Career Management Program - Assignment Example

Career Management Program Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Recommendations 4 Justification 5 Background 6 History of the Issue 6 Symptoms Vs Causes 7 Cost Implications 7 Legal Implications 8 Relationship Implications 9 Other Company Practices 10 Timing 10 Evaluation of Alternatives 11 Implementation 13 Bibliography 14 Executive Summary The report consists of five concise recommendations that have been felt required to take the Vision Plus Limited in the right track of growth and sustainable development. The report also has a dedicated section of justification of such recommendations. The present status of the company has been analyzed with the background of the organization. The background throws light to the history, present symptoms and likely causes, legal, cost and relationship implications. Also, the report assesses the time required, evaluation of alternatives and implementation methodologies along with the peer analysis. Recommendations To have a clear concise and succinct career management program, it is recommended to the top management of the Vision Plus Limited to initiate certain measures that would reduce the employee turnover ratio and would enhance the quality of work .De-stressing of the pressurized and frustrated employees is the immediate need. The company should prepare its work force for the challenge that it sets for them. So, a dedicated module of training and development is highly recommended. The employees should also have clear view of their career path and so more career oriented workshops are highly essential. The company can also seriously consider the options like decentralization and more levels of hierarchies as it would have two fold objectives, more career prospects for front line executives and reduced work pressures for the higher levels of supervisors. Justification The Vision Plus Limited has been deeply affected by the high employee-turnover ratio along with the falling market share and the reducing profitability. The company has the turnover ratio at 60% where as the market share has reduced by 20% in last four years. There have been repeated complaints against the organization and has been making the newspaper headlines for all the wrong reasons time and again. The morale of the employees are at all time low and most of the better performers have already left or on the verge of leaving (serving the notice period). Also, it has failed to recruit the best of the lots in spite of numerous campus drives in the trying times of job cuts and financial slowdown and has been remarked as one of the leading worst employers in one of the surveys. Therefore, it is high time that the company initiate certain career management programs apart from other marketing initiatives to bring back the glorious era of being the market leader. Background History of the Issue The company named ‘Vision Plus Limited’, established in 1995, has been one of the leading sales firm of financial products within few years of its incorporation. But since the year 2005, the acquired market share of the company is on the decreasing side. The prime reason identified for such falling profitability has been the high turnover rate especially among the sales officers and sales executives. In the initial years, the management of the company took enough measures to develop the executives all round but once it has been a name in the industry and the work pressure increased, the organization started to set high targets for the employees which often became unachievable. Though, the company had very high rate of incentives for those successful in achieving their targets, but instead of training and providing the employees with clear road map about their targets, the company initiated the policy of ‘hire and fire’ for those unsuccessful. Consequently, with the decreasing security of the job and increasing stress, the company failed to retain the existing force as it also could not attract the talented professionals. Symptoms Vs Causes The performance of the company, in terms of both market share as well as profitability, has been on the falling spree. The customer base of the organization is turning their face away. The company had a market share of 34% in the year of 2005 which has reduced to 12% in 2009. It could attract only 3% of the new market that evolved this year, and in the history of the company, first time it came below the double-figure mark. The employee turnover ratio has been all time high at 60% which includes both, the terminated as well as the resigned. There have been numerous complaints by the customers to the monetary and the regulatory authorities against the company officials of not adhering to the rules in lure of attracting new business. The major complaint that has been doing the rounds of the company premises as the reason of such all round dismal performance is the ‘unachievable’ target set by the management and the fear of losing job on being unsuccessful. Cost Implications Though the market share and the profitability of the company have been on free fall, yet the company is still making profits. The matter of concern is that the profit has decreased by around 50% last year (with 80% decrease in the sales revenue year – on – year basis) and almost by 100% in the last four years. The benefits that are distributed among the employees form two parts, the basic and the performance based incentives. According to the company norms, the bulk of the payment takes the form of performance based incentives and so the falling sales revenue did not hamper the status of being profitable. But such state hurts the company on a different note as the best of the talents are leaving the company and it is becoming increasingly tough to recruit experienced professionals. The recommendations that has been prescribed in the report (in lieu of extensive training and development, various de-stressing measures, setting up of new hierarchy and making the company more decentralized) would definitely be expensive in the year in which it is implemented but the benefits of such measures would continue for many years to come and so if the cost of incurring the capital expenses in amortized in the future five years, the profitability of the company would not be hampered. Legal Implications There would not be much of legal implications for the company. The prescribed methodologies of extensive training and development for the executives and employees and adaption of various distressing measures are the internal matters of the company. The other recommendation is about having a range of hierarchies in place in the company. It also includes dividing the existing zones and divisions and regions into many new sub-parts. Such divisions would make the decision making more decentralized and also it would motivate the executives to work hard as it would provide them with a clear picture of growth and development. Setting up of new offices might have certain legal formalities but being a registered company, it should not be any major issue. Relationship Implications The issue of career management program has been discussed with the employees of the company and there has been unanimous positive response from them. Few of the senior employees have gone that far to comment that such measure of career development has been long overdue and if it would have been implemented in the right time, there was no reason for the company to lose such major portion of the market share. The supervisors and management would definitely feel the heat as the new proposed policies would require considerable amount of resources in forms of both time and money. The supervisors would lose their group incentives and the management would have to incur additional costs despite losing factions of the revenue as the executives would be busy with the career development modules. The outside public is expected to welcome the idea as it would develop the executives and employees of the company. The families and the relatives of the work force would also therefore be part of the program, though in a passive mode. The development program is all set to improve the workers both professionally and personally and with adaption of such career management program, the complaints against the company executives are also expected to come down. The program is definitely motivated to retain the talent pool that would otherwise leave the company in due course. Also, with clear career goals and objectives, the new set of talented professionals would be motivated the join the corporation as there are high chances that the company would become the preferred employer in due course of time. Other Company Practices All other major companies have dedicated career management programs in place. The measure has been enacted by the industry peers to retain the best of the talents and to attract the high skilled set of professionals. Series of discussion have been initiated with the executives of various departments which includes both ‘of the field’ and ‘on the field’ employees. The discussions have pointed out that the professional pressure has often taken toll on the personal lives of the employees as many of the executives had been under prolonged medication to get rid of depressions that they faced at office. Such factors have forced the employees to move away from the company. Timing The onus lies upon the management and the decision making body of the organization to set the time frame. As per the past finding and future trends, the company should initiate instant measures to settle up the issue. The entire process of the career management program can be divided in to two parts, internal and external. The internal measures include having effective training and development schemes and de-stressing measures. It could well take six months to eight months settle the issue. The external measure comprises of setting new offices and newer chain of hierarchies. This can take a few more months or a year may be, as it would be required to amend the constitution of the company to inculcate such changes. There is almost no doubt that the company should commence to initiate the process of career management as soon as possible. Evaluation of Alternatives To revive the lost position of the company, it is high time that the company seeks turnaround management. The employees are the real assets of a company and the resentment and dissatisfaction among them have to be resolved at prompt to attain the desired success of the organizational objectives. Following initiatives can be considered: Comprehensive training and development module – The sales force is the prime revenue earner for the Vision Plus Limited. The most of the frontline executives are getting increasingly frustrated with the set targets. To write off such resentment, the company should immediately implement effective training and development schemes which would focus on all round development of the employee force. It would make the job easy for the stressed staffs. Quality matters – The run behind the volume of sales has deteriorated the quality of the process of achieving such sales. Often complaints have been launched against the company to the authorities because of the ways it initiate to reach its goal. The management can set up a dedicated Quality Assurance Department, which would ensure that desired quality is maintained. The department also should have the right to penalize or reward the concerned executive. De-stressing techniques – There is little doubt that the job is very stressful. Various distressing techniques can be implemented like yoga or meditation along with frequent family gatherings and tours to keep the level of stress within limits. New set of hierarchies – It has been observed that the executives often get frustrated with the job because they do not find the path of moving upward the corporate ladder. A clear picture of their growth should be depicted from the organizational structure. If required, new posts should be created. Decentralization – The company an also look forward the option of more decentralization. It would help the management to create more feasible targets as they would be closer to markets and also it would reduce the work pressure. Implementation The policies initiated does not have any effect unless it is effectively implemented. The training and development should be designed by external professionals in collaboration with the human resource department. The support of the supervisors is also required in every step. With respect to quality, the management should have a dedicated quality assurance team in place from immediate effect. To have efficient de-stressing modules, the company could organize social gatherings more often and can hire professionals to ensure effective sessions of yoga or meditation. All the above measures should not require more than six months to be implemented. To have the set of new hierarchies and more decentralization, the management should seek legal advice and take measures so that it gets approved in the coming annual general meeting. The process of implementation of such a major change would require a year may be but the initiation should commence immediately. Bibliography University of Florida, (No Date). Effective Career Management. Warrington College of Business Administration. Retrieved Online on 17th December, 2009 from http://warrington.ufl.edu/sb/docs/syllabi/summer/GEB3035.pdf University of Miami, (2009). Yoga / Mind Body. Medical Wellness Center. Retrieved Online on 17th December, 2009 from http://wellness.med.miami.edu/x106.xml Read More