Tanglewood Stores

Tanglewood Stores

"Strategic Staffing HR 594"

Week 2 assignment

Reginald Smith

Keller Graduate School of Management

Case Study

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Executive Summary

This staffing analysis will focus Tanglewoods workforce and the requirements for retention and acquisition of its employees. Topics covered will include:

* Hire Yourself or Outsource

* External or Internal

* Core or Flexible Workforce

* Hire or Retain

* National or Global

* Attract or Relocate

* Overstaff or Understaffed

* Short -or Long-Term Focus

Staffing Quality

* Person/Job or Person/Organization Match

* Specific or General KSAOs

* Exceptional or Acceptable Workforce Quality

* Active or Passive Diversity

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Background

Tanglewood was originally founded in 1975 by best friends Tanner Emerson and Thurston Wood's. The name Tanglewood was derived from the combination of Tanner Emerson and Thurston Wood which in 1984 became the Tanglewood brand. In the early stages the thought was to only be a clothing and camping store that supplied equipment that was personally designed by them. The community in Spokane Washington really took to the merchandise that Tanner and Thurston supplied which included kitchen and wilderness equipment. What really set them apart from most was how they strategically planned for their employee contributions and employee input.

Tanglewood started out with one store and has now expanded to 243 stores across various parts of the nation. Tanglewood's rapid growth surpassed the original vision that the two owners had. They only saw their product as being small with a small vision and mission and only wanted to make the experience personable for the shopper. As the times has changed and shopping has taking on a new face, mega stores have popped up over taking the mom and pop stores, literally running them out of business, companies like Tanglewood have had to rethink and redesign how they do and have done business in order to compete with the Wal-Marts and the Sam's clubs.

In order to keep up with their competitors Tanglewood has had to put their company under the microscope and redefine their original strategy and develop a more defined management strategy. The focus is to stay close to the company's original mission and vision, and enhance the Human Resource policies and procedures. These improvements should bring about a change

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in the staffing and corporate culture with the hopes of attracting employees who are committed to the mission and the vision of the company.

Hire yourself or out source

Tanglewood takes pride in its employee input and contributions. One of their main focus should be to continue to promote from within because this has proven to be a big success and develop talent for present and future positions by relying heavily on KSAO'S which are "common elements in a person's oriented job analysis. If the company should happen have to fill key positions they would not have to stress about going outside but staying within to fill key positions. Those key positions may require the employee to step right in, get to work and not have to worry about being trained as a new employee would.

Tanglewood should also look at themselves from a development standpoint. When a company hires staff from within, this helps to build morale and give those employees who have worked at the company for years some hope of advancement. With this the company can look to strong production in the future.

Tanglewood should offer open positions to their employees first that are qualified for the position and have the KSAOs (Knowledge, Skill, Ability and Other characteristics) to accomplish the job requirements. If a position cannot be filled from within, the next option should be to look outside or outsource to an organization that specializes in hiring, such as a

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tempt service. By doing so Tanglewood would have a broader employee pool and the agency would be able to screen out employees that are not qualified. Outsourcing would save Tanglewood time and money. Hiring a new employee can be very costly, staffing agencies and recruiting firms work on countless positions every day. They know what to look for and can spot "red flags" that will get your antennas up and will help you in conducting your interviews.

EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL HIRING

Tanglewood should look into rather hiring internally or externally would benefit the company. They have experienced a great deal of growth over a period of time and may run into a period where they may not be able keep up with the demand of hiring. There are a number of benefits to hiring from the outside:

1. It helps you acquire competitive intelligence about other firms.

2. New hires can help you identify other potential candidates to "poach" from their firm.

3. The new ideas that applicants and new hires bring in stimulate the thinking of others.

4. New hires ask "why we do things that way" so we are often forced to re-think the way we do things.

5. It keeps our employees on the edge because they know they must compete against outsiders for jobs.

Problems with outside hiring

1. Outside

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