Business Information Analysis: Employee Morale at Verbeek Export

This report provides a business information analysis of Verbeek Export, a flower exporting company facing declining profits and output due to low employee morale. The analysis examines the business problem, research objectives, and context, including a survey conducted to assess employee satisfaction. The report reviews secondary sources like interviews, journals, government records, and scholarly articles to understand the root causes of the problem. It details the questionnaire used, its relevance, and justification, as well as analytical tools used to compare data and trends. The findings reveal issues such as unbalanced workloads, lower pay compared to competitors, and strained relationships between supervisors and employees. The report proposes solutions including implementing breaks, adopting piece-rate payments, promoting employees, introducing bonuses and non-cash incentives, conducting team-building exercises, holding daily huddles, celebrating accomplishments, and providing time off for personal projects to improve employee morale and productivity. The report concludes with recommendations to address the identified issues and improve the company's overall performance.

Running Head: Business information analysis
BUSINESS INFORMATION ANALYSIS
Name:
Institution:

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
BUSINESS INFORMATION ANALYSIS.....................................................................................3
BUSINESS PROBLEM AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.......................................................3
RESEARCH CONTEXT.............................................................................................................5
LITERATURE SEARCH AND REVIEW......................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCE................................................................................................................................13

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BUSINESS INFORMATION ANALYSIS
BUSINESS PROBLEM AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Business problem is anything that inhibits the growth and profitability of a business. In the case
of Verbeek Export a flower exporting company, low employee morale has identified as a
problem and is leading to decreased productivity. A research is to be conducted in relation to the
identified problem to evaluate its impact to the company and try and find a solution. (Vagts,
Koh, Dodge and Buxbaum 2015)
Verbeek Export is a flower selling company that was established in September 1975 by Hans
Verbeek. Through the years the company has transitioned from selling flowers in bunches to
selling in full units. Over the years the company has grown and has since increased its services
from the initial three countries, that is, France, Switzerland and Sweden to several other
European countries. In the 1980s, the company expanded its operations in Switzerland and begun
their own flower line in 1985 to supply the Swiss who had a great interest to see, smell and feel
flowers. The company provided door to door delivery but now it goes by the name Schwyz
flowers. In 2006, Hans Verbeek handed over the company to his sons Robert and Martijin.
Mission of the company is becoming a trend setting flower supplier in Europe and Scandanavia.
(Bonner, Greenbaum, and Mayer, 2016).
Following low productivity leading to a fall in profits, the company decided to do a survey with
regard to the issue.
The following table shows a simple data set to prove this.
Profits in year 2014/2015 £2.5b

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Profits in year 2015/2016 £2.31b
Profits in year 2016/2017 £1.96b
For output in tonnes
Output in tones 10000
Output in tones 9567
Output in tones 8832
From the above data, it is evident there is a decrease in both profit and output.
Employee satisfaction surveys were done and it was discovered that that there was an issue with
their morale. The employees were suffering a low morale. The highest level of profitability and
productivity are attained when the employees are highly motivated thus has a high morale.
(Minor, Well, Lambert and Keller 2014)
Due to low employee morale, their quality of work has decreased especially in the flower cutting
process leading to orders being rejected by clients and increased wastage in terms of spoilt
flowers thus leading to decrease in profits. Also some clients have terminated their contracts with
the company due to low quality flowers and not meeting their orders in terms of quantity.
However, the red flag for low employee morale was when recently the company had invited its
employees for a party but only a few of them attended. Also the highly rated individuals are no

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longer going the extra mile and are just contented to do their basic issues (Bonner, Greenbaum,
and Mayer 2016).
RESEARCH CONTEXT
Following the employee satisfaction survey, the company intends to rectify this by finding the
root problem behind the low employee morale. The company will review several secondary
information sources to try and understand and resolve the problem. The secondary sources are
used to explain the primary sources and this case is questionnaires from employee satisfaction.
\
LITERATURE SEARCH AND REVIEW
The company used several secondary sources to cement the findings of the research and draw up
the questionnaire.. The secondary sources used were;
1. Interviews with participants. This gives us first hand information on the situation and is
in the form of questionnaires.
2. Magazines and journals on low employee morale. They contain similar problem from
other companies and suggested and tried out solutions.
3. Government records. These are records in government achieves in relation to
investigations conducted for the low self esteem for employees.
4. Scholarly articles on the problems of low employee morale. These are articles written by
students and academicians. These articles are quite informative since they include well
researched articles from many references.

