Question

You have just been hired as the new Director of Human Resources at a mid-sized company of 48 employees. The company’s name is Florida Wireless, which is an authorized agent for Verizon Wireless. Florida Wireless has 5 retail locations throughout Central Florida. The stores are all very busy. Customer wait times are usually very long. Customer satisfaction surveys indicate poor service. Turnover is high for sales/customer service. Even though the stores are busy, store managers are not making the sales objectives set by owners. Store manager turnover is also high with the exception of the 3 family members of the owners.

You are tasked with keeping the stores staffed (current recruiting needs are 11 sales/customer service reps and one manager), making sure that government regulations are being followed, and increasing the proficiency of the sales reps.You have discovered there are no job descriptions, no performance appraisals, and no performance standards other than the number of new cell numbers that must be sold each month. Compensation tends to favor family members and it is all over the place. Sales reps have a small base salary plus commission for each number sold. A quick tour of retail locations indicates safety hazards such as over loaded store rooms with trip hazards, no ergonomic considerations, lack of signage, and no safety plan.You have to create a plan to address the needs of the company that incorporates the required elements of the project. It should be focused on why the owner should invest time and money in your plan.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS

1. Executive overview of the plan in a Power Point presentation. This should be done as if you are presenting this to Senior Management to get commitment. It should include the implementation plan including time commitments, budget (if necessary), and what the benefit is to the company to implement.

2. A written presentation binder that includes the following:a.Written Executive Summary- Outline 1-2 pages. Plan of action including:

i. Detailed plan of action- narrative of about 3-4 pages- Detailed information explaining why you need to implement the items below (including a needs analysis), the costs that will be incurred, how long it will take to complete all the items, and what the return on investment (ROI) will be.

ii. Job descriptionsiii. Performance appraisalsiv. Compensation recommendationsv. Recruiting and selection plan

vi. Training plan (Content, who will deliver, measurement of results, costs, ROI)

vii. Safety plan

viii. Recommended code of ethics

Answer 1

Executive Summary :

In the current operational SOP's of the company, the following are the observations of the daily work process. Currently, we are operating with the five stores with the full capacity of the stores. But we also see some operational issues in the process, that can be summarized as under :-

• Over-crowed stores - the stores are over crowded with customers. so the "waiting-time" of the customers are high.
• Low customer satisfaction : the recent survey shows, a low customer satisfaction. The main reason is "Poor customer service"
• High Employee turnover : It is observed that the company has high rate of employee turn-over. This also means, by the time an employee learns the business processes of the company, he starts to switch-over to other companies.
• Stores unable to deliver business objectives: Despite High footfall at all the stores, the stores are not able to meet its monthly business objectives.

Plan of Action :-  

i. The objective of this plan is to correct the current situation, so that the business process of the company improves and results in the growth of business for the company. Each of the issues identified as above will be addressed in a way to produce best results for the company.

A) To convert "over crowded" customers into a "high- footfall" stores, we need to "Channelize" the flow of customers.The customers will be greeted at the reception counter, on hearing the "type of requirement / complaint" the customers will be sent to the next counter after a request has been raised. So the customer will be "attended" only by the staff of the "specific issue" as reported by the customer. Afterwards the customer will be guided towards the billing counter and then towards the delivery counter. This system would "stream-line" the flow of customers and would have more control over the "crowd management" at each store.

The implementation of the above process would improve the customer management, business process, improve customer satisfaction and deliver monthly business objectives.

The cost of the improved business process would only be the recruitment of staff at each customer contact points. So we are not attracting any additional overheads in improving the systems of the company.

ii. Job descriptions. Each and every "function" must have a job description" for each position. The "employee" selected for a particular profile ha to be perfectly trained in that field only. This would ensure "higher productivity levels" from each employee. The ownership of this would be on the departmental head and then the functional / operational head.

iii. Performance appraisals: When we have "clearly defined job responsibilities",ONLY then can we have performance appraisals of the employees. These parameters would also help the individuals to calculate their own performance and improve so as to earn the maximum benefit.

iv. Compensation recommendations : "Salary" must be such that the person is able to take care of the basic needs of his family. Second important pat is the incentive structure. It should start from the current averages of past month (or past 3 month) to be taken as "average performance parameters" and then the growth targets should be defined. No targets would be achievable is they are not realistic. If the employees start earning "incentives" the employee satisfaction and employee turn-over both would be taken care of.

v. Recruiting and selection plan: For front-line SR / customer service reps fresh young graduates and people with 1-2 years of experience should be preferred because of two reasons. firstly the cost would be less ans secondly, the productivity would be high.

vi. Training plan : Initially to cut cost, each department head is responsible for on-the-job-training. The induction and other process improvement training would be imparted by the central training team for all the stores. This would training team( would be developed by the human resource team. The additional cost to the company would be of two " in-house" training staffs responsible for all training and development activities in the company.

vii. Safety plan : Once the business process is stream-lined, no stores would be "over-stocked. All the stores would report the Closing day inventory" to the central ware house, who would intern ensure all the "demand" is supplied to the respective stores in the morning. The inventory levels would be maintained as per the "minimum Stock Level" at each store.

viii. Recommended code of ethics: All the employees must be re-trained on the business processes of the company and the "minimum expectations" from each job profile. They would also be briefed about the benefits of delivering strong performance. All the "vacant" posts must be immediately filled with competent staff to ensure smooth work-flow process.

All the "costs to the company" is mostly in-build for the company. As the turn-over of the company grows, the economies of scale would improve for the company. All the cost parameters can be worked out on an excel sheet to mark the ROI of the company.