfaction of customers Reduced complaints Improvement on group work More intense innovation adoption workforce responsiveness to the opportunities of the market Reduction in the cost of replacement of staff Reduced cost of recruitment Movement of the existing staff to job that is vacant. promotion, retention of staff and terms of employment Details of how the current programs are evaluated The principle Enablers Barriers Reliability Based on objective that promote distinct evaluation to judge performance standards and individual attribute Evaluation process is simple Consideration of how performance will be impacted by change The application of formative evaluation to come up with summative outcomes Distinct expectations displayed through performance wording criteria Process of evaluation is complex Prescriptive or narrow tools Over reliance evaluations that are summative Unclear relations between evaluation task and jobs/ employment Flexibility Evaluation offers options Evaluation promotes accessibility Evaluation is not viewed as intervention in either learning or work The task evaluation limits alternatives for the job completion. Evaluation is hard to access or establish. Few evaluators are qualified to make use of the tool. The process of evaluation is complex. Authentic Evidence collection can be trailed to the one evaluated. Evidence can be collected from numerous sources and not trailed to the one evaluated. Currency Evaluation allows task to be reflected on the current practices of work. The recent equipment and technology are integrated. Evaluation reflects past practices or paradigms. Evaluation is connected to approach or philosophy not accepted universally. As it be can observed from the above analysis great improvements have taken place. However, for greater improvement to be realized the organization should constantly carry out evaluation on its staff. This is going to go along way in establishing the position of the organization in relation to the market trends. Recruit, select, and induction of staff Methods of forecasting demand for labor Direct managerial input is the most frequently applied approach to establishing future requirements of the workforce. This is made possible through an edict that workforce or headcount costs will be a number that is specific. For instance when a company has a large number of staff the approach is appropriate. The approach of best guess, this includes requirement for the recent headcount and the headcount changes as a result of changes in the business anticipated. For instance a case where the managers are tasked to give the future needs of workforce. Use of historical changes, this is where companies relate general headcounts with other factors of business. For instance, the past history of demand of labor of a company is to be compared with the present one in order to come up with the future labor demand. Recruitment on basis of experience and keen eye for talent This is not the best approach. This is because the person recruited might have been working hard to impress the management with a keen interest to be considered incase of a job opportunity. Job analysis, this is also referred to as job classification. This is a systematic journeying of the task, abilities of account, and duties. This involves analysis of job process and collecting of background information. It also entails job specification, development of description of a job and selecting of jobs’ representative to be analyzed. This is important as it serves to give a record of positions available in the firm in the firm, responsibilities, and the needed expertise for the job. For instance if Williamson Tea company wishes to recruit a factory manager, they would first determine the kind of qualification of the person needed to be recruited for job. They give a projection of the needed expertise for the job. Job specification, this refers to things like the persons’ qualification that the he or she requires at the time of determination of range of salary or job position. It is a characteristic of employees’ statement and qualification needed for acceptable performance of distinctive tasks and duties consisting of specific function or job. This is a critical role as it serves to determine how much one should be paid or if he/she can be promoted. For example Williamson Tea Company would wish to employ a general manager; first they will take into consideration the qualifications of the assistant general manager and establish if indeed he/she is qualified. If not qualified to take the position they would outsource for a qualified person. Job description, this is a record of general functions, or responsibilities, and tasks of apposition. They also encompass the chain of command and are usually established by carrying out analysis on the job, which entails studying the tasks and the tasks’ sequence required to execute the job. For instance in the Williamson Tea company this role is important in establishment of the responsibilities of the various staff in the company. It serves to inform the high level of management about one’s ability to undertake certain roles within the organization. If for example the management wants to review the role of Field manager in relation to foreman and come up with defined boundaries on the roles of the field manager and the foreman. This helps in avoiding conflict in the roles played by the two people. Sources of external recruitment Factory level employment, this is where the applications for vacant position are handed over at the factories’ bulletin board at the gate. The advantage is that the company does not incur much cost on running the advertisement. The disadvantage is that a few people may be from the vicinity get to learn about the vacant position hence it may lead to not getting the right people for the right job. Advertisement, this is where an advert is run over the newspapers, televisions, radio and other forms of media. The advantage is that the advertisement reaches a large proportion of job seekers within a short time. This is important because many people get to apply for the job and the right person for the job can be identified. The disadvantage is that it is costly to the company to advertise. Educational institutions, these are institutions that recruit graduates who have just graduated from these institutions. The advantage is that the institutions know the candidates at personal level since they have been their students and that they can match their abilities to the job. The disadvantage is that there is likelihood of breaching the laws that govern recruitment of qualified person. This