Complete the assignment on page 531, A through D. Fully respond to the questions. The page length is at least 3 full pages. This assignment is very important, please make sure that you take your time with researching and answering each question. You must include a dashboard or you will lose 30 points. Your dashboard should be included on a page of its own. it will not be included in your 3 pages. Dashboards can be created in word, powerpoint, publisher. The component of the assignment should be a graphic of a dashboard.

Please answer case study questions A-D with atleast 3 pages. Please include dashboard also. An example of a dashboard is the last picture. I will leave thumbs up and please no plagarizing.

Siblings Ryan and Ann Chern founded Chern's, an upscale men's and women's department store, 20 years ago after they each graduated with their MBAs. The pair had planned to launch their own company for years and refined their business model after each speat a great deal of time learning about the retail industry by working in different retail organizations. The product mix and high-quality products Chern's selis made it rapidly successful, and the company developed a loyal following. The firm quickly expanded its product line and bezan opening additional locations 15 years ago. Ryan and Ann have turned their basic idea of providing customers with the best service, selection, qual. ity, and value into a thriving busincss. The two are now co-presidents of Chern's: Ryan serves as the company's chicf executive ofticer; Ann serves as the company's chief operating officet. Chern's pursues an aggressive growth stratcgy. Currently, the company has 140 stores in 48 states. Chern's cmploys approximately 24,000 full- and parttime employecs. Providing high quality products and superior customer service has been the company's main business strategy and has successfully differentiated it from its competitors. Although the company's products are expensive, the high product quality and excellent customer service have made the company successiul. Because customers' tastes can differ from one store to the next, the company tries to be as decentralized as possible. Therefore, it gives its store managers a considerable amount of discretion in terms of how they run their stores. Likewise, each department manager runs his or her own department as a small business and is rewarded according to the department's and the store's overall success. Because customer service lies at the heart of the company's business strategy, it is a core part of the corporate culture of Chern's. Ann and Ryan believe that customer service is the essence of selling and that because the firm's sales associates are in direct contact with customers, they are the core drivers of the company's performance. Both department managers and assistant department managers support the sales associates. Besides giving the sales staff their full support, the department managers at Chern's are, in turn, supported by their store managtrs, assistant department managers, beyers, and merchandising managers. Figure A - 1 illustrates these relationships. Core values are an essential part of the Chern's brand and are the foundation of its culture. The company's famWly ownership contributes to its desire to make every employee and customer feel valued and cared for. The firm is known for its strong and unique culture, which it feels is due to its belief that the best approoch to business is to hire good people. As such, Chern's tries to identify and select the right people. train them, and give them the tools and the autonomy they need to succeed. Successful employees are rewarded with above-market base salaries and generous bonusek. The management philosophy at Chern's is based on empowerment. Chern's believes that by hiring well it can trust its employces to use their own judgment. Consequently. the firm tries to hire trustworthy, committed employees and gives them a considerable amount of freedom in terms of how they do their jobs. By strivine to create a fair and positive environment and giving each employee the tools and the autonomy he or she needs to succeed, the company feels it has created an emvironment in which its sales associates can truly excel. In fact. last year, 1,142 Chern's sales associates sold at least $500,000 in merchandise-a company record. Because Chern's has a strong reputation for customer service, quality, and selection. it enjoys very pesitive brand recognition among its targeted customers. It is consistently named one of the top three retailers in regional customer surveys and has been listed amony Fortune magazine's top 100 best companies to work for. Last year the coinpany ranked number 72 on Fortune's list, down from 44 the previous year. It was the secondhighest retailer on the list, behind Nordstrom's. It also ranked as having the beat customer service amone retailers for the past 3 years in customer sarveys developed by the National Retail Federation. In addition to focusing on customer service, selection, quality, and value, Chern's has imvested heavily in information technology tools to improve its inventory management and help its sales associates make efficient transactions with customers. The company recently implemented a smartphonebased perpetual imventory system to belp its buyers react more quickly to the feedback given to them by sales associates and to track inventory to quickly adjust each store's product mix and clothing sizes available. The technology has helped the company increase its efficiency and lower its costs as well as add value for its customers. CHERN'S FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Chern's has enjoyed strong financial performance over the last fiw years. Over the past 5 years, the company's share price has increasod 134 percent, and the company's revemues have grown at an annualized rate of 9 percent. Revenues and net