Reporte Practicas

In order to hire employees that will be able to contribute to the achievement of the goals of the cosmetics business, an adequate pool of applicants that enables to select among a great variety of applicants and choose the person that is best qualified for a particular job, needs to be established. Among those applicants, the business is going to focus on people, who through the use of their particular knowledge, skills and experience, will be able to perform the different jobs that need to be filled, thus covering the different areas of activity that are established in this business.

New employees that are hired will have to apply all their efforts in order to attract new clients, as well as to contribute to accomplish the short-term goals of the business, which are profit maximization and sales growth. Consequently, employees who will be doing an excellent job and whose capabilities are likely to meet future needs will have an increased opportunity to stay in this business and keep on developing their skills in order to help become a well-established and recognized business in the long-term, and above all, a business that is able to keeps its loyal customers by providing good products and a special customer service.

Operating Complexity

According to information provided by IBIS World (2009), the cosmetics industry is growing thanks to a new distribution channel that has been introduced, the Internet, and the successful development of new markets and products (para.1).

As profitability of a business operating in the cosmetics industry strongly depends on the skills and knowledge of its staff, in addition to the quality of the customer service that is provided, employees who are active in today’s cosmetics sector, possess advanced skills and a certain level of experience that are applied in the respective department (Service Skills Australia, 2009, p.8). According to research, the typical employee who occupies a position in the beauty sector is female, and it is anticipated that the numbers of women being employed will increase continually. (Service Skills Australia, 2009, p.14).

Employee Demands

The staffing requirements for the cosmetics stores “Feel Good” can be divided into six categories of personnel: Operations staff, marketing staff, human resource staff, finance staff, IT staff, and merchandising staff, which are supervised by the respective manager.

The first category of personnel, with a total of six staff employees, comprises cashiers, sales and customer service clerks, who will be dedicated to the direct selling of cosmetics products and direct provision of customer service. The next category includes one public relation clerk, one e-business clerk, one promotion clerk, and one visual display clerk, whose job is to promote the store’s products, including through e-commerce. With regard to the human resource staff, this one is made up of one recruitment clerk, one training clerk, and one pay roll clerk, who hire and develop competent staff, as well as provide compensation to employees. The finance staff, under the responsibility of a finance manager, includes one accounting clerk who keeps record of the store’s inflows and outflows and one credit clerk who keeps record of the clients’ accounts. Another important category covers the job of an IT clerk consisting in the support of the local area network, including maintenance, trouble-shooting, daily system back-ups, etc. Finally, the merchandising personnel, one logistics clerk, and one inventory clerk, will be dedicated to the buying of cosmetics products and supervision of supply and storage.

Most of the jobs within the business require specific sets of unique skills, therefore the marketing staff, human resource staff, finance staff, IT staff, and merchandising staff, as well as the two high-qualified cosmetologists dedicated to offer a special customer service, will be full-time employees working 35-40 hours per week, whereas cashiers and sales clerks will be part-time employees, achieving this way greater flexibility for those positions that require more basic skills, so two part-timers for each job will be hired.

Organizational Chart for “Feel Good” Company

Job Description

According to the organizational chart, the first layer of management represents the head of the cosmetics store, the store manager, who supervises the departmental managers and to whom he/she directs specific assignments, so that those ones coordinate successfully the daily business activities and performance objectives will be achieved in the following areas of activity: store operations, marketing, human resources, finance, IT, merchandising. Thus, the store manager delegates responsibilities, allowing competent assistants to take initiative, and to organize the department staff.

The principal duties and responsibilities of the store manager that will be in charge of this cosmetics store include establishing sales and department goals, defining assignments for the different departments, overseeing the completion of those tasks and responsibilities delegated to the departmental managers, and finally, assuring that the business operations are accomplished effectively and in a timely manner.

Another important responsibility a store manager has to assume is analyzing changes that may affect the store’s operations and goals, thus making necessary adjustment if necessary. In addition to this, equally important is the overall responsibility the store manager has concerning store safety and security, so rules that guide towards a safe business environment, both for customers and employees, will have to be determined.

With regard to the educational requirements for store managers, it can be said that generally, store managers need to have years of experience in the retailing business and depending on the size of the store, candidates may need a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in business administration, and have to prove a record of success in other jobs.

Benefits

According to the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (2006), Mexican Federal Labor Law establishes a variety of job benefits that have to be provided to Mexican workers and among which can be found very important benefits, such as medical benefits, which guarantee that employees have access to health and medical assistance (Benefits, para.5).

Retirement insurance is another important benefit and which basically consists in covering, as an additional benefit, payments to the employee when he or she reaches a specific age. In order to assure this benefit, employers must pay 2 percent of the worker’s salary to a retirement fund in a bank account under the worker’s name (Benefits, para.7).

With regard to the indirect payments that generally depend on the company’s profitability, Mexican Federal Labor Law emphasizes the importance of creating a profit sharing program in which employees receive 10 percent of the company’s annual profits (Benefits, para.1).

In Mexico, vacation issues are regulated differently than in other countries, so Mexican Federal Labor Law establishes 7 legal paid holidays per year and besides, many businesses and labor contracts include additional days for religious and national celebrations (Benefits, para.3).

To conclude, the job benefits mentioned before are the most important ones considering the Mexican labor environment, and therefore will need to be introduced by my cosmetics business.

Employee Evaluation Criteria

Employee evaluation will take place once a quarter, because this way employees will know what is expected from them through feedback, praise, criticism, while the employer will be able to recognize and reward good performance and identify and coach workers who are having trouble (DelPo, 2009).

I will conduct my employees’ performance based on the performance standards and goals that will be tailored to each employee, and handed out to everyone in order to let them know what is expected and what they will have to achieve during the year to receive a positive evaluation.

The next step will consist in keeping track of the employees’ performance and reviewing it routinely, so if an employee does an excellent job on a project or fails, immediate feedback will be provided.

Finally, all documents and records relating to the employee's performance, productivity, and behaviour will be gathered and reviewed, and a final appraisal will be written, having in mind each standard and goal that has been set for each worker, the final conclusion as to whether the employee met the standard or goal, and the reasons that support the conclusion (Del Po, 2009).

Developing the Strategic Marketing Program

The purpose of developing the strategic market program is to determine the feasibility of establishing a new cosmetics store, conducting a market analysis in order to assess the market and industry attractiveness, as well as to explore future competitive advantages of this business. Furthermore, consumer buying patterns need to be examined in order to understand consumers’ purchase decisions and to predict future trends.

To close, a thorough analysis of the competitive environment will be carried out, in addition to an analysis of the overall current position of the business, bringing all these elements together in order to successfully serve the target market. Finally, the product life cycle affecting the sales of cosmetics products will be analyzed, bringing all these elements together in order to serve the target market successfully.

Consumer Buying Patterns

The selection of cosmetics products in Mexico depends to a great extent on the respective purchasing power of Mexican consumers. According

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