Executive summary
The purpose of the case study was to present the data on the job dissatisfaction and employee engagement of Bella’s company. The representative of beauty industry faced with problems of lower performance and increased employee turnover. The owner of the business was very concerned with such situation and wanted to make changes. The new General Manager conducted the survey in order to understand the reasons of low satisfaction. After that several alternatives were suggested to solve problems. They included material stimulation, decentralization of power, participation in leadership, training, management training, programs, career management, and training methods for employees to communicate more effectively and behavior in the team. Proper recommendations were given and implementation plane was developed, which consisted of six steps.
Defining the issue
The case study is about the company’s employees’ satisfaction with their work. Every manager would like to see his/her staff sought to good work with full return of forces, be involved in a business organization, shared its goals and be very active in solving problems hindering the stable operation of the organization. To achieve this, the organization’s leadership must fulfill a very important function, namely to create the conditions for motivating employees and implement them into practice (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 94).
Bella’s is a company, which operates in day spa and barbershop segment and offers an extensive range of spa treatments, namely different types of body massages, scrubs and wraps, popular in Europe facemasks, special foot and hands procedures, skin treatments, polishing, and total ranges of haircuts, conditioning treatments and organic amenities for the hair (Medlin, 2011).
It happened that the position of General Manager is vacant and the new applicant (Kris Jenkins) decided to consult with the previous one (Lynn Gibson) and her subordinates in order to understand the situation in the company. Every employee of Bella’s worked considerably below their abilities and greatly below former levels of performance. After accepting job offer, Kris conducted a survey of each employee’s satisfaction with the job position among salon managers, hair stylists and spa service employees (Medlin, 2011).
Data analysis
The survey included questions regarding job satisfaction and employee engagement. It was found that the staff is absolutely dissatisfied with the owner. It can be explained by owner’s poor experience in management’s field. Promotional opportunities and relations with supervisor are also at low levels. The desire of employees to work in the company relates to the responsibilities performed and relations with coworkers. Thus, the total level of satisfaction is below average (Medlin, 2011).
The second section of the survey explains the level of employee engagement. Salon managers are upset with the fact of not talking about their progress at work, while hair stylists and spa service employees are upset with the ignorance of their opinions on different issues. Absence of rewards, various encouragements and opportunities to grow also demotivate the staff to work successfully (Medlin, 2011).
Key decision criteria
The concept of quality of working life is based on the creation of conditions to ensure the optimal use of human labor potential. The quality of working life can be improved by changing for the better any parameters that affect people’s lives. This includes, for example, workers participation in management, their training, management training, the implementation of promotion programs, training of workers on more effective communication and behavior in the team, improving the organization of labor, and others. As a result, the labor potential gets maximum development and organization – a high level of productivity and maximum profit (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 105).
Some researchers believe the basic prerequisites of creating unfavorable and deteriorating working atmosphere is professional-personal comfort, the presence of organizational problems (too heavy workload, lack of ability to control the situation, the lack of organizational community, the lack of moral and material compensation, injustice, lack of relevance of the work, etc.). At the same time, other researchers consider personal characteristics (low self-esteem, high neuroticism, anxiety, etc.) more important. Thus, there are no common views on the issue and no uniform diagnostic criteria established (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 108).
Alternatives analysis
The quality of working life can be improved by changing any structural parameters that affect staff. This includes decentralization of power, participation in leadership, training, management training, programs, career management, and training methods for employees to communicate more effectively and behavior in the team. All these measures are intended to give people additional opportunities to meet their active personal needs while enhancing organizational performance (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 113).
The system of material incentives, in addition to salaries and bonuses, may include retirement savings, profit sharing, tuition (employee or his/her children), interest-free loans to buy a house or a car, pay for food or travel of employees, payment of worker’s recreation, etc. Development and implementation of a fair and appropriate to the organization and workers payment system for work performed may be an important factor in increasing the level of motivation of staff and improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the organization as a whole (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 115).
Recommendations
First of all, Ms. Illa Fitzgerald should change her management style in order get employees’ approval. Management style must be changed with increasing professional skills and work experience of subordinates. The higher the professional quality of employees and the more the person is motivated to work, the more style should be democratic up to full independence. Secondly, remuneration is a motivating factor, only if it is directly related to the outcome of labor. Employees must be convinced of the stable connection between the receiving material reward and productivity. The wage component must exist, depending on the results achieved. Thus, at the workplace every employee wants to show what he/she can do and what it means for the other, so the performance recognition of a particular employee, providing the opportunity to make decisions on matters within its competence, and advise of other workers are needed as well (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 133).
Implementation / Action plan
In general, there are five basic steps for an effective system of motivation:
Step 1: Formulation of strategic goals and objectives of Bella’s salon.
Step 2: Definition of each employee’s functions and preparation of job descriptions.
Step 3. Assessment of the contribution of each employee in the strategy: result – evaluation criteria – subject of motivation.
Step 4. Monitoring of payroll professionals on the same market and the development of a unified tariff system.
Step 5. Development of individual remuneration system for different categories of employees, taking into account the developed evaluation criteria, based on the strategic goals and objectives of the organization.
Step 6: Development of training program and its implementation into company’s operation in order to increase employees’ efficiency.
Works Cited
Medlin, Bobby. “Bella’s: a case study in organizational behavior”. Journal of Business Cases and Applications. 2011. Web. 5 July 2016.
Noe, Raymond, Hollenbeck, John, Gerhart, Barry and Wright, Patrick. Human Resource Management. 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education. 2014. Print.
