Can A Strong Culture Be Too Strong

 

Letter of Transmittal 

August 17, 2019 Subject: Submission of Case Analysis Report Respected Ma’am  Ma’am  As per the guidelines provided by you during the classroom discussion, I hereby submit a report on the case titled Can a strong culture be too strong. This report has been prepared after the deductive learning from the teaching of 6-step problem solving method of P Penrose, enrose, Rasberry, and Myres in the class and also an exhaustive study of the entire case, carefully scrutinizing the facts and assumptions. The report contains the relevant facts in the introduction, problem statement and list of possible alternatives, and a contingency co ntingency plan. I humbly request you to evaluate the same and provide us with your valuable inputs and suggestions.

Regards S

Executive summary

 

 

Parivar is a mid-size IT company and they are rising above the mark of a second-increase the retention of employees and also it will strengthen its employee emplo yee caring culture. They are planning plann ing to endorse People Support function in order to inculcate work inclusive culture. They feel this step will help in reducing the exponential attrition rate which the company is facing right now. n ow. But the Operation Head Kumar has some doubts regarding costs, scalability, and mana management gement of the new function. Due to which Indira the Vice President of HR is in a dilemma whether to endorse the People Support function or not. After proper analysis of the situation and evaluation of alternatives we have come to the conclusion of endorsing People Support function.

Table of Content

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S. No.

Contents

Page No.

1

Executive Summary

1

2

Table of Content

2

3

Situation Analysis

3

4

Problem Statement

4

5

Alternate Options

4

6

Evaluation Criteria

5

7

Evaluation of Options

6

7

Recommendation

6

8

Contingency Plan

7

Situation Analysis

2

 

Parivar is a mid-sized Chennai-based IT company compan y that is growing in its profitability, revenue and also it is rising above the second-tier IT service companies. compa nies. But the company is facing a major issue in the retention of its employees which are leaving le aving at a faster rate than its hiring rate. This was a major hindrance for the company to grow. Parivar’s CEO Sudhir Gupta Gupta believes  believes in inclusive work culture and fostering the philosophy of genuine caring for its employees. Nisha who is a fresher comes up with an idea of People support function. In this function designated listeners will be appointed who will listen to the employee’s personal employee’s  personal problem and try to find a solution for it. But Indira, Vikram, and Kumar were debating d ebating that the family-like work environment had no longer been able to retain the employees and it was extrinsic motivation like  pay hike which can motivate an employee Amal in the exit interview to Indira pointed out o ut that he was not able to interact with the senior executives and also he had a difference with his manager which was a reason for his leaving the company. All this makes Indira wondering what was w as true. Also, the feasibility of the People Support function as Sudhir and the management staff discussed its scalability, the cost of the function, evaluation of the assigned listeners and so on. Sudhir was of the view that a family-like culture is a necessity for a company and everywhere the people want their company to take care of them. Indira on the other side was in a doubt that how a family-like culture what Sudhir wants can be implemented and how feasible it would be.

Problem Statement

3

 

Due to the cut-throat competition, businesses need to be more efficient in order to survive and grow. Efforts are put to ensure optimum utilization utilization of resources. In this quest, there are considerable expectations from employees which results in pressure. On the other hand, employees have their personal  problems too. too. They want want to develop develop at an individual level. The hectic hectic schedule schedule takes a toll on their their  personal lives lives too. People People support support function seems seems to be be a good option for helping helping employees. employees. However However important questions of scalability feasibility arise with its implementation. Indira the Vice President of HR is in a confusion that whether she should endorse People Support function, which might help the company to retain its employee or not?

Alternate Options Indira should endorse People Support function.

Employees generally are not very comfortable discussing their professional and personal  problems with the managers who are at a higher level. There is a risk of depletion of reputation in front of them, which might impact their job. By having a designated p person erson (listener) whose  job would be to act as a bridge between the manager and the employee will solve the problem to great extent as the employee can talk with him without being judged. Indira should not endorse People Support function.

The cost associated with the People Support function is very high as new re recruitments cruitments have to be made for the listeners and also they need to be trained according to the company. Moreover on what basis the listeners would be judged is also an issue for the company.

Evaluation Criteria

4

 

To select the better of the two solutions for the case, the proper Evaluation criteria are to be chosen. They are as following Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is how satisfied the employee is with the company. It is considered to be the main reason behind the employees leaving the company. Cost of Function

The cost of the function is also to be considered while choosing one of the two as if the option is too expensive the option can become infeasible to be implemented by the organization. Talent Attraction

This refers to how the option selected will attract talented employees in the future. Competitive Edge

The competitive advantage is an important factor to be considered whenever a new plan is implemented in any organization. Alignment with Company culture

Alignment with the company’s current culture is required for a plan as if the plan the plan is not related to the company’s culture than the plan can face resistance from its employees. employees.   Employee Retention 

Parivar’s main problem is retaining employees. The options are needed Parivar’s main ne eded to be evaluated on whether the option will help the employee emplo yee to retain its employee or not.

Evaluation of Options 5

 

Option 1

Option 2

May be

No

Cost of Function

High

Nil

Talent Attraction

May be

No

Competitive Edge

May be

No

Alignment with Company Culture

May be

No

Employee retention

May be

No

Employee Satisfaction

Recommendation We would suggest option 1 as a solution for this case analysis, which is implementing the People Support Function. Because this option seems to be better for the future growth of the organization and also reduce the employee turnover which is a major concern the company is facing. Also, the organization is a mid-size mid -size firm so the scalability would not be a major issue in the current scenario but as the organization transits towards becoming a large-sized organization it would be an issue. The major issue in hand is the rate of attrition. Being a service-based company, the core strength of the company lies in its people. With the present rate of attrition doubt arises about the survival of the company so as an immediate measure, People Support Function becomes indispensable.

Contingency Plan

6

 

If the People Support Function failed we can implement the function partially and informally. In the contingency plan, we would instead of institutionalizing the idea in a formal way wa y that will include officially trained listeners we can rather train the managers to be listeners and also develop an informal culture in the company. compa ny. The informal culture will help the employees to directly reach out to the managers with the problems and get it solved.

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