Summary
A reputed jeweler wanted a way to understand who was leaving the firm, why they were leaving, and what could be done to reduce churn and improve employee happiness. The client realized that his employees were not happy but could not figure out the reason why. Rho’s HR consulting team was engaged to conduct a root cause analysis and suggest remedies.
Client Situation
The client was a jeweler in North Kerala who inherited one of three jewelry shops from his father. Due to centralized operations prior to inheritance of the jewelry, the client lacked basic business knowledge and struggled to run the outlet on his own.
The client’s primary problem was workforce happiness and productivity. Despite offering various perks to employees such as free meals , birthday gifts , financial support to families etc. workforce morale remained a significant issue. The client approached Rho consulting for help in identifying the root cause of employee dissatisfaction and finding ways to improve productivity.
Rho’s Approach
Rho engaged its HR consulting team to identify the root cause of employee dissatisfaction. The team conducted an organizational study mainly to understand the structure, culture, leadership, communication flow, and employee morale of the client. Most of the employees starting from the founder to those at the bottom of the pyramid were made to be part of a one-to-one session to understand their goals, concerns, and recommendations.
We developed a set of testable hypotheses with key stakeholders focused on human capital issues such as retention, recognition, and recruitment. Upon detailed analysis, it was found that there were issues in primarily 4 areas: a) Wrongly timed and erratic incentive structure b) Lack of hierarchy and reporting structure c)Ignorance of feedback from ground-level sales teams d) No cross-functional interaction between different teams structure.
We decided to address the problem in order of priority:
- The incentive structure was standardized. Salaries were scheduled to be paid on the last day of the month and incentives on the 15th of every month. This kept the morale high.
- The Sales team did not have a contact person to reach out to with their concerns. A General manager of Sales was appointed as the Single point of contact for the Sales team.
- Suggestion forms were created to incorporate suggestions from the sales team on new products and sales strategies creating a feeling of inclusivity.
- Interpersonal skills were imparted through multiple pieces of training and the team was trained on cross-team collaboration.
Results
The organizational study was repeated after 6 months and the results showed an 80% improvement in employee satisfaction scores. There was a clear improvement in employee happiness primarily due to better learning opportunities and exposure to a wider knowledge base. Employees were equipped with increased skills and confidence to drive future results. The direct sales labor attrition rate improved drastically, falling from 8% to 4% monthly.
