Proposal

By Mary, Keith, Sanya and Claire

The Company?
Background and Mission
“Bringing family and friends together. At Rich’s we have one purpose, to
help you create an atmosphere where you can connect with your friends.”
The company has been in business since 1979, and they started off selling
stoves only. They evolved and turned into a business offering anything
outdoor living. For example, the offer patio furniture, outdoor fireplaces,
BBQ kitchens, patio heaters, anything and everything needed to customize
the outlook of your perfect pinterest outdoor living space.
Employee Training
- For the Service department,
one employee stated that
training only lasted for 2 days,
and then they were left to their
own devices.
- For example: A new service
employee would shadow a more
experienced worker for two days,
then are told to do it themselves
- On the sales side, they have
representatives from specific
brands that come out and
coach the sales team to help
them find success in selling
their product.
- For example: Rich’s carries 10
different patio furniture brands. 1
of the brands is Tropitone. Rich’s
will have a Tropitone
representative come into the store,
and coach them on their particular
product.
Strategies used to motivate employees
- Performance Competitions
- Whoever sales the most of this product wins x amount of money.
- Survey Reviews
- Whomever gets a 5 star review, earns x amount of cash.
- Bonuses
- One employee mentioned a trip to Maui for top grossing employee.
- This would exclude the service department.
- Weekly team meetings to ensure all employees are on the same page for the
service and sales department.
- The Biggest difference is that the sales department is motivated using the Equity
Theory, while the service department is motivated by Control Theory
Performance Appraisal System
❖ In terms of evaluating job performance, this company focuses
on objective measures (numbers: sales, highest performance).
➢ Incentive system in the sales department
❖ This performance appraisal system is then used to make
administrative decisions, employee development and feedback,
effectiveness and organizational practices and procedures
❖ Could help in decisions regarding demotions and promotions
❖ At Rich’s, there is a constant threat of being replaced if your
numbers aren’t on point, so their way of rewarding you is by
not constantly bothering you about numbers. (and of course
bonuses too.)
Interviews
❖ After interviewing a couple of the employees, there was a consensus
that there was not much training involved, and each employee had to
figure it out for themselves.
❖ Fear as a tool to increase performance
❖ Motivation between departments are different.
➢ Service department has occasional meetings with statements of appreciation.
➢ Sales department has contests/raffles
❖ Trend of employees in service department quitting within 4-6 months.
❖ Trend for sales employees, is they stay with the company for 5+ years.
Recommendations
❖ Subjective Measures: 360-Degree Feedback
➢ Employees are afraid of management, assessing the job performance of all employees often is crucial to a healthy
work environment.
❖ Implement better training for new employees in service department
➢ Mentoring: having a more experienced employee coach new employees would benefit the whole company.
■ Build relationships with co-workers, increase sales.
➢ Implement overlearning so the employees feels competent, where they have achieved automaticity. Where the
task can be done smoothly without needing to double check their work.
➢ There’s a lot of material to learn within this company. Adding part training and, spaced training to avoid burnout.
➢ Within this company, modeling training makes the most sense. To have a mentor show them the correct response,
and behavior to a particular service issue, and the employee is taught how to behave appropriately.
❖ Fairness theory as a method to motivate employees
➢ Employees in sales are able to take part in raffles as motivation, give the service department employees some sort
of incentive like sales department to increase motivation.
❖ Goal-Setting Theory
➢ To provide the service department with a goal per day of responding to a feasible amount of service request.
Sources Cited
Spector, P. E. (2021). Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Research and Practice.
[VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from
https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781119807483/

Rich’s for the Home. (2022, February 14). Fireplaces | Wood Stoves | Hot Tubs | Gas
Grills | Rich’s for the Home | Seattle.
https://www.richshome.com/?fbclid=IwAR2CczvalqxMtuiHmZrAEfdmzbl2-hdd8iED0
MTrUlZUVY1NRv2XTQNu9rg