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Are There Problems in The Recruitment Process
Are There Problems in The Recruitment Process
Club
Med, by understanding the case, is considered an high potentially turnover company, since it’s
natural characteristics on type of business, and also, type of framework, mainly focused on person
specifications, extremely dated on time. Having considered these aspects, it seems obvious to
the reader that Club Med is wrongly approaching the recruitment process, as a whole,
consequentially affecting the company’s business on GO’s work condition.
In order to clearly structure the recruitment problem, we’ve decided to split the global problem in
several urgent issues to solve, being them, the selecting process, the explaining work conditions
process, non-existence of training module, the overlapping of GO’s recruits, and the specific
framework used on recruiting. Selecting Process As understood, Jacky, in Club Med is receiving
around 10. 000 CV’s or resumes in response to the ads posted.
Very briefly, we have to consider that, due to some conflicts, represented by the quitters
or fired GO’s comments, Med Club isn’t always, recruiting the best oriented to that type
of work-style people. They advertise it as being an adventure, and not only a work.
Indeed, as we will understand by the following aspects, the selection problem is directly
related with the approach of the market, and by having the wrong type of exigency when
choosing the right GO’s. Explaining Work Conditions It is not a work, it is an adventure”.
This is the main idea passed to the global interested people in GO’s position at Club Med.
In fact, considering some of the comments made by chiefs and quitting GO’s, we can
assume that something is wrong explained, because many GO’s aren’t perceiving their
work, properly as an adventure, but more as a really tough work, which compensations,
for instance, the usage of sports equipment on free time, don’t help at all, since GO’s
consider their work as “work-sleep-work-sleep”.
Once again, this topic will be related with the framework topic, because what is missing
is a detailed explanation about how the work really is, allowing recruits to expect the 100%
idea of work, making them ready to the work circumstances. By recruiting with a defined
talent, we will be approach the competency framework model. Training Module The
training Module is clearly a main issue, and by recruiting GO’s without any previous
training, many conflicts during the work suddenly happen because GO’s have no idea at
all of their limitations, attitudes needed, work routines, in resume, information.
Information and training are crucial to keep GO’s aware of what’s asked from them, and
also to have more productivity on GO’s recruited, because obviously a training module
will incurre in some additional costs, however, overlapped costs by saving time, irritation
and capital, on avoiding recruiting more and more GO’s. Also, due to the lack of training,
chiefs usually fire GO’s immediately when they see some unusual behaviour, and the
main problem driving those fires is the lack of training.
Overlapping of Recruits. Recruiting 450 to 500 GO’s to cover 300 available spots is a
risky situation, anyhow, without major concerns to company. However, by reducing this
number a little bit near 300, would allow company to keep up a safety measure, but
reducing the waste, on time and on GO’s potentials career, because as understood by
one irritated comment from a GO not allocated, after some time, the GO’s are extremely
angry and don’t want to be located anymore. Would be helpful, to reduce those concerns.
Competency Model Framework We arrive at the top problem in recruiting.
The current model used by Club Med is driven by the specific job they are looking for, or
a person specification framework. However, that type of approach is leading Club Med to
huge turnovers, once they are recruiting based on time and specifications of work.
Assuming GO’s won’t do the same type of work forever, when they change, it will be
needed an adaptation time, which will create some inefficiency. And besides, being North
American business so important to international step of Club Med, and considering the
discrimination laws on North America, a model based on competency would fit much
better the needs of Club Med.
What are the pros and cons of high turnover? First of all, it is important to notice that Club
Med has a high turnover in the American Zone (nearly 50% of turnover rate) and a minor
rate in European Zone (25% of turnover rate). Jack Amazallag, director of Human
Resources for Club Med’s American Zone, describes the high turnover rate as a problem
that has to be straightened out immediately in order to provide a better service to the
clients and to the chiefs of the village.
The turnover occurred in four ways: 1) a GO quit before the end of the season (around
37% of the turnover cases); 2) a GO was fired before the end of the season (32% of the
turnover); 3) a GO quit at the end of the season (27% of the turnover); 4) a GO was given
a poor evaluation by the village chief and was not asked back for the next season (4% of
the turnover). Therefore, we may say that the turnover is a very serious problem on the
first two ways (which are those that have more weight too), since it is very difficult to find
good GOs during a season.
In the 3rd and in the 4th ways, the turnover is no longer such a big problem since at the
end of the season, there will be a new recruitment process, with more than 10. 000
candidates, and Club Med will already be prepared for the newcomers and for the quitters.
