Riordan Manufacturing Benchmarking

Riordan Generic Benchmarking - Individual Step 1

The week five team assignment consists of two parts, with the first being an individual research portion. This paper will identify two companies that faced specific issues related to the course concepts as well as scenario two for Riordan. The issues faced, responses, and outcomes will be discussed so that they can be compiled into a team analysis in step two of the assignment, presented in a secondary paper.

Bank Cherokee

Issue Faced

Bank Cherokee is a large bank in St. Paul, Minnesota that serves both businesses and consumers. One of the main issues facing Bank Cherokee and other banks is the retention of front-line employees, mainly tellers. The banking industry has a rate of turnover that is tremendously high, yet the average investment in a teller takes two years of employment to recover (Brox, 2007). The financial impact of high turnover rates can be felt in areas such as recruiting, training, and in productivity (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001).

Another key area of impact from employee churn is customer service and satisfaction, which ultimately lead to lower profits. Banking customers have traditionally expected personalized service when entering the bank or conducting transactions. New employees mean new relationships need to be established between tellers and customers. Brox states that, "High employee turnover subconsciously causes consumers to question how safe their money is when new people are constantly being trained" (2007, p. 31). The second issue that arises from the retention problem is analyzing how motivation is related to performance. If Cherokee could better motivate employees, the average tenure could increase.

Company Response

The first step taken by Bank Cherokee was to try to understand why its employees were quitting. An understanding would allow the bank to make the right changes to combat turnover and uncover motivating factors of the tellers. Bank Cherokee hired consultants to help with this task and the firm found that, "Employees don't quit their jobs or their company; they quit their immediate boss" (Brox, 2007, p. 31). Branch managers and department supervisors were named by exiting employees as the main reason for departure. This caused bank Cherokee to focus on having managers quickly build strong bonds with new employees in order to minimize the potential of creating reasons for the new employees to leave. Consistent management practices were shown to play a key role in maintaining fairness in the workplace (Brox, 2007).

A second area of focus for Bank Cherokee was retention through career opportunities. The bank wanted to build value in both the teller position and the bank so that tellers would feel their jobs had meaning. Management also wanted the tellers to see and appreciate the bank's advancement opportunities so that the bank jobs, particularly the teller position, would not be seen as stepping stones toward better jobs in other areas (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001). This was accomplished via job shadowing.

Outcome

Because of taking measures to address and correct motivation and retention problems, Bank Cherokee is now a model for teller retention. The bank has tripled the industry standard teller tenure of 6 to 12 months and even has many tellers that have been there over 20 years. The best way to account for and summarize the success of Bank Cherokee is to say that they treat their employees like customers instead of simply warm bodies (Brox, 2007).

Nova Scotia Radiation Oncologists

Issue Faced

Radiation oncologists in Nova Scotia (NS) used to get paid through a fee for service