BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

Introduction

Blinds to go was began in 1954, as a retail fabricator of window dressings from Montreal. In

the beginning Mr. Shiller was the sole operator of the company and in 1970 his son joined

him. He convinced his father to focus on selling blinds. This new business plan attracts

customers and by the year 2000, business spread dramatically across the North America.

Although they were growing fast but they were also facing the issue of staffing and decrease

in sales. The main objective of this report is to evaluate the problem faced by blinds to go in

recruiting the right set of people and developing them in order to achieve the company’s

growth objectives. I am trying to give answers of questions based on this case study.

Q:1 Why is Blinds to go having difficulty attracting and retaining retail staff?

Globally organizations are being exposed to business challenges that are more or less similar

in nature. One of them is difficulty of attracting talnet and then being able to retain the pool,

lack of employee loyalty, global competition and shortage of skilled labor. In turn, companies

are increasingly being forced to compete on a global scale for human resources and are

struggling to understand how to position themselves and make themselves desirable to future

employees. Lets take the finance department as an example where tremendous individuals are

employed but they are constantly in the need of a more rewarding and challenging career and

hence have a high turnover. Employer branding provides organizations with a strong

employment promise to new candidates as well as points of difference against competitors.

Therefore, many organizations are focusing considerable attention and resources on

developing a strong employer brand. In the recent past these resources could be seen in the

form of advanced training programs, management trainee programs etc especially in fast

1
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

moving consumer good companies (FMCGs). Skills shortage definitely leads to being a

challenge for staff retention. Another area is shortage of top quality accountants in the

marketplace and a key challenge is how you keep hold of the intellect and talent that exists

within your organization. We believe that if the employer has been able to make themselves

as a well-known brand then it will attract staff with a solid cultural fit who integrate easily

with the organization. If the employer brand delivers on its promise, these staff members will

be more willing to stay with an organization. Also, the effectiveness of internal

communication, the extent to which employees are motivated to perform well, and the quality

of the leadership given by management, all play an important role in retaining staff. An

organization with great training and development potential can ultimatey fail if leadership

lacks the charisma to create urgency amongst subordinates to achieve deadlines.

Therefore, in this case, the Blinds to go is having difficulty attracting and retaining retail staff

due to its change in compensation in 1996 by a newly appointed vice president of store

operation. The company decided to change the compensation system from full commission to

salary which was not applicable as such by the employees and yet was not that impressive

enough to them. It indirectly discouraged the employees to give their best abilities. The newly

hired vice president led the change from full commission to paying sales associates a wage of

$8 per hour which intended to make sales associates less entrepreneurial and more customer

service focused. Why will employees work hard if they know they are salaried and comission

does not account much portion of their earnings? Store manager compensation was also

revised to reflect a higher base salary component relative to commission. The company also

introduced a casual uniform which was mandated in place of the business casual attire that

was being worn at stores. The sales associates might have felt the discrimination between top

level and lower level was created that is store manager would no longer be involved in sale.

When Blinds to go changed their style of compensating their employees to a salaried base

2
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

most of the staffs didn’t like it and felt discouraged. It is better with compensation system

rather than salaried one especially in a sales driven retail setup. Change in compensation of

retail staff changed the compensation system from full commission to salary due to the result

of recommendation from newly hired vice-president. The company is inclined towards hiring

those candidates who are ego friendly, hardworking, enthusiastic and likes sales and

possesses good skills of communication. The company also believes that it is most

appropriate to hire staffs from friends and families who have already a concept of the

company. This process discourages outsiders other than friends & families.

Q:2 Are the elements of organizational design at the retail store level “aligned” to

facilitate the retention of new employees? Why?

Yes, the elements of the organization design at the retail store level “aligned” will be able to

facilitate the retention of new employees; this is because Employers need to understand their

rates of labor turnover and how they affect the organization’s performance. An appreciation

of the levels of turnover across occupations, locations and particular groups of employees can

help to inform a comprehensive resourcing strategy. So, the employees turn-over and

retention are; Employee turnover refers to the proportion of employees who leave an

organization over a set period, expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers. The

term is used to encompass individuals who have left, both voluntary and involuntary,

including those who resign, retire or are made redundant, in which case it may be described

as ‘overall’ or ‘crude’ employee turnover. It is also possible to calculate more specific

breakdowns of turnover data, such as redundancy- related turnover or resignation levels, with

the latter particularly useful for employers in assessing the effectiveness of people

management in their organizations. Retention relates to the extent to which an employer

retains its employees and may be measured as the proportion of employees with a specified

3
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

length of service expressed as a percentage of overall workforce numbers. And as per the

case, most of the employees left due to change in commission, salary and wage based

structures. There were no trainings provided to the retail staff. In order to facilitate and retain

the retail staff they now use different methods such as:

· Those who have good leadership quality,

· Those who are skilled and talented,

· Recruiting quality staff based on character traits

· They provided incentives for performance and also reward if the performance were good.

