Reference no: EM132825619

Colby Choice Breads is an industrial scale bakery that has been run by the Colby family for sixty-five years. The bakery makes a range of bread and pastry products which it supplies to supermarkets; general stores; gas stations and fast food outlets. The bakery employs 430 people of which 396 work in production roles. The bakery operates 24 hours (three eight hour shifts).

The drivers of the business are: consistent and high quality product; operational efficiency (to maximize output, meet supply deadlines and minimize ingredient waste); work safety; teamwork; hygiene and cleanliness.

The 396 production workers are predominantly male (73%). They range in age from 16 years (junior apprentice) through to 65. The workers are low-skilled and none have education past finishing high school. They are not ambitious in terms of career or professional development. The work they do is a job, not a career and minimal training is required for nearly all operational tasks. Salaries reflect the work and are therefore low. The workforce is loyal and stable as there are few other opportunities for low skilled workers in the area.

Every worker is part of a work team. Cooperation between teams and within teams is critical to the business which is process-driven. Examples of teams include: the cleaning team; the pastry making team; the baking team; the packaging team and so on.

Because the work involves following very repetitive, simple processes, many workers have become like machines - they have stopped thinking and just work to the basic rhythm required. Some have become lazy. Opportunities to work more smartly, save costs, speed up production and improve quality do exist...but nobody is bothering to look for them. There is no incentive to do more than the basic job.

The owner, Malcolm Colby, has turned to you for advice. He wants to get his workers to care about the business drivers and become more than part of the machine they operate. How could he use compensation and benefits strategies to get his workforce more productive?

1. How could team-based pay be introduced to achieve business objectives and what are the potential problems with team-based pay?

2. How could bonus payments be used to achieve the business objectives and should they be team-based or individual? Remember - they should be self-financing

3. What things could be given to reward / acknowledge staff achievement or effort that would appeal to the profile of this workforce? How would you arrange this?