income have grown as all the firm's stores have reported sales increases cvery year over the past 3 years. Growing revenues and income have provided the company with the financial base and stability it needs for further erpansion. Chern'' S-year trowth stratery is to open 15 new stores a year and to continue to grow at an annual rate of 9 percent. Fgure A-2 shows the company's revenue, gross profit, and net income trends for the last 3 years. The company's good financial performance has translated into strong operating cash flow, giving it the option of reinvesting in its business, buying back shares, or passing some of its carnings to investors in the form of dividends. Figure A-3 shows Chern's' operating cash flow trend over the past 3 years. Chern's has funded its expansion using its carnings rather than by taking on debe. The company believes that its conservative debt policies and strong cash flow help create shareholder value by enabling it to expand into ntw markets. associates can trufy excel. In tact, tast year, 1.142 Chern's sales associales sola at teast $500,000 in merchandise-a company record. Because Chern's has a strong reputation for customer service, quality, and selection, it enjoys very positive brand recognition among its targeted customers. It is consistently named one of the top three retailers in regional customer surveys and has been listed among Fortume magazine's too 100 best companies to work for. Last year the company ranked number 72 on Forrune's list, down from 44 the previous year. It was the secondhighest retailer on the list, behind Nordstrom's. It also ranked as having the best customer service amone retailers for the past 3 years in customer surveys developed by the National Retail Federation. In addition to focusing on customer servioc, seloction, quality, and value, Chern's has inverted heavily in information technology tools to improve its inventory management and help its sales associates make efficient transactions with customers. The company recently implemented a smartphonebased perpetual inventory system to help its buyers react more quickly to the feedback given to them by sales associates and to track inventory to quickly adjust each store's product mix and clothing sizes available. The technology has belped the compony increase its efficiency and lower its costs as well as add value for its customers. CHERN'S FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Chern's has enjoyed strong financial performance over the last few years. Over the past 5 years, the company's share price has increased 134 percent, and the comgeny's revcnues have grown at an annualized rate of 9 percent. Revenues and net income have grown as all the firm's stores have reported sales increases every year over the past 3 years. Growing revemues and income have provided the company with the financial base and stability it needs for further expansion. Chern's' Syear zrowth strategy is to open - 15 new stores a year and to continue to grow at an annaal rate of 9 percent. Figure A-2 shows the company's revenue, gross profit, and net income trends for the last 3 years. The company's good financial performance has translated into strong operating cash flow, giving it the option of reinvesting in its business, buying back shares, or passing some of its carnings to investors in the form of dividends. Fipure A-3 shows Chern's' operating cash fow trend over the past 3 years. Chern's has funded its expansion using its carnings rather than by taking on debt. The company believes that its conservative debt policies and strong cash flow help create shareholder value by enabling it to expand into new markets CHERN'S HUMAN RESOURCES Across its 140 stores, Chern's-averages one store manager, eieht department managerk. eight assistant department managers, and approximately 100 fulltime and 25 part-time sales associates per atore. At the current time, in addition to maintenance, security, and other roles, Chern's compamywide store employees include: FGGURE A-3 - Three-Year Cash Flow Trend for Chern's - 140 store managers - 1.120 department managers - 1,120 assistant department managers - 14,000 fulltime sales associates - 3,500 parttime sales associates. Fulltime employees receive a zenerous benefits packapr. 2 weels paid vacation, and are eligible for bonuses. Parttime employees are considered members of the core workforce and receive proratod benefits and bonuses. Because it foels that they would not reinforce its culture, Chern's does not currently utilize temporary or contingent workers of any kind. Turnover among its fulhime sales issociates has been relatively sthble, av. eraging 20 percent over the past 3 years. Turnover among the cornpany's parttime sales associates has also been relatively low compared to similar retail operations, averaging 15 percent over the past 3 years. The part-time sales associates are used to increase the number of eales associates on the floor during peak periods, incloding sules and holidays. The human resource manapement department at Chern's penerally does a good job supporting the company's business strategy. The company's compensation, performance management, and training are all designed to get sales associates up to spoed and selling quickly. The base pay they earn is 20 percent above the market avenge, and Chern's matches in their 401(k) plans up to 10 percent of their base pay. Twenty percent of a sales associate's bonus is tied to the person's customer service performance as rated by his or her department manager, 40 perecnt is basod on individual sales performance in relation to that person's sales target, and 40 percent is based on owerall store sales. New employees have a reduced sales target for their first year. Sales ansociates can earn up to 100 percent of their base pay in bonuses based on both cales and customer satisfaction rating. Top performers at Chern's earn weil above