contacted earlier and told Debbie something that cannot be put in the case
study.”
“Finally, we found someone who wanted to go – but she wanted to give
two weeks’ notice to her current employer. Debbie asked her to please give
shorter notice ... that we needed her in Martinique now. She agreed after a
while, but then she thought she was obligated to help her apartment mates
find someone to take her place. They talked some more, and finally Debbie
convinced her that her apartment mates could find someone without her
help. I tell you ...” Jacky shook his head, “that’s a lot of work to replace a
tennis instructor in Martinique.”
Turnover occurred in four ways: (1) a GO quit before the end of the
season; (2) a GO was fired before the end of the season; (3) a GO quit at the
end of a season; or (4) a GO was given a poor evaluation by the village
chief and was not asked back for the next season. Jacky’s lead time to
supply new GOs in the first two cases was zero.
In the third and fourth cases, the chiefs rated their GOs in mid-season in
two categories: technical ability (i.e. in windsurfing), and attitude and com-
portment with GMs. The rating scale was 1, 2, or 3 points, in ascending
order of excellence. Six was the highest possible score; GOs who were rated
“3” were marginal: unless their performances improved, they would be
allowed to continue the current season, but would not be invited back for
another season. At the end of the season, a more complete performance
appraisal was sent to Jacky. The evaluation forms had considerable space
for “additional comments”, but most chiefs were not inclined to elaborate
on their GOs. (The space was often left blank.)
During the 1986 summer season, 66 GOs were fired by the 17 chiefs of
the American zone villages. Another 74 quit. (See Figure 5.1.4 for GO com-
ments on why they quit or were fired; Figure 5.1.5 shows comments from
chiefs and GOs who did not leave.) Thus, Jacky’s office had to replace 130
GOs from the reservoir of hired-but-not-assigned GOs. The GOs who quit
or were fired usually were not given an exit interview.
Options
Jacky had several ideas about how to improve the system. First,
some village chiefs fired two or three times as many GOs as other
chiefs. “Why should that be?” he queried. “If they had to live with
the aggravation it caused, perhaps they would try to work with
their new GOs instead of executing them right away. Why not have
chiefs more involved in the recruiting process, maybe taking time
off from their villages to visit cities and conduct interviews? Then
they would have a greater appreciation of how difficult it is to find
good GOs.” In fact, one chief was said to have recruited a number
348 Relationship Marketing