Blinds to Go Company Essay Example for Free

Blinds to Go Company Essay Executive Summary: The case, based on the company Blinds to Go, emphasizes the importance of staffing in stores as they expand to meet their growth objectives. Being a manufacturer and retailer, with a unique sales model 100% commission based and focus on customer service gave the company an advantage over its competitors. According to the senior management Quality of staff was paramount and hence their original compensation system motivated best performance and fostered a high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. To attract more recruits for its expansion phase, the management changed the compensation system from full commission to salary on the recommendation of a newly hired vice president. Sales declined and the overall staff turnover increased. Seeing this the company brought back the old culture and experienced a sales turnaround. This shift also caused another huge turnover in stores. A large percentage of voluntary turnover occurred in the first four months. The higher turnover after eight months was partly due to termination because of sales performance. The biggest challenge the company now faced was understaffing. The need for additional staff was further aggravated due to its continued push for growth and the tight US and Canadian labour markets. Another concern to be addressed was that the company had planned for 80 per cent of its expansion in US where the employees preferred the fixed pay than the company’s commission based pay structure. During this period BTG had tried several recruiting methods with varying degrees of success. With an IPO in the pipeline and plans to add on average 50 stores per year for the next five years, it was critical for the company to come up with a staffing strategy with focus on Quality of the staff and low employee turnover. The Company: Blinds To Go (BTG) was a retail fabricator of window dressings. It was started by David Shiller in 1954 in the Cote-des-Neiges district in Montreal, Canada. From the mid 1970s, BTG focussed on the sale of blinds. It was able to create a production system that reduced the delivery time frame of custom blinds from six to eight weeks to 48 hours. The reduced delivery time led to overwhelming customer response and the business flourished. The firm, realising their unique advantage of being a manufacturer and retailer simultaneously, began expansion by opening stores throughout Canada and US. By June 2000, BTG operated 120 corporate owned stores in North America. BTG expected to add 50 stores per year for the next 5 years, 80 percent of which targeted to US expansion stores. BTG’s business philosophy was that quality of staff was cardinal than the store location, customer demographics or advertising. The firm established this by experimenting with a store that was locationally disadvantaged and had declining sales. BTG was able to triple the sales of the said store in one month by deploying their ‘A’ management team and trained staff there. The four staff roles in BTG stores were 1. Sales associate 2. Selling Supervisor 3. Assistant Store manager 4. Store Manager. Sales associates were the junior most employees and their job was to follow a set plan to help walk in customers to make a purchase. Consistent sales performers among them were promoted to selling supervisors, who were assistant store managers in training, or assistant store managers. Assistant store Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 managers were in charge of the stores in the absence of store managers. The store manager was responsible for overall store operations. The BTG selling process involved a high level of customer interaction, which set a very high level of service expectation. Their emphasis on customer satisfaction and sale closure led to higher volume of orders relative to their retail competition Original Compensation of Retail Staff: The compensation structure at Blinds To Go incentives performance based on number of sales deal closed. The commission based structure fosters the high energy, sales hungry culture at BTG. This structure was believed to be a motivating factor to boost performance. High performers at BTG actually made more money than comparable retail outlet salesman. For Sales Associate the salary structure was a mix of fixed pay and variable pay with $3 $5 comprising of fixed and 3% of sales as variable component. For Managers/Assistants the salary structure was $10,000 $15,000/yr as fixed pay with 1.5% to 3% of overall sales as variable pay. Changes in Compensation Structure – 1996: As per the recommendations from a newly hired Vice President of store operations the compensation structure for the store staff was changed from being fully commission based to salaried. Under the new structure, the sales associated were paid Cdn $8 per hour as a fixed component. For the store managers a higher base salary component as compared to the commissions was set. The main focus of the move was to make the compensation more attractive to the prospective hires. Another change being brought was to limit the involvement of store managers in the sale process. All these changes had an adverse effect on