the market average in pay. Semiannual performance evaluations assess sales associates' initiative, customer service behaviors, conorker support behaviors, and leadership. Raises to an associate's base salary include a cost-oftiving adjastment based on inflation, and from 0 to 10 percent based on the department manager's perception of the sales associate's performance, adherence to compamy values, and leadership contributions. Sales asceciates are also given 10 personal days, including sick days, and gencrous health and dental benefits. If a sales associate refers a candidate to Chern's, and the person is hired, the company gives the employee a $1,000 refermal bonus after the new hire passes the 6 -month mark with strong performance. Chern's imests a lot of moncy in training and developing its new hires. New hires undengo a 2-day orientation. Fach then receives onthejob training from his or her department manager and shadows another sales associate for one week. Employees roceive additional trainint if they fail to reach their sales quotas 2 months in a tow, Sales associates who fail to reach their quotas 4 months in a row are given a warning. Those who fail to meet their quotas 5 months in a row are terminated. Ongoing training in fashion trends and fashion retailing are provided throushou the year to all sales associates. Sales associates can use the store's technology to identify bow they are performing relative to their quotas, Chern's expects its cmployess to be relatively "lech savyy" and be willing and able to quickly learn its compoter and appbased systems. Customer infor. mation, including information about their previous purchases and fachion preferences, is stored in the cloud for fast rotricval. Chern's uses techmology to give its buyers foedback about its customers' preferences and purchasing trends. The company's sales associates are also roquired to track information about customers' incquiries and unfilled requests for particular types of clothing and sires. This is critical because it helps each department better track its imentory and quickly adjust its prodoct mix and siaes to meet the chang ing demands of its customers. Sales associates can also ure an app to chock inventory at other Chern's locations to better aswis clients in locating desired products. THE COMPETIIION CHERN'S FACES Chern's primary competitors inclode Nondstrom. Dilland's. Barney's. Nicman Marcus, and Saks Finth Avenue. Table A1 shones the previous and current year's cales, net income, and employee headcount for Chera's relative to its cotrpetitors. At Chern's. sales associates euecute the oompany's customer service stratery by relation to that person's sales target, and 40 percent is based on overall store sales. New employees have a reduced sales target for their first year. Sales associates can earn up to 100 percent of their base pay in bonuses based on both sales and customer satisfaction ratings. Top performers at Chern's earn well above the market average in pay. Semiannual performance svaluations assess sales associates' initiative, customer service behaviors, conorker support behaviors, and leadership. Raises to an associate's base salary include a cost-ofliving adjustment based on inflation, and from 0 to 10 percent based on the department manager's perveption of the sales associate's performance, adherence to company values, and leadership contributions. Sales assocites are ako given 10 personal days, including sick days, and gencrous health and dental benefits. If a sales associate refcrs a candidate to Chern's, and the person is hired, the company gives the employee a $1,000 referral bonus after the new hire passes the 6 -month mark with strong performance. Chern's invests a lot of moncy in training and developing its new hires. New hires undergo a 2-day orientation. Each then receives on-thejob training from his or her department manager and shadows another sales associate for one week. Employees roceive additional training if they fail to reach their sales quotas 2 months in a row. Sales associates who fail to reach their quotas 4 months in a row are given a warning. Those who fail to meet their quotas 5 months in a row are terminated. Ongoing training in fashion trends and fashion retailing are provided throughout the year to all sales associates. Sales associates can use the store's technology to identify bow they are performing relative to their quotas. Chern's expects its employees to be relatively "tech savy" and be willing and able to quickly learn its computer and app-based systems. Customer information, including information about their previous purchases and fashion prefgrences, is stored in the cloud for fast retricval. Chern's uses technology to give its buyers feedback about its customers' preferences and purchasing trendx. The company's sales associates are also required to track information about customers' inquiries and unfilled requests for particular types of clothing and sizes. This is critical because it helps each department better track its inventory and quickly adjust its product mix and sires to meet the chang: ing demands of its customers. Sales associates can also use an app to chock inventory at other Chern's locations to better assist clients in locating desired products. THE COMPETITION CHERN'S FACES Chern's primary competitors include Nordstrom, Dillard's, Barney's, Nicman Marcus. and Saks Fifth Avenue. Table A-1 shows the previous and current year's sales, net income, and employce headcount for Chern's relative to its competitors. At Chern's, sales associates execute the company's customer service stratesy by building longterm relationships with their clientele. Sales associates feel empowered, and their business frecdom is strongly supported by the corporation as long as the cmployees work hard and do their best. Chern's tries to hire ethical sales associaies with an entreprencurial spirit, a drive to