This Document Contains Chapters 1 to 4 Chapter 1: Strategic Staffing LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Understand why staffing is critical to an organization’s performance. • Define strategic staffing and contrast it with less strategic views of staffing. • Describe the seven components of strategic staffing. • Understand staffing goals. • Describe how staffing influences and is affected by the other functional areas of human resource management. • TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. Staffing is critical to an organization’s performance because it is the means through which the firm acquires, deploys, and retains the talent needed to execute its business strategies and perform well. Staffing is the cornerstone of effective human resource management because it generates the talent that is supported and fostered by a company’s other HR functions. 2. Strategic staffing is the process of staffing an organization in future-oriented, goal- directed ways that support the organization’s business strategy and enhance its effectiveness. Strategic staffing moves people into, through, and out of the organization in ways that maximize the organization’s performance and its ability to compete. It requires long-term planning, as well as aligning the staffing function with the firm’s business strategy and the other areas of HR. Strategic staffing involves assessing the labor market, targeting recruits, assessing candidates based on job-related success factors and the candidates’ longer-term potential, and evaluating staffing outcomes against pre-identified goals. 3. The seven components of strategic staffing are planning, sourcing, recruiting, selecting, acquiring, deploying, and retaining talent. 4. The ultimate goal of a staffing system is to hire people who can perform well and contribute to the execution of the company’s business strategy. Doing so as quickly as possible and experiencing a good return on the time and resources invested in the staffing effort are also important. Other staffing goals might involve the quality of new hires, their retention rates, how quickly openings are filled, the company’s return on the training new hires receive, and the promotion rates of new hires. Staffing goals should be identified in the early stages of staffing planning, and the staffing system should be evaluated to ensure that it is meeting these goals. 5. Staffing both influences and is affected by performance management, training, and compensation. Staffing practices can influence the options available to, and the effectiveness of, the rest of the human resource function. It is critical that the goals and practices of all of the human resource functional areas be in alignment with each other in support of the firm’s human resource and business strategies. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Relate a hiring experience you have had as a job seeker to the process illustrated in Figure 1-1. What could the organization you applied to have done to improve your experience? Answer: Students typically identify jobs for which they received a job offer as examples of good hiring experiences. They also discuss being treated with respect, interacting with knowledgeable recruiters, using appropriate selection methods, and having a reasonable timeline. They may also mention being kept informed throughout the process and feeling that the methods used in making hiring decisions were fair. As examples of bad hiring experiences, students typically describe unprepared or unprofessional recruiters or interviewers, inappropriate or illegal interview questions, delays in the hiring process, and submitting a resume or application for a position and never hearing back. Lengthy hiring processes that require a lot of time or resubmitting information that was already provided are sometimes mentioned. Screening methods seeming not to be job related and bad negotiating experiences may also be brought up. The stories shared by students can be entertaining and can highlight important ways that organizations need to manage the staffing process. Suggestions for creating good hiring experiences typically build on the positive points noted above and address the aspects described in the poor hiring experiences. Respect, promptness, clear and frequent communication, and job relatedness are common themes. 2. Assume that your organization wants to pursue a staffing strategy of acquiring the best talent possible. Give an example of how the firm’s ability to provide only average pay can affect the success of this staffing strategy. Answer: If the pay is only average, then it is difficult to hire top talent even if your selection system is able to identify it. High base pay, and a pay-for-performance package that rewards good performance, can attract and retain people who have the best skills. The most well designed pay-for-performance system will not lead to high performance if the required abilities and motivations are missing from the people you hire. A poorly designed pay-for-performance program is demotivating if it fails to reward top employees because expectations are too high. When the performance of the best employees is not good enough for the organization, then employees will quit trying. If you want to hire good talent, but also want to replace it every few years with people with the most current skills, then paying a hiring bonus and giving a short-term retention bonus would reinforce that staffing strategy. 3. Why is staffing so important to store performance, as is discussed in the chapter vignette? Answer: Staffing outcomes determine what an organization’s employees will be willing and able to do. Thus, staffing influences the success of future training, performance management, and compensation programs. Because it generates the talent that will ultimately be used by an organization to produce its product or service, staffing has a direct impact on employees’ capabilities, behaviors, and performance. Training, motivation, and performance management initiatives will not be successful if the wrong people are hired. 4. Recruiting and selection are interdependent, two-way processes in which both employers and recruits try to look appealing to the other while learning as much as they can about their potential fit. Impression management is the process through which people and employers each try to control the impressions others form of them. How do applicants and employers try to look appealing to each other during the staffing process? Answer: Applicants try to look appealing to employers by writing a clear, thorough resume or an application that contains no typographical, spelling, grammatical, or other errors. They dress professionally, and arrive on time for all appointments with the company. If asked for additional information or materials, applicants provide them quickly. Applicants also behave professionally and try to build rapport with interviewers and other company representatives they meet. Employers try to look appealing to applicants by providing a Web site with comprehensive information about the company and the position the person is applying for. They also treat applicants with respect and try to present the company in an appealing way. Current employees greet applicants by name when they arrive for interviews or other assessments, and try to make applicants feel comfortable and welcome. Explaining the job relevance of assessment methods and answering applicants’ questions about the job and organization also increase a firm’s appeal. 5. If your CEO asked you why she should invest more money in the organization’s staffing systems, what would you tell her? Answer: Responses typically focus on how staffing generates the company’s talent, on which the company depends in some way for strategy execution. If done well, money spent on staffing will generate a large return on the investment by improving productivity, reducing turnover, and improving the depth of an organization’s future leadership talent. Anticipated talent shortages can be headed off by developing recruiting and staffing practices that improve the talent supply chain and create a positive employer image for the company. Investing more in staffing systems enhances recruitment, retention, and employee development, leading to a more skilled and motivated workforce. Improved staffing systems can boost productivity, reduce turnover costs, and align talent with organizational goals. Ultimately, this investment drives better performance and supports long-term growth and competitiveness. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Working alone for 5 minutes, take notes about how you might design a staffing flowchart for your own job. If you have no work experience, choose a job with which you are familiar. Next, form a group of three to four students, choose one of the jobs just identified by your group members, and design a staffing flowchart for it. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class. Answer: Answers will vary with the job and organization chosen, but should basically adapt to Figure 1-1. To design a staffing flowchart for a job, outline key roles and responsibilities, identify necessary qualifications, and map out the recruitment, selection, onboarding, and development processes. Include decision points for evaluating candidates and promotions. For example, in a customer service role, the flowchart might show steps from job posting, application review, interviews, and training to performance evaluations and career progression. 2. Opening vignette exercise: This chapter’s opening vignette described how Caribou Coffee discovered the importance of carefully staffing its store manager positions. Working in a group of three to five students, address the following questions. Feel free to use the Internet or other resources if you need additional information. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class. a. Describe three staffing goals that would reinforce Caribou’s desire to hire the best store managers. b. How else can Caribou Coffee ensure that its staffing strategy for store managers is integrated with the firm’s other HR functional areas? Answer: a. Some possible goals include: • Store manager retention rates • Store manager promotion rates • Store manager transfer rates • Store manager productivity • Store manager satisfaction and motivation levels • The number of store managers identified for promotion b. Some possible ideas include: • Performance management training for district managers • Training district managers in employee development and employee assessment • Evaluating and rewarding district managers for succession management, store manager development, store manager performance, and the number of their store managers receiving successful promotions • Including succession management and employee development in managers’ performance evaluations • Integrating store managers’ performance in succession management and employee development into the compensation system a. Three staffing goals for Caribou Coffee to hire the best store managers could include: 1) Attracting top talent through targeted recruitment campaigns; 2) Implementing rigorous selection processes to assess leadership and operational skills; 3) Providing competitive compensation and development opportunities to retain high-performing managers. b. Caribou Coffee can integrate its staffing strategy with other HR areas by aligning recruitment efforts with training programs, ensuring performance management criteria reflect the skills needed for store managers, and coordinating with compensation strategies to offer attractive and fair rewards. 3. Develop Your Skills exercise: Go to www.onetonline.org/skills/ and navigate to O*NET OnLine’s “Skills Search” feature. Identify the skills that you have, and the skills that you plan to acquire in the next two years, and click on the “Go” button. Next, choose one of the occupations that match the skills you identified. Scroll to the bottom of the summary report and identify a state in the “State and National” section. Click on the “Go” button and read the occupation profile. View the career video if one is provided. Write a one-page report describing how you think this resource could be used by staffing professionals. Answer: Staffing professionals are likely to find O*Net useful for labor market projections, job analysis information, and for identifying job factors they might not have thought about that could be appealing to job applicants. O*Net can also be useful in determining salary offers to chosen job candidates. O*Net can be useful for internal staffing by giving employees the ability to learn more about different career options in the firm without additional investment on the part of the company. CASE STUDY Graphic t-shirt company Atlas Corporation knows that executing its growth strategy depends on promoting from within. Atlas believes that its staffing activities must obtain talent able to do the job being filled and with the potential to advance into management. Because it tends to receive a large number of applications for its job openings, Atlas must also process a large number of applicants for every opening and wants to do so as efficiently as possible. Atlas decides that it wants to capitalize on the trend of using social media to source and recruit. The company opens a Twitter account and starts Tweeting its job openings to people following the company (generally customers hoping for discount offers). It also posts its jobs on Monster.com, a large and popular job board, to try to maximize the number of applications. When job seekers apply for graphic design positions they first complete an online application, and the information is sent to a data base. A recruiter is immediately sent any applications that pass an initial competency screen. Within a few days, the recruiter emails the candidate to request a sample portfolio of the applicant’s work. Because of the size of the files, the portfolios are often rejected by recruiters’ email accounts and the candidate must fax the documents as Atlas has no cloud storage mechanism. Due to the large number of applications, those not passing the initial screen remain in the database unviewed and are not contacted in any way by the company. Applications passing the initial screen are invited to a telepone interview with a recruiter to assess basic job-related competencies. The top 10 candidates are then invited to interview face-to-face with another recruiter to assess their fit with Atlas’ culture and to better assess job-related skills and competencies. The top scoring 5 candidates are then invited to interview with the hiring manager, who makes the final decision on who should receive a job offer. A background check is then performed and if it is passed then a job offer is made. If a candidate declines the offer, the next highest scoring candidate receives a background check and a job offer until no acceptable finalists are left. Atlas evaluates the effectiveness of every staffing effort by evaluating the number of applications it received, the time it took to fill the position, and whether or not one of its first two job offers were accepted. Questions: 1. What is Atlas doing well with regard to staffing strategically? Answer: Atlas has aligned its talent strategy to support its growth strategy by evaluating candidates on both job performance as well as advancement potential. It also tracks some important metrics and utilizes a variety of assessment methods. Atlas has also increased how proactively it sources recruits. 