Carter Cleaning Company Performance Appraisal

After spending several weeks on the job, Jennifer was surprised to discover that her father had not formally evaluated any employee’s performance for all the years that he had owned the business. Jack’s position was that he had “a hundred higher-priority things to attend to,” such as boosting sales and lowering costs, and, in any case, many employees didn’t stick around long enough to be appraisable anyway. Furthermore, contended Jack, manual workers such as those doing the pressing and the cleaning did periodically get positive feedback in terms of praise from Jack for a job well done, or criticism, also from Jack, if things did not look right during one of his swings through the stores. Similarly, Jack was never shy about telling his managers about store problems so that they, too, got some feedback on where they stood.

This informal feedback notwithstanding, Jennifer believes that a more formal appraisal approach is required. She believes that there are criteria such as quality, quantity, attendance, and punctuality that should be evaluated periodically even if a worker is paid on piece rate. Furthermore, she feels quite strongly that the managers need to have a list of quality standards for matters such as store cleanliness, efficiency, safety, and adherence to budget on which they know they are to be formally evaluated.

Questions

9-20. Is Jennifer right about the need to evaluate the workers formally? The managers? Why or why not?

9-21. Develop a performance appraisal method for the workers and managers in each store.

Carter Cleaning Company The Career Planning Program Career planning has always been a pretty low-priority item for Carter Cleaning, since “just getting workers to come to work and then keeping them honest is enough of a problem,” as Jack likes to say. Yet Jennifer thought it might not be a bad idea to give some thought to what a career planning program might involve for Carter. Many of their employees had been with them for years in dead-end jobs, and she frankly felt a little bad for them: “Perhaps we could help them gain a better perspective on what they want to do,” she thought. And she definitely believed that career support would have an effect on improving Carter’s employee retention.

Questions

10-19. What would be the advantages to Carter Cleaning of setting up a career planning program?

10-20. Who should participate in the program? All employees? Selected employees?

10-21. Outline and describe the career development program you would propose for the cleaners, pressers, counter people, and managers at the Carter Cleaning Centers.

Answer question 9-20, 9-21, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21