be successful, and a desire to make money. The sales force's accountability for results and Chern's high expectations of them means that Chern's wants to hire only elite sales associates. The levels of customer service eacellence and sales siills required by Chern's employees are not the same for most other retail firms. Highend retailers, such as Neiman Marcus and Nordvtrom, tend to compete more directly with Chern's for hires than do competitors such as Dillard's and Foderated Department Stores, which focus less on customer service. The quality of Chern's sales force has enabled it to offer employees considerable upwand mobit ity within the compary, which is unusual for a retailer. Chern's tries to fill at least 75 percent of its department manager and assistant department manager positions internally, whereas most of its competifors fill their management positions externally, 82 percent of the current department managers and assistant department managers at Chern's once worked as sales associates for the firm. Promotion from within is important to the company. Both Ryan and Ann strongly believe that internal hires reinforve the company's strong culture. To provide the highest-quality customer service and capture market share, Chern's knows it needs to hire the ripht sales associaies. Although the compary's strong culture and high quality initially attracted a sufficient number of talented sales asvociates who shared the firmi's values, the competition for takented sales associates has been heating up. As a result. Chern's is finding it harder to staff and retain the level of sales talent it needs. The sales associates at Chern's are usually the lop performers in the netail industry, so they are never easy to find. Because of the importance of hiring the right salespoople, and their expectation that staffing this important position will become more difficult in the future, Ann and Ryan have decided to launch a strategic analysis of how Chern's staffs itssetes associate positions and have asked for your belp. STRATEGIC STAFFING AT CHERN'S: CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER CASE ASSIGNMENTS At the end of each of the chapters in this book, you will have an assignment for the case study that applies concepts from that chapter. The eatire list of assigninents can le found at the ead of this appendix, jast before the candidate rsumes are presented. Using this summary list of assignments as a checkist can belp ensure that you cocnplete alf parts The levels of customer service excellence and sales skills required by Chern's employees are not the same for most other retail firms. Highend retailers, such as Neiman Mareus and Nordstrom, tend to compete more direetly with Chern's for hires than do competitors such as Dillard's and Federated Department Stores, which focus less on customer service. The quality of Chern's sales force has enabled it to offer employees considernble upward mobit ity within the company, which is unusual for a retailer. Chern's tries to fill at least 75 percent of its department manager and assistant department manager positions internally, whereas most of its competitors fill their management positions externally; 82 pervent of the current department managers and assistant department managers at Chern's once worked as sales associates for the firm. Promotion from within is important to the company. Both Ryan and Ann strongly believe that internal hires reinforce the company's strong culture. To provide the highest-quality customer service and capture market share, Chern's knows it needs to hire the right sales associates. Although the company's strong culture and high quality initially attracted a sufticient number of talented sales associates who shared the firm's values, the competition for talented sales associates has been beating up. As a result. Chern's is finding it harder to staff and retain the level of sales talent it needs. The sales associates at Chern's are usually the lop performers in the retail industry, so they are never easy to find. Because of the importanoe of hiring the right salespeople, and their expectation that staffing this important position will become more ditficult in the future, Ann and Ryan have decided to taunch a strategic anabysis of how Chern's staffs its sales aspociate positions and have asked foc your help. STRATEGIC STAFFING AT CHERN'S:CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER CASE ASSIGNMENTS At the end of each of the chapters in this book, you will have an assignment for the case study that applies concepts from that chapter. The eatire list of assignments can be foend the ead of this appendix, Jast belore the candidate rikumes are presented. Using this summary list of asignments as a checklist can help ensure that you complete all parts of each chapter's assignment and better understand the scope of the entire project.-To do a good job, expect the fnal project to be at least 2530 poges in lengh. Remember. though, that report iength i not what matters-doing thorough analysis, applying chapter content, and coming up with realistic recommendations for Chern's and communicating them clearly using pasiness writing inchuding tables and flgures as appropriate is the goal. Giving your croup a consulting compary name and formating the report at a cogaulting report as if you were hired by Chern's might help you get into the right frame of mind to do this well. The assignments put you in the role of an external staffing consultant hired by Chern's. Your job is to conduct a strategic analysis of how it staffs its sales associate positions. Your final product will require you to combine each of the chapter assignments into a cohesive report, including a table of contents and any necessary appendices. Remember, format your report as a professional product that you would give to the organization. Don't refer to chapters: refer to topics and business