Group-B HRM380.1
Executive Summary Cadet Uniform Services started its business in the year 1974 in Toronto, Canada. Now, it has 275 employees and most of their workers are Customer Service Representatives (CSR). This company started their business with multiple services being provided to the customers. Services include picking up, cleaning, and delivering customer uniforms, as well as providing unique inventory control con trol and also providing management services. They continued to provide excellent services to their customer for more than a decade, until they got recognition in the year 1993.After studying the case thoroughly, we find out the various flaws of this famous laundry service organization through HR issues and also try to provide solutions through recommendations and execute those solutions to improve the services of Cadet Ltd. In HR issues, the report discusses about the different HR problems which can be minimized or removed from the organization. The HR issues are: 1. Weakne Weakness ss in Human Human Resou Resource rce Depar Departme tment nt 2. An extensive extensive traini training ng and developmen developmentt programs programs are provided provided to CSRs CSRs of Cadet Uniform Ltd. 3. The HR Departm Department ent is facing facing problem problemss to retain retain motivate motivate of of CSRs due to technological restriction. 4. Cadet Ltd. Ltd. is planni planning ng to start start a new new venture venture in USA, USA, to do so, country country analysis and training of newly appointed US CSRs are mandatory by strategic HR management. 5. Emp Empowe owerme rment nt of of CSRs CSRs in Cadet Cadet Ltd. Ltd. To resolve these HR issues, HR recommendation are planned and those plans are executed in Implementation. Also, the report consists of a background, theme, main issue, SWOT analysis.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
PAGE NO.
1. Background
04-14
2. Theme
15
3. Main issue
15
4. SWOT Analysis
16-32
5. Human Resource Issues
33-36
6. Recommendation
37-44
7. Implementation
45-54
8. Appendix
55
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Group-B HRM380.1
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
PAGE NO.
1. Background
04-14
2. Theme
15
3. Main issue
15
4. SWOT Analysis
16-32
5. Human Resource Issues
33-36
6. Recommendation
37-44
7. Implementation
45-54
8. Appendix
55
2
Group-B HRM380.1
Background 1990s: Era of Service Revolution Total quality management, reengineering and core competencies are the ideas which are very crucial in service revolution. Total quality service was not practiced before 1990s. During the period of 1990s which which was a period of service service revolution, both real and expected, the ideas of total quality management (TQM), reengineering and concentrating on core competencies have all been applied to the issue of service delivery. This service revolution was both real and imagined because of its perfect implication. Total quality management is the holistic holistic approach to long-term success that views continuous improvement in all aspects of an organization as a journey a journey and not as a short-term destination. It aims to radically transform the organization through progressive changes in the attitudes, practices, structures, and systems. systems. TQM transcends the 'product quality' approach, involves everyone in the organization, and encompasses its every function administration, communications, distribution, manufacturing, marketing, planning, training etc. The service revolution indicated reengineering, total quality management in a ground breaking way. Core competencies, cluster of cluster of extraordinary abilities or related 'excellences' that a firm acquires from its founders, after consistent striving over the years, and which cannot be easily imitated, imitated, were also focused. Core competencies are what give a firm one or more competitive advantage, in creating and delivering value to its customers in its chosen field. These issues were concerned to the issue of service delivery. Before 1990s there were no interactions of improving the quality that can expand the image. More companies were started to introduce a rewards system, which was based on total quality service. Managers were intent on guiding their companies. Thus employees were realized total quality service. After that quality service made a huge service revolution. This spirit lead quality service to an exceptional service where quality was the main concern. Cadet uniform services Ltd. of Toronto, Canada, introduced total quality service throughout its organization which creates a good
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Group-B HRM380.1 relationship among employer, employee and its customer. Thus the company gains more productivity and commitment of the employer, employee and its customer. By applying total quality service everyone can give massive contribution to the organization and output market and because of all these reasons cadet uniform services were awarded one of the most prominent business award in 1993 for gaining merit for business excellence.
Cadet Uniform Services Ltd: An Exemplary Launderer Cadet is said to be the launderer’s launderer. Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was set up by Quentin Wahl in 1974. Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was a follow-up of Wahl’s father’s dry cleaning business. The company endows with numerous services to its customers. They are not concentrating only in one service. The services they provide include picking up, cleaning and delivering customer uniforms. The customers have to order only. Along with picking up, cleaning and delivering they provide unique inventory control and management services. Inventory control is the process of establishing the physical presence of all objects in a museum for which that museum has custody and is legally responsible (including objects in the collection, objects on loan to the museum, and objects in custody of the museum). It’s also refers to the process of maintaining sufficient inventory measures to meet customer needs, weighted against the cost of carrying inventory to determine an appropriate inventory level. Customer Service Representatives (CSR) provides these services. Customer service representatives support the work of insurance agents with a variety of tasks that must be done within a company or agency to deliver services to and handle requests from clients. Its also indicate an annual report containing the most recent incidence, mortality, and survival statistics, published by the Canc er Statistics Branch of the NCI. It presents a broad profile of the cancer burden. Although the CSRs are employees of the company, their role is different compared to typical employees of other companies. Cadet Cleaning Service gives the CSRs absolute authority to act as individual entrepreneurs. They can do changes based upon what the customers and employees said. They also have the authority to set proper logic against anyone. Instead of
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Group-B HRM380.1 limiting their role to deliveryman, the company expects them to be part-time salesman and full-time diplomat. Cadet’s main view was to serve the total quality service. Wahl has persuaded his employees about the total quality service and could able to motivate his employee’s towards the common goal. Wahl believed that doing the job right the first time, every time should be appreciated. As a result, Cadet Uniform Services limed became the third largest uniform services company in Canada with annual revenue of US$30 million and an average annual growth rate of 20% over the past decade in the year 1995. They were the most productive and efficient in the industry. Cadet charged its customers 5% lower than those the company charged in 1985. It annually serves (picks up, cleans, processes, and returns) seven million uniforms for 3,500 customers. As the price was low and the service was very efficient; so, everybody liked to enjoy its service. So, profit margins exceed industry norms. Cadet enjoys 8-10% lower per-unit costs than competitors, and wages are at least 20% higher and, sometimes, double industry averages. This endless commitment to quality and efficiency has guided to an astounding customer retention rate of more than 99%. Cadet has believed exporting its special brand of service to the United States in recent times.
Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. And Total Quality Management
Total Quality Management (TQM) programs have been launched by the firms around the world since the late 1980s in an attempt to maintain or recuperate competitiveness in order to achieve customer satisfaction in the face of increasing competition from around the world in this era of globalization. Total quality management is an integrative philosophy of management for continuously improving the quality of products and processes.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Total Quality Management (TQM) refers to management methods used to enhance quality and productivity in organizations, particularly businesses. TQM is a comprehensive system approach that works horizontally across an organization, involving all departments and employees and extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and clients or customers. Total quality managem ent is only one of many acronyms used to label management systems that focus on quality. Other acronyms that have been used to describe similar quality management philosophies and programs include continuous quality improvement, statistical quality control, quality function deployment, quality in daily work, total quality control and so on. Like many of these other systems, Total Quality Management provides a framework for implementing effective quality and productivity initiatives that can increase the profitability and competitiveness of organizations. Cadet Uniform Services Ltd composed customer knowledge with other information and use the preparation process to arrange action throughout the organization to manage day to day actions and accomplish future goals. Plans are assessment at periodic hiatus and adjusted as essential. The planning procedure is the glue that holds
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Group-B HRM380.1 mutually all TQM activity. TQM organizations understand that customers will only be content if they constantly receive products and services that meet up their needs, are delivered when expected, and are priced for value. TQM organizations use the techniques of process management to expand cost-controlled processes that are stable and capable of meeting customer expectations. TQM organizations also understand that exceptional performance today may be unacceptable performance in the future so they use the concepts of process improvement to achieve both penetrate gains and incremental continuous improvement. The final element of the TQM model is total participation. TQM organizations understand that all work is performed through people. This begins with leadership. In TQM organizations, top management takes personal responsibility for implementing, nurturing, and refining all TQM activities. They make sure people are properly trained, capable, and actively participate in achieving organizational success. Management and employees work together to create an empowered environment where people are valued. Cadet used the entire element in the above very effectively. As a result they could provide such awesome quality service to their clients and able to meet such high profit margin.
Thriving Development: Wahl’s Corporate Renovation The wellspring of corporate reformation of Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was the result of Wahl’s demand for quality, service and constant improvement. The booming growth of cadet was not unintentional, rather a shared culture of service, quality and an unrepentant dedication to employee entrepreneurship led to the way of Cadet’s reformation.
Services: Understanding of Customers Need The leading focus of Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. was on their service to the customers. Traditional managerial control of employees is absent from Cadet. Control like how best to serve their customers is given to employees. There are the entrepreneurial natures of the CSRs as well as in the strategic priority placed on serving the customers. According to Wahl and his Executive Vice president Arnold Gedmintas Cadet is separate from other companies within the industry is based on the understanding about the customer’s need. Casbarro worked for Cadet uniform services as a customer service representative. His age was 43 that time. He was sure of one thing that he loves his job. He came to Canada from Italy in the mid-1970s. Casbarro and his fellow customer service representative did more than just deliver uniforms.
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Group-B HRM380.1 They are expected to be part time salesman and full-time diplomats. Most of the days he is pulling out a bright orange van loaded with hundreds of uniform. Every organization has its own style and techniques of achieving their goal. Achieving customer satisfaction is the aim of every organization. Every organization thrive to get their customer’s satisfaction but actually achieving it takes a lot of hard work, teamwork, tactics, techniques, unique ideas and many more. Customer satisfaction is one of the scales based on which an organization can conclude whether that very organization is performing well or not. Here in Cadet Uniform Services the CSRs not only aim to achieve customer satisfaction but also makes it happen by providing smooth and spotless multiple services to the customers is one of the most important tools of their success. They believe in quality not in quantity. Picking up, cleaning, delivery along with control of inventories and management services are some of the unique features of their multiple services which lead to the gain total customer contentment. Within 1995 Cadet became the third largest uniform services company. At that time, their annual revenue was US $30 million and annual average growth rate over the past decade was 20%. The reason for this growth was the belief in quality. Their quality level was higher in a standard. All over the world all people wants a product or service with a standard level of quality. Wahl, the founder of the company learned that while he was working at his father’s company. He grew to understand and appreciate the necessity of “doing the job right the first time, every time.” The first impression is the best impression. It shows the day. Eventually this became the slogan of his company.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Quality: The Single Most Crucial Component of Continuous Development CSR as well as the other members of Cadet examine every steps such starting from picking up, cleaning and delivering process thoroughly in order to understand how and if the functions add value and quality to the customer’s operation. Quality is a measure of performance for a transmission system that reflects its transmission quality and availability of service. Quality management is a broad term that encompasses both quality assurance and quality improvement, describing a program of evaluating the quality of care using a variety of methodologies and techniques. The company understands that the service quality process is the most critical component for continuous improvement, growth and success. Everything revolves around it, as if it is the nucleus of their corporate culture. CSRs and other members of Cadet to understand how the function adds value and quality to the customer’s operations monitor every step in the pickup, cleaning and delivery process. CSRs pride themselves on total error-free deliveries to customers. The core of Cadet uniform services success is their unending desire and lust for perfection. They believe that perfection is earned by means of customer satisfaction. And earning customer satisfaction is not an easy cup of tea but in case of cadet uniform services: they made it possible. At every step of cleaning, pick up and delivery processes the CSRs try their level best to produce a total error free delivery to their customers. The cadet uniform services have a Quality awareness board where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the industry, future plans and rectify and implement certain conditions in order to increase perfection in their daily operation. The CSRs also use error cause removal to identify any inefficiency in the total delivery process. Moreover a 47- checklist is also used for a customized and quality focused program developed for the customers.