2. How could Atlas staff its graphic designer positions more strategically? Answer: To staff its graphic designer positions more strategically, Atlas could improve the quality of its technology to include cloud storage to handle the large portfolio sizes and better communicate with rejected candidates to improve their interest in future openings for which some might be a good fit. The time delay between applicants passing an initial online competency screen and the applicant being emailed by a recruiter should also be shortened. In addition, Atlas could include metrics on promotion rates and better identify and target the best sources of high quality recruits. 3. What would you suggest Atlas do to further enhance the alignment between its staffing function and its need to promote from within? Answer: Atlas could incorporate specific screens for applicant characteristics it has found to be related to advancement in the company. It could also include a metric on internal promotion rates from each recruiting source and use this information to better target high potential job seekers. Recruiters could be given goals, feedback, and rewards based on their meeting the company’s advancement objectives as well as employee performance outcomes. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT This project will enhance your analytical skills and allow you to apply the concepts in this textbook to a real-world situation. Your project team will select an organization about which your team has some interest or knowledge, and about which you can acquire additional information. The goal of your report is to align the staffing system for a key position in this organization with the organization’s business strategy. Your team will analyze how effectively the target organization is staffing a key position, and make recommendations for improvement. At the end of each chapter is an assignment requiring you to apply that chapter’s material to your chosen job. Your report should target the company’s executive management team. Your job is to persuade them that your recommendations will lead to a positive return on investment (ROI) for the firm and better enable it to execute its business strategy. Assume that the team does not have a working knowledge of staffing terminology. As a result, you need to write your report so that a layperson can easily understand what you are communicating. Your task the first week is to form teams of four to five students, exchange contact information, and brainstorm jobs that at least one team member has access to. It can be a job one of you currently holds or has held in the past, or a job a family member or friend has. Ideally, you will need about 30 minutes of time from a person who currently works or who has worked in the job, and 30 minutes of his or her supervisor’s time. If you cannot get the supervisor to participate, using one or two current or previous jobholders is acceptable. Before leaving class, you should identify at least two positions that your group would like to use for the project and choose one to pursue. Before the next class, you should confirm that you will have access to the job experts, and solidify the job and organization your team will use for the project. You will also need to identify realistic long-term and short-term process and outcome goals for your chosen position. Table 1-2 gives examples of both types of staffing goals, and Table 1-3 gives you some questions to consider in setting appropriate staffing goals. The first week is used to establish student teams, explain the project, and get the teams started in thinking about which job in which company they want to use for the project. Students should be cautioned that they will be working with the job and company for the rest of the semester, so it is a good idea to generate a few alternatives before making a choice. Choosing a job that one or more of the team members is considering for him or herself can make the project even more motivating and interesting. The job can be any position in any organization. The team can only study the job in one organization – for example, if they want to study the job of pharmacist, they need to do it in only one organization such as Walgreens and not across multiple chains. Job titles may be similar or identical in different companies but have very different responsibilities, and the differing cultures of the organizations can influence the type of person sought by each company. Chapter 2: Business and Staffing Strategies LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain how different staffing strategies support different business strategies. • Describe the resource-based view of the firm and how staffing can contribute to a company’s sustainable competitive advantage. • Explain when an organization would use talent-oriented rather than job-oriented staffing. • Describe human capital advantage and human process advantage and the differences between them. • Describe the strategic staffing decisions any organization must make. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. If a firm seeks to achieve a competitive advantage, its staffing strategy should support its business strategy. Different strategies require different types of employees. A cost-leadership strategy requires trainable and flexible employees able to focus on shorter-term production objectives, avoid waste, and who are concerned about production costs. The goal in this case is to develop a competitive advantage based on operational excellence. A differentiation strategy based on innovation requires employees who fit the firm’s innovative culture. A company pursuing a specialization strategy based on customer intimacy would need to hire adaptable, active learners with good people and customer relations skills, and emotional resilience under pressure. 2. The resource-based view of the firm proposes that a company’s resources and competencies can produce a sustained competitive advantage by creating value for customers by lowering costs, providing something of unique value, or some combination of the two. Because the talent resources created by staffing can be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable, staffing has the potential to create a competitive advantage for a firm. Acquiring the right talent is not enough, however. The company must be appropriately organized to take full advantage of its talent resources. 3. An organization would use job-oriented staffing when it needs to fill a specific job opening. It would pursue talent-oriented staffing when labor markets are tight and good recruits are hard to find, or to address anticipated skill gaps in advance of actual needs. 4. A firm can achieve a human capital advantage by hiring a stock of quality talent and retaining outstanding people. A human process advantage occurs when the firm’s work gets done in a superior way as a result of effective processes that evolve over time, such as learning, cooperation, and innovation on the part of its employees. Human process advantages are very difficult to imitate. 5. Strategic staffing decisions include whether to: have an internal or external talent focus, establish a core or flexible workforce, hire people with the skills the firm needs or train them to develop those skills, replace or retain talent, and pursue proactive or reactive staffing. It is also important to address what levels of which skills should be sought and which jobs should be focused on, as well as whether staffing should be viewed as an investment or a cost and should be centralized or decentralized. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What are the three most important ethical principles that you feel organizations should adhere to in terms of their staffing philosophies? Why? Answer: Answers typically include fairness, equal treatment, merit-based decision making, honesty, transparency, legal compliance and respect for applicants and employees. Reasons will vary based on the students and the principles identified, but will include the ideas that doing so is morally right, that there is a business case for doing so in terms of hiring and promoting people. The main reason will typically be that this will make the business productive and that these are not adhered to for political reasons, being and remaining an employer that people want to work for, and avoiding legal trouble. Organizations should adhere to these three ethical principles in staffing: 1) Fairness—ensuring equal opportunity and non-discrimination to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace; 2) Transparency—providing clear and honest communication about job roles, expectations, and selection criteria; 3) Confidentiality—protecting candidates' and employees' personal information to build trust and uphold privacy standards. These principles foster a respectful and equitable work environment, enhancing organizational integrity and employee satisfaction. 2. What is the difference between treating employees as assets and as investors? When is it appropriate for an organization to treat employees as investors? When is it appropriate for an organization to treat job applicants and employees as assets? Answer: Treating employees as assets puts the talent management focus on managing costs and controlling people (the asset) as a resource. Like other assets, the focus is on managing the cost of employees, and the goal tends to focus on the acquisition of labor as cheaply and quickly as possible. Treating employees as assets is most appropriate when there is little performance variation among people holding a job. If just about any new hire can do the job at an acceptable performance level, if alternative jobs are hard for employees to find, or if the job is very automated and requires little unique skill or knowledge, then controlling labor costs can be an appropriate perspective. Even in these cases, however, staffing outcomes such as commitment, theft, and motivation probably can be improved if employees are thought of as investors. Alternatively, if employees are thought of as investors, the focus is on establishing a mutually beneficial relationship in which employees are recognized as investing their resources (time, talents, energy, etc.) in the organization in exchange for a return on that investment (supportive culture, pay, benefits, challenge, professional development, etc.). When workers are able to get other jobs easily, when the organization’s success is dependent on their contributions (e.g., research and development, customer service, or knowledge worker positions) it is appropriate for the organization to treat employees as investors and maximize employees’ return on the investments they make in the company. The Starbucks vignette is a good example of when it is appropriate to treat employees as investors. 3. Suppose you were in charge of recruiting and staffing the software engineers who work for Google. Do you think that a company like Google should hire software engineers with the skills it needs or train them to develop those skills? Why? Answer: Google needs people to be able to contribute quickly and be knowledgeable about and skilled in the most current software engineering theories and practices. At the same time, Google has proprietary methods and systems that will need training, and that new hires will be unfamiliar with. Given the challenges inherent in Google’s innovative work, creativity is as important as current technological knowledge. Because creativity cannot be brought about by training, Google hires talented and creative people that can then be trained on specific systems. Google should prioritize hiring software engineers with the necessary skills to ensure immediate expertise and efficient project execution. However, investing in ongoing training is also crucial to keep engineers updated with the latest technologies and foster continuous improvement. This dual approach balances immediate skill requirements with long-term development and innovation. 4. In what situations would position-oriented staffing be preferable to talent-oriented staffing? Answer: Position-oriented staffing hires people who are good fits for a particular job that needs to be done. Talent-oriented staffing hires talented people and then finds a place for them in the organization. Organizations often use position-oriented staffing because they have a specific job that needs to be filled. Talent-oriented hiring can be effective when the organization has the opportunity to hire someone with unique talents who can contribute meaningfully to the organization in some way. It can be strategic to hire people with unique talents even if it is not clear yet what job they will fill, as long as their skills complement the organization’s goals. For example, a biotechnology company can benefit from finding a place for one of the top scientists in the field who has expressed interest in working for the company, even if no openings currently exist. Talent-oriented staffing also has the strategic advantage of keeping top talent in key areas away from competitors. If the best talent is working for you, they are not working for a competitor. Position-oriented staffing is frequently easier to use because you are staffing relatively clearly defined jobs or positions. This makes position-oriented staffing less complex and more legally defensible. However, when acquiring the best talent in a particular area is critical to a company’s success (e.g., consulting firms), or when a unique opportunity to acquire top talent in an area important to the organization presents itself, then talent-oriented staffing may be more effective. 