Executive Summary
High employee turnover rate and low staff morale are the major issues in the Channel Department of Elitegroup Computer System. These two factors would lead to low performance of the whole department, thus damage the brand image. The channel department must improve the high turnover rate and turn itself into to a profitable and outstanding department in ECS.
Interviews were conducted with staff and all levels of managers under Channel Department and some from several ODM Departments. Interviews were also conducted with employees who have resigned from ECS to understand their perspective and opinions on working environment and the reasons they quit from ECS. In addition, a review of strategies from other studies or literatures to demonstrate the value and feasibility of high staff turnover and low morale were conducted. The results is focused on the decrease of staff turnover rate by fostering good relationships among co-workers and distributing workload evenly, and thus improving staff morale in the long run. Recommendations of Employee-Manager relationship management plan will be given.
In conclusion, the employee turnover rate and low morale in ECS will improve with complete strategies and plans of employee relationship management and moderate workload distribution.

Introduction
Elitegroup Computer Systems Co.(ECS) is a Taiwan-based electronics firm. It is the fifth largest PC motherboard manufacturer in the world. Many of these motherboards have been produced for OEM customers such as Acer and Dell. The company has since concentrated on broadening its product range by making its mark in the design and manufacture of laptops. The Channel Sales and Marketing Department in ECS has become increasingly important compared with other OEM departments as it in charge of ECS’s private brand which enhances company's reputation dramatically throughout the world. However, there is quick employee turnover, resulting in low staff morale. This phenomenon would lead to low performance of the whole department, thus damage the brand image.

I would like to address three main drawbacks generate from high employee turnover rate and low staff morale. First, high employee turnover rate leads to low working efficiency, which result in performance decline. Second, finding, hiring and training each new employee takes few months and huge amount of cost. Last but not least, due to the high turnover rate, employees do not have enough time to build up friendship. This will lead to extremely low connection and teamwork spirit among staff, and weaken the staff morale ultimately.
As a result, ECS would improve with thorough research and implement on strategy plan about maintaining good relationship among co-workers and distributing workload fairly.
Background
Overview of Research Process
In order to identify reasons for staff turnover and low morale, interviews were conducted with staff from different departments. In addition, I reviewed some studies and literatures which demonstrate the value and feasibility of high staff turnover and low morale. I conducted an initial interview with staff and different levels of managers under Channel Department and some from several ODM&OEM Departments to understand the working environment and culture in Channel Department. I created a standard questionnaire for interviews with ten employees. Questions from these interviews are included in Appendix A. * Channel Department: Sales Assistant-Sophia Lin & Cheryl Chen, Sales Specialist-Karen Chen, Sales Manager-Pearl Shieh and Sales Director-Ken Liao. * OEM & ODM Department: PM-Aki Lin & Brian Lo, Finance Planner-Steve Wu, Accounting Specialist-Sandy Chang and Shipping Director-Grace Chiang.

Then I conducted second set of interviews with five employees who have resigned from ECS Channel Department to understand their perspective and opinions on working environment and the reasons they quit from ECS. Questions from these interviews are included in Appendix B. * Sales Manager-Spencer Hu, Sales Specialist-Nicole Liu & Maggie Chang and Sales Assistant-Elaine Cheng & Carolyn Huang.

Background on high staff turnover and low morale in ECS
High employee turnover rate and low staff morale are the major issues in the Channel Department of Elitegroup Computer System. These two factors are highly connected and can influence each other. The employees here in ECS, including senior and new staff, are aware of this phenomenon and blame their low morale and performances on high staff turnover. The channel department must improve the high turnover rate and turn itself into to a profitable and outstanding department in ECS.

Findings
How do staff turnover and low morale impact each other?
A high turnover rate can result in low employee morale (Magloff, n.d.). From the interviews with ECS employees, I found that staff can feel undervalued and lose their confidence in the company by experiencing loss of co-workers around them. Furthermore, sale manager Pearl from channel department indicated that continuous hiring and training new employees can lead to overworked senior employees who are responsible for former employee’s workload. New employees Cheryl Chen from channel department also suffers from low morale as she struggle learning new job duties without sufficient help. These kinds of reasons could cause ECS to have difficulty attracting and keeping high-quality talent. “With the constant need to hire and train new employees, it is easy to veer from true mission and vision of the organization “ (Markovich, n.d., para.3). In addition, employees who stay in low morale working environment may become pessimistic and see quitting as the only options. “Keeping morale high can help you to avoid unnecessary turnover and increase the productivity and loyalty of your employees” (Magloff, n.d., para.1). It is really important for employer to put forward these issues as soon as possible to prevent unnecessary costs related to high turnover. In order to improve this condition, we must identify the causes of low morale.

Manager-Employee relationship and workload distribution
Having good managers or supervisors are crucial to an organization performance. “Exit-interview research shows the No. 1 reason people leave their jobs is their managers” (Musselwhite, 2008, para.1). In fact, “The only relationship that may be more important to an organization than the company-customer relationship is the manager-employee relationship” (Musselwhite, 2008, para.1). From the interview with former sales assistant Elaine Cheng in channel department, I found that without sound relationship and smooth communication, staff would not perform well and may under huge stress. Since there is no good relationship as the basis of cooperation in working environment, the loyalty of staff will be low. Staff may quit their job quickly once they cannot overcome obstacles. However, inappropriate relationship between manager and employee may leads to serious consequences. When employer and staff become too personally involved, gossip and resentment will be generated among other staff. (Mooney, n.d.). Furthermore, the employee may not respect their manager and lose discipline due to excessive intimacy.

