Premium Essay

Vitality Health Enterprises Inc

In: Business and Management

Submitted By limene
Words 1459
Pages 6
POLYTECHNIC OF NAMIBIA
HAROLD PUPKEWITZ GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc Case Report

By

Leonardo Imerne

Strategic Human Resources Management (SHM910M)

Date: 21 June 2014

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report will focus on the performance management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc, which is a cosmetics and beauty products oriented business. The business started off well with a fast expansion approach. As the company grows, performance management of its staff was necessary to reward top performers as a motivation factor, and also to identify poor performers so they could be trained further or relieved from their positions. The report will therefore highlight the problems associated with performance management and rewards appraisals at Vitality Health Enterprises Inc, such as failure to reward top performers accordingly, identify worst performers, and recommends solutions thereof.

STATEMENT OF KEY PROBLEMS OR ISSUES Vitality Health Enterprises Inc was founded in 1987 in Ames, Iowa by an Fred Kikuchi who identified a market niche of health, wellness and beauty products in the Ames where he resided after he left Japan. The company at the beginning of its operations relied on importing re-branded beauty products from Japan until it established its manufacturing plant in the United States of America. As planned, the company grew rapidly and later acquired Herba Nutraceuticals to increase its market share and profitability.

In 2007 the company reached 7,000 employees mark and therefore needed to implement an effective performance and rewarding system with the aim of retaining best performing staff of its workforce. The Performance Management Evaluation

2

3

Team (PMET) was established to study evaluation and rewards system, employing internal and external benchmarking, focus groups, and employees interviews.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc.

...Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc. The Health and Vitality of Vitality Health Enterprises James Hoffman, the newly appointed vice president of Human Resources of Vitality Health Enterprises, was pleased when he saw an early preview of the earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2011. But he knew better than to relax. Competition in the personal care products sector was cutthroat, and complacency was a recipe for obsolescence and loss of market share, particularly in cosmetics and nutraceuticals. Vitality was riding high on a six-quarter string of strong revenue growth that had surpassed analyst expectations. However, as emerging markets represented a growing portion of business revenues, the company was becoming increasingly exposed to volatility and uncertainty and, without prompt corrective action, would soon be poised to trip over its own feet. The cost of research and development continued to climb, and Hoffman feared that the chain of success was allowing employees to relax, leading to a culture of ineffective performance management. There were even whispers of discontent from the marketing team about a growing number of missed product launches. Hoffman knew that Vitality had recently struggled to maintain its position as an industry leader in innovation and he worried about the slow but notable increases in employee turnover, especially among the highly talented research scientists. Without their expertise, Vitality couldn’t remain vibrant...

Words: 1463 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises

...Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc. The Health and Vitality of Vitality Health Enterprises James Hoffman, the newly appointed vice president of Human Resources of Vitality Health Enterprises, was pleased when he saw an early preview of the earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2011. But he knew better than to relax. Competition in the personal care products sector was cutthroat, and complacency was a recipe for obsolescence and loss of market share, particularly in cosmetics and nutraceuticals. Vitality was riding high on a six-quarter string of strong revenue growth that had surpassed analyst expectations. However, as emerging markets represented a growing portion of business revenues, the company was becoming increasingly exposed to volatility and uncertainty and, without prompt corrective action, would soon be poised to trip over its own feet. The cost of research and development continued to climb, and Hoffman feared that the chain of success was allowing employees to relax, leading to a culture of ineffective performance management. There were even whispers of discontent from the marketing team about a growing number of missed product launches. Hoffman knew that Vitality had recently struggled to maintain its position as an industry leader in innovation and he worried about the slow but notable increases in employee turnover, especially among the highly talented research scientists. Without their expertise, Vitality couldn’t remain vibrant...

