Friday, April 10, 2020
National Jazz Hall free essay sample
This would also allow the NJ to sponsor jazz festivals, workshops and scholarships. The museum would be used to remember great Jazz artists, serve jazz enthusiasts along with education he public on the Importance of Jazz in American culture and history. Question 2 The stakeholders in this project begin with Mr.. Rutland himself. After that, some of the other stakeholders Include the board of directors for the INCH, the City of Charlottesville departments renovating the historic district of downtown Charlottesville, the consultant hired by the board, other tourist attractions in aroundCharlottesville and in Western Virginia, they include Monticello, James Monomers house, and the University of Virginia. Other stakeholders would be the contractors employed to renovate the Paramount, possible donors to the project, they could be private as well as governmental such as the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The potential jazz performers that are potential members of the NJ are also very important stakeholders. We will write a custom essay sample on National Jazz Hall or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page If this is not a highly recognized and reputable hall of fame, some of these Iconic Jazz musicians will not want to be members of the organization. Finally, Jazz fans as a whole are key stakeholders as well. Without them, there would not be a need for this type of attraction. Question 3 There are three major issues facing Mr.. Rutland and the NJ. They are: 1. Fund raising, 2. Building and leading a professional team to complete the project. 3. Marketing In order to promote the NJ and gain national recognition.In order to successfully address these issues the following skills will be needed: Good communication skills Since the PM will be dealing with many different type of people, groups and audiences, they will need to be able to communicate effectively n all of these different levels. They need to communicate with government entities In order to secure the necessary permits and Inspections once the theatre is set to be renovated. They will have to speak with philanthropic groups In order to raise private funds for the renovation of the theatre along with donations to run the NJ. OFF such as the National Endowment for the Arts. For issue two, the PM will be the team leader and have to communicate well with each group of the project team. They will have to work with the different teams to create the renovation plan. Once that is one, they will have to work with many different contractors to secure bids before deciding on who will complete the renovations. Other groups that the PM will have to communicate would include the finance team, the procurement team and the budget team. As for issue number 3, the PM will have to work with several marketing firms who specialize in the work needed for the NJ to establish national recognition. They will have to meet with many different firms in order to select the best one for the NJ. Once that group is selected, the PM will be the interface to that group for the project. Communications with this group will of course be vital to the longevity of the NJ. Ability to command respect The PM needs to be to command respect from every group involved in each aspect of the project.Without respect, none of the groups will be encouraged to complete their assigned tasks. Also, without respect the project as a whole will not have any credibility. It is this respect and credibility that will help generate private and government funding. Also, if there is no respect in the project, the NJ will not gain any respect in the Jazz community. Without that, why would any of the potentials Jazz musicians want to be member of this hall of fame? Conflict Resolution skills this is a basic skill that every PM must have. Without it, no project would move forward.In this project, the conflicts could be many for all three issues. If the PM cannot resolve the conflicts that will arise from the renovation of the theatre alone, the other two issue will never come to fruition. Good knowledge of project management principles Of all of the PM principles, risk management is key in this project. If you look at issue two, fundraising, what happens to the project if a major source of funding becomes compromised? One real world example is the Boy Scouts of America. They received almost of their annual budget from a donation by the American United Way.A few years ago, the United Way reduced their donation significantly. The BAS now receives only one percent of its budget from that organization. It was real blow to their ability to maintain their year round projects. In order to recoup this budgetary loss, they established the Friends of Scouting project. They now solicit donations from the parents of Scouts, former Scouts and other companies and non-profit organizations to fulfill the gap. The PM for this project will have to have contingency plans in place like the BAS has done.Be comfortable in an uncertain environment This is a huge, multifaceted project that a PM can understand every aspect. The PM for this project needs to be able to manage well the pieces they know very well and have the ability to manage the pieces they are not so familiar with. They need to put the right people in place for the aspects of the project they are the least familiar. Say the PM is strong in construction but weak in fund raising, they need to find a good fund raiser and someone who is good with marketing. Question 4 I feel that Mr.. Rutland does have credibility.He is a professor of History at the University of Virginia. I dont think that he would have been able to have had Jazz didnt feel that Mr.. Rutland and the board of directors he established were credible. Having two famous Jazz musicians like that on the board definitely adds credence and credibility to Mr.. Rutland plan. Is Mr.. Rutland a leader? A leader is defined as interpersonal influence, exercised in situations and directed through the communication process, toward the arraignment of a specified goal of goals. Mr.. Rutland has shown that ability in the first year of building the NJ. Mr.. Rutland came up with the NJ and locating it in Charlottesville, VA. He enlisted the help of his fellow Jazz enthusiast, and created the board of directors for the hall of fame. After that he found a possible building location that, by name, has ties to the famous jazz era of the sass and 19402 in New York City. This would give the NJ a headquarters with a credible and recognizable name. After establishing the board, Mr. . Rutland went out to generate funds for the hall by applying for grants from philanthropic groups along with various government agencies.They were denied for two reasons, inexperience of the board members and the brevity of their existence. This could not be construed negatively toward the board or affect their credibility. Mr.. Rutland also understood that the NJ would need visitors to help generate revenue to continue the halls existence. He found that over half a million people visit the Charlottesville area to see many other attractions. He knew he had to work with the various venues and tourist organization to help promote the NJ as a viable attraction. Finally Mr..Rutland showed his leadership in hiring a consultant to help answer two questions. One, what is the interest level of the respondents for Jazz and the establishment of a National Jazz Hall of Fame. The survey was conducted on a national level and on a local level. This allows Mr.. Rutland to find out if people were actually interested in a Jazz Hall of Fame and if they would attend, Jazz music as a whole, if people would be willing to donate money to such an organization, what services and events they would expect from the hall and what the average person interested in such a place would be willing to pay for admission.This gave the board n idea of what kind of funding they could expect from eh public through donations and admission fees. Question 5 The cultures relevant to this project are the African-American, Cajun, Africans, and American. Jazz was influenced by different cultures and sub-cultures. The music also has roots in the development of other music movements around the world. In the US, Jazz has influenced, the Blues, RB, Mouton, Dixieland, Classical and Country music. Jazz is a melting pot of music as well having its roots in other genres.The project environment for the National Jazz Hall of Fame was a struggle to get off he ground, but was met with great enthusiasm. After the first year, even though they had many setbacks due to difficulties raising contributions from outside sources and finding out they needed at least $600,000 to renovate the theatre, Mr.. Rutland and the board felt the project showed promise. Mr. . Rutland did not seem to give up, but found other ways to promote and endow the NJ. He tried to utilized the local tourism outlets, the NJ promoted concerts to raise money and awareness. Mr..Rutland visited other halls of fame to gain ideas and insights into their success. He interest the public would have for a Jazz hall of fame. Question 6 Mr.. Rutland should do the following: Budget- Philanthropic organizations Since they had difficulties raising funds from these types of organizations due to a lack of experience on the part of the board, they need to hire an executive director with fund raising experience. This will give them someone with the proper background that these organization are looking for and a higher level of credibility. This will help solidify them as a true purveyor off hall of fame for Jazz.Government Agencies Once they have a qualified executive director ND have been established for over two years, they should reapply for government funds from groups like the National Endowment for the Arts. They will be able to get enough funds so that they may even begin to renovate the theatre. Donations The survey showed that they could receive an average of $23. 40 per donation. They should pursue a low cost way of garnering these donations in order to increase their bottom line. The survey targeted individuals over 35 years old with an income of $50,000+. Perhaps they can target other age and income range along with woman.Memberships These are an excellent way to raise money. You can usually provide a few low cost incentives to individuals and they will pay a little more of an admission fee to benefit from those perks. However, at this time, without an actually facility for the hall of fame, memberships may be something they should wait on. It was recommended that they pursue Founding Memberships. This would be a more viable option until it is decided on where the actual NJ will be located. Everyone likes to say that they were the first ones to be involved in a new endeavor. Visitors The survey found that the average admission fee could be $3. 0. This is a good price engendering how many tourists visit the Charlottesville area. Again, until a facility if build and functional, this idea should be set aside. Budget Expenditures. The Paramount Theatre is the NSF largest expenditure at $600,000. Other expenditures are the cost of the surveys. Future costs will be setting up the Founding Membership accounts, the regular memberships (if any), the salary of the executive director and all of the operational costs of an office for that individual. There will also have to be a budget for correspondence, fliers for concerts and workshops, etc.A Travel budget or the executive director will be required as well. Performance: service/activities The NJ will have to continue to sponsor concerts and workshops. This will help them promote their mission along with getting their name out there. Offering a scholarship will help as well. This would also help gain credibility with the National Association of Jazz Educators. Competition The NJ needs to work with their competition. This will allow them to learn about how they are doing things. What works and what does not. It could also give them an opportunity to create an association with other hall of fames.