5. List the costs and benefits of having an internal staffing focus. Then list the cost and benefits of having an external staffing focus. What are the trade-offs between the two approaches? Answer: An internal staffing focus helps keep employees committed to the company because they can see themselves having a career there. Internal staffing also results in the new hire getting up to speed faster because he or she is already familiar with company policies, culture, customers, etc. An internal staffing focus also prompts a company to develop a pool of talent that is likely to be both able and willing to assume leadership roles when they become available. It can also be faster and cheaper to hire internally and the company has a more accurate assessment of the talents and potential of its employees than it does of outsiders. Internal staffing focuses on the talents and capabilities of employees who are currently employed in the organization. As a result, possible costs of an internal staffing focus include failure to introduce new ideas and inability to identify new ways of doing things. Additionally, training and development costs may be higher. Finally, the company might also miss out on hiring great talent that does not currently work for it, and these highly talented people often end up working for competitors. An external staffing focus can help reduce costs in the long term by reducing a firm’s training costs. Employees’ skills may be more current because the company can hire people trained in the newest technologies and theories. External hires may also be able to see the company from a fresh perspective and have insights that improve the company’s performance. An external staffing focus can generate resentment on the part of employees who are passed over for a job within the company in favor of an outsider. It is also more difficult to fully evaluate external hires because less information is known about them compared to people who already work for the company. External hires may not have as much of an understanding and appreciation of the company’s history and culture as an internal hire. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Form a small group of four to five students. Identify a business that you could start. What type of business would you propose? What business strategy would you follow? What staffing strategies would you use and why? How does the resource-based view inform your thinking? Answer: Answers depend on the business identified, but should parallel the contents of Table 2-3. Business Proposal: A tech-focused coworking space offering high-speed internet and smart office solutions. Business Strategy: Differentiate through premium technology and tailored workspace solutions to attract tech startups and remote professionals. Staffing Strategies: Recruit skilled tech support and customer service staff to ensure seamless operation and high client satisfaction. Implement continuous training to keep up with technological advancements. Resource-Based View: This view emphasizes leveraging unique resources, like advanced tech and highly skilled staff, to create a competitive advantage and deliver exceptional value to clients. 2. Opening vignette exercise: Working individually, or in a small group, reread the chapter vignette on Starbucks and address the following questions. Be prepared to share your answers with the class after 20 minutes. a. What staffing issues would create the biggest obstacles to Starbucks’ ability to execute its growth and specialization strategies? b. What would you recommend Starbucks do to overcome the obstacles you identified? Answer: a. A shortage of talent produced by a tight labor market could be a problem, as could high turnover rates. If the sourcing, recruiting, and selection systems Starbucks uses stop producing appropriate hires, it will no longer be able to acquire the talent it needs to execute its high level of customer service. b. Focusing on retention will help alleviate the effects of a tight labor market. Further enhancing its training, development, and promotion opportunities might further boost retention. It could also continue to invest in new sourcing and recruiting ideas and technologies to continually generate new applicants and build up its database of online candidates, and publicize its strengths and benefits as an employer to maintain its positive employer image. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Think of an organization that you currently work for or have worked for in the past as you complete the “Measuring Your Firm’s Climate for Diversity” assessment in the Develop Your Skills feature. How well do you think the organization’s climate for diversity score reflects its talent philosophy? Answer: The main takeaway intended for this exercise is the idea that having any particular philosophy, not just one about diversity, is not enough. Organizations often have good intentions but fail to fully live up to them, in part because they do not assess whether or not they are doing so. Many organizations will have a very impressive statement about valuing diversity and their talent in general, but when employees are asked how valued they feel their responses reflect room for improvement. This links to the importance of having a well-developed and clearly-stated talent philosophy that drives human resource and staffing strategies, and to measure how well the organization is living up to these principles and goals. CASE STUDY Integrating McDonald’s Business, Human Resource, and Staffing Strategies People are McDonald’s most important asset. The company’s success depends on the satisfaction of its customers, which begins with workers who have the attitudes and abilities required to work efficiently and provide good customer service. To execute its growth strategy, McDonald’s has identified people as one of its three global corporate strategies. McDonald’s claims that as an employer, it wants “to be the best employer in each community around the world” It also makes a “people promise” to its employees that “we value you, your growth, and your Contributions.” Its five “people principles” reflected by its human resource strategy are: respect and recognition; values and leadership behaviors; competitive pay and benefits; learning, development, and personal growth; and ensuing that employees have the resources needed to get the job done. McDonald’s has executed its operational excellence strategy well by tracking key indicators of product and service quality, speed, and accuracy. The company has also identified its people practices and approaches that substantially impact the firm’s turnover, productivity, customer satisfaction, sales, and profitability. This has allowed it to develop a business model that emphasizes not only financial and operational factors but also people factors that improve the company’s results by improving employee commitment, retention, productivity, and customer loyalty. Because its business strategy relies on providing customers quality, cleanliness, quick service, and value, McDonald’s works hard at hiring people who want to excel in delivering outstanding service. Many of its restaurant employees are teenagers, and McDonald’s is their first employer. The company tries to recruit and hire the best people, retain them by offering them ongoing training, and then promote from within to fill its managerial positions. To ensure that it is recruiting the right people, the company has identified important skills and behaviors that it looks for in applicants. McDonald’s has found that the best way of hiring quality crew members is to advertise inside the restaurant and attract local people and/or friends of existing employees. McDonald’s also recruits at local job centers and career fairs, using hiring material with a clear message targeted at its intended audience. As McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook says, “If you get the people part right, the rest will follow.” Questions: 1. How would you describe McDonald’s business strategy? What are the foundations of its competitive advantage (what are the sources of its success)? Answer: McDonald’s business strategy is centered on both growth and operational excellence. The foundations of its competitive advantage are both its people and its processes. By carefully recruiting and selecting its people, McDonald’s ensures that customer service-oriented people are hired. McDonald’s then trains them in additional skills that are needed for good performance. By identifying and tracking the people factors that affect business results, the company is able to evaluate and continually improve the alignment between its staffing and business strategies. 2. How has McDonald’s aligned its business, human resource, and staffing strategies? Answer: Pursuing both growth and operational excellence strategies requires a continual influx of employees with good customer service skills, providing ongoing training and development, and retaining talent. McDonald’s has a clear understanding of the skills and behaviors it needs in its new hires, and has developed a staffing strategy that produces these characteristics. 3. What are some possible talent-related threats that could eat away at McDonald’s competitive advantage? Would higher turnover or a tight labor market in which it is difficult to find talented people be a problem? What would you recommend the company should do to maintain its competitive advantage over the next five years? Answer: A tight labor market would make hiring more difficult especially in the younger age bracket, it hires from the most. Higher turnover would also be a problem, and be particularly expensive in light of its training investments. To maintain its competitive advantage, McDonald’s could further build its image and brand and find ways to appeal to its biggest labor pool of teenagers (it is in the process of redesigning its uniforms, for example). It could also find ways to retain current workers, and target its recruiting message and benefits as an employer to additional segments of the labor force such as senior citizens and people who need part-time or flexible work arrangements due to school or family responsibilities. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT You should have a list of jobs and companies that your team will have access to for the project. You now need to decide which job and organization to use for the semester project and begin collecting information on the company, its business strategy and competitive advantage, and how it currently sources, recruits, and selects for the position you identified. You also need to identify how the position is strategic for the company in some way. Before the next class, you should confirm that you will have access to one or two job experts and solidify the job and organization your team will use for the project. Specifically, you need to include the following in your report: 1. A brief summary of the organization, its business strategy, and its culture. 2. An explanation of why the position you chose is strategic for the company (why should attention be given to improving how it is staffed? What are the implications of having low versus high performers in the job?). Describe the strategic context of your future proposal for recruiting and selecting for this job—what must future hires be able to do to help the company execute its business strategy? 3. Responses to each of the nine strategic staffing decisions presented in Table 2-6 and a justification for each of your recommendations. Note: It is a good idea to read the applied case assignments for the rest of the chapters to guide your research and identify how your job experts might provide useful information for future sections of the project. Chapter 3: The Legal Context LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain why complying with staffing laws can be strategic. • Discuss different types of employment relationships. • Describe different types of staffing-related lawsuits. • Discuss the role affirmative action and equal employment opportunity play in a firm’s staffing processes. • Describe various barriers to legally defensible staffing. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. Complying with staffing laws is obviously a good idea from a moral, ethical, and legal perspective, but doing so can also be strategic for firms. In addition to avoiding the expense of lawsuits and the negative public relations associated with litigation, legal compliance allows companies to capitalize on the strengths of diversity and perform better by appealing to a broader customer base. 2. Employees, independent contractors, and contingent workers have different types of employment relationships with firms. Employment relationships may also be “at will,” meaning that either party can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any legal reason, with no liability as long as there is no contract for a definite term of employment. 3. Disparate treatment is intentional discrimination based on a person’s protected characteristic. Adverse impact occurs when an action has a disproportionate effect on a protected group, regardless of its intent or actual disparate treatment. Fraudulent recruitment is the misrepresentation of the job or organization to an applicant. Negligent hiring occurs when an applicant is hired that the company knew or should have known poses a risk to third parties, and the person harms another person. Negligent referral is misrepresenting or failing to disclose complete and accurate information about a former employee. Trade secret litigation occurs when confidential information from another company is acquired after an employee is hired by a competitor, or during the interview process. 4. Equal employment opportunity in staffing means that the firm’s employment practices are designed and used in a “facially neutral manner”—in other words, they clearly do not illegally favor some applicants over others. Affirmative action is the proactive effort to eliminate discrimination and to ensure nondiscriminatory results in the workforce. Affirmative action plans describe in detail the staffing procedures and standards an employer will take to remedy the underemployment of certain groups. Affirmative action plans can include, but are not limited to, provisions for nondiscriminatory recruitment, training, and promotion. 5. Various barriers to legally defensible staffing exist. Some barriers tend to be specific to a particular employer, rather than being societal or cultural in nature. The “like me” bias, stereotypes, ignorance, and prejudice are common barriers, as are uneducated hiring managers. Other general barriers based in societal or cultural practices or norms tend to be external to the employer. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Do laws prohibiting certain kinds of hiring discrimination benefit only job seekers? Or, do companies benefit from the enforcement of discrimination laws? If so, how? Answer: Because the employer usually has more power than employees in the employment relationship, laws and regulations help to limit the employer’s power and prevent unfair discrimination. Laws and regulations also help to promote fairness and consistent treatment across different employees. If employment laws did not exist, many organizations would likely discriminate against people in hiring and promoting decisions, applicants would be misled to believe that employers represented a better opportunity than they really are, dangerous employees could hop from one job to another without previous employers having to disclose the threat they pose, and dangerous people could be hired who threaten the safety of other employees. Companies also benefit from employment laws. By encouraging and providing guidance on how to attract and hire people based on their job qualifications rather than biases or stereotypes, the laws and guidelines help to improve the quality and performance of a firm’s employees. 2. What is meant by “at-will employment” and what advice would you give an organization considering this type of employment relationship? Answer: In an at-will employment relationship, either party can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any legal reason, with no liability as long as there is no contract for a definite term of employment. Although at-will employment allows an employee to quit without reason, it is most often invoked when an employer wants to fire an employee at any time for any legal reason, or for no reason at all. Case law varies from state to state, making it difficult for employers to know when, or if, they can rely on the at-will nature of the relationship. To help avoid discrimination claims, firms should follow formal discipline and termination procedures whenever possible even when an at-will relationship exists. The at-will clause is best thought of as a legal defense to keep the organization from being forced to follow its own policies inflexibly. For example, at-will employment allows an employer to quickly dismiss an employee who is behaving dangerously without having to proceed through a two-warning, suspension, and finally the termination procedure that could take weeks. 3. What is the difference between flow, stock, and concentration statistics? How is each type of statistic used? Answer: Flow, stock, and concentration statistics are used to determine if disparate impact has occurred. Flow statistics compare the percentage of applicants hired from different subgroups to determine if they are significantly different from each other. Stock statistics compare the percentage of men, women, or minorities employed in a job category with their availability in the relevant population of qualified people interested in the position. Stock statistics are used in utilization analysis. If one subgroup is selected at a rate that is less than 80% of the selection rate for another protected subgroup, adverse impact is indicated. Concentration statistics compare the percentages of men, women, or minorities in various job categories to see if men, women, or minorities are concentrated in certain workforce categories 4. What is affirmative action? What is an affirmative action plan? Do you feel that affirmative action is a good way to remedy past discrimination? Why or why not? Answer: Affirmative action is the proactive effort to eliminate discrimination and its effects, and to ensure non-discriminatory results in employment practices in the future. The goal of affirmative action is to provide employment opportunities to groups formerly underrepresented in employment, particularly Blacks, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women. Affirmative action is also required for handicapped persons, disabled veterans and Vietnam War veterans. An affirmative action plan describes in detail the actions to be taken, procedures to be allowed, and standards to be adhered to, to establish an affirmative action program. Affirmative action plans can include, but are not limited to, provisions for non-discriminatory recruitment, training, and promotion. Procedures for internal record keeping, auditing, and reporting are often included to ensure compliance and measure the program’s success. Affirmative action programs may give preferential treatment to underrepresented protected groups. Numerical benchmarks are usually established based on the availability of qualified applicants in the job market or qualified candidates in the employer’s work force. These numerical goals do not create quotas for specific groups, nor are they designed to guarantee proportional representation or equal results. A contractor’s failure to attain its goals is not in and of itself considered a violation – a failure to make good faith efforts to attain the goals is. Opinions regarding whether affirmative action is a good way to remedy past discrimination, or not, are based on personal experience and opinions, beliefs about the role of merit in the staffing process, and whether or not equal employment opportunity will occur in the absence of these programs. 5. Which three general barriers to legally defensible staffing do you feel are most common? What can companies do to remove these barriers? Answer: The six barriers to legally defensible staffing are the like me bias, stereotypes, ignorance, prejudice, perception of loss by persons threatened by EEO practices, and uninformed hiring managers. Answers to the first part of the question are generally based on personal opinion and experience. Ideas for removing the barriers include training, performance management, and compensation practices that develop, identify, and reward appropriate staffing behaviors. Aligning all areas of HR to support equal employment opportunity is critical. Hiring more diverse employees can help firms that are currently more homogenous to overcome their biases, and communicating clearly with those who feel threatened by EEO practices can help them understand that the focus is on merit and not preferential treatment to anyone. Stereotypes, ignorance, prejudice, the like me bias, and uninformed hiring managers may be addressed through training and coaching. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Analyzing Adverse Impact Mary was recently hired as an HR generalist at Super Foods, an organic grocery chain. One of her first assignments is to review the store’s data on its cashiers to identify if its hiring and promotion practices have had an adverse (disparate) impact on men or women. Mary generated the following reports from the company’s employee database to use in her analyses. Working in groups of three to four students, use this information to determine whether there is evidence of sex discrimination for cashiers. Write a brief report explaining why there is or is not adverse impact. If there is, try to identify what might be happening and suggest ways the firm can reduce it. Stock Statistics Job Category: Cashiers Current Cashiers Availability in Relevant Population Men 30% 50% Women 70% 50% Answer: Comparing their utilization rates, males and females are equally represented in the available population, but only 30% of the Cashiers are male. Males are thus underutilized in the Cashier position, suggesting discrimination against men. Flow Statistics Job Category: Cashiers # Applicants # Hired Selection Rate (in %) Men 200 100 50% Women 150 75 50% The 80% rule states that, “a selection rate for any race, sex or ethnic group which is less than four-fifths (4/5, or eighty percent) of the rate for the group with the highest rate will generally be regarded by federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact, while a greater than four-fifths rate will generally not be regarded by federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact.” There is no evidence of disparate impact in the hiring process — the selection rates for men and women are both 50%, suggesting no sex discrimination is taking place. Concentration Statistics Job Category Cashiers Stockers Cleaners Men 30% 70% 65% Women 70% 30% 35% Women are concentrated in the Cashier job (70%), and men are concentrated in the Stocker (70%) and Cleaner (65%) jobs, suggesting that disparate impact exists. Looking at the three tables together, we see that although Super Foods is selecting men and women as Cashiers at the same rate, the utilization rate of women in the Cashier position is greater than the utilization rate of men. This suggests that although there appears to be no discrimination in the hiring of cashiers, men are less likely to stay in those jobs. The finding that men are concentrated in Stockers and Cleaners is noteworthy, as it raises the possibility that men might prefer those jobs to the job of cashier, as well as the possibility that sex discrimination against women is taking place in the Stocker and Cleaner positions. This will warrant additional analyses by Mary. To try to improve the retention of men in the Cashier position, the company needs to first identify why men are leaving. Perhaps the pay, hours, or working conditions for the Stockers and Cleaners are better, or perhaps the Cashier position is not what they expected it to be. It is also possible that although no sex discrimination existed during the recruiting and hiring process, once on the job, male cashiers experienced discrimination that caused them to disproportionately quit. Only additional research can determine the cause of males’ underutilization in the Cashier position. 2. Opening vignette exercise: The opening vignette describes how Abercrombie & Fitch engaged in “creative” recruiting to fill sales jobs with candidates who matched the company’s carefully constructed marketing image. The high-profile clothing retailer staffed its stores with good-looking, young white men and women, and touched off a lawsuit that ultimately cost the company $40 million and a barrage of bad publicity. Working alone, or in a group of three to five students, answer the following questions and be prepared to share your answers with the class. 1. Do you think Abercrombie should be allowed to staff its stores in a way that reinforces its marketing image? Why or why not? Answer: Responses to this question tend to be based on personal experience, and opinion. Students sometimes refer to experiences they have had in which diversity helped or hurt their group’s performance. Diversity is often part of an organization’s value statement. Having diverse ideas and perspectives are better reflect customer demographics and can improve a firm’s performance. Students generally end up discussing how diversity is an asset to organizations. Nonetheless, some students will often argue the point that if a company wants to hire people who reinforce a particular image, it should be allowed to do so if the characteristics being used are not illegal. Abercrombie should not be allowed to staff its stores in a way that reinforces its marketing image if it leads to discrimination or exclusion. While aligning staff with brand aesthetics is a business strategy, it shouldn't compromise principles of diversity and inclusion. Hiring practices should prioritize skills and qualifications over appearance to foster a fair and equitable workplace. 2. What are some alternative ways Abercrombie can staff its stores legally and still project a desirable image? Answer: Abercrombie wants to appeal to 18-22 year old college students. Restricting its hiring to people in this age bracket, and who are demographically homogeneous, would not only be illegal (based on Title VII), but would also not reflect the demographics of 18-22 year old college students. Identifying the values, interests, and styles college students like, and focusing its marketing on product and values-related images, could be one way to take the focus off of hiring homogeneous employees. Also, the company could hire diverse people who actually reflect the demographics of college campuses. This is what the company is now doing as a result of the consent decree. Even Abercrombie’s website is now filled with pictures of diverse models. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: The best test of any question posed to a job applicant is whether the employer can demonstrate a job-related necessity for asking the question. Because both the intent behind the question and how the information is to be used by the employer are important, an employer should consider whether the answers to the question, if used in making the selection, will adversely affect and screen out minorities or members of one sex. This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature presented five improper interview questions (provided again here), along with an explanation of why each question should be avoided. Working with a partner, identify what the employer really wants to know by asking each question and come up with an alternative way to find out the same information. 1. How many children do you have? Answer: This question can be an inappropriate way of asking about a person’s availability to work, which is an otherwise appropriate topic. A legal question would be: “Do you have responsibilities other than work that will interfere with specific job requirements such as traveling?” The employer wants to gauge the candidate's potential work-life balance and availability. Instead of asking about children, a more appropriate question is: “Can you describe your availability and how you manage work responsibilities?” This approach focuses on job-related factors without delving into personal life or potentially discriminatory areas. 2. What is your native language? Answer: If the job requires additional languages, you may legitimately inquire into languages the applicant speaks and writes fluently, but not how an applicant acquired the ability to read, write or speak the language. 3. To what clubs or organizations do you belong? Answer: To get similar information that is job related it would be better to ask: “Do you belong to any professional or trade groups that you consider relevant to your ability to perform this job?” The employer might want to understand the candidate's interests, networking skills, or community involvement. A better alternative is: “Can you describe any relevant activities or experiences that contribute to your skills and qualifications for this role?” This focuses on professional and skill-related aspects rather than personal affiliations. 