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5. The internet. The internet is very informative with regards to numerous topics via page
such as Wikipedia.
It was agreed upon that past interviews with employees was the most appropriate and thus we
looked into details the previous questionnaires with same problem as follows:
Question Relevance Justification
1. Are you able to
manage your work
load effectively?
This question seeks to
establish whether the
workers are being over
worked and if the time
allocated to complete
the jobs is sufficient
enough. Huge work
load causes stress
leading to poor quality
of work.
There should be a basic level
of output required from a
healthy person and this
question justifies the issue. If
work load falls below the
minimum level required it can
then be argued that the blame
should be on the employees
probably because of reasons
such as laziness,
2. How do you regard
your co-workers?
The question seeks to establish
if there exists a good
relationship among the
employees. If the relationship
between the employees is
sour, then the employer can
come up with team building
Working relationships are
very crucial and contribute a
lot towards desired output.

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activities and exercises.
3. How do you perceive
the morale in the
company?
By asking employees
this question, you get
to find out firsthand a
report on the ground
about the morale their
fellow employees. The
question is an efficient
way to get the report
since employees are in
direct contact to each
other.
One is able to get a direct
feedback from the employees
which can be very reliable if
the answers given are genuine.
4. How can you describe
your relationship with
your supervisors?
The question seems to
establish if the supervisors are
the cause of the low morale
for example by being too
harsh on the employees thus
demoralizing them or being
biased say in duty allocation.
Some supervisors may be
harsh or on a witch hunt
against some employees. For
the said reason this could be a
major inhibitor and probably
the primary cause for
employees to feel aggrieved.
5. How satisfied are you
will your current
salary?
The works may have a low
morale if they feel they are not
getting paid enough or their
annual increment is not
enough. Also the company can
A well paid employee is a
happy one and happy
employee equates to above
average productivity.

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compare the salary with other
companies in the same line of
production.
6. How do you regard the
promotion policy in
this company?
This question seeks to
establish whether the
employees are satisfied with
the way the company
promotes its staff. It also seeks
to establish if the employees
feel they get recognition for
their work.
If employees feel that they are
recognized for their effort,
then their morale will
definitely be low. Recognition
in this case involves
promotions other incentives
such as bonuses.
7. Given a chance, what
would you improve on
in the company?
The question seeks to establish
the flaws the employees think
the company may have. If the
company thinks the flaws are
genuine, then they should
improve on them.
This gives the company a
rough idea of how to reverse
the situation based on
employee thoughts. That is,
the employer has a clear view
of both sides of the coin
(employee and employer) with
regards to the solution.
8. Is there anything that
causes frustration at
work?
It is aimed at establishing if
there could be other factors
such as noise or issues to do
with IT that may be a
hindrance thus causing their
Minor issues can be really
annoying which can kill the
morale of the workers. They
can range from excessive

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morale to dwindle. noise or even slow internet.
9. Are you familiar with
other companies in the
same industry as this
one?
It could be that the employees
are familiar with similar
companies which probably
pay better, have better
incentives for workers or their
policies are better. This will
make the employees feel used
and as a result lower their
morale.
This is to help standardize
issues such as pay or policies
for all workers in a certain
industry thus avoiding low
morale.
The questionnaire was written by a professional thus it was standard and covered all the aspects
of a good questionnaire in the process avoiding any ambiguity. Since the questionnaires were
answered by individuals, the different answers were compared against each other to check for
any similar trends. It was noted that some answers to several questions were very similar.
Analytical tools such as charts and graphs of past output and profits were also looked to establish
when the trend started. The information was gathered from past records and scholarly articles.
Also, there was a comparison between productivity in the various working shifts. Data collected
and statistics taken were delegated to an external firm. Outsourcing the services with regards to
statistics and data collection was necessary so as to avoid biasness or cover ups. Also the
information was expected to be reliable since the firm contacted was highly rated and had a good
reputation with regards to their professionalism.

