Introduction
The meeting with the COO of the Dynamic Designs company indicated that four main problems threaten the company’s success in the market. However, these issues can be potentially resolved by simple yet effective changes.
Key Issues
Low Motivation
Employee motivation seems to be one of the biggest concerns for the company at the moment. Low motivation creates difficulties in the workplace, which can affect the quality of products. Lack of a clear and relevant motivation strategy may be one of the key reasons for this issue.
High Turnover
High turnover is a significant problem both for the workers and the company. First, it increases the company’s costs, which are also a matter of concern. Chamberlain (2017) claims that “replacing an employee who quits costs, on average, 21% of their annual pay” (para. 1). Because the average pay of engineers and developers is already high, replacement costs become an important factor that may potentially impair the company’s profitability. Furthermore, given that the engineering department is now working to develop and build a new line of products, the introduction of new engineers may cause problems, such as delays or mistakes.
Need for a Leader
Given the current turnover issues in the engineering department, it seems that a new Senior Director has not been appointed yet or that his or her management strategy and business ethics are inefficient in creating a positive climate within the department. The absence of a strong leader affects the company’s culture and employees’ morale, leading to adverse business outcomes.
High Expenses
The company’s current cash levels are also a problem that has to be addressed. Since every department has been asked to monitor their expenditures, this may mean that a thorough expense analysis has not been performed yet and the areas where costs can be cut have not been identified. High company expenses lead to lower profitability of the company, whereas attempts to reduce the costs may result in choosing materials of lower quality and decreasing employees’ pay. These savings options will either affect employee motivation further or impair the quality of products, thus impacting the company’s success in the market.
Possible Solutions
Enhancing Corporate Culture
A bad corporate culture may be the underlying reason of low employee morale and motivation (McGregor & Doshi, 2015). To improve corporate culture, three key steps must be taken. First, it is crucial to ensure that work is challenging and exciting to the employees (McGregor & Doshi, 2015). Offering new tasks and duties will most likely promote employee engagement, thus making workers more motivated. Second, it is necessary to give all employees a sense of purpose in the organization (McGregor & Doshi, 2015).
What impact does their work have on the customers’ lives? How do they contribute to achieving the organization’s mission and goals? Offering answers to these questions will make employees feel more valued and inspired to work for the company. Finally, the company needs to ensure that its employees receive enough opportunities to grow and reach their full potential (McGregor & Doshi, 2015). Offering training and promotions to different roles are some of the ways to achieve this. Overall, an effective revision of the company’s culture is an arduous task that may take a long time to complete (between 9-12 months). However, it will yield the first results early on, making people more efficient and decreasing turnover.
Finding a New Leader
Another important solution to increase motivation and promote employee retention is finding a new Senior Director with an excellent reputation and experience, who will be able to build an effective management strategy and will be charismatic enough to be liked by employees from the very beginning of his or her work. Appointing a new person for this role is not an easy option, as the management will need to ensure that the candidate is well-suited to the job and fits into the company’s culture well. On average, it can take up to three months to find the right person for such a position.
Revising the Operations
The easiest way to reduce business costs is by reviewing operations. First, the company will need to run an operational cost analysis to determine the items that are not cost-effective. Given the business features, the analysis will be moderately hard to perform and can be done within four to six weeks. Based on the analysis, strategies for decreasing operational expenses should be employed to raise financial efficiency. For instance, if the analysis found that too much money is spent on phone systems, the management may want to consider other communication options, such as Skype premium business phone, Grasshopper phone system, and so on (Michalowicz, 2013).
Summary and Recommendations
The company’s most pressing issues are related to employee management. They pose a significant threat to the company’s performance, as they affect both its costs and the products’ quality. To solve these issues, it would be useful to rebuild the company’s corporate culture, making it more compelling and inspiring to employees, and appoint a new leader for the engineering department, who will help to retain more employees and raise the unit’s efficiency.
Another concern is the increase in expenditures. To lower the spending, the company needs to identify the sources of increased costs first and then to find creative ways to reform inefficient operations without affecting the quality of products or services. Overall, even though both issues pose a significant threat to the business, they can be resolved within a year, making the company more profitable and ensuring its stability in the competitive market.
References
Chamberlain, A. (2017). Why do employees stay? A clear career path and good pay, for starters. Harvard Business Review. Web.
McGregor, L., & Doshi, N. (2015). How company culture shapes employee motivation. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Michalowicz, M. (2013). 7 easy ways to cut business costs. American Express. Web.