Tanglewood Case$-$ adapted from Kammeyer$-$Mueller $(2023)$

Tanglewood is a chain of general retail stores selling clothing, appliances, electronics, and home decor. The company operates in the moderate price niche, targeting middle$-$ and upper$-$income customers. Tanglewood's strategic distinction is an "outdoors" theme, with a large camping and outdoor living section in every store. The store also distinguishes itself by its simple, elegant, and uncluttered design concepts for the store and its in$-$house products. Its mission statement is:

Tanglewood will be the best department store for customers seeking quality, durability, and value for all aspects of their active lives. We are committed as a company to providing maximum value to our customers, shareholders, and employees. We will accomplish this goal by adhering to the core values of responsible financial management, clear and honest communication, and always keeping performance and customer service at the forefront.

The Staffing Services Director of Tanglewood, Daryl Perrone, has requested your assistance in completing an HR planning analysis for the $10$ stores in two regional divisions in Minnesota. After these overall goals are developed for the state, the policy will be disseminated across all $10$ individual stores. Data from the individual stores will then be sent to the corporate offices for analysis and re$-$evaluation.

The basic model for planning includes $(1)$ forecasting labor requirements, $(2)$ forecasting labor availabilities, $(3)$ conducting environmental scans, $(4)$ determining gaps, and $(5)$ developing action plans. Historical data from these two divisions have been presented in the transition probability matrix $($Table $1).$ The transition probability matrix was developed based on the historical staffing pattern for Minnesota over the past five years. The first stage of investigating staffing is to use the previous years' staffing pattems as a preliminary forecast of labor requirements, then the internal availability based on retention, internal promotions, transfers and demotions, and a determination of gaps by subtracting forecasted availabilities from future requirements.

Table $1.$ Transition Probability Matrix

$\backslash$table$[[,,$Current year$],[$Previous$,,\backslash$table$[[$Store$],[$associate$]],\backslash$table$[[$Shift$],[$leader$]],\backslash$table$[[$Department$],[$manager$]],\backslash$table$[[$Assistant store$],[$manager$]],\backslash$table$[[$Store$],[$manager$]],$Exit$],[\backslash$table$[[$Store$],[$associate$]],0\mathrm{.}5,0\mathrm{.}05,0,0,0,0\mathrm{.}45],[$Shift leader,$0,0\mathrm{.}35,0\mathrm{.}3,0,$:$\mathrm{.}0,0\mathrm{.}35],[\backslash$table$[[\backslash$table$[[$Department$],[$manager$]]]],0,0,0\mathrm{.}6,0\mathrm{.}2,0,0\mathrm{.}2],[\backslash$table$[[\backslash$table$[[$Assistant$],[$store manager$]]]],0,\backslash$table$[[]],0\mathrm{.}1,0\mathrm{.}5,0\mathrm{.}1,0\mathrm{.}3],[$Store manager,$0,0,0,0,0\mathrm{.}75,0\mathrm{.}25]]$

Forecasting Labor Requirements

The Minnesota market had been very stable for Tanglewood. Most stores had existed for $10$ or more years and were indirectly managed by the owners when they were first established. Because of this stability, the estimate for the coming year's labor requirements was identical to the current year $($Table $2).$ However, due to the impact of the prolonged pandemic and the rise of online shopping in the last decade, Tanglewood needs to push further online sales. As a result, store associates need to have additional skills related to online retail, such as understanding Tanglewood's online point of sales systems and managing selling and returning via the online sales system. Only $50\%$ of Tanglewood current sales associates had some level of online retail skills.

Table $2.$ Forecast of requirement

$\backslash$table$[[$Next Year $($projected$)],[,\backslash$table$[[$Store$],[$associate$]],$Shift leader,Department manager,$\backslash$table$[[$Assistant store$],[$manager$]],\backslash$table$[[$Store$],[$manager$]],],[\backslash$table$[[$Forecast of$],[$requirement$]],1700,170,60,20,10,]]$

Forecast of Availability

One primary source of information for immediate labor availability at Tanglewood is their internal labor market. Table $1$ shows that Tanglewood has used internal promotions to fill many openings for the department manager, assistant store manager, and store manager positions. However, it also appears that there will need to be external hiring due to turnover and ensure that store associates have sufficient skills as the company pushes further online retail. Using the provided transition probabilities, we estimated how many store associates would be available next year, and how many would be promoted to shift leader. Table $3-$ the projected for store associates were filled out for you. You will need to figure out the estimations for other positions.

Table $3-$ Forecast of availability

Determining Gaps

The current focus of staffing is to fill the vacant positions, although the organization would like to take steps to reduce the tumover rate for many of these jobs as well. During the planning phase targets are set for the number of individuals who need to be hired. The process of turning these estimates into actual employees will be covered in the recruiting phase. For instance, there are $1700$ store associat