Employee Entrepreneurship: Hallmark of Cadet’s corporate philosophy The commitment to service, quality, and employee entrepreneurship represented more than a public relations strategy. It was the facilitator to a way of doing business and a way of leading business and it could make the cadet the most flourishing company in the entire industry. Employee entrepreneurship was regarded the trademark of cadet Uniform services Ltd’s corporate philosophy. This concentration was not a void
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Group-B HRM380.1 message of the employee empowerment but rather a factual commitment to the reallocation of power and decision making procedures, the success or failure of a CSR was predicated on the total contentment on his customers along with the amount of income he generated on hid routes. So, a CSR himself was the major decider of how big his own paycheck was going to be. The more satisfied the customers are and the more the CRS can retain customers, the more money he could generate. Approximately 60% of a CSR’s pay was based on customer retention levels, and another30% on ratings given directly by customers. Customer feedback was the important factor that determined whether a CSR succeeded or failed.
Selective Admission to a Painstaking Training Process Guild of artisans is a medieval organization, predecessor to unions; typically association of artisans or merchants; any association where the interests and needs of a particular professional or business group are represented. The Cadet employees engendered a similar level of expertise and dedication through focused hiring. Not only they focused on hiring but also focused on extensive hiring, development programs, and clearly articulated quality standards. They increased the commitment of the employees by training process. Thus they established high quality standards.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Hiring Procedure
A Guild of Artisan
Training and Development Procedure
Quality Standards and Innovation
The traditional human resource manager or the line manager was not directly involved with the recruitment of the Cadet Uniform Services. They were not directly related with the process of hiring. The team members examined potential CSRs, because, team members were responsible for examining the qualifications and inherent co mmitment to service and quality of all potential employees. Hiring may refer to recruitment of personnel. Cadet’s current CSRs understood more fully the level of commitment necessary to maintain the company’s quality and service standards. That’s why this method was implemented by the Cadet’s current CSRs. One of the toughest and most important jobs is putting the right team of people together . As managers were less connected to the process they did not have much authority to examine the recruitment systems. Empowerment was there for every employee of the Cadet Uniform Services. But there is a threat that someone can use it badly. Eventually it increased the strength of the culture of employee entrepreneurship and teamwork. None of this would matter much if Cadet were hiring people simply to drive trucks, deliver clean uniforms, and pick up dirty ones. But Cadet’s concept of
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Group-B HRM380.1 “customer service representatives,” as the drivers are known, ex tends much further. They are mini-entrepreneurs who design their own routes and manage their own accounts and, to a large extent, determine the size of their own paychecks. newly-hired had enough occasions to acquire diversified training and discover new skills accessible to serve the customers in enhanced ways. Educational centers offered updated materials on quality and services issues. The company encourages the CSRs to seek education from outside resource and reimbursed such educational pursuits. The condition to carry on the education was that the CSRs should share their newly obtained knowledge with other employees and narrate to them how the experience could be favorable in their work. Cadet employees also had the opportunity to train in other areas of the business that they were interested dependent upon being able to find someone willing to trade positions. It provides the employees greater job flexibility, variety, and personal (as well as professional) growth opportunities, that means, as long as they could find someone to replace them, they could exchange work positions with them. General understanding of the company and the requirements for achievement in this industry is increased all the way through these measures. A Quality Awareness Board, that included employees from miscellaneous parts of bu siness, as well as customers, both oriented new-hires about the company’s quality focus and provided an ongoing “process mapping” exercise on how to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of day to day operations. Significant increase in sales was created through this procedure. To increase the quality of their regular work, to discuss certain problems, work situations, criticisms and compliments regarding the organization and certain other daily issues of the organization the CSR undergoes a 360 degree performance appraisal where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the industry, future plans and rectifies and implements certain conditions in o rder to increase perfection in their daily operation. This process mapping as a whole has earned the organization with significant increase in sales. The core of Cadet uniform services success is their unending desire and lust for perfection. They believe that perfection is earned by means of customer satisfaction. And earning customer satisfaction is not an easy cup of tea but in case of cadet uniform services: they made it possible. At every step of cleaning, pickup and delivery processes the CSRs try their level best to produce a 100% error free delivery to their customers. The cadet uniform services have a quality awareness board where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the industry, future plans and rectify and implement certain conditions in order to increase perfection in their daily operation. The CSRs also use error cause removal to identify any inefficiency in the total delivery process. Moreover
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Group-B HRM380.1 a 47- checklist is also used for a customized and quality focused program developed for the customers.
Rewards Linking Total Quality Service: Monetary and Non-Monetary CSR’s pay was directly tied to the contentment level of individual customers. Approximately 60% of a CSR’s pay is based on customer/retention levels and another 30% on ratings given directly by customers. This reliance on customer feedback reflects how an individual entrepreneur has thrived or failed. The quality kid’s day provided employees the opportunity to share the idea of quality with their children. This helped them to become more social and friendly. Quality awards received by the company from its customers were displayed in the cafeteria and acted as a symbol of pride for team members. These awards were an honor to all team members of the organization and acted as tools for reinforcing the company’s goals and culture. In zero-defect day, a non-monetary reward policy, the plant closed early for a barbecue on the days the company met its goals ahead of schedule. It worked as a positive reinforcement. It proved to be powerful motivational tools. Freedom to Do One’s job as one best sees fit provided freedom in choosing the way of work. It gave employees fabulous inspiration. He or she then can able to use own inventiveness and extra energy to do the job and give the best shot for the improvement of the organization. Quality awards received by the company from its customers were displayed in the cafeteria and acted as a symbol of pride for team members. These awards were an honor to all team members of the organization and acted as tools for reinforcing the company’s goals and culture. This was biggest benefit of the recognition of this quality awards.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Rewards
To maintain the quality service Cadet is careful in compensating their employees through both monetary and nonmonetary rewards.
Monetary
Non Monetary Quality Kids Day
Approximately 60% of a CSR’s pay is based on customer/retention levels and another 30% on ratings given directly by customers. This reliance on customer feedback reflects how an individual entrepreneur has thrived or failed.
Zero Defects Day Freedom to Do One’s job as one best sees fit Awards received by the company from its customers displayed in the cafeteria
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Group-B HRM380.1
Tackling the Future: A Way of Performing Business As cadet has already been expanded over Canada and North America, the challenge for Wahl would be to transfer the culture and focus on total quality management and total quality service throughout an ever-expanding organization. Now the question is that whether cadet could continue motivate its CSRs through this culture as competition intensified in this industry or not. Questions such as how cadet could transfer to new employees, in an ever-expanding system. The same dedication to services that had been the hallmark of this organization has also arisen. All these things could become a huge challenge for Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. to thrive in the coming decades.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Theme: Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. of Toronto, Canada uses total quality Management (TQM), reengineering and focuses on core objectives of delivering exceptional service. With the acquisitions of employers, employees and customers, Cadet had the annual revenue of US$ 30 million with growth rate over 20% in 1995. In this type of business, customer retention and minimized employee turnover is the core criteria for superior quality. In doing so, we have to make sure Human resource managers works closely with field employees (CSR). Also, training and educating employees, advancement of technique and technology in quality services and lastly transferring the knowledge and work-style of Cadet in United States of America after they expand their businesses there.
Main Issue: What strategies should Cadet Uniform Services follow in order to keep up with the constant changing technology and technical up gradation in the business along with maintaining low cost, high quality, services and highly motivated employees in both Canada and USA?
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Group-B HRM380.1
SWOT Analysis A SWOT analysis is a subjective assessment of data which is organized by the SWOT format into a logical order that helps understanding, presentation, discussion and decision-making. The four dimensions are a useful extension of a basic two heading list of pro's and con’s. The SWOT analysis template is normally presented as a grid, comprising four sections, one for each of the SWOT headings: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis measures a business unit, a proposition or idea. SWOT analysis can be used for all sorts of decision-making, and the SWOT template enables proactive thinking, rather than relying on habitual or instinctive reactions. Strength: A company should be aware of its core capabilities and sources of competitive advantages. Core capabilities are the critical skills and p rocesses that an organization executes so well that its reputation builds around it. Weaknesses: In addition to knowing its strengths, an organization must recognize its limitations. Whether limited by a poorly equipped production facility or a sales force that merely quotes prices and delivery dates, a business that acknowledge its weaknesses forces mangers to assess their processes and systems. Opportunities: External and internal environments present both driving and restraining forces. Opportunities may occur suddenly. With the past pace of globalization and technology changes, what may initially present itself as an opportunity may become a threat if organizational responsiveness is too slow or not well planned.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Threats: Threats are negative external environmental factors which influences an organization’s decision. External factors are not controlled by the organization and to survive every organization needs to be very alert about its threats and how they can overcome this problem. Organizations should be proactive rather than reactive and should be aware of what are the competitors’ moves and should take necessary action in advance to face those moves.
