CASE STUDy 2: RETHINKING JOBS AT EllERS TECHNICAL SUPPORT PROFESSIONAS (ETSP)
Ellers Technical Support Professionals (ETSP) is a young company that was started five years ago by William “Bill” Ellers. Bill created the company to serve a relatively small but growing need among companies in the Washington, DC, area, including nearby Reston, Virginia, and Columbia, Maryland. ETSP provides technical sup- port as well as administrative oversight for the computing needs of a variety of small to midsize public organizations. Approximately 60% of ETSP’s business is supportive in nature. When clients experience computer problems or require the development of new computer programs, Bill’s staff provides these services on an as-needed basis. The remaining 40% of ETSP’s business involves serving as an out- sourcing partner for clients to completely oversee the administrative aspects of their computer-related activities. In these relationships, Bill’s staff members are respon- sible for the design, implementation, and maintenance of all computer systems. Because the ETSP client base is not-for-profit organizations, clients are typically unable to pay high costs for computer support. As a result, ETSP’s primary source of competitive advantage is the delivery of these services at an acceptable level of quality for low costs. To achieve this objective, ETSP focuses on cost contain- ment throughout its company. For example, to increase efficiency, programmers typically perform a fairly narrow array of programming activities across the client organizations. Each programmer is an expert in a particular technological domain, and each works independently on relatively standardized problems. While the potential for high growth at ETSP is strong, Bill has not been able to devote as much attention to generating new business as he would like. Instead, he has been spending a good amount of his time dealing with relatively high turnover among his programmers. ETSP currently employs 20 programmers but is averag- ing about 50% turnover per year. While there is a wide supply of entry-level pro- grammers in the labor market, the process of recruiting, hiring, and training each programmer requires a fair amount of cost, time, and effort. In an attempt to reduce the turnover problem, Bill decided to meet with the cur- rent employees to ask what changes he can make to improve employee retention so that he can focus on growing the business. After an extensive discussion, the employees suggested that Bill consider redesigning the jobs. Now Bill has to decide what to do.
Discussion Questions
1. In your opinion, what are the primary causes of turnover?
2. What job design options might help Bill reduce turnover among the employees?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these options?
4. What job design changes would you recommend that would allow ETSP to focus on low costs and quality service for public organizations?