Tanglewood casebook Essay Example for Free

Tanglewood casebook Essay The store associate position is one that mainly deals with assisting customers, be it to find certain products, deal with issues, or to just make their experience a pleasant one while dealing with the daily operations of the store. The open method to recruiting means that we are casting a wide net to catch any applicants that we can and see what we get. It’s possible that we may get exactly what we are looking for, but it’s possible that it may just be wasted resources. I recommend the targeted method to recruitment, which means that we are going to go for a specific group of people with specific KSAOs. By using the targeted method we will address some of the staffs concerns about hiring new store associates. The first concern was to reduce turnover; by casting a smaller net, but getting more qualified individuals we may eliminate some of the turnover. This will also help with the lag time, which was the second issue, in that there will be less applicants to sift through, thus letting us get to the more qualified candidates more quickly. This will help us target the applicants we want, which were college to middle age individuals with at least a high school diploma, preferably some college course work, with retail and customer service experience. By getting employees that already have customer service experience, they will already know what they are getting themselves into and what the expectation may be. Hopefully this will also help to acquire people who fit into the culture and are looking for a career and not just a job. By using online applications with specific requirements we will better be able to target these applicants. The same goes for staffing agencies, though costly, we will more effectively acquire qualified individuals. Employee referrals may be a good way to keep up employee relations and morale, but it may not lead to the type of individuals we need. The same goes for open applications. 3) In Western Washington, the highest one year retention rate compared to the amount of applicants hired was by job service agency, followed by employee referrals. This seemed to be effective for them, because the most qualified individuals fell into the referral category, however the total cost was significantly higher for employee referrals at this site, though after a year of survival ended up being the most cost effective method of hiring. In Eastern Washington, the referral method came out the most effective as far as retention rates went, followed by the kiosk method. Following the same trend as the Western Washington region, these individuals seemed to be the most qualified. Again similar to the previous region it also was the most expensive as far as total cost went, but the most effective as far as cost per first year of survival. In Northern Oregon, the agency method had an extremely high retention rate after the first year of hire, followed by the kiosk method. In this region the kiosk method was the most expensive followed by hiring agencies. The hiring agency was the most effective after the first year of hire. In Southern Oregon, a similar trend happens compared to Northern Oregon. The agency method has a the highest post one year retention rate, followed by the referral method. And similar to Northern Oregon, it is the second most expensive as far as total cost goes, but the most effective as far as post first year hire cost is concerned. 4) It would be ineffective to follow the same hiring methods for all four regions in that in both Oregon based regions the best recruitment method seems to be agency based and in the Washington regions the referral method is most effective. If the company attempted to force all regions to have the same hiring standards they would incur higher cost, less effective recruitment methods, and would obtain less qualified individuals. 5) It has proven true for the company that cheaper is not always better, therefore getting the cheapest labor will not yield the most effective customer service. It would be beneficial to rate employee performance in accordance to high, middle, and low performers and to discuss with them how they feel they are doing in conjunction with suggestions on yielding better performance. Better performance should come with some type of reward, for example an extra vacation day, a more desirable assignment, or an annual pay increase. It also would be beneficial to employees to have additional training in customer service issues in order to prepare them for what issues they may run into. As far as the bottom line hiring requirements go, at least a year of customer service related experience should be required for employment. As previously stated this will ensure that these new candidates will know what to expect from their job, and what expectations an employer would have of them. (Please refer to question 2 for how managerial concerns will be addressed.) 6) The targeted method would be aiming at a specific group of candidates. They may say that they are searching for a candidate with some completed college coursework and customer service experience looking to work as a store associate at Tanglewood. It also should state that if the associate seems promising they may be put on the fast track to management if they desire. The realistic method gives a real view of what the job would entail. It may say something like dealing with day to day store issues including customer complaints. It gives an employee a real look as to what they may be doing, but some argue that it may turn away good potential candidates before they actually have the opportunity to experience both the good and the bad. The branded recruitment strategy is searching for a candidate that will fit into your brand. They may say looking for a self starting individual who wants to be part of not just a company, but a family. By doing this employees feel a tie to the company’s brand and want to work for the company and not just the job. Work Cited Heneman III, Herbert G., Judge, Timothy A., and Kammemeyer-Mueller, John D. Staffing Organizations: 7th Edition. Middleton: Mendota House, 2012. Print. Kammemeyer-Mueller, John. Tanglewood Casebook for use with Staffing Organizations: 7th Edition. Middleton: Mendota House, 2012. Print.