Lower Travel Costs & Increase Revenue: A VTI Agenda - Essay Sample

Introduction

In a company like VTI, the best recommendation would be to lower travel costs by communicating via video conferencing to lower cost of traveling, do away with overtime, offer un unpaid extra week in the staff's vacation, and close the offices during the week of Christmas. Upon doing this the company should also offer the sabbatical staff paid leave, try to sub-let it to increase revenue, and search for ways they can re-negotiate some or all their vendor contracts. Since the agenda is to reduce costs, they should also take away all entertainment expenses by restructuring all bonuses and do away with raises for the time being. The best recommendation is that the company needs to give the employees the early retirement benefit will allow the management to practice shadow training of the junior staff without extra cost. This makes it appear like they are living a legacy to the junior staff

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Advantages of Some Strategies

Workforce reduction - if it's based on performance, you will remain with only the most talented employees. Since they are good at what they do they shall be able to take the company to the top again

Re-deployment - this offer tends to make the employees feel encouraged. After all, they will be treated the same way when they give their best in their work.

Early retirement - as many companies advance technology-wise, they need staff with a certain skill set. The company should retrench the non-skilled staff and saves costs from the early retirement program.

Disadvantages of Some Strategies

Layoffs often incur costs because with less staff the company will still need to pay overtime to the remaining staff and sometimes have to hire temporary employees from consulting firms. It can also cause the best employees to consider leaving the company to seek other jobs elsewhere.

Re-deployment can also cause discomfort to the most experienced employees since they would not want to change their comfort zone. Furthermore, moving employees to different positions might cost the company even more time and money since they have to invest in the manager's time in training them in those positions.

During the re-deployment period, productivity suffers a whole lot coz if the position is filled by a less experienced employee, the impact is felt.

Another best approach would be to go paperless and to ditch the phones and communicate online. I disagree with firing staff because it creates a lot of stress for the employees plus their families especially the ones who will not benefit fully from the company.

Layoff Strategies

Advantages

Performance - this will allow the management an easier task to select as they will select the non-productive staff.

Time in job salary - the worker is only paid for the hours/days he's worked.

Skillset needed - this will protect the most talented employees because they will train any new employees in the future.

Temporary headcount - temporary workers create flexibility in a financially strained organization and also boost the morale of the employees.

Position elimination - the only advantage of this is the final benefits. The fewer workers in the organization the fewer resources the company uses.

Disadvantages

Performance - workers could quit due to unfair results and can also lower the morale of the workers.

Time In job salary - the employee may suffer when they work fewer hours. This means less money.

Skillset needed - this is time-consuming and also requires the company to be thorough and complete or they'll just waste more time assessing them all over again.

Position elimination - this creates an increase in the workload which causes stress to the remaining employees.

Temporary headcount - the employees don't get any company benefits like dental or health insurance or paid off days.

Another criteria that can be used is to have a good service fee for the employees and provide in-house training of how and what to do after being laid off. If I were Jenna, I would use the temporary criteria because the company needs to stay afloat plus it will give the employees morale, they need to continue working there.

Performance Data Used

Make sure they have extensively reviewed all performance records of the workers. This includes all performance records plus appraisals, work and attendance data, any forms that detailed any corrective and disciplinary action, formal or informal documents. If the workplace and environment are based on the productivity of the employees then they should do a thorough evaluation of the work performances. Make a list of the workers whose work output is lower than expected and they should make sure fair standards have been applied. But if the list will have most of the seasoned staff they should re-consider because of the skill set they could lose.

Minimizing the Risks

Explain to the employee the steps that were taken to make the decision. Meet the listed workers that are scheduled for layoffs. Explain to them in detail how they were given opportunities to change but they didn't. Provide a good service package to the staff that is being laid off.

Legal Assessment

Follow all the laws that protect the older employees such as the age discrimination act which states that an employer should pay laid-off employees with enough time to think of signing any agreement of termination.

Letter Assessment

The letter and the e-mail explain very well all the company is willing to do for the workers who will be laid off. I would not change anything in the details of the letter for its states how the company will cushion them after the layoff.

Address Negative Moral

As a silent killer, negative moral kill the productivity of the workplace since they lack the motivation to work. This leads to unmet deadlines. In order for Jenna to increase morale amongst the employees, she needs to often communicate with them so that they can tell her their plight. She can also create a program that has effective incentives and also just making it fun to work in the workplace. The retention issues can be muted by putting competitive salary benefits/good packages to the worker, coz it's always about the money.

Performance at The Workplace

The staff can get proactive by getting physical which will do away with laziness. Also by balancing everything they do in a day like giving priority to one thing at a time. Massaging one's mindset also helps to stay focused. Planning for success also helps in keeping targets and keeps the motivation levels high. Proactively mitigating the performance at work by organizing themselves, do away with multitasking; manage interruptions that will encourage good finishes in their products. Setting milestones also helps a worker to view the tasks from the boss's side. Avoiding destructions also creates a peaceful environment in the workplace.