The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding this case “Cadet Uniform Services: Cleaning Up In the Cleaning Business” are discussed as follows…
‘THE SWOT ANALYSIS Of CADET UNIFORM SERVICE’
Weakness
Strength Market leader Provide multiple service High sales revenue lowest per unit cost Higher wages Empowerment of employees Special selection process Error Cause Removal Total quality management 100% error free service Opportunity Well- planned rewards Quality Awareness Board The reputation can attract loyal customers Training programs & employees High-end technology Customer oriented Adapting more new high tech technology Organized database managements systems Steady growth in the local and international market Strengths Competitive advantages Expanding business in developing countries
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Missing Human Resource Department Compensation Depends Mostly On Customer Feedback Managerial Skills without Experience Break-Out of Partiality
Threat Low Familiarity and trustworthiness in different countries Rewarding policy can be demoralized factor for employees Need to be more skilled at adapting to foreign rules Hiring the wrong people will affect company’s reputation Unique corporate culture
Group-B HRM380.1
STRENGTH In 1995 Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. of Toronto, Canada was the largest uniform service company in Toronto Canada. Cadet with much saved up cost, high revenue, and quality standard services have been successfully been able to maintain its position as the market leader. The huge numbers of employees were helping them to get more and more market shares and the gain profit. So the huge number of outlets and employees acted as their strength in gaining more market share and profit earning. Cadet annually picks up, cleans, processes, and returns seven million uniforms for 3,500 customers at prices which are 5% lower than those the company charged in 1985. At the same time, profit margins exceed industry norms. Cadet enjoys 8-10% lower per-unit costs than competitors, and wages are at least 20% higher and, oftentimes, double. They had annual revenue of $30 million and an average annual growth rate of 20% over the last ten years. Cadet routinely accounts for over $17000 per week in sales revenue for the organization. It also received the award for business excellence in the year 1993. In 1995 it became the third largest uniform service provider company in Canada with annual revenue of $30 million and an average annual growth rate of 20% over a decade or so. Some reasons of being market leader are giving below.
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘Cadet became the market leader in the uniform services industry of Canada.’ A cadet uniform service started their journey in 1974 and gradually has become the market leader. After gaining the top position the company is able to successfully maintain its position at the top due to its quality service standards which is very high, high revenue generation and low production costs. In the year 1993, Cadet has been also awarded a Certificate of Merit for business excellence. In 1995 it became the third largest uniform service provider company in Canada. They provide multiple services with perfection every time and give 100% error-free service to their customers. ‘Cadet is considered as launders laundry to provide multiple services as well as providing distinctive inventory control and management services to its customers.’ Cadet Uniform Services LTD provided multiple services to its large amount of customers. These services included picking up, cleaning, and delivering customer uniforms as well as providing unique inventory control and management services. These services were provided by Customer Service Representatives (CSRs). Their first priority was serving the customer with quality product. Traditional managerial control of employees is absent from Cadet; rather, control is given to employees on how best to serve their customers. The slogan that makes them different from other company is “Our understanding of our customers’ needs.” ‘Cadet generates High sales revenue among other companies.’ Cadet’s dedication towards their work makes them market leaders and also generator of the highest sales revenue per week. Each CSR at Cadet routinely accounted for over $17000 per week in sales revenue for the company. This was considerably above the industry average of $7000 to $8000 per month in sales revenue. Comparing to the industry average even the cadets generate almost more than double. The other competitors earn approximately $7000 per week while the Cadets have sales revenue of $17,000 per week . ‘Cadet enjoys lowest per unit cost in the industry’ Cadet enjoys lower per unit cost than its competitors of cleaning industry. In fact it has an advantage of 8%-10% lower per unit cost than other cleaning up services. Cadet provide multiple services as they annually picks up, cleans, processes, and returns seven million uniforms for 3,500 customers at prices which are 5% lower than those the company charged in 1985. As most of the competitors are not so well equipped with technology, it makes easier for Cadet to sell service in a lower cost than others. Cadet use high-tech method in all of their simplest of services which makes per unit price low. ‘Higher wages than the industry average motivates employees.’
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Group-B HRM380.1 Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) who provided services to customer were given complete authority to proceed as individual entrepreneurs. Cadet has been achieved 20% upper wages than the industry average and oftentimes it is even double the industry standard. Cadet’s commitment to employee progress saw great profits. Each CSR at Cadet routinely accounted for over $17,000 per week in sales revenue for the company. This was considerably above the industry average of $7,000 to $8,000 per month in sales revenue. For example- offering hard work and enough dedication to maintain high quality service employees, a CSR can earn approximately U.S. $53000; whereas the delivery workers of other companies are earning $26,000 annually. ‘Empowerment of employees results in satisfaction of customers.’ Management of a company is fundamental for its accomplishment. The efficiency of the function of the company is extremely linked to the acceptable management structure. Through skill management system a company can able to reach the goal without enough resources. Cadet controls with a progressive manner to provide effectual result to satisfy the customer’s needs, through its products and services of uncompromising quality. The management of Cadet commits itself to quality as the prime consideration in all its business decisions. All employees of Cadet must follow documented procedures to ensure compliance with quality standards. The pool of human resources of the company will be developed to their full potential and harnessed through regular training and their participation on seeking continuous improvement of work methods. At Cadet they focus more on quality than anything else. They make their CSRs undergo continuous training and development program to serve the customers efficiently. The issue of quality service delivery is being transferred throughout the entire company. That is all the CSRs are being inspired to work to promote quality service at Cadet. Cadet believes in strictly empowering their CSRs by giving them occupied autonomy concerning their work. Human labors are always the largest asset for any particular company. It is the people who are accountable for bringing reputation to the company or, in many cases, for causing negative impacts as well. At Cadet, their pool of human labor are developed to their full potential and attached through standard guidance and contribution while looking for continuous enhancement of work methods. Cadet believes in letting their employees work as individual entrepreneurs, through delegation of authority. As a result the CSRs feel that they are an important part of the organization and hence they work more and share a sense of responsibility. This leads enhanced job performance and job satisfaction which in turn leads to better decision-making concerning the company and elevated profit levels.
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘In case of hiring new people, Cadet has a unique selection procedure to ensure that the right kinds of people are employed in the organization.’ The employees are hired through focused hiring, which include team members in addition to the traditional human resource manager. manag er. The training procedures also include self-development procedures and building commitment. All team members related to hiring process are responsible for examining the qualification and inherent assurance of quality service of all employees. This method was utilized because cadet’s current CSRs understood the needs of commitment level better than the managers who are less directly connected to the process. ‘Cadet use Error Cause Removal (ECR) forms to identify inefficiencies in the delivery process so that they could be rectified immediately.’ The focus on understanding various v arious levels of operational efficiency is illustrated through the use of Error Cause Removal (ECR) forms. ECR forms were routinely used by CSRs and other employees to identify inefficiency in the total service delivery process. Such an ability to identify and rectify a problem was the direct offshoot of the employee’s training and development activities. By using this form the company can easily measure operational efficiency. ‘Cadet was a dedicated to the principles of Total quality management at every step of the way .’ At Cadet they focus more on quality than anything else. They make their CSRs undergo continuous training and development program to serve the customers efficiently. They developed a 4747 - step checklist for quality maintenance for each individual customer. The quality so maintained made the customers’ expectations high from the service. They made the various stations very swift for the customers to get the uniforms early. The issue of quality service delivery is being transferred throughout the entire company. That is all the CSRs are being motivated to work to promote quality service at Cadet. ‘Cadet provides employees with superior job flexibility, which helps motivate them and also increase their efficiency and effectiveness.’ At Cadet, employees have the freedom to design their own routes and manage their own accounts. They can do this according to the time that they see fit. At other times they are free to pursue education or other things that are important to them. This kind of flexibility gave Cadet Employees immense motivation because no other company provided such good working conditions and also paid so much. ‘Cadet provides incredible services and also 100% error free service delivery.’
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Group-B HRM380.1 Cadets deliver system has been highly appreciated app reciated by the customers, as it is 100% error free. Each and Every step starting from pickup, cleaning and the delivery process are all examined by the CSRs. The CSRs while checking also adds any necessary item missing. They developed a 47- step checklist for quality maintenance for each individual customer. By completing this steps they made their work totally error free. They work for continuous improvement that they believe to be their corporate culture. c ulture. These employees accompany the customers from department to department until they find what they are looking for. Such services are exceptional indeed and very much unique. Continuous improvement is what accounts for growth and success of the organization. organization. ‘Increased profit levels lead to increased levels of confidence among employees which in turn leads to high morale and elevated productivity.’ The people working in the organization gain more confidence because of the profit .As a result of profit increase, the employees might even get added incentives on their compensation package. And this also acts as a motivational factor to help them exert better performance on their job. ‘Cadet’s well- planned monetary and non-monetary rewards motivate employees to give their best to the job.’ job.’ Employees are considered as assets in the Cadet. This company mainly focused on best customer service and employees are the one to give it to customer. Financial resources can significantly affect an organization’s competitive advantageCadet uses it financial resources very efficiently when it comes to providing compensation to its employees. At cadet, compensation depends directly upon how long a CSR can retain his/her customers. That is the satisfaction level of a customer determines an employees pay level .If a customer was well satisfied a CSR was rewarded with increased income and bonuses. Apart from this monetary reward, other forms of non-monetary non-monetary rewards include Quality kids’ day and zero defects day. Zero defects day was when employees were able to meet the organizational objectives way ahead of time and the plant closed early that day so that the employees could have a barbecue. Non-monetary rewards such as the quality kids’ day gave employees the opportunity to get to share the idea of quality with their children. Other non-monetary rewards include the display of quality awards received by the company and the display of company growth reports on company bulletin boards. The sight of the awards acted as a symbol of pride and a strong motivational tool for the employees. The growth reports kept the employees posted on the company’s success and profit levels. They could see those figures and feel good about themselves thinking that in many ways, they were the ones responsible for those high profit figures. This made them feel like they were an integral part of the company and gave them a feeling of fulfillment.
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘Cadet has achieved enormous goodwill which helps to retain new customers and also a positive motivational factor for employees.’ Cadet employees feel the effect of its goodwill everywhere they go. People are impressed when they get to know where the employee actually works. The positive reaction from outside people gives the employees a sense of pride due to their employment in Cadet. It is the immense popularity popu larity of Cadet that has always reflected its goodwill. ‘Cadet had a Quality Awareness Board who oriented newly hired employees.’ A Quality Awareness Board (comprised of employees from different parts of the business, as well as customers) both oriented new-hires to the company’s quality focus and provided an ongoing “process mapping” exercise on how to best increase the effectiveness and efficiency of day-to-day operations. This process mapping was credited with significant increases in sales. ‘Cadet practiced true commitment to the reallocation of power and entrepreneurship which in turn helps those gains more profits.’ The corporate philosophy of cadets promotes employee entrepreneurship. This allows the employees to be more focused and committed towards relocating their power and decision-making. Therefore the amount of income generated by the employees was directly tied to the number of customers they can retain. This particular philosophy of Cadets was springboard to do business and leading the business. business. ‘Cadet gives opportunities to new hires and existing CSRs training program to become more skilled at and share new expertise and knowledge with other employees.’ Cadet gave the opportunity oppo rtunity to its new hires and established employees to become beco me more skilled that could significantly enhance their ability to serve their customers. Through education centre they got updated materials on quality and service issues. The company also encouraged CSRs to adopt the knowledge from outside education. The only condition to enduring education edu cation was that CSRs must share their newly acquired knowledge with other employees through a summary of how the experience could be beneficial to one’s work. In addition, employees had the option of being trained in other areas of the business, dependent upon being able to find someone willing to trade positions. This provided employees greater job flexibility, variety, variety, and personal (as well as professional) growth opportunities. It also increased the general understanding of the company. ‘Cadet already uses high-end technology which is not used by any other company in the industry to increase their efficiency and productivity.’
