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Problem Solution: Riordan Manufacturing

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Problem Solution: Riordan Manufacturing
Riordan Manufacturing (Riordan) is a global plastics company owned by a Fortune 1000 enterprise, Riordan Industries. It produces plastic beverage containers in Albany, Georgia, custom plastic parts in Pontiac, Michigan and plastic fan parts in Hangzhou, China. Riordan's Research and Development is conducted in San Jose, California, corporate headquarters. Declining sales and profits has forced Riordan to change its sales processes and adopt a customer-relationship management system (CRM). A team approach was implemented with the expectation that sales will improve. Each sales team consists of a sales person, product engineer, and customer service representative (Apollo Group, Inc., 2004).
Riordan's managers have noticed that there is a decline in morale and work ethic. An annual employee survey indicated that employees are dissatisfied with the current reward system as well as benefits and overall satisfaction. The company is concerned that dissatisfied employees will find employment elsewhere. Riordan's President does not feel comfortable with changing the compensation system and the company has allocated $50,000 to hire an independent human resource (HR) consultant to analysis the issues in the employee survey. The HR consultant presented a proposal to redesign Riordan Manufacturing’s compensation and reward system which suggested a salary survey of the company's positions be conducted to determine current market positioning and adjust the salaries based on the results of the survey. The proposal also suggested developing an incentive system for sales and research and development based on the company's change to a CRM. Additionally, the proposal recommended a performance appraisal process be developed to ensure clearer alignment between business strategy and performance rewards (Apollo Group, Inc., 2004).
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