zoals, Chern's is decentralized, which means that your report will be distributed to many store managers, many of whom are unfamiliar with staffing terminology and jargon. Write your report so that they under. stand and adopt your recommendations and are committed to implementing the changes you've suggested. You might want to keep a copy of the final report to show potential employers the type of strategic staffing work you are capable of performing. CHAPTER 1:STRATEGIC STAFFING In this chapter, you learned that the strategic staffing process is guided by hiring goals that are clearly linked to an organization's strategies and objectives. The goal of strategic staffing is to enable the organization to better execute its business strategy. There are two types of staffing goals process goals and outcome goals. Process goals relate fo the hir ing process itself, and outcme goak apply to the product of the hiring effort. Table 1-2 gives examples of both types of staffing goals, and Table I-3 gives you some questions to consider in setting appropriate stafting goals. Your consulting assignment for Chapter t is to identify realistic process and outcome goals for staffing of sales associate positions at Chern's. Be sure to relate your goals to the firm's business strategy and explain why each is important and should be adopted by the company. Assignment a. Identify realistic longterm and short-term process and outcome goals for sales associate hiring at Chern's. b. Ensure that your goals are related to Chern's business strategy and explain why each is important. CHAPTER 2: BUSINES AND STAFPING STRATEGIES In this chapter, you learned about how a firm's business strategy and talent phillosophy shape its human resources (HR) strategy, which then influences the firm's staffine strateg: After Ryan and Ann learned about this process, they felt that the company needed to develop a more formal talent philosophy of its owa to shape its HR and staffing stralery. They have asked you for your recommendations. Chapter 2 und Tables 2-4 and 2-5 should help you identify key components of means that your report will be distributed to many store managers. many or whom are unfamiliar with staffing terminology and jargon. Write your report so that they understand and adopt your recommendations and are committed to implementing the changes you've sugested. You might want to keep a copy of the final report to show potential employers the type of strategic staffing work you are capable of performing. CHAPTER 1:STRATEGIC STAFFING In this chapter, you learned that the strategic staffing process is guided by hiring goals that are clearly linked to an organization's strategies and objectives. The goal of strategic staffing is to enable the organization to better execute its business strategy. There are two types of staffing goals: process goals and outcome goals. Prreess gouls relate to the hiring process itself, and oukcome goaks apply to the product of the hiring effort. Table I-2 grves examples of both types of staffing goals, and Table 1-3 gives you some questions to consider in setting appropriate staffing goak. Your consulting assignment for Chapter 1 is to identify realistic process and outcome goals for staffing of sales associate positions at Chern's. Be sure to relate your goals to the firm's business strategy and explain why each is important and should be adopted by the company. Assignment 2. Identify realistic longterm and short-term process and outcome goals for sales associate hiring at Chern's. b. Ensure that your goals are relaied to Chern's business strategy and explain why each is important. CHAPTER 2: BUSINESS AND STAFFNG STRATEGIES In this chapter, you learned about how a firm's business strategy and talent philosophy shape its human resources (HR) strategy, which then influences the firm's staffing strateqy. After Ryan and Ann learned about this process, they felt that the company needed to develop a more formal talent philosophy of its own to shape its HR and staffing strategy. They have asked you for your recommendations. Chapter 2 and Tables 2-4 and 2-5 should help you identify key components of an appropriate talent philosophy, human resource strategy, and staffing philosophy for Chern's. Be sure to consider the company's business strategy and competitive advantage. life stage, and the company's values and culture when making your recommendations: You should also clarify how putting the right talent in the company's sales associate pos itions can create a competitive advantage for Chern's. In addition to developing a formal talent philosophy, HR stratery, and specifie staff. ing strategy, you also need to explain how Chern's should address cach of the nihe strategic staffing decisions listed in Table 2-6 for the sales associate position, and justify your reasoning. For example, the firt decision is whether Chern's should establish a core or This chapter's Chern's case study assignment is to: d. Write a two-page or less executive summary of the entire a. Create a digital staffing dashboard with the five most set of recommendations, and place it at the front of the important indicators of the overall staffing process. report. The purpose of the executive summary is not to restate all of your findings but to explain to a potential b. Recommend various staffing technologies to enhance reader what you were hired to do and what some of the the performance and efficiency of the staffing system. key findings are. Think as if you picked up the report c. Thoroughly explain your recommendations and why track and persuade the company to consider adopt- What information would you want to see in the execu- ing them. tive summary to help you understand what reading the report will tell you? Absenteeism Overtime Hours So 7.7 days 1.5hrs manensilesenese Training Costs Overall Labor Effectiveness (OLE) Training costs By Trairing Years And Dureton Of Training