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Group-B HRM380.1 To establish as a market leader company needs to use high technology. Technology is the most important factor now a day for the greater productivity and more output, which help every organization to serve successfully with in the competitive market in international business. Technology is involved in all organizational activities and the rapid rate of technological change makes technological change a significant factor in almost every organizational innovation. Technological change offers both an opportunity and a threat. On the one hand, it helps create new product opportunities that manager and their organization can exploit. The success of rapidly growing company is based on the frequent change of the technology to make the operation effective. It is always concerned about bringing in best technologies, which are needed to produce the best quality products that the market demands. Without fast change, the company would not be able to keep up with the ever-changing environment In the long run. At Cadet they are able to provide unconditional service guarantee because of the technology that they use at cadet. This technological knowhow was a patented right by cadet. They used the heat sealed bar codes, the scanning process so that the CSRs and the customers were both aware of the uniforms progress through delivery, cleaning, repairing, replacement and returning. ‘The customer gets number one priority in cadet, as employee’s pay was directly tied with the satisfaction level of individual.’ Cadet is one the largest uniform service company in Canada and their big force of loyal customers are the biggest strength for them. All salespeople at the Cadet are always ready to do anything that would please the customers. Because CSRs pay was directly tied to the satisfaction level of individual customers. If a customer was satisfied a CSR was rewarded with increased income and bonuses. Such facilities definitely attract the potential buyers and Cadet now has more and more loyal customers. ‘The employees at Cadet are given a lot of recognition by management.’ Cadet considers their employees as partners, not interchangeable parts of production. So in the recession time employment is continued as the employees have the interest in the company’s gain. The most important association of the employees began from the very beginning of the company, and it is continued through the ups and downs with the company’s good time and bad time. Its employees have to present in every “morning meeting” and they have to go through the whole process in the early morning and before any job is started. It brings the job satisfaction and the commitment for the employees. Moreover, for this purpose, each employee is recognized individually in this company. In addition to the job related tasks, these employees have the opportunities to be a part in the sports teams entitled by the organization. Much emphasis is given to company awards and to the performance of those teams competing with other companies. Therefore they feel for the company as their own.
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘Motivation and flexibility always help Cadet’s employees to live up with company’s high expectations .’ This company motivates their worker to serve best to customer. Employees are given full authority and work flexibility to complete their work. Hard-working employees are hired in the first place at Cadet and they are left to do what they do best. Because of such motivation and rewards, employees are always working hard to keep up with company’s high performance.
Weakness: ‘Human Resource Department Is Missing In Cadet Uniform Services Ltd.’ After analyzing the case we have found that there is no fundamental Human Resource (HR) department in Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. The organization is recommended and/or instituted a set of reports that provide the HR department with the information they need to review adequately how a particular department is doing. As they show us that they have a very organized and structured form of training and development plan. They conducted need assessment for each department. The training requirement varies from employees to employees, position to position across departments in terms of types, duration and techniques. Through this career plan analysis they understand whether the employee is able to improve the performance and what type of further training is required for that particular employee. But here we faced some limitations as for the sake of confidentiality they did not say what type of training they are providing, how frequently they give training, how much they spend for the training and development purpose etc. The HR department of any organization is responsible for the hiring and firing purpose and many inter-related activities. It is the HRM dept whose work is to hire, develop, motivate and evaluate the CSRs in order to achieve the organizational goals. When in today’s world all companies strive to hire and develop well trained motivated employees; the cadet uniform services are solely dep ending on normal staff training.
The CSRs undergoes through an extensive training and development program in order to earn 100% perfection and customer satisfaction in their work. Both new and current CSRs are given unending opportunities to learn new skills and techniques on how to handle certain problems, how best one can achieve customer satisfaction also the
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Group-B HRM380.1 trained CSRs shares their experience and skills with other employees but hoe effective this training is or would be when the question of globalization comes.? Job analysis and design, human resource planning and forecasting, employee recruitment, employee selection, training and development, performance planning and evaluation and compensation and benefits all these are done by the HRM people. But here in cadet uniform services all these are done by the CSRs and it is hardly possible for someone to posses all these qualities together; and as it the CSRs who hires the new CSRs so chances of error in hiring and selection is always there. But as cadet uniform services is expanding globally so for proper selection ,right work plan, for further expansion of creative work this strong weakness of not having an HR department should be removed as soon as possible. The Cadets ignore the importance of such a department by not placing them for carrying out the hiring and firing activity. They rather use team members to help in the selection that does not represent the proper panel for understanding people. The HR department is an integral part of any organization and ignorance of their importance can lead to hire an individual not suiting the desired position. The selection therefore lacks in expertise. ‘The Compensation of the CSRs Depends Mostly On Customer Feedback Which In A Way Regardless Of Such Massive Motivation Can Be The Major Cause Of De Motivation.’
The cadets follow a compensation plan based on how well they hand round the clientele. The fulfillment of the employees plays an essential role in influencing whether an employee is performing fine or not. This particular strategy so followed overlooks the fact of biasness of a particular purchaser or clientele. This might lead to de-motivation in inspiring the quality of work for the employee. The culture of cadet and the motivational gears are mutually supportive but consideration of the customer satisfaction sets a drawback for the employee satisfaction. There is a huge gap between the compensation of the top executives and the lower employees, the normal workers feel inferior and not motivated to work competently. The top executive enjoys the cream of the success where the normal personnel do the real job. As other employees and executives are not paid according to their contribution, they feel discriminated and do not search out the chance to work as a superior lineup in existence of top supervision. Despite the fact that the CSRs get such huge motivation like undergoing through an extensive training and development program in order to earn 100% perfection and customer satisfaction in their work, employee empowerment system which in a way shows that how much the organization have trust and confidence on them, providing the CSRs with bonuses and incentives like increased income and bonuses with every
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Group-B HRM380.1 customer satisfaction, quality kids day, zero defects day and appreciation and compliments from customers and of course they are paid a huge amount of compensation. It is in a way very clear that the organization knows and believes that their CSRs are capable of taking care of the customers and getting the company the maximum profit. But tying a CSRs pay directly to the satisfaction level of an individual customer that is the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of a customer would determine the pay of a CSR and also can cause a CSR to face negative consequences. Moreover, 60% of a CSR’s pay is based on customer retention levels and another 30% on ratings given directly by customers. This direct relationship between customer satisfaction on pay and this reliance on customer feedback can dishearten and de-motivate the CSRs to a great level. This can also make them feel that they are not really a part of the organization and therefore this employee empowerment system may not be fully effective. It is extremely contradictory of giving the CSRs the employee empowerment at the same time making them depend so much on their customer. What actually is the use of employee empowerment when the CSRs are so dependent on customer feedback? Though the CSRs are given the full autonomy on how to serve the customer and provides the CSRs with great reward system but still the efficiency, effectiveness, and the other qualitative abilities of a CSR is solely judged by the customers. This sole dependence on customer feedback as a whole can lower the faith and motivation level of the CSRs to an extreme level.
‘Difficulties in Cultivating Managerial Skills without Experience, in Order To Meet the Current Demands of Globalization by the CSRs.’
The whole case is mainly based on how the CSRs are achieving such huge profit margin and what are the compensation, bonuses and incentives they are getting in return. But Cadet being the third largest uniform services company in Canada with annual revenue of $30 million and a customer retention rate of 99%, has considered to export its special brand of service to the United States which means introducing themselves globally, but introducing globally is a huge opportunity at the same time a challenge for cadet uniform services. they are not only be transferring quality customer service but also be transferring the culture and focus on total quality service through an ever expanding organization. And in a situation like what comes next is are the CSRs will be able to meet the demands of the globalization? Despite of extensive training and development program given to the CSRs, giving them the opportunity of having employee empowerment it is obviously way too much to expect that a CSR would be able to meet the customer demands globally. Globalization is a huge thing; there will be various customer demands, different types of situational demands and many more on spot decisions have to be taken and in
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Group-B HRM380.1 today’s world where any organization with a proper managerial hierarchy faces tremendous pressure to meet global demands it would be too much to ask of a CSR. ‘A Break-Out of Partiality throughout the Organization’ The staffing squad for Cadets comprises impending CSR’s. The cadets believe the CSR’s be aware of the level of pledge to maintain company’s eminence and service values. The Human features of the CSR’s are not well thought-out before placing them on the assortment panel. They might be biased towards any entity and have more penchant to assign people they know well. The CSR folks were optimistic to seek out education and compensate the educational pursuits. They were to share their knowledge with the new employees. During that period some might impress and can become a liking of the CSR member as the potential. The biasness of the CSR members is one of the factors to be considered before introducing them in the selection board. At Cadet, CSRs are responsible for evaluating and scrutinizing potential employees to see if they have the required commitment and intrinsic vow to service and quality that is required for them. As current employees had the power to be a part of the selection process, they may select members of their family or friends for the job. These people may not be as well suited for the job as others but still become a part of the organization thus jeopardizing its level of performance. Employee relationship contributes greatly in the organizational success. Organizations, by definition, require people to work to gather and communicate with one another. Ideally, the interpersonal relationship should be productive, cooperative and satisfying. In reality, managers find that they are not always that way. Almost every working relationship will produce some degree of conflict across time. Whether the conflicts will be destructive or constructive depend on the attitudes and skills of the participants. The employee motivational tools of cadets include rewarding the employees based on how many customers they can retain. The Customer might judge based on his personal instincts to rank him, which might include some biased behavior. The likings and disliking should not be relevant to the reward system as they have been selected by the CSR after extensive training and the rewards should not be divided as it de-motivates the employs when the reward does not meet their expectation. The recruitment team for Cadets includes Potential CSR’s. The cadets believe the CSR’s understand the level of commitment to maintain company’s quality and service standards. The Human aspects of the CSR’s are not considered before placing them on the selection panel. They might be biased towards any individual and have more preference to appoint people they know well. The CSR individuals were encouraged to seek out education and reimburse the educational pursuits. They were to share their knowledge with the new employees. During that period some might impress and can become a liking of the CSR member as the potential. The biasness of the CSR members is one of the factors to be considered before placing them in the selection panel.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Opportunities: ‘The reputation of the company will attract loyal customers as well as best employees in the job market.’ Reputation in a company is considered as an asset if the organization. A well reputed company always the first choice of employees as well as customers. Every company tries to maintain their good reputation in business market. Cadet is a one of the largest and well reputed company in Canada. In 1993, the company was among the five companies awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Awards for Business Excellence, the Canadian equivalent of the Baldridge Award. In 1995; Cadet was the third largest uniform services company in Canada. By achieving these awards, Cadet has created a good impression in business market. Moreover the employees are permitted to take training in other areas of business if they wanted. It provided the employees with greater job flexibility, variety and professional growth opportunity which are major positive side for this Company to attract prospective employee. The best candidate of the job market who have good skills, good interpersonal skills, and hard working ability they easily want to join Cadet Company. Because the candidates knows that the company maintain good working environments and other good strategy and business market they have good name. So they will think in this company they can do their work in very comfortable and safe way. They don’t need to think about the salary package or compensation package for this company. Sometimes reputation plays a big role to employees to stay long time in the company. Reputation of the company also plays big role to maintain loyal customers. As the company can attract good and loyal employees because of its reputation, it will easily retain loyal customer too because loyal employees will serve better. ‘Cadet can be able to offer high class services to their customers by adapting more new high tech technology.’ Today we live in modern era and we should take advantage of technology to make our life easy. In case of business, a company obviously should take advantage of new technology to maximize production to full level. Technology is the most important factor now a day for the greater productivity and more output, which help every organization to serve successfully with in the competitive market in international business.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Technological change offers both an opportunity and a threat. On the one hand, it helps create new product opportunities that manager and their organization can exploit. The success of rapidly growing company is based on the frequent change of the technology to make the operation effective. It is always concerned about bringing in best technologies, which are needed to produce the best quality products that the market demands. Exclusive of fast change, the company would not be able to keep up with the ever-changing environment in the long run. Cadet is able to provide unconditional service guarantee because they are using better technology than competitors. This technology has been patented by cadet. They are trying to introduce bar code system with radio microchips, by this the CSRs and the customers were both aware of the uniforms progress through delivery, cleaning, repairing, replacement and returning. Adaptation of such new technology completely automated the cleaning process; so that reducing the time for delivering the uniforms. This will create a great opportunity for them. ‘Using organized database managements systems for the formation of brand trustworthiness make Cadet more successful.’ Organized Database System is used for colleting and organizing data in a system which helps us to easily acquire information. Building a customer relation is very imperative to any company, the cadets always tried their best to build and develop a better customer relation. Maintaining database is very important because this might improve the particular situation. A proper database is very important cause by these cadets can identify their valued customers and provide them with better service. It’s a very important part of their business. So maintained the database can also help to customize their service in accordance to the service quality. In addition to the database for the customers they can also develop one for their employees, where employee information would be saved and updated. So that database management is really very important. By this it would be easy to identify the best employee and assign them in creating brand loyal. ‘Steady growth in the local and international market would help Cadet Uniform Services to improve its operation.’ When the market growth rate is stable for a company in maturity period they can easily run their business successfully. In a maturity period every company try to reach to their targeted constant growth rate. Cadet was the third largest uniform services company in Canada with annual revenue of US$30 million and an average annual growth rate of 20% over the past decade. Cadet’s CSRs were earning a $53,000 per year while other companies were paying their drivers $23,000 per year. These CSRs with the corporate culture of quality, in their mind, worked with their best effort to maximize the customer satisfaction level. Effort in turns made very high sales revenue of US$17,000 per week. This was far more above than the industry average of US$ 7000 to $8000 per month. They have the constant growth rate in market so they can easily improve its
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Group-B HRM380.1 operation day by day with new facilities . ‘Competitive advantages of Cadet Uniform service could help it to enjoy the opportunities in the industry over many top competitors.’ Employee Entrepreneurship is considered as main factor of the brand of Cadet’s corporate values. Cadet was implementing this critical process with their drivers also in a very efficient way. While other companies were treating their drivers’ just as traditional way of delivering and collecting the uniforms from different locations, Cadet was empowering them with Employee Entrepreneurship. That is why they do not just select the employees for their driving ability. They tried to hire people with hardworking ability, creativity and friendly attitude from morning to night, p hysical fitness etc. Without these abilities it was quit impossible for serving as an employee Entrepreneur. In Cadet, the CSRs were truly empowered to select the process of operation and decision-making. All their effort is focused on customer satisfaction. They were directly facing the customers while collecting and delivering the uniforms. So they had a clear understanding about their customers. They were careful about the individual need of their customers. As their pay was directly related with the satisfaction level and customer retention rate they were bound to do so. ‘Countries with huge populations with low labor cost can be a great opportunity in business for Cadet.’ Cadet can also expand its business in other areas overseas besides developed area. Continents like Asia where there is abundance of cheap labor. So they can earn a lot cause for labor cost & most important thing is the population. Huge populations with low labor cost make their business more profitable. Cadets would incur lower cost of production and earn a significant amount of revenues compared to what they are earning at present. So it would be a big business opportunity for them.
Threats ‘Familiarity and trustworthiness might be perceived as low compared to competitors as it is in commission in a different country.’ Cadet was crowned the third largest uniform service company in Canada in the year 1995. With this reputation it must have been an easy job for Cadet to generate more revenue. However this is not always the case. Other giant firms in the industry, those
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Group-B HRM380.1 standing in number one and two positions also provide quite a large number of customers with a much-improved service. So this develops a sense of competition among Cadets employees. And they surely have to work hard to survive the intense heat of pressure. They have prospect plan of expanding their business in North America. When they will do that, they will face people of different culture and values. Currently, Cadet has not been following the traditional management system. They are giving more emphasis on the empowerments of CSRs. This might create some problem. Cadet has a diversified workforce. Although many people think that problem might arise from this diversified work force, when they will extend their business it will turn into an asset. Many companies face some problems when they try to expand their business. Many of those problems arise from the difference of culture. If the management of that company does not understand the culture of that place, they might not be able to satisfy and motivate the employees.
They can face problems in satisfying customers too. When they will start their business in another company they will new at that culture and business market. Because at the very beginning of their business in a new country 80% customer will have no idea about this company. So they may face some problem. Customer already knows about their well reputed company. Majority customers have their o wn choice and they like to take service from that particular company. So that company is already known to all customers and they are more experience than a new company. So when cadet will operate their business in a new country probably they will compare as low compared competitors. ‘Rewarding System for the employees depends on customers so it can be demoralized factor for employees.’ The Cadets compensation depends on the customer satisfaction and if the customer moves away the employee’s salary also decreases. This rewarding and set back system of Cadets might de motivates the employees’ form doing their day-to-day activities. But customers might even switch for other reasons, so having such a system of sinking salary always puts the employees in an insecure position about their performance. The implications of such a system might upset considerable number of employees at some point in time and cause greater damage for the Cadets. It’s really very important to satisfy the customers. Cause the satisfaction level is different for individual customers. If customer was satisfied then Cadets was rewarded with bonus and increased income else negative consequences. This rewarding and set back system of Cadets might de motivates the employees’ form doing their day-to-day activities. The case can be opposite also and that will a threat for company.
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘Cadet has to become skilled at adapting to foreign rules and guidelines.’ As Cadet want to expand to new horizons, locations there are many challenges waiting for them. These new locations include expanding into areas such as the United States where rules and regulations are known to be very strict in terms of maintenance. So, Cadet also has to think over this issue with much emphasis on it. As they’re looking to grab the market of other countries, the biggest challenge that lies ahead for Cadet is the fact that they want to expand to new horizons, locations. These new locations include expanding into areas such as the US where rules and regulations are known to be very strict in terms of maintenance. So it’s not so easy to maintain the business and make profit there. ‘If Cadet Hires the wrong people it can cause harm to company’s reputation as they don’t rely on traditional HR managers.’ It’s not an easy job to hire the right person. The Cadets do not rely on the traditional HR managers or line managers for the purpose of Hiring. They rather rely on the team managers who are responsible for examining the qualifications and quality of the potential employees. The Team members do not take into account of the physical aspects of the job and so might result in hiring the wrong individual for the specific position. One to one communication is really very important, which is important for customer satisfaction. At last proper HR professional can lead to hiring of wrong people as many misleading factors can influence the team members to hire. The Cadets do not rely on the Traditional Human resource managers or line managers for the purpose of Hiring. They rather rely on the team managers who are responsible for examining the qualifications and quality of the potential employees. ‘As Cadet follows unique corporate culture, if they continue to expand they might have trouble transferring this culture.’ As Cadets are expanding to international market it will be difficult for them to transfer the culture and adaptation of the focus on total quality service would be a greater challenge for the cadet’s managers. Dedication towards service has been the basic feature of the Cadets. They have had a good corporate reputation and healthy employee culture while operating in the local country. Now, the cadets are expanding to international arena and to transfer the culture and adaptation of the focus on total quality service would be a greater challenge for the cadets. The greater problem for them would be the transfer of the Cadet Employee culture in a growing organization.
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Group-B HRM380.1 SWOT ANALYSIS - NARROW VERSION STRENGTH ‘Every person at Cadet believes in sharing the same mindset, share a common approach and way of thinking that bring together them and works for the promotion of the whole company.’ ‘Cadet use many innovative ideas in the workplace which helped increase their productivity.’ ‘Cadet’s corporate vision was one that aimed to bring peace and prosperity to all by providing everyone with good quality service.’ ‘Cadet’s business philosophy was always geared to the future and to becoming the top player in the industry.’
WEAKNESS ‘ Extreme Employee Empowerment Leading Toward Management Disaster’ ‘The Extensive Guidance and Expenditure’
OPPORTUNITY ‘Market growth would help Cadet Uniform keep away from reliance on to a particular market by which it can create more proceeds and boost its consumers.’ ‘After fulfilling the demand of service inside Canada Cadet has considered exporting their brand service to the developed nations.’
THREAT ‘Unless Cadet can maintain their current growth rate, the intense competition that they will face later on will prove to be extremely risky for them.’
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Group-B HRM380.1 ‘Cadet Uniform Services might face problems in motivating its employees with the same set of rewards in other competitive market.’
Human Resource Issue s: Human resource issues commonly experienced by employers today include diversity, productivity, training, benefits and outsourcing. How each business deals with its specific human resources issues depend on the HR manager or director as well as company policy. Since the main responsibility of HR personnel is to oversee all areas of recruitment, hiring, employee development and termination, it's also this department's job to handle human resources issues. Appropriate human resources assure an organization that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time and place so that organizational needs can be met. To maintain a good position in a market, human resource issues have always been very essential to the organization. After reading the case, it was observed that there is details information about the training procedure, reward system and motivational procedure. The company’s plan is to reform the employees in both managerial and nonmanagerial sector. It is always very important for an organization that their employees are productive and efficient, because if the employees are not productive and efficient enough then it’s really difficult for the organization to reach the organizational goals. In 1995, cadet was the third largest uniform services company in Canada with annual revenue of US$30 million and an average growth rate of 20% over the past decade. Wahl believed in “doing the job right the first time, every time” and this simple slogan led Cadet’s 275 employees to be the most productive and efficient in the industry.
