Sloan and Harrison Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Sloan and Harrison

Introduction:

Sloan and Harrison is a legal law firm headquartered in Washington D.C with its offices in several other countries like Paris, Madrid, Beijing, Atlanta and Houston. The company was founded by two attorneys who lived in Washington. The company is reviewed high by the associates of the company and the associates are happy with the company in general. The top services of the company include high quality legal services and it is best known for its intellectual property and government contract practicing groups. The company was established in 1959 and by the end of 2013; the number of employees had grown to 1,100 attorneys and 1500 other supporting staff. Government contract practicing groups involve the provision of guidance to client about congressional lobbying and competition within the federal marketplace.

Associate’s concerns:

Sloan and Harrison were facing issues regarding increase in dissatisfaction among the associates of the company. It was facing problems regarding high turnover among the associates along with low morale within the associates. The company has done an annual survey to find out the exact issues faced by the company’s associates and found that they were having issues regarding: work-life balance, partner communication and mentorship. As of now, the management of the company has to identify rightfulness of these issues and alternatives to solve those issues in order to satisfy the associates.

Analysis:

In order to analyze the situation, the management of the company first needs to identify the areas; which demands the attention of the management. As the associates are facing difficulty in partner communication, work-life balance and mentorship therefore; management of the company should first analyze how they can manage the career of the associates. Other areas that require attention of the company’s management include: empowerment, employee retention, morale, career planning and feedback.

It is the prime responsibility of HR analyst to study and collect all the information regarding employees and human resources of the company. Further, he needs to analyze the concerns that major contributors of the company is facing. For Sloan and Harrison, associates are the major contributors of the company; thus they should be satisfied with the company.

In Sloan and Harrison, the associates are facing several issues that lead them to dissatisfaction with the company. An American lawyer had done a survey in 1987 and then in 2007 to find out the level of satisfaction of the associates with the company. The results were shocking and astonishing as there was little or minimal difference in the results as the overall satisfaction score was near to constant.

The concerns of the associates include: communication, work-life balance and mentorship. Many of the associates in the company were frustrated by the lack of guidance from the mentors of the company. From the mentor’s perspective, they believed that the brightest associates will automatically flourish, and they do not need any guide and path to follow. However, for the associates, this perspective was the most frustrating part as they were unable to find out the rules of the game. Further, all the partners and associates themselves believe that the only way to become a mentor is to increase the billable hours; thus they ended up with extra work and failed to manage the equilibrium in work-life. The associates were working in the weekends too, and this resulted with an increase in their dissatisfaction level. Further, associates, especially the new ones were facing lack of mentorship from their respective mentors; which made it more difficult for them to survive in the competitive company that did not tolerate any mistakes.

Measures taken by the company:

After analyzing the issues confronted by the management of the company; a plan was established and implemented in the Washington D.C office for pilot testing. If the program succeeded in the Washington office, then the company would be applied to other offices as well. The basic idea in the plan was to implement several work-life balance ideas including a formal mentoring program and then comparing it with the Atlanta office in terms of measurable outcomes. The essential elements of the program include a more concerted effort made by the office partners to communicate with the associates of the company. In addition to that, the organization became more tolerant to work styles of the associates and encouraged working from home as well.

Survey analysis:

Variables used in the survey include: workload, intention to quit, work-life conflict, organizational commitment, perceived burnout and perceived organizational support. Further variables were not included in the questionnaire but the information which was being collected from it was: recruiting, turnover and performance. After the implementation of the program in the Washington office, the number of applications for new associates has increased while recruiting in the Atlanta office remained same over the year.

Implantation of the program has a positive impact on the turnover of the employee as the voluntary turnover in the Washington office decreased by 13% to 8% in one year. Employee turnover in the Atlanta....................................

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.