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The company was able to establish that the work load was unbalanced. This information was
verified against past employee interviews with the same problem. The employees work for long
hours without a break thus they tend to get worn out. This in turn affects the quality of work
explaining the many spoilt flowers. Thus the company has proposed to introduce a 15 minute
break after every two hours of work. Also after further analysis it was established that some
employees who quit the company went to join a rival company. These were some of the best
employees thus it partially explains why the productivity dropped.
There was also comparison of other company records with regards to payment. It was therefore
established that the rival company pays at a higher rate than Verbeek Export. Having noted that,
the company concluded that it should review its mode of payment and adopt the piece rate
payment. This would definitely increase production since the employees will only be paid
proportionately to their work output. Several employees would also be promoted to supervise a
group of 10 workers and their main duty is to ensure the workers output quality meets the set
standards. It was also to introduce new bonuses on best performing employees (Paterson,
Luthans, and Jeung, 2014).
Other non cash incentives such as trips and events tickets to the best performing employees were
introduced. The company can also sponsor social events such as football team and office picnics.
These incentives would go a long way in improving productivity and boosting the morale of
employees. Another revelation made from the investigation was that the relationship between
supervisors and other employees is a strained one. To rectify this, team building exercises such
as problem solving games like picture piece game or communication games like two truths and
lies would be conducted regularly. This would ensure improved communication, morale and

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helps employees to know each other better thus eventually leading to increased productivity.
(Indjejikian, Matějka, Merchant and Van der Stede 2014).
After thorough research it was also discovered that daily huddles would boost employee morale.
Huddles are brief meetings held on a regular basis. In these meeting you get share actions and
progress. Huddles improve communication and workers are made aware that they are working
towards the same goal thus increased collaboration. Also as a company, you should take time to
celebrate accomplishments thus helps employees appreciate how much they have done. The
employees also feel they are important to the contact as a cog in a machine and this boosts their
morale.(Chen, Eberly, Chian, Farh and Cheng 2014)
It was also discovered it was critical to give employees time off to pursue personal projects. In so
doing, you break the monotony of work and personal projects tend to energize the persons doing
them. Thus, on coming back to work, employees will feel motivated and their morale will be
high thus increasing their productivity. Also introduce sessions to train employees to develop a
positive attitude. The moderators of the sessions should be professionals. (White 2014)
Research should also be conducted on how competitive companies go about their business in
terms of their employee welfare and consolidate this with their own employees making sure your
employees are better or at least at par with other companies’ employees. This can be done by
reviewing past records of companies and data previously collected for similar problems. If the
employees know that their company has better incentives and say remuneration than other
competitive firms, this will lead to high morale and increased productivity.(Townley 2014)
Another important factor is to investigate if there are any trouble makers. From previous cases
read in journals and business magazines, it was clear that trouble makers can be out to sabotage

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the company. The company could be doing everything right but employees are responsible for
demoralizing their colleagues probably via badmouthing the company or through the media.
Such investigations should be based on disgruntled employees. From previous cases it was found
relevant to conduct background checks on employees to see if there are any red flags. (Minor, K.
I., Wells Lambert and Keller 2014)
CONCLUSION
After gathering all the information pertaining to the issue of low morale, the company should do
an analysis of the information with the necessary professionals. Also, the company should call a
meeting with its employees and get an opinion with regards to solutions the company intends to
put in place. To avoid fear of discrimination or alienation, the company should adopt a method
such as secret ballot or a suggestion box so that the employees feel comfortable due to
anonymity. This ensure there is inclusivity in decision making and the employees get to feel
they matter since they are consulted on matters pertaining running the company. Also as a result
of inclusivity, the employee tends to have a sense of belonging and thereby resulting to a boost in
their morale. (Ortlieb and Sieben 2014).
Lastly, the employer should spell out what is expected from each employee and should come up
with ways to ensure they employees understand this. This may include fresher courses,
impromptu inspection of employees when at work or even delegation of special duties to
employees with the professional know how or qualification. (Camilleri 2016).