Kyle Evans At Ruffian Apparel: Staffing A Retail Establishment Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Kyle Evans At Ruffian Apparel: Staffing A Retail Establishment Case Study Solution

Threat of New Substitute:

Every product’s substitute is easy to make, but the maintenance of quality is the difficult job to do. Although, there may be launch of some brands in the clothing industry offering apparel accessories at lower rates but they will surely be not focusing on the quality of the products. Therefore, it will not assist the new entrants or existing competitors in the market,as it would rather offer high switching cost because of compromising the product quality. But there are some customers who do not focus on the product quality, and are concerned with the product’s price,indication the threat of substitute to be moderate.

Alternatives

Since, the company has been facing poor or reduced sales due to the unskilled workforce, which is further caused by the poorly designed pay structure, absence of training and high employees’ turnover.Following are some alternatives which are provided in response to the emerging issues within the company:

Alternative – Changing hiring pool

The company should work on talent acquisition and embed strength in the process of recruitment to deliver the measurable business returns. Following are some advantages and disadvantages of modifying the hiring process:

Advantages:

1. Larger worker pool from which the company would find best candidate.
2. It would allow the company to accomplish the target organizational goals including increased revenues and reduced cost.
3. It would lead to have an engaged workplace, and an increased customer engagement towards their assigned tasks.

Disadvantages:

1. It would require more time and money to evaluate the strengths of candidates, and their willingness and dedication towards achieving the organizational objectives.
2. It would be a costly process due to the interviews required and advertisements.
3. The process of selection would not surely be effective enough to reveal the exceptional candidates.

Alternative – arrangement of training programs

The company should design training program for the employees to strengthen their skills and competencies. Following are some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

1. It would allow the company to make sure that the employees have consistent background knowledge and experience relevant to the basic procedures and policies of the company.
2. It would result in increased productivity and efficiency of employees.
3. It would improve the quality of work, reduce customer complaints with competent staff and more streamlined process.
4. It would improve the morale of each employee, and they would get an opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills for promotional means.

Disadvantages:

1. It would be time consuming and costly to arrange the training programs.
2. It might leave employees with stress, and they might search for new job opportunities.

Alternative – motivation and compensation structure

The company should raise wages for employees to motivate and uplift their morale and create a strong environment. The benefits and drawbacks of pay and benefit program are as follows:

Advantages:

1. It would act as the most effective technique for motivating, retaining and attracting the employees.
2. Increased morale and productivity of employees would easily translate to tangible advantages, including reduced training cost, hiring cost and increased retention of employees.
3. It would positively affect the performance of employees, they would be more engaged in seizing the market share for company by working with full dedication and concentration.
4. It would contribute to high level of satisfaction, reduced turnover and absenteeism in employees.

Disadvantages:

1. It would result in increased prices, which in turn leads to inflation.
2. It would increase the operating expenses of the company.

Recommendation:

Considering all the alternatives proposed including changing hiring pool, arrangement of training programs and improving the motivation and compensation structures. In general, each alternative has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is to recommend that the organization should implement the alternative to improve motivation and compensation structures of the employees. This is due to the reason that motivation of an employee is directly associated with their effective performance, which will result in satisfaction of customers and increase in sale. This will also result in reducing the turnover of employees due to their trust and satisfaction on organizational management.

Conclusion:

Recently, the performance of Ruffian Apparel in Kelowna is not considered efficient due to increase in employee’s turnover, poor sales and inefficient performance of employees with the hiring on non-professionals at low wages. Therefore, in order to overcome these issues and protect the organization from being financially in stable; it is suggested with three different alternatives among which,alternative 3 – improving motivation and compensation structures of the employees will suit best.

Exhibits:

Exhibit – SWOT Analysis

Exhibit – Porter’s Five Forces Model

Exhibit – Alternatives

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