The future goals of the plastics manufacturing company could be best described with the aid of a realistic vision statement. This could be formulated as follows: Riordan Manufacturing is committed to maintaining its leading position onto the plastics industry by presenting their customers with high quality products, delivered by highly specialized and trained employees. The organization is also determined to make a difference in the environment by using the latest technological appliances which preserve the health of the surrounding environment. We are also proud of the healthy and pleasant environment we have created for our employees, which collaborate in a dynamic, competitive and highly rewarding field.

End State Goals

End-State Goals

Consolidate and maintain a leading position within the plastics manufacturing industry

Increase employees' on the job satisfaction

Achieve a considerable reduction in the employee turnover rates

Increase customer satisfaction through the offering of products meeting the highest standards of quality

Achieve financial profits that allow for an efficient profit distribution and also allow the formation of budgets for new investments and ventures

Gap Analysis

The gap analysis is a highly useful management tool as it supports the organization in identifying the measures it must take in order to achieve its established desiderates. Otherwise put, it helps identify the strategies to be implemented in order to ensure that the company moves from the current status quo to the end-state goals it established. The first way to ensuring that these goals are achieved relies in their actual nature, in the meaning that they have to be SMART goals.

Specific - the objectives must be clearly nominated, such as an increase in the employees' satisfaction and a reduction in the employee turnover

Measurable - the outcome of the achieved goals has to become obvious through several measurement tools; for instance, the shareholders' satisfaction will be measured by the increase in the profits distributed in the form of dividends

Attainable - the goals have to be attained within the given resource constraints; for example, the chief financial officer will allocate a certain amount of money into the development and implementation of newer and better human resource policies

Realistic - the goals must be realistic in the meaning that they must be possible to achieve

Time efficient - the goals must also be attained within a clearly established and objective time frame; for instance, employee turnover is expected to decrease by the end of the following fiscal year.

The following steps of the gap analysis refer to the actual identification of the strategies that have to be implemented in order to overcome the current status quo and ensure that within the estimated time frame, Riordan Manufacturing will be able to become the organization they have set to be. To ensure a successful outcome, the management has to address the five issues identified in the being of the report. They refer to employee compensation, employee loyalty, employee turnover, job design and incentive plans. The following lines contain suggestions for the future improvement of these organizational issues.

Employee compensation

Without any doubt, the wages of the staff members have to be increased, and based on the statements of the top management, the salary increases must commence with the it department. Their wages would increase in the first six months by an average of 10%, and would be followed by an additional 5 to 10% in the six months after the first raise. Other employees would also be considered for a raise. The company should also consider the opportunity of allowing employees to purchase corporate stocks. The measure would be limited to a clearly established percentage of the employee's annual salary. The immediate outcome of such a strategy is that the staff members would feel directly involved with the corporate affairs and their individual goals would become unified with the overall goals of the organization. This would then ensure increased efforts to achieving corporate success.

Employee loyalty

The employee loyalty is a more stringent problem even more so when its delicate nature prevents a financial resolution. Given that it cannot be solved by...

This process would revolve around the implementation of a stronger corporate culture that cherishes the employees and gives them the credit of being the company's most valuable asset. Various HR policies have to be developed, and they have to address the current lack of transparency and the preferential differences that are being made between an employee and the other.
Employee turnover

The increased employee turnover is not a problem in its essence, but more of a direct consequence the previously identified issues. As a result, given that the matter of employee dissatisfaction is resolved, the turnover rates should decrease considerably.

Job design

The idea of redesigning the positions within Riordan Manufacturing belong to the current chief executive officer, who is in fact reluctant to investing more money into increasing employees' on the job satisfaction. Both him and the financial officer have to understand that unsatisfied customers only mean increased costs and that only by reducing the turnover rates will the organization be able to consolidate its position onto the market. Then, in terms of job design, some employees have indeed complained that the employer offers limited opportunities for further development and that the job tends to be tedious and boring. To resolve these complaints, the organizational representatives should ensure a rotation of the positions so that the colleagues within a department work on different and more challenging tasks.

Incentive plans

The ideal course of action would be for the plastics manufacturer to implement a myriad of HR strategies that present the staff members with a multitude of incentive plans. However, given the intense dynamics of the industry in which they operate, the fierce competition or the interests of the shareholders, it is quite difficult to allocate such a large budget. In this order of ideas, the company officials should better communicate with the staff members in order to identify the most stringent needs. Aside the compulsory change in the operational and managerial transparency, the promotion policies, the managers should consider presenting their employees with an additional array of incentives. Also, to limit the costs, the employees would not be able to benefit from all incentives, but would choose from a list of incentives those that best meet their demands. For instance, some could opt for more training programs, while others could decide in favor of more flexible working schedules.

Conclusion

Riordan Manufacturing is a highly developed and specialized plastics producer, serving a multitude of customers with various activities, including military operations or simple beverage producers. The current problems within the organization refer to a poor employee morale and a generalized dissatisfaction relative to the compensation, promotion and incentive plans. The gap analysis has helped better identify the issues at hand and propose solution in support of the company's achieving its desiderates. Despite the reticence forwarded by the chief financial officer and the chief executive officer, the company should invest significantly in increasing the employees' on the job satisfaction, otherwise they risk loosing their competitive edge.

References

2008, Gap Analysis, Marketing Teacher, http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_gap_analysis.html. Ast accessed on September 16, 2008

2008, Job Design, BNET Business Dictionary, http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/job+design.htmllast accessed on September 16, 2008

2008, Human Resource Committed to Excellence, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, http://hr.unl.edu/general/nuvaluesinfo/glossary.shtmllast accessed on September 16, 2008

Beam, J., 2008, What is Employee Turnover?, Wise Geek, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-employee-turnover.html. Ast accessed on September 16, 2008

Kuack, D., 2008, Cultivate Employee Safety, Green Beam, http://www.greenbeampro.com/content/view/1475/43/last accessed on September 16, 2008

McNamara, C., 2008, Employee Compensation (in the U.S.A.), http://www.managementhelp.org/pay_ben/cmpnstn/cmpnstn.html. Ast accessed on September 16, 2008

Riordan Manufacturing Scenario

Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing