Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc. (BIMS) provides food, hospitality, housekeeping and physical plant services for the staff and patients at the Douglas Medical Center. Barbara Tucker, the general manager for this site, has noticed that the morale of her employees has been declining for the past several months. The expected turnover rate is 55-60% annually in this industry. This rate has increased to 64% over the last four months (BIMS Part 1). The use of sick time has increased, overall performance is poor and complaints from the hospital staff are on the rise. Barbara and her management team have not been able to determine why morale is down. The exit interviews that are currently used are not pinpointing the reasons why employees are leaving.
Conclusions
The data used in the survey is beneficial to the research into why employment morale has decreased for the past several months. Therefore, a questionnaire was designed to examine dependent variable which, “is the key factor that you want to explain or predict and that is affected by some other factors …scholars have emphasized productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and job satisfaction” (Robbins & Judge p. 25). BIMS is experiencing problems with several dependant variables, the focus of this paper examines turnover, which is increasing for BIMS. Each question of the survey addresses issues that require involvement from management. Issues like whether or not they received proper training and if specific requests from employees were answered by management. All of these questions in the survey are examining a dependant variable, (e.g. turnover) directed toward the performance of management to control said in a positive manner. All of which, are important aspects that management should be aware of as well.
If managers and supervisors are not concerned about how their employees feel in the end, if they fail to delegate or use participative management to engage employees in the decision-making process the result will be a high turnover rate. Asking these questions on an anonymous basis will allow the employees to feel comfortable and give honest responses. However, one thing to consider is allowing time for employees to do the survey at work, asking all employees to participate, and collect the completed survey. In addition, some marketing research practitioners are confident with the validity of the surveys if 30% survey is completed. Encouraging employees to complete the survey on the job, this will ensure returns much higher than 30%.
The data in the research is appropriate for the study because it guided toward questionings that examine both the positive and negative impact management has on the employees new and old. Unfortunately, all of the response to the questions in the survey was negative as outlined herein above. BIMS management team has an enormous task ahead to improve morale based on the survey results.
Descriptive Statistics Analysis
Measure of Central Tendencies
1- Range 2.01- 2.87
2- Mean 2.65
3- Median 2.77
In the survey, total four questions were researched and constructed. These questions include ten morale questions and 4 demographic questions. The number of associates in the survey given was 449, but response was recorded from only 78 associates. The response rate of the survey is 17.3%. In ten of those 14 questions, there were just MCQs to choose from with options of
· Very negative
· Negative
· Satisfied
· Positive
· Very Positive
The results of the survey showed that the most common rating for each of these questions was 2 which are considered low on the scale of 1-5. Therefore, there has been a whole area and a chance of improvement. The top four questions with the lowest rankings are following:
Question 10: You do not fear that you will lose your job.
Question 01: How well re you enjoying working for BIMS?
Question 09: The Company is good at communicating.
Question 06: You are paid fairly for the work you are doing.
The ratings increase from first of these four questions to last with the top one getting 35 ratings and bottom one with 43 ratings. The middle two of them got 36 and 41 ratings.
Recommendations to Management
Barbara Tucker noticed that morale of the employees was down and turnover rates were low for the last four months period. The exit surveys were not sufficient to indentify why these employees were unhappy with their jobs. When the workers of company are not motivated to perform their jobs on the workspace, it impacts a lot the performance and success of a company. Low morale leads to poor productivity, poor performance, absenteeism, high number of customer complaints and increase in the turnover. This can only be happened due to disconnection between the employees and the company management. The continuity in this kind of trend can hurt BIMS’s chances of renewing its contract with the medical center. When turnover rates are high, it will also increase the training costs for new employees. Different proposals can be proposed to management. Here is one of the proposals that focus on five major areas.
· Shift preference
· Fair pay
· Communication
· Recognition
· Fair treatment
Shift Preference and Flextime
There are number of shifts available to cover a 24/7 position. BIMS should do its best to accommodate shift assignment preferences whenever it is possible for them. This is equally important for employees and their families. The purpose of this accommodation is to help employees maintain a balance between their work and personal lives. It will also help in reduction of sick time because number of times employees cannot reach to job because they are sick. Flextime schedule allows variations in the start time and ending time of employee’s duties. This schedule also helps employees to manage their personal life along with job.
