\Introduction Helen Whitney, a trained nurse started a new business of home care service for aged people in the

eastern suburbs or Sydney, Australia. This was mainly aimed at providing homecare, assistance and support to aged and disabled people so that they can live at home rather than staying in specialized care facility. The new business named Dutiful Daughters provided services such as respite and overnight care, meal preparation, assisting in recreational activities and shopping, providing companionship, assistance with household correspondence and accounts, taking the aged people for a drive etc. This was a great convenience for their relatives who wished to go for holidays and get a break from responsibilities. Dutiful Daughters employed over 50 casual workers from diverse backgrounds. These included university students and retired nurses like Helen who undertake about 250 shifts weekly altogether. The casual staff were employed to posts of registered nurses, enrolled nurses, assistants-in-nursing, personal carers and cleaners and cook who were offered flexible working hours and fair compensation as motivation. As Dutiful Daughters operates only in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Helen thought of expanding its activities to more places. However, this would affect the quality of personalized service offered as the volume of clients increase. Even though the business had been successful and Helen attributed its success to the staff, there was a lack of quality people to choose from for further recruitment. The business already had more demand than their servicing capability. Helen had to recruit more staff to meet the existing and further demand but the degree of commitment and sacrifice of personal life required for this business would limit the availability as it was difficult to achieve a work-life balance. Dutiful Daughters recorded annual turnover of about A$1 million at the end of 2005. However, the level of profitability was not satisfactory. Helen, as a concerned nurse, was reluctant to increase the fees as many of her clients would find it difficult to pay more. To solve the dilemma, Helen received expert advice on increasing the profitability while maintaining the same standards of service and meeting the demand effectively. As a result, she received the following advises: 1) Developing relationship-building strategies with carers, healthcare providers and influential industry associations. 2) Use of e-marketing by improving the website.

3) Seek the services of an accountant so that she could reduce costs, save taxes and seek government support. 4) Communicate the companys vision to its staff effectively so that the possible conflict between clients service standards and profitability. 5) Pursue some forms of government funding by persuading health care is critical for an aging population.

With the increase in number of clients, there is a need for more employees. Helen found the recruitment strategy and offer package for the new staff a challenging task. Hiring them and retaining the right type of staff was also a major concern.

Current Situation The current situation can be better explained through the SWOT analysis as below: Strengths 1. Helen is an experienced nurse and can provide excellent service to her clients. 2. Dutiful Daughters provide personalized services to the aged people which have already been proven successful. 3. There is a high demand for the services. 4. Dedicated and committed staff, which according to Helen is the core of the businesss success. 5. High business turnover (A$1 million) Weaknesses 1. Insufficient staff to meet the demand. 2. Operates only in eastern suburbs of Sydney 3. Low profitability 4. Unstable work-life balance of the employees 5. Lack of effective marketing strategy Opportunities 1. Implementing the expert recommendations. 2. Expanding the business over a wider geographical area.

Threats 1. High competition in the field. 2. Few regulations in the health care industry. 3. Increasing costs and expenditure. Core Problem Helen finds herself in a challenging situation where she has to raise the profitability of her business of aged care service by maintain the quality of service and employing the right number of people to meet the growing demand. Expanding the business without losing personal touch As Dutiful Daughters operates in limited location, Helen is thinking of expanding the business to more places. But this would affect the personal care provided to each client as it would be difficult to concentrate on each and every client with the existing staff. Therefore, more employees have to be recruited and appointed. This would help to reach more clients while maintaining the same quality and standard of service offered. The new employees should be offered attractive benefits such as a good amount of salary, flexible working times, and transportation allowance so that more people would apply for the jobs. This process of hiring more staff will increase the businesss expense. However, this can be recovered and more profits can be made in the long run because of the increased client base. Client Manager A new position. In order to cater to the personal care of each client, a new employee should be recruited. This employee will be called the client manager, managing the clients. Mostly internal recruitment is preferred for this position as the person should be familiar with the business and priorexperienced in serving the aged and disabled people. This employee should also posess excellent communication and coordination skills to communicate with the clients and arrange the service. The duties and responsibilities associated with this position are: Contacting the clients and receiving their requirements details Informing the servicing staff about these requirements Contacting the clients and taking their feedback about the service Matching the feedback with their requirement and passing to the service team if any negative deviations are found.

Continue taking feedback from the clients until they express full satisfaction.

Potential Employees The potential employees who could be attracted to work at Dutiful Daughters are retired and working nurses, social workers, cooks, cleaners, drivers and college students. Retired nurses may find this job very interesting and can also help them to continue what they used to do and therefore avoid the monotony of retired life. Working nurses can also be attracted to work for Dutiful Daughters as part time which would help them earn extra by making the best use of their free time after work. Drivers are required to transport the personal carers across the region to and from the houses of the clients. This would be needed as Helen is planning an expansion of her business. As far as Social workers are concerned, working at Dutiful Daughters is a part of their goal as they are serving the aged people in the society and thereby contributing to the betterment of the community. When these self-motivated people are offered such a job even with a payment, their interest in it is almost certain and would help the business to gain more committed and dedicated staff. Helen can also hire university students which she already does. They get a chance to serve the elderly and could assist the personal carers. They are getting paid a competitive amount of salary which would motivate the students to spend their free time for Dutiful Daughters. Helen should make use of different recruitment means to invite candidates to work at Dutiful Daughters. Newspaper advertisements can be used to attract the attention of working and retired nurses, cooks, drivers and cleaners in the region. Another important means of recruitment can be joining hands with social welfare associations. These associations can support the activities of Helen and can encourage the members of these associations to work for her as part time. This will also advertise the service of Dutiful Daughters The college students can be recruited by contacting different colleges in the region by Helen and informing the marketing head of these institution about her requirement. As this would help the students practice what they study (especially in business schools) and would develop social commitment among them, the college authorities would show significant interest in supporting the recruitment. Thus, all students are

informed about the vacancy and would provide enough valuable candidates to Helen to work for her business. Employee Selection Criteria The candidates who applied for working at Dutiful Daughters will undergo an interview carried out by Helen. The right candidates will be selected at the end based on the following criteria: The previous experience in aged care or similar services. Candidates background (personality, family, attitude and behavior at

workplace/school, achievements). The motive and level of interest and commitment the candidate shows towards the service in the interview. The candidates reply to the question: Why do you wish to work for Dutiful Daughter will be analyzed. Those who have a selfless and dedicated reason are given preference. The number of hours each candidate is willing to work.

Besides, the candidates overall performance and body language will be analyzed before making the final selection to ensure that those candidates who prefer quality service to remuneration are given preference. Improvements in website The current website of Dutiful Daughters appears dull and static. This is because of its use of gloomy colors, a very basic layout and use of no flash contents or animations. Therefore, in order to improve its attractiveness to the current and potential clients, the following recommendations are made: 1. A bright but not fancy color combination should be used. A colorful layout can attract more attention. 2. Flash contents and animations can be used in the home page. This may include moving or animating letters with altering pictures showing care and affection. 3. A video message directly from Helen can be posted on the home page expressing her motive behind starting such an initiative. The past and current services offered and

achievements made can be highlighted in this video. This direct communication from the founder can have a high level of impact on the viewers.