Weakness in Human Resource Department The cadet Ltd. has a weak HR department in compare to its other divisions and it is not a proper strategy for organization like Cadet. Hiring, compensation, evaluation, promotion and managing relations are the key functions of human resource department. As the company reorganize to gain feasible edge, human resource play an important role in dealing with fast changing competitive environment and greater demand for quality employees. Appropriate human resources assure an organization that the right number and kind of people are available at the right time and place so
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Group-B HRM380.1 that organizational needs can be met. However, instead of relying on a human resource manager, Cadet Uniform depends on the senior CSR members for HR activities. The senior CSRs are responsible for examining the quality and qualifications of other employees. Therefore, the power of authority of HR department is narrowed. To achieve higher competitive edge, a productive HR department is essential for any organization like Cadet Ltd.
An extensive Training & Development Programs are provided to CSRs of Cadet Uniform Ltd. Training is a process that empowers teams to improve decision making, problem solving and team development skills in order to achieve business results. Training is a continuous process; an effective training process does involve some classroom teaching in many situations. Also, established and newly hired CSRs need concentrated time to gain knowledge and learn new skills which will increase their expertise in various areas of their work. Both new-hires and established CSRs are allowed to learn new skills that could significantly enhance their ability to serve their customers. Also, employees especially the CSRs have the choice of being trained in other areas of the business. This provided employees greater job flexibility, variety, and personal and professional growth opportunities. Dedicated efficient employees are the main capital of Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. and it will help the company to provide suitable services with better satisfactions. While performing daily operations CSRs earn different types of experiences which they share with other employees, these help others to be more efficient in future. Of course, experienced knowledgeable employees will be able to perform well in critical situations which will be beneficial for the company’s image and reputation.
The HR department is facing problems to retain motivation of CSRs due to technological restrictions Cadet Ltd. provides various services to their customers which includes cleaning, repairing, replacing, delivering and receiving. These services are strictly supervised by the use of heat-sealed bar codes provided on each uniform. Using these codes, the updates for each uniform can be collected. However, this bar-code technology is not always feasible due to its limitations of positioning the codes properly. S ometimes a few numbers of uniforms get lost due to technological problems which directly affect the CSRs performance evaluation and payments. Therefore, technological difficulties
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Group-B HRM380.1 can enhance the de-moralization of employees especially the CSRs. To improve this situation, HR has to work closely with the CSRs; Cadet HR has to make sure that the technological problem of the company does not enforce any negative impact towards CSRs compensation and their enthusiasm.
Cadet Ltd. is planning to start a new venture in United States, to do so, country analysis and training of new US CSRs are mandatory by Strategic HR management Cadet Ltd. is the 3rd largest uniform service company in Canada because it focuses on customer satisfaction, employee retention and total quality service. The main problem is when they will start business in United States of America, whether they can follow the same culture of work with total quality service, or they have to change their strategies and make different plans for US. In order to solve those dilemmas, Country analysis and training and development programs for new US CSRs are important. The country analyses will include political environment, economical environment, also social, legal environment and technologies. To share the knowledge, work culture, and performance pay system of Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. with the new CSRs of US, senior Canadian CSRs and top management of HR have to come to USA to train the newly appointed US CSRs.
Empowerment of CSRs in Cadet Ltd. The employees of Cadet Uniform are given the power to serve their customers in their own best way where traditional managerial control of employees is unavailable. A hallmark of Cadet’s corporate philosophy is employee entrepreneurship. This focus is not a hollow message of employee “empowerment” but rather a true commitment to the reallocation of power and decision-making. Employee entrepreneurship is emphasized by the Cadet’s because they believe that if an employee works in their own best way he/she will be more motivated. The CSRs will think the company as their own and will work hard for the success of the company. Because of empowerment an employee has the right to take decisions and do not need to wait for the approval of higher authority. A CSR’s success depends on the satisfaction of the customers. If the
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Group-B HRM380.1 customer is satisfied with CSR he will enjoy extra benefits. Approximately 60% of a CSR’s pay was based on customer retention levels and another 30% on ratings given by customers. The rest 10% is the basic salary of each employees of Cadet Uniform Service Ltd.
Customer Service Representative Every organization has its own style and techniques of achieving their goal. Achieving customer satisfaction is the aim of every organization. Every organization thrive to get their customer’s satisfaction but actually achieving it takes a lot of hard work, teamwork, tactics, techniques, unique ideas and many more. Customer satisfaction is one of the scales based on which an organization can conclude whether that very organization is performing well or not. The CSRs in Cadet Uniform is not only aim to maintain customer satisfaction but also provide proper services to satisfy the customers. They believe in quality not quantity. Picking up, cleaning, delivery along with control of inventories and management services are some of the unique features of their multiple services which lead to the gain of 100% customer satisfaction. The CSRs undergoes a 360 degree performance appraisal where the employees and the customers discuss about the present condition of the industry, future plans and rectifies and implements certain conditions in order to increase perfection in their daily operation. This process mapping as a whole has earned the organization with significant increase in sales.
Diversified Workforce
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Group-B HRM380.1 The Cadet Uniform has a large diversified workforce. There are almost 46 different ethnic groups in the workforce. These groups have different culture and values. So working with each other in the organization might create conflict. But at the same time it is also good for the organization as different people have different culture so it becomes easier to interact with the customers of different group.
Recommendation: Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. of Toronto, Canada uses total quality management, reengineering and focusing on core objective of delivering exceptional service to their customers. With the joint venture of employees, employer and customers, Cadet is the 3rd largest uniform service company in Canada with annual earnings of US$ 30 million and a growth rate over 20%. The services of Cadet are carried out by Customer service Representative (CSR) who has permission to act like an entrepreneur himself/herself. Their compensation is truly based on customer satisfaction, approximately 6 0% of CSR payments are based on customer retentions (Cadet has 99% customer retention), 30 % come from direct ratings of customers and 10% are from the company. After analyzing the case systematically from different aspects, and providing effective human resource issues above, it is time to discuss about the problems in Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. which are pointed in HR issues. Also, recommend solutions to those problems individually to gain efficiency in the services and also able to enhance the customer satisfaction followed by the successful expansion in USA. Therefore, according to Mr. Wahl, Cadets will “do the job right, first time, every time.”
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Group-B HRM380.1 Problem-1 Human Resource Department in Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. is relatively weak in compare to their other departments. Human Resource in Cadet is not a productive department in comparison to their other divisions. Basically, Cadet is a laundry service company which gives more priority to its Customer Service Representatives who works in their field level. Formally, it is HR job to hire, recruit and train employees, however, as most of the employees are CSRs, so HR jobs are done by the senior CSR members who look for the qualifications and dedication for the quality and service of possible employees. Senior CSR members are recruiting new employees, because Cadet believes, experienced CSR can evaluate the job responsibilities of potential employees more than a conventional HR manager. Also, HR department is responsible for cutting checks and compensations, however, their power is also relaxed in this criteria too, Cadet follows a Performance based compensation policy where approximately 60% of CSR payments are based on customer retentions , 30 % come from direct ratings of customers, therefore there is little or no chance of HR managers to work and motivate CSRs.
Recommendation-1 The employees of Human Resource Department will be trained to be a part of CSR. Cadet is a basically a laundry service organization which prioritizes its CSRs. The job responsibilities of any HR divisions depend on the organization. For Cadet, their HR departments will work differently than other organization of HR as it is a unique company so its HR should also be exceptional.
For Hiring, Recruiting and Selecting: The HR divisions for Cadet will be unique, to retain their job from senior CSRs, they will get extensive training and participate in different development programs designed for CSR. With the aid of the training and development programs, HR of Cadet will be able to work as CSR and also think like one. On doing so, they will be able to evaluate the work and responsibilities of Customer Service Representative effectively which
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Group-B HRM380.1 will allow them to do assigned work of hiring, recruiting and selecting possible Cadet employees.
For Compensation: Cadet follows a Performance based compensation policy where approximately 60% of CSR payments are based on customer retentions, 30 % come from direct ratings of customers, and rest 10% is a basic salary for all employees. However, there is a catch, although, their customers’ retention is more than 99%, whereas the turnover rate of Cadet CSRs are around 7%. Sometimes, due to technical problems, some of the uniforms do get lost rarely which directly effects the CSRs performance evaluation and payments. Therefore, HR of Cadet Ltd. should take care of this issue seriously and make proper judgment, whether the misplacement is a technical problem or individual problem of CSR. Therefore, HR should assure that any sort of technical problem does not hamper CSRs compensations and thus turnover rate can decrease significantly
Why it is a best solution??? Cadet Ltd. is a unique company, so its Human Resource Department should also be unique. This is a competitive market where you cannot keep somebody who is not useful to you. To get the best out of Cadets HR employees, HR have to have adaptability, convertibility and flexibility. Training will play a huge role for changing the current status of Cadet HR into customer service representative manager. Also, at the end of the day, it is compensation which separates HR division from other departments, taking care of CSRs will discourage the current turnover rate of Cadet Ltd. and will make it as competitive like never before.
Problem-2 Company provides scholarship for employees’ knowledge to enlarge for work which can turn out to be partial and total loss to the company. Established and new employees especially the CSRs of Cadet Ltd. get the opportunity to enhance their knowledge to serve their customers better through education. Different types of quality and service information are provided to CSRs through an educational center. Also, employees can learn from outside institutes about topics related to services of Cadet Ltd and the finance for this education is provided by the
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Group-B HRM380.1 organization. However, the turnover rate of 7% can also be directly proportional to newly acquired education of CSRs. The Customer Service Representatives can switch their jobs after getting educated and do not implement the knowledge gained by the employees for Cadet Ltd. but for other organizations in regardless of the terms and conditions of Cadet Ltd. If, CSRs is not motivated and interested to work for Cadet, it is just a waste of time to hold him/her. However, Company will lose money which it has invested over those experienced and fresh CSRs.
Recommendation-2 The motivation will play a key role to retain those knowledgeable experienced and newly appointed CSRs Motivation through Benchmarking: Cadet Ltd. can use benchmark to motivate their employees, for example, Mrs. Nada Cian, a personnel director who is working in Cadet for 27 years; she was a CSR in her early age of her work life, now she works on recruiting and managing employees. The management can use her name as a benchmark in their educational center, where employees will know about her and how she retained her current position. Therefore, the entire trainee CSRs will get motivated through believes that, if Mrs. Nada Cian can do it, why cannot we?