Distributing workload evenly is another prospect to improve this phenomenon. Employees of ECS’s channel department quit their job partially because they are unsatisfied with the salary under unfair overworking environment. Some staff left office on time and some just work till late at night. Overworked managers do not have time to work with employees on their career development, which leads to staff turnover and low morale. Employees might come across health issue and become discontented under heavy workload. “This phenomenon is often referred to as being burned out by a job, and it can lead to some significant effects such as low morale, high turnover and potentially violence in the workplace” (Anderson, n.d., para.3). “Change in workload tends to change the stress level of employees, which ultimately affect the performance of employees”(Shah, 2011, p.3).

Recommendations
According to the results of interviews and reviews of literatures and studies, I found that Monica Parpal’s tips for Encourage Employee Retention best addresses the solutions of Manager-Employee relationship management and workload distribution in ECS channel department. There are five methods to improve this situation. * Recognize and Reward –Managers should make employees feel that they are valuable in the company according to their work or ideas. Hardworking and committed employees should be appropriately recognized because they are the minority of whole employees. For instance, praise their work in front of their peers to encourage their hard work. Managers might reward an employee’s achievement with a gift card or some free movie tickets. It is significant to create a good atmosphere within the organization * Properly Train All Employees and Distribute workload –From day one, all staff members should have an adequate training program. This should include an orientation to the position and the company. “Employees who feel knowledgeable and comfortable in their surroundings will more often feel successful and content with their position” (Parpal, n.d., para.3). Moreover, redistribute workload for the employees who have overloading work contents. Manager should consider hiring new employees if the work force is insufficient.

* Improved Communication - Employee need to be heard by managers. “As a manager, be sure to promote healthy communication whenever possible. Greet and talk with each employee daily, or as often as possible” (Parpal, n.d., para.3). It is important to build up trust among each other and help employee feel comfortable going to one another. * Conflict Management - Managers need to know how to handle conflicts when it happens. “Speak to the whole team about cooperation and the importance of running the business. Take further action if needed, such as mediating a private conversation with just the staff members involved” (Parpal, n.d., para.3). Employee relationship will crash without the good solutions of disagreement or disputes.

Conclusion An effective Manager-Employee relationship management plan and workload distribution strategy is essential for Elitegroup Computer Systems. The recommendations states in this report contain several aspects that company and managers can be aware of and work hard on. The key challenge is the low staff morale atmosphere that has been existing for a long time. With comprehensively implement the strategy and enhance staff morale, the channel department will unite and improve their performance, thus earn more profits for the company. The confidence and loyalty of employees are crucial to sustainable, forward-looking corporation.
Appendix A
Interview with current employees. * Channel Department: Sales Assistant-Sophia Lin & Cheryl Chen, Sales Specialist-Karen Chen, Sales Manager-Pearl Shieh and Sales Director-Ken Liao. * OEM & ODM Department: PM-Aki Lin & Brian Lo, Finance Planner-Steve Wu, Accounting Specialist-Sandy Chang and Shipping Director-Grace Chiang.

(1) How you view your job, the company and IT industry?
(2) How well and transparent is the communication channel built among managers and staffs?
(3) What was the relationship between you and other staff?
(4) Do you feel overloaded by huge amount of work?
(5) What is your career plan?
(6) Are you satisfied with your salary?

Appendix B
Interview with resigned employees from ECS. * Sales Manager-Spencer Hu, Sales Specialist-Nicole Liu & Maggie Chang and Sales Assistant-Elaine Cheng & Carolyn Huang.

(1) How you view your previous job, the ECS and IT industry? (2) What was the main reason you left ECS? (3) What was the relationship between you and other staff?
(4) How well and transparent is the communication channel built among managers and staffs?
(5) Did you feel overloaded by huge amount of work?
(6) What is your career plan?
(7) Were you satisfied with your salary in ECS?

References * Anderson, A. (n.d.) The Effects of a Heavy Workload on Employees. Ehow money. Retrieved September 19, 2013 from, http://www.ehow.com/info_8178431_effects-heavy-workload-employees.html * Hurrelbrinck, N. (n.d). Managers build strong relationships with employees. UVA. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from, http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/1999/30/managers.html

* Musselwhite, C. (June, 2008) Three Ways to Build Successful Manager-Employee Relationships. Talent Management. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from, http://talentmgt.com/articles/view/three_ways_to_build_successful_manageremployee_relationships/1 * Markovich, M. (n.d). The Negative Impacts of a High Turnover. Small Business. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-impacts-high-turnover-rate-20269.html

* Magloff, L. (n.d). How Does Employee Morale Impact Turnover? Small Business. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/employee-morale-impact-turnover-11108.html * Mooney, L. (n.d). What Are the Disadvantages of Informal Procedures for the Employer-Employee Relationship? Small Business. Retrieved September 19, 2013 from, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/disadvantages-informal-procedures-employeremployee-relationship-15609.html * Parpal, M. (n.d). How to Reduce Staff Turnover and Improve Employee Retention in Your Restaurant? FSW. Retrieved September 28, 2013 from, http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/restaurant-equipment-supply-marketing-articles/restaurant-management-and-operations/how-to-reduce-staff-turnover-and-improve-employee-retention-in-your-restaurant/c28035.aspx

* Shah, S. (September, 2011) Workload and Performance of Employees. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3.