the sales figures which showed a decrease of 10 to 30% from 1996 to 1997. The staff turnover increased to 40% from the earlier 15%. Even thought the new pay structure helped in recruiting more hires, it led to the hiring of lower calibre people. The existing good performers did not appreciate the changes, thus affecting their morale and hence their commitment to sales. To counter this adverse effect, the management introduced a variation of the commission based compensation plan in May 1998. The effect of the change could be seen in the 10 to 30% increase in store sales from the previous year. Still the BTG stores experienced a high employee turnover that year. It was probably because of the employees accustomed to fixed pay were leaving the organisation, being dissatisfied from the commission based structure. Analysis of the employee turnover reflected that the highest no of employees left the firm in the first 4 months from their hiring. Most of the new expansion plans were in US. But the people of US were uncomfortable with the 100% commission based pay structure. Thus there was a requirement in the change to the structure to adapt to the US market. Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion Case Analysis SECTION E: Group #5 Channels of Recruitment To be able to attract and recruit people who had certain sales driven qualities, several channels of recruitment were harnessed to fill in the job positions. Since BTG was already understaffed and with massive growth plans (50 stores per year ) lined up, we need to analyse the various pros and cons of the channels of recruitment. Employee Referral: Current staffs refer friends and family to BTG which helped company attract candidates already briefed on the company’s ideology. This channel was very effective which is evident by its highest ratio of leads to hire. The success of the ER scheme was partially due to the fact that referrals generally continued employment excited by the opportunity that the friend or family member who is a BTG employee recounted. Though maximum hiring was effected through this channel yet this alone did not currently satisfy BTG’s hiring needs. Internet Sourcing: This is one of the non-store recruitment channels which BTG used in two ways. First, BTG solicited resumes at its blindstogo.com site. Second, DSM’s and recruiters actively searched online jobs sites like Monster.com to contact potential candidates. Currently 12 out of 143 recruits were through this channel. DSM Compensation Readjustment: DSM’s were mainly responsible for store source of recruitment mainly walk-ins and employee referrals. They had to hire 10 new sales associate every month. Their importance in recruitment process is highlighted by the fact that their salary was based on number of new staff selected rather than on sales targets. Currently 16 out of 143 sales associate were recruited through this channel in past two months. BTG Retail Recruiters: They were professional recruiters who were paid @20000/year with a bonus of $150 -$500 for each successful hire. They generate leads through cold calls, networking referrals, colleges, job fairs, Internet and employment centres. Though they had performed sub- optimally in terms of number of number of new recruits, their training had increased to enable to get in at least 4 new recruits per week. Newspaper Advertising: Newspaper channel generated the maximum number of leads but the senior management believed that this medium did not generate the quality of candidates that BTG needed. This channel attracted more of the people who did not meet the desired skills standard and core values expected by BTG in potential candidates. To be able to meet our desired staff requirements, we believe this channel needs to be harnessed to its full potential and complemented by necessary training to new recruits to enable them to meet company’s performance standards. Store Generated Leads: BTG believed in direct store walk-in mode of recruitment as well. It had put â€Å"help wanted† signs on its windows to attract potential candidates to meet its recruitment needs. But this policy was successful only in densely populated areas with high footfall. HR Strategy: Udofia, Vice Chairman BTG, is looking for a strategy that solves all the major issues currently faced by the company, which would include unstaffed stores, staffing for future expansion and high employee turnover. Following are the steps that could be taken by him to achieve its growth objectives: ï‚ · A Robust Training Module: As mentioned, the quality of staff is extremely important in the retailing business. The crunch in the labor market doesn’t give the company a flexibility to choose Blinds to Go: Staffing a Retail Expansion employees on a strict criterion. A training module would help BTG to relax the criterion and increase the number of selected employees by recruiting people who are trainable. In order to keep a check on the quality of the employees, the company can recruit the employees at a trainee level with a fixed pay. The training would be mostly on the Job led by experienced Store Managers. A review system would help these selected candidates to get promoted as Sales Associate. The initial pay as a