Employee Satisfaction Analysis and Retention Strategies for Marvel Co.

This project report evaluates employee satisfaction at Marvel Co. using a comprehensive project management plan. The project encompasses time, cost, and quality management, including a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for task scheduling. Background research explores salary satisfaction, job satisfaction, and career advancement, drawing on various studies to justify the project's focus on employee retention. The research methodology employs a quantitative approach, utilizing surveys with multiple-choice and rating scale questions to gather data from 15 participants across different departments. The survey covers demographic information, salary satisfaction, and job satisfaction, aiming to identify key factors influencing employee morale and provide recommendations for improving retention strategies within Marvel Co. The project's findings are intended to offer insights into employee perceptions of their compensation, work environment, and career opportunities.

TITLE OF PROJECT
P1) INTRODUCTION
The scope of this project is to evaluate the satisfaction of Marvel Co's employees. Employees will
be surveyed to obtain the required data/information, such as whether the workload is suitable for
their salary, whether the salary meets their qualifications and experiences. The survey will also
gauge employees' initial reaction to a proposed career/salary progression path. The purpose of
the project is to provide a report that includes recommendations, such as recommendations on
how Marvel Co can/should develop strategies to manage employee retention. The project will run
for 10 weeks.
P2) PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
Behind a good outcome of every project is good project management plan. Project management
plan is a blueprint of outlining all the planning of cost management, time management and quality
management and its goal is to be able to provide desired results
(Https://www.newassignmenthelp.co.uk/, n.d.).
Firstly, the project manager will need to develop work breakdown structure. WBS is a breakdown
of everything that the project team needs to deliver and complete (Cohen, n.d). Refer to the
illustrate wbs in Firgure 3 for better understanding.
1) TIME MANAGEMENT PLAN
After wbs is structured, a wise planning schedule will be applied to this project to ensure that all
the planned project tasks are carried out as planned (Time management, 2001). In this plan, you
can see the time allocation plan set for each task on gantt chart.
The project lead will need to develop a gantt chart. The Gantt chart is a chart of the project
schedule, showing the start and the completion time of the project tasks (Grant, 2021). In gantt
chart as per shown in 2.5, the project lead will responsible for measuring and setting the estimated
time required for each task that has been defined. This is to ensure that each task is performed
and completed as planned (Grant, 2021). The project lead estimated the duration of this project is
10 weeks to complete the activities.
After the gantt chart is complete, the project leader will share the schedule with the project team
so that they can confirm and execute the task after the schedule is approved. The schedule then
will be submitted to Scott Summers and Ms. Jean Grey for review, amendment if any and
approval. Refer to Figure 4 to see the gantt chart.

2) COST MANAGEMENT PLAN
Cost plays a vital role to ensure the smooth progress of the project. Hence, a strategic cost
management plan will be implemented in this project. Cost management plan is the process of
planning, estimating, budgeting and controlling the cost required to succeed a particular project
(What is a cost management plan, 2019).
Therefore, the project lead will define cost estimate by subdividing category (i.e., project material,
resources, tasks and etc.). After the cost estimation, the project expenditure plan needs to be
submitted to client for approval. Once the project expenditure plan approved, it will usually be
released in stages according to the progression of the project. By releasing the budget in stages, it
will help to control the usage of the budget and reach its milestones (How to make a cost
management plan, 2020). Shown below is the approved project expenditure plan for 10 weeks: -
FIGURE 1. APPROVED PROJECT EXPENDITURE PLAN (SOURCE: CREATED BY ME)

3) QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN
In addition to time management plan and cost management plan, the quality management plan or
QMP is also an important part of making the whole project management plan complete. The
Quality management plan can be described as the necessary activities or steps or methods that
the project team must perform to ensure that the quality objectives set on the project can be
achieved (How to develop a quality management plan, 2019). Without a proper QMP, a project will
likely result in not meeting customer expectations. Quality check will be applied in this project such
as quality planning, assurance and monitoring. And quantitative research method (i.e., survey) will
also be applied to this project.
In Figure 2 below shown the tailored process / tools of quality check plan for this project, the goal
of which is to meet client expectations that is to understand employees’ satisfactions with their
salaries: -
FIGURE 2. QUALITY PLAN (SOURCE: CREATED BY ME)

P3) WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE AND GANTT CHART
1) WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE FOR MARVEL CO.