4. What is your height? What is your weight? Answer: If the height and weight restrictions are necessary for job performance, asking, “Are you able to lift a 40-pound weight and carry it 40 yards?” would be appropriate. The employer may be trying to assess if the candidate can perform certain physical tasks. Instead, ask: “Are you able to perform the essential physical requirements of this job, such as [specific task]?” This approach focuses directly on job-related capabilities without infringing on personal privacy or risking discrimination. 5. Are you able to work on Christmas Day? Answer: Questions asked to availability to work should be job-related, including: “What hours or shifts can you work? Can you work on weekends and/or holidays? Are there specific times that you cannot work?” Asking about a candidate’s willingness to work a required work schedule is legal. Once a person is hired, an employer can collect data on protected characteristics including marital status and the number and age of someone’s children, which could be used in a discriminatory manner in making employment decisions, but are necessary for insurance, reporting requirements, or other business purposes. When facing charges of discrimination, the employer must prove that answers to all questions on application forms, or in oral interviews are not used illegally in making hiring and placement decisions. The employer must establish that the questions do not seek information other than that which is essential to evaluate an applicant’s qualifications for employment. It is thus strategic to review all procedures used in screening applicants, eliminating any that are not justified by business necessity. The employer wants to determine availability for specific work schedules. A better approach is: “This role requires occasional work during holidays. Are you available for flexible scheduling, including holidays, if needed?” This focuses on job requirements while being clear and non-discriminatory. ADDITIONAL EXERCISE Go to http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/index.cfm and select a recent EEO litigation settlement. Summarize the issue(s) presented in the case, identify the relevant EEO laws, and explain why the court ruled as it did. How could the company have prevented this lawsuit in the first place? CASE STUDY Global biopharmaceutical company Pfizer believes that a diverse workforce leads to more innovative and creative thinking.. The company also feels that inclusion is the foundation to the ownership culture that it wants to build among its its employees. Pfizer recognized that better attracting and retaining diverse employees would require it to pay more attention to its diversity and inclusion initiatives. In addition to relying more on its worldwide diversity and inclusion leadership council comprised of senior executives from around the company, Pfizer also created employee resource groups including people with disabilities, Latino/Hispanics, African American and LGBT employees to better apply their ideas to influence company results. Questions 1. Why is Pfizer interested in improving diversity and inclusion at the company? Answer: Pfizer believes that employee diversity and inclusion is related to more innovation and creativity in the company. By having greater diversity of ideas, experiences, and cultures it is possible that a wider diversity of ideas will emerge. 2. How does a proactive focus on diversity and inclusion improve Pfizer’s legal compliance? Answer: Focusing on performance and merit rather than protected characteristics is the best way to be legally compliant. The EEOC may also consider a company’s proactive diversity and inclusion efforts as part of the process of understanding if a company engages in unintentional discrimination. 3. If you were in charge of diversity and inclusion at Pfizer, what would you do to further improve diversity and inclusion at the company? Answer: In addition to the employee resource groups Pfizer could screen recruits on pro-diversity and inclusion characteristics to improve its ability to maintain an inclusive culture and leverage the potential benefits of its diverse workforce. It could also conduct employee surveys to assess the company’s inclusion climate and set goals for maintaining key drivers of diversity and inclusion such as survey results, job application rates by people from different protected groups, and measures of innovation and creativity. Holding all employees responsible for conducting themselves in appropriate pro-diversity and inclusion ways might also help, as well as proactively sourcing quality talent that has also shown itself to be creative and inclusive. ADDITIONAL CASE STUDY Diversity in Hiring Lauren Rice is trying to decide which of two applicants to hire. One has slightly better skills and more experience, but the other is also well qualified. The first candidate is Black and the second is Hispanic. Lauren’s department is 40 percent Black and has no Hispanics even though the company’s core values include promoting diversity. How would you advise Lauren regarding her hiring decision? Companies with a desire to change the composition of their current staff that have been unable to justify the selection of one well-qualified candidate over another well-qualified candidate may now be able to more openly use race or other “diverse characteristics” as a “plus” factor. Writing for a divided U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor approved the careful use of race in educational settings as a “plus” factor in university admission decisions, recognizing the critical importance of building a diverse student body. This decision has modified the old rule that race could be used as a plus factor only when two student applicants were equally qualified (which rarely happens as it is virtually impossible to be “equally qualified”) to allow race as a “plus” factor with respect to qualified individuals. This seemingly slight shift from equally qualified to merely qualified creates a foundation for a qualified minority candidate to bypass a qualified non-minority candidate. Applying the message sent by Justice O’Connor to a business context, Lauren should be advised to hire the Hispanic applicant. (Of course, hiring decisions are complex, and review by the human resources and legal departments is always wise in situations that could threaten litigation.) Choosing qualified minority candidates over other qualified candidates is always controversial, but the Supreme Court suggests that it may take 25 years before a truly racially blind selection process could become the legal standard without harming needed diversity. This may be a reasonable life span for the lawful use of race in building a nation of diverse workforces. In the meantime, one expert explains that, “In general, it is unclear whether an employer can legally consider race, gender, etc., even in a holistic way, unless as part of a remedial affirmative action program. Accordingly, the safer approach is for employers to achieve their diversity goals more indirectly—through what may feel like winks, nods and disguises—since directly considering diversity may serve only to introduce another player to your workplace; the plaintiffs’ lawyer.” 1. Who should Lauren hire and why? Answer: Either choice is acceptable – the focus is on the explanation of the candidate chosen. If the Supreme Court’s decision in an educational setting is generalized to the workplace, then hiring the second candidate would be the appropriate choice. If the focus is on hiring the very best candidate, even if a candidate that would increase the company’s diversity is also qualified, then the first candidate would be the appropriate choice. 2. How do you think an applicant’s race should be considered in hiring decisions? Answer: Students’ articulation of why they would choose one candidate over the other helps them to think through and determine their own opinion about diversity and how best to achieve it in the workplace. Expanding their thinking to the role of race in hiring decisions generally requires them to broaden their perspective and further understand their own perspective on how best to attain a diverse workplace. An applicant’s race should not be considered in hiring decisions. Hiring should be based solely on qualifications, experience, and fit for the role, ensuring fairness and equal opportunity. Consideration of race could lead to discrimination and undermine the principles of a merit-based selection process. 3. If an organization is interested in diversifying its employees, how would you recommend that it legally do so? Answer: If students are against using race as a “plus” factor, this question prompts them to think about alternatives. If they support using race as a “plus” factor, this question prompts them to consider other ways of promoting diversity. Diversifying recruiting efforts, ensuring that recruitment and selection practices are not discriminatory and that hiring decisions are based solely on merit to decrease any preferential treatment given to non-minorities, and relying less on employee referrals that are likely to generate more of the same homogeneity that currently exists in the firm are possible answers. To diversify employees legally, an organization should implement inclusive recruiting practices, such as broadening job postings to reach diverse candidates and using unbiased language. Additionally, they should provide diversity training and create clear, equitable hiring criteria. Regularly reviewing and adjusting policies can further promote a diverse and inclusive workplace. SEMESTER PROJECT You should have finalized your choice of job and organization and begun collecting information about it from the organization, the Internet, and from http://online.onetcenter.org/. This week, finish your background research on the job and organization, and add to your report a description of the existing staffing systems for the job. The goal this week is to get the groups well underway in their analysis of the organization and their chosen job. They should gather information from as many different sources as possible, including the company, the Internet, and O*Net. Taking a few minutes in class to show students how to use O*Net at the URL above can help get them started, but if no Internet access is available in the classroom the site is user-friendly and students should be able to find what they need on their own. Students should not rely on their job experts yet, unless the expert is willing to participate for more than 30 minutes or so. Their expertise will be needed during the job analysis phase. After this week they should have added to their report a description of the staffing system used by the company for the job they have chosen. This information may not be complete, but as long as they have a general idea of how the company recruits and selects for the position, they will have enough information to serve as a foundation for the rest of the project. Chapter 4: Strategic Job Analysis and Competency Modeling LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain why doing a job analysis can be strategic. • Describe the different types of job analyses, and for what they are used. • Define job description and person specification, and describe how they are used. • Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different job analysis methods. • Describe how to plan a job analysis. • Describe how to conduct a job analysis TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. A job analysis is the systematic process of identifying and describing the important aspects of a job and the characteristics a worker needs to do it well. It identifies the job’s important tasks and working conditions as well as the tools and technologies people doing the job use. The goal is to define the ideal candidate for the job from the perspective of the company, its strategy, and the employees with whom the person will work. A job analysis is strategic if it aligns the firm’s current as well as future job requirements with the company’s business strategy. 2. A job description is a written description of the duties and responsibilities of a job. A person specification summarizes the characteristics of someone able to perform the job well. Based on the job description, the person specification profiles the personal skills, qualifications, abilities, and experiences that the organization needs to evaluate candidates during the recruitment and selection process. 3. Different methods can be used to conduct a job analysis. The critical incidents method uses subject matter experts to provide examples of good and poor performance incidents that have occurred on the job. This method helps job analysts identify extreme behaviors but not necessarily typical day-to-day behaviors. The job elements method asks a panel of job experts to identify and rate the worker characteristics that influence success on the job. Although the process can be difficult to explain, it is efficient, and relatively fast. The structured interview method involves interviewing job experts about the job and the required worker characteristics. Although this method can be quick, the job analyst needs to minimize any political biases imparted by the job experts involved in the process. A task inventory is a list of tasks generated by job experts and grouped in categories reflecting major work functions. The functions are then evaluated on dimensions relevant for assessing job candidates. Task inventories are objective and produce reliable descriptions of the job but fail to capture worker characteristics displayed infrequently. Neither do the inventories identify the characteristics that distinguish superior from average or barely acceptable workers. The Position Analysis Questionnaire is a structured job analysis questionnaire that is fast, cheap, and useful for almost any position. Like any structured questionnaire, the predetermined questions limit the information the job analyst can obtain. Also, the reading level of the questionnaires may be too high for job experts providing input on certain positions. 