trainee would be low. But the incentive to get promoted as Sales Associate would drive them to work and learn quickly. Currently we can see that there are large numbers of people who are attracted by the Newspaper Channel and Internet. But the problem is with this medium is that it didn’t generate quality employee. By a robust training module the company would be able to hire trainable people and give them opportunities on the basis of their performance. The Promotion Structure: A scheduled review and internal promotion structure could be followed which attracts the current employees and increases the retention rate. The review can be conducted on at 2 levels, Sales Performance and Soft skills. A feedback mechanism would help the employees to work on the areas they lag. The review can be scheduled every 8 months and every employee can be given an opportunity to get promoted. The internal promotion structure could be leveraged as a tool to advertise. This would attract people who currently don’t want to join at Sales Associate Level. The promotion structure would also help in filling up the vacancies of Supervisors and Managers. Pay Structure: The pay structure for Sales Associate could be revised in a manner as explained below: According to the current pay structure, a Sales Associate is paid $6-$8 per hour or 6% of sales, whichever higher. Clearly it can be seen that the Marginal and the Poor performers are the once who are enjoying the fixed compensation system. In order to motivate them, fixed + variable compensation could be followed for these below par performers. This structure would demotivate the top performers as there will be a reduction in their salaries. So it would not be the best idea to implement this structure for top performers. A benchmark of $10000/sale/week could be set. This would not only motivate them to perform but the company also would overcome the problem of social loafing. The structure is explained below: Marginal-Poor Performers ($10000-/sales/ week) $3 per hour + 3 % of sales Leadership Program: The highly experiences set of Store Managers could be given an option to join the leadership program. Under this program the Senior Employees would take up the responsibility of the training module and help the company attain the level of quality it requires in its workforce. Their compensation could be based on the rate of conversion of trainees to Sales Associate instead of Sales. Increased Stock Options to senior and experienced Store Managers would give them a feel of ownership in the firm which is what an employee needs after serving an organisation for years.

Hipaa Privacy Rule :: Healthcare Medical Information Privacy

1. Introduction Today, you have more reason than ever to care about the privacy of your medical information. This information was once stored in locked file cabinets and on dusty shelves in the medical records department. Your doctor(s) used to be the sole keeper of your physical and mental health information. With today's usage of electronic medical records software, information discussed in confidence with your doctor(s) will be recorded into electronic data files. The obvious concern - the potential for your records to be seen by hundreds of strangers who work in health care, the insurance industry, and a host of businesses associated with medical organizations. Fortunately, this catastrohic scenario will likely be avoided. Congress addressed growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data, and in 1996 passed â€Å"The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act† (HIPAA). HIPAA sets the national standard for electronic transfers of health data. Before HIPAA, each state set their own standards. Now states must abide by the minimum standards set by HIPAA. States can enact laws to incorporate and/or strengthen the basic rights given by HIPAA. How HIPAA's Privacy Rule Protects YOU; The Patient Access to your own medical records Prior to HIPAA, access to YOUR medical records were not guaranteed by federal law. Only about half the states had laws giving patients the right to see and copy their own medical records. You may be charged for copies but HIPAA sets fee limits. You Must Be Given Notice Of Privacy Practices How your medical information is used and disclosed must now be given to you. The notice must also tell you how to exercise your rights and how to file a complaint with your health care provider and with the DHHS Office of Civil Rights. HIPAA Requires Accounting of Disclosure Details You have the right to know who has accessed your health records for the prior six years, However there are several exceptions to the accounting requirement. Accounting is not required when records are disclosed to persons who see your records for treatment, payment, and health care operations. These individuals do not need to be listed in the disclosure log. Filing A Complaint If you believe a health care provider or health plan has violated your privacy you have the right to file a complaint with your health care provider and with DHHS. Special Requests For Confidential Communications. You can make special requests specifying how you would like your doctor's office handle confidential communication.