Monday, March 9, 2020
Tips for Writing the Best London Business School Mba Essay Essay Example
Tips for Writing the Best London Business School Mba Essay Essay Example Tips for Writing the Best London Business School Mba Essay Paper Tips for Writing the Best London Business School Mba Essay Paper Different people write mba application essay in different ways. Some of them pay attention to setting up a business plan, a business financial plan, business marketing plan. But our recommendation would be to follow our mba application packages. The following requirements characterize the structure of the business school essay: The author presents his point of view in the form of the abstract thesis. The thought must be backed up by evidence ââ¬â thatââ¬â¢s why arguments follow thesis (arguments). Thus, business school programme acquires an annular structure (the number of theses and arguments depends on the topic, the chosen plan, the logic of the development of thought): 1.Introduction. 2.Main body: thesis, arguments (1); again thesis, arguments (2); -and again thesis, arguments (3); 3.Conclusion. During writing business school programme, it is important to consider the following points: -The introduction and conclusion of consulting our mba should focus attention on the problem. -It is necessary to highlight paragraphs, red lines, and establish the logical connection of application essay questions: thus the integrity of the work is achieved. -Style of presentation: emotionality, expressiveness, artistic nature characterize the optional essay. Experts believe that one can provide the proper effect by short, simple, diverse intonation sentences, the skillful use of the most modern punctuation mark a dash. However, the style reflects the peculiarities of the person; it is also useful to remember about it. Essay questions london for your paper Before you start writing school mba, focus your attention on the following essay questions. Common knowledge is that the answers to such questions will help you realize which aspects it is better to clarify in writing: 1.Affecting your personal qualities or abilities in the essay, ask yourself: Do I differ in quality from those I know? What did this quality manifest? About the activity you are engaged in: What made me take up this kind of activity? Why did I continue to do this? 3.About every event of your life that youââ¬â¢ve mentioned: Why do I remember this particular event? Has it changed me as a person? How did I react to this? Was it a revelation for me; what have not I suspect before? 4.About every person you mentioned: Why did I call that particular person? Do I want to become like he? What qualities do I admire? Have they been told something that I will remember all my life? Did I review my views? 5.About each of your preferences and what you do not like: Why do I like or do not like it? à Has this circumstance affected to a large extent my life? 6.About every one of your failures: What did I learn as a result? What useful thing did I get out of this situation? Application essay classification You may write your london business school essay in the next formats: 1.From the point of view of the contents of the essay editing: philosophical; literary-critical; historical; artistic; artistic and journalistic; spiritual and religious, etc. 2.According to the literary form, the school mba appear in the form: reviews; lyrical miniature; notes; diary pages; letters and other. 3.Also they distinguish: descriptive; narrative; reflexive; critical; analytical and others. In this case, we base the compositional features of the work on the genre of the focused mba essay. Finally, we can present the classification of the mba in à two large groups: -personal, subjective essay, where the main element is the disclosure of one or another aspect of the authors personality. -application packages, where someone subordinates the person to the subject of the description or some idea. Essay tips you need to pay attention to It is possible to highlight some common features (genres) of the business school essay, which you can find à in encyclopedias and dictionaries: 1.A small volume. Of course, there are no hard borders. The volume of the optional london business school essay is from three to seven pages of computer text. For example, the Harvard Business School often writes essays just on two pages. 2.A particular topic and emphasized the subjective interpretation of it. The theme of the business school optional essay is always specific. The essay cannot contain many themes or ideas (thoughts). It reflects only one option, one thought. And develops it. This is the answer to one question. 3.A free composition is an important feature of business school education essay. Researchers note that such structure of essay does not tolerate any formal frameworks. It is often built contrary to the laws of logic, obeys arbitrary associations. 4.The ease of narration. Itââ¬â¢s important to the author of the paper to establish an open style of communication, the information you believe with the reader. If you want to be understood, you need to avoid deliberately complicated, obscure, unnecessarily rigorous constructions. Researchers note that a good essay can be written by one, who is fluent in the topic. Sees it from different sides, and is ready to present to the reader not an exhaustive. But a multidimensional look at the phenomenon, that has become the starting point of his reflections. 5.The propensity for paradoxes. Mba goals are intended to surprise the reader (listener) this is, according to many researchers, his essential quality. The starting point for reflections embodied in the essay is often an aphoristic, vivid statement or a paradoxical definition. It à literally confronts, at first glance, indisputable, but mutually exclusive statements, characteristics, theses. Two more tips 6.Internal semantic unity. Perhaps this is one of the paradoxes of the globally focused mba genre. The essay is free in composition genre, oriented to subjectivity, has an internal semantic unity, and at the same time, the consistency of key theses and assertions, the internal harmony of arguments and associations, and the consistency of those judgments where the author expresses his position. 7.Orientation to conversational speech. It is necessary to avoid using slang in the application essays, template phrases, word cuts, too frivolous tone. If you feel that itââ¬â¢s a bit hard for you to write london business school mba essay on your own, we want to mention that there is always someone ready to help. https://paperap.com/ is one of the most popular services of writing any kind of essay at any time you want.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
The effects of alcoholism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
The effects of alcoholism - Essay Example Alcoholism causes an individual to be dangerously irresponsible in his personal life. The individual looses significance of life. Every day, millions of people die in road accidents and a vast majority of drivers in countries where alcoholism is legalized are drunk. Driving while drunk is as dangerous for others as it is for the drinker himself. Drinkers drive despite knowing the danger associated with this practice. This fundamentally reflects their non serious attitude towards life. An individual who gets non serious about his life to such an extent can not be expected to fulfill his responsibilities as a father, son, brother or husband. Once an individual gets addicted to alcoholism, there is little others can do to make him retreat from the habit. Instead of becoming a helping hand, a drinker is essentially undue weight for the family to bear. Thus, alcoholism puts the thread of relationships on fire, and the drinker becomes isolated. In isolation, he feels suffocation and loneli ness. This becomes the fundamental cause of their attempt to break free of the prison of life and they tend to commit suicide. Thus, the problem starts with unusually irresponsible attitude and finishes with the end of life of the drinker. Alcoholism causes great economic loss to a country, because of the unprofessional attitude of the drunken employees. Alcoholism does not at all go with the requirements of professional life. In profession life, an individual is required to be punctual. Alcoholism saps the individualââ¬â¢s ability to get up early in the morning for work when he drank heavily in the night before. Professional life requires an individual to dress up nice and smart. Alcoholism leaves an individual with little sense or understanding of what is smartness and what it means to be smart! Also, owing to the high carbohydrate content in alcohol, drinkers acquire obesity that otherwise, ruins their looks. Most of the drinkers are obese and big bellied. Thus, alcoholism sap s an