Cases

“ CH.1 & Ch.3”

 Case 1
Jack Nelson’s Problem
As a new member of the board of director for
local bank, Jack Nelson was being introduced to
all employees in the home office. When he
introduced to Ruth Johnson , he was curious
about her work and asked her what her machine
did. Johnson replied that she really didn’t know
what machine was called or what it did. She
explained that she had been working there for
only 2 months. She did, however, know precisely
how to operate the machine …..
 Cont.
According to her supervisor, she was excellent
employee.
At one branch offices, supervisor in charge spoke to
Nelson confidentially, telling him that something
was wrong, but she didn’t know what. For one
thing, she explained, employee turnover was high
and no sooner had one employee been put on the
job than another one resigned. With customers to
see and loans to be made …..
 Cont.
She explained, she had little time to work with
the new employees.
All branch supervisors hired their own
employees without communication with the
home office or other branches. When an
opening developed, the supervisor tried to find
a suitable employee to replace the worker.
After touring the 22 branches and finding similar
..
 Cont.
Problems in many of them, Nelson wondered
what the home office should do or what action
he should take. The banking firm was generally
as a well run institution that had grown from 27
to 191 employees during the past 8 years. The
more he thought about the matter, the more
puzzled Nelson become. He couldn’t put his
finger on the problem, and he didn’t know
whether to report his findings to the president.
 Questions
1- What do you think is causing some of the
problems in the bank home office and branches
?
2- Do you think setting up an HR unit in the main
office would help?
3- what specific functions should an HR unit
carry out ? What HR functions should be carried
out by supervisors and other line managers ?
 Case 2
Carter Cleaning Company
Jennifer carter graduated from State university
in June 2009, and , after considering several job
offers, decided to do what she always planned
for to go into business with her father, Jack
Carter.
Jack Carter opened his first Laundromat in 1999
and his second in 2002. the main attraction of
these coin laundry business for him was that
they were capital rather than labor incentives…
 Cont.
Thus once the investment machinery was made,
the stores could be run with just one un skilled
attendant and non of labor problems one normally
expect from being in the retail service business.
The attractiveness of operating with virtually no
skilled labor notwithstanding, jack had decided by
2003 to expand the service in each of his stores to
include the dry cleaning and pressing of clothes…
 Cont.
He embarked in other words on a strategy of
retail diversification by adding new service that
were related and consistent with his existing
coin laundry activities.
He wanted to better utilize the unused space in
the rather large stores he currently had under
lease. Furthermore he was as he put it tired of
sending out the dry cleaning and pressing work
…
 Cont.
That came in from our coin laundry clients to a
dry cleaner 5 miles away, who then took most of
what should have been our profits. To reflect the
new expanded line of services he renamed each
of his two stores carter cleaning centers and was
sufficiently satisfied with their performance to
open four more of the same type of stores over
the next fife years …
 Cont.
Each store has its own on site manager and on
average about seven employees and annual
revenues of about 500,000 $ . It was the six store
chain that Jennifer joint after graduating.
Her understanding with her father was that she
would serve as a troubleshooter/consultant to the
elder carter with the aim of both learning the
business and bringing to it modern management
concepts and techniques for solving the business
problem and facilitate its growth.
 Questions
1- Jennifer asks that you make a list of five
specific HR problems you think carter cleaning
will have to grapple with.
2- what would you do first if you were me,
Jennifer Carter?
 Case 3
Finding people who are passionate about what they
do
Trilogy enterprise Inc.. Provides software solutions
to giant global firms for improving sales and
performance. It prides itself on its unique and
unorthodox( not confirming to rules) culture.
There is no dress code and employees make their
own hours often very long. They tend to socialize
together , the average age is 26, both in the offices
well stocked kitchen and on company ..
 Cont.
Sponsored events and trips on places like local
dance club and retreats in Hawai. An in house
jargon( their way of talking together) has developed
and the shared history of the firm has taken on
status of legend. Responsibility is heavy and comes
early, with just do it now attitude that dispense(
canceled) with long apprenticeships ( long
learning). New recruits are given a few weeks of
intensive training known as Trilogy university and
descried by participant ….
 Cont.
As more like boot ( healthy) camp than business
school. Information is delivered as if with a fire
hose and new employees are expected to
commit their expertise and vitality to everything
they do. Jeff Daniel, director of college recruiting
admits the intense and unconventional (un
traditional) firm is not for everybody. But its
definitely an environment where people who
are passionate about what they do can thrive.
 Cont.
The firm employs about 700 such passionate
people. Trilogy’s managers know the rapid
growth they seek depend on having a staff of
the best people they can find, quickly trained
and given broad responsibility and freedom as
soon as possible. CEO Joe Liemandnt says “ at a
software company people are everything”. You
can’t build the next software company, which is
what we are trying to do here, unless you are…
 Cont.
Totally committed to that. Of course the leaders
at every company says “people are every thing “
but they don’t act on it.Trilogy makes finding the
right people a company wide mission. Recruiters
actively pursue the freshest people in the job
market, sourcing college career fairs and
computer science department for talented
overachievers with ambition and
entrepreneurial instinct….
 Cont.
Top managers conduct the first round of
interviews, letting prospects know they will be
pushed to achieve but will be well rewarded.
Employees take top recruits and their significant
others out on the town when they come to
Austin for the 3 day preliminary visit. A typical
day might begin with grueling( exhausting)
interviews but end with mountain biking or laser
tag…
 Cont.
One year, trilogy reviewed 15000 resumes,
conducted 4000 on campus interviews, flew 850
prospects in for interviews, and hired 262
college graduates, who account for over a third
of its current employees. The cost per hire was
$13000 Jaff Daniel believes it worth every
penny.
 Questions
1- Identify some of the established recruiting
techniques that underline Trilogy’s unconventional
approach to attracting talent.
2- what particular elements of trilogy’s culture most
likely appeal to the kind of employees it seeks? How
does it convey those elements to job prospect?
3- would Trilogy be an appealing employer for you?
Why and why not ?
4- what suggestions would you make to Trilogy for
improving its recruiting processes?
 Case 4
Carter cleaning company
If you were to ask Jennifer and her father what
the main problem was in running their firm,
their answer would be quick and short; hiring
good people. Originally begun as a string of
coin-operated Laundromats requiring virtually
no skilled help, the chain grew to six stores, each
heavily dependent on skilled manager, cleaner/
spotters, and pressers. Employees generally
have no more than a high school education…
 Cont.
(often less), and the market for them is very
competitive. over a typical weekend, literally
dozens of want ads for experienced pressers or
cleaners/spotters can be found in area news
papers. All these people usually are paid around
$ 15 per hour, and they change jobs frequently.
Jennifer and her father thus face the continuing
task of recruiting and hiring qualified workers
out of a pool of individuals they feel are
almost…
 Cont.
Nomadic in their propensity to move from area
to area and job to job. Turnover in their stores (
as in the stores of many of their competitors)
often approaches 400%. ‘’ don’t tell me about
human resource planning and trend analysis’’
Says Jennifer. We are fighting an economic war
and happy just to be able to around up enough
live applicant to be able to keep my trenched
fully manned(human crue).
 Cont.
In light of this problem . Jennifer father asked her to
answer the following questions and she would like
to know what you would do:
1- first, how would you recommend we go about
reducing the turnover in our stores?
2- provide a detailed list of recommendations
concerning how we should go about increasing our
pool of applicant so we no longer face the need to
hire Almost any one who walks in the door.