Rationale †how women are treated in soap operas Essay

I am going to be investigating into how women are treated in soap operas. The reason I have chosen to carry out this study is due to the fact that I think that women are given very stereotypical roles within soap operas and it is very hard for them to break out of those boundaries and those specific labels they have been given. The method I will take to reach my objective is to use the content analysis approach. This is a method I will adopt using Meehan’s research. My aim is to compare how much or how less has changed within that period of time. I hypothesise that in comparison to Meehan’s analysis of soap operas women are still labelled in the same categories. From this method I should be able to reach to a conclusion as to whether my hypothesis is correct. The method of research I am going to use is content analysis of magazines, TV and newspaper. Content analysis involves the very careful quantification of the content of the media messages. It is able to give a general impression about media content, which can be the basis of theoretical work or policy and programme development. Therefore the way I will carry out my research is by using Meehan’s study that was carried out in 1960s and 1970s on soap operas and how he categorised the women within the soaps into specific groups. I will carry out my research using a lot of primary resources. To investigate this concept I am going to look at the model, which is similar to the hypodermic syringe model. I am also going to use the feminist approach to try to explain some of the reasons as to why there are so many stereotypical views within soap operas towards women. I am going to be looking at Ferguson’s feminist cult theory. This highlights how there are many stereotypical views within the soap operas. Context She is seen in Meehan’s content analysis study of the presentation of women in soap operas shows that in American drama serials there are only 10 female character types that are presented, they are; The Imp, a rebellious tomboy character. She is adventurous, not really sexual, often finds herself in trouble, she is the opposite of what society expects a women to be and the trouble she gets into is often a result of this. The Goodwife, she is domestic, attractive, home-centred and content. She does not wish to become involved with the world outside the home, leaving this to her lovely husband. The Harpy, is an aggressive single woman. She is powerful, even overpowering and not afraid to take on or chase after men. The Bitch, is a sneak and a cheat. She is manipulative, dangerous and deceitful. She lacks the power to be a real villain (invariably male) but she causes real trouble for the forces of good. The Victim, is the passive female who suffers accident, disease or violence, depending in the type of show or it could be to domestic violence. The Decoy, she is a heroine disguised as a victim. Apparently helpless and dependent, she’s actually strong and resourceful. She is quite likely to be mistreated, hurt or captured, but she is capable of overcoming her difficulties. The Siren, is a woman who uses her sexuality to lure her victim to a sticky end. The Courtesan, is close to being a prostitute and perhaps has been one. The Witch, has extraordinary power despite this she is invariably dominated by a man and is persuaded often reluctantly to suppress her powers or use it for his aims. The Matriarch, prestige and authority. a positive light despite the fact that she is too old to be sexually attractive. Her status is almost of that of a hero. This study shows that women are portrayed as neater good or evil, never a combination. It also shows that â€Å"good† women are portrayed as submissive, sensitive and domesticated. â€Å"Bad† women are portrayed as rebellious, independent and selfish. Male evil characters are always counterbalanced by good ones, this is not so with female evil characters. The number of occupations which women are portrayed as holding is limited to a few, primarily housewife, receptionist and whore, male roles are also few in number compared to reality, but are more exciting, such as doctor, spies, detective and astronaut. While studies such as Meehan’s, could be criticised for being dated and referring to the series of the 1960’s and 70’s. The content recycling of such series on satellite and cable channels means that they are still relevant. Moreover, many of the point she makes are relevant even in more recent television. The number of women portrayed in the media depends very much on the medium concerned and the genre type. Soap operas have relatively high proportion of women, though they are still outnumbered by as much of 7 men to 3 women in some types of soap opera. In advertisements, there are three all male ads to every one all female ads. A study conducted by Beuf (1974) was based on 63 interviews with boys and girls between the ages of three and six. Some girls had abandoned their ambitions even by this early age. Several girls mentioned that their ambitions could not be realised because of their sex. The implication is that because of the small number of high-status female models in the media available for girls to model themselves on, the ambitions of real women are limited. The power of the media in this respect is thought to be very strong. This is not surprising as the Average American girl will have spent more time in front of the TV by the time she is 15 than she will have spent in the classroom. Beuf also argues that women suffer anxiety and stress due to this and because advertising and soap operas create concerns in women particularly about; their body image, the constant need to spend money on products to make them more attractive and desirable for males and also the competition with other women to fight and keep their man. Liberal feminists argue that individuals are trained by the mass media and other social institutions into patterns of behaviour which are performed unconsciously. Sex-roles in particular, have been built up over a long period of time and have become embedded in our culture. Radical feminists identify men as the enemy. They believe that men consciously and unconsciously manipulate social institutions for their own benefit and to the detriment of women. Men hold the dominant positions throughout the media and are able to use them to reflect the images of women which they desire. According to socialist feminists the role of the media is to sustain and perpetuate the capitalist system and the supporting role of women in it. Davies says that those who control the media are almost all rich men, there is every incentive for them to present the capitalist, patriarchal scheme of things as the most attractive system available and to convince the less privileged that the oppression and limitations of their lives are inevitable. According to Skirrow, for example video games are particularly unattractive to women, as they are part of a technology which is identified as male power, and they are about mastering a specifically male anxiety in a specific male way.

