Module: Evaluating Staffing Policies, Procedures, and Practices

The first part of the case below is a repeat of the case for module. Many of the situations set out in this part of the HSS case apply to HR planning, recruitment, and selection. You may also want to refer to the beginning of the case in module 1 for a complete background on the situation in the case.

In your role as the new human resources manager for Human Solutions Software (HSS), you have been informally talking to many of the employees at HSS. There are several issues that have come up in your discussions.

When HSS first started more than two years ago, the hiring practices were haphazard. The main method of recruiting new employees was to ask current HSS employees if they knew anyone who had the qualifications that HSS needed. It was common practice to hire family members and friends of established employees. Those practices are still being used today and have been institutionalized by providing bonuses to employees who refer people to apply for positions at the organization, who are eventually hired. In some cases, jobs appear to have been created to fit with the qualifications of people whom some of the founders wanted to hire.

You have also been struck by the demographic characteristics of the employees. There are roughly an equal number of men and women working for HSS, but men fill most of the higher-level positions. Two of the founders are women, but there is a great deal of tension between these two women and the other three founders. This tension seems to be based on the two women wanting to set up a corporate structure that the men see as taking power from the founders. It seems that the new HR department is one of the changes that is in contention.

There is also a lack of minority employees. The two African American and three Hispanic employees are working in lower-level positions.

Question

There is a possibility that HSS will receive a large new contract with a firm in the Portland, Oregon, area. This new contract will require the opening of a new facility for HSS that will require at least 30 people to fully staff the office.

The founders want to know whether it will be better to move experienced people from HSS headquarters in Maryland to manage the facility or to hire new people to manage the facility in Oregon.

Prepare a memo in which you address the advantages and disadvantages of both internal and external staffing methods of a new office that is remote from the main office. Make sure the memo has bullet points for both the pros and cons of each alternative.