Read the below assignment and subsequent questions. The questions should be answered in the form of a report to be presented to the Executive Team of Garden Gate, Inc. This report should be concise and include well thought out topics and ideas that are supported by facts and theories discussed in this course. This report should not exceed three pages in total length.
Topics to Consider:RetentionInternal CandidatesSuccession PlanningForecasting
Submission:
Assignments must be uploaded to Blackboard by the end of the assigned week to be counted for credit. You may upload your assignments early if you would like. Late assignments will not be counted. The filename for your uploaded file should be formatted as such (Last Name, First Name – Assignment #. (for example: Charvat, Matthew-Assignment5)
Assignment #5
During the past 14 years, Garden Gate Inc. has grown from a small local garden supply company into a diversified corporation with stores in 36 states and net sales of almost $1.4 billion. The company currently employs 26,500 people and has been expanding at a 12 percent annual rate. Garden Gate expects to continue this pace of growth for at least five more years. The company has a talent philosophy of treating its employees as investors and spends heavily on their training and development. The firm also has a generous tuition-aid program that allows qualified employees to pursue bachelor’s and master’s degrees part time if the degree they are pursuing is consistent with their career plans established in conjunction with their supervisors.
Last year the company spent $350,000 on tuition aid and recently decided to more closely evaluate the program’s effectiveness. The evaluation was prompted by the recent departure of Jill Ises, who stated that her reason for leaving was that she had not been promoted in the year since she had received her MBA degree. Her career plan had been to become a senior accountant in one of the company’s regional offices, and she received high-performance appraisal evaluations while earning good grades in the accounting program. Five regional accounting manager positions (the job in between Jill’s current job and her desired senior accountant position) had been filled in the past year, and Jill had not been contacted about any of them. Further investigation identified 17 other tuition-aid beneficiaries who had left in the past year. Like Ises, these people said that their lack of being promoted after earning their degrees was the primary reason for their leaving. The following table describes the 18 employees who received tuition aid but left the company because they had not been promoted.
Name
Gender
Race*
Age
Last Job Held
Degree Earned
Position Taken Outside Garden Gate
1
Joe Bandy
M
C
42
Data Processor
BS, Accounting
Accountant
2
Camryn Donley
F
C
33
Administrative Assistant
BS, Management
Sales Manager
3
Lauren Sciano
F
B
35
Brand Manager
MBA
Regional Manager
4
Hui Shi
F
A
31
Legal Assistant
MBA
Financial Analyst
5
Jose Diaz
M
H
39
Administrative Assistant
MBA
Marketing Manager
6
Therese Day
F
B
28
Customer Service Manager
BS, Accounting
Management Trainee
7
Ida Crowe
F
H
33
Administrative Assistant
BS, Marketing
Brand Manager
8
Ron Brown
M
B
27
Project Manager
MBA
Plant Manager
9
Maria Cortina
F
H
45
Compensation Analyst
MS, HR
HR Manager
10
Deb Sandy
F
H
24
Data Processor
BS, Accounting
Accountant
11
Linda Winter
F
B
28
Trainer
MS, Adult Education
Training Director
12
Danny Chen
M
C
24
Customer Service Manager
BS, Finance
Financial Analyst
13
Mia Bandy
F
B
33
Administrative Assistant
BS, Marketing
Creative Director
14
Dana Elison
F
C
38
Marketing Analyst
MBA
Financial Analyst
15
Zhana Ames
F
H
30
Sales Manager
BS, Advertising
Account Manager
16
Jill Ises
F
B
41
Accountant
MBA
Accounting Director
17
Alec Smith
M
B
26
Administrative Assistant
BS, Finance
Management Trainee
18
Sally Masino
F
C
28
Payroll Clerk
BS, Management
Store Manager
*For race, A = Asian, B = Black, C = Caucasian, H = Hispanic
The company’s review of its internal hiring policy identified three primary sources for identifying internal talent, and some problems with them:Supervisors are asked to nominate employees they feel are qualified for openings in the company, but there are often dozens of open positions, and many supervisors do not regularly review the internal job postings.The firm’s HR professionals try to match open positions with employees who fit the criteria for them by looking at the company’s skills inventory database. Unfortunately, the information in the database is often outdated or incomplete.The departments that have openings recommend employees they feel are promotable.
Garden Gate’s management is concerned that it is not realizing a sufficient return on its considerable investment in its tuition-aid program, and is considering discontinuing the program.
Questions: The questions should be answered in the form of a report to be presented to the Executive Team of Garden Gate, Inc.What are the goals of a Tuition-aid program?.Does the information in the table indicate any special problems or issues? What do you suggest Garden Gate do about them?In your opinion, should Garden Gate discontinue its tuition-aid program?Create a plan to improve the retention of tuition-aid recipients