ConAgra, Inc. is the second largest food company in the United States. The company is comprised of three main divisions: Frozen Foods, Packaged Foods and Agricultural Products. ConAgra's operations are worldwide, with major operation centers in 35 countries. The company is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska where unemployment rates have remained at historical lows for the past several years. Due to the tight labor market, ConAgra has had increasing difficulty finding and retaining a quality workforce. This problem has not only afflicted the company at its headquarters, but throughout several of its key operation sites. Thus, ConAgra has commissioned a survey to determine workable solutions to its hiring and retention problems.
Due to the size of the targeted workforce, administrative concerns require that the instrument be relatively simple and easily translated. Though ConAgra has requested that the survey be conducted and results reported for its headquarter operations by the research firm hired, it also requires an instrument that can easily be distributed and analyzed by in-house human resource departments throughout its divisions. Because the company plans to repeat the survey periodically throughout its operations, cost of administering and analyzing the survey are key concerns.
Therefore the survey must be applicable to the entire workforce, from top executives to hourly wage earners. The varying levels of education and time constraints on this broad cross-section of employees further requires that the survey be brief and easily understood.
Generally, the company is interested in alternative incentives to pay and benefit packages such as work environment, employee morale issues and job security. Specifically, ConAgra seeks to determine policies, procedures and on-site benefits that can be implemented in order to improve its retention rates. This information is also desired in order to entice new job candidate...