Fair Pay
This should also be noted that salary of the employees should be evaluated based on similar businesses in the industry. This will help the management of BIMS to ensure that employees are not getting out of the industry because other companies are offering more salaries.
Communication
It has been mentioned earlier that disconnection between management and employees result in low morale. BIMS needs to take some input from the staff on the regular basis about how to improve the performance of the company. Employees working on the front lines may have good suggestions about the company’s operations. Taking feedback from employees not only increase interaction between management and employees, but also reduces uncertainty what is going on with the business making them feel that they are part of the business culture.
Recognition
BIMS management team should give special note when employees start working above or below the normal duties. It is also the company’s management responsibility to recognize the career milestones of any employee. They should take events of employee like hiring anniversary date seriously and arrange parties if possible. Cash bonuses can also be used for the employees who perform better and achieve their goals of the month well before the deadline. One of the reasons of more concentration of job recognition is to make employees feel that they are part of the business for a very long time and will stay for more time in the future. (Biro, 2013)
Fair treatment
All employees need to feel that they can visit the management at any time without facing any difficulties for complaints and grievance. It should be the responsibility of company to offer professional work environment in which each employee is treated equally.
There are specific areas revealed from BIMS survey results. Management can focus on those areas to improve morale and decrease the turnover rate. Every employee wants to be respected, want fair pay, balanced family and work life and appreciation. Happy employees will yield great results.
References
Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc., Part 1, University Of Phoenix
Biro, M. M. (2013). 5 Ways Leaders Rock Employee Recognition. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2013/01/13/5-ways-leaders-rock- employee-recognition/
Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S.A. (2011). Basic Statistics for Business and Economics (7th Ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
McClave, J.T., Benson, P.G., & Sincich, T. (2011). Statistics for Business and Economics (11th Ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson-Prentice Hall.
Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T.A., (2011) Organizational Behavior, (14th Ed). Upper Saddle River NJ, Pearson-Prentice Hall.
Data Collection: Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc.
Introduction
Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc. (BIMS) provides housekeeping and foodservices[PD1] to very large corporate and businesses for a fee. BIMS employs approximately 452 employees of with includes full-time and part-time workers as well as upper management employees. The turnover rate averages about 55 to 60%. BIMS records for the past four months shows that the turnover rate increased more 64%. With the unsuccessful attempt managements to reach the issue for the high turnover rate; Team C has come to the conclusion that with low morale at BIMS and the increase of sick leave, the performance of the workers are not the best and this cause a number of complaints from the customers. Team C will use the data collection to address the issues at hand[PD2] .
Data Collection Instrument
The instrument used for the collection of data was a survey. This survey was ten questions to help determine how the employees feel about their job. Since the surveys were anonymous, it will help the results be more accurate. In this particular case the data collected was will initially use the quantitative collection method. This relies on a collection of answers based from a structured survey. The results are used to summarize and compare between the departments and manager or supervisor and the relationship between gender and the length of employment. Once the survey results have been completed the collection method will then become qualitative research. The research becomes more personal will gain more understanding of the underlying reasons for the low morale at BIMS. For these results to continue to work the recorded results need to be more accurate.
Types of Data
BIMS has over the past couple months’ notice a big drop in the employee morale and work ethic. With this the higher management has become concerned about the staff’s higher turnover rate. With accompany that differentiates itself in an extremely competitive trade by uniting several services like housekeeping, foodservice, general cleaning, and physical plant maintenance. The management needs to question which department shows the most decrease in moral and attendance. From the employees that are showing lack of interest in their job, have they been there over 12 months? With that to be found out, are the supervisors not doing their jobs? These are all the questions that need to be researched. The hypothesis is that the majorities are unsatisfied with how things are going at BIMS and the mode will be in favor of the males and regular working employees.
Levels of Measurement[PD3]
To assign a level of measurement to each of the variables one needs to figure out if the variable is qualitative or quantitative then if it is nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio. These are the levels of measurement. Nominal level will tell if the variable can only be categorized and no natural numerical is associated with it. An ordinal level of measurement is assigning a numerical to the category with no further mathematical use. The interval level is when there is a consistent difference between numerical values. The ratio level of measurement is when there is a meaningful 0 (zero) point with all other characteristics of the three other levels of measurement.
