Case Study
1. Provide a detailed list of recommendations concerning yow Jennifer should go about increasing the number of acceptable job applicants so that her company need no longer hire “just about anyone” who walks in the door. Specifically, your recommendations should include:
a. Completely worded classified ads. Students will vary in their creative approaches. A good teaching method is to have them email their ads to each other and have the students rank order which ad they would apply to. Determine what made the ad attractive and ask the other students to modify the ad according to what they just learned.
b. Recommendations concerning any other recruiting strategies you suggest they use. Students will offer a wide variety of suggestions. Among the likely responses are: radio ads, flyers/handbills, and direct mail to former employees (we miss you—maybe the grass didn’t turn out to be greener on the other side). Some students will consider target marketing. For example, Jennifer could re-engineer the job to fewer hours and recruit part time workers, greatly increasing the pool of potential employees. What practical suggestions could you make that might help reduce turnover and make the stores a more attractive place in which to work (thereby reducing recruiting problems)? Jennifer can do a quick analysis on what it costs her to recruit and train a new employee (including the cost of lower productivity as a person learns a new job). Every reduction in employee turnover can be translated to dollars. In fact, Jennifer can improve working conditions without any change in her profit if she pays for improvements from savings in employee turnover costs. The best source of ideas from improvement may come from exit interviews (what would we have done to our work environment that would have made you more likely to stay?), and from existing employees. Students are also likely to suggest some of the following; air-conditioned work space, more employees (so workers
a. Completely worded classified ads. Students will vary in their creative approaches. A good teaching method is to have them email their ads to each other and have the students rank order which ad they would apply to. Determine what made the ad attractive and ask the other students to modify the ad according to what they just learned.
b. Recommendations concerning any other recruiting strategies you suggest they use. Students will offer a wide variety of suggestions. Among the likely responses are: radio ads, flyers/handbills, and direct mail to former employees (we miss you—maybe the grass didn’t turn out to be greener on the other side). Some students will consider target marketing. For example, Jennifer could re-engineer the job to fewer hours and recruit part time workers, greatly increasing the pool of potential employees. What practical suggestions could you make that might help reduce turnover and make the stores a more attractive place in which to work (thereby reducing recruiting problems)? Jennifer can do a quick analysis on what it costs her to recruit and train a new employee (including the cost of lower productivity as a person learns a new job). Every reduction in employee turnover can be translated to dollars. In fact, Jennifer can improve working conditions without any change in her profit if she pays for improvements from savings in employee turnover costs. The best source of ideas from improvement may come from exit interviews (what would we have done to our work environment that would have made you more likely to stay?), and from existing employees. Students are also likely to suggest some of the following; air-conditioned work space, more employees (so workers