Tanglewood Case Staffing Plan
Ana T Strategic Staffing- HR 594 January 14, 2012 Tanglewood Case 1 Introduction Tanglewood is a company in transition right now in regards to their staffing philosophy. In the following case, we will be examining the history of Tanglewood and the organizational direction that the company would like to head and using such knowledge propose our evaluation of where the company should stand on the following 13 strategic staffing decisions. Staffing Levels * • Acquire or Develop Talent * • Hire Yourself or Outsource * • External or Internal Hiring * • Core or Flexible Workforce * • Hire or Retain • National or Global * • Attract or Relocate * • Overstaff or Understaff * • Short- or Long-Term Focus Staffing Quality * • Person/Job or Person/Organization Match * • Specific or General KSAOs * • Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality * • Active or Passive Diversity Tanglewood Staffing and Business Goals Mission: Tanglewood will be the best department store for customers seeking quality, durability, and value for all aspects of their active lives. We are committed as a company to providing maximum value to our customers, shareholders, and employees.
We will accomplish this goal by adhering to the ore values of responsible financial management, clear and honest communication, and always keeping performance and customer service in the forefront. Tanglewood’s organization staffing function has not been centralized before based on an employee participatory philosophy. The hiring decisions and philosophy was more localized; however, with the company’s goals of expansions, the company has decided to create a uniformed plan in the area of their staffing so they are better equipped to achieve their mission and organizational goals without any interruptions. Strategic Staffing proposal 1. Acquire or Develop TalentAcquisitionDevelopment The recommendation is that Tanglewood spend some time developing a list of what they would consider “mission critical” positions.
These positions would be those considered critical to the organization’s successful accomplishment of an important mission and require a higher level of expertise. Failure to have these positions would be prove detrimental to the health of the organization. Having made that assessment, Tanglewood HR should focus on a training and development plan to prepare higher performance and potential employees to fill those positions from the lower positions (i. . associates).
Associate positions can be acquired and then those exhibiting high potential can be developed to fill mission critical positions. 2. Hire yourself or outsource YourselfOutsource Since Tanglewood has a very strong hands-on commitment to employee participation and culture, they should maintain the staffing responsibilities to retain control on the culture they would like to build. They also have had some success with their hiring already, but just need to build a stronger, uniformed framework. 3.
External or internal hiring ExternalInternal Mission critical positions as outline above should be hired internally; those deemed non-mission critical and entry level (i. e. associates) can be an external hiring process. This strategy will also help support the strong need for the company culture. 4. Core or Flexible Workforce CoreFlexible It is important that Tanglewood continue its distinction from the competition by cultivating the shopping experience and one of the tactics to do such is through their employee/teamwork culture.
This means that a core workforce that shares the values of the organization and support the recommendation of internal promotion is critical. 5. Hire or Retain HireRetain Retention of employees to support the recommendation of internal promotion and to reduce costs of the hiring experience is important. Since we are proposing that mission critical positions are filled from within so the culture is maintained, it is necessary to retain good talent to fill those positions. Hiring should to fill the lower positions as they become vacant. 6.
National or GlobalNationalGlobal Since Tanglewood’s vision is more at the national level and their online is the only global initiative, the company should retain their focus on national strategic hiring. 7. Attract or Relocate AttractRelocate Most of the positions that Tanglewood would hire for would be lower, entry level positions. These are more readily filled than positions requiring higher level of expertise. Consequently, Tanglewood should continue to make store location decisions on the profitability possibility of the location and not on human capital attraction.
. Overstaff or Understaff OverstaffUnderstaff Tanglewood should maintain equilibrium in the hiring quantity. As long as there is a sufficient focus on development so that they have employees ready to step into mission critical positions, there should be no need to have a set philosophy on overstaffing or understaffing. They can access seasonal needs as they come. 9.
Short- or Long-Term Focus Short termLong term Establishment of mission critical positions and an employee talent development culture supports a long term staffing strategy. 0. Person/Job or Person/Organization Match JobOrganization Tanglewood should focus on the person fitting the organizational values of the organization more than of the position. Hiring for entry level position should consider candidates that not only fit are a person/job match but will prove to be a long term person/organization match. 11. Specific or General KSAOs SpecificGeneral To help prepare employees for promotion into other roles and to be cross functional, Tanglewood should prepare general KSAO’s that support the trategies and organizational culture that the company wants to maintain.
12. Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality ExceptionalAcceptable Tanglewood needs to focus on developing an exceptional workforce quality. Although the level of technical skills is not as specific as those of other industries (i. e. software development), the distinction that Tanglewood strives for among its competitors demands associates and employees that are going to be passionate in the values of the organization and in conveying that feeling to the customer through high customer service.
The organization will also need a strong core of associates that believe in the organization and its values enough to desire to move up within the organization to fill the mission critical positions. 13. Active or Passive Diversity ActivePassive Although there is no need for an extremely heightened focus, an attention to promoting a diverse workforce will allow Tanglewood to be more attuned to the diverse needs of the customers it serves in the local markets. ConclusionUltimately, our proposal is that Tanglewood really spend some time analyzing the positions that it holds and separate those into two categories, mission critical and non-mission critical. With that distinction made, we feel Tanglewood should then focus on developing talent and other above listed strategies that will support the internal promotion and culture Tanglewood wants to maintain.
The above outlined strategies will support alignment with the organizational goals to differentiate themselves from their competitors by the level of service and customer experience.However, maintaining that distinction of service will need to be supported by a continued focus on employee engagement. We believe consequently employee engagement will rise as Tanglewood continues to support a participatory culture and also begins a strong action plan of employee development. These strategies will help support the idea that “there absolutely must be a workforce of committed, qualified individuals who will help carry the Tanglewood philosophy into the future. “
