Tanglewood Case

CASE DESCRIPTION/ INTRODUCTION

I will be working as an external consultant to make the best decision regarding staffing quantity and staffing quality strategies for Tanglewood Stores. I will put into practice everything I have read referring to the exhibit 1.7 found on page 25 of my staffing organization's text book. Basically, I will explain the thirteen strategic staffing decisions, which consist on nine pertaining to staffing levels and four pertaining to staffing quality.

According to McGraw-Hill online student portal it says that "Tanglewood is a chain of general retail stores featuring items such as clothing, appliances, electronics, and home décor. The company operates in the moderate price niche, targeting middle and upper-income customers. Tanglewood's strategic distinction is an "outdoors" theme, with a large camping and outdoors living section in every store. The store also distinguishes itself by its simple, elegant, and uncluttered design concepts for the store and their in-house products".

IDENTIFICATION OF BUSINESS STRATEGY/ GOALS

Tanglewood's business strategies and goals are focused on providing maximum value to the customers, shareholders, and employees. They will achieve their goals by having good communication with its employees, having good customer service and keeping their shareholders happy with the performance of the business. Tanglewood stores sell almost the same types of products offered in other stores but they focus on quality, durability of its products and reasonable prices. They want to satisfy the needs and desires of their customers so they offer a complete outdoor theme with real wood décor and use of natural colors. Tanglewood also offers an online store where the customers can look at their merchandise and are able to pick up at the closest store. They also have low-cost shipping arrangements to the benefit of customers.

DISCUSSION OF 13 STRATEGIC STAFFING DECISIONS

Staffing strategies require making the best decisions regarding the acquisition, deployment, and retention of the organization's workforce. Proper staffing has been an important aspect to the development of organizations of all types. In recent years more companies have realized that with improved staffing strategies productivity can be increased while operation cost are reduced in terms of lower turnover rate and transition costs.

Staffing levels:

1. Acquire or develop talent: It is opinion that Tanglewood stores should hire new employees if they really want to achieve a full acquisition strategy. They have to keep the same management style between the original stores and the stores they have recently acquired. According to our Staffing Organization's text book it states that " to fulfill its staffing needs, a pure acquisition staffing strategy would have an organization concentrate on acquiring new employees who can "hit the ground running" and be at peak performance the moment they arrive". (Heneman III & Judge, 2009). I believe new employees will bring new ideas, skills, abilities, and experience as well as be willing to learn and work as a team to help the company grow. This strategy is going to assure that the newly acquired stores will start out in the right direction without resentment from employees, particularly, managers who resist changes within the organization.

2. Hire yourself or outsource: I will say that the human resources department should choose the "hire yourself technique" because they already know what they want from an employee. They have to work very hard to choose the right person with the right skills to work for its organization.

3. External or internal hiring: I will do internal hiring because Human resources managers already know the people are working for them. They know their KSAOs the moment they give them a new role in the organization. Furthermore, while I have been reading this case, I have noticed that employees working at Tanglewood stores treat themself as a family. They have been working in the same atmosphere, they already know the core values, and culture of the organization and are working towards achieving the goals of the business.

4. Core or flexible workforce: I think Tanglewood should focus on flexible workforce because hiring and training flexible workforce guarantees highly skilled and well versed employees. This allow the company to maximize the working potential of the existing