Tanglewood Case

Tanglewood Case 1

Through the expansion of the company there have become some inconsistencies in management styles between stores. In this report I will break down several different strategic staffing decisions that need to be made in order to create a consistency across all stores in the organization and ensure that the original culture is observed and followed company wide.

Staffing Levels

Acquire or Develop Talent

Because the main goal of the company is to get back to the original culture throughout all branches it makes sense to develop talent from within the company. This encourages the current employees to care more about the company and allows for a more productive workforce. It also enables current workers to learn to be self sufficient and to think like managers. By developing talent within the current organization you are showing your employees that you value their service and believe they are the best fit for the job. Because most employees will already have an understanding of what the culture of the company is supposed to be it will be easier to develop the sought after KSA's.

Hire Yourself or Outsource

This is a tricky question, but in my opinion it makes sense to keep the recruiting and selection process entirely in-house because of the unique requirements for employees in this organization. Because this company's goal is to maintain a strong culture across all stores it makes sense to continue to hire yourself so that you can be looking for the unique traits and KSA's that will best integrate with the company and uphold the unique culture. On the other hand, in some regions outsourcing may be less costly and they may be able to bring in real assets with new ideas. However for the purpose of staying uniform and ensuring all employees share the unique culture of the company, I would encourage you to continue hiring yourself.

External or Internal Hiring

Once again, because the main goal is to rebuild the culture, Tanglewood should use more internal hiring. Employees who have extensive experience with the organization and its' methods of conducting business are likely to be more successful, especially in managerial positions. However, for entry level positions it makes sense to hire externally, which you will do yourself in order to match the applicants with the organization.

Core or Flexible Workforce

The nature of the business is retail which is usually a seasonal market, which would suggest a flexible workforce would be beneficial for peak seasons. However, since Tanglewood wants to differentiate itself from competitors such as Kohl's and Target, it makes sense to maintain a core workforce. This way employees will stay consistent with the values and culture of the organization year round which will distinguish Tanglewood against their major competitors.

Hire or Retain

I believe Tanglewood should focus on retaining their employees. Retention is the best bet since we will be developing talent and skills instead of acquiring it and hiring outside. Since we plan to stick with an internal hiring strategy and maintain a core workforce it makes sense to retain employees in order to keep the company culture consistent and d to avoid a high turnover rate. Also, because we will be using resources to develop employees it doesn't make sense to continuously hire new employees that we would then have to spend more money to develop. Instead it would be beneficial to retain the employees we spend our resources developing because it is better for the company culture as well as more cost effective.

National or Global

At this point in time all of Tanglewood's stores are located within the United States. Since the stores are all nationally based it makes the most sense to hire nationally. Giving jobs to Americans will add to the culture of the company and show that they are a national company that cares about giving jobs back to the country and people that support them and keep them in business.

Attract or Relocate

Because we've decided to hire ourselves and develop talent within the organization it makes the best sense to relocate our current employees whom we trust have the values and culture of the company in mind. Once we have developed the kind of managers we need to get the stores on the same page and back to the original culture we will place them in the necessary stores for them to share their knowledge of the company and help the store get back on track and reach its full potential.

Overstaff or Understaff

In order to maintain happy employees as well as keeping costs down we will try to staff as closely to the expected demand as we can. However since employee happiness is necessary for our retention plan so that we do not have a high turnover rate we will overstaff ever so slightly. Understaffing can cause unhappiness and stress among employees who are forced to work overtime in order to keep up with demand. Having a few extra employees on hand allows us to be prepared