CHERN's Staffing Analysis

The strategic staffing process is guided by a set of staffing goals (process and outcome goals) that are logically linked with the company’s business strategy, culture and values. CHERN has managed to create a competitive advantage by providing quality products and the best customer service in the industry. Superior quality customer service is the company’s business strategy and this is linked to a very aggressive growth strategy for the next 5 years. The table below helps to understand the implications that the business growth strategy has on the staffing process at the company.

The positions highlighted on the table are the positions that CHERN has to focus on because they are the core drivers of the company’s performance and they make up more than 80% of the total workforce of the organization.

Table 1. Staffing Forecast for 5 year growth.
PositionsEmployees per store
Employees needed to hire per year
Employees needed to hire per month
Employees hired at end of 5 years
Store Manager1151.2575
Dept. Manager812010600
Assistant Dept. Manager812010600
Full time sales associates10015001257500
Part time sale associates2537531.251875

Because the strategic staffing process is a future-oriented process, it is valuable to identify both short term and long term goals that involve attracting, developing and retaining the right number of the best appropriate talent. Table 2 contains both short-term and long-term process goals and outcome goals for CHERN’s strategic staffing and provides a rationale of why this are important to help achieve the business strategy.

Process Goals

Importance

1. Hiring qualified applicants within the timeline goals of our growth projection.
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   The staffing process has to be able to meet the time goals for the hiring process as needed for the year growth strategy.

2. Attract a pool of applicants large enough to be able to select the amount of talent needed for the new stores. The staffing process has to be able to supply the necessary amount of talent needed for the year growth strategy.

Short-term

Outcome Goals

• Staffing talent that fits with corporate culture.

CHERN needs talent that fits with its culture and feel comfortable, reducing turnover and developing longer relationships with customers.

• Hiring talent who will succeed at work.

Hiring process will supply talent that will be able to do the job and achieve the goals.

Long-term
Process Goals

• Better efficiency in attracting qualified applicants.

Achieve more efficiency on hiring top talent to keep our competitive advantage and continue with the same level of superior customer service. To achieve this, some processes have to be measured, revised, and modified.

• Keep competitive benefits to attract top talent.

Long-term

Outcome Goals

• Enhancing the business strategy execution

All efforts should be made towards enhancing the business strategy.

• Hiring talent who will benefit from the other HR functions ( compensation, training, succession)

It is important for the company to achieve its corporate strategy, to hire talent that will benefit from training, is motivated by the company’s compensation plan and is interested on building a career.

Business and Staffing Strategies

An organizations Human Resource strategy and Talent Philosophy shapes its staffing strategy and has direct impact on the business Strategy. We will now analyse CHERN’s Talent Philosophy, Human Resource Strategy and Staffing Strategy to align them with the corporate business Strategy. Table 3 helps us identify how the Organizations Talen Philosophy help shape its HR Strategy and staffing strategy.

Table 3. Talent Philosophy-HR strategy-Staffing Strategy.
Talent PhilosophyHR StrategyStaffing Strategy

What to retain talent, creating long term careers that will contribute to the firms objectives Recruit, select, develop and retain valuable talentRecruitment & Selection: Hires talent that has the right set of traits and attributes to perform in the organization. Develop: Offer training, career development and support to take advantage of talent and help them achieve results. Retaining: Retains valuable talent.

View employees as investors and not costs or assets.
Respect applicants and employees, as we believe the company benefits from them as the same way they benefit from the company, and they are vital for our success.Recruiting and selection: Hires employees that relate to the corporate culture and makes the process transparent and gives as much information as possible to avoid mismatching. Develop: Gives employees empowerment and training to make them feel more comfortable at work. Retaining: We understand the investment employees are doing in the company and therefore we offer competitive benefits and wages.

Have high ethical standards and a strong corporate culture of respect Treat employees and applicants with respect and fairness.Recruiting and Selection: Transparent and well informed process. Develop: Provides well timed and appropriate feedback and offers personalized training to help employees achieve goals. Retaining: Clear reward system and promotes based on merit.

Talent Philosophy

At CHERN’s our greatest strength lies on the talent, set of skills and empowerment of our people. We are committed on attracting, growing and retaining the most talented people in the retail industry by creating a fair and positive environment where they can feel cared and comfortable, and have the opportunity to develop personally and professionally. Human Resource Strategy

The goal of CHERN’s human resource strategy is to align all its HR functions in order to ensure the availability of the right amount of superior customer service oriented talent who is supported by the an organization in order to achieve the company’s objectives. The goals of the HR strategy involve providing training, support and the tools needed for our talent to fully develop within the company in a fair environment. Staffing Strategy

To describe CHERN’s staffing strategy, we will divide this analysis into the 9 elements of the Staffing Strategy, and briefly describe its implications.

• Core Vs Flexible Workforce.

CHER benefits from a core workforce as opposed to a flexible workforce, because as we highlighted before, employees are central to their success and vital to achieve competitive advantage. CHERN’s effort on retaining valuable staff will contribute to achieving long term goals. Even though the company still has some part-time staff, they still consider them part of their core workforce and offer them similar benefits and same fair conditions.

• Hire Internally Vs Hire Externally.

CHERN has to source its talent both externally and internally. The company should continue to develop current talent and work on succession planning, as done until now. This sends the message that good performance is rewarded enhancing staff motivation. Also, it allows staff in new positions to get up to speed easily because they already know the company’s culture and the way things are done. This is a huge benefit for the company as by the time a new position of middle management opens up, they already have a large pool of internal candidates who they have already assessed and know their performance. However, the company will still have to source its sales associate positions externally to meet the growing strategy that it has projected for the next 5 years. Hiring externally also brings some advantages to the organization like enhancing diversity and injecting different and fresh perspectives that can be beneficial.

• Hire for Vs Train and Develop for.

During the Recruiting and selection process, CHERN should focus on traits, attributes and abilities and not so much on skills and knowledge. Skills can be trained and CHERN is providing training to this set of skills already. However, qualities and attributes are harder or nearly impossible to teach and are vital for the job requirements such as being tech savvy, loving fashion, being customer oriented and being adaptable. Hiring the right skills with the wrong attitude is a mistake. Personality traits are very important on sales positions, that is why CHERN should hire talent with the right attitude and abilities, who lack some skills and knowledge and can grow together. Although hiring experienced, knowledgeable sales staff might reduce training costs and can start generating sales quickly, it is very unlikely that CHERN will find the enough pool of applicants that contain both the knowledge and the attributes. Without the attributes it is very likely that recruit will not be successful in a long term .Hence the importance of training.

• Replace Vs Retain talent.

CHERN strives to retain talent. It is becoming more difficult to recruit staff that meets CHERN’s standards, and competition on le market is increasing. That is why it is important for CHERN to recruit, develop and retain valuable talent. If not, the competitors will benefit from the resources invested on training. CHERN should continue offering a competitive set of benefits and remuneration as a strategy. This in hand with an inclusive and supporting environment creates a desirable working environment.

• What levels of what skills?

As CHERN’s strengths relies on its sales workforce it is critical to find and recruit individuals with a specific set of attributes that can enhance our business strategy. Attributes such as Confidence, ability to multitask, English skills, numerical skills flexibility, and service orientation are essential. Other important skills and knowledge requirements such as Sales techniques, persuasion, time management and information ordering can be held at a basic level and it can be strengthened through training.

• Proactive Vs Reactive staffing.

CHERN must follow a proactive staffing strategy to prepare for the coming growth of the company. Pursuing a talent oriented strategy will allow the company to fill the future positions at the right moment without having to hire quickly someone that might not fit the criteria. Labour market is getting tighter and it is becoming more difficult to find good recruits, so targeting gaps in advance of the actual need will bring benefits to the staffing process.

• What jobs to focus on?

The Sales associate both part-time and full-time are positions on which the company invests most of its resources and attention. This are the key positions that create value to the company and are helping to develop that competitive advantage that is crucial for the firm.

• Staffing as an investment Vs Staffing as a Cost.

CHERN sees staffing as an investment. CHERN believes that the effort in resources (time and money) invested in recruiting, selecting, training and retaining talent will show positive results in the short and long-term, because staff will perform better reducing costs, increasing productivity, and reducing turnover. Although it does involve costs, it is an investment into the company’s future.

• Centralized Staffing Vs Decentralized Staffing.

CHERN benefits from a combined approach to the staffing process between centralized and decentralized, where some of the functions are allowed to be adjusted to meet single unit needs, but still monitored by a centralized organization that ensures unity and cohesion. The company has already identified that customers from different units change and Managers have already some level of autonomy in decision-making. This allows each unit t cater to their customers providing a better designed service. So decentralization of the staffing process brings benefits to the brand. However, all units should follow specific procedures to ensure consistency throughout their branches.