Choice #1: Top Notch Staffing at Tanglewood Every organization strives to develop and obtain a strong competitive advantage over the competition in their marketplace. One way to do so is to attract, hire, and maintain an experienced and knowledgeable workforce. Therefore, every staffing plan must be an integral part of any overall competitive business strategy planning. This is exactly what this staffing plan will do for Tanglewood into the future. Presented is a comprehensive plan to centralize staffing practices at Tanglewood by addressing the organization, organizational strategy, human resource and staffing strategy, staffing policies and programs (e.g. support actives and core staffing actives), and staffing system and retention management. As all organizations are striving to meet goals and objectives of the business, so must any comprehensive staffing strategy. Applying this to Tanglewood, the leadership realized that the business must remain competitive with their rivals of Kohl’s and Target. Even so, the company’s culture and values has set them apart, where employee involvement, engagement, and recommendations have been truly valued. Moreover, the company has placed great significance on open and honest communications with the employees on many levels. Even more, leadership expected a plan that would utilize all human assets in a way that would support the organization’s attitude in servicing customers and employees. As such, they found it important to centralize the staffing initiative in order to maintain the unique corporate culture created in the beginning. Every one of these strategies would be focused on centralizing staffing, brining in the best possible employees, and retaining each on a high As reported by Olian and Rynes (1984) “the possibility that organizational characteristics like structure, size, and strategy may influence staffing” (p. 170). As Tanglewood has been made up of 243 stores in 12 regions with approximately 51,600 employees there were many influences which had to be considered in order to develop a strong and workable staffing strategy. Further, there must have been a number of decisions which drive the direction and initiatives of any staffing strategy. These include, but are not limited to, determining staffing levels and types, current staffing resources, internal/external hiring, understanding current and future supply and demand, hiring or retaining, and short-term or long-term planning. It was important to understand the scope of each category in order to establish a strong and successful staffing
Tanglewood was founded in 1975 by a pair of best friends. Today they have expanded well beyond their dreams and own 243 store fronts while offering online business as well. With expansion in brick and mortar and online business, Tanglewood needs to stay on top of their operations and strategic decisions for staffing levels to maintain quality and keeping their customer service top notch. Their current deficiencies within the company such as a weak Human Resource department and staffing environments being pretty much individually driven, Tanglewood must make some slight adjustments strategically to keep operational changes to a minimum, unless needed versus changing them each time a department or employee voices a suggestion. (pg 6-7, Tanglewood
Competitive Response and Strategy While Tanglewood’s mission statement has been well defined, it seems as though Tanglewood is utilizing a competitor strategy that is similar to other competitors in the future is would be suggested to dedicate time to strengthening Tanglewoods market niche so that they can eventually serve as the market leader. While the company's look and devotion to customers is great, it would benefit from some focus in this area. This ratio should stay consistent within Tangle wood. For example, if the region has a potential customer number of 3,000,000 to 4,000,000, then the number of employees should range from 4,500 to 4,900 employees.
An uninvolved workforce will work to support Tanglewood because it is a retailer and the representatives and clients can identify with each other. They both have an energy for similar exercises and items.
Some core competencies that must be exploited are: Brand Kmart is an existing well-known and trusted national brand in USA Kmart has private label and designer clothing that is well endorsed Infrastructure Kmart has a large number of well-located, low-cost, leased stores in urban far away from competitors through out the country ( Appendix B ). Staffing Confidence by the market in Kmart is created by the achievements of its staff and management. With the turn-around strategy in place, new blood has been put into the top management structures. In any renewal there will be retrenchment as unprofitable stores are closed. This can be used as an opportunity to retain and move high performing staff to where they are needed and to get rid of non-performing staff. Anderson the chairperson of Kmart is well supported by Wall Street and the board of Directors. These new staff members enter the company with needed skills to address problems in certain areas that previously were poorly managed such as inventory control and merchandising. Store locations, layout and Performance Stores conveniently located away from competitors like Wal-mart and Target therefore less to compete for customers face-to-face. There are 250 non-performing stores who have already been identified as being more cost effective to close than continue with running costs. Expertise exists in-house for the planning of store layout and appearance to meet different customer segments. This concentration of effort will enable focus on key areas Technology Kmart has already invested in good retailing systems. The system can be use to control inventory, supplier payments, track customer buying and monitor income versus profit margins across all stores. Research and Development The planning department is well established and in cross-functional to provide various perspective. The planning department to ensure that strategies at all levels are executed can further use the access to past data and knowledge of changes in buying patterns. Financial Backing JP Morgan Chase has agreed to support Kmart to avert the current threat of closure due to bankruptcy.
Heneman, H. G., Judge, T. A., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2012). Staffing Organizations (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Recruiting, selection, and employment are the main core staffing activities and are made possible by using the information found in the support activities. Core activities begin with reaching out to possible applicants and ends with the candidate accepting the job offer (Heneman III, Judge, & Kammeyer-Muellar, 2012). These activities put to practice the information in the support activities.
Heneman, H. G., Judge, T. A., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2012). Staffing organizations (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Systems and structures provide the organizational foundation, but it is the human capital that really provides for the success or failure of any organization. In order for real change to happen, the staff needs to fully embrace the vision and the systems of change. This can only be accomplished if they feel respected, valued and involved in all parts of the change process. It is important to authentically embrace this group and treat them as colleagues in the process. This is the group that is responsible for implementing all systems and providing the public relations for the structure. The
The size of the organization is irrelevant, simply the importance of the staff functionality. Under-valued employees are a costly factor for employers, with low productivity, poor efficiency, dissatisfied staff, poor customer service, and a lack of dedication. By focusing my consulting energy on individual growth, coaching, education, and value; the organization will benefit tenfold by the addition of this consulting program. Conducting investigations to identify employee issues, skill assessments, employee turnover, retention services, providing counsel to human resources and leadership. Professionally researching employee morale, serving as a confidant for staff and their satisfaction. Creating and implementing employee communication programs, guiding leadership in ways to continually improve career development for staff. Lastly, personally identifying the needs of staff, conducting coaching strategies that encourage optimal growth for individuals, benefiting, employees and the entire
Zarowin, S. (1991). How to find and keep the best employees in the 21st century. Journal of
The leaders believe that the staff will do well, motivated, and would like to be independent (Giltinane, 2013, p. 37). Additionally, leaders share their responsibility by involving the staff in the decision making as well as being considerate to them (Giltinane, 2013, p. 37). These traits help the staff members improve their own leadership skills and develop autonomy (Giltinane, 2013, p. 37). And with the leaders’ guidance, open communication with the staff, and involvement in the decision making, this can lead to an increase motivation, cooperation and good working relationship or teamwork (Giltinane, 2013, p. 37). And the coordination and cooperation of the staff members are needed for the implementation of change (Mitchell, 2013, p.
Selection The Staffing Services Director at the corporate office supervises the design and analysis of staffing policies (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The owners consider the interview to be the most important selection tool; therefore the director will develop a structured interview process to distribute to all the stores for action (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The HR consultant will review the questions and rating methods to safeguard the questions vary according to responsibility level and eliminate potential opportunities for Competencies are quantifiable groups of KSAOs that a supervisor can use to evaluate performance (Aguinis, 2013).
Heneman, H. G., Judge, T. A., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2012). Staffing organizations (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
In the future, employing organizations will face a wide range of issues and challenges in meeting their workforce requirements. These periods of difficulties generally will center around the effects of external environmental influences on the organization and the manner in which it manages ongoing issues. Many of these external factors filter down and influences an organizations roles and responsibilities for talent scarcity, changing products or services, shifting demographic composition and their consumer preferences, etc.