Fastserve Inc.

Introduction

In today's business industry, organizations are initiating more organizational changes intended to increase profitability and decrease costs. One type of organizational change strategy which has gained popularity over the years is downsizing. The term "downsizing" was coined to describe the action of dismissing a significant portion of a company's workforce in a short period of time. Some business experts feel downsizing is a necessary tool to ensure business survival in the face of a volatile and constantly changing economy; while others feel it is a toxic solution.

The context of the paper will apply the concept of downsizing to the business simulation involving FastServe, Inc., beginning with a brief background of the situation and evaluating the employees potentially to be dismissed. Continuing through the situation, potential employment laws and their impact to the organization will be explored, a recommendation will be presented and will conclude with an assessment of how the recommendation aligns with the best interests of the organizations.

Situation Background

FastServe, Inc. is a $25 million direct marketing company of branded sports apparel who recently opened two lines of on-line marketing and distribution channels to focus on America's sports frenzy and attract the young male and female consumer. FastServe, Inc. moved ten percent of the companies' workforce to support this expansion effort. Shortly after the launch of the web sites, technological problems prevented sales due to the 3-D Ð''drape'n'see mannequins website download being so cumbersome to consumers. As a result, FastServe, Inc. has decided to move out of the on-line distribution market and needs to downsize their online division.

Employee Evaluation

When considering a downsize operation, a company must evaluate and select the potential employees who will comprise the first round of lay offs. In doing so it is important to evaluate all aspects of the human resources file from their tenure with the organization and skill set to their education and accomplishments. FastServe, Inc. has identified five potential employees for this layoff effort and each are evaluated below:

Carl Haimes is an above average employee contracted employees. H has a Bachelors Degree in Information Systems and job duties include maintenance of computer systems, LAN installation of Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. He is an above average producer with no attendance issues. Recently he has brought to FastServe, Inc. managements attention increasing humiliation and