week 1 case assignment

Question

Please read Bloomberg Case in the News,  "Amazon Effect" Is Hiking Pay and Fueling Land Rush in U.S. , page 27-28 in the textbook, and answer the corresponding questions (1-3) that follow it.

1. What challenges do managers of the warehouse face when the unemployment rate is low? What challenges do they face when the unemployment rate is high? 

2. What strategies can managers employ to retain talented workers? 

3. How does planning figure in to a manager's day-to-day responsibilities as competition for workers and real estate heats up in this area of the country?

Textbook

Title:  Contemporary Management, 11th edition

Author: Jones and George

Publisher: McGraw Hill

ISBN: 9781260488661

Comments (1)

Answered by Expert Tutors 

(1)

When employment rate is low,the proportional of jobs available is relatively high compared to the number of workers competing for the positions,employers have to offer high wages to entice people to work for them hence income goes up since few people are looking for jobs.The challenge they face is that there are fewer available workers for each job openings. Labor supply is even more in demand due to higher number of workers required per square foot.However,they can ensure they higher competent people,train them and offer fair salary range so that they wont loose those they have and handle the different tasks well. Most of the warehouse which pay more wage per hour raise their employment rate since everyone is trying to get those jobs regardless of how far workers have to drive to get there.Some warehouses considerably reduced the number of workers in the manufacturing sector since the workers they have are talented with skills and they can perform multi industry tasks to fill all the need in the industry.

(2)

Managers will face lower spending by consumers and the warehouse will be unable to move all the inventory.High attrition rate in high density warehouse areas can be experienced,unavailability of young workforce,unattractive operating hours and lack of talent may be experienced too. Managers should use more than money to attract and retain workers,constantly change the workforce with new approaches and mold hours to employee advantage and theirs to ensure a positive work environment with satisfied employees. Focusing on employee retention lead to organizations recognizing employees who are talented and motivated. Managers can employ multiple strategies to retain talented workers by recognizing retention starts with recruiting, identifying etc,.

(3)

The planning process provides the information managers need to make effective decisions about how to allocate the resources in a way that will enable the organisation reach its objectives.This ensures productivity is maximized and resources are not wasted on projects with little chance success.It minimizes uncertainties,facilitates coordination,improves employee morale,helps achieve economies,control and provides competitive edge because it encourages innovations.