Identifying And Solving Low Employee Morale In Verbeek Export

Background of Verbeek Export

Discuss about the Corporate sustainability responsibility education.

Business problem is anything that inhibits the growth and profitability of a business. In the case of Verbeek Export a flower exporting company, low employee morale has identified as a problem and is leading to decreased productivity. A research is to be conducted in relation to the identified problem to evaluate its impact to the company and try and find a solution. (Vagts, Koh, Dodge and Buxbaum 2015)

Verbeek Export is a flower selling company that was established in September 1975 by Hans Verbeek. Through the years the company has transitioned from selling flowers in bunches to selling in full units. Over the years the company has grown and has since increased its services from the initial three countries, that is, France, Switzerland and Sweden to several other European countries. In the 1980s, the company expanded its operations in Switzerland and begun their own flower line in 1985 to supply the Swiss who had a great interest to see, smell and feel flowers. The company provided door to door delivery but now it goes by the name Schwyz flowers. In 2006, Hans Verbeek handed over the company to his sons Robert and Martijin.  Mission of the company is becoming a trend setting flower supplier in Europe and Scandanavia. (Bonner, Greenbaum, and Mayer, 2016).

Following low productivity leading to a fall in profits, the company decided to do a survey with regard to the issue.

The following table shows a simple data set to prove this.

Profits in year 2014/2015	£2.5b
Profits in year 2015/2016	£2.31b
Profits in year 2016/2017	£1.96b

For output in tonnes

Output in tones	10000
Output in tones	9567
Output in tones	8832

From the above data, it is evident there is a decrease in both profit and output.

Employee satisfaction surveys were done and it was discovered that that there was an issue with their morale. The employees were suffering a low morale. The highest level of profitability and productivity are attained when the employees are highly motivated thus has a high morale. (Minor, Well, Lambert and Keller 2014)

Due to low employee morale, their quality of work has decreased especially in the flower cutting process leading to orders being rejected by clients and increased wastage in terms of spoilt flowers thus leading to decrease in profits. Also some clients have terminated their contracts with the company due to low quality flowers and not meeting their orders in terms of quantity. However, the red flag for low employee morale was when recently the company had invited its employees for a party but only a few of them attended. Also the highly rated individuals are no longer going the extra mile and are just contented to do their basic issues (Bonner, Greenbaum, and Mayer 2016).

Identified Problem of Low Employee Morale

Following the employee satisfaction survey, the company intends to rectify this by finding the root problem behind the low employee morale. The company will review several secondary information sources to try and understand and resolve the problem. The secondary sources are used to explain the primary sources and this case is questionnaires from employee satisfaction.

The company used several secondary sources to cement the findings of the research and draw up the questionnaire.. The secondary sources used were;

1. Interviews with participants. This gives us first hand information on the situation and is in the form of questionnaires.
2. Magazines and journals on low employee morale. They contain similar problem from other companies and suggested and tried out solutions.
3. Government records. These are records in government achieves in relation to investigations conducted for the low self esteem for employees.
4. Scholarly articles on the problems of low employee morale. These are articles written by students and academicians. These articles are quite informative since they include well researched articles from many references.
5. The internet. The internet is very informative with regards to numerous topics via page such as Wikipedia.

It was agreed upon that past interviews with employees was the most appropriate and thus we looked into details the previous questionnaires with same problem as follows:

Question	Relevance	Justification
1.      Are you able to manage your work load effectively?	This question seeks to establish whether the workers are being over worked and if the time allocated to complete the jobs is sufficient enough. Huge work load causes stress leading to poor quality of work.	There should be a basic level of output required from a healthy person and this question justifies the issue. If work load falls below the minimum level required it can then be argued that the blame should be on the employees probably because of reasons such as laziness,
2.      How do you regard your co-workers?	The question seeks to establish if there exists a good relationship among the employees. If the relationship between the employees is sour, then the employer can come up with team building activities and exercises.	Working relationships are very crucial and contribute a lot towards desired output.
3.      How do you perceive the morale in the company?	By asking employees this question, you get to find out firsthand a report on the ground about the morale their fellow employees. The question is an efficient way to get the report since employees are in direct contact to each other.	One is able to get a direct feedback from the employees which can be very reliable if the answers given are genuine.
4.      How can you describe your relationship with your supervisors?	The question seems to establish if the supervisors are the cause of the low morale for example by being too harsh on the employees thus demoralizing them or being biased say in duty allocation.	Some supervisors may be harsh or on a witch hunt against some employees. For the said reason this could be a major inhibitor and probably the primary cause for employees to feel aggrieved.
5.      How satisfied are you will your current salary?	The works may have a low morale if they feel they are not getting paid enough or their annual increment is not enough. Also the company can compare the salary with other companies in the same line of production.	A well paid employee is a happy one and happy employee equates to above average productivity.
6.      How do you regard the promotion policy in this company?	This question seeks to establish whether the employees are satisfied with the way the company promotes its staff. It also seeks to establish if the employees feel they get recognition for their work.	If employees feel that they are recognized for their effort, then their morale will definitely be low. Recognition in this case involves promotions other incentives such as bonuses.
7.      Given a chance, what would you improve on in the company?	The question seeks to establish the flaws the employees think the company may have. If the company thinks the flaws are genuine, then they should improve on them.	This gives the company a rough idea of how to reverse the situation based on employee thoughts. That is, the employer has a clear view of both sides of the coin (employee and employer) with regards to the solution.
8.      Is there anything that causes frustration at work?	It is aimed at establishing if there could be other factors such as noise or issues to do with IT that may be a hindrance thus causing their morale to dwindle.	Minor issues can be really annoying which can kill the morale of the workers. They can range from excessive noise or even slow internet.
9.      Are you familiar with other companies in the same industry as this one?	It could be that the employees are familiar with similar companies which probably pay better, have better incentives for workers or their policies are better. This will make the employees feel used and as a result lower their morale.	This is to help standardize issues such as pay or policies for all workers in a certain industry thus avoiding low morale.

