Tanglewood Case

Mr. Perrone,

I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you the various strategies that we have available to us regarding the staffing at Tanglewood Department Stores. There are nine strategies that pertain to staffing levels and four strategies that pertain to the quality of staffing. Each strategy has something to offer the company, so we have outlined below the advantages and disadvantages each strategy brings to Tanglewood.

Acquire or Develop Talent

Tanglewood has grown exponentially over the years and therefore the need to have a talented staff is important to the company. Under this strategy, the company could either look for talent that is ready to go at hire, with very little training, or develop talent through company training. Many of the positions within Tanglewood are hourly, entry-level positions and we feel that these positions are best suited by talent that we can train to understand the Tanglewood way of business. However, there are many positions within leadership and management that would benefit greatly from acquiring already knowledgeable talent. By acquiring employees that already have leadership skills and managerial knowledge, the amount and cost of training will be reduced greatly.

Hire Yourself or Oursource

Tanglewood has the opportunity to either conduct their own hiring or to outsource this job to another company. We feel that it would be best for Tanglewood to continue to hire their own employees as a successful blueprint has been in place for over thirty years on the type of people needed to run a successful, employee and customer based business.

External or Internal Hiring

This strategy is rather self-explanatory, however Tanglewood can hire from either inside or outside of the company. As with acquiring new talent, this particular strategy is best when both options are available. Hiring internally is always the best avenue to pursue, especially when promoting employees as they are already familiar with the Tanglewood company and policies. We feel that it is best to hire externally for the entry-level positions. This gives the company the opportunity to train new employees with the Tanglewood methods and because the company is very employee focused, it brings in new and refreshing ideas from people that have not been with the company for a period of time.

Core or Flexible Workforce

Tanglewood is made of a core workforce. In other words, the company employs full and part-time employees as opposed to temporary or contract employees. We feel that this strategy is best for Tanglewood as these core employees are key to the services the company provides to the customers.

Hire or Retain

The company can focus on the turnover rate of employees or simply on filling any vacancies left by employees that leave Tanglewood. It would be in the company's best interest to maintain a level of employee retention that keeps costs of finding new employees to a minimal.

National or Global

Tanglewood has the choice as to if it should continue to keep business activities within the United States or if it should outsource this anything to another country such as having HR functions provided by a company in Japan. Tanglewood could also just move operations to another country; however we feel that Tanglewood would be best served as a company exactly where it is in the Upper Northwest. Although costs could be cut moving operations or departments to another country, we feel that the overall "feel" of Tanglewood would be lost in translation.

Attract or Relocate

Tanglewood can either attract employees to the company or move to a location where potential employees are abundant. We feel that Tanglewood has already been successful in locating their stores in areas where potential customers and employees is in abundance. This can be seen by the purchase of smaller department store chains and data collected regarding the breakdown of stores and employment (Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012).

Overstaff