Foundations of Business Analysis

Foundations of Business Analysis Data Analysis Report Business Analysis: Employee Satisfaction Newcastle Ltd is a medium-sized business with 3000 employees across Australia. The business specialises in the production and sale of safety devices for the mining industry. Debra Smith has just been appointed as the new CEO of Newcastle Ltd. One of Debra’s initial strategic goals for the business is to build and maintain a high level of employee satisfaction, as she views this as an important way to maximise productivity. To that end, Debra has approached you to undertake a study that investigates the current level of satisfaction within the organisation and whether that satisfaction differs across individuals and divisions. As a benchmark, Debra believes that the minimum level of employee satisfaction required to maximise efficiency is 7 out of 10. Debra is willing to allocate funds towards improving employee satisfaction if required, but she wants to know the most efficient way to allocate this money. She has already commissioned an initial exploratory report, which has identified several possible initiatives that can be used to improve employee satisfaction, including: paying additional wages or bonuses, improving staff training and development opportunities, providing work social events and improving employee benefits by decreasing their overtime requirements. Debra is interested to know which of these strategies would be most effective to increase the satisfaction of Newcastle Ltd employees. A member of your team has already collected data that can be used for this analysis. To collect this data, a random sample of 100 employees was selected from each of the five divisions within Newcastle Ltd: accounting, administration, marketing, human resource management and production. Of the 500 employees that were sent surveys, 400 responded. The survey used to collect this data is provided below and the survey responses have been collated in the Satisfaction.xls Excel file. You are required to write a report after performing analysis on data collected from the employees of Newcastle Ltd. A member of your team has suggested that when you perform this analysis, you should undertake a series of hypothesis tests to examine the following: 1.  Does the current level of overall employee satisfaction differ from Debra’s goal of 7/10? 2.  Is there a difference between the overall employee satisfaction of male and female employees within the business? 3.  Are there any differences in the overall employee satisfaction across business divisions? 4.  Are there any differences in the gender compositions across divisions? 5.  Is there a relationship between an employee’s years of service and their overall satisfaction? 6.  Do employees who are employed on a different basis (casual, part-time, full-time) have different perceptions about how they are valued within the organisation? 7.  Is there any difference between the importance that employees place on their income and their training and development opportunities? 8.  Is there any difference between the importance that employees place on work social events and the number of hours that they work? 9.  Is there a relationship between an employee’s salary and their overall satisfaction? 10. Which of the determinants of employee satisfaction (Questions 10-13) are related to the overall satisfaction of Newcastle Ltd employees? Write a data analysis report that provides the results to each of the ten hypothesis tests above and make overall recommendations to the business that Debra can use for future business decision making. Based on your analysis relating to these hypotheses, your report should focus on two key questions: the current employee satisfaction within the business and the strategy or strategies that would be most effective to increase employee satisfaction. Employee Satisfaction Survey Section 1: Personal information Please complete the following information about yourself and your current employment. Question 1 – Which department of the organisation do you work in? Accounting                 Marketing               HRM                 Production                Administration Question 2 – What is your gender? Male                            Female Question 3 – On what basis are you employed with the organisation? Casual    Part-time         Full-time Question 4 – How many years have you worked with the organisation? _____________________ Question 5 – What was your total taxable income for the 2013/2014 financial year? ___________ Section 2: Current Employee Satisfaction Please circle the number that corresponds with your level of agreement. Strongly Disagree = 1   Neutral = 5   Strongly Agree = 10 Question 6 – Overall, I am satisfied as an employee of Newcastle Ltd. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 7 – My pay is competitive with other places I could work. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 8 – I feel that I am valued within the organisation. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 9 – I agree with the strategic goals of the organisation. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Section 3: Determinants of Employee Satisfaction Please circle the number that corresponds with your level of agreement. Strongly Disagree = 1   Neutral = 5   Strongly Agree = 10 Question 10 – I am satisfied with my salary. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 11 – I am satisfied with the training and career development opportunities are available within the organisation. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 12 – I am satisfied with social events that are provided within the workplace. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Question 13 – I am satisfied with the number of hours I am required to work each week. 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Report Structure Executive Summary This section should provide a brief overview of the data analysis report. You should discuss the subject matter, the method of analysis, the findings and recommendations and any limitations of the report. It is suggested that the Executive Summary is the last section that you write. This section should be 200 words maximum. Introduction Provide a brief background to the case to put your analysis in context. Provide a discussion of the objectives of your analysis. This section should be 150 words maximum. Research Design Discuss the data collection process and the sampling procedures that were applied. In this section you should also outline the ethical considerations that would have been taken into account when collecting data from this survey and reporting your results. This section should include references from at least three credible sources, such as textbooks or journal articles. The research design section should be 300 words maximum Analysis Synthesise the hypothesis test results as they relate to the two key research questions. Report the conclusions that can be derived from this analysis. This section should be 300 words maximum. Recommendations Briefly summarise your results and provide recommendations to Newcastle Ltd. Bullet points can be used for the recommendations. This section should be 150 words maximum. Appendix: Hypothesis Testing For each hypothesis you should: a)  State the null and alternative hypotheses. b)  Select an appropriate statistical test and briefly justify your selection. c)  Perform the appropriate test using Microsoft Excel. d)  Report the results of your analysis (including test statistic and p-value). e)  Provide a brief interpretation (both statistical and non-statistical) of the results. Each hypothesis should be discussed in approximately 100 words. An example is provided below. Hypothesis Testing Example (Based on previous assignment) Question 1) How much are potential patrons willing to pay for the entrées? Is the $18 amount from the forecasting model the correct value to use when setting food prices? Appendix 1: Average patron expenditure H0: The average amount patrons are willing to spend is equal to $18 HA : The average amount patrons are willing to spend is not equal to $18 A one sample t-test is used, as this is the appropriate test to compare the difference between one variable and a pre-determined mean (Zikmund et al., 2013, p. 520). The results from this one-sample t-test are shown below: Table 1: One-sample t-test for difference in patron expenditure Variable 1  Variable 2 Mean  20.14118  18 Variance  91.85022  0 Observations  340  340 Hypothesized Mean Difference  0 df  339 t Stat  4.119569 P(T<=t) one-tail  2.39E-05 t Critical one-tail  1.649361 P(T<=t) two-tail  4.77E-05 t Critical two-tail  1.966986 From Table 1, it is evident that we can reject that null hypothesis that the average patron is willing to pay $18 for their entrée (p-value 0.0000477). As the average expenditure is greater than $18 ($20.14), this value should be used when pricing food in the restaurant. PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET AN AMAZING DISCOUNT :)