individualââ¬â¢s ability to appear smart. Professionalism requires an individual to be agile, active and present minded whereas most drinkers appear at work preoccupied with thoughts of disgust and discontentment with life. Alcoholism makes people lazy and laggard. Their emotional disturbance does not accord with the attitude required for work. All of these factors jointly work to make a drinker malfunction at work and decline his productivity which ultimately affects the organization as a whole. This results into reduced margin of profit. The business becomes less profitable. In fact, the owners may incur great financial losses because of poor performance of the alcohol consuming employees. In the bigger picture, the whole country is affected because of reduced Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Alcoholism puts an individual into social exclusion. Alcohol consuming employees are quite likely to be fired because it does not take long for an individual to reveal that he consumes a lcohol. It becomes obvious from his habits, attitude and dealing with coworkers and managers at work. Soon as this is realized, a prudent manager who is concerned about his organizationââ¬â¢s reputation and success does not tolerate such employees and fires them. This not only leaves a drinker unemployed, but also ruins his social life. The drinker looses friends. People tend to remain at distance with a drinker because the sort of company they keep directly affects their own reputation in the society. Thus, a drinker is
Thursday, February 6, 2020
Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace Research Paper
Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace - Research Paper Example In places of work, this can cause many problems in relation to wasted resources, lack of concentration, lost productivity, unhealthy employee relationships as well as tarnishing of the image of a company. Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace The first major disadvantage of social networking in the workplace is that it leads to reduced Employee Productivity. Considerable research has revealed that due to the demands of social media and the excitement accrued by social networking, most employees will spend more time on the social media sites rather than do productive work. Most of the time, employees entangled with social networking will not often concentrate on their work. They will concentrate more on the social networking. This is because they need to make new friends, share some experiences or reply to some messages. In the long run, the quality of work delivered by such employees becomes very poor thereby reducing the productivity of the entire company. This can cau se the company to undergo enormous losses. In addition to spending less time in productive work, such the presence of social networking may cause the employees to loose concentration in their work. In some cases, the employees have internet connection in their offices. This causes some of them to get in to the social networking sites while they work. ... For instance, an employee might decline out of office responsibilities where he cannot access the internet. The other disadvantage of social networking in places of work involves generation of unhealthy employee relations. In most cases, the employees will interact more in the social media than they do in the open. In this case, some employees within a company might hurt others in the same company. For example if a particular employee feels that another employee has taken up his or her position in the company, he or she may want to sent hurtful messages to the other employee through social networking sites. In some instances, such hurtful and abusive messages may be addressing the affected employee indirectly. In other occasions, a junior employee may send bad messages though the social networking sites concerning his boss. This can hurt the boss in a great way. Unhealthy employee relations may also accrue from issues related to promotion and prestigious positions in a company. For e xample, one employee might feel that his fellow employee receives favors from the management including undeserved promotion. The other employee can pass messages to all other employees of the company through the social networking sites concerning the issue. In most cases, the messages passed through these social networking sites are often rumors and therefore can tarnish the names of people. It might be impossible for such a person to tarnish the name of his fellow employee by word of mouth. Most people will view the social networking sites as good avenues to pass rumors concerning people that they hate or dislike. This means that rather than social networking strengthening employee relationships in the workplace, it actually destroys these
Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Australian Wine Industry Essay Example for Free
Australian Wine Industry Essay In addition, this trend is enforced by a global economy with increasing free trade, international business collaboration, strategic alliances and a global currency. Geographically Australia is well placed to capitalise on the Asian boom and wine meets the Asian demand for Western style products. As for the domestic market, despite the fact that there has been minimal focus on developing new wine consumers during the last ten years, domestic sales have continued to expand in value rather than volume. Population growth in prime wine consuming age groups, the emerging generation who has grown up with wine consumption, the changing demographic profile of the Australian population, growth in the dining out market, increasing popularity of the Mediterranean diet, tourism growth and the quest for more individualised beverage experiences are significant opportunities exist for increasing domestic wine consumption. 1. 1. 2 Economic conditions Although a decline in the value of the Australian dollar inhibits profitability and the ability of Australian winemakers to hit key price oints, it helps to stimulate the other countries to import Australian wine because of lower price Increase in demand for wine may be attributed to the following economic factors: changing living standard, changes in the relative price of wine to other goods and services, the introduction of fringe benefits tax and the modification of sales tax to wine and other beverages. 1. 1. 3 Social and cultural trends Although nowadays, there is a strong trend away from alcohol beverages and alcohol consumption, quality table wine still be a favourite one for consumers. The image of a man drinking wine, bottles to bottles until get drunk is no longer seen. People do not drink wine in quantity but prefer quality alcohol. Sales in cask wine decline whereas profits in bottled semi-premium or premium wine increase. The reason for this can be explained by: Quality table wine has its own image and status, engenders high consumer involvement, provides variety, and has a range of flavour complexity. It is therefore a stronger alternative to other non-alcoholic beverages (soft drinks, bottled water, fruit drinks and coffee) than is beer or spirits. Quality wine has acknowledged health attributes. Recent research showed its effects in reducing cardio vascular disease. People look for more spiritual meaning in their lives. They favour healthy products, healthy lifestyle and show environmental concerns. Media, advertising, transparency, and openness in marketing. Many of these trends favour the Australian wine industry. Wine will meet the future consumers dem and for individualised, customised products which are natural, environmentally friendly and healthy. 1. 1. 4 Political and legal forces The Australian wine industry has set a target to be the worlds most influential and profitable wine producer in the Year 2025. It is supported by government in terms of providing a positive investment climate and facilitation infrastructure. Taxation Certainty in the retention of the current taxation level and structure for wine and brandy Review the method for valuing trading stock, particularly the maturation of wine stocks geared to premium wine production Maintain the current vineyard depreciation provisions Vary other taxation provisions which inhibit growth or prejudice quality. Facilitation Maintain support for industry research and development Enhance support for wine export promotion Upgrade Government contributions to training and to strategic data collection Continue the commitment to industrys pro market self regulation Adopt appropriate water access and pricing policies. 1. 1. 5 Technology Technology is of vital importance to Australia wine industry. It can help to improve productivity, economic of scale, efficiency and quality of products. In addition, the industry is also strongly committed to environmentally friendly production.
