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Introduction

Carl Robins has been named the new campus human resources recruiter for ABC Inc. Having only been in that role for six months, Carl has successfully hired 15 new recruits in April. Since Carl himself is a relatively new employee, he is not familiar with the whole hiring process of ABC Inc. Carl now faces some very challenging problems due to his lack of qualifications and training. Carl does not know what he needs to know in order to successfully pull the new trainees into the company. And by failing to realize this he may be putting his future and the futures of the new employees at risk.

Background

Sometime at the beginning of April, Carl Robins successfully hired 15 new employees for ABC Inc. after only being on the job for six months. The 15 new employees will be working for Monica Carrolls. Monica is the Operations Supervisor. Carl did schedule a new employee orientation that was supposed to start on June 15th. Carl wanted the new employees to start by July of that year. Monica contacted Carl on May 15th. Inquiring about the progress of the new employees. Monica asked about several issues including, drug screening, physicals, policy booklets and manuals. Carl reassured Monica that all the issues would be taken care of and she had nothing to worry about.

After Memorial Day Carl was in his office and went to check the statues of the 15 new hires. Carl new that in order for everything to go according to plan the paper work and testing needed to be completed by June 15th. As Carl was looking through the paperwork he became concerned that a lot of the paperwork had not been completed. Some of the trainees did not have applications on file and or their transcripts. None of the physicals and none of the drug testing had been done yet. He also found that there were only three copies of the orientation manuals and several of them were missing pages.

It was at that point that Carl felt overwhelmed and frustrated. Instead of attempting to fix the problem and resolve the issues he went for a walk. When Carl returned from his walk he decided to check on the status of the training room that he had scheduled for the orientation. To Carl’s surprise he had not reserved the training room and the training room had been booked b Joe from the technology services department. Joe was already setting up computers for his upcoming class. As Carl looked over the scheduling log he noticed that Joe had reserved the room for the whole month of June. This left Carl with no place to hold his orientation. This is when Carl realized he was in over his head. He went to his office and placed his head on the desk and questioned what he had gotten himself into. Carl realizes that he has not done anything that has been required of him. The position that he was put in required him to know the ins and outs of the hiring process. Carl has only started something that he cannot finish.

The Key Problems

While Carl has many problems with his plan to hire new employees, four stand out as needing to be addressed immediately as cause-effect problems. Other than Carl, the ABC Inc. also may have some issues to address with leadership and management. Being able to adequately look after your employees and know that they have the training to do their job is paramount in the business world. The first problem is that Carl is improperly trained for his position. One cannot expect to oversee the hiring of many new employees if the individual doing the hiring is not fully knowledgeable on how to train or hire. This one may fall onto his supervisor as well. Monica needs to have confidence in her employees to get the job done with little or no guidance. Carl only having six months of experience has not prepared him for the many challenges that he will face while bringing new employees on board. Since Carl was not trained properly his planning and execution skills are not in line with how the fully transition through the hiring process. The second fault is that Carl seems to be a procrastinator. Carl did not check on the progress for almost two weeks. This let things build and put him behind from the start. By putting off the things that he could have done right away he put them off and now all the steps in the process stack up on top of one another. By procrastinating Carl could not prepare for any unforeseen problems that will ultimately come up. The third key problem is that Carl did not stay on top of the hiring process. By doing a daily follow up Carl eliminates the potential of unforeseen problems and stays up on any issues that arise. Also by checking in daily he can inform his supervisor of the progress that is being made. Again this may also fall in Monica as she should have been checking in as well. The fourth key problem that has been identified is that Carl failed to ask for help when he needed it and at the beginning. Only having six months of experience, Carl was in no position to hire 15 new employees on his own, first thing out of the gate. Carl needed guidance in the hiring process but failed to ask for or seek help. This is a major flaw in big business, employees fail to ask for instructions or guidance for fear that they will look weak or incapable of doing their jobs. On the contrary this shows maturity in the individual. When Carl first realized that he was behind he should have gone to his supervisor and informed her of his situation and sought guidance.

Solutions

What does Carl do now that he is behind with time running out? First Carl needs to identify the major issues that he can solve at the moment. Picking up the phone and making calls to the local physician’s office is an easy start. He needs to have everyone be seen for their drug screen and physical right away. Since some drug screens may take a while, that needs to be one of the first things done. Also some states required the physical and drug screen be done prior to employment, so that makes it even more of a priority. Second is that Carl needs to find a manual that is complete, have copies made and ready for the new hires orientation come July. Having an alternate location for the training is also essential and can be as easy as calling around to find an open banquet room or conference all at local hotels centers. Next Carl needs to have all the applicants file applications and transcripts that day. One easy way to eliminate this kind of mistake is to have this type of paperwork on file prior to the trainees being seen for interviews. This can be done via fax and should be one of the easiest parts of the process. With a little bit of help these all can be accomplished in just a few days’ time. These alternatives are based on the fact that ABC Inc. needs all 15 trainees. If money is an issue than that should be in the equation as to how many employees should actually be hired. Also something to consider, can the training be done at a different location or is it imperative that it been done at the training facility.

Recommendations

This situation can be used to gain insight into the do’s and don’ts of hiring new employees. Employers should never underestimate the power of multiple people doing one very important job, recruiting, it is vital to good company growth. We can gain insight by looking at how this situation turned out. ABC Inc. should look to make a program that guides new personal in human resources and recruiting through the hiring process. This will not only build strong understanding of the hiring process but it will ultimately alleviate any uncertainty in how things need to be done. Prior to any new employees being hired ABC Inc. must make sure that locations are booked in advance, reference material and manuals are fully stocked and drug screen and physicals are scheduled in advance.