The following are the variable and the levels of measurement for each. The first 10 are based on a 1-5 scale. One being very negative and five being very positive.
1. How well do you enjoy working for BIMS? 1. qualitative – ordinal
2. You enjoy your assigned shift. 2. qualitative – ordinal
3. Your request for your desired shift was fulfilled. 3. qualitative – ordinal
4. How many times have you called in sick in the last month? 4. quantitative – ratio
5. You are well trained for your work. 5. qualitative – ordinal
6. You are paid fairly for the work you do. 6. qualitative – ordinal
7. Your supervisor treats you fairly. 7. qualitative – ordinal
8. Your supervisor’s boss treats your division fairly. 8. qualitative – ordinal
9. The company is good at communicating. 9. qualitative – ordinal
10. You do not fear that you will lose your job. 10.qualitative – ordinal
A. In which division do you work? A. Food: _ Housekeeping: _ Maintenance: _ qualitative – nominal
B. How long have you worked for BIMS? B. Years: _____ Months: _____quantitative – ratio
C. What is your gender? C. Female: _____ Male: _____ qualitative – nominal
D. Are you a manager or supervisor? D. Yes: _____ No: _____ qualitative – nominal
Data Coding
Coding is going to be applied to the last four question A. – D. These questions are going to be coded accordingly. A. food=1, housekeeping=2, maintenance=3. B. years and months were all converted into months to make it easier to read. C. female=1, male=2. D. yes=1, no=2. These are coded so that they are able to be put into a bar graph or chart to go along with the rest of the data collected. The first 10 questions are evaluated on a 1-5 scale. These questions will be input as chosen and any information not given has been given a 0 (zero) to represent no input.
Unfortunately, there were several errors made when recording the survey results. Specifically, one employee mistyped “5” responses as “6” in several instances. Therefore, the data had to be scrubbed and verified as correct. The correct data is set forth in Appendix A hereto.
Appropriateness of Data
As presented, the data does seem to be appropriate in representing the morale of employees and their satisfaction in their work. Obviously, the data had to be sanitized and corrected due to input errors by the employee who translated that data.
78 of the r 449 employee population responded to the survey. This is only a 17.3% overall response rate according to University of Phoenix, 2011, BIMS. The survey did not allow for an accurate overall reading of the total working force. The management wanted to know honest feelings of their workers to fix the problems they have ongoing. Due to the lack of participation this was not accomplished ; however Team C gave them the bottom line upfront to help them with their issues
C
Appendix A
No. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 A B C D
1 3 4 0 1 5 1 3 0 3 2 3 37 2 2
2 5 5 5 5 5 3 5 5 2 5 1 12 1 2
