Carter Cleaning Centres

Cleaning in a Dynamic Economic Environment

While in college, Jennifer was especially interested in labour forecasting. She learned that a key component of HR planning was forecasting the number and type of workers an organization needed, and to be prepared to re-evaluate those numbers when necessary. Her father had often discussed with Jennifer how his labour demand was dependent on the business cyclethat is, during periods of economic boom when business was soaring, more workers needed to be hired and trained, as well as during times of recession, when fewer workers were required because the demand for cleaning services had declined.

As the economic downturn worsened in 2020, revenues at Carter Cleaning Centres fell steeply. Many of their customers were simply out of work and didnt need (or couldnt afford) dry cleaning. In the midst of this downturn, Jack knew that he had to get employment costs under control. Realistically, the problem was that there wasnt much room for cutting staffing in a store.

Of course, if a store got very slow, they would double up responsibilities by having a cleaner also perform the pressing or having the manager work the front counter. If sales fell only 15 to 20 percent per store, there really wasnt much room for reducing employee head count because each store never employed many people in the first place.

When the economy started to recover and cleaning services were back in demand, Jack faced a labour shortage and needed to find ways to deal with the lack of trained pressers, while at the same time keeping the quality of his services high and customer service levels better than the competition.

Questions

1. What is human resources planning and how will it help Carters strategic plans?

2. Describe the steps in the HRP process and discuss the important elements within each that will benefit Carter Cleaning Centres.

3. Outline three quantitative techniques for forecasting future HR demand. Outline three strategies used to forecast internal HR supply.

4. Assume that Jennifer did not want to terminate any of her employees during periods of economic slowdown. Describe strategies Jennifer might use to deal with the labour surplus.