Case Study - Governor Shaw and Senator McAreavy

Introduction

Shirley Fleanor has to prepare a briefing for Governor Shaw to present in a press conference. This briefing is in response to speech given by State Senator Roger McAreavy. McAreavy made a speech about the inefficient and ineffective government. He stated that the Shaw administration was incompetent and wasting tax payers' money. According The Good Government League's report this was due to the high employment turnover rate. This is also an election year, where Governor Shaw and Senator McAreavy are running for office reelection.

Diagnosis

The number one problem for the government is their high turnover rate. This is caused by many different factors. The most important, underlying reasons the government is losing employees are the following:

* Low pay

* Higher paying jobs elsewhere

* unhappy employees

* poor communication

* lack of knowledge

* hiring the wrong people

Government employees do have lower pay than the other private industries in Capital City. This is because the "economy in government" did not allow for sufficient scale in raises. Because the government has lower paying jobs, the people who get hired are not exceptional employees. They are usually the people who have bad work records and are not well-trained. Once they come and get trained, they leave for the higher paying jobs. In the past couple of years, Capital City has seen an increase in new industry and expansion of the older industry.

Another reason for high turnover rates is the poor communication between supervisors and managers, managers and employees, and the public and government. Fleenor has run articles about this high turnover rate, but no one reads the magazine. Supervisors are encouraged to discuss this with management to tell them to discuss it with the employees but it never gets that far. Also, the public is informed of this high turnover, but they are not informed what is causing it or about the benefits these employees are offered. This makes the public the government's worst enemy in spreading rumors and making people not want to work for them. The employees are offered a very substantial benefit plan which is not offered at other jobs, but the employees are not knowledgeable of this because no one talks to them about it. This lack of knowledge makes them leave for higher pay, but fewer benefits.

Since the employees are not informed of their benefit package and think they are being underpaid, it is making them unhappy. This, in turn, makes them not want to do the job well and eventually quit. Unhappy employees call in sick more, don't show up for countless reasons, do less work, and are less efficient. This is wasting tax payers' money because the government is paying employees who are not contributing like they should.

Once these unhappy employees quit or get fired the government has to hire someone new to take their place. This costs even more money for recruiting, selection, and training. Even with this selection process the government is hiring the wrong people. They are not hiring people who want to stay for the long-term or the people who want the benefits over the higher pay. They are not hiring people who are properly trained, which take the employees even longer to become an asset to the government.

Possible