Words: 6731 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

Arck Systems Case Study

... Introduction This paper will discuss how an optimal sales system should be implemented by Arck Systems through analyzing the changes incorporated by Bryan Mynor for the recently acquired Lux Software’s sales force’s compensation plan. We will begin with an overview of the major issues Arck Systems faced when assessing how the company should modify the plan. An examination of Arck Systems and Lux Software Inc.’s current compensation plans as well as the benefits and disadvantages of making changes to those compensation plans will then be introduced. Next, our recommendation for Arck Systems to create one unified compensation plan for both sales forces will be discussed, stressing the importance of a meticulous implementation of well-defined multiple customer value source plan into Arck Systems’ business strategy. Finally, we will conclude the paper by briefly reiterating the key details of the case, our analysis and recommendation. Background: Arck Systems and Lux Software Inc.’s Compensation Plans Arck Systems acquired Lux Software Inc., who enjoyed faster growth and higher margins, in an effort to grow market share through the expected synergies the two companies would experience once completely integrated. The acquisition resulted in Lux’s EVP of Sales, Chris Snyder, leaving the company. Snyder also recruited most of his sales management team with him leaving only Lux’s key salespeople. Bryan Mynor, EVP of Worldwide Sales at Arck, was assigned to manage...

Words: 1982 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Vitality Health Case

...Third Case Question 1. Vitality’s old Performance Management System presented some problems that were affecting some of its most talented employees. The analysis of those problems as well as the identification of their root causes will allow us to make a reflection about the company’s previous Performance Management System in the following paragraphs.         Firstly, the old system was prone to central tendency error. It had 13 rating levels and lacked a described evaluation criteria. As one can understand, if the rating scale is large and the different levels are not sufficiently explained, the evaluators will be more likely to evaluate less accurately. In the case, one can read that managers gave almost to everyone a B or a C, provided few A or D ratings. This is a problem because it shows that the managers do not take the performance and evaluation system as a serious and fundamental tool, which consequently affects employees who are not able to receive valuable feedback on their performance. In our opinion this problem has two main root causes. The first one is that managers do not want to upset employees and the sense of teamwork and egalitarianism, so they give medium ratings to everyone. They might believe that a medium grading does not affect neither positively nor negatively employees’ performance. We believe that the other cause could be the lack of clarity in the rating levels description. The fact that the grading system is not clear for managers hampers a precise...

Words: 2944 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Collaboration to Build Healthier Communities

...Healthy Communities Cross-sector partnerships are sparking widespread action to improve community health COATESVILLE , PA SEATTLE, WA Access to healthy foods Access to preventative care and healthy housing LOS ANGELES , CA Quality early child care and education CHICAGO, IL Data and evidence to build health into all policies and practices MIAMI , FL Opportunities for physical activity and healthy living health community development • community development finance • community planning • early child care/education • human services • housing Introduction “ Building a healthier America is feasible in years, not decades, if we collaborate and act on what is making a difference.” —Robert Wood Johnson Foundation In 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation convened a commission of nonpartisan leaders to identify opportunities to improve the health of all Americans by creating environments that protect and actively promote health. Their report, Beyond Health Care: New Directions to a Healthier America, included 10 recommendations for improving the health of our communities, several of which focused specifically on the health of children. Because of the large role that social and economic factors play in shaping the health of communities, the Commission issued a call for collaboration that emphasized the need for leaders from all sectors— not just health...

Words: 10523 - Pages: 43

Premium Essay

R-Vitalityhealth

...Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc. 1.) Who should evaluate employee’s performance? What should leaders do when (individual, team, organization) performance is lacking? Every leader in an organization should evaluate employee’s performances, whoever a leader in an organization has it’s own sub-ordinates; their sub-ordinates’ performances should be evaluated. Once an individual, team or organization performances are lacking, leaders should either motivate or penalize the lack of performances. In real world, I think both works. Through a good rewarding system, one should be motivated for gaining a bigger paycheck or recognition form their senior. Everyone gets pay for their services, under a good rewarding systems, one who performed better than required can get a better pay or promotion always work in a real business world. Vise versa, one who didn’t pay less or layoff sounds fair. Employee evaluations can always be a positive, encouraging, and a good outline on how they are doing in the many categories of their job responsibilities.  On the other hand, it can also be considered a waste of time and doesn’t work if neither leader nor their sub-ordinates take it seriously and just go through the motions. 2.) Should the new performance review system at Vitality Health be revised? What changes would you recommend to the new performance management system? How should the changes be implemented? Carefully consider the consequences of your recommendations...

Words: 1264 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

The Role of Business in the Economy

...qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyui opasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfgh jklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvb nmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwerty uiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdf ghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc vbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwer tyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfg hjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcv bnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwert yuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasd fghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzx cvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwe rtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdf ghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc vbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwer tyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopas dfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklz xcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrt yuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasd fghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzx cvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwe rtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopa sdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjkl ...