One of the big reasons for this high turnover rate in the American Zone is related to the
fact that the majority of the Chiefs of the Village are French / European, so they often
don’t understand how American GOs have to be managed, creating serious problems.
Additionally, these chiefs often have difficulties with the English language, and therefore,
they do not provide as much training and feedback as they should. Jack Amazallag, thinks
that if these chiefs were more involved in the recruitment process, maybe they would
understand how difficult it is to find good GOs and so they would try to make an effort to
work with the GOs instead of firing them right away (this will be referred later as a cons
of high turnover).
Most of the companies struggle to maintain low turnover of employees. Sometimes, there
are advantages associated to high turnover, depending on the industry and other factors.
To analyse this, we will now refer the pros of a high turnover. The first “pro” is the “new
blood” factor, since the new comers are looking to prove themselves and the older
employees want to show that they know best. New people can also encourage new ways
of thinking, instead of resorting to the same old strategies.
The second one, concerns to low wages (400 dollars per month by a GO in Club Med). If
the employees move quickly, the chances of staying long enough to expect an increment
in their wages will decrease. The third one is about the low employee expectations. If
there is a high turnover of employees, there will not be great expectations. This means
that employees can put the minimum amount of effort into ensuring that employees will
do a good job. The last “pro” concerns to the minimum impact of “difficult employees”.
Most companies have a few employees who are difficult to deal with for several reasons
(it can be because they are moody or they like to stir up trouble amongst other employees,
or because they are not good enough to do their job); with a high turnover, this kind of
employees are likely to move on quickly, minimizing their impact on the company.
Hereupon, we will now refer the cons of a high turnover. The first one, and probably the
most important one concerns with the high cost of training.
In order to reduce the turnover, Jack Amazallag has the idea, that in the future, will be
possible to recruit and train qualified GOs in a specialized school for a week or two, before
their first assignment, in order to reduce the turnover and solve the turnover problem.
However, if the turnover does not decrease, that will become a problem since each
replacement will need to be re-trained, and therefore, the costs of training will increase
again. The second cons, is about the “brain drain”. Following training, employees gain a
greater knowledge that they can take to another company if they leave the company who
trained them.
However, in the case of Club Med this is not a problem yet, since they don’t have already
training sessions to the GOs before their first assignment. However, if Jack’s idea of
making a training school is implemented, this will be a serious cons for a high turnover.
Other cons of a high turnover is the lack of loyalty by the employees. Just as employers
have little loyalty to their employees, like it has been seen before in the relationships
between the French/ European village chiefs and the American GOs, employees will have
little incentive to return any loyalty. The fourth cons, concerns to the low staffing levels.
If staff turnover is high, then there are bound to be times when staffing levels are low,
especially if new employees are not available to start straight away (this cons is well
demonstrated on page 8, since Debbie, the potential new replacer for tennis instructor,
want two weeks before start working in Martinique). Other cons that we can refer, is about
the poor team spirit. Most people like to know the people they work with so they can feel
very uncomfortable if those people keep changing. This, in turn, can affect the morale
and the ability of the team working together.
The sixth cons, is about the customer dissatisfaction, since employees build a relationship
with the customers. With a high turnover, customers are less likely to be loyal. However,
this is certainly the less important factor to Club Med case, since it’s almost impossible to
build a long relationship between the customer and the GOs, due to the high rotativity of
the GOs and the low probability of the customers repeating the location. Another cons,
refers to the negative message that a high turnover conveys to the public about the state
of the company.
They will wonder what is wrong with the company to cause employees to move on so
quickly. However, this is not also an important cons for Club Med, since the customers
don’t meet GOs probably more than one time, because of the factors referred previously,
in the previous cons. The last cons, but not the least, is actually one of the most important
cons for Club Med to a high turnover rate, and especially when a GO quits during a
season (which represents 37% of the turnover) or when is fired during a season (36% of
the turnover).
If one of these situations happens, it becomes very difficult to replace him and to find a
new one rapidly and with good capabilities, in order to fulfil the vacancy, like was referred
previously, in the first part of the question (this is demonstrated on page 1 of the case
study, when Jack is on the telephone very concerned with the fact of a windsurf instructor
has quitted the Club). 3) Is Go turnover really a problem at Club Med?
What are the pros and cons of high turnover? According to what is mention in the case
study, Club Med rotates all their employees every six months since that one of their
human resources policies consists in rotating all their GOs to different villages after they
complete six months working in a company’s village. Club Med assumes this policy as a
human resources strategy that has major benefits for the company but also for their
employees.
First because they assume that after six months it is time to break the routines and habits.