The questionnaire was written by a professional thus it was standard and covered all the aspects of a good questionnaire in the process avoiding any ambiguity. Since the questionnaires were answered by individuals, the different answers were compared against each other to check for any similar trends. It was noted that some answers to several questions were very similar.

Analytical tools such as charts and graphs of past output and profits were also looked to establish when the trend started.  The information was gathered from past records and scholarly articles. Also, there was a comparison between productivity in the various working shifts. Data collected and statistics taken were delegated to an external firm. Outsourcing the services with regards to statistics and data collection was necessary so as to avoid biasness or cover ups. Also the information was expected to be reliable since the firm contacted was highly rated and had a good reputation with regards to their professionalism.

The company was able to establish that the work load was unbalanced. This information was verified against past employee interviews with the same problem. The employees work for long hours without a break thus they tend to get worn out. This in turn affects the quality of work explaining the many spoilt flowers. Thus the company has proposed to introduce a 15 minute break after every two hours of work. Also after further analysis it was established that some employees who quit the company went to join a rival company. These were some of the best employees thus it partially explains why the productivity dropped.

There was also comparison of other company records with regards to payment. It was therefore established that the rival company pays at a higher rate than Verbeek Export. Having noted that, the company concluded that it should review its mode of payment and adopt the piece rate payment. This would definitely increase production since the employees will only be paid proportionately to their work output. Several employees would also be promoted to supervise a group of 10 workers and their main duty is to ensure the workers output quality meets the set standards. It was also to introduce new bonuses on best performing employees (Paterson, Luthans, and Jeung, 2014).

Surveys and Data Analysis

Other non cash incentives such as trips and events tickets to the best performing employees were introduced. The company can also sponsor social events such as football team and office picnics. These incentives would go a long way in improving productivity and boosting the morale of employees. Another revelation made from the investigation was that the relationship between supervisors and other employees is a strained one. To rectify this, team building exercises such as problem solving games like picture piece game or communication games like two truths and lies would be conducted regularly. This would ensure improved communication, morale and helps employees to know each other better thus eventually leading to increased productivity.(Indjejikian, Mat?jka, Merchant and Van der Stede 2014).

After thorough research it was also discovered that daily huddles would boost employee morale. Huddles are brief meetings held on a regular basis. In these meeting you get share actions and progress.  Huddles improve communication and workers are made aware that they are working towards the same goal thus increased collaboration. Also as a company, you should take time to celebrate accomplishments thus helps employees appreciate how much they have done. The employees also feel they are important to the contact as a cog in a machine and this boosts their morale.(Chen, Eberly, Chian, Farh and Cheng 2014)

It was also discovered it was critical to give employees time off to pursue personal projects. In so doing, you break the monotony of work and personal projects tend to energize the persons doing them. Thus, on coming back to work, employees will feel motivated and their morale will be high thus increasing their productivity. Also introduce sessions to train employees to develop a positive attitude. The moderators of the sessions should be professionals. (White 2014)

Research should also be conducted on how competitive companies go about their business in terms of their employee welfare and consolidate this with their own employees making sure your employees are better or at least at par with other companies’ employees.  This can be done by reviewing past records of companies and data previously collected for similar problems. If the employees know that their company has better incentives and say remuneration than other competitive firms, this will lead to high morale and increased productivity.(Townley 2014)

Another important factor is to investigate if there are any trouble makers. From previous cases read in journals and business magazines, it was clear that trouble makers can be out to sabotage the company. The company could be doing everything right but employees are responsible for demoralizing their colleagues probably via badmouthing the company or through the media.  Such investigations should be based on disgruntled employees. From previous cases it was found relevant to conduct background checks on employees to see if there are any red flags. (Minor, K. I., Wells Lambert and Keller 2014)

Strategies to Improve Employee Morale

Conclusion

After gathering all the information pertaining to the issue of low morale, the company should do an analysis of the information with the necessary professionals. Also, the company should call a meeting with its employees and get an opinion with regards to solutions the company intends to put in place. To avoid fear of discrimination or alienation, the company should adopt a method such as secret ballot or a suggestion box so that the employees feel comfortable due to anonymity.  This ensure there is inclusivity in decision making and the employees get to feel they matter since they are consulted on matters pertaining running the company. Also as a result of inclusivity, the employee tends to have a sense of belonging and thereby resulting to a boost in their morale. (Ortlieb and Sieben 2014).

Lastly, the employer should spell out what is expected from each employee and should come up with ways to ensure they employees understand this. This may include fresher courses, impromptu inspection of employees when at work or even delegation of special duties to employees with the professional know how or qualification. (Camilleri  2016).

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