3 1 2 1 5 5 1 1 1 1 1 2 76 1 2
4 2 5 3 3 2 4 5 1 3 4 2 3 2 1
5 4 4 5 1 4 1 3 3 2 4 2 16 1 2
6 5 2 5 4 3 3 2 1 2 1 1 52 1 2
7 0 1 4 5 3 2 5 4 2 1 1 8 2 2
8 1 3 2 2 5 2 4 5 3 2 2 28 0 2
9 3 3 1 4 4 2 2 2 2 4 3 15 2 1
10 5 1 3 2 2 2 1 4 1 1 1 83 2 2
11 5 4 3 3 1 3 3 2 2 1 2 21 1 1
12 4 5 1 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 1 216 2 2
13 2 2 4 0 3 3 1 3 3 3 1 27 1 1
14 1 4 5 5 1 3 4 0 2 1 2 5 1 2
15 3 2 2 4 4 0 5 5 3 4 3 27 2 2
16 3 3 4 1 5 2 2 4 4 5 2 16 2 2
17 1 3 2 1 2 3 4 1 2 2 1 4 1 2
18 4 0 3 2 4 1 2 1 1 4 2 58 2 2
19 5 5 3 5 2 1 3 2 3 2 1 108 0 1
20 2 4 2 1 3 2 3 5 3 3 2 82 2 2
21 4 1 5 5 4 3 5 2 1 3 1 43 2 2
22 2 1 4 2 2 1 5 4 3 0 0 14 1 0
23 3 2 1 3 5 4 4 2 2 5 2 96 1 2
24 3 5 1 2 4 2 1 3 2 4 2 251 2 2
25 2 1 2 2 1 3 1 2 4 1 3 87 1 1
26 5 4 5 3 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 15 1 2
27 4 2 1 5 2 2 5 3 3 2 2 7 2 2
28 1 3 4 4 5 3 1 5 3 5 2 36 2 2
29 1 2 2 4 1 2 4 4 2 1 1 139 1 2
30 2 2 3 2 4 1 2 4 1 4 1 47 2 0
31 5 3 2 2 2 4 3 2 4 2 2 14 2 2
32 1 5 2 3 3 2 2 2 1 3 1 9 2 2
33 4 4 3 1 2 2 2 3 1 2 3 7 1 2
34 2 4 5 1 2 3 3 1 2 2 2 116 2 2
35 3 2 4 2 3 1 5 1 3 3 1 73 2 1
36 2 2 4 5 5 1 4 2 1 5 1 157 1 2
37 2 3 2 4 4 2 4 5 3 4 2 14 2 2
38 3 1 2 2 4 1 2 4 2 4 1 2 1 2
39 5 1 3 1 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 69 2 2
40 4 2 1 0 2 2 3 1 2 2 1 14 2 1
41 4 5 1 3 3 1 1 0 2 3 2 67 2 2
42 2 4 2 2 1 0 1 3 3 1 2 44 1 2
43 2 2 5 1 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 60 2 2
44 3 1 4 4 2 2 5 1 4 2 1 8 2 1
45 1 0 2 3 5 1 4 4 2 5 2 57 2 2
46 1 3 1 2 4 1 2 3 2 4 2 277 1 2
47 2 2 5 5 2 3 1 2 2 2 1 328 2 2
48 5 1 3 3 1 2 5 5 3 1 2 57 2 2
49 4 4 2 2 5 2 3 3 1 0 1 97 1 2
50 2 3 1 1 3 3 2 2 1 3 2 54 2 2
51 1 2 4 4 2 2 1 1 2 2 3 17 2 2
52 5 5 3 4 1 1 4 4 3 1 1 6 2 2
53 3 3 2 1 4 2 3 4 2 4 2 209 1 2
54 2 2 5 2 3 4 2 1 2 3 1 96 2 2
55 1 1 3 5 2 1 5 2 1 2 1 5 2 1
56 4 4 2 2 5 2 3 5 3 5 2 6 2 2
57 3 4 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 3 2 12 2 2
58 2 1 4 3 2 2 1 3 2 2 1 4 2 2
59 5 2 4 2 1 3 4 3 1 1 2 7 2 2
60 3 5 1 3 0 3 4 2 1 4 3 19 1 2
61 2 2 2 2 4 2 1 3 3 4 2 119 2 2
62 1 3 5 1 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 53 2 2
63 4 3 2 4 2 2 5 1 2 2 2 22 2 1
64 4 2 3 5 5 1 2 4 3 5 1 14 2 2
65 1 3 3 2 2 4 3 5 2 2 2 23 1 2
66 2 2 2 1 3 1 3 2 1 3 1 7 2 2
67 5 1 3 5 3 2 2 1 2 3 1 5 2 2
68 2 4 2 2 2 1 3 5 4 2 2 9 1 2
69 3 5 1 0 3 3 2 2 1 3 2 19 2 2
70 3 2 4 4 2 2 1 0 2 2 3 18 1 2
71 2 1 5 5 1 0 4 4 2 1 2 57 1 2
72 3 5 2 1 4 3 5 5 2 4 2 49 2 2
73 2 2 1 2 5 2 2 1 3 5 1 61 1 2
74 1 0 4 4 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 11 2 2
75 4 4 5 5 1 2 4 4 2 1 2 90 2 1
76 5 5 2 1 4 2 5 5 3 5 3 47 1 2
77 2 1 1 2 5 4 2 1 1 2 1 63 1 2
78 1 2 3 5 2 1 1 2 1 4 2 10 2 2
Questions
Questions 1 – 3, 5 – 10: Rate measurements on a scale from 1 to 5 in which 1 represents a very negative response and 5 represents a very positive response.
· Question 4: How many times have you called in sick in the last month? Missing data: 0, Number of Days: 1 through 5.