Monday, January 20, 2020
Backpacking: A Different Way Of Camping Essay -- essays research pape
Backpacking: A Different Way of Camping What is camping? To most people, it is perceived as a time to pack up the car, drive to local camp grounds, and spend the weekend in the great outdoors. It is a time to frolic with family and friends around a campfire, singing songs, playing games, and roasting marshmallows while listening to ghost stories that can only be heard while camping. However, to the avid backpacker, camping takes on a different perspective. While experiencing the great outdoors is very similar to car camping, backpacking is very different in many respects. Preparation for backpacking and car camping and the locales where one can set up camp are very different. In either case, experiencing the great outdoors and its natural beauty cannot be surpassed. With car camping the only real limitation is one's vehicle. A person is limited to the vehicle's capacity to carry or tow. For example, a camper will bring a stove, a twelve man tent, two coolers of meat and potatoes, five gallons of water, and maybe tow a camper. On the other hand, when backpacking, the circumstances are very different. One is limited to his or her own capabilities: the amount of weight that can be carried, endurance levels, just to name a few. Provisions must be carefully measured. If overloaded, it can affect performance while hiking to one's destination, but if not enough provisions are carried it, will impact how long one can last out in the wilderness. The equipment must be minute in size...
Sunday, January 12, 2020
How to solve high employee turnover rate in a retail company or retail business? Essay
Introduction The problem of high turnover employee rate is quite a spread problem that most businesses have been facing for years. Employee turnover has a negative influence on the efficiency of business, profits, customer service and satisfaction from customers in different businesses and industries. The recent study made by Roper Starch Worldwide, Inc. and Unify Network in a wide range of industries and businesses showed a strong link between employee retention and the satisfaction from the service quality got by the customers. As the research was based on the analysis of 3005 interviews it has quite strong facts and conclusions. ââ¬Å"The negative effects of the increase in employee turnover are no longer being felt exclusively by the human resource managers,â⬠said Tom Casey of Unify Networkââ¬â¢s talent management practice. ââ¬Å"It is apparent that consumers are directly impacted by turnover as well,â⬠Casey added. ââ¬Å"As a result, turnover is now a principal concern because it directly affects the bottom line.â⬠à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à Casey also added that new attitudes towards the workforce, as well as drop in the birth rate, and the emergence of innovative technologies have resulted employee turnover to skyrocket across retail business. à à The most vivid outcome of the employee turnover is a direct effect on customer retention or the loses of customers. In the whole, more than 60 percent of the respondents of the survey, who were the customers of retail companies with high employee turnover, said that they were less than satisfied with the service they received. Companies, themselves, confess that high employee turnover issues cause more problems than product or price issues. à In the average one in three consumers marked that employee turnover negatively and directly affected the quality of the service. And just 20 percent of the survey participants agreed that they would like working for their service provider. Another problem of low level of satisfaction from customers was named to be low quality and absence of needed qualification and skills. To be more specific fifty seven percent of respondents agreed that the problem was in poor training, and only 20 percent remained satisfied with the quality of the service.à The Consequences of Turnover The outcomes of turnover cause extra expenses, loss of valuable time and stagnation in business. All these are quite obvious results of turnover, because itââ¬â¢s not that easy to find a qualified worker nowadays, especially one that will fully suit the position he is hired on. The impact on business of the turnover will be reflected in ââ¬Å"hardâ⬠and ââ¬Å"softâ⬠costs that are associated with looking for a new employee as well as the following factors: Customers get lower quality services that changes the reputation of the company Managers spend time looking for employees, which prevents them from their primary functions in the company which results in lower organization of business Disorder in the company influences on the work of other employees à Itââ¬â¢s estimated that replacement of workers will costà à from 33% ââ¬â 250% of the annual wages, depending on the workers position. Hard Costs $$$ Pre-Departure Exit interviewà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 29 Separation processingà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 12 Vacancy Costs Temporary fill-insà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 902 Coworker overtimeà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 483 Advertising job availabilityà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 110 Recruiting administrationà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 97 Selection and Sign-on Interviewingà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 110 Testingà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 100 Reference checkingà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 28 Informational literatureà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 50 On-the-job trainingà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 874 Totalà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à $2,795 Soft costs Besides ââ¬Å"hardâ⬠costs there exist soft costs that come out with losing of the employee, and that make more understandable and clear the outcomes and consequences of losing an employee. It even often happens that it cost 10 times more to look for a new customer than to gain repeat sales. In addition the company is more likely to get what is called ââ¬Å" turnover causes turnoverâ⬠and the company is likely to lose other employees. Soft Costs $$$ Pre-Departure Lost productivity of incumbentà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 80 Lost productivity of coworkersà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 97 Lost productivity of supervisorà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 207 Vacancy Costs Lost productivity of vacant positionà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 0 Lost productivity of supervisorà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 138 Selection and Sign-on Lost productivity during learning curveà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 482 Lost productivity of coworkersà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 0 Lost productivity of supervisorà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 483 Combined Impact Current business lostà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 350 New business not acquiredà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 350 Turnover resulting from turnoverà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à 350 Totalà à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à $2,537 Add up the costs This statistics is more likely to be called a demo illustration of what can be the impact of the $7 per hour job loss. The loss of a big employee number can deadly reflect on the financial health of the company and can even cause bankruptcy. The exist lots of strategies that allow to reduce turnover rate in business, but nevertheless none of them can be suitable for the majority of retail businesses, because ofà their specifics, particularities in the working atmosphere, relationships in working time, etc. But still there are strategies that will make business more effective and will stabilize the working atmosphere in the company. By the observation of many specialists who worked on the issues of high employee turnover in retail business for years, it became obvious that its reason is in low effectiveness of human resources departments of the companies. In the most companies with high turnover rate human resource managers did not more than simple recruiting and interviewing people, who would more likely to leave the company in months by their expectations but had not a big choice. ââ¬Å"Evaluate your company A good first step in improving your retention rate is to ask yourself these questions. If you answer ââ¬Å"noâ⬠to more than two questions, you are likely to be experiencing high employee turnover. Are most employees clear about your companyââ¬â¢s mission? Do any of these words appear in your mission or core values? Respect, teamwork, trust, fairness, openness, and development. Do most or all employees have written job objectives? Are employees actively involved in shaping their own job assignments or projects to include their own personal interests and abilities? Does a manager speak with associates each quarter about their changing performance priorities and matters affecting their work? Does your company regularly invest in developing employee knowledge and skills? Does your company routinely applaud individual initiative and provide recognition for large and small performance successes? Would most employees say their manager is supportive of their ideas and concerned about their needs?