When Sarina Roffé began consulting about operations at C & A Marketing, she saw tremendous inefficiency, unclear direction and lack of company goals.

The multi-million dollar company operated a warehouse which handled mail orders. The software often crashed when 1200 orders per day were exceeded.

The software did not allow the staff to identify the location of the merchandise in the warehouse even though there was a paper trail that said the merchandise had been received. There was a high level of stress, especially when merchandise could not be located.

On the human resources side, there were no written job descriptions, employee goals, emergency contact information and a way to record information about employees. If an accident occurred, the owners did not know who to contact. If the company wanted to dismiss an employee for cause, they had no record of incidents. Employees were unhappy and felt unappreciated and overworked.

The Solutions

Operations - The Sarina Roffé Group recommended a policy and software change that would enable the warehouse to track the merchandise. The warehouse was labeled by row, aisle and shelf. When merchandise came in the door, it had to be scanned and a location entered. When an order came in, it was easy for staff to locate the merchandise in the warehouse. Also, the software enabled the company to process up to 15,000 orders per day, with no increase in staff. As a result, the company quadrupled its business using the same staffing levels.

Human Resources – The Sarina Roffé Group wrote clear job descriptions and set up a model for human resources that the Operations Manager could easily follow once trained. Management was directed to require I-9 identification (proof of eligibility to work in the United States) and emergency contact information. Each employee was issued a job description with strengths, weaknesses and goals. Incident forms were created and entered into the employee file when necessary. Employee reviews were held twice annually.

Employee Recognition – To reduce company stress, monthly birthday celebrations were implemented along with an Employee Recognition Program. Ownership  agreed to having a winter holiday party and a summer barbecue. Weekly department and management staff meetings were implemented to reduce misunderstandings and create a spirit of teamwork and cooperation.