Case Study Analysis
Jessie Widder
COMM/215
January 17, 2011
John Cantlon
INTRODUCTION
In this case study about Carl Robins a number of problems occurred. To obtain a clear understanding of what went wrong and the best way to solve these problems, a case study analysis is the way to go. To start off, I believe ABC Inc., made the wrong decision by assigning Carl Robins to the job of recruiting new hires. Carl only had this position for six months. Because Carl was on his own, he should have known that he needed to put a lot more preparation into this job. With only about two to three weeks until orientation is supposed to start, Carl has a lot on his hands. Because of his lack of organization, planning, scheduling, etc., there is a good chance the training will not be able to happen until at least the beginning of July, assuming the computer room is open then.
Background
Carl Robbins, a new campus recruiter for ABC Inc., was assigned the job of recruiting new hires to work for the Operations Supervisor, Monica Carrolls. He was successful is this task, in which he hired 15 new trainees. What many people think is the easiest part of Carl’s process, was completed. His next step was to train them. He scheduled an orientation to take place on June 15th. Assuming the orientation would go smoothly, Carl was hoping he would have these new trainees working for Monica by the beginning of July. On May 15th, Monica contacted Carl about the training process. It had come to her attention that a lot of necessary items needed to complete the orientation were missing, hadn’t been received, and simply just not taken care of. As anyone would, Carl guaranteed Monica that everything would be taken care of and to not worry. About a week or so later, Carl decided to start solving these problems Monica warned him about. When he pulled out his file where all of his information from his trainee applicants had been stored, he knew he had a lot of work to do. Some of the trainees did not have their applications completed, transcripts on file, and none of them had been sent to the clinic for drug testing. Hoping these were the only problems he had to worry about, Carl discovered that he did not have enough orientation handbooks for all his trainees and with the three he had, none of them were complete. Carl then went to the training room to make sure he still had the room to complete the training process. To top it off, Joe, from technology services, had also reserved the room for the whole month of June. Hoping that all the other problems would be able to be solved without much effort, Carl realized that not having a room for the training process is probably his biggest problem.
Key Problems As many people can assume, completing a job such as this requires commitment, preparation, organization, and something that will always help is experience. Because this was Carl’s first recruiting job, it is very obvious that Carl did not have the experience needed to help him with this job. Being well aware of this, Carl needed to work extra hard to complete this job as effectively and efficiently as humanly possible. Giving Carl the benefit of the doubt, as this being his first time doing a job like this, one or two problems would have been acceptable. The amount of problems Carl had to deal with, because of his lack of responsibility, was merely unacceptable. With the amount of work and effort one should have been putting into a job like this, keep in mind it being his or her first job, there is no reason Carl should have been faced with half the problems he had. First, Carl’s major problem I believe was his lack of preparation. If Carl just put in an extra hour a day to complete this job, all of these problems would have been solved with enough time to worry about last-minute glitches that may arise. The problems Carl was faced with were * Incomplete applications * Transcripts not on file * Mandatory drug screening was not completed and not even scheduled * Not enough orientation manuals * Incomplete orientation manuals * Double-booking with the room desired to hold orientation Not only do these problems reflect the work of Carl, but also they reflect ABC Inc. Carl’s irresponsibility has affected the image of ABC. If Carl does not get his act together and clear up all these problems, a potential downfall of the image of ABC Inc. can easily be blamed on him.
Alternatives
In order for Carl to save himself, a number of actions must be taken. Carl has a lot to do and not that much time. This can be done, but he to be determined and very diligent making sure everything is moving smoothly. He will need to work extremely hard. Carl, first, needs to sit down and plan out the couple of weeks he has before his orientation is supposed to start. He needs to contact the clinic and set up a date, hopefully within the next couple of days, so that the 15 applicants will be able to go in and get his or her drug test. After he figures out this date, he needs to contact all the trainees notifying them of the date of this mandatory drug test, have them complete their applications, and make sure they get their transcripts on file. This may take a few days, but Carl needs to make sure he is on top of each of the trainee’s, putting extra pressure on them making sure Carl receives this necessary information. Carl must have a due date for all of this and a consequence if not completed on time in order for these trainees to take him seriously. At this due date he will have solved three out of six of his problems. His next three problems have solely to do with him. Although the orientation booklets not being complete are not in his control, he needs them to perform his training process. All he needs is one complete booklet. First, he should look through the three booklets he has in his possession because there is a good chance that the pages missing from one may not be missing from the other. If this is true, by putting all these pages together he will have one complete book. If this is not the case he needs to ask Monica where he is able to find a complete orientation booklet. Once he gets this booklet he needs to make enough copies for every trainee to have one. Now the last thing he has to worry about is the room for the orientation. Even though this may seem like a major problem, it really should be the last thing he should worry about. After all, without completed applications, transcripts, drug screening, and complete orientation books, there is no orientation needed. Carl has many options to solve this room problem. One is to talk to Joe and explain to him that there seems to be a misunderstanding with the booking of the room for the month of June. Maybe Joe can postpone his computer training seminars or will admit to making the mistake of double booking. Maybe Joe can use another room or Carl can find another open room to hold his orientation. The last option is to talk to Joe and see if they can coordinates times to allow both of them to use the room. There is a lot, but it is possible. Once Carl does this, all his problems will be solved and he will be able to run orientation as planned and get these employees working for Monica as soon as possible.
Proposed Solutions The most important thing Carl needs to do is make a schedule for him to be able to follow. Something that he will be able to look at and make sure he is on time with everything. This will allow him to solve all his problems and force him to stay on top of his work. He needs to follow up with all the trainees until everything they are required to do is completed. As for the orientation booklets, there should to be a complete one somewhere on file, and if there is not, then that it is not his fault. He will have to work with what he has because it is the best he is going to get. Last, I think the easiest way to solve the room problem is just to find another room. Yes, Carl may have reserved the room before Joe, but to spend time trying to compromise with Joe is a waste of valuable time Carl needs to get everything prepared by June 15th.
Recommendations
ABC Inc. is not able to go back in time and start from scratch. For future recruiting jobs, I have a few recommendations make sure process would be able to be run as smoothly as possible. My first recommendation is to never give the job of recruiting new hires to someone who has only worked six months and has had no experience. Of course, people may say that “there’s a first for everything,” but ABC Inc. should have had another well-experienced campus recruiter helping Carl with his first big job. My second recommendation would be that if there is a strong desire to give someone, like Carl, a job like this, he or she should receive lots of training with step-by-step guidelines allowing this new campus recruiter to do this job correctly. Also it may be helpful to have someone checking in making sure he or she is on task and does not have any questions. Hopefully ABC Inc. will learn from their mistakes and be more prepared when a job such as this comes up again.