Motivation through Promotion: When a CSR completes a specific course from outside institute to enhance their knowledge to serve their customers, then Cadet Ltd. can motivate its employees by providing promotions. Whenever, a CSR becomes better after studying a particular course beneficial for work, and then he/she becomes an asset which should be cared not neglected. If he/she gets de-motivated through negligence, then he/she will switch his/her job. To maintain the better performance of the CSR, he/ she can be promoted from junior CSR to senior CSR, which will increase his/her basic salary, also, their knowledge can be used in company’s strategic planning, growth analysis and they can also take part in the monthly operation growth meeting with CEO. This way, every CSR can give their best efficient and effective performance.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Mentoring in Training and Development programs: Knowledgeable CSR can be efficiently used in different training and development programs. Their knowledge can be utilized by the company in their educational center. In educational center, these senior CSRs can share their knowledge as a mentor and discuss how their ideas which can be useful in the Cadet Ltd. workplace. Therefore, the senior CSR will be highly motivated as the company is providing them recognition about their skills and information.
Why it is a best solution??? Providing service to customers is impossible without motivated employees. Company provides scholarship for employees’ knowledge to enlarge for work which can turn out to be partial and total loss to the company, if the employee feels de-moralized or un-important in the organization. To keep up their motivation and enthusiasm among CSRs, the Cadet Ltd. uses benchmarking, promotion and using senior CSR as a mentor which act as motivational tools for the organization.
Problem-3 Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. is technologically challenged. Cadet Ltd. provides various services to their customers which includes cleaning repairing, replacing, delivering and receiving. These services are strictly supervised by the use of heat-sealed bar codes provided on each uniform. Using these codes, the updates for each uniform can be collected. However, this bar-code technology is not always feasible due to its limitations of positioning the codes properly. As Cade t Ltd. is a big laundry service firm with 400,000 clothes per week for cleaning, bar-code system is not at all viable. Sometimes a few numbers of uniforms get lost due to technological problems which directly affect the CSRs performance evaluation and payments. Therefore, technological difficulties can enhance the de-moralization of employees especially the CSRs.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Recommendation-3 Cadet Ltd. can introduce Radio Chips for the supervision of uniforms to serve. Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. is a big laundry service firm with 4, 00.000 clothes per week to serve, and they have a strong financial background to purchase new technologies like radio Chips. The radio chips will be inserted in each of the uniforms to serve. These technology can help prevent misplaced of uniforms and also increase the productivity of the service. Also, with the help of these radio chips, the whole cleaning process will become purely mechanized.
Process with Radio chips used in uniform 1
When a radio chip is inserted in a uniform, simultaneously computer starts recording data about the cloth. The computer has a database which is monitored by a computer trained CSR. From point 1 to point 3, computer tracks about every information of each uniform. After point3, RRCM (remove radio chip machine) comes into action; it is an automated machine which removes radio chip from the cloth, and later the uniform goes for packaging at point 4. Afterwards, at point 5, billing for the service is made and at point 6, customer pays the service charge and takes his/ her uniform.
Why it is a best solution??? Cadet is the 3rd largest uniform service company in Canada with annual earnings of US$ 30 million and a growth rate over 20%. With the help of hard work of employees
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Group-B HRM380.1 and the support of customers, Cadet Ltd. is growing rapidly. To sustain their superior quality and service, using of new technologies are vital for business progresses. As Cadet has 4, 00.000 clothes per week to serve and it can increase, so to retain their better quality radio chips are best option. By using radio chips, there are less or no chances for misplaced of uniforms. Therefore, customers will be purely satisfied with the service which benefits CSRs performance evaluation and payments directly.
Problem-4 Cadet is planning to start its businesses in US; the problem is whether Cadet Ltd. will be able to transfer their knowledge, work culture, and performance pay system with the new CSRs? Cadet Ltd. is the 3rd largest uniform service company in Canada because it focuses on customer satisfaction, employee retention and total quality service. The main problem is when they will start business in United States of America, whether they can follow same culture of work with total quality service, or they have to change their strategies and make different plans for US. Although, Canada and USA are neighboring countries, still they have a lot of differences in their personal and professional life. Therefore, Cadet has to find those odds and make certain changes which will help them to have a boost in their businesses in United States. S
Recommendation-4 Country Analysis of United States of America Before starting the business in US, Cadet Ltd. has to come up with country analyses which will assist their top management to create strategic plans abou t US. The country analyses will include political environment, whether US has feasible political conditions to start a new business. Also, economical environment is crucial, whether the country’s population have the affordability to spend money for laundry services like Cadet Ltd. Moreover, other environments are also vital for businesses like social, legal environment and technology. The top management will also find out about the customer’s interest about laundry services, competition in the current market whether the market is saturated or unsaturated, type of advertisements required to grab the attention of the customers in the first place.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Training and developing for new CSRs in US To transfer the knowledge, work culture, and performance pay system of Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. to USA with the new CSRs of US, senior Canadian CSRs and top management have to come to US to train the newly appointed US CSR. Senior Canadian CSR will act as a coach and teach US CSR about the working culture, knowledge, providing customer orientated service and performance based pay structure of Cadet Ltd. this training will be done before starting the laundry business full-fledged in United States.
Why it is a best solution??? Starting up a business in a foreign country or domestic country is a huge investment. Before going for such an investment, every country should perform the pest analysis or country analysis. Those analysis will include political environment, economical environment, social, legal environment and technology. Therefore, Cadet Ltd. needs to perform the country analysis before going for such investment. Also, to transfer the knowledge, work culture, and performance pay system of Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. Canada with the new CSRs of US, senior Canadian CSRs and top management have to come to US to train the newly appointed US CSR. This way, new employees will have idea about what their company wants from them and how they have to perform it. Also, they will know about what are the forms of rewards for their efficient performance?
Problem-5 Cadet Uniform Services is giving full empowerment to their CSRs, who are the main source of satisfying their customers: but leaving the full power on the CSRs may be harmful for the company image of maintaining quality service and committed employees. The Cadet Uniform Services has been giving too much empowerment to its employees as the employee entrepreneurship is a trademark of cadet’s corporate philosophy.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Traditional managerial control of employees is not there in Cadet Ltd.; rather, power is given to employees on how best to serve their customers. Cadet Ltd. believes that without empowering CSRs, you can never bring the best out from him/her. The Cadet is focused on quality service to the customer which reflected in the entrepreneurial nature of the CSRs and also in the strategic priority placed on serving the customer. However, the company image is completely depending on the CSR’s performance, if any unfair advantage is taken by CSRs can be harmful to the company itself. So giving full empowerment is not a good strategy for the company.
Recommendation-5 The HR department of Cadet Ltd. has to create a Monitoring Committee, which will monitor the CSR’s activities . After opening the HR department in the Cadet Uniform Services, all HR procedures have to be reformed including the employee empowerment policy. Empowerment is a better tool for employee motivation, but too much empowerment can cause harm to the company image and market position. So limiting the empowerment at a level is necessary for the company to be secured in all way. Though, their employees have brought the company great achievement of being one of the third largest companies in the industry, this may not continue forever. So under the control of HR department and after having a proper decision about at what extent employee should be empowered the HR managers must limit it as soon as possible. At first the HR managers have to identify the criteria where employees must need to be empowered and where it is optional for them to be their own boss. And then they create a written document about this new policy and acknowledge all the CSRs about the new policy. In this system their opinions must be needed as they are the one who brought the company at this high position. If they agree with it, then the new policy of empowerment will begin. Due to reduction of empowerment, employee’s motivation or employees might be demotivated. So the better idea can be opening a monitor committee which will always monitor the CSR’s activity, whether they are taking any wrong decisions, applying any wrong method to serve their customers, or taking any unfair advantage of their power or not. But all these monitoring activities must be done secretly so that the CSRs are
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Group-B HRM380.1 not aware of the fact that they are observed by other personnel if they know about being monitored then their motivation can slacken,
Why it is a best solution??? Empowerment is one of the effective tools to motivate the employees to do their job efficiently; it does not bring always blessings to the company. It is the human nature to abuse the power. There are very few people existing in the world who utilize their power effectively, most of the people misuse their power when they get it. Here in the case we have found that the CSRs are given complete empowerment to do their job, which is always not right, because they may mistreat their power and lose their customers as well. This can hamper the image of the company, therefore, empowering of CSRs need to be limited.
Implementation Implementation is one of the most crucial foundations of a company. Recommendation would have no value if they are not implemented or is not strategically correct for implementation in practice. So, implementing the correct po ssible solutions that have been recommended is one of the vital elements. Here, we would like to discuss about the implementations that should be prepared for the recommendation, in order to achieve the main issue of the case. Some of the proper applicable planning has been proposed that would help the organization to achieve its goals in the near future. For a long time, the Cadet Uniform Services has prospered and achieved through consistent performance and they have managed to be among the toppers in the industry. It was possible due to the company having a collection of dedicated and devoted CSR s whose main objective and aim was completely harmonized with the goal of Cadet Uniform System. Now the organization has attained its object and established its sustainability in the market. For that reason, it does not feel the need plan to grow further; rather it does need plan to keep the growth consistent so that it does not plunge. For any organization, planning and processing of the proper implementations are vital to maintain. The goal set by the organization must be followed by accordingly so that it
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Group-B HRM380.1 does not backfire and claim more harm than it would before implementation. So, to be successful in the planning part the goal must be properly defined; otherwise it will never be plausible for an organization to achieve its purpose. So it is necessary for the organization to cope with the constantly shifting market for any given industry. Plus, both the employees and the employer must comply with the technical and economic issues of the organization and prosper and thrive in the market accordingly.
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Group-B HRM380.1
Problem-1 What is the problem? In Cadet Uniform Services, the Human Resources component of the organization is relatively weaker than other departments of the organization. The Human Resource in Cadet Uniform Services is not very profound. It lacks the intensity and essence of HR when compared to any such large organizations. Due to Cadet Uniform basically being a laundry business, it lacks proper execution of HR regarding the basic actions such as hiring, recruiting, training etc. As most of the employees are CSRs and the HR facilitations are done by them, they might hardly have proper knowledge about basic HR implementations.
The solution The HR department should be unique and separated to form a new permanent division in the organization. As the organization is more service oriented and thus should form the HR and train their CSRs according to the company needs this would ultimately lead to the CSRs handling their HR related problems more effectively and efficiently. The HR department’s responsibilities should be beyond than just maintaining the attendance, paychecks and managing other issues. Moreover, the compensation policy of the company, where 60% based on customer retentions and 30% on direct ratings by the customer, could obstruct the motivation both positively and negatively. Some CSRs might be anxious regarding this policy because of some technical issues (such as 6 to 7 uniforms get misplaced out of 400,000) the employees get hampered in their compensation that might lead them to decide to leave the company (about 7% turnover per year already).
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Group-B HRM380.1 How do we implement? Currently, there is no real HRM which can properly operate in the organization with full potential. CSRs in the organization who are currently managing the HR problems in the organization on temporary bases (that is, they are only capable of empowering HR when hiring, recruiting etc) should be trained in accordance to the company’s core knowledge and exertion of the CSRs. The senior CSRs currently hold more power in the organization in comparison to the HR department. So when the employees of HR department are to be trained by CSRs by the method of constant apprenticeship and mentoring by the seniors, they will be more acquainted with the company’s system and regulation of work ethics.
