Introduction

The company, Spring Wellness Products, originally started as a small family business that sold 100 per cent natural as well as organic products in a retail outlet to its clients in Ontario, Canada. The company has had a rapid growth in the last couple of years and now has 25 stores and expects to launch 15 more by the end of next year (Fernie & Sparks, 2018). In addition to this, the company has attained two acquisitions in the last five years where in one is with Reliance Logistics and the other one is with Global Services for warehousing and outsourcing respectively.

Discussion

Five major issues –

1. Difficult to retain the employees –

It is extremely difficult to retain as well as engage the employees in the retail industry. This industry, particularly, has a rather high employee turnover rate so, this becomes a major challenge for the Spring Wellness Products to retain the employees (Mostaghel et al., 2012) (Ramchandani & Ghias, 2013).

2. Increase in the expenses –

Since, there is a high turnover rate, the company more often than not has to recruit fresh employees throughout the year (DeHoratius & Ton, 2015). This eventually leads to a situation where in the organisation has to spend a lot of time, effort and its resources towards the recruitment process as well as the training process.  

3. Human Resource Policy not in place –

The human resource policy of the Spring Wellness Products must be standardized as well as address the various factors such as safety, payroll management, and the work schedule. A good human resource policy not only will retain and engage the existing employees but will also attract the new employees.

4. Management problems –

Due to the constant and high employee turnover rate within the organisation, the managers as well as the current employees are bound to experience a lot of issues related to management (DeHoratius & Ton, 2015). These issues are rather important as it has a huge impact on the performance of the entire organisation. It is essential to address the issue at the very earliest.

5. Payroll Management –

There are few major and common payroll issues that has been observed within the organisation. These issues are administrative overwhelm, organizational and compliance issues, and an incompatible software. Despite the various stools and HR software, this issue is still prevalent within the organisation.

Analysis of the Situation –

a) Environmental Scan:

	Stakeholders	Internal Opportunity	External Opportunity	Constraints	Relevant Frames
Retain Employees	Human Resource Team	Talent is being retained	Attraction of innovative and fresh ideas	High investment	Long Term
Payroll Management	Human Resource Team and MD	Employee motivation	Easy tracking and maintenance of details	Time and Budget	Medium Term

b) Gap Analysis:

	Resources Needed	Availability	Gap
Retain Employees	ERP Software; Time and Budget	Software: Available Time: UnavailableBudget: Available	A time period of 6 months will be required but is not available.
Payroll Management	OnPay software or Gutso Software; and Budget	Software’s: AvailableBudget: Available	Both the resources are available and it is important the software is implemented immediately

Evaluation of the Alternatives for the two issues –

· Difficulty to retain the employees –

As it becomes difficult to retain and engage the employees in the retail industry, the company, SWP, could perhaps make use of attractive offers along with a competitive benefits package. In addition to this, employee wellness schemes and other such attractive packages too could be provided to the employees along with an employee discount card. These strategies could perhaps make the employees loyal towards the organisation.

· Payroll Management –

It has been noted that a lot of the other retail industries have incorporated certain alternatives to the payroll management system. These alternatives to the payroll software are Gutso and OnPay. Gutso is a modern and the leading payroll software. It is one of a kind software that integrates payroll, HR, and the administration benefits. Similarly, OnPay is a user friendly payroll platform which is perfect for small businesses such as the SWP.

Recommendation for the two issues

· Difficulty to retain the employees –

The solution to this issue in the business organisation could be to implement or select a system which could perhaps streamline the communication within the organisation (Aminu, 2013). One such system that could help eliminate the issue within the Spring Wellness Products could be the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system as it has been noted that a lot of the other organisations in the retail industry have implemented this system (Siswanto & Maulida, 2014). The ERP system or the Enterprise Resource Planning system is a software which permits the organisation to make effective use of the integrated applications in order to manage the business as well as to automate the innumerous back office operations which is related to services, human resources, and technology. This could perhaps be a perfect solution for the retail company, SWP, to manage its internal communication. In addition to this, the system also centralizes the operations of the business and generates comprehensive as well as real time reports from each of the divisions. Besides, it also distributes the tasks amongst the various departments in an equal manner and at the very same time it ensures that the entire procedure is running smoothly. The cost associated with this will be approximately $2000 and it involves a lot of benefits as discussed above.

· Payroll Management –

This problem of the Spring Wellness Products could be catered by ensuring the customers that the products and services that are being offered to them are of top quality and the company does not compromise when it comes to delivering good quality products to its clients. This is so, because they are the sole reason as to why the business is still operating in the very first place (Kesavan & Mani, 2015) (Siswanto & Maulida, 2014). In order to address the employee absence and compliance and organizational issues, the organisation, SWP, could implement a new software such as OnPay which will reduce the administrative burden thereby allowing a constant tab on the whereabouts of the employees. In addition to this, due to the increasing interest towards wellness, the organisation could take advantage of it as it delivers natural products only to its customers. Emphasizing on this aspect would help the organisation open more and more outlets and expand its service to more than three provinces in the coming future (Siswanto & Maulida, 2014). Moreover, it could partner up or acquire more companies which would eventually benefit the company thereby increasing its sales. The cost of implementing this software would be around 5000 as OnPay is an expensive software and is not easily available due to its innumerous benefits. This issue is rather important and must be addressed at the earliest.

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be said that by implementing some of the above mentioned recommendations, the organisation, SWP, will perhaps less number of issues in the coming future. It is also expected that the high turnover ratio will decrease making the employees stay within the organisation for a longer duration.

Reference List

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DeHoratius, N., & Ton, Z. (2015). The role of execution in managing product availability. In Retail supply chain management (pp. 53-77). Springer, Boston, MA.

Fernie, J., & Sparks, L. (Eds.). (2018). Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.

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Ramchandani, J., & Ghias, A. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,600,804. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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