4. The steps in planning a job analysis are to (1) determine the time and resources that can be invested in the job analysis, (2) identify the job experts who will be able to participate, and (3) identify appropriate job analysis techniques to use. 5. The steps in conducting a job analysis are to (1) get the support of top managers; (2) thoroughly communicate the purpose of the job analysis to all participants and ensure they are diligent about completing tasks objectively; (3) collect background information about the job, the business strategy, and the organization’s culture; (4) generate task statements that describe the work done on the job; (5) generate the KSAOs associated with each task statement; (6) form job duty groupings; (7) link the KSAOs back to the job duties to be sure they are appropriate; (8) collect critical incidents to better distinguish excellent from poor performers; (9) weight the duties of the job; (10) construct a job requirements matrix summarizing the information collected; and (11) write a job description and person specification. 6. Competency modeling involves identifying more broadly defined components of a successful worker’s repertoire of behaviors needed to do a job well. Competency modeling often comes from the top of an organization and serves to reinforce an organization’s culture. By contrast, KSAO statements are derived mostly by job analysts for staffing purposes. A job rewards analysis identifies the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of a job. The rewards that are identified can be used to recruit candidates and match them with certain jobs. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Why do you think some organizations choose to not perform job analyses given their benefits? What could be done to increase their willingness to analyze jobs? Answer: Some firms are simply unaware of the benefits of job analyses, while others are unwilling or unable to devote the time or resources to doing them. These barriers can be addressed by selling key decision makers in the firm on the benefits of job analysis, including hiring better people for the job and company, as well as greater legal defensibility. Starting with a single job or job family and demonstrating the improved staffing outcomes can help to convince managers that job analyses are worthwhile. Explaining the costs of litigation and how job analyses are the best defense can also be effective. 2. How can job analysis make staffing more strategic? Answer: Job analysis aligns the requirements of a job and the job specification with the firm’s business strategy and competitive needs. By formally articulating what characteristics make an incumbent successful, and by linking those characteristics to specific job duties and organizational needs, job analysis helps to clarify exactly the kind of candidate that should be hired. Job analysis also helps to standardize the evaluation process used in screening recruits, improving the consistency of new hire quality. 3. How do you personally evaluate different job opportunities and decide which one(s) to pursue? Answer: This question identifies the job rewards that each student values. Some students will mention money, a desirable location, the opportunity to learn, opportunities for career advancement, a prestigious company name, the opportunity to travel, and the culture of the company. The variety of answers reinforces the need for a job rewards analysis and for customizing a recruiter’s “pitch” to best appeal to different candidates. 4. If supervisors and job incumbents disagreed about the relative importance of various job duties, how would you reconcile their conflicting opinions? For example, if a supervisor emphasized the technical aspects of a customer service representative’s job and the representatives emphasized the interpersonal aspects of listening to customers and understanding their problems, what would you do? Answer: Answers can illustrate the research finding that incumbents know best what is done on the job, but supervisors are best at judging what is important. Some students may prefer to trust the supervisors’ opinions, but others may correctly argue that employee opinion is also valuable and should be incorporated as well. Because supervisors are responsible for what their subordinates do and for the outcomes of their subordinates’ work, anchoring on the supervisor ratings and adjusting them using incumbents’ ratings is usually best. To reconcile conflicting opinions, I’d start by conducting a job analysis involving both supervisors and incumbents to identify and prioritize key job duties based on actual data. I’d then facilitate a meeting to discuss the findings and negotiate a balanced approach that integrates both technical and interpersonal aspects, ensuring alignment with overall job objectives and performance metrics. 5. Some jobs change so rapidly that companies do not feel that job analysis is appropriate because by the time one is done it’s already outdated. What advice would you give such a company to help them get the benefits a job analysis has to offer without wasting unnecessary time and resources doing a traditional job analysis? Answer: A traditional job analysis is always best and is the most legally defensible. If time and resources don’t allow for a full job analysis, coming as close as possible should be the goal. Using the job analysis process outlined in the chapter but not using as many job experts or going into as much detail can help companies realize many of the benefits of job analysis, although the legal defensibility of subsequent hiring decisions is not as strong as it would be if a more thorough job analysis is conducted. Conducting job analyses for families of related jobs or regularly reviewing and editing existing job analyses can also save time. EXERCISES 1. Strategy Exercise: Imagine that you are a staffing specialist in Vroom, a 10-year old company that manufactures toy cars. The cars are high quality and receive a premium price. Workers assemble pieces of the cars by hand on an assembly line. Some of the assemblers are great at what they do, but others have trouble keeping up and tend to slow the line down. Vroom wants to keep its labor costs as low as possible. However, it is willing to invest in assessment systems to evaluate job candidates and help it identify the most promising candidates to hire. You believe that your staffing system for the assemblers could be improved so there’s less performance variability among them. Unfortunately, it has been 10 years since the last job analysis was done for the position, and many of the tools and assembly methods have changed. After asking for money to use in conducting an updated job analysis on the assembler position, your CEO asks you to justify your request. Using what you have learned in this chapter, write a one-page report convincing your CEO to invest the money in the job analysis project and describing what resources you would need to do it. Answer: Answers should integrate the company’s business strategy of differentiation and the importance of maintaining product quality. The improved legal defensibility of hiring decisions could be mentioned, but the CEO’s interest is likely to be stimulated more by explaining how job analysis can improve hiring quality and thus product quality, and improve the consistency of the people hired. Although it does cost money to do a job analysis, the investment is likely to generate a meaningful financial return by decreasing the number of ineffective workers hired and increasing the quality of hires, which is critical to Vroom’s business strategy. 2. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Working in a group of three to four students, perform a job rewards analysis on the job one of your group members holds (or has held). Use the questionnaire in this chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature as part of your analysis. Summarize your analysis in a job rewards matrix. Then apply the results and describe the type of potential job applicant to which each reward might appeal. Answer: Answers vary with the job, but the job rewards identified could include pay, benefits, the opportunity to develop skills or lead others, and working with fun people. Another reward might be the opportunity to share what students know with others. Many seasoned and retired executives value speaking to classes or teaching courses to share some of what they have learned during their career and could find this type of reward appealing. To perform a job rewards analysis, we first used the questionnaire to gather data on various rewards associated with the job. We summarized our findings in a job rewards matrix, categorizing rewards into intrinsic, extrinsic, and social types. We then matched these rewards to potential job applicants: intrinsic rewards appeal to those seeking personal growth, extrinsic rewards attract those motivated by financial and material benefits, and social rewards are ideal for candidates valuing teamwork and recognition. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Using the web browser of your choice, identify two poorly written and two well written job descriptions. What makes the better job descriptions more effective? Now choose one of the weaker job descriptions and rewrite it to be more effective. Feel free to assume anything you need to about the job and organization to make these changes (but be realistic). Answer: Student responses differ depending on the job descriptions they find. The better job descriptions are often described as containing more information about the job as well as useful information about the company and its culture. More information about the type of candidate being sought is also seen favorably. When students rewrite the job descriptions it is a good idea to look out for an overselling of the job or organization—the information should be accurate and realistic while giving job seekers enough information to assess their fit with the job, unit, and organization. The role of employer branding often comes up in this exercise as well. Effective job descriptions are clear, specific, and include key details like responsibilities, required skills, and company culture. Poorly written descriptions are often vague or overly generic. For example, a weak description might read: "Responsibilities include various tasks." A revised version could be: "Responsibilities include managing daily operations, coordinating team activities, and ensuring project deadlines are met. Must have strong organizational skills and experience in project management. Join our dynamic team where innovation and collaboration are highly valued." 4. Opening Vignette Exercise: The opening vignette describes MITRE’s effort to develop a competency model for its systems engineers. As explained in the vignette, systems engineering is a broad discipline requiring a variety of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics. Performing a job analysis or developing a competency model for this type of job requires using different methods than would doing the same for a more static, lower-skilled job such as a cashier or mail sorter. Your assignment for this exercise is to describe how you would conduct a job analysis or create a competency model differently for these two types of jobs. How would the process differ? Would you use different sources of information? Answer: A job analysis for a more static job could rely on traditional job analysis methods such as the PAQ or a structured questionnaire method and be fairly accurate. Systems engineering would likely require a competency based job analysis, and include more interviews and critical incidents to fully assess the job and person requirements. The more static job might rely more exclusively on incumbents and their supervisors whereas the systems engineering position might include other experts in the organization who understand the impact of this job and its role in the company. CASE STUDY Imagine that you are the recruiting manager for RTMM Inc., a software development company. You have had trouble persuading top candidates to join your firm because it is not yet well-known. You have attracted a sufficient number of qualified candidates, but too many of them are turning down your job offers and accepting opportunities with your competitors. Based on your conversations with job candidates, you think that the key to increasing your job offer acceptance rate is to enhance candidates’ understanding of the company and its value proposition. To thoroughly identify the benefits of the job and of working for RTMM, you conducted focus groups with your current software engineers to learn what they valued about their jobs and about the company. This is the job rewards matrix you created through these focus groups: Reward Amount Differential Stability Annual bonus $18,000 average $0–$40,000 depending on company and individual performance Availability is based on company performance 401(k) 9% of base salary Same for all workers after 1 year of service Stable Development opportunities Depends on the project and skills used Differs by need and by job performance level Company annually invests at least $3,000 per employee in its formal training program Promotion opportunities Promotion rate averages 3 years Minimum of 2 years required for promotion; 50% are never promoted Varies according to company needs and individual performance Autonomy Above average Based on skills and job performance Stable Task variety Above average Same for all employees Stable Fun culture Above average Same for all employees Stable Your assignment is to identify the types of people who might be attracted to this opportunity, and to write a one-page letter to a hypothetical job offer recipient named Keisha Jackson, persuading her to accept the competitive job that you previously offered. Answer: People who like performance-based pay and who value doing a variety of things would be likely to find this opportunity appealing. The skill development and promotion opportunities would also be appealing to ambitious people. The opportunity to be a part of a smaller company rather than a large, bureaucratic one could also appeal to many people, especially if the smaller company was stable and/or growing. The letter to Keisha Jackson should highlight the job’s task variety, development opportunities, promotion opportunities, and bonus, as well as the company’s fun culture. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT Perform a job or competency analysis on the job as it exists now and as it will look in the near future. Summarize your findings in a job requirements matrix. Identify which qualifications are essential and which are desirable in new hires. Also do a job rewards analysis and summarize it in a job rewards matrix. Who might find the rewards offered by the job and organization attractive? These insights will help you complete the assignment in Chapter 6. This Document Contains Chapters 1 to 4 Chapter 1: Strategic Staffing LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Understand why staffing is critical to an organization’s performance. • Define strategic staffing and contrast it with less strategic views of staffing. • Describe the seven components of strategic staffing. • Understand staffing goals. • Describe how staffing influences and is affected by the other functional areas of human resource management. • TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. Staffing is critical to an organization’s performance because it is the means through which the firm acquires, deploys, and retains the talent needed to execute its business strategies and perform well. Staffing is the cornerstone of effective human resource management because it generates the talent that is supported and fostered by a company’s other HR functions. 2. Strategic staffing is the process of staffing an organization in future-oriented, goal- directed ways that support the organization’s business strategy and enhance its effectiveness. Strategic staffing moves people into, through, and out of the organization in ways that maximize the organization’s performance and its ability to compete. It requires long-term planning, as well as aligning the staffing function with the firm’s business strategy and the other areas of HR. Strategic staffing involves assessing the labor market, targeting recruits, assessing candidates based on job-related success factors and the candidates’ longer-term potential, and evaluating staffing outcomes against pre-identified goals. 3. The seven components of strategic staffing are planning, sourcing, recruiting, selecting, acquiring, deploying, and retaining talent. 4. The ultimate goal of a staffing system is to hire people who can perform well and contribute to the execution of the company’s business strategy. Doing so as quickly as possible and experiencing a good return on the time and resources invested in the staffing effort are also important. Other staffing goals might involve the quality of new hires, their retention rates, how quickly openings are filled, the company’s return on the training new hires receive, and the promotion rates of new hires. Staffing goals should be identified in the early stages of staffing planning, and the staffing system should be evaluated to ensure that it is meeting these goals. 5. Staffing both influences and is affected by performance management, training, and compensation. Staffing practices can influence the options available to, and the effectiveness of, the rest of the human resource function. It is critical that the goals and practices of all of the human resource functional areas be in alignment with each other in support of the firm’s human resource and business strategies. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Relate a hiring experience you have had as a job seeker to the process illustrated in Figure 1-1. What could the organization you applied to have done to improve your experience? Answer: Students typically identify jobs for which they received a job offer as examples of good hiring experiences. They also discuss being treated with respect, interacting with knowledgeable recruiters, using appropriate selection methods, and having a reasonable timeline. They may also mention being kept informed throughout the process and feeling that the methods used in making hiring decisions were fair. As examples of bad hiring experiences, students typically describe unprepared or unprofessional recruiters or interviewers, inappropriate or illegal interview questions, delays in the hiring process, and submitting a resume or application for a position and never hearing back. Lengthy hiring processes that require a lot of time or resubmitting information that was already provided are sometimes mentioned. Screening methods seeming not to be job related and bad negotiating experiences may also be brought up. The stories shared by students can be entertaining and can highlight important ways that organizations need to manage the staffing process. Suggestions for creating good hiring experiences typically build on the positive points noted above and address the aspects described in the poor hiring experiences. Respect, promptness, clear and frequent communication, and job relatedness are common themes. 2. Assume that your organization wants to pursue a staffing strategy of acquiring the best talent possible. Give an example of how the firm’s ability to provide only average pay can affect the success of this staffing strategy. Answer: If the pay is only average, then it is difficult to hire top talent even if your selection system is able to identify it. High base pay, and a pay-for-performance package that rewards good performance, can attract and retain people who have the best skills. The most well designed pay-for-performance system will not lead to high performance if the required abilities and motivations are missing from the people you hire. A poorly designed pay-for-performance program is demotivating if it fails to reward top employees because expectations are too high. When the performance of the best employees is not good enough for the organization, then employees will quit trying. If you want to hire good talent, but also want to replace it every few years with people with the most current skills, then paying a hiring bonus and giving a short-term retention bonus would reinforce that staffing strategy. 3. Why is staffing so important to store performance, as is discussed in the chapter vignette? Answer: Staffing outcomes determine what an organization’s employees will be willing and able to do. Thus, staffing influences the success of future training, performance management, and compensation programs. Because it generates the talent that will ultimately be used by an organization to produce its product or service, staffing has a direct impact on employees’ capabilities, behaviors, and performance. Training, motivation, and performance management initiatives will not be successful if the wrong people are hired. 4. Recruiting and selection are interdependent, two-way processes in which both employers and recruits try to look appealing to the other while learning as much as they can about their potential fit. Impression management is the process through which people and employers each try to control the impressions others form of them. How do applicants and employers try to look appealing to each other during the staffing process? Answer: Applicants try to look appealing to employers by writing a clear, thorough resume or an application that contains no typographical, spelling, grammatical, or other errors. They dress professionally, and arrive on time for all appointments with the company. If asked for additional information or materials, applicants provide them quickly. Applicants also behave professionally and try to build rapport with interviewers and other company representatives they meet. Employers try to look appealing to applicants by providing a Web site with comprehensive information about the company and the position the person is applying for. They also treat applicants with respect and try to present the company in an appealing way. Current employees greet applicants by name when they arrive for interviews or other assessments, and try to make applicants feel comfortable and welcome. Explaining the job relevance of assessment methods and answering applicants’ questions about the job and organization also increase a firm’s appeal. 5. If your CEO asked you why she should invest more money in the organization’s staffing systems, what would you tell her? Answer: Responses typically focus on how staffing generates the company’s talent, on which the company depends in some way for strategy execution. If done well, money spent on staffing will generate a large return on the investment by improving productivity, reducing turnover, and improving the depth of an organization’s future leadership talent. Anticipated talent shortages can be headed off by developing recruiting and staffing practices that improve the talent supply chain and create a positive employer image for the company. Investing more in staffing systems enhances recruitment, retention, and employee development, leading to a more skilled and motivated workforce. Improved staffing systems can boost productivity, reduce turnover costs, and align talent with organizational goals. Ultimately, this investment drives better performance and supports long-term growth and competitiveness. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Working alone for 5 minutes, take notes about how you might design a staffing flowchart for your own job. If you have no work experience, choose a job with which you are familiar. Next, form a group of three to four students, choose one of the jobs just identified by your group members, and design a staffing flowchart for it. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class. Answer: Answers will vary with the job and organization chosen, but should basically adapt to Figure 1-1. To design a staffing flowchart for a job, outline key roles and responsibilities, identify necessary qualifications, and map out the recruitment, selection, onboarding, and development processes. Include decision points for evaluating candidates and promotions. For example, in a customer service role, the flowchart might show steps from job posting, application review, interviews, and training to performance evaluations and career progression. 2. Opening vignette exercise: This chapter’s opening vignette described how Caribou Coffee discovered the importance of carefully staffing its store manager positions. Working in a group of three to five students, address the following questions. Feel free to use the Internet or other resources if you need additional information. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class. a. Describe three staffing goals that would reinforce Caribou’s desire to hire the best store managers. b. How else can Caribou Coffee ensure that its staffing strategy for store managers is integrated with the firm’s other HR functional areas? Answer: a. Some possible goals include: • Store manager retention rates • Store manager promotion rates • Store manager transfer rates • Store manager productivity • Store manager satisfaction and motivation levels • The number of store managers identified for promotion b. Some possible ideas include: • Performance management training for district managers • Training district managers in employee development and employee assessment • Evaluating and rewarding district managers for succession management, store manager development, store manager performance, and the number of their store managers receiving successful promotions • Including succession management and employee development in managers’ performance evaluations • Integrating store managers’ performance in succession management and employee development into the compensation system a. Three staffing goals for Caribou Coffee to hire the best store managers could include: 1) Attracting top talent through targeted recruitment campaigns; 2) Implementing rigorous selection processes to assess leadership and operational skills; 3) Providing competitive compensation and development opportunities to retain high-performing managers. b. Caribou Coffee can integrate its staffing strategy with other HR areas by aligning recruitment efforts with training programs, ensuring performance management criteria reflect the skills needed for store managers, and coordinating with compensation strategies to offer attractive and fair rewards. 3. Develop Your Skills exercise: Go to www.onetonline.org/skills/ and navigate to O*NET OnLine’s “Skills Search” feature. Identify the skills that you have, and the skills that you plan to acquire in the next two years, and click on the “Go” button. Next, choose one of the occupations that match the skills you identified. Scroll to the bottom of the summary report and identify a state in the “State and National” section. Click on the “Go” button and read the occupation profile. View the career video if one is provided. Write a one-page report describing how you think this resource could be used by staffing professionals. Answer: Staffing professionals are likely to find O*Net useful for labor market projections, job analysis information, and for identifying job factors they might not have thought about that could be appealing to job applicants. O*Net can also be useful in determining salary offers to chosen job candidates. O*Net can be useful for internal staffing by giving employees the ability to learn more about different career options in the firm without additional investment on the part of the company. CASE STUDY Graphic t-shirt company Atlas Corporation knows that executing its growth strategy depends on promoting from within. Atlas believes that its staffing activities must obtain talent able to do the job being filled and with the potential to advance into management. Because it tends to receive a large number of applications for its job openings, Atlas must also process a large number of applicants for every opening and wants to do so as efficiently as possible. Atlas decides that it wants to capitalize on the trend of using social media to source and recruit. The company opens a Twitter account and starts Tweeting its job openings to people following the company (generally customers hoping for discount offers). It also posts its jobs on Monster.com, a large and popular job board, to try to maximize the number of applications. When job seekers apply for graphic design positions they first complete an online application, and the information is sent to a data base. A recruiter is immediately sent any applications that pass an initial competency screen. Within a few days, the recruiter emails the candidate to request a sample portfolio of the applicant’s work. Because of the size of the files, the portfolios are often rejected by recruiters’ email accounts and the candidate must fax the documents as Atlas has no cloud storage mechanism. Due to the large number of applications, those not passing the initial screen remain in the database unviewed and are not contacted in any way by the company. Applications passing the initial screen are invited to a telepone interview with a recruiter to assess basic job-related competencies. The top 10 candidates are then invited to interview face-to-face with another recruiter to assess their fit with Atlas’ culture and to better assess job-related skills and competencies. The top scoring 5 candidates are then invited to interview with the hiring manager, who makes the final decision on who should receive a job offer. A background check is then performed and if it is passed then a job offer is made. If a candidate declines the offer, the next highest scoring candidate receives a background check and a job offer until no acceptable finalists are left. Atlas evaluates the effectiveness of every staffing effort by evaluating the number of applications it received, the time it took to fill the position, and whether or not one of its first two job offers were accepted. Questions: 1. What is Atlas doing well with regard to staffing strategically? Answer: Atlas has aligned its talent strategy to support its growth strategy by evaluating candidates on both job performance as well as advancement potential. It also tracks some important metrics and utilizes a variety of assessment methods. Atlas has also increased how proactively it sources recruits. 