· Question A: In which division do you work? Food: 1, Housekeeping: 2, Maintenance: 3.
· Question B: How long have you worked for BIMS? Employees’ years and months of service were converted to total months ranging from two months to 328 months.
· Question C: What is your gender? Missing data: 0, Female: 1, Male: 2.
· Question D: Are you a manager or supervisor? Missing data: 0, Yes: 1, No: 2.
· Typographical errors are evident in the data where the number 6 was typed instead of the intended value of 5.
Exit Interview (University of Phoenix, 2011, Week Two Supplement):
· Questions 1 – 10: Rate measurements on a scale from 1 to 5 in which 1 represents the employee strongly disagrees with the statement and 5 represents the employee strongly agrees with the statement.
· Question 11: What is the primary reason that led you to decide to quit? I do not like the work: 1, I do not like my supervisor: 2, I am not satisfied with the pay: 3, I am not satisfied with my shift: 4, and Other: 5.
· Question A: In which division do you work? Food: 1, Housekeeping: 2, Maintenance: 3.
· Question B: How long have you worked for BIMS? Employees’ years and months of service were converted to total months ranging from two months to 328 months.
· Question C: What is your gender? Female: 1, Male: 2.
References
Data Collection Methods. (). Retrieved from http://people.uwec.edu/piercech/researchmethods/data%20collection%20methods/data%20collection%20methods.htm
Content 60 Percent |
Points Available 3.6 |
Points Earned 2.9/3.6 |
Additional Comments: |
· All key elements of the assignment are covered in a substantive way. o Presents the chosen situation as an overview—problem, purpose, research questions, and hypotheses. o Describes the instrument used for data collection. o Describes how the data is collected. o Describes how the data is coded and evaluates the procedure used. o Cleans the data by eliminating the data input errors made. o Draws conclusions about appropriateness of the data to meet the purpose of study. o Includes a 5- to 7-slide Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation
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Use more graphics to make data come alive
Need to integrate more course material |
Organization / Development 30 Percent |
Points Available 1.8 |
Points Earned 1.2/1.8 |
Additional Comments: |
· The paper is no more than 700 to 1,050 words in length. · Paragraph transitions are present, logical, and maintain the flow throughout the paper. · The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment. · Sentences are complete, clear, and concise. · Sentences are well constructed, strong, and varied. · Sentence transitions are present and maintain the flow of thought. |
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USE ASSIGNMENT TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION |
Mechanics 10 Percent |
Points Available .6 |
Points Earned .5/.6 |
Additional Comments: |
· The paper—including tables and graphs, headings, title page, and reference page—is consistent with APA formatting guidelines and meets course-level requirements. · Intellectual property is recognized with in-text citations and a reference page. · Rules of grammar, usage, and punctuation are followed. · Spelling is correct. |
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Paper needs clean up and more graphs/ tables |
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Total Available |
Total Earned |
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6 |
4.6 |
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[PD1]Please make sure each week that you turn in this report you include all of the work done so far and clean up prior information.
[PD2]The purpose of the Learning Team assignment is acquaint teams with the research study undertaken, purpose of the study, research question, and so on. The team assignment is to complete the first step in data analysis in the following form:
1. Describe the problem, purpose, research questions, and hypotheses
2. Evaluate of the instrument used for data collection
3. Describe and evaluate how the data was collected
4. Code the data and evaluate the procedure used
5. Clean the data by eliminating the data input errors made
6. Draw conclusions about appropriateness of data to meet the purpose of the study
Resources Required
Data collected from RES/351
University of Phoenix Material: Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc, Part 1.
[PD3]This week’s purpose is to acquaint students with summarizing qualitative and quantitative data in tables and charts and to acquaint them with the applications of descriptive statistics in summarizing quantitative research study data and making business-related decisions.
The applications of descriptive statistics extends to solving and displaying the statistics including measures of central tendency and variability. The different applications of descriptive measures including the mean, median, mode, variance, and standard deviation are assessed.
1. [PD4]Present qualitative and quantitative data in tables and charts.
2.Calculate central tendency and dispersion.
Describe the shape of data distribution in charts—box plot, stem and leaf plot, dot plot, and so on.
[PD5]Look at the last assignments ie this paper and make sure you work toward filling all the blanks.