Words: 1581 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

International Business

...A) The name of the company is Apple. The reasons of choosing this company to explore its experience using the concepts of International Business are as follow: Global pattern of trade * Apple is the global company in the retail industry. 43,000 of Apple employees in the United States to work in the 30,000 Apple stores. Apple retail store employees to do more than the average wage of employees, and provides money for universities, as well as a gym membership, 401K plans, health care plans, product discounts and lower prices for the purchase of shares. * Apple has 453 retail stores (such as in March 2015) in 16 countries and 39 countries in the online store. Each store is designed to meet the requirements of the position and the regulatory authorities. Apple has received numerous architectural awards for its store design, especially its location on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan on. Competitive advantage * Before the company advertised its products are being made, the late 90s of the last century the United States; however, as a result of the outsourcing plan in 2000, almost all of the manufacturing process is now abroad. According to a report the New York Times, Apple insiders "that huge overseas factories, as well as flexible, diligent and industrial skills of foreign workers have to make more than their American counterparts that" Made in USA "is no longer a viable Alternatively, for most Apple products. " * The company's production, procurement and logistics...

Words: 1506 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Regional Case Study

...Deloitte Tax Case Study Competition Regional Case Study This is the story of the Vitalité health and fitness phenomenon created by three American heroes. You’ve worked out in their gyms, bought their nutrition books, and devoured their frozen entrees – and you’ve seen them a hundred times on The Ophira Show! You even spent months wearing their “Cal Pal” to find out how many calories you burned. Here’s the story of how they rocketed to the top and the fallout of their success. Macy. When she was in her mid-20s, Macy Vitale was the picture of confidence and, in keeping with her name, Vitality, with a capital V! She graduated from college with a degree in journalism, and, by the time she was 32, her gorgeous face, perky attitude, and deep understanding of current affairs landed her the position of anchor for the Channel 8 evening news. Macy never took anything too seriously. She was such a natural on camera that it couldn’t count as “work.” Her carefree attitude ended one morning when she overheard the director tell the camera man to shoot Macy only when she was seated behind the desk. He whispered, “She’s starting to look a bit wide in the hips.” As soon as they were off the air Macy, picked up the phone and called Mark Newcomb from “Mad Mark’s Gym.” Mark. Mark isn’t your typical trainer. He is serious! He served in the Special Forces in Kuwait in the early 90s, has Masters Degrees in Health Sciences and Nutrition, and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology and Physiology. He has spent the last...

Words: 8175 - Pages: 33

Premium Essay

Hkr1000

...Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises I referred to my textbook when completing the tests and giving the scores and ratings. Test Score Rating Resting Blood Pressure 119/70 Resting Heart Rate 76 Cooper’s 1.5 Mile Run Test 9:30 Excellent Height/Weight 5’9’’ / 135lbs. BMI 19.9 Normal Weight Waist Circumference 28 inches Waist to Hip Ratio 28inches : 32inches = 0.875 Good Pushups 26 Good Partial Curl-Ups 23 Very Good Sit and Reach 35cm Very Good Shoulder Flexibility 8cm Above Average Cardiovascular Fitness Also called aerobic fitness, it is a measure of the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood to the working muscles during exercise, and its ability to take up and use oxygen to produce energy needed to continue exercising. Although I am satisfied with my personal fitness status, I always feel as if I could improve. Throughout high school, I was actively involved in several sports including basketball, volleyball, badminton, and track. With constant activity, I was always getting a workout to keep up my fitness level. However, when I completed high school and moved on to university, I found it very difficult to find the time to participate in physical activity. Living on my own for the first time brought many challenges including time management, which forced me to rearrange my priorities, pushing things such as working out to the bottom of the list below studying, social interaction, cooking, cleaning, etc. However, I rated very...