â⬠à Different approaches to solve the turnover problem The experience of one of the researches, Louis Rovner, Ph.D., was more than bold or genius. He was employed by many retail companies that had problems with high turnover, and some of them had 50% turnover rate from the entire workforce employed a year. à As a skillful and qualified manager he spent hours conducting endless interviews and administrating numerous surveys and quizzes to determine the reasons of turnover and reasons of what the employees were unsatisfied with. à To his expectations if the company changed the way of employees treating, the workers will be more satisfied and there will be more chances that theyââ¬â¢ll stay in the company. But the problem was more complicated that it seemed to be for the first sight. à Employees were managed cooperatively. People were encouraged and reinforced, the working schedule was optimized and was better control as the other modern management measures were taken to improve the labor and working atmosphere conditions. The employees got a higher range in the strategic decision making participation as well as new approach to please unsatisfied customers. The company was changing to one were the workers as well as their labor and participation was highly appreciated and valued. à Even though that much had been done and the expectations seemed to look very optimistic the true results were opposite to what was expected at the beginning. The 50% turnover rate didnââ¬â¢t really change, but it became worse because in the list of those who left their jobs were the oldest and the most qualified employees of the company. So the impact of such outcomes seemed to be more negative than usual practices for the company. à The analysis had shown that there were two main reasons for such outcomes, that primary related to job psychology. The first one was explained by the failure of managers to arrange things in proper order because they were unfamiliar with new strategies and considered them to be irrational and illogical. The lack of comfort in new working tendencies resulted the failure of the introduced strategies. New form of management resulted in lack of attention to the primary functions that began to fulfill improperly that resulted in profits fall. The second reason appeared to be more commonplace than the first one.à One group of unhappy employees was replaced by other one, and the cycle was repeating again and again. But the was a significant change in this practice, that qualified employees appeared in this list. As in every company there always exists a group of employees that are satisfied with management, working conditions and their work as well, and they form the basement of the companyââ¬â¢s team. With new changes that began to occur in the company their needs never no longer met and the conditions of labor no longer fully satisfied them. In this case the management that was introduced in practice was directed to satisfy primary the newcomers, but it didnââ¬â¢t meet the needs of checked and long working employees. à The solution of the problem became obvious and the reasons of the failed management were determined. The problems with employee turnover are based not in something wrong with the decisions taken by the companyââ¬â¢s authorities, but they are related to the people employed who most likely donââ¬â¢t suit the business they are hired for. à The first steps that need to be taken to stabilize the staff policy and regulations, should identify best long-term working employees and look for the business qualities they possess in those that need to be hired. Those, unsatisfied who are more likely to leave should be replaced by those who have much in common with companyââ¬â¢s loyal workers. à In order to be successful in hiring productive and loyal employees itââ¬â¢s necessary to spend some time with the core group of the company to study their likes and preferences of working in the company. à Strategies for improving labor conditions The workers a company hires are expecting more benefits from their work along with the salary they get. As itââ¬â¢s predicted by the experts in the nest five years, most of businesses will offer a wider range of benefits and programs for their employees, which will cause addition competition on the market labor as well as probable employee turnover in the companies that will not be able to accept new changes. These benefits and programs will most likely include: Paid time off plans Domestic partner benefits Flexible scheduling Flexible spending accounts Retirement and financial planning Employee assistance programs (EAPs) Itââ¬â¢s naturally understood that employees want to get competitive encouragement from their work as well as competitive salaries. The loss of employees may be both because of salaries that are not competitive (financial issues) and because the job doesnââ¬â¢t meet the needs of the employee. As itââ¬â¢s quite know people leave their jobs for plenty of reasons that can be controlled by the managers or the companies authorities or not. Nevertheless, itââ¬â¢s suggested by the scientists that employers usually have abilities to control the reasons that motivate employees to leave, the most spread of them are the following: Feeling unappreciated or that his/her contribution is not valued. A lack of growth potential in the company. No help to turn a dead-end job into something more appealing. If these factors will be taken into consideration with the development of new businesses or itââ¬â¢s expansion in future most of turnover issues can be prevented. It will be much cheaper for the company to hire a human resource manager or skillful psychologist who will hire those who wonââ¬â¢t demand job promotion in future and will be loyal if the companyââ¬â¢s business looks like slowly developing, than to hire new and new people for some kind of position again and again in definite time intervals. à On the other hand there can be people who are attached to particular company because they consider it to offer them professional growth and promotion as well as development of their skills and job opportunities. In this case it will be reasonable to organize job trainings and provide them with the job that mostly suits them and answers their qualifications and to be objective in such decisions. It will often be cheaper to spend some money in employeeââ¬â¢s qualification investment that will be of a need in future than to ignore his abilities and professional traits, that can result his discharge. The problem of retaining employees is one of the main concern of many retail companies nowadays. It should be clear that work ethic is changing from day to day, and the demands of nowadays workers differ from those of the 1950s, 70s, and even from those of 90s. The tendencies of the employees demands had changed are defined to be today and tomorrow as following: Balance and synergy Work that is seen as a noble cause Personal growth and development Partnerships Community at work Trust à There are several approaches to meet these needs that will prevent business from employee ââ¬Å"drainâ⬠: Provide interesting work that will respond to employeesââ¬â¢ talents. Donââ¬â¢t hide appreciation for work done successfully. Encourage employees to be in ââ¬Å"shapeâ⬠Provide opportunities for professional learning and career growth. Provide competitive wages for employees. Organize training for managers to be supportive coaches. Provide a clear mission with personal goals. Build a safer, pleasing and fun working environment. Support opportunities to reasonable experiments in working environment. à Real successful practices of retention T.I.M.S., Inc. Denis H. Arian and his wife Karen Arian started Technical Information Management Services, Inc., (T.I.M.S.) in their own house 13 years ago. Over the past decade, T.I.M.S., Inc. has developed into a successful consulting and information technology services company with nearly 40 members in staff and offices in Cleveland, OH and Chicago, IL. Both in the year of 1999 and 2000, T.I.M.S. was awarded Weatherhead 100 and Northcoast 99. Itââ¬â¢s purpose is to develop and optimize the most effective business systems that will meet the needs of either companies and their employees or the needs of the customers by the usage of both technological innovations and management strategies and methods. The primary strategy of T.I.M.S. was process of ââ¬Å"hiring rightâ⬠people first. What they did was the following: they established the atmosphere of partnership with each employee beginning with interviewing and hiring processes. T.I.M.S. introduced and realized in their practices the concept, which is called PASS Program (Performance Appraisal Scorecard System) for performance evaluation using employeeââ¬â¢s input as criteria for future success. The core of their strategies was training as an essential part of retention practices. à According to their methodic itââ¬â¢s very important to devote time for interaction with employee, for finding an individual approach to his concerns and needs as well as stimulate his success. Mazel Stores, Inc. à Mazel Stores, Inc. is one of the leading wholesalers of clothing in the USA. Its founder Bill Mazur has been working in this business for more than 30 years as a head of the company, that purchases sells and distributes through their retail outlets or through other store companies from direct manufacturers. Its partners are Newell (Rubbermaid), American Greetings, Ketter Plastics, and Sunbeam, as well as smaller companies such as Marcââ¬â¢s Deep Discount, Family Dollar Tree, and Medic Drug Stores. The retention need of the company was to find and save employees, most of whom had been facing troubles that would prevent them from being employed by the company in future. Companyââ¬â¢s strategy was based in recruitment using assistance of the professionals in employment business such as Empowerment Zone and the Convictions Fair for its headquarters in Solon. The companyââ¬â¢s employees faced troubles with transportation, so the company had to develop and introduce van pool service as well as other transportation solutions to ensure getting to and from work punctually. The company worked with government and municipal agencies to solve and improve employment issues as well as to increase and save employment