Second because they also assume this strategy as motivational factor for the GOs once
it will give them the possibility to travel, meet new countries, sites, cultures. Third and last
because they also assume that travelling and the acquisition of new cultures knowledge
is fundamental to GOs since it will enable them to adapt to new types of people.
Having a rotation program within the company’s policies, is in our view a positive strategy.
This program grants the company that employees are travelling and breaking routines,
acquiring cultural know-how, improving and developing new skills and gaining new and
productive experiences when moving to new villages. GOs will need to adapt themselves
to the new customs, beliefs and religions and therefore improving their own cultural
background. This program will also have another positive advantage.
While transferring GOs to new locations, the company is also ensuring that they will work
with new Village Chiefs and teams which means they will need to adapt themselves also
to new working and team methods meaning that besides the cultural improvement
rotation also guarantees the improvement of their operational skills. So and in our opinion
the policy of rotating all the employees makes sense, especially for a hotel chain that has
as core concept, the objective of offering dynamic stays, full of experiences and activities.
Henri Giscard d’Estaing, CEO and Chairman of Club Med stated the following sentence
in the company’s human resources folder in their website about the values that Club
Med’s employees must have: “Multicultural spirit, pioneer spirit, kindness, freedom and
responsibility”. This statement demonstrates the company’s spirit and aim in having
dynamic employees with multicultural backgrounds and willing to work on a company that
offers them life experiences but also serve as plea for their rotation policy.
Basically we consider that this policy aims to construct a company culture within the
employees which in our view is always beneficial for any type of company in any kind of
industry but especially for a hotel chain since that hospitality is a service done by people
for people since. This because in this kind of industries intangible aspects like the
company’s culture may not only serve as human resources motivational strategy but
mainly as a culture of success for company giving in our view assertiveness to this policy.
In what concerns our recommendations we fundamentally think that even being a good
policy there are some functional and organizational problems. In the first hand, because
Club Med was at the time too big to have a so complex and difficult to manage policy.
Second because rotation has the benefit of breaking with employees routines and making
them acquire new competences and cultural knowledge but at the same time if this
rotation is to frequently it will also destroy the organizational teams formed during the six
months in each village and even worst it will destroy all the organizational memory
constructed during that time.
Third we also think that the employees could have more power over their placement. The
recommendation that we suggest to solve the first problem mentioned is to have change
the deadlines. So instead of having a of six months rotation program to have a twelve
months rotation program in which half of the GOs in half of the villages would change at
the final of the summer and the other half in the final of the winter. This would allow the
human resources management to have more time to prepare the rotation and less logistic
work to manage every six months. The recommendation for the second problem is to start
rotating full teams.
If the team works well we think that it would be beneficial for the employees and for the
company if they continue working together. In final analysis Club Med could create a
policy in which they would start to rotate entire teams but with a maximal term of three
years in order to continue breaking with the routines. In our view this is fundamental to
guarantee that the organizational memory creating during the six months of work is not
lost. This organizational memory is in nowadays fundamental to ensure innovation that
today is also seen as core management tool.
The last recommendation aims to ensure to the employees more control in their
placement. We think that employees as human beings like to have control about their
lives and for that reason it would be good and also a motivational tool if they could have
some kind of power over their future placements. This could be implemented through
individual surveys where they would say if they have or not any placement preference.
Example of this is what the Accor Group, that currently owns Club Med and that is also a
hotel chain since they allow their employees to suggest hotels or locations where they
would like to work.
Problem solution:
The main problem of the high turnover rate in a multi-site, international subsidiary of a
large company resort. It also describes the problems of quality of service, because the amount
of value added by employee interaction with customers is high. Analysis of selection and
recruitment as a process flow needed to analyze the situation. There is also a cross-cultural issue
because of a structural imbalance in the ratio of non-US (primarily French) managers to American
managers.
Club Med B Problem Statement
The problem statement refer to the concise description of the issues that needs to be addressed. It identifies the
issues or gap between the current and desired type of the organization, and thus requires to be stated in order
for the management to look for change. The main idea of the problem statement is to answer the 5 w’s that
include the answering who, what, where and why, to allow the organization resolve the problem, by stating it
in clearly in 2 to 3 lines.
In recent period, the problems statement are widely used by the firms to allow the management execute the
improvement process or identify the loopholes that are effecting the overall performance or profitability of the
company. Moreover, the problem statement allow the management to trim down the symptoms of the problem
an organization is facing and look on to the real problem that is causing the damage to any specific aspect of
the company.