2) GANTT CHART FOR MARVEL CO.
M1:
Milestone plan , the main task when i
Communication plan
risks plan

P4) BACKGROUND RESEARCH & RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1) BACKGROUND RESEARCH
The main purpose of this project is to evaluate on how Marvel & Co can manage its employee
retention. Hence, the background research will be based on employee salary satisfaction, job
satisfaction and career advancement at Marvel & Co. The main purpose of this background
research conducted is to justifies my finding with other authors.
1.1) SALARY SATISFACTION
Salary satisfaction is the most important issues for employees. The reason why it is so
important is that it will also satisfy their financial needs. When employees are dissatisfied
with their salary, changes in attitude and behaviors may be affected. Therefore, it is very
important to pay attention to this matter because it can lead to unnecessary problems, such
as employee turnover intention and will affect the employee’s performance. For example, if
employees are unhappy and demotivated because of salary dissatisfaction, which can
affect their performance and can lead the employee to look for other jobs, and the company
will have to find replacements which will waste their time and costs. In a research,
Heneman and Judge (2000) found that the study clearly shows that salary dissatisfaction
can have huge and adverse impacts on the performance of many employee. For example,
when employee unhappy with wages can reduce investment in work, boost stealing and
lead to staff turnover (Greenberg, 1990; Miceli and Mulvey, 2000; Currall et al., 2005). As
per Hung-Wen & Mei-Chun (2014) “When employees sense their salary their salary is lower
than a market average, they will have unsatisfactory feelings, make less effort to the
organization and feel tired or want to leave the job”. They concluded that in order to keep
the organization from left behind on the average salary in the market, the organization
should have a review team to deal on this kind of issues more frequently and adjust the
salary mechanism accordingly while also considering the organization capabilities.
Moreover, in a study titled how can salary influence a worker’s performance in
administration, Chron contributor (2020) attempted to find that a worker performs more well
if he happy with his salary which also mean work performance of employees will be much
better if they happy with their salary because they will feel more motivated to fulfil their
duties and they will also want to retain their position. Chron contributor (2020) also says
that salary satisfaction will also bring feeling of security to the employees. According to
Knafo (2015) when he was interviewed professor Zeynep Ton in 2014, he said that if the
employer pays employees good salaries, they can make them work harder because
employees are satisfied with the salaries so they are happy to do so.
1.2) JOB SATISFACTION
Job satisfaction can be closely related with salary satisfaction. Because logically speaking,
employees who are motivated and satisfied with their work may be paid high or sufficiently

to meet their financial needs. Moreover, employee who have positive mind and attitude will
always motivated and satisfied with their work. There is a study called salary satisfaction is
a prerequisite for job satisfaction, in which there is a correlation between salary satisfaction
and job satisfaction (Sharma, 2011). In addition, Lonar (2010) examined that the
satisfaction of job increases or decrease with increase or decrease in salary satisfaction.
According to Emerald Group Publishing in 2011, in their research there is a significant
positive correlation job motivation and job satisfaction and if one increases the other one
also increases. In addition, George (1992) opined that people with positive mind are more
satisfied with their works compared to people with a negative mind, he also pointed out that
both affectivity of positive and negative is the key factor of job satisfaction.
1.3) CAREER ADVANCEMENT
The issue with career advancement is always no transparency between employer and
employee on which transparency will actually help to minimize rate of turnover employees.
Sometimes, Employer or managers who see their employee potential may provide the
employee with career advancement. This is one of the the factor that motivate employees
to achieve a good performance. And also, employee who are highly motivated and
competent and have goals normally do better and have a clear goal in career than others.
According to Lawler & Finegold (2000), an employee must maintain a good competency in
order to adapts to the changing needs in workplace. In addition, experienced and skilled
employee usually develop careers. Some employees do not have paper and new
perspective needed in consider how their work experience affects their work (Greenhaus
and Kossek, 2014). But still there are no transparency on the career path. According to
Mangkuprawira (2002), he pointed out that career path is the continuation of work pattern
that leads a person’s career. And also “career planning program is also able to reduce
employee turnover, especially for those who have mobility rapid career development” said
Mangkuprawira (2002).
2) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology can be referred as ways of collecting data (Huemann, 2013).
Whether through quantitative method or qualitative method or both. In this project
quantitative method only will be used. Marvel Co’s background research is as follows: -
i) QUANTITATIVE METHOD
According to Huemann (2013), there are several ways to conduct quantitative
research such as focus group, survey, questionnaires and etc which involves
collecting data and analyzing data. Hence, we choose survey questionnaire based
on mixed types of survey for Marvel Co project such as multiple-choice questions,
rating scale, yes and no and Q&A style. There are about 15 participants selected
randomly from different department of Marvel & Co. The survey question that has
been prepared by our quality officer consists of four sections.
First section is the demographic questionnaires. This part designed to collect
general information of the participant such as their age, gender, income and status
of marital and education. Hence multiple-choice style will be applied.
No Survey Question Answer

