Running Head: CASE STUDY 5
Case Study 5
Kyla Brickey
BUSI 643
16 August 2020
CASE STUDY 5
A custom truck manufacturer has a contract with a company that is going to take three
years to complete. Due to the volume of this custom order, the company Keepon Trucking
Company (KTC) is now having to hire 100 external employees to help with the new assembly of
this large order. The Human Resources manager of nonexempt employment, Dexter Williams,
concluded that three methods would be needed to hire the employees, complete the order, and
complete the contract. Applicants were hired from the three methods: newspaper advertisements,
a local employee agency, and employee referral.
Another way they could have recruited employees would have been through social
media, the internet, or other social networking sites. When hiring someone a recruiter needs to
find out as much as they can about the applicant. Being a responsible and loyal person is
important. Social media is an easy way to see a glimpse of a person’s life and how they behave.
Social networking sites can be dangerous for the applicant because an employer can find out
more than the applicant would want them to know (Bohmova & Pavlicek, 2015, p. 24)
There were controls used to accurately measure the applicants when being hired, and
each offer was the same without negotiations available for salary, benefits, or anything else that
could be negotiated on. After a year into the work, The Human Resources manager evaluated the
employees and the three different ways that the applicants were hired. For this evaluation to take
place, Williams is using yield ratios, time lapse or cycle times, and the retention rates of the
employees from all three recruiting methods they were hired through.
Yield Ratios, Elapsed Time or Cycle Times, and Retention Rates
The yield ratio is the amount of people that applied for the job, and then the amount of
people that were offered the position. There were 760 applicants from the three available ways
that they could hear about the job and apply. The newspaper advertisement totaled 300
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applicants, and 70 of those applicants received a job offer. This totals to 23.33 percent. The next
method was employee referral. The employee referral method totaled 60 applicants, and of these
60 applicants, 30 received offers. This equals 50 percent of the applicants receiving jobs from
this method of employee referral. The last method of hiring was through the employment agency.
400 people applied, and only 20 of these applicants received offers. This concludes that five
percent of the applicants from the employment agency was hired.
The elapsed time or cycle times is the amount of time that it took from the start of the
advertising process until the job offer was made from KTC. Advertisements in newspapers took
60 days until the job was offered to an applicant. Employees that referred an applicant took 30
days for a job offer to take place. Advertisements with the employment agency took 60 days for
an applicant to receive a job offer.
When thinking of retention rates, the highest retention rate was from employee referrals.
There were 30 applicants hired to begin with and 27 of the 30 remained at the six-month mark.
That equals 90 percent. The applicants hired from newspaper advertisements was a 70 percent
retention rate. Out of the 50 applicants, 35 of them remained after six-months of work. The
lowest retention rate was from the employment agency. There was 20 hired initially, and only 8
remained. This is a 40 percent retention rate overall for the employment agency at the six-month
mark of employment. On page seven is a graph (Appendix) that visually shows the yield ratios,
elapsed time or cycle times, and the retention rates.
Relative Effectiveness of the Three Sources
Yield ratios equals the total number of job offers that Keepon Trucking Company made to
the applicants for each of the recruiting source. The employee referral method was the source
that had the highest number of applicants that was offered a position at the company. The total
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was fifty percent of the applicants was offered a job from this source. The newspaper
advertisements gained the second-best number of applicants that were offered a job at 23.33
percent. The employment agency brought in only five percent of applicants that were offered a
job with KTC.
Cycle times is the length of time that it took from the time the application was submitted
to the company until an applicant was offered the position. The Human Resource manager stated
that the applicants that came from employee referrals resulted in the lowest cycle time with 30
days. The employees that came from the employee agency and the newspaper ads had a longer
cycle time of 60 days.
Employees that were hired from employee referrals had a great retention rate of 90
percent. The newspaper advertisements had a lower retention rate of 70 percent. This is still a
decent and good retention rate for a manufacturing facility. The retention rate from the employee
agency was only 40 percent. This is significantly lower than the other two recruiting methods.
Reasons That the Sources Differ in Relative Effectiveness
A logical explanation is that current employees know what it takes to work there. They
know the skills and what it takes to be a good fit in the organization. Current employees would
like to see the organization be successful, and they know that the overall well-being of the
company is important. They will try to find someone that will be a good fit, and be happy with
their job that they have. They will only seek people that are hardworking and motivated.
Employee agencies are often paid on how many workers they can get in a job. They will send
any applicant to apply that has the qualifications, but they may not always be the best match.
They do not always take the time and find a right fit. Employee agencies just send anyone that is
qualified in hopes that some of them work out. Often these people looking for a job with these
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agencies are not always the most motivated and hardworking individuals, and this is their last
resort at finding a job when they have been let go from other organizations. This makes the
turnover rate at jobs that they accept high. These employees from employment agencies are often
always on the lookout for a better job, and this is because they take any job they are offered
while still searching for a better position elsewhere.
It is often hard to provide an exact description of what a job will be like in a newspaper
advertisement. There is often a limited number of words allowed in an advertisement, and the
more room that is taken up, the costlier the advertisement is. This results in a vague description
of the job, and the new employee may be disappointed or let down once they begin the certain
job.
Different Recommendations
The Human Resources manager could only use employee referrals when he can. If there
is an abundance of employees that can provide referrals then that method should be used and the
other two eliminated. Employee agencies do not need to be used because a high amount of
money is spent on training an employee, and they do not stay. This is a waste of the company’s
money and time. Williams could give surveys to employees and gather data more often from
current employees. This could be a good source of information to have for future hiring
practices, and it would help the manager know who to hire and what to look for in applicants.
Williams should record data about job satisfaction and overall happiness in the company that
employees have a few times a year. This will allow the company to make improvements when
necessary. Employees that are a good fit, are happy, and are satisfied with their job typically stay
with the company.
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References
Bohmova, L., & Pavlicek, A. (2015). The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Recruiting
Human Resources in the Czech Republic. Organizacija, 48(1), 23-31. Retrieved from
https://doaj.org/article/f1bbf339067c4b1ebf74beb0a8da9ece.
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