Basically, developing a problem statement is an extensive process and requires the proper brain storming of the
teams in order to identify the underlying loopholes or inefficiencies within the organization. Also, it offers the
specific insights to the management in understanding and looking at the factors that have been hidden from the
management sight, effecting the performance slowly and gradually.
Apart from this, while developing the problem statement, it is important for the Problem statement to be
clear and concise. Such is due to the fact, that it allows the management, stakeholder to quickly understand the
finding and also look on the main problem, rather getting entangled in the symptoms of the problem. The
conciseness of the problem statement is the key, as it allows the reader to quickly understand the issue.
Moreover, clarity of the Club Med B problem statement is important to maintain, in order to avoid the
misunderstanding between the shareholders and stakeholders. The clear problem statement is developed by
stating the factors and the operations getting effected and its overall impact on the organization specific the
areas, such as Profitability, sales or brand equity. Also, the purpose of the problem statement is to describe the
external environment and its effect on the overall organization in short and long-term. Moreover it also
delineates the impact of such changing factors on the users, and other stakeholders.
Many times, under the case analysis, the purpose of the problem statement is to improvise the current state of
the organization through pursuing innovation or other changes. hence ins uh cases, the direct problem is no the
ultimate organization factors but the process implementation that is needed to e in lace, in order to bring
change , avoiding the upcoming risk and hence sustaining the competitive edge in the market (Spradlin, 2012).
Furthermore, the establishment of the problem statement, allows the organization and the management teams
to work in a specified direction. Such is important in order to allow the organization move in a specified
direction, reducing the chances of deviating From the actual path. Also, it offers the benchmark to match the
desired condition of the organization, hence putting the efforts of the team in the right direction.
Yet, it is important to note that, the good problem statement does not delineates the solution or the symptoms
of the problem, but it clearly states the gap that lies within the organization. Moreover, it is also determined,
that a clear problem statement is half of the solution, hence it is important To state the problem correctly.
In addition, the problem statement is a group process, and hence requires a detail understanding of the issues
the organization may be facing, by all members in the team. This will allow the team to develop a better
solution plan addressing all the factors and considering all the risk associated with it.
Perhaps, stating the Club Med B problem statement is not just writing the fact, it’s more about the factors that
are effecting or may affect the organization in long term, therefore, while developing the problem statement,
the factors such as human resource skills innovation, technology, change resistance are considered, that have a
direct effect on the organization or is hidden cause of the problem. It is important to note, that the problem
statement can cover tangible or intangible issue but it needs to have a clear relationship with the organization
end goal.
In addition, while stating the problem statement, the aim of the management is to see the mission and vision of
the company and then analyze the current state of the organization, such also allow the right identification of
the problem and the lead to the development of concrete problem statement.
All in all, the problem statement gives a direction to the organization in understanding the right solution path
and also development of the solution sets in order to overcome the current issues that are deteriorating the
organizational performance or productivity. Perhaps, while writ the problem statement, it is important to
consider the small factors that are often overlooked such as the intangible factors that effects the productivity
of the organization in the long-term.
PESTLE Analysis
For the purpose of maximizing the benefits of such analysis, it is important that it should be used on regular
basis so that an organization would be able to identify the trends. The effect of the particular external factors or
forces might have extreme consequences for the specific department or divisions, also the analysis better helps
companies in clarifying the needed or required changes, thus identifying the potential options (Norton, 2008).
The factors or forces are discussed below;
Political forces:
These are the Club Med B forces that tends to be altered by the influence of government on the infrastructure
of country. The political factors may involves environment regulations, employment laws, tariffs, tax policy,
trade restrictions, political stability and reforms. It is noteworthy, that the charities needs to be included where
a government are not willing services and goods to be provided.
Economic factors:
The Club Med B economic factors or forces involves interest rates, inflation, and growth of economy, cost of
living, working hours, wage rate and exchange rates. Combining these factors, it last greater and inevitable
impact on organization.
Social factors:
The culture or social influence on certain businesses vary from country to country. It is significant to consider
these factors. The social factors includes safety and health consciousness, various demographics, population
growth rates and cultural aspects.
Technological factors:
Notably, Club Med B technology is one of the most important way of being competitive in the highly
competitive market arena. Not only this, it drives globalization, the factors includes environmental and
ecological aspects, and available services as well as products. An organization should innovate and be
compatible with the technologies.
Legal factors:
The Club Med B legal factors involves the certain laws and regulations which might effect on the business
operations of an organization. It also includes impending and current legislation that tends to impact on the
industry in areas including competition, employment, safety and health. An organization should consider the
influence of the national and international laws where the organization would originate the business operations.