2. How could Atlas staff its graphic designer positions more strategically? Answer: To staff its graphic designer positions more strategically, Atlas could improve the quality of its technology to include cloud storage to handle the large portfolio sizes and better communicate with rejected candidates to improve their interest in future openings for which some might be a good fit. The time delay between applicants passing an initial online competency screen and the applicant being emailed by a recruiter should also be shortened. In addition, Atlas could include metrics on promotion rates and better identify and target the best sources of high quality recruits. 3. What would you suggest Atlas do to further enhance the alignment between its staffing function and its need to promote from within? Answer: Atlas could incorporate specific screens for applicant characteristics it has found to be related to advancement in the company. It could also include a metric on internal promotion rates from each recruiting source and use this information to better target high potential job seekers. Recruiters could be given goals, feedback, and rewards based on their meeting the company’s advancement objectives as well as employee performance outcomes. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT This project will enhance your analytical skills and allow you to apply the concepts in this textbook to a real-world situation. Your project team will select an organization about which your team has some interest or knowledge, and about which you can acquire additional information. The goal of your report is to align the staffing system for a key position in this organization with the organization’s business strategy. Your team will analyze how effectively the target organization is staffing a key position, and make recommendations for improvement. At the end of each chapter is an assignment requiring you to apply that chapter’s material to your chosen job. Your report should target the company’s executive management team. Your job is to persuade them that your recommendations will lead to a positive return on investment (ROI) for the firm and better enable it to execute its business strategy. Assume that the team does not have a working knowledge of staffing terminology. As a result, you need to write your report so that a layperson can easily understand what you are communicating. Your task the first week is to form teams of four to five students, exchange contact information, and brainstorm jobs that at least one team member has access to. It can be a job one of you currently holds or has held in the past, or a job a family member or friend has. Ideally, you will need about 30 minutes of time from a person who currently works or who has worked in the job, and 30 minutes of his or her supervisor’s time. If you cannot get the supervisor to participate, using one or two current or previous jobholders is acceptable. Before leaving class, you should identify at least two positions that your group would like to use for the project and choose one to pursue. Before the next class, you should confirm that you will have access to the job experts, and solidify the job and organization your team will use for the project. You will also need to identify realistic long-term and short-term process and outcome goals for your chosen position. Table 1-2 gives examples of both types of staffing goals, and Table 1-3 gives you some questions to consider in setting appropriate staffing goals. The first week is used to establish student teams, explain the project, and get the teams started in thinking about which job in which company they want to use for the project. Students should be cautioned that they will be working with the job and company for the rest of the semester, so it is a good idea to generate a few alternatives before making a choice. Choosing a job that one or more of the team members is considering for him or herself can make the project even more motivating and interesting. The job can be any position in any organization. The team can only study the job in one organization – for example, if they want to study the job of pharmacist, they need to do it in only one organization such as Walgreens and not across multiple chains. Job titles may be similar or identical in different companies but have very different responsibilities, and the differing cultures of the organizations can influence the type of person sought by each company. Chapter 2: Business and Staffing Strategies LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain how different staffing strategies support different business strategies. • Describe the resource-based view of the firm and how staffing can contribute to a company’s sustainable competitive advantage. • Explain when an organization would use talent-oriented rather than job-oriented staffing. • Describe human capital advantage and human process advantage and the differences between them. • Describe the strategic staffing decisions any organization must make. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. If a firm seeks to achieve a competitive advantage, its staffing strategy should support its business strategy. Different strategies require different types of employees. A cost-leadership strategy requires trainable and flexible employees able to focus on shorter-term production objectives, avoid waste, and who are concerned about production costs. The goal in this case is to develop a competitive advantage based on operational excellence. A differentiation strategy based on innovation requires employees who fit the firm’s innovative culture. A company pursuing a specialization strategy based on customer intimacy would need to hire adaptable, active learners with good people and customer relations skills, and emotional resilience under pressure. 2. The resource-based view of the firm proposes that a company’s resources and competencies can produce a sustained competitive advantage by creating value for customers by lowering costs, providing something of unique value, or some combination of the two. Because the talent resources created by staffing can be valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable, staffing has the potential to create a competitive advantage for a firm. Acquiring the right talent is not enough, however. The company must be appropriately organized to take full advantage of its talent resources. 3. An organization would use job-oriented staffing when it needs to fill a specific job opening. It would pursue talent-oriented staffing when labor markets are tight and good recruits are hard to find, or to address anticipated skill gaps in advance of actual needs. 4. A firm can achieve a human capital advantage by hiring a stock of quality talent and retaining outstanding people. A human process advantage occurs when the firm’s work gets done in a superior way as a result of effective processes that evolve over time, such as learning, cooperation, and innovation on the part of its employees. Human process advantages are very difficult to imitate. 5. Strategic staffing decisions include whether to: have an internal or external talent focus, establish a core or flexible workforce, hire people with the skills the firm needs or train them to develop those skills, replace or retain talent, and pursue proactive or reactive staffing. It is also important to address what levels of which skills should be sought and which jobs should be focused on, as well as whether staffing should be viewed as an investment or a cost and should be centralized or decentralized. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What are the three most important ethical principles that you feel organizations should adhere to in terms of their staffing philosophies? Why? Answer: Answers typically include fairness, equal treatment, merit-based decision making, honesty, transparency, legal compliance and respect for applicants and employees. Reasons will vary based on the students and the principles identified, but will include the ideas that doing so is morally right, that there is a business case for doing so in terms of hiring and promoting people. The main reason will typically be that this will make the business productive and that these are not adhered to for political reasons, being and remaining an employer that people want to work for, and avoiding legal trouble. Organizations should adhere to these three ethical principles in staffing: 1) Fairness—ensuring equal opportunity and non-discrimination to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace; 2) Transparency—providing clear and honest communication about job roles, expectations, and selection criteria; 3) Confidentiality—protecting candidates' and employees' personal information to build trust and uphold privacy standards. These principles foster a respectful and equitable work environment, enhancing organizational integrity and employee satisfaction. 2. What is the difference between treating employees as assets and as investors? When is it appropriate for an organization to treat employees as investors? When is it appropriate for an organization to treat job applicants and employees as assets? Answer: Treating employees as assets puts the talent management focus on managing costs and controlling people (the asset) as a resource. Like other assets, the focus is on managing the cost of employees, and the goal tends to focus on the acquisition of labor as cheaply and quickly as possible. Treating employees as assets is most appropriate when there is little performance variation among people holding a job. If just about any new hire can do the job at an acceptable performance level, if alternative jobs are hard for employees to find, or if the job is very automated and requires little unique skill or knowledge, then controlling labor costs can be an appropriate perspective. Even in these cases, however, staffing outcomes such as commitment, theft, and motivation probably can be improved if employees are thought of as investors. Alternatively, if employees are thought of as investors, the focus is on establishing a mutually beneficial relationship in which employees are recognized as investing their resources (time, talents, energy, etc.) in the organization in exchange for a return on that investment (supportive culture, pay, benefits, challenge, professional development, etc.). When workers are able to get other jobs easily, when the organization’s success is dependent on their contributions (e.g., research and development, customer service, or knowledge worker positions) it is appropriate for the organization to treat employees as investors and maximize employees’ return on the investments they make in the company. The Starbucks vignette is a good example of when it is appropriate to treat employees as investors. 3. Suppose you were in charge of recruiting and staffing the software engineers who work for Google. Do you think that a company like Google should hire software engineers with the skills it needs or train them to develop those skills? Why? Answer: Google needs people to be able to contribute quickly and be knowledgeable about and skilled in the most current software engineering theories and practices. At the same time, Google has proprietary methods and systems that will need training, and that new hires will be unfamiliar with. Given the challenges inherent in Google’s innovative work, creativity is as important as current technological knowledge. Because creativity cannot be brought about by training, Google hires talented and creative people that can then be trained on specific systems. Google should prioritize hiring software engineers with the necessary skills to ensure immediate expertise and efficient project execution. However, investing in ongoing training is also crucial to keep engineers updated with the latest technologies and foster continuous improvement. This dual approach balances immediate skill requirements with long-term development and innovation. 4. In what situations would position-oriented staffing be preferable to talent-oriented staffing? Answer: Position-oriented staffing hires people who are good fits for a particular job that needs to be done. Talent-oriented staffing hires talented people and then finds a place for them in the organization. Organizations often use position-oriented staffing because they have a specific job that needs to be filled. Talent-oriented hiring can be effective when the organization has the opportunity to hire someone with unique talents who can contribute meaningfully to the organization in some way. It can be strategic to hire people with unique talents even if it is not clear yet what job they will fill, as long as their skills complement the organization’s goals. For example, a biotechnology company can benefit from finding a place for one of the top scientists in the field who has expressed interest in working for the company, even if no openings currently exist. Talent-oriented staffing also has the strategic advantage of keeping top talent in key areas away from competitors. If the best talent is working for you, they are not working for a competitor. Position-oriented staffing is frequently easier to use because you are staffing relatively clearly defined jobs or positions. This makes position-oriented staffing less complex and more legally defensible. However, when acquiring the best talent in a particular area is critical to a company’s success (e.g., consