Competency Gap, Strategies, and Training in Men’s Warehouse

The Human Resources Workforce Plan Milestone Two: Current State is due in Module Five.
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I. Competency Gaps a. What is the current state of the workforce of your company? While Men’s Warehouse only deals with men’s apparel, nearly 19% of its workforce are women. the average age of an employee is 39 years old. The dominant ethnicity in the workforce is White at 61.2%, followed by Hispanic/Latino 19.2% and African American at 9.1%. According to (Indeed.com, 2022), the company does not offer very competitive salaries to its workforce. Retail Sales associates at Men’s Warehouse earn $12.74 an hour and a tailor $17.37, managers and assistant managers make between $30,000 and 43,000 per year (Indeed.com, 2022). Salaries in Men’s Warehouse company are comparatively low compared to other men’s apparel companies like Brioni. A sales associate in Brioni earns $23hr, tailors earn $39-$42 hour, and managers take home about $123,000- $133000 a year (Glassdoor, 2022). This shows the stark differences in how the two companies compensate their employees for similar work. However, it is important to note that Brioni is a more established luxury brand in men’s apparel. b. Based on the company’s strategic goals, are there gaps in the competencies of the current workforce? Explain how you identified these gaps (or lack of gaps). Most of the sales in the company are from men over 35 years (Chamberlain, et al., 2016). The company has been trying to chase the younger demographic with some changes in design of clothes and marketing strategies. This trend is reflected in the workforce composition mainly being older males who have experience in classic men apparel (Chamberlain, et al., 2016). It has even created a new marketing tag line ‘’Confidence Suits You.’ This is a major deviation from their ‘You are going to like the way you look, I guarantee it.’ This new trend is pushing towards reeling in millennials. It lacks young talent who would challenge the company to revisit its workforce composition and diversify it in terms of age. The workforce needs more millennials and generation Z, who are at par with current trends and understand intuitively how to reach the younger demographic. The company is struggling to meet the needs of younger men who want to experiment and be creative in their dressing. Secondly, the company needs to hire more young women to help change the face of its workforce. Young women, especially in design and creativity, can bring more new and unconventional knowledge drawn from their shopping experiences and trends in female fashion. For example, they can advise men who are shopping on how to match their attire and or dress for various occasions. There is a need for female perspectives in design and sales to bring a breath of fresh ideas in these areas. I identified this gap in the workforce by looking through the demographical information of the company. It showed that the workforce is overwhelmingly older men. By analyzing this demographic, I could deduce the afore-described points. c. Does the company systematically identify gaps in competency (or skill) for work...