SITUATION: STAFFING CASE

Part One -

Two months ago Serena Tibaldo, head of the Creative Development Department, along with four other employees located in the California branch, were all fired after having been caught up in a scheme to embezzle money from MidWest Education. News of this reached the local papers and made the front pages. The decision to press charges on all of these was made, and the results of these charges are still pending.

In the mean time, Ms Lund (CEO) and Lawrence Wilson (the Vice President for Human Resources) needed to fill the vacant positions. The first task was to find an individual to take over Tibaldo's spot as head of the Department. In order to do this a meeting was held at the headquarters office in Kansas City. Ms. Lund, Mr Wilson, and Virginia Fox (head of human resources for the Massachusetts Creative Development Division) were all present. Through a very long discussion and deliberation they had narrowed down a list of candidates. Before they made a decision though, they needed to address some of their concerns. The first thing they needed to decide was if they were going to hire someone from within the company or someone who doesn't currently work for them. Another issue is that Serena Tibaldo was the first woman to ever hold the position as head of the Creative Development Department. The last eleven were male. Would it make a difference if they hired a male or a female? The following is a list of possible candidates the group has come up with:

Jose Garvic: Jose is currently working for a human development company in Mexico City that trains out-of-work people who are new on the job skills. He supervises approximately 30 people and is in charge of developing new programs for his department; the programs he created have been very innovative and have been used widely throughout his company. He is wanting to get out of Mexico and move to California to "live the good life" as he's said. Since he's been in his current position, his department has more than doubled its business. His first language is Spanish, but he does speak decent English. He has a degree in business management.

Robert McAdams: Robert recently retired and has become very bored with it. He's looking to get back into the business world. When he retired he was the CEO of a small technology company that developed educational tools for school districts. The tools they developed were new and had interesting ways to teach kids how to use computers. The size of his company tripled since he'd taken over and it continued to grow after he left. He has a degree in computer information systems and an MBA. He is a very fun and cheerful man, but sometimes this can distract him and others from their work. He is a natural leader, and people like to work for him.

Adam Street: Adam is currently a member of the Creative Development Department located in the Massachusetts branch. He has a degree in graphic design and an MBA. He is relatively new to the company and does not have much experience within the department. He's known as a very loyal and hard working individual. Others fmd him very easy to work with and can count on him for help whenever they need it. Projects that he works on are always turned in on time and are above and beyond what is expected. Adam was a 4.0 student at an Ivy League school when he received his undergraduate degree in software design, and will finish his masters' degree in computer science next month.

Ann Shore: Ann has a degree in economics and a degree in marketing. She recently worked for a company that was forced to declare bankruptcy. While there she had been a fast-tracker and had moved up the ranks very quickly. She held a parallel position to the one she is applying for when she was let go. The recommendations given by her former supervisor are outstanding. She seems to be a very brash and in-your-face type of person, but she knows what she wants and knows how to get it from her employees. This can make it stressful to work for her, but everything she works with turn out much better than projected. She has a slight speech impediment but has not let that stop her in the past.

Wendy Atchinson: Wendy has been a member of the Manufacturing Division for the past 17 years. She has moved up through the ranks of this division, starting out as a member of the manufacturing team. She's now head supervisor for two of these teams. She's a very hard worker and her teams are always producing the highest quality products of the teams. Some workers occasionally find her difficult to work for because she is always pushing them to do better. She has a very strong sense of how to produce a quality product, and how to get the most out of her employees. She has a degree in management and a masters' degree in graphic design.

Questions:

1. Should the decision be made to hire someone from within the company, or someone new?

2. Who would you choose for the new head of the department and why?

3. Did you take into consideration whether or not to hire a female? If a female is not hired is there any discrimination?

Part Two -

(Now that the new head of the department had been hired) Amelia Chi, the head of the Human Resources Department for the Creative Development Department in California, could focus on hiring the four other positions that had been lost. In order to find possible candidates for these positions, ads were placed on Monster.com, as well as several other websites. E-mails were sent out to all qualified applicants who had applied to the department within the last six months. Amelia also went to the four local universities to recruit people who were graduating. With the ads placed online, the prior qualified applicants, and the college recruiting, nine qualified applicants were found. All were brought in and interviewed. Currently, the Creative Development Department's demographics for the California plant are as follows:

The population demographics for similar California white-collar workers are as follows:

Description of the nine qualified candidates interviewed:

Luis Springdale: Luis has worked as a freelance software developer for the past nine years. He has designed software used by several very large companies and has some great examples of the work that he has done. He has never worked for or with anyone before. All of his work has been on his own. He is looking for a hob because he wants to move into something with a little more stability. He does have some new and creative ideas. He is a white male, and is 34 years old. He does not have a degree.

Lisa Munoz: Lisa is a 22 year old Hispanic just out of college. She received her degree in marketing just three months ago. She had a GPA of 3.8 and was the head of several organizations at her school. She has very little experience, but has had an internship with a company very similar to MidWest Education. In her interview she had several great ideas that impressed Mrs. Chi.

Gloria YuShan: Gloria is a 29 year old Chinese woman who received her degree in management in California. After she graduated she moved back to China and worked there for her family business for the past six years. She has recently moved back to the States and is looking for a position that will help her progress up a corporate ladder. Little is known about her work habits.

Martin Hallacy: Martin is a 25 year old white male who just received his degree in Information Technology from a local university. His GPA was 3.2 and he was the president of his fraternity. He doesn't have any relevant work experience, but gave an excellent interview. He is a member of the California National Guard.

Thomas Decker: Thomas is a 45 year old African American with all kinds of experience. He doesn't have a college degree. He has an amazing set of references and everything said about him has been positive. In his interview he expressed a desire to work on something new and exciting.

Cora Hurt: Cora is a 58 year old woman who has been in and out of work all of her life. She has a degree in business administration and has held numerous different positions with different companies. When she was asked why she did not stay with one company for more than about five years at a time her response was family reasons. All of her references confirm that she is a nice lady and a hard worker.

Henon Heftson: Henon is a 33 year old Asian man with a degree in graphic design and a degree in management. He has never worked in the United States, but received both of his degrees here. He speaks very good English and has great communication skills. He seems very eager to work at MidWest Education.

Jordan Walker: Jordan is a 29 year old white make with a degree in economics. He has been working in the creative development department for an automobile manufacturer for the past six years and is wanting a change. He loves coming up with new ideas and has very relative work experience.

Juan Ramirez: Juan is a 24 year old Hispanic make who just received his degree in general studies. He fought his way to put himself through school, and was the first in his family to finish. His GP was only a 2.7, but he worked as many as three jobs at a time in order to afford to go to school. He is a very hard worker and a very determined individual.

Questions:

1. How effective were Amelia Chi's techniques in recruiting new employees?

2. Is there any current discrimination among the employees who work in the department compared to the local demographics?

3. Which four of the nine employees would you select and why?