By giving more emphasis on staffing incentives bonus was changed from a sales target to a

new staff quota target that is, DSM compensation re-adjustment to facilitate and motivate the

employees working in the retail store. They even hired professional recruiters by which the

employees were given the opportunity to improve their work performance through job fairs

and training, and to attract more employment they have advertised job opportunities through

the media like weekly news paper. But, still organizational design in BTG was not that that

effective. Organizational design in Blinds To Go have a work load divided into the respective

personnel but the method they follow to promote their staff to higher post without the

observation period creates frustration among other staffs. Looking at the staff’s performance

for few weeks or a month does not prove in recruiting them to higher post. Anybody can be

cheated. After six to eight months of hiring and promoting the staff to the next level role will

not give effective performance because they are not familiar or adopt with the previous role.

However, the promotion practice in BTG is not effective to gain more motivated and high

performers.

Q:3 What recommendations would you give BTG to improve their staffing practices?

4
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

Companies are always prone to the tremendous challenge when they are considering facing

increased difficulty to finding skilled people, a more demanding younger workforce, and a

growing population of older workers heading toward retirement. The difficulty in finding and

keeping talented people is having a catastrophic impact on many businesses and industries

throughout the world. Therefore as long as it comes to Blinds to go, the companies has been

using efficient ways of attracting staff and it has also been providing different methods of

retaining and improving the performance of their staff. But, still then I would like to suggest

some ways that would be beneficial to them and these are;

1. Career Development Program:

Every person is rightly concerned about their career. Everyone recruit is always eager to

know his/her career path in the company. So as mentioned earlier that as long as the

organizations can offer various technical certification courses which will help employee in

enhancing his knowledge.

2. Performance Based Bonus:

Companies are extremely rewarding especially if they are into retail sales and always make

commission major part of the paycheck. Therefore, a provision of performance linked bonus

can be made wherein an employee is able to relate his performance with the company profits

and hence will work hard. This bonus should strictly be productivity based and no partiality

should be done.

3. Recreation facilities:

Recreational facilities help in keeping employees away from stress factors. Various

recreational programs should be arranged so the employees feel secure and lively to work for

5
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

the organization. Companies with a unionized environment, normally appreciate these staff

outing by utilizing funds towards the mental health of employees / unionized labor. They may

include taking employees to free trips with families, celebrating anniversaries, sports

activities,

4. Gifts at Some Occasions:

Giving out some gifts at the time of one or two festivals to the employees making them feel

good and understand that the management is concerned about them. The benefits of improved

retention are enormous and they are namely reduced turnover costs, improved service

productivity, higher customer satisfaction, a more knowledgeable workforce and better

employee morale. Retention is a result of thinking strategically and doing many things well.

And to make this happen it is all in the hands of the managerial personnel and how logically

he/she does it.

5. Open Communication:

Tremendously important in today's date is a culture of open communication enforces loyalty

among employees in an organization. Open communication tends to keep employees

informed on key issues. Most importantly, they need to know that their opinions matter and

that management is concerned in their input.

6. Employee Reward Program:

A positive recognition inspires the motivational levels of employees. Recognition can be

made explicit by providing awards like best employee or punctuality award. These employees

can be award in terms of gifts or money. The most trusted reward program can be termed as

6
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
 BLINDS TO GO: STAFFING A RETAIL EXPANSION

"promotions" that help uplift an employee's morale and brings out their best abilities to

achieve organizational targets.

Conclusion

References:

1. Dataset for solving a hybrid flexibility strategy on personnel scheduling problem in

the retail industry.

2. HOW ORGANIZATIONS FOSTER THE CREATIVE USE OF RESOURCES.

3. https://www.cio.com/article/2868419/how-to-improve-employee-retention.html

7
This study source was downloaded by 100000855708915 from CourseHero.com on 02-13-2023 00:16:28 GMT -06:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/80818131/case-study-blinds-to-godocx/
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)