Task: Real-Life Creative Problem Solving
Come up with an original and creative solution for the following real-world problem:
The Upper Management of Acme Company has been holding wage increases to a 6 percent level. The decision to hold wage increases came about from an effort to reduce product twice in the past year due to increased shipping costs of materials, and upper management does not feel that Acme can remain competitive if there are any future increases in the cost of their product. Unfortunately, the engineering job market in the area stands at about 12 jobs for every one trained engineer. Because of this, recruiters are cropping up and are enticing Acme's engineers with better jobs and better benefits. As of late, turnover among Acme's engineers has increased and productivity has decreased. Also, there is a considerable grumbling among current engineers about Acme's policy on wage increases. Mr. Wentworth, an executive vice president, has directed Scott to improve the situation in the engineering department. Mr. Wentworth feels that much of the dissatisfaction is based upon the recruiters' enticements of better opportunities in other places. The concern at Acme is to maintain a quality group of engineers at a high level of productivity. Management at Acme does not know how to solve this problem..

Response: You can not make everyone happy, so do what is best for the company + families.
Human originality rating (0-100 scale): 10

Response: Acme needs to look at the core of this problem ‚Äì the ‚Äúheadhuntera‚Äù ‚Äì if they are not displaying up to their satisfaction maybe they need to work w/ someone else ‚Äì Acme IS THE CONSUMER w/ ‚Äúheadhunters‚Äù and are not feeling the satisfaction. Acme also needs to recognize they are not a large company that can match to a 6% limit of wage increase.  Work w/ the employees you have for their raises then focus on new employees.
Human originality rating (0-100 scale): 10

Response: They can try and hire people willing to work hard and make a quality product.
Human originality rating (0-100 scale): 38

Response: Acme should have a set amount of engineers to hire so that they can focus on giving the people that work fro them the best opportunities possible. They need to reduce the price of their products for the time being so that they can offer their workers a better job w/ better benefits. Once productivity increases they can slowly increase the price of their product.
Human originality rating (0-100 scale): 22