Plan to Improve Organizational Sturcture and Recapture Market Share Essay Example for Free

Plan to Improve Organizational Sturcture and Recapture Market Shargon essayOver the past few years, conditionPlay Greetings has experienced a sharp decline in market make do as well has extremely proud turn everyplace of gross gross revenue staff. The first major challenge discussed was the limited supply of items that are likewise sold to other national retailers and create competition against Word Plays smaller company owned and franchised stores. The second deal soaringlighted in our discussion was that operations have been inefficient which similarly leads to decline of profitability. punning Management was imposing that high disturbance of sales staff was a major cause of inefficient operations and stressed the importance of addressing this issue. Technological advances are certainly an issue that every industry must consider when trying to keep with or beat competitors. Online options for the greeting card industry have greatly advanced all over the past few y ears offering ways to send expressions electronically and even customize them with photos and voices without having to leave home. It is critical revive WordPlays website and make stores more harmonic to visit with impertinently product lines and customization options that bequeath attract customers and keep them coming back and telling others.Hiring and retaining talented and caring staff is goes upset in hand with keeping up with technology. Knowledgeable and caring sales people are just as fundamental as the product. Developing an organizational culture that inspires and motivates will wait on spark new creative intents and product offerings for WordPlay Greetings. Bryce Dancetty has performed industry research, employee and market surveys, leading to job redesign, development of new selling and product design teams, and improved organizational reward programs that aim at reducing turnover for WordPlay Greetings and getting them back on a path to profits.Introduction Br yce Dancetty Consulting has been running(a) with WordPlay Greetings over the past several months to analyze their business, develop plans to reduce sales staff turnover, revive its product line, improve its organizational culture, and implement new programs that will motivate employees and enrich jobs and career paths. In this report we will review the methods used to collect data and form plans for change. Causes of Business Downturn WordPlay Greetings market share has seen sharp declines over the past few years.Company leaders concluded that causes for this problem stemmed from the limited supply of items that are overly sold to other national retailers and create competition against Word Plays smaller company owned and franchised stores. An additional contributor to their decline was believed to be high turnover with in their sales division. WordPlay leaders agreed to name with Bryce Dancetty Consulting to look deeper in to these issues and how they could be resolved to all eviate them regain market share and do better at hiring and retaining a highly skilled and motivated sales team.Bryce Dancetty Consulting employed the DECIDE Model which is based on statistical science to run across all aspects of the WordPlay business and its environment. The Decide Model allowed us to define the problem(s) and/or opportunities, along with objectives and constraints. Next, the possible decision factors that make up the alternative courses of motion (controllable uncontrollable) are enumerated (given numeric values). Then, relevant nurture on the alternatives and possible outcomes is collected. The next step is to identify and select the opera hat alternative based on chosen criteria or measures of success.Then a detailed plan to develop and implement the alternative selected is created and put in to effect. Last, the outcome of the decision process itself is evaluated. We communicate issues by performing a market research and analysis that focal pointes on the following questions How git Word Play develop products that are exclusive, unique and will help recapture a higher(prenominal) market share? Can store hours be adjusted based on traffic flow and peak sales times in order to reduce labor costs and increase profitability? Are there colleges in the area that may have marketing and/or design students that would be willing to intern and help bring new/fresh product designs to Word Play Greetings? Research was done and information was gathered via surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups that Bryce Dancetty designed and assembled. Surveys and questionnaires grantd a wealth of information quickly in a non-threatening manner. Most were completely anonymous and done at a very minimal cost. They were administered via mail as well as online.Feedback received via surveys concluded that Wordplay Greeting Cards real product line was universe described as stale by former customers. This perception must be changed in order for the company to regain and increase its market share going forward. Focus Groups were utilized to explore topics related to operational efficiency, product design, marketing strategies, and common complaints regarding products to gain a more in-depth perspective on the best ways to increase market share and profitability.Focus groups yielded results that supported job redesign for the sales division, developing new