1. Age a) 18 – 29
b) 30 – 39
c) 40 – 49
d) 50 – 60
2. Gender a) Female
b) Male
c) Prefer not to say
3. Income a) Below $2,000 a month
b) $2,001 - $3,000 a month
c) $3,001 - $4,000 a month
d) $4,001 - $5,000 a month
e) Above $5,000 a month
4. Marital Status a) Single
b) Married
c) Others
5. Education a) “O” Level / ”A” Level
b) Diploma
c) Degree
d) Master
e) PHD
6. Current position a) Clerical
b) Officer
c) Manager
The second section of the survey will be about salary satisfaction. In this section,
participants are required to indicate their satisfaction level with their salary on the
scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means they are strongly disagree and 5 means they are
strongly agree and to answered several questions related to the salary
No
Survey
Question
1
Strongly
Disagree
2
Disagree
3
Neutral
4
Agree
5
Strongly
Agree
7. I am satisfied with the
monthly salary I received
8. I am paid fairly for what I do
9. My salary is competitive with
similar jobs in the industry
10. I am satisfied with the
annual bonus I received
11. I am satisfied with the
medical allowance I
received
12. What kind of monthly
expenses should the
company provide to support
your finances?
a) Mileage allowance
b) Food allowance
c) Health & fitness (such as gym membership)
d) All of above
e) Others, please specify.
Section three will be about job satisfaction. Like part two, to measure employee’s
satisfaction on their job, the same style will be applied for this part. Respective
participants will need to rate their level of satisfaction towards their job on the scale

of 1 to 5, where 1 means they are very disagree and 5 means they are very agree
and to answered several questions related to the job.
No
Survey
Question
1
Strongly
Disagree
2
Disagree
3
Neutral
4
Agree
5
Strongly
Agree
13. I am satisfied with my job
14. My workload is manageable
15. I am very motivated to do my
job
16. I receive recognition when I
do good work
17. I receive feedback when I
don’t do well
18. My working hours is
reasonable
19. How long have you worked in
this organization
a) Below 1 year
b) 1 year – 5 years
c) 6 – 10 years
d) More than 10 years
20. What other factors are
important to improve your job
satisfaction?
Final section of the survey question will be on career advancement. This section
will also use likert-style of survey where information collected will be particularly on
participants expectation on the future planning of career advancement and how
well they know about the career advancement at Marvel Co.
No
Survey
Question
1
Very
Disagree
2
Disagree
3
Neutral
4
Agree
5
Very
Agree
21. My company provide clear
career path for their employees
22. I have the training that can be
benefit for my career
development
23. Qualification is an important
criterion for career
advancement
24. Experience is an important
criterion for career
advancement
25. A positive attitude will help on
my career advancement
26. I need support from managers
to help on my career
development
27. What will you do to improve /
achieve your career

development
28. What should your company /
boss do to support / help your
career development
The reason I choose quantitative method i.e., survey is because it is faster and
easier. Collecting data is easier. It the fast because it can reach many people in
short period of time. The most win part using survey is that it will save our budget
because we can create the survey online and free but the internet is needed to do
so, which can still save costs. In addition, participant will be more honest in
answering questions in the survey because their identity will not be identified, so
there is no risk and no consequences.
ii) QUALITATIVE METHOD:
Qualitative method also involves in collecting and analyzing data, the same as
quantitative method, but qualitative approach collect and analyze non statical data
such as audio of conversation, video from the observation or interview or in written
i.e, text. Which can be used to better understand how people experience or what
people opinion on certain issues (Pritha, 2020)
Qualitative approach have variables ways to do it, such as by doing observation
where you will need to record in your notes the details of what you see and heard,
or it can be done by interviewing people where you will have a one to one session
with participants and ask personal question and here you might need to prepare
your interview transcript, other than that you also can conduct a survey by creating
an open ended question such as tell me about yourself, what is the most important
thing to you and etc.
M2 survey quantitative – survey vs interview , advantage and disadvantages, tabulation but
explain briefly the content/ the point
P5) QUANTITATIVE DATA AND RESEARCH ANALYSIS WITH THE USE OF SUITABLE
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUE
Research has been conducted through quantitative method to obtain the relevant information
required for this project, of which the survey has been carried out using the google form and the
data also have been collected using some tools and technique. The following are data collection
records, mainly from survey respondents to analyze the employee’s satisfaction at Marvel: -

Implementation: Out of 15 respondents, 12 of them are either neutral or satisfied with the monthly
salary but, 3 respondents answered “disagree”. When I checked further, all the 3 dissatisfied
respondents actually held married in their marital status.

Implementation: From the above, it can be determined that majority the respondents are either
neutral or agree or strongly agree on their salary paid with their workload and only 1 respondent
answered “disagree” of which this respondent held a clerical position in Marvel.