Problem Solution: Riordan Manufacturing

Problem Solution: Riordan Manufacturing

Riordan Manufacturing is a global plastics producer who has seen a decline in sales and overall revenue in the last two years. This decrease in profitability has caused leadership to reassess their current business model against the industry and make changes as necessary. Changes include a revised manufacturing and marketing process and the implementation of a customer-relationship system which provides customers with a sales team that can focus on a particular customer segment. Unfortunately, these changes have negatively affected some employees jobs and pay. Additionally, Riordan's less than competitive compensation and benefits package along with a lackluster performance recognition program has left leadership with a declining employee morale and work ethic. Riordan leadership must deal with the issues at hand, recognize the opportunities available, and transform their organization into a profitable, highly desirable place to work.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Riordan has several issues and challenges that can and must be met to ensure long-term profitability. One of the most obvious issues plaguing Riordan is lack of employee motivation. Some recent changes to the manufacturing and marketing processes has caused the employee's to lose their desire to seek out innovation and work together as a team to bring quality products to new and existing customers. This is a major concern for Riordan leadership especially since they are in process of rolling out the customer-relationship management (CRM) system. Additionally, motivation plays a key role in some the manufacturing plants as leadership implements a new employees structure that consists of self-directed work teams. Leadership has an opportunity to improve overall sales by implementing a motivation technique that fuels the employee's desire to operate at highly productive levels. These techniques include utilizing the concepts of systems selecting, profile matching, organizational fit, and employee retention. This is a direct segue into the next issue, job satisfaction. Riordan is having issues with motivation because some employees are simply not happy with their job or tasking. This is in part due to the areas of compensation and benefits which are lacking compared to industry standards. Riordan leadership can seize this opportunity and make necessary changes to their pay and compensation system to reward employees who are exceptionally productive. This leads to the next issue, Riordan's reward system. The current reward system is inadequate and is not based upon performance. This in turn offers employees little motivation to exceed their minimum performance requirements. There are several types of reward/performance based systems that can be implemented based upon the requirements set forth by leadership. Riordan must take this opportunity to boost organizational performance by implementing an effective rewards program. A good performance enhancement and reward strategies system can directly drive organizational success while contributing to business growth, revenue and profitability improvement, and shareholder value (Leadership Strategies, 2008). Lastly, Riordan is faced with possible retention issues. In addition to compensation complaints, some employees feel that they are not being properly recognized for their