Case Study Analysis
Felix Cruz University of Phoenix
COMM 215
October 25, 2012.
Dr. Santiago

Case Study Analysis

My suggestions for Arthur to make this summer of replacements hires more successful than those in the past are pretty simple. But in order to obtain these suggestions we must review this case with details to see where the missing factors are. I pretend to review the case of Arthur Reed a warehouse supervisor of the Blue Grocery Stores. He had been in the business for over 20 years and he is in charge of the shipping dock, both first and second shift. The issue here starts when the company gets close to summer because apparently, most of his senior staff suddenly wants to take theirs vacations. The ones that do not get vacations trends to make call-ins related to sickness without any advice in advance which make this a stressful situation for Mr. Reed. This supervisor has to deal with these absences and personnel shortage situations in a daily and weekly basis. He had tried to implement different options such as replacing workers but unsuccessfully because of the higher cost for both the employee and the employer. In addition, we sum the fact that, it is hard to keep people in this job, especially since replacements were not guaranteed any minimum hours or given any benefits and they will be paid at $6 dollars per hour which is a very low rate compared to the higher cost of uniforms, steel-toed boots, and the payments for the union dues. After making an exhaustive investigation I can spot some variables which could be the principal author of this important issue for Mr. Reed and these are: Lack of supervision, Low management skills, Lack of Leadership, Incentives, Commitment, Implementation of new guidelines and rules, Habits, and excess of reliability. These variables could be playing and important role in this company’s problems every summer and starting from this point I am going to make my suggestions.

It is very important to maintain a record of every employee in which you will include the following: Vacations, sick hours, absences, tardiness, and a summary of annual vacation days taken by the employee, in order to avoid having employees taking their vacations every summer and in the same period of time. You must set a top for accumulated vacations hours so, when an employee meets them, you can negotiate with them to take some of that hours during the year to avoid this situation. Establish a maximum number of employees that could be out for vacations at the same time setting and establishing a period in which all employees will have to request their vacation hours in advance. Another suggestion to resolve this issue could be the implementations of special incentives during that period of time to motivate and tie down the senior staff employees so they could earn more or obtain more benefits doing the same amount of work.
As a supervisor you need to review the company policies regarding holydays, vacations hours, and sick hours to make sure that, every employee are following the standards of the company. It is very necessary a meeting with the staff to let them give you possible options that led you to avoid this issue and if possible, if you find that most of the employees are in a violation of the policy or if the policy is outdated and irrelevant, make the adjustments to fix that. Having in mind that you a few months away from summer I suggest that you gather the employees who wants to take their vacations immediately to see if you can negotiate a way to dissolve the gap in work force. Explain the situation at it is exposing the drawbacks and consequences that would happened if you let all of them take their vacations at the same time.
Looking for replacements workers is not a bad idea but, it will be more feasible to sub contract a group equal to the half of the total numbers of employees that will be in vacation during that period of time. These employees will need to be accessible to work both shift as a mandatory requirement and as a good factor, they will not be paying for union dues, only for their clothes. You can also set as precaution one replacement employees on both shifts to fulfill any unexpected shortage, giving them a specific amount of daily hours but for that you need to organize your data and be sure of what amount of employees will be out on a daily basis.
It is hard to suggest this but you need to review how you are managing this company. Working in the same area, and in the same business for over 20 years could have created ideals which could be outdated right now. You need to review the possibility that you need to implement new action plans, or increment the working shifts so you will be able to play a little bit more with the working schedule and vacations. It is fundamental that you renew your managerial north; your leadership has been dissipated as the desire to always be innovating in your field and dynamic in your work area.
I can determine as the hidden information on this story the fact that Mr. Reed has no commitment with the company. It can be seemed that he do not care what happened during the year, only the summer period. It is like if he is not working for that company except for that period when he had to solve bigger issues. I would retire Mr. Reed from his rank in the office and replace him with a more dynamic employee, some who can bring leadership, creativity, and commitment but not before putting him as an assistant of Mr. Reed so he can gain experience and greater knowledge. Regarding the problem that we are only a few months away from summer I would recommend to review what are the exact numbers of employees that expect to take vacations in the summer period so you can make the decisions of implement new rules that follows the standards and federal laws so you can control the amount of employees that will be absence at the same time on a daily and weekly basis. Sub contract instead of hire new replacement employees so you can obtain with a legal contract a specific amount of workers that would be available for both shifts when you needs anyone of them. Also, you can hire only a few groups of employees so you can monitor them and assign them an exact amount of hours on a weekly basis to cover the gap produced by employees on vacations but for that you need organized data.
I hope this suggestions helps you to solve this issue and furthermore, help you to reorganize your mind an ideas so you can keep innovating and giving creative ideas and options to your company.