Environmental factors:
The environmental factors include all those factor lasting impact or influence, the surrounding environment
most likely determine environmental factors. The factors involves awareness of the seasonal or climate change
or terrain variation. The analysis of the environment including internal and external elements is vital for
organization since it impacts on the performance of an organization.
Limitations of Club Med B PESTLE:
The limitations are discussed below;
1. The external factors are dynamic and can be change at a rapid pace. Overtime, the changes might be occur in
less than one day, therefore the companies should make it tricky in order to predict how and why these forces
might influence the future or present of the certain project.
2. There are many occasions, in which the environmental changes have an adverse influence on the project that
might not be noted in the initial stages of project, indicating that the uncertainty sis still there even after the
pestle analysis have carried out. This in turn might defeating the prime reason of the pestle analysis.
3. The usual or common procedure for pestle analysis is presenting a simple list of the environmental factors
affecting the project. Until& unless, the organization critically examine the attributing factors, the analysis’s
findings does not seem to be of greater value or consideration.
4. The analysis is supposed to be insufficient for the strategic planning objective, since it likely scans the externa
environmental, whereas avoiding the competitive scenarios and internal environment. Nonetheless, the
analysis needs to be conjunction with other frameworks such as S-W-O-T analysis in order to get a more
realistic picture.
Club Med B Conclusion
To conclude, PESTLE analysis is considered as an effective tool of planning and it offers viable and effective
technique foranalyzing and scanning the operating environment of an organization. The effectiveness of the
analysis highly depends on the accuracy of the collected data, updates to accommodation changes in timely
manner and other tools trimming down the PESTLE limitation to some extent.
Alternatives
The particular section deals with the different ways the problem can be resolved. In particular section, the
management/teams develops different options through which the problem can be resolved. Many times these
options are already in hand with the management or re-developed from the scratch through strong brain
storming.
In typical situation, there are three options that are developed in by the organization to deal with the given
problem. The options developed entails and includes the maximum factor that the organization should analyze
or achieve, thus offering great value.
While developing The Alternative, the following factor are taken in account, in order to develop the best
alternative that may resolve the problem effectively.
These factor includes the consideration of the following:
Cost
Reliability
Invulnerability
Merit
Simplicity
Compatibility
Reversibility
Robustness
Stability
Riskiness
Club Med B Cost:
The cost includes if the option proposed is cost effective or can be afforded easily by the company without
effecting the overall profitability and other operations of the company. The consideration of cost is important
in the alternative generation in order to attain the maximum feasibility with overall business strategy and the
budget allocated.
Reliability
The reliability factor includes if the option developed is successful or has the successful track record in the past
or with the pats companies. Such is important to analyze or else it would lead to failure.
Invulnerability
The Invulnerability of the option is also analyzed, in order to understand the sustainability of the option if the
one part factor is missing so to understand the suitability of the option.
Merit
The merit factor, outlines if the option really resolving the issue or aligned with the given situation.
Simplicity
The simplicity factor analyses if the option proposed is easy to implement. Because adopting or proposing an
alternative that is difficult to implement or takes a lot of resources with no definite outcomes is vain.
Compatibility
In addition, the compatibility of the option is also analyzed, in order to understand if the given option is
aligned and compatible with the procedures of the organization. Such factor analysis is important in order to
avoid any resistance implementation and also save the resources and efforts.
Reversibility
Among the above factors, the reversibility factor carries high importance. It is due to the fact that the
organization needs to analyze exact factor in terms of its reversibility to see, if the process can be reversed, if
the option fails to offer the respective results.
Stability
The ability of the option is considered while the alternative generation process, so gauge if the option will
remains table, if the given situation and markets changes. And will it make the organization sustained in the
changing market situation.
Robustness
The robustness of the option also needs to be analyzed. It is due to the fact that such analysis allow the
organization to see, if the option will remain strong in future or not.
Apart from this while developing the option, it is important to consider the realistic nature of the option. The
option has to be realistic and should have imperative results on the organization. The realistic and SMART
nature of the option is important to be considered and developed, so it offer maximum value and also resolves
the problem effectively.
Lastly, while developing the options/alternatives, it is important to consider the nonrealistic factors that may
make the alternatives complicated, leading to poor implementation, time consumption and other related issues.
Hence, it is suggested, that while developing the alternatives, it is important to consider the realistic and smart
nature of options along with the avoidance of developing such issues that are not offering the right solution or
the suggesting such options that are of no use to the organization.