Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

Running head: GAP ANALYSIS: RIORDAN MANUFACTURING

Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

University of Phoenix

Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

Riordin is a company founded on innovation and sweat equity from its CEO, Michael Riordin. The company has grown and with it its human resources have become diverse and increasingly difficult to manage. If the company is to realize its future goals of constant growth and innovative solutions for customers it will need to attract and retain the brightest minds in a number of fields.

This is task is easier said than done as most companies of Riordins size are finding out. The diverse work culture creates a variety of needs and wants from a salary and benefit package. For some the greatest needs lie not in monetary payment but investments in the employees future. The human resource professionals and company leadership at Riordin must quickly realize that company loyalty and trust in leadership is earned in a number of different ways, none of them being satisfied with status quo.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Riordan Manufacturing has recently made a number of strategic changes to both its manufacturing and sales methods. The company has seen a dramatic decrease in sales and fluctuating profits over the past two years. This environment has led to the adoption of a customer-relationship management (CRM) system. Each Riordin customer is now serviced by a sales team instead of a single sales person. This sales team is comprised of a sales person, product engineering specialist and a customer service representative. The team is assigned to a specific market segment in order to focus on the customer and drive up sales. The manufacturing departments have taken on new approaches to quality and have restructured the manufacturing plants to a work team oriented process. The company also exported a number of jobs to China to reduce overall cost of production.

Unfortunately [Insert comma] [Insert comma after this introductory word] these changes have not been welcomed and have created a major employee retention issue. The annual employee survey "showed a decrease in overall job satisfaction, particularly in the areas of compensation and benefits" (Riordin scenario 2, 2007). The company is facing a decline in company morale based on the ineffectiveness of the current company benefit system and distrust in the methods for determining salaries and performance rewards.

The current situation provides management with a wealth of opportunities to improve it Human Resource [human resource is not capitalized unless it is part of a title, e.g., XYZ Corp. Human Resources Department ] [Do not capitalize unless part of a title or proper name] Management system, thus increasing employee moral and boosting sales. The employees of Riordin do appreciate certain aspects of the work culture. The majority of employees feel that the overall benefit package is good, providing ample vacation time and a culture where supervisors treat them fairly. This positive outlook has retained many long-term employees and created an innovated culture. As the company has grown its staff has become very diverse in both age and abilities. The wants and needs of a diverse staff will vary greatly and need to be satisfactorily met in a fair way. Riordin's leadership has the ability to retain its employees and improve moral without focusing solely on salaries. The process of adjusting rewards structures and identifying important employee benefits provides the opportunity to unify the employees under goals to be competitive and innovative.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

This issue of employee satisfaction and morale involves a number of important stakeholders. The rights and values of each group are usually conflicting and bring about ethical dilemmas that need sound judgment and reasoning to be handled properly. This is definitely the case with Riordin Manufacturing and its human resources issues.

The CEO, Michael Riordin, founded the company and is the majority shareholder with 80% of the company's stock. His major concern is share value now that he is approaching retirement and looking to reap the benefits of his vision and labor. He has a right to influence company policy as he created the company through his vision and hard work. He must also take into account that a vision is nothing with out the plan and means to make a reality. In this case being a manufactured product he needs motivated and capable employees. As Dennis Moberg states in his article detailing this dilemma in high tech start ups,

"The many decisions governing the distribution of rewards in a company are genuine tests of character. Those executives who have cultivated the habit of making choices that advance justice will find ways to support the legitimate demands of employees for fair treatment."

The employees who are demanding fair treatment are both salaried and wage earning members of the workforce. The salaried employee stakeholder group is diverse in both job function and age, thus creating a wide range of values. Most salaried employees are aligned with the CEO in their value of company profitability, as it is ["It" must refer to a specific word in the sentence or the reader can become confused by the vague pronoun reference. Example - It demonstrated his recent achievement. (This usage is incorrect because "it" does not refer to a specific element in the sentence.) When Victoria received her diploma, she put it in a frame. ("It" clearly refers to the diploma.)] tied to certain employee benefits, however [Insert comma] an increasing number are becoming more interested in overall job satisfaction. These individuals have skill sets and abilities that allow them to be mobile within the industry and look to the overall company culture and treatment of employees as an important measure of satisfaction. Their company loyalty is weak as they do not have the sweat equity earning them wealth. This group values opportunity and reward. This can be cultivated with a fair and transparent reward system that clearly defines goals to be reached. In the case of Riordin, the value system of younger engineering and IT managers is at direct odds with that of upper management.

The wage earning employee population for major manufacturers is usually protected and represented by a union. The rights and