Chern's Case Study: Strategic Staffing Solution Analysis
This paper presents an eight-step case study analysis of Chern's, an upscale national retail chain facing staffing challenges including 20% full-time and 15% part-time employee turnover, as well as gender imbalance in mid-level management. The paper identifies the root problem as an inappropriate mix of full-time and part-time staff, examines contributing factors such as rapid expansion plans and potential discrimination claims, and evaluates three alternatives. Strategic staffing — aligning hiring processes with long-term business strategy — is selected as the most effective solution. An implementation plan with specific timelines and an evaluation framework are also provided.
- Introduction to Chern's Retail Operations: Background on Chern's growth and staffing challenges
- Identifying the Root Problem and Its Components: Turnover rates and HR strategy gaps analyzed
- Generating and Evaluating Staffing Alternatives: Three alternatives generated and compared
- Choosing Strategic Staffing as the Solution: Strategic staffing selected with justification
- Implementation Plan for Strategic Staffing: Six-step action plan with timelines and responsibilities
- Evaluation and Conclusion: Post-implementation review and final recommendations
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What makes this paper effective
- Follows a clear, numbered eight-step problem-solving framework that guides the reader logically from fact-finding through evaluation and implementation.
- Connects the staffing problem to concrete business outcomes — turnover ratios, cost savings, and gender balance in management — giving the analysis practical grounding.
- Includes a structured implementation table with responsible parties and timelines, demonstrating applied HR planning rather than purely theoretical discussion.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative alternative analysis: three potential solutions are generated, each is assessed on merit, and the strongest is selected with explicit justification. This technique mirrors real-world HR decision-making and is a hallmark of professional case study writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with background on Chern's and its growth history, then moves through a stepwise analytical framework: problem recap, root cause identification, component breakdown, alternative generation, alternative evaluation, solution selection, implementation planning, and evaluation criteria. The conclusion synthesizes the analysis and reinforces the chosen solution. This structure makes the argument easy to follow and the recommendations actionable.
Introduction to Chern's Retail Operations
Chern's is an upscale departmental store founded more than 20 years ago by Ryan and Ann Chern as a shoe and handbag retailer. Since its inception, the company has experienced tremendous growth and is now a successful national chain specializing in men's and women's apparel. The rapid success and growth of the company can be attributed to several factors, including the provision of high-quality merchandise, an outstanding team of workers, a highly trained professional sales force, and up-to-date inventory and customer service management software.
However, the company is experiencing significant challenges in its staffing strategies, reflected in an average turnover rate of 20% among full-time employees and 15% among part-time employees. As a result, Chern's needs to identify a suitable solution to its staffing strategy in order to enhance the effectiveness of its workforce.
Identifying the Root Problem and Its Components
Chern's has existed for more than 20 years and developed into a national chain of upscale men's and women's apparel. Key factors contributing to the company's success include strong customer service, high product quality, and a commitment to hiring highly qualified candidates. A critical aspect of that commitment is the use of appropriate staffing strategies. Chern's has a long history of promoting from within, viewing its employees as long-term investments in the firm's future growth, success, and profitability.
Throughout its history, Chern's has utilized strategic staffing, basing hiring approaches on specific outcome goals. These goals fall into two categories: short-term outcome goals, which drive processes for hiring additional support staff, and long-term outcome goals, which align the staffing function with the organization's overall business strategy and broader human resource objectives (Daley, 2014). Despite this foundation, the company continues to face issues related to the appropriate mix of full-time and part-time staff, as evidenced by the 20% and 15% turnover rates respectively. Identifying the right staffing mix is considered crucial for reducing turnover and achieving cost savings.
The root problem in Chern's situation is the lack of an appropriate and efficient staffing mix, as characterized by the 20% and 15% turnover rates among full-time and part-time employees respectively.
The first component of the root problem is the elevated turnover among both full-time and part-time employees. This turnover signals that the company needs to reassess its staffing mix, particularly given its aggressive expansion plan to open 15 stores annually over five years. The second component is the need for the firm's HR strategy to obtain, develop, and sustain an employee base with long-term career goals, and to be sufficiently diverse to reflect the demographics of every market in which the company operates. Third, Chern's must ensure that its staffing strategy mitigates potential discrimination claims, given that most of its Department Managers and Store Managers tend to be male.
Generating and Evaluating Staffing Alternatives
One alternative for Chern's is to engage in strategic staffing by linking specific staffing processes and outcome goals directly to its business strategy. According to Phillips and Gully (2015), strategic staffing is a process that involves staffing a firm in future-oriented, goal-centered ways that promote organizational strategy and effectiveness. For Chern's, this would entail increasing the proportion of part-time staff while reducing the number of full-time employees, while retaining the existing practice of transitioning part-time staff to full-time roles and full-time associates to managerial positions. As part of workforce planning, Chern's should also develop a comprehensive recruitment and advertising plan with specific timelines for reviewing CVs, conducting interviews, and assessing applicants.
The second alternative is to centralize the company's HR administration in order to more effectively link staffing processes with business strategy. The third alternative is for Chern's to review its job screening process along with its retention and internal promotion procedures, and to systematically document information about applicants and their respective positions.
While all three alternatives can address Chern's staffing problem, the two most suitable options are:
a. Strategic Staffing: The current staffing problem can be addressed by aligning the staffing process with business strategy. This approach would help the company reduce costs and achieve a lower turnover ratio for both part-time and full-time employees. Strategic staffing also provides the flexibility needed to enhance retention, free up full-time employees for higher-level responsibilities, and strengthen competitiveness (Half, 2017).
b. Reviewing Job Screening, Retention, and Promotion Processes: The second most suitable alternative involves reviewing job screening, retention, and promotion procedures. This review should focus on assessing current staff based on ability, experience, qualifications, and career aspirations. The process should culminate in the creation of a recruitment guide that specifies hiring procedures and the steps required to fill each job position. This alternative is particularly valuable because it would help resolve the relative gender imbalance in mid-level management.
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