product design and marketing teams, and creating an organizational culture that motivates and inspires. Sales Division and Sales Clerk Turnover Interviews of corporate employees as well as store staff were performed to better understand their impressions of the current state of the company, their experiences, and their ideas for improvement. From the information gathered, Bryce Dancetty provided a revised job description which is attached in the appendix for review.In addition to revising the job description for sales clerks, Bryce Dancetty made several recommendations t hat do not involve compensation adjustments that can also increase retention of sales staff for Wordplay Greetings. There is a significant need for WordPlay to increase feelings of participation within the organization. While allowing sales associates greater freedom in creating store displays, it is recommended that contests be incorporated to help motivate employees to put forth their best efforts.Allowing sales associates to take responsibility for deciding on how to put together displays is an example of vertically loading the job. Their impropriety increases and they feel more personal accountability for the outcome of their efforts (Hodgetts Heger 2008, pg. 306). Involvement in new product selections through the creation of employee focus groups is also highly recommended. The focus groups will be allowed to participate on conference calls and in web training to assist with selection of new products that will be carried in the stores and also learn how these choices impact t he company financially.This feeds an employees desire to learn and grow in their career, knowledge, and skill (Heathfield 2012). A recent McKinsey Quarterly survey underscores this type of opportunity. Respondents mat up that the chance to lead projects or task forces were often more effective at motivating than financial increases (McKinsey Quarterly 2009). Another way to build a connection within an organization and increase the smack of belonging that employees feel is to create a company newsletter.Newsletters helps share what is happening on a higher level by sharing hot company news being discussed by executives, sharing status on company goals, and stock standings. When there are multiple locations, newsletters help to share what is happening elsewhere and are a great way to share creative ideas, contest winners, and announce new contests. Employee Profiles can be included to highlight accomplishments both inside and outside of the company. The newsletter is also a great wa y to share benefit information, deadlines, health tips, and bid opportunities.Lastly, increased communication between employees and local as well as corporate management will be a key to retention of sales staff. Well-designed jobs anticipate the need for communication. Most employees want to know what is expected of them in the job, how they are doing, how they can improve, what latitude they have in changing how they do their tasks, what should be discussed with a supervisor and when the discussion should occur. Employees rarely complain about too much communication with their supervisor.They often want more communication (Hodgetts Heger 2008, pg. 306). The implementation of a regular newsletter as mentioned above will help with communication, however we are also strongly urging WordPlay Greeting Cards to provide a stronger line of communication via email that will allow employees to contact corporate offices more efficiently for feedback if they have concerns that are not being addressed at a local level and/or ideas that they want to share for improvement.Bryce Dancetty Consulting is confident that the revision of the sales clerk job description which increases responsibility and sense of participation will not only attract more applicants but also encourage company loyalty and lead to retention of a high quality sales staff that can be promoted in to management positions as the business grows. Job Enrichment Job enrichment is a way to motivate employees by giving them increased responsibility and variety in their jobs. Our plans for job enrichment will focus on allowing employees to have more control in planning their behave and deciding how the work should be accomplished.Job enrichment efforts will include adding and clarifying Skill Variety the number of different types of skills used to do a job. This is important because using only one skill to do the same task repeatedly can get very boring. When employees get bored productivity decreases over time. Task Identity A matter of realizing a visible outcome from performing a task. Being able to see the end result of the work they do is an important motivator for employees. This can be accomplished through Job Enlargement. WordPlay will move towards this goal by adding more tasks and responsibilities to real jobs.To illustrate this concept a customer service representative will follow a clients issue from start to finish (phone interrogative through problem resolution). Customer service reps will be given greater access and authority to make account/claim adjustments so that less inquiries need to be escalated. They will be able to take pride in knowing they solved a problem themselves and customer satisfaction is also sure to increase. Task Significance How a job impacts others in the organization. If this is clearly defined, employees will make greater efforts to do their best.