is because one may be favored though not qualified. Other sources of external recruitment are through recommendation from people who have experience in certain areas, agencies that carry out employment on behalf of the respective companies, through contractors of labor, and applicants who are unsolicited. The advantages of recruiting within the organization is that it is cheaper to run the advertisement, there is no waste of time in trying to source for people you are not sure of the expertise they contain in their applications for the job when you already have someone in the organization you are sure of his/her abilities, and that the company has a record of the employees abilities, informal and formal skills. However, the disadvantages are that it may in a negative way affect the commitment and the morale of those not given promotion, it may also result to competition amongst individual staff for promotion; this can affect collaboration and cooperation, and lastly lack of workforce from outside may result to lack of new approaches and ideas hence low production. Recruitment is influenced by legislation in that the employers must adhere to the anti discrimination laws to shun probable criminal or civil charges. Types of legislation The civil right act of 1964 The Americans with disabilities act of 1990 Amendments forbidding discrimination on selection and recruitment The act was enacted in the year 1964 in the United States of America. It was enacted to shun prejudice against women and blacks. This also encompasses segregation on racial. For instance if in a case where the potential candidates are may be natives of the place and the qualified person is an immigrant then he/she should be discriminated against due to its nationality origin. The Americans with disabilities act of 1990 discourages discrimination against people with disabilities or any kind of limitations. For instance, for the disable people a wheel chair must be provided as a testing facility before employment by the employer. Amendments forbidding discrimination of any form, this agitates for equal employment opportunities and that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of color, race, religion, sex, or national of origin. For instance, a case where a Christian applies for a job in a Muslim country and that he/she is qualified then he/she should not be discriminated against because of the religion. The organization therefore is obligated to employ this particular person irrespective of the religion. Types of testing employees Cognitive tests, this assesses memory, reasoning, accuracy, speed of perceptual and arithmetic skills and reading of comprehension. This also includes knowledge on the particular job or function. Inquiries on medical and physical examination, this entails test on psychology, and assessing mental, or physical health. This includes a case where the employee could be mentally unfit or as faked the documents used for applying for the job. For instance the person can be given a passage or a simple arithmetic test to work out within a stipulated time. Guideline is that the person must perform the test within a certain time framework. From this point the recruiting staff can come out with a clear state of the employee. Test on integrity and personality, this assesses the level to which an individual possesses particular dispositions and traits. This also may be destined to ascertain the persons’ likelihood to engage in particular conduct. This serves to give a full information on the employee conduct if may be he/she is violent or even a drug addict. The guideline on this is that the employee must be taken for a test to ascertain if he/she is a drug addict or has related cases. Work experience may also serve as a guideline as it tells the previous performance of the employee. Advantages of personal interview The interviewer can come up with the questions he/she deems necessary given the reaction of the person. Pressure, uneasiness, and other languages of the body can be noticed face to face. For instance a question asked may seem kind of ridiculous or irritating to the respondent and this may prompt the respondent to react positively or negatively. Disadvantages The respondents could feel nervous reacting to the personal queries with the interviewer. For example they may fumble while answering the questions. Importance of induction Induction of new recruits in an organization helps to raise the staff discernment of the organizational mission, values, and culture. Importance of interviewing applicants at the end of personal interview Interviewing the applicants at the end of an interview helps the interviewer to further access the applicants’ knowledge. The anticipation of the interviewer can be debated freely. The interviewer can further explain the requirements of the job and the candidate can further divulge more information about his or her requirements. I would prefer to use simple evaluation forms. This because the simple evaluation forms serves to tell us more about the keenness of the applicant since most people do not pay attention to small details as opposed to using weighty evaluation forms which cannot give the real position of the applicants’ ability. For instance you may come up with general questions concerning the job and other related topics to check on his or her understanding on the job and the level of his or her general knowledge. Industrial Relation consultant Our company before recruiting the workforce did carry out enough consultations from the Wales Industrial Relation Law to lay out the legal framework for the welfare of employees and the company at large. They facilitated our recruitment process through the various services ranging from industrial relation to human resources. This included the knowledge on: Unfair dismissals Wages underpayment Employment on contract basis Agreements of workplace. This includes acting on our behalf as bargaining representative. Employment termination which includes redundancy. Liaison with just labor ombudsman Drafting of policies Workplace complaints investigations Coaching of managers Programs on training. This includes; suitable workplace etiquette( harassment, discrimination and bullying) Performance management Manager’s obligations Getting the right person for the right job Bibliography Authenticity Consulting, LLC. "Free Mnagement Library." Organizational Performance Mangement (2009): 1-2. Dan, Ward. "Workforce demand forecasting techniques." AllBusiness (1996): 1-6. O'Donnel, Jacqui. "Developing the workforce learning in and for the workplace." Employer's Guide (2004): 1-8. Read More