Nordstrom Case Analysis Essay

Former Nordstrom employees accuse them of using unfair labor and invidious practices to intimidate employees and force them to perform tasks like stocking and picking up merchandise during non- realizeing hours . Nordstrom employees receive little formal training when hired or promoted to new positions, and they be judge to perform their duties consistent with the Nordstrom Way which is client service above and beyond the call of duty. Training is informally provided through on-the-job communication, which increases the prospect for miscommunication.This communication can be deliberate due to peer competition and pressures to succeed from managers, or lack of knowledge by co-workers and managers from whom they atomic number 18 encouraged to sample training. Management skills are not required to manage employees, nor is training provided to employees who achieve management positions. There is no real evaluation system in rear to measure employee performance. There is no goal setting process that requires manager employee pair sets benchmarks for measuring progress, particularly when the employee is new in the role (Harvard Business tutor Press, 2007).Goals help to define what managers expect from their employees. The only employee metric used that is measurable is Sales per Hours (SPH) even-though there are other performance criteria such as customer service and teamwork which are part of the employee evaluation process. Employees who do not achieve the minimal required SPH are categorized as under-performers. If SPH is consistently below the minimum standard set by the department manager, this can lead to termination or isolation as employees tonicity uncomfortable and inadequate.Upon being hired by Nordstrom employees are told that the three Nordstrom performance criteria customer service, productivity and teamwork (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, Randall S. , 2003) are needed to be promoted. However employees are not advised as to how the criteria pass on be evaluated. The only evaluation employees receive is from their manager, there is no secondary layer of management to review the employee performance evaluation to encounter fairness. Nordstrom does not confound a formal company-wide evaluation form, therefore there is no consistency in the evaluation process.The evaluation technique is different for distributively manager, making it effortful to compare employee performance across the different functional areas in the company. Employees performing tasks not directly related to merchandise sale, are not compensated for hours worked. empirical learning was used to encourage employees to work non-selling hours off the clock If one employee is donating a lot of time it forces others to do the same (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, Randall S. , 2003). Employees are agonistic to adhere to the informal organizational culture or they are not considered team players.Nordstrom should establish formal and consistent Standard Opera ting Procedures, to which their employees can stamping ground to for guidance. Managers should be required to attend training programs. This would enable managers to provide their employees with formal training base on the companys policies and procedures. Formal training on with on-the-job training would help to alleviate some of the obstacles faced by current or new employees who are promoted to new positions within the organization.Employees should be provided with hand throws and/or training materials that specifically outlines how performance criteria go out be measured and evaluated. Managers and employees need to establish goals and ways to achieving them. They should meet on an on-going basis to discuss employee progress for each performance criteria. Nordstrom has used their decentralized management approach to build a very flourishing and profitable retail empire. They encourage entrepreneurial opportunities among their employees.New employees are given business cards and encouraged to build relationships with their customers, by creating personal thank you letters, and keeping records of merchandise they sell. They are also encouraged to develop a solid customer base. Nordstrom allow employees to be involved in the decision making process, by not restricting them with lots of rules, for instance Nordstrom replaced its 20-page rule book with a one-page sheet and few words of wisdom Use your best judgment in all situations (Buller, Paul F. nd Schuler, Randall S. , 2003). This allows employees to do whatever it takes to ensure their customers are satisfied. Self-motivation courses are offered to both employees and managers with emphasis on setting daily accomplishments. Employees are allowed to set their own personal goals and the pace at which they achieve those goals.For voice one employee stated the first year I consciously set quarterly goals to achieve the Pacesetter requirementand closely monitored my progress (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, R andall S. 2003). Employees are given the flexibility to essentially manage themselves and track their own progress with one objective keep gross sales per hour high relative to hours worked. Employees are duly compensated for their hard work and dedication Nordstrom employees earn some of the highest salaries in the retail business (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, Randall S. , 2003). They also encourage hard work by promoting from within which motivates employees to work hard as a promotion could lead to a higher salary and other incentives.Nordstrom uses positive reinforcements by providing confused incentives to employees to encourage them to achieve high SPH, for example free dinners, cash rewards and lay in discounts. Employees who achieve the highest sales are recognized by having their picture displayed in the inject and also having their names broadcast over the stores loudspeaker system. Employees can track how they are performing in relation to their peers on a regular bas is, as SPH figures are displayed for all to see via charts and electronic printouts.The problem arose because Nordstrom did not have any formal company policies which are necessary in order to establish required behavior from individual employees. Employee expectations were not explicitly communicated and expectations were established by managers without employee involvement. Managers did not take the time to find out what employees moot of the proposed expectations (Harvard Business School Press, 2007). Their only focus was ensuring that Sales per Hour (SPH) remained high, employee development was not important to managers.Nordstroms hiring policy requires employees to be innate Nordies. Nordies are nice, motivated, gumptious.. self-empowered people who have an entrepreneurial spirit (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, Randall S. , 2003). Employees and managers never collaborate to set individual goals, instead goals were set by departmental managers or store managers, but employees a re still expected to achieve goals. Outstanding performance was expected from all employees even-though goals were not individually tailored.Employees who regularly had trouble meeting sales quotas or coping with pressure to improve performance were dismissed (Buller, Paul F. and Schuler, Randall S. , 2003). Steep negative consequences were suffered by employees that did not perform up to par with their peers. oscilloscope individual employee goals and ways to achieve them will yield the most desired result in the long term. By providing formal training to employees, and explicitly stating what is expected from the employee, will result in more productivity from employees in the long run and reduce the companys turn-over rate.This will also reduce the terms for hiring new employees, as replacing employees cost one and a half times the current employee salary to hire a new employee, therefore conservation Nordstrom money in the long term. On-going review of employee progress will help to level the playing field and relieve some of the pressures and intimidation some employees feel working at Nordstrom. Formal training of employees is both costly and time consuming. The time spent training employees lowers SPH as this time would be considered non-selling hours.Employees who are successful under the current system might resist changes. Employees might not have the educational capacity to learn new techniques. Employee training is the best option, and will yield the most desired long term results. Develop and roll out a company-wide Standard Operating Procedure handbook using input signal from outside sources in order to achieve desired results. Develop a company-wide evaluation form enabling standardization of the way employees are evaluated by managers. rank out on-the-job training for all employees, ensuring that all employees understand how to perform their job functions. Provide employees with written job descriptions. Establish consistent company-wide go als. Goals can then be tailored for each department. Collaborate with each employee to establish how the goals will be achieved and the milestone dates for achieving those goals. Establish a specific time frame for reviewing employee goals. sally employee feedback on an on-going basis.