Tanglewood Case Study

Brief Introduction:

The Tanglewood chain of department stores was founded by Tanner Emerson and Thurston Wood in 1975.  The goal of the retail chain was to sell outdoor equipment and clothing; as well as some unique merchandise specially designed by the founders themselves.  

Competitors: 

Tanglewood is in good company when compared to peer competitors.  Stores such as Kohl’s and Target are used as benchmarks to compare and forecast sales and because they occupy the same retail arena.  All three chains are vying for the same types of customers with similar philosophies on store look and feel.  Tanglewood operates in the nondurable general retail industry, which in itself is an employer of 23 million people and accounting for over 3 trillion sales annually (Heneman and Judge, 2006).  

Structure and Employee Makeup:

        Tanglewood uses the familiar organizational hierarchy as their organizational structure. This structure consists of a Regional Manager (total of 12 in all) who in turn has 20 store managers reporting to him/her.  Each store manager has a store hierarchy consisting of assistant managers, department managers, shift leaders, operations associations and store associates. The research shows that the Regional Manager human resource practices have been varying from region to region, which is causing HR issues (Heneman and Judge, 2006).

Culture and Values:

        The co-founders of Tanglewood have always felt that the employees were one of the greatest assets. This philosophy was ingrained throughout the organization as evidenced by employee participation in the expanding business.  Lines of communication were always open about all aspects of the corporation, right down to share price.  The atmosphere of team resonates throughout the business and is evidenced by every employee assisting all members of the store team.  Employee suggestions are welcomed, encouraged and expected and actually tie back to incentive measures.

Human Resources Function:

The Human Resource Function operates in the traditional hierarchical fashion, meaning there is a VP of HR and then Directors for each functional area of HR including Training & Development, Staffing, Comp and Benefits and Employee Relations.  Beneath each Functional Area Director are Functional Area Managers taking care of the speciality areas of retention, recruiting, EEO, coaching, training, legal, communications, labor relations and so on.  Retail, by history, tends to be difficult to staff.  If one takes a quick look at the retail calendar, it is very easy to see that staffing challenges are aplenty in the retail sector.  Some challenges include summer slow down or ramp up, holidays, seasonal employees, part time employees and student employees to name only a few.

Strategic Decisions Pertaining to Staffing Levels and Quality.

Acquire or Develop Talent – Retail is a tough staffing market.  Tanglewood individual stores will need to have the key positions filled by acquired seasoned employees who know the retail sector.  These are the manager positions and the shift leader positions.  In my opinion, these positions require some additional knowledge of working with people and systems.  Those employees will then aid in the development of the new employees brought on in the roles of store associates and operations associates. The new associates would be individuals willing to learn and willing to do the job.

Lag or Lead Time – The lag systems makes sense for Tanglewood.  The lag system approach brings employees that are needed into positions that are available according to organizational objectives and plans.  Staffing up would not be a good idea in the retail market except during seasonal highs.

External or Internal Hiring – By history, the retail market exhibits extremely high turnover. It will be imperative to promote internally to provide stability and career development for those in it for the long haul.  External hiring will be critical for staffing up for the seasonal peaks and for the entry level positions of store associates and operations associates.

Core or Flexible Workforce – There has to be a blend of both.  Retail is trending toward seven day a week service.  There must be employees willing to work day shifts, night stocking shifts and weekend shifts.  A retail flexible workforce will also include those hired on a seasonal as-needed basis.  There will need to be a core foundation of workers as well who can be counted on to continue to deliver the goods and services Tanglewood is known for.

Hire or Retain – As stated above, there is a high level of turnover within the retail sector.  It will be necessary for Tanglewood to hire replacement workers when vacancies do open up to continue to service the customers and at the same time they need to continue to retain core workforce members to continue driving Tanglewood’s business.