stability rate. à The company also practiced hiring part-time psychologists and managers that worked on overcoming barriers and other job related issues faced by the employees. General strategies for reducing turnover The best way to reduce turnover and save employees is establishing human resource expertise for business. A human resource manager or organization development (also called OD) expert, who can be permanent employee or employed as an outsourced service provider is able to help company to save its employees through an analyzed and deeply examined approach that includes: Recruitment: sourcing for candidate, testing on job suitableness Compensation: market analysis Benefits: competitive, cost-containment Training and employee development Employee relations: pro-active programs, dispute resolution Performance management systems Organization assessments Legal compliance à à à Employee selection and training The selection and training of the employee should be organized in the way so that nearly hired person will meet all the requirements of the business and working environment. As itââ¬â¢s generally agreed a salesperson is a communicator: he interpreters the features of the product into those benefits that will satisfy the customer. And itââ¬â¢s very important to remember that a salesperson is the store representative to its customers. There is a very specific quality that differentiates a sales person from others involved in promotional activities and itââ¬â¢s an opportunity for feedback between customer and a seller. Only good marketing policy such as advertising and promotion will get customers to the store. The quality of products as well as good sales representatives will keep people coming back to the store again and again. As the specialists suggest, the importance of right employee choice and their trainings cannot be overvalued or exaggerated. It often happens that retailers are surprised when they find out that salary, which is important for employees, is not of the primary concern for them. Attitudes asà fairness, security, honesty, and opportunity are also of the high importance for them. à Organization and supervision of businessà à à à à à à à à à à Management functions of the retailer business basically include planning on the hand with other as organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. à à Organizing business, the retailer introduces relationships among people, products, goods, and other materials or resources to get a job fulfilled.à à à ââ¬Å"Staffing entails the recruitment and selection of employees. It is a vitally important function because the employees of a store represent that store to the public.à People can really be the most important asset of a retail firm. à à Every retailer is in a leadership position.à Leadership means motivating employees to achieve their maximum potential, while at the same time accomplishing the goals of the organization.à Because leadership means understanding people, it is one of the most creative and challenging aspects of a retailerââ¬â¢s job.à The retailerââ¬â¢s professionalism and attitudes set the tone for employeesââ¬â¢ attitudes and per formance. Controlling is the follow-up function of retail management.à Actual performance is compared with planned performance to spot and evaluate deviations.â⬠(from Charting the course of retail Business available on web http://www.etretailbiz.com/Jan2003/strategy.html) Financial analysis à The financial analysis of retail business is very important step in the optimization of the whole functioning of business. First it allows to determine the main priorities for the improvement of management of employee resources, probably reform the personnel policy, cut off or make new workplace and determine whether itââ¬â¢s necessary to spend more expanses on management or to save some money on particular part of business management and to redistribute the finances (to improve labor conditions or increase employees wages). On of the most innovative and spreading method of retail business management as other sales businesses management is distant organization of work. Top managers and top sales managers use Internet and other means of communication to regulate business, especially if it refers to international companies. The organization of a workplace for one person costs not more than 2-3 thousand dollars, and itââ¬â¢s arranged in employees house. It allows saving a lot of money on rent, property taxes, etc. Those saved finances are redistributed as a result the employees get higher salaries, plus they get more flexible and comfortable conditions of labor that plays a role of additional motivation in their work. à Another aspect that attracts the attention of specialists in food retail business is concern about investments into online retailing. Even though that some of the major e-commerce consultants and advisors make optimistic prognosis about the potential of online food retailing market, these conclusions are still not very reliable. For example Andersen consulting predicted a market portion of online food retailing to be 20% in the year of 2003. This statistics is used by both Peapod.com and Webvan.com as the foundation for a nationwide investment program with a capital of nearly one billion US$. But the real statistics is very different from that one predicted by Cap Gemini (30-40%) and is approximately about 3% for a total retail sector with only 2.3% for grocery sector. à In potential it wonââ¬â¢t greatly increase in the next five years. Its predicted growth is not more than 3-4% either for the USA or for Europe. So the decisions of some retail businesses to make investments into online retails cannot be considered as the best choices in this situation. It will require to hire new employees, to develop new management strategies and will require a lot of expenses, that wonââ¬â¢t bring any desired payment but may result in turnover because of the changed priorities of the company. Joost W. van der Laan highlights the following reasons for that in his article The future of online food retailing: ââ¬Å"â⬠¦On top of those disadvantages: traditional supermarkets are fighting for consumer loyalty by improving their marketing mix and increasing their efficiency. Reason 1. In my view online shopping for dry groceries and perishables is boring. It does not even come close to the fun of buying books at Amazon.com or the joy ofà assembling your own PC at Dell.com. There is absolutely no advantage here over the weekly trip to the supermarket. I dare you to try it yourself a couple of times, and then convince your partner who is not in the food business or consultancy business. Only when the online business focuses on special products and on rich information content, the consumer will become interested and stay interested. Reason 2. Online shopping is less time consuming than traditional shopping, but it adds complexity to your lifestyle. Let us assume in an optimistic mood that every ââ¬Å"household managerâ⬠will master the skill of shopping online. After ordering online you first have to make sure that the goods are properly received at home. Second you often have to go to the store anyway for miscellaneous articles. Third you have to check proper billing and payment. Fourth you have to follow up on orderpicking mistakes and delivery errors. Reason 3. The distribution costs of homeshopping are twice as high as the costs of traditional food retailing, and most consumers are not willing to pay the extra 15 %. Internet startups will first try to gain market share with low prices and low service fees, but when the shareholders cash is consumed they will have to ask higher than ââ¬Å"normalâ⬠prices to cover the costs and survive. Of course their is a small niche market for expensive homeshopping services: affluent PC-minded and service oriented consumers and consumers with no easy access to a nearby store. Reason 4. In recent years Efficient Consumer Response and Category Management had a significant and positive impact on the quality and efficiency of traditional supermarkets. Food retailing has always been a very competitive business, and in recent years super-marketing has become a professional science that is constantly improving the value to the consumer. Both in the USA and in Europe very competitive stores with Every Day Low Prices and high service levels are gaining market share and are making the food business a war zone for new entrants. Conclusion: the average consumer does not have a good reason to go food shopping online.â⬠(available on web: http://www.retaileconomics.com/index.htm) According to the article ULW Effect on Business and Tax Payers:à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à à ââ¬Å"â⬠¦Successful companies have been able to draw the line between low employee turnover and high profitability. The line connecting those two dots passes through high employee satisfaction, and high employee satisfaction impacts directly on the customer experience. Weââ¬â¢ve already seen how consumers rate quality of service as the most important aspect of their experience with a hotel, and thatââ¬â¢s true of many businesses in this sector. Satisfied customers become repeat customers, and when those repeat customers are in the desirable top 20 percent, profitability inevitably improvesâ⬠¦Henry Ford, the father of the American automobile, was facing exorbitant retraining costs due to high employee turnover. He was being forced to replace every employee four times per year. He also found that absenteeism was at an equally unacceptable level. His response was to almost double the daily wage of his workers to $5.00/day. * The immediate result was: 1) significant reduction in employee turnover, 2) significant reduction in retraining costs, 3) significant reduction in unscheduled absenteeism, 4) and almost complete stoppage of internal theft (roughly 50% of the theft in todayââ¬â¢s retail world is committed by its own employees).3 Furthermore, 5) he created a true economic stimulus resulting in a business boom for his own company when his workers put discretionary funds right back into his company as purchasing consumers.4 *All of these savings/benefits are possible today with the enactment of the Universal Living Wage.