How Logical Fallacy Invalidates Any Argument

Fallacies are defects that cause an argument to be invalid, unsound, or weak. Logical fallacies can be separated into two general groups: formal and informal. A formal fallacy is a defect which can be identified merely by looking at the logical structure of an argument, rather than at any specific statements. Informal fallacies are defects which can be identified only through an analysis of the actual content of the argument. Formal Fallacies Formal fallacies are found only in deductive arguments with identifiable forms. One of the things which makes them appear reasonable is the fact that they look like and mimic valid logical arguments, but are in fact invalid. Here is an example: Premise: All humans are mammals.Premise: All cats are mammals.Conclusion: All humans are cats. Both premises in this argument are true, but the conclusion is false. The defect is a formal fallacy, and can be demonstrated by reducing the argument to its bare structure: All A are CAll B are CAll A are B It does not matter what A, B, and C stand for. We could replace them with wines, milk, and beverages. The argument would still be invalid for the exact same reason. It can be helpful to reduce an argument to its structure and ignore content in order to see if it is valid. Informal Fallacies Informal fallacies are defects which can be identified only through an analysis of the actual content of the argument, rather than through its structure. Here is an example: Premise: Geological events produce rock.Premise: Rock is a type of music.Conclusion: Geological events produce music. The premises in this argument are true but clearly, the conclusion is false. Is the defect a formal fallacy or an informal fallacy? To see if this is actually a formal fallacy, we have to break it down to its basic structure: A BB CA C This structure is valid. Therefore, the defect cannot be a formal fallacy and must instead be an informal fallacy that is identifiable from the content. When we examine the content, we find that a key term (rock) is being used with two different definitions. Informal fallacies can work in several ways. Some distract the reader from what is really going on. Some, like in the above example, make use of ambiguity to cause confusion. Defective Arguments There are many ways to categorize fallacies. Aristotle was the first to try to systematically describe and categorize them, identifying 13 fallacies divided into two groups. Since then,  many more have been described and the categorization has become more complicated. The categorization used here should prove useful, but it is not the only valid way of organizing fallacies. Fallacies of Grammatical Analogy Arguments with this defect have a structure that is grammatically close to arguments which are valid and make no fallacies. Because of this close similarity, a reader can be distracted into thinking that a bad argument is actually valid. Fallacies of Ambiguity With these fallacies, some sort of ambiguity is introduced either in the premises or in the conclusion itself. This way, an apparently false idea can be made to appear true so long as the reader does not notice the problematic definitions. Examples: Equivocation FallacyNo True Scotsman FallacyQuoting out of ContextFallacies of Relevance These fallacies all make use of premises which are logically irrelevant to the final conclusion. Examples: Ad HominemAppeals to AuthorityAppeals to Emotion and DesireFallacies of Presumption Logical fallacies of presumption arise because the premises already assume what they are supposed to prove. This is invalid because there is no point in trying to prove something you already assume to be true. No one who needs to have something proven to them will accept a premise which already assumes the truth of that idea. Examples: Begging the QuestionComplex QuestionFalse DilemmaFallacies of Weak Induction With this type of fallacy, there may be an apparent logical connection between the premises and the conclusion. However, if that connection is real, then it is too weak to support the conclusion. Examples: Ad Hoc RationalizationOversimplification Exaggeration Sources Barker, Stephen F. Elements of Logic. Hardcover — 1675, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Curti, Gary N. Weblog. Fallacy Files, March 31, 2019.   Edwards, Paul (Editor). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Hardcover, 1st edition, Macmillan/Collier, 1972. Engel, S. Morris. With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies. Sixth Edition, Bedford/St. Martins, March 21, 2014. Hurley, Patrick J. A Concise Introduction to Logic. 12 Edition, Cengage Learning, January 1, 2014. Salmon, Merrilee H. Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking. 6th Edition, Cengage Learning, January 1, 2012. Vos Savant, Marilyn. The Power of Logical Thinking: Easy Lessons in the Art of Reasoning...and Hard Facts About Its Absence in Our Lives. Hardcover, 1st edition, St Martins Press, March 1, 1996.