Now that you have identified the \”problem\” you will be working on this semester, the next step is to send a memo to your supervisor that identifies the symptoms, effects and causes of the issue.
The symptoms cause the effects and the causes create the symptoms. The effects need to be specific and quantitative. Remember that you will be urging the board of directors to spend money to fix this problem down the road. The board will only spend money to fix a problem that is costing them money, time or resources.
Problem:
I am the Location Manager of Bills Funeral Home. Bills is a traditional funeral home that specializes only in simple direct cremation of human remains. My role is to motivate, and lead a team of professionals in achieving both revenue and case goals set forth by our corporate office, form relationships within the community with social workers and religious leaders, and oversee the day-to-day operations to ensure were not violating any federal and/or state laws.
A problem we are faced with is a high turnover rate of Funeral Directors and Office Coordinators. As a result, this has negatively affected our customer and employee experiences. Clients are given professional service guarantee refunds, and employees are burnt out and underperforming. Which has cost the company thousands of dollars in refunds and overtime expenses.
Memorandum
Date: June 15, 2025
To: Robert Yancey, Regional Director
From: Russell Lavender, LFDIC
Subject: Funeral Director and Office Coordinator’s Turnover
In the past six months, the increasing number of funeral directors and office coordinators who have left the company has erratically affected our customer and employee experiences. Losing these employees has caused a depletion of productivity and efficiency, hence creating a backlog of tasks, which has cost the company more money in refunds and employee overtime pay. Furthermore, in this memorandum, I will be discussing the symptoms of the problem, the effects of these symptoms on the company, the causes of the problem, and two feasible solutions that will require further study.
Symptoms of the Problem
We have received complaints from families about our funeral directors and office coordinators’ Lack of detail attention and not meeting critical deadlines. They are also late with meeting essential deadlines. This symptom is an important alert to the managers and employees that a severe problem exists within the workplace. According to a series of surveys, the company’s customers have minimal satisfaction with the type of services they receive. Customers and families complain about inadequate services, some of which are rendered unprofessional by our employees.
Our office supervisor thinks there are problems within the offices since most of our staff highly lack discipline. Complaints have arisen from several other departments that do not get the necessary and adequate time to respond to the customer’s requests, and these requests have since increased as time passes by. Most employees have resigned, while some have tabled their requests to be re-allocated into different departments. The piled-up tasks that have not been completed successfully within the due time have resulted in increased incomplete paperwork, incomplete contracts, and numerous research questions that are still pending.
Effects of the Problem
Even though most of the effects of the various symptoms determined are not so evident as of now, they have wreaked numerous havoc on the organization and led to the massive loss of multiple resources, including our reputation, money, and loss of valuable time. Family satisfaction surveys have significantly declined to a score of 747 on a scale of 100-1,000, compared to this same time last year, whereas the score was 925. The decline in satisfaction has further resulted in various family members canceling their membership with Bill’s Funeral Home. The significant effect of this is that Bill’s Funeral home is losing most of its revenue and most of its highly valued and top profile customers to its competitors. Bill’s Funeral Home loses an estimated $1000 revenue every month for every client lost. Some families have opted for other companies after receiving poor services given to them by employees of Bill’s Funeral home in an unprofessional manner.
Lead Funeral Directors are allocating time after operating hours to try and catch up with the numerous loads of work piled up. Even though this is a practical move, the directors have become overwhelmed with the heavy work they have to tackle, prompting some to consider leaving their current positions or permanently leaving the job. With every lead funeral director lost to a rival company or for those who quit their positions willingly, their massive workload is resubstituted to other employees, which also overwhelms them, making them consider leaving their posts. If the company were to lose all its lead funeral directors, the general running of services would adversely be affected.
Causes of the Problem
Salaries for these employees are 18% below the industry average. These employees have seen firsthand their jobs posted via Indeed for entry-level employees, and the pay rate is significantly higher than current employees. What makes things worse is that these employees are not receiving adequate salaries despite having to work extra time to take care of the massive workload that has piled up. The employees feel that they are not appreciated well enough. Most employees now consider looking for jobs elsewhere in rival companies where they can earn better pay while also doing a small amount of work compared to what they currently do at Bill’s Funeral Home.
For the past two years, the company has added the job to these employees’ job responsibilities and cut the potential for bonuses. Due to the quitting of some key employees at the beginning of the year, the workload that was performed piled up with no one to take care of it. These works were then allocated to the remaining employees performing duties above their average work grade. Despite being subjected to this, these employees have not been awarded any pay increase or bonuses for the extra work. The loss of clients to competitors has also mainly been contributed to by the chronic staff shortage at the facility. The number of currently available staff cannot properly take care of all the needs of the clients in an appropriate manner.
Possible Solutions Number One
The best solution to address the problem being faced is to increase the employee’s pay. The principal and the leading cause of the issues experienced is the shortage of employees and the increased duties allocated to each employee due to the current deficit. To cater to this problem and make the current employees work extra hard towards delegating all the extra responsibilities that they are assigned, their salaries should be increased.
Advantage
One significant advantage of increasing the employees’ salaries is that it will boost their morale and make them work extra hard. If the wages are raised, and they are also given bonuses, the employees will give their all towards ensuring they diligently and actively carry out their activities. None of them would also complain about being tasked with too much work. If the employees can carry out all their activities perfectly, the company will retain its clients and increase its revenue.
Disadvantage
Even though an increment in salaries is a good move, it has several repercussions. One major disadvantage is that the company will be forced to part away with considerable revenue to cater for these salary increments. This can be quite a challenging task for the company because the recent loss of clients and vital employees has reduced revenues earned by the company.
Possible Solution Number Two
Another possible solution that can be employed towards solving this problem is to hire additional employees. The company is currently suffering from a severe lack of adequate employees, which has translated to the overburdening of the current employees. The company should employ additional employees to ease the workload of the existing employees.\
Advantage
The hiring of additional employees is very advantageous for every firm. These new employees do not only come with new extra skill sets but also with revitalized energy to work extra hard. This will motivate current employees to work hard. Hiring additional employees will help with clearing the backlog and relieving the current employees of their extra activities.
Disadvantage
Again, hiring extra employees into a firm comes with its setbacks. The firm will be forced to develop a new budget that will include these new employees’ salaries alongside other costs, which the firm may not be ready to tackle at this moment.
Conclusion
In this memorandum, I have discussed the symptoms of the problem, the effects of these symptoms on the company, the causes of the problem, and two feasible solutions that will require further study. We have received complaints from families about our funeral directors and office coordinators’ Lack of detail attention and not meeting critical deadlines. Most employees have resigned, while some have tabled their requests to be re-allocated into different departments. The primary cause of these problems is inadequate salaries. This matter should immediately be addressed using the possible solutions provided while keeping in mind the various advantages and disadvantages associated.