Words: 1556 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Unitedhealth Group

...UnitedHealth Group Name of Student Institutional Affiliations UnitedHealth Group The UnitedHealth Group is a company that offers diversified health care management services. It is based in Minnesota in the United States of America. It is located at Minnetonka (UnitedHealth Group, 1974). It is ranked the 14th on the Fortune 500 List of the best companies and business enterprises in the world. UnitedHealth Group has two companies that offer their services and products to the consumers. The two business entities are Optum and UnitedHealthcare. It has approximated that it serves over 70 million people in the United States of America. This paper discusses the company in various dimensions. Firstly, the history of its strategic evolution is presented. The important development highlights the various changes that have been done on the company since its introduction. The changes include the introduction of new services, products, and business branches. Notably, these changes are responsible for the success that the company has registered in the few past decades. The SWOT Analysis, Environmental Assessment, Financial Assessment, and Strategic Issues that the organization faces are also discussed. The paper concludes the evaluation of the company by recommending some strategies that could be used to improve the performance of UnitedHealth Group. These recommendations aim at improving the quality and quantity of production, profitability, as well as reducing customer complaints and enhancing...

Words: 6099 - Pages: 25

Premium Essay

Unitedhealth Group

...UnitedHealth Group Name of Student Institutional Affiliations UnitedHealth Group The UnitedHealth Group is a company that offers diversified health care management services. It is based in Minnesota in the United States of America. It is located at Minnetonka (UnitedHealth Group, 1974). It is ranked the 14th on the Fortune 500 List of the best companies and business enterprises in the world. UnitedHealth Group has two companies that offer their services and products to the consumers. The two business entities are Optum and UnitedHealthcare. It has approximated that it serves over 70 million people in the United States of America. This paper discusses the company in various dimensions. Firstly, the history of its strategic evolution is presented. The important development highlights the various changes that have been done on the company since its introduction. The changes include the introduction of new services, products, and business branches. Notably, these changes are responsible for the success that the company has registered in the few past decades. The SWOT Analysis, Environmental Assessment, Financial Assessment, and Strategic Issues that the organization faces are also discussed. The paper concludes the evaluation of the company by recommending some strategies that could be used to improve the performance of UnitedHealth Group. These recommendations aim at improving the quality and quantity of production, profitability, as well as reducing customer complaints and enhancing...

Words: 6099 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Organizational Study

...[pic] | | |Introduction | |Organizational Study | | | |About the Company | |History | |Company Profile | |Objective of the Company | | | |Mission and Vision | | ...

Words: 8338 - Pages: 34

Premium Essay

Business Strategy

...Test 1 [pic] Apple Inc. the most famous multinational corporation that designs consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers in American. Their famous hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. These hardware products lead Apple Inc get success and control all the electronic products market. For example from 2007 the first iPhone was sold to now there are over 51 million iphone was sold which mean it control over 16.1% of the cell phone market. When the iPod began sale it pretty easy to sale over 1million iPads and this just take 28 day. Why the apple company can very easy to get success and how can they hold the market. We can from the Michael Porter's Five Forces Model five parts find out the answer. Michael Porter's Five Forces: 1. The bargaining power of suppliers (who can charge higher prices) 2. The bargaining power of customers (who may demand better quality at a lower price) 3. The threat of new entrants into the industry 4. The threat of substitute products or services 5. The rivalry amongst current competitors in the industry (which can lead to price wars, new product development and special offers) Firstly we need talk about the bargaining power of suppliers, for a company the supplier is a very important part because it decides the price and quality of every stuff. So whether the company can get lots of profit or not, it depends on the bargaining power of suppliers. Such as Apple one of the reason...

Words: 2424 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Biographical Analysis

...State versus Private Ownership Andrei Shleifer Department of Economics Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts. Abstract Private ownership should generally be preferred to public ownership when the incentives to innovate and to contain costs must be strong. In essence, this is the case for capitalism over socialism, explaining the "dynamic vitality" of free enterprise. The great economists of the 1930s and 1940s failed to see the dangers of socialism in part because they focused on the role of prices under socialism and capitalism, and ignored the enormous importance of ownership as the source of capitalist incentives to innovate. Moreover, many of the concerns that private firms fail to address “social goals” can be addressed through government contracting and regulation, without resort to government ownership. The case for private provision only becomes stronger when competition between suppliers, reputational mechanisms, the possibility of provision by private not-for-profit firms, as well as political patronage and corruption, are brought into play. 1 What kinds of goods and services should be provided by government employees as opposed to private firms? Should government workers make steel and cars in government-owned factories? Should teachers and doctors be publicly employed or should they work for private schools and practices? Should garbage be picked up by civil servants or employees of private garbage haulers? Should the whole economy be "socialized"? Although...

Words: 8744 - Pages: 35