â⬠(available on web: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/globalization/2.html) Building HR expertise It is of a high concern that in majority supervisors and managers are generally not evaluated on employee turnover levels. If to refer to a COSE survey of retail business (April 2003), only 20 percent of respondents applied the use of a specific target or measure in evaluations. Although 26 percent marked that they ââ¬Å"informallyâ⬠used turnover statistics as a part of evaluations that shows what a great number doesnââ¬â¢t consider it to be an important part of managerââ¬â¢s job. à In ideal all managers should also be able to work asà ââ¬Å"HR managers.â⬠However, the participation of a real ââ¬Å"expertâ⬠is important to be developed ââ¬â the participation of someone with specific HR responsibilities, who would be part-time HR or OD specialist. Employee opinion survey One of the most important and essential issue for the discussion between the retail human resource executives is an employee opinion survey. An objective survey conducted by the HR manager will truthfully describe the working environment of the company and will direct the further work of the manager on solving of job related issues, that will help to improve motivation and working process as well. The importance of the survey is quite obvious. Itââ¬â¢s cheaper and more comfortable and even more safer and reliable for business to make changes in management policy using the data provided by the employees themselves, than to try to solve coming issues relying on experiment and managerââ¬â¢s personal experience, even if itââ¬â¢s an experience of a skillful and highly qualified professional. As the effective employee survey process can be an essential, high-ROI tool for store morale improvement, improvement of customer service, reduction of turnover and introduction of new ways a nd means for communication and interaction. à The Retail Survey Group made long-term researches and studies in the field of job related relations in retail business and had developed the following methods of making an effective and objective successful survey. It introduced eight important keys to the success of the survey: In most cases, an employee survey should be perceived as an operations- driven initiative rather than an HR department program. Companies that differ by high organization of the survey processes put it on the high priority when itââ¬â¢s needed to gather opinion. Even so that making the survey is job of HR center or HR manager that works in the company, the survey made from the name of the head of the company always gets a higher feedback and is more objective, because itââ¬â¢s treated by the whole management chain from the tops to the bottom line of the company. The experience of The Retail Survey Group shows that the employeeââ¬â¢s psychology is more likely to pay more attention to the job authorities than to the human resource center, which is made for these perporses. But the job to analyze the results of the survey is human resources center primary. Your goal for response rate should be 100%. à The problem with lower respond rate is not just that it can not give an accurate picture on the questions asked in the survey. The low respond rate for large businesses with more than a 1000 people employed wonââ¬â¢t draw an objective picture, but can be valid for small selling departments or stores, but still the statistics can be not as accurate as itââ¬â¢s desired. Moreover the respond rate of the employees determines their ability to draw and determine the answers on the questions about working environment. Once being determined these issues will be also desired to be solved by the employees themselves as well as by the management department. In this case the results will be more fruitful because both sides who participate in this process will be determined with their choices. As the Retail Survey Groups states: ââ¬Å"Surveys are deemed successful when one or both of the following occur: One or two large-scale organization-wide improvements are made as a result of having conducted the survey. A ââ¬Å"critical massâ⬠of smaller-scale improvements happens throughout the organization, based upon department- and store-level improvement efforts. While a single yearââ¬â¢s survey effort may have been made worthwhile by virtue of the first reason, a survey becomes a valuable ongoing management tool usually by virtue of the second.â⬠By their words : ââ¬Å"The best way to get an acceptable response rate, i.e., one that is certain to yield accurate reports down to the department level, is to make survey participation an expected occurrence, and to set up an administration procedure that makes this a reality.â⬠A survey for retail employees should take less than 10 minutes to complete. The research had determined that both the questionnaire size and the method of its administration influence on the results of the response rate and on the objectiveness of its quality. As the questionnaireââ¬â¢s purpose is to get an accurate data, it is believed that long questionnaires that take a lot of time to be completed provided not accurate data and have lower response rates. The benefits of short 5-10 minutes survey are basically in their easy administration and no time loses.à They can be easily administered during the breaks or before the meetings. Itââ¬â¢s very comfortable because no special arrangements are required. There are experiences with companies that spent more money on the administration of the survey that had to be taken after the working day and that took nearly 30-45 minutes. But the results were not that much different from those short-time surveys and even often were not responded properly. (Good) Norms are important. As soon as the results of the survey are analyzed it appears another task that faces the organization and is addresses to the issues and problems that found reflection in the survey. Itââ¬â¢s the essential part of the survey process. And as a result the company has to determine correct improvement areas in order to get the most effective and fruitful return from the survey. The set of norms for surveyââ¬â¢s data give an opportunity to compare the effectiveness of the company to the similar businesses that are held by other companies. The Retail Survey group gives the following example: ââ¬Å"consider the case of a supermarket chain that has conducted its first-ever company-wide employee survey. Senior management is reviewing the results, trying to figure out how they will allocate their resources toward making improvements. Letââ¬â¢s assume that they get what appears to be a fairly high score on workplace safety and a fairly low score on developingemployees for future promotions. Without the benefit of normative data to tell them how other supermarkets faired on those items, they might decide not to do any work to improve the safety item, and instead focus on the development item. Had they had access to a good retail norm base, they would have seen that the safety item typically receives a very high score, and that their score was significantly lower than the norm, indicating a potentially serious problem. Conversely, the item regarding development for future promotions is typically among the lowest scoring items on the survey. In fact, their score on that item places them in the upper quartile of the norm base. à Of course, the money they put toward further work on development might well pay dividends, because it is such an important item. And improving the promotional process might cement their image as a great company for which to work. However, relative to the safety item, it might not be as critical to target for immediate improvement.â⬠Each store should get a report detailing its overall results and the results of its major departments. Many companies make the fault of not disseminating the outcomes to the store level. By the view of The Retail Survey group, this greatly diminishes the chance that the survey will be successful. First, as has already been marked, surveys are most effective when they are the impulse behind change efforts undertaken at the store and department levels. Only by getting direct access to the results of the survey employees can begin to take part in the action planning process. Second, keeping the results within the restrictions of senior management can easily be understood as a breaking of the social contract common in most employee-based feedback systems. The representatives of The Retail Survey Group state that ââ¬Å"for reasons beyond the scope of this paper, employee surveys are assumed to be closed-loop feedback systems. The loop begins with the employees filling out a survey form. Next, the survey forms are tabulated, and their collective opinions are shared with management. To close the loop, management must in turn share the collective results with the employees. If this loop is not closed, employees are left with a sense of unmet expectations. It is similar to the feeling one gets when applying for a position and then never hearing back about it one way or the other.â⬠à It often happens that employees know very little about the results of prior surveys and they think about them the following: ââ¬Å"The results must have been so bad they were embarrassed to publicize them.â⬠ââ¬Å"They canââ¬â¢t tell us what they found because then theyââ¬â¢d have to change things.â⬠ââ¬Å"They just did the survey to make us feel like our input was importantâ⬠¦they could care less how it turned out.