International Fitness Incorporated (IFI) is a family-run business that owns and operates a chain of gyms in America. IFI has recently opened locations in Shanghai, Suzhou and Wuxi. They had a local manager, Jack, but were not happy with his management style. Vincent has been hired as the new regional manager in charge of China operations. Part of his job is to visit the local branches, identify relevant issues and report back to his supervisor, Thomas Smith, who works at the IFI headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Thomas additionally wants Vincent to take on the role of HR manager to establish effective systems and best practices.

Thomas explained to Vincent that gyms are capital intensive rather than labor intensive. Once the investment in exercise machines is made, IFI expects the gyms to be run with a few semi-skilled workers. Each gym has an average of 9 workers: 2 people at the front desk helping clients as they come in, 3 fitness trainers who schedule personal training sessions with clients, 2 cleaning people, and 2 salespeople who offer packages to new clients. Each gym has a branch manager, who works at the front desk. The branch manager independently hires new front desk workers, trainers, salespeople and cleaners.

The goals of IFI are to have very satisfied customers and to provide an extremely high-quality exercise experience. However, recently there have been complaints from customers about the quality of the trainers, the rude attitudes of salespeople, negative reviews of the front desk staff and concerns that the gym is not clean enough. IFI feels that these problems need to be addressed before they can continue to grow and expand. They have asked Vincent for a report on the problems and some potential solutions.

Vincent is also concerned about how new workers are hired. There is an English test, which many applicants fail. When he asked the managers why there is an English test, since almost all customers are Chinese, they said they dont know. After the test, the manager has a brief discussion with each job applicant. There is no formal plan for what will be discussed at the interview, and the manager makes an independent hiring decision after this interview. No notes from the interviews are made or kept.

IFI prides itself on providing top quality fitness training, but the local trainers only know whatever skills they personally have when they get the job. Most of the trainers graduated from a university and majored in physical education but many of them have little practical experience. There is no professional development for salespeople or front desk workers. Thomas has expressed that there is a budget for training, but he doesnt know how much it would cost or how to evaluate its effectiveness.

Thomas has considered opening special VIP gyms in Shanghai with only the best staff and trainers. However, he doesn't know how to determine who the best workers are from across all the gyms. When Thomas asked the previous regional manager about this, he discovered that Jack had rated all workers at all gyms as satisfactory. This is one of the reasons that the previous manager was fired. Vincent has been instructed to create methods of evaluation for all the different jobs that takes into account the skills, abilities and promotability of each employee.

Front desk workers and cleaners receive a monthly salary, decided by the manager. Trainers and salespeople make a lower base salary and receive commissions from their classes and sales. The rates are similar to what other gyms in the Chinese market pay. Thomas feels that this system is not effective. Because of the monthly salary, the front desk workers and cleaners have no extra incentive to provide excellent customer service. Because the trainers and salespeople receive commissions, they often push expensive packages that customers dont need in order to make more money.

In addition to direct payments, all workers receive basic health care, national holidays and five additional paid days off each year. Thomas believes that there should be an aligned rewards strategy to motivate the workers in order to support the strategic aims of IFI, which include excellent customer service and top-quality fitness training.

ANSWER ALL OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. How can Vincent set training objectives based on a needs analysis, figure out a budget and a way to measure training effectiveness in order to improve the quality of the employees work?
2. What are the problems with the way workers are hired and how could HRM help to address these problems in terms of recruitment, selection and possible claims of discrimination?
3. What are the best types of appraisal methods for Vincent to use in evaluating the different employees and positions in this company?
4. What type of compensation system should Vincent design? If the gyms are effective, IFI plans to open dozens of new locations in the coming years, so the compensation system must be able to scale to cover hundreds of positions and experience levels.
5. What types of incentives and benefits should Vincent propose to offer to the employees and why? How would these incentives and benefits lead to an aligned rewards strategy for IFI?