Sudden Valley Works Case Study

Gobias Industries is a company that is seeking to promote diversity amongst the organization and strives to be the best. However, it is seen that the company lacks certain criteria that may negatively impact them to the extent where they would need to shut down their facilities. The main issues Gobias Industries has faced is the harsh conditions employees have to work in that are most definitely safety hazards, Sexual harassment, and low retention rate. It is clear that Jim, Maria, Tracy and most of the employees are not satisfied with their experience with the company indicating that Gobias Industries must do something about it as soon as possible before they decide to leave as well. For this, we have analyzed the three main problems with

the company and have come up with strong feasible conclusions.
One of the most obvious issues faced by Gobias Industries after analyzing this case are the harsh conditions their employees are expected to work in. The temperature on the inside of the plant is a blatant issue which has a great impact on workers, especially those performing manual labor. Although, the conditions even affect the managers and other employees performing mostly clerical work as well. The conditions pose many serious safety hazards. Action needs to be taken before an employee is seriously injured. One solution to the issue would be to install some kind of system to bring the temperature of the plant down. Ideally the company could install an A/C system, although this could be costly. Another option would be better ventilation, or maybe they could install some fans throughout the facility. One thing that really caught our attention while reading the case is how high-tech the facility is. You would think that such a high tech company would not have such a problem as this. Although a solution could be costly, it could also prevent the possibility of having a suit brought against the company because of the harsh conditions. A second solution, and one that would probably be more feasible for the company, would be to move the managers to an off campus site or to a conference room where they can perform their work comfortably. Although they may still need to visit the actual plant periodically, they have a cool space to perform their clerical work. The case also mentioned something about carbon dust blanketing the desk and chairs in the space managers have to work. More than likely they are not taking the same precautionary measures as the factory workers, yet they are still being exposed to some of the same conditions. This presents yet another extremely hazardous working condition. This issue could affect their recruitment process as well. If prospective hires came to visit the facility or heard about the conditions they would likely not be attracted to the company. This could have a very negative impact on the firm since their main goal is to hire the most talented candidates.
With Gobias Industries policies and procedures towards workplace sexual harassment, they are likely to incur several problems including turnover of female employees, lawsuits, and negative press. These issues can cause a company to lose valuable current and future human capital as well as cause a company’s stock price to drop. From the case, one can conclude that the company is lax on implementing regulations to handle sexual harassment problems that are occurring with their employees in their place of work. Since there are seemingly no repercussions to the employee that is harassing Tracy, which has most likely allowed the situation to accelerate, we would like to explore two avenues of minimizing or eliminating these problems from Gobias Industries. Considering the problem is with the current employees, the company must first implement sexual harassment training for current employees and new hires. They would be required to complete the training in 2 weeks while on the job and can be ordered through OSHA for $500 a month totaling $6,000 a year. The training will be online accessible for all employees, managers, and executives and includes videos, quizzes, and unlimited access. Though some might see this as a extrenuious cost, the average sexual harassment lawsuits runs a company $125,000 if it is able to be settled outside of a courtroom. In implementing this system, the employees are being held responsible for their actions and helps the company to shield themselves from liability. Many see this as a way for a company to skirt responsibility, but it can be an easy way to ensure that employees are aware of what behavior is acceptable, what is not, and what happens when they cross lines and make others in the workplace feel unsafe or uncomfortable. Secondly, we would implement anti-harassment policies and anonymous complaint procedures. These will be included in the newly revised handbooks for all Gobias employees and distributed electronically to minimize printing costs. In addition to giving all employees access to the new handbook, a meeting will be held with all employees to ensure they are being told the changes that have been made and the regulations that have been updated. These updates include a way for employees to anonymously file a harassment complaint against another employee at Gobias Industries that would not cause repercussions from coworkers or bosses against the person that filed. We considered this important because people can be afraid of other people finding out that they have “told” on the harasser and then they receive backlash in the form of no raises, promotions, or more. Another change made to the policies is a strict three strike rule. One strike on an employee’s record indicates a warning and an explanation of what is wrong with their actions. Strike number 2 will be a week off of work which can be a large blow to someone who is paid on a hourly rate. Lastly, strike three is immediate firing and escorting from the company property. The implementation and upholding of both solutions to this problem, we are empowering the employees to speak up and know that a hostile work environment will not be tolerated, encouraging greater applications from the women and minorities that Gobias Industries is trying to seek out and hire into their workforce.
Lastly, the third biggest issue facing Sudden Valley Works is the extremely high turnover rate they are experiencing.

After analyzing the reading, a few things seems to be causing this issue. First, Gobias Industries recently underwent a change which made each division a separate entity. The change caused job mobility to plummet. Communication between each division halted. The pool of job opportunities and work location transfers decreased for the employees of each location. Without communication between the divisions, employees found it difficult to hear of job opportunities at other location. The employees became limited to only the opportunities offered at their location. Secondly, the job opportunities at each division also decreased with the introduction of new technology. The technology began taking over the majority of work for many entry-level jobs. The work left for employees to do became low complexity and low effort therefore, were compensated less. The wages for these entry-level jobs became stagnant. These jobs then became boring, less attractive, and scarce. With the decrease in jobs, a decrease in the opportunity for promotion also exist. Thirdly, the new technology also caused job evaluations to become outdated and incorrect. If recruiters are misrepresenting the jobs during recruitment, then employees will be highly unlikely to stay with that job for long especially if the job does not pay well and has little room for promotion. In order to fix the issue of high turnover, Sudden Valley Works needs to redo their job analysis and revamp their recruiting. These solutions will help with job turnover as well as reaching their goals of retention and employment of more women and minority groups. Recruiting should include a broader market and leadership personality assessments. Previous recruiting techniques were targeted at engineers with the highest GPAs however, with the new technology, a high-level of educated employees are not longer needed. A high

GPA also does not indicate leadership skills. With a corrected job analysis, an updated and more reliable job description can be made. If people know exactly what job they are getting into, studies show turnover rates will decrease.
Overall, safety hazards, sexual harassment, and low retention rate are clear indicators for adjustments within management and working environment. If something were to happen to an employee because the facility is not at par than Gobias industries will have to face court and essentially pay a fine where that could lead to having to shut down the company. It is critical for employees to be protected on the job even though the nature of most workers is "simplistic". Therefore, implementing an A/C system and moving managers to an off-campus site or a conference room would eliminate most of the Industry's risk of someone getting hurt. In addition, sexual harassment is also a severe issue that must be overlooked and fixed. Maria Gomez should not be tolerating a hostile environment and nor should anyone else experiencing the same thing. With this in mind, implementing an online training against sexual harassment and policies will give employees a decent exposure to this issue which will prevent this to happen again. Above all, these factors have led to a high turnover which has affected the company's image and has prevented them from recruiting a diverse group of employees. Thus, a low retention rate leads to the loss of the cost in hiring, training, learning and development of the employees. To eliminate high turnover Gobias Industries should redo their job analysis and revamp their recruiting. All these improvements will ensure a brighter future for the company thus positively impacting organizational commitment and job satisfaction.