â⬠With the exception of special circumstances, the Representatives of Retail Survey Group advocate that employer share with all employees an item-by-item comparison between the results for their store and the results for the overall company. For most employees, this constitutes a full and deserved disclosure of the results, and it is a great way for employees to begin to get a handle on what the results mean. Once employer has done this, he would have set the stage for store-level action planning. Anyone who completes a survey should be able to understand a survey report. If you employer is going to share the results of the survey with store employees, he needs to present them in a report format that is easy to be looked through. Some people understand statistics and numbers better others easily catch the graphs and charts. The Retail Survey Group recommends that results be presented in a combination of these ways, but most of all in a order that is simple and understandable. It should be understood that the goal of the survey is to enlist the help of the employees in analyzing the survey results. The author of the survey wants employees to be excited about the potential insight they have into the results of the survey, because they were the ones who gave the feedback. They also have ideas about how to arrange and change things for better. Give those responsible for creating action plans some basic ideas to use as starting points for their plans. ââ¬Å"Imagine that came the most critical point in the survey processâ⬠¦the point at which store and department managers are sitting down with their employees, report in hand, with a good understanding of the results and having selected a few problem areas to target for improvement. The group is ready to create action plans. The store manager is at the flip chartâ⬠¦her marker is poisedâ⬠¦and then it strikes the group that no one has the faintest idea about what a good action plan looks like, let alone how to go about creating one.â⬠à This is considered to be the point where many surveys lose their value and significance, which is quite understood. Most retail store managers donââ¬â¢t have any training or knowledge about working with a group to present and discuss an improvement plan. ââ¬Å"To make matters worse, consider the following Survey Research 101 axiom: Managers at stores with the lowest employee survey scores are the very managers least likely to be able to facilitate a productive action planning session. In other words, those stores most in need of good post-survey action plans are the ones least likely to succeed in creating them. Fortunately, it is not that difficult to provide managers with the tools they need to write effective action plans. The easiest way to do so is to provide them with a template for the format and content of their plans. For example, our firm provides clients with an Action Planning guide, which not only offers store managers a step-by-step guide to action planning, but also suggests several actions for each topic covered by the survey. It is easy to use these ideas as the starting point s for the group discussion, and to transform them into high quality action plans.â⬠à After all, if there is an essentialà role for the Human Resources department during the survey process, it is to determine store managers most in need of help with action planning, and to offer them the help they need to do the work properly. The organization should commit to a follow-up survey even before the first one is administered. à Companies that fully use the surveys they administer usually treat them as a part of a cycle. Each finished survey is considered to be a benchmark for the next one. The data reflected in the survey describes the condition of companyââ¬â¢s finances, employee environment and indicates the ââ¬Å"workingâ⬠health of the company. It can be used to primary predict and take measures to prevent turnover issues and job related conflicts. Managers also rely on the surveys as on the sources and guidance for finding a common language with employees. Employees also consider the administering of the survey to be a good sight from the side of companies authorities to get the opinion about inner life of the company and its functioning. à But for such successful monitoring the company had to start with a successful survey that will definitely bring results. From the beginning of survey introduction into the practices of the company managers have to think about an employee survey program or survey process rather than about one-time employee survey that will stand alone. Conclusion As it was discussed the turnover employee rate causes a lot of troubles for retail businesses as well for other businesses. The expenses spent on hiring new employees are often as high as the monthly wages of the employees, but at the same time the absence of the worker causes work disorder and losses of clients. à à Nowadays the problem of saving workplaces is very actual and attracts a lot of attention from the side of managers, who propose different strategies to stabilize personnel activities and improve working environment. These strategies include individual approach to the employees, encouragements, surveys, and special management techniques. à As it was stated above, very often the financial side of the job is not of the main concern for the employees. Itââ¬â¢s understood that the salary means a lot, but appreciation, encouragements, benefits and other rewards the employee gets while working are of a high value as well. Still most of them also have any relationship to finances. à à Thatââ¬â¢s why itââ¬â¢s quite important to make business efficiency monitoring and find new solutions for its optimization. Saving money on some ineffective investments and redistributing them to increase the salaries, social benefits and educational opportunities for the employees will increase their motivation.à It may refer to their transportation issues (organization of the transportation services for employees who really need that), improving working conditions (introduction of the new equipment and organization of special training programs for workers). Itââ¬â¢s understood too be quite expensive, but the results that these innovations will bring in future will definitely cover all the expenses. (Itââ¬â¢s quite enough to estimate how much will be the transportation service organization for people who live in the same area and how much do they spend on parking and gas a day. Or itââ¬â¢s enough to figure out how much useless work does an accountant or a m anager using old computer software or even worse just pen and paper. Itââ¬â¢s easy to understand how these trainings will optimize his work will save him time and of course will save employerââ¬â¢s money). à à à à Appreciation of the employees is really important; especially itââ¬â¢s very necessary for the core of the companyââ¬â¢s team, for people who are in companyââ¬â¢s business for years and who are the most valuable. Before doing any changes itââ¬â¢s necessary to consult those employees and to take into consideration their opinion. At this point itââ¬â¢s quite important for human resource managers to administer employee opinion surveys that will draw the priorities for future management changes and better organization of the work. à Every case is very special and needs a search of individual approach. But the methods that were discussed above had recommended themselves as successful and can be used in management practices worldwide. List of references 1.â⬠The future of Food Retailing: e-Commerce and other Predictionsââ¬Å", Prof. Dr. Edward McLaughlin of Cornell University, presentation ââ¬Å"State of the Art in Foodâ⬠, January 2000. 2.â⬠Internet Retailingââ¬Å", Henk Gianotten of EIM, Food Personality, February 2000. 3.â⬠Futurize your Enterpriseââ¬Å", David Siegel, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, 1999. 4.ââ¬Å"The future of online food retailingâ⬠Joost W. van der Laan ,â⬠Journal of Marketingâ⬠, February 2000 and ââ¬Å"Food Personalityâ⬠,August 1997 ââ¬Å"Erasmus Food Management Instituteâ⬠rapport on E-marketplaces, January 2001 ââ¬Å"Marketing Logisticsâ⬠, Martin Christopher, Reed Elsevier, 1997 ââ¬Å"From Supply Chain to Collaborative Networkâ⬠, Gordon Anderson, Bruce Walton, Andersen Consulting, 2000 ââ¬Å"Eight keys to a successful employee surveyâ⬠The Retail Survey Group, 2001-2002 (available on web: www.rsg.com) ââ¬Å"Charting the course of retail businessâ⬠Article (available on web: http://www.etretailbiz.com/Jan2003/strategy.html) ââ¬Å"To Cut Employee Turnover, Donââ¬â¢t Change Anythingâ⬠,Louis Rovner, Ph.D. Article (available on web:http://www.drilleronline.com/CDA/ArticleArchiveSearch/1,5692,,00.html) ââ¬Å"Globalization and Labor ââ¬â Part 2â⬠Article (available on web: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/globalization/3.html) ââ¬Å"Taming turnover: A Strategic advantage for businessâ⬠Article (available on web: www.cose.org/PDF/WLA/Taming_Turnover.pdf) ââ¬Å"Store Wars:à How Retail eCommerce Executives Can Win the Battle for the Last Aisle Four Tips for Success for In-Store Digital Merchandising & Customer Self-Serviceâ⬠, Richardson,Alexà Article (available on web: http://www.kiomag.com/informermj04) ââ¬Å"Leading the quick service and food retailing industriesâ⬠Kay Division, 2004(available on web: http://www.ecolab.com/Publications/FactBook/Kay.pdf) ââ¬Å"Work Environment More Important to Employeesâ⬠Gregory P. Smith (available on web: http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/workenv.htm) ââ¬Å"High employee turnover raises safety concernsâ⬠Ledyard King, Article Gannett News Serviceà (available on web: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-02-26-airportsafety.htm) ââ¬Å"Reducing Turnoverâ⬠Article (available on web http://www.accountemps.com/AT/ReducingTurnover) à 18. ââ¬Å"Calculating the High Cost of Employee Turnoverâ⬠à Yves Lermusiaux (available on web: http://www.ilogos.com/en/expertviews/articles/strategic/20031007_YL.html)
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