Who would conduct the implementation? Top Management: The top management consists of senior CSRs, executives who are well-experienced and has been with the company through thick and thin. They have to select the most valuable and potential senior CSRs who could be very much capable of providing apprenticeship, mentoring and training to the HR department employees with little or no CSR knowledge. Training could be carried out on a two hour, thrice a week for about 5-6 months with different experienced CSRs sharing their experiences and delivering strategies to the employees. The training should have a competitive outcome where the top performers would be rewarded accordingly with benefits, bonuses and even promotions. For the apprenticeship and mentoring of the HR employees, this could take from 6 months to 2 years depending on the importance of the position or designation of the employee allocated in the HR department.
Where to implement the recommendation? The recommendation proposed for the implementation has to be processed mainly in the Human Resource department by the senior executives and CSRs, who would, to some extent, know how to turn around the situation in favor of the organization. As the
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Group-B HRM380.1 HR department needs to be heavily paid attention to, executives and the CSRs should create and divide the HR department from the start if necessary.
When do we begin and end the implementation? The training, apprenticeship and mentoring of the HR employees should be started immediately whenever the organization is ready. This could be a continuous process for the organization for the rest of the prosperous years to come which then in the future this process will reach its maturity and will be more effective and efficient in providing quality training and results.
Problem-2 What is the problem? Company provides scholarship for employees’ knowledge to enlarge for work which can turn out to be partial and total loss to the company. As such knowledge gained by the employees is not always necessary to be implemented by the employees regardless of the terms and conditions.
Different types of quality and service information are provided to CSRs through an educational centre, from which the employees can learn from outside institutes about topics related to services of Cadet Ltd and the finance for this education is provided by the organization. However, the turnover rate of 7% can also be directly proportional to newly obtained education of CSRs. The Customer Service Representatives can switch their jobs after getting educated and do not implement the knowledge gained by the employees for Cadet Ltd. but for other organizations in spite of the terms and conditions of Cadet Ltd. If, CSRs is not motivated and interested to work for Cadet, it would simply be waste to hold him/her. However, Company will lose money which it has invested over those experienced and fresh CSRs.
The solution The motivation will play a key role to retain those knowledgeable experienced and newly appointed CSRs. The motivation through benchmarking is one of the
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Group-B HRM380.1 highlighted solutions here in the solution. For example, one of the personnel directors Nada Cian, who is working in Cadet for 27 years; was a CSR in her early age of her work life, now she works on recruiting and managing employees. The management can use her name as a benchmark in their educational centre, where employees will know about her and how she retained her current position. Other additional motivations include promotion, training and development; which would help build the inner confidence in an employee which s/he can ultimately reflect in their work and handling valuable customers.
How do we implement? The implementation of motivation is the basic need to survive an organization. The company is built on the foundation of motivation to employees. Therefore, further motivation of employees is not very difficult to achieve. But, when the company sets some specific goals and requirements to be fulfilled before going for the company’s scholarship, the employees will be specified what to do and what not to do. So when the employees look for the organization to take care of his/her educational expenses, the organization can implement the plan by promoting the deserving candidates for promotion who are currently into educational pursuits, thus creating an example. This way others who are willing to take educational feats through the company’s expenses will have a better perception of the vague idea that was proposed by the organization initially. And soon, many employees will be eager to take such courses or majors in their educational recreation which comply greatly with the organization’s needs and requirements.
Who would conduct the implementation? Top Management: The top management of the company is the key implementer of this plan they are the ones who would ultimately decide to whom to grant scholarship, promotion and provide the benchmark planning and other important decisions for the privilege of the organization through the mid-level and line managers. Mid-level and line management: The mid-level and line managers have the responsibility of maintaining and following the benchmarks set by the top management and they are to comply by them. They select the deserving candidates for the promotions, training & development and other forms of code of conducts set by the top management.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Where to implement the recommendation? The recommendation proposed for the implementation has to be development mainly by the senior executives and CSRs, who have the experiences of how everything from finance and human resources to have them implemented accordingly to the plan that best suits the current situation of the organization. It is to be implemented everywhere in the organization.
When do we begin and end the implementation? The implementation can be done anytime whenever the plan for the benchmarking is ready to be practiced strategically for the organization’s employees.
Problem-3 What is the problem? Cadet Uniform Services Ltd. is technologically challenged. Cadet Ltd. provides various services to their customers including cleaning, repairing, replacing, delivering and receiving. These services are strictly supervised by the use of heat-sealed bar codes provided on each uniform. Using these codes, the updates for each uniform can be collected. However, this bar-code technology is not always reliable due to its limitations of positioning the codes properly. As Cadet Ltd. is a big laundry service firm with 400,000 clothes per week for cleaning, bar-code system is not at all viable. Sometimes, few of uniforms get lost due to technological problems which directly affect the CSRs performance evaluation and payments which may lead to both the employees and customers becoming frustrated and furious towards the system used by the organization.
The solution The solution which can be implemented is briefly talk about in the case itself where the organization explains about radio chips which could be installed within the each products or uniforms which would act as the substitute for the barcode system which soon will become obsolete. As the Cadet Uniform Service Ltd. is a large laundry service company firm with more than 400,000 clothes per week to serve with additional backup of a strong financial background to purchase new technologies, they should have an investment of such where they do not have the risk of misplacing the
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Group-B HRM380.1 uniforms which results in customer dissatisfaction and employee compensation reduction. The radio chips will be inserted in each of the uniforms to serve which would easily locate and allocate them without difficulty. This technology upgrade can help prevent misplacement of uniforms and also not having to compromise the productivity and quality of the service. Moreover, the introduction of computer-based technology of radio chips decreases the valuable time wastage by the current system. This could drastically increase the number of uniforms currently handled per week (400,000+).
How do we implement? When the radio chip is inserted in a uniform, simultaneously computer starts recording data about the cloth. The computer has a database which is monitored by a computer trained CSR. The process has been thoroughly discussed in the recommendation part with the introduction of the Remove Radio-Chip Machine (RRCM). Here, all we need to do is rearrange the laundry system of the existing one according to the requirements of the new radio-controlled computerized process with electronic database. With the upgraded database which indicates each CSR’s work more effectively and speeds up the process, this can mean a new and innovative breakthrough for the company which is not yet applied by the competitors.
Who would conduct the implementation? The top management should take the initial planning and strategically input the new system slowly so that the existing process of uniform management is not hampered. The CSRs and others who are currently employed should be trained with the new computer-based radio chip technology.
Where to implement? The system has to be introduced either in a new environment or in the existing one with the barcode system. If it is made in a new environment that is in an extension of the currently situated laundry it will be easier and less costly than just modifying the current one with the barcode system.
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Group-B HRM380.1 When do we begin and end the implementation? This implementation has to come into act immediately which could still take at least a month or two before all the planning, setup and training can be ready for practice. As the radio chip process is a near perfect alternative to the currently existing system, this new process can go on for many years to come before something even better can be available to be used as cost-effective.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Problem-4 What is the problem? Cadet is planning to start its businesses in US; the problem is whether Cadet Ltd. will be able to transfer their knowledge, work culture, and performance pay system with the new CSRs? The Cadet Uniform Services is the third largest uniform services company in Canada because it focuses on customer satisfaction, employee retention and total quality service. The main problem will arise when they will start business in United States, whether they can follow same culture of work with total quality service, or they have to change their strategies according to the new market ground with different approach. Although, Canada and USA. The country analyses will include political, economical environment, whether US has practicable political, economic and legal conditions to start a new business. Despite the similarities of the countries, they have totally different culture, norms and values. Therefore, Cadet has to strive to make certain changes which will help them to adjust with the new market situation as a result.
The solution The solution to this phenomenon is the conduction country analysis regarding economic, political, demographic, environmental, social and other related data collection to produce information regarding where to conduct, with whom to deal (suppliers), target customers etc. Moreover, the training and development of new CSRs working in United States should be undertaken seriously where much of the training is to be provided by the current CSRs who are working for Cadet Services according to their experiences.
How and who would conduct the implementation? The implementation of the recommendation could take time as country analysis can be lengthy. Moreover, United States is a huge country with a large population and diversity in race, age, occupation etc. Cadet Services could conduct these surveys and
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Group-B HRM380.1 collect data and information through US Government and other public services who offer such ventures. As for the training and development, this can be done through joint cooperation of the US representatives and senior CSRs forming a team of diverse and knowledgeable working force. This process of training and development of employees working for the US Cadet Services could take from two months to a year designed majorly by the top management after analyzing understanding the market in United States.
Where to implement? The implementations should be carried out in the best suitable locations after the country analysis has been conducted. As for the training and development program for the employees who are going to work in US, their program should be designed in both Canada and USA to fully understand the dynamics and diversity of work cultures, ethics, legal issues and other related materials required for future success in USA.
When do we begin and end the implementation? This implementation has to be in practice before Cadet finally reaches the US grounds for they are fully ready to start working permanently. So, this has to begin immediately and can end just before the investiture of Cadet Services starts establishing their firm in USA.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Problem-5 What is the problem? Cadet Uniform Services is giving full empowerment to their CSRs, who are the main source of satisfying their customers: but letting the CSRs have almost full control may be harmful for the company image of maintaining quality service and committed employees. The Cadet Uniform Services has been giving too much empowerment and control to its CSRs which have been a trademark of Cadet’s corporate philosophy for many years. Cadet has been successful in following a unique strategy in their total quality management and entrepreneurial methods freely practiced by their CSRs as Cadet’s belief is that without empowering the CSRs they do not reach their full potential. But at the same time, the company’s image and fame is totally dependent on the hands of those same CSRs.
The solution The solution proposed in the recommendation is the introduction of a monitoring committee created by the HR department that would constantly monitor the activities of the CSRs regardless of their compensation structure which although heavily rely on their performance with the customers can be ineffective when the market and technology change over time. So instead of just limiting the CSR’s power of entrepreneurship, they are watched by the monitoring committee clandestinely that could be beneficial for the company in the near future.
How do we implement? The monitoring committee can do these with the help of surveys, symposiums, debating among the CSRs who would identify the problems in the company’s system and regulations. This way there is no scope of employees snitching on one another and HR department is capable of monitoring and controlling the activities of CSRs and thus the operation is being done without the knowledge of the CSRs.
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Group-B HRM380.1 Who would conduct the implementation? The implementation is to be conducted by the HR department with some help from the top management regarding the strategic issues that has to be laid on to stretch towards the end goal.
Where to implement? It can be implemented all around the organization wherever CSRs’ activities are present.
When do we begin and end the implementation? This implementation is supposed to be a continuous process which can be in effect immediately as soon as the management is ready with the strategy.
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