Problem
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way we live, work and play. Many people turn to online purchase and delivery to fulfil basic needs of daily meals, consumer products, groceries and many other essential items. The demand for e-commerce and door-step delivery services has increased exponentially since March 2020 with many countries and major cities in various forms of lockdown. Many businesses have resorted to transform their business model and operations quickly to enable online transactions and delivery of physical goods.
Speedster, a local delivery company which provides last mile delivery services for major e-commerce platforms, was faced with a sudden surge of business since 2nd quarter of 2020. Its modest fleet of 8 delivery vans and 15 motorcycles with 30 drivers was not able to take on the mounting orders of delivery with the usual e-commerce companies that they work with. This is not including new e-commerce companies and platforms that have mushroomed during the pandemic and are looking for third party delivery services to complete their business transactions.
Speedster's founder and chief executive officer, Ian Tan gathered his core management team of 5 persons to deliberate on their expansion plan to turn the pandemic situation to business opportunities. Speedster runs its business with a long-term view in its partnership with the e-commerce companies that it collaborates with. Speedster's strategy is to delight every customer they serve with timely delivery to the right destination and their items delivered in good order. Speedster's talent philosophy is to ensure employees are happy and they will serve their customers well. Speedster also sets a long-term view with every employee and prioritises employees' career growth and development within the company. Speedster adopts a talent management objective to train and develop their own employees rather than hire from external. Unless all employees are fully deployed to their jobs and more resources are needed, external hire will then be considered to fill in the gaps.
In the expansion proposal, Speedster would need to increase its current fleet of vans by 3 times and its motorcycles by 4 times to meet the deliveries of 4 major e-commerce companies that they work with. This was based on the projection of the surge of online business from 3rd to 4th quarter of 2020. Speedster has also considered the likely continuity of online business into 2021 and even beyond post Covid situation. However, the company is cautious in making huge investments in manpower cost during these uncertain times.
The current 30 drivers are full-time employees who are entitled to basic monthly salary and benefits plans. There is an incentive plan for additional number of deliveries made after a weekly threshold target is met. Ian and his team projected that 150 drivers will be required to meet the expanded business target, operating on 2 shifts per day for 7 days a week. With the projected increase in vehicle fleets and drivers, the current corporate functions would need to be expanded to meet more business and more sophisticated operations.
Ian and his core team is concerned with the current labour market situation where many inland delivery companies are looking to increase their workforce. However, many people are also being retrenched from hard-hit industries due to the pandemic and looking for job opportunities. At the same time, the government has also relaxed the ruling to allow taxis and private-hire car drivers to deliver physical goods in addition to taking passengers in order to supplement their reduced stream of income.
• With Speedster's business expansion plan in mind, examine three staffing decisions that Ian and his management team need to make in order to meet its staffing strategy.
• Discuss the steps of workforce planning process that can be applied by Ian and his management team to support Speedster's expansion plan. Examine the considerations with regards to demand and supply of the labour market to support the expansion plan.
• Recommend two forecasting methods that can be used as part of the workforce planning in the forecast of delivery drivers.
References:
• Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2015) Strategic staffing (3rd ed.). US: Pearson Education.
• Dessler, G. (2015). Human Resource Management (14th ed.). US: Pearson Education.