Patricia Atwell had just accepted a position as the HR Head for the Mountain Dew Resort in

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Patricia Atwell had just accepted a position as the HR Head for the Mountain Dew Resort in California. The resort

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s profitability was declining, and Patricia had been hired to evaluate the situation from an HR perspective and to make recommendations to the headquarters management. Feeling a little over

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whelmed by this task, Patricia pondered where to start.

There had been an extreme high employee turnover rate in the past few years, the quality of the resort $’$ s service had declined and many regular clients were not returning. Patricia decided to start with the clients by interviewing some of them and asking others to fill out a common slip about the resort. Many clients criticized the poor service from every type of staff member. One regular client said $“$ This used to be a happy, efficient place. Now I don $’$ t even know if I will come back next year; the atmosphere among the workers seems dismal; nobody ever looks happy $” .$ After reviewing the customer comments card, Patricia decided to investigate staff relations and job performance at the resort

Patricia began to investigate trends and practices regarding hiring and placement. In reviewing the files, she noticed that the labor pool had become increasingly diverse in the last few years, reflecting the general labor market trends in that area. The majority of the employees at the resort represented a number of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and many were recent immigrants. Many were unskilled and had little schooling, yet they were placed straight into their jobs. The management and office staff was also quite diversified, yet even with their higher education and skill level, there was considerable turnover. While glancing through the files, Patricia noticed a letter of resignation in the file of a reservations office clerk, Maria Martinez. Underneath that letter was a copy of a memo from the resort manager to Ms $.$ Martinez, reprimanding her for consuming alcoholic beverages on the premises. Patricia sought out Ms $.$ Martinez and asked her why she was leaving. Ms $.$ Martinez was clearly angry and hurt as she explained that the previous week she had a bad cold, but did not want to miss any work. So $,$ she was in the habit of sipping from a bottle of matta, a non $-$ alcoholic barley beverage popular in the Spanish speaking Caribbean. She said the manager kept walking past her office and looking in at her. The next day she received the reprimand, but when she tried to talk to him about it $,$ he refused to meet with her.

Patricia decided to get out among the employees $-$ to talk to them and observe them on the job. She started her departmental evaluations in the kitchen where she found a m $é$ lange of cultures; the French chef was screaming directions, mostly in French, to his assistants and the waiters, who seemed to be Haitian, Spanish and Asian. Many seemed confused about what they should do but did not say anything.

Patricia approaches you as her HR Consultant for advice. Analyze the above situation, and then recommend the top $3$ high level Action Steps $($ Strategic $)$ from an HR perspective which Patricia would need to implement in this situation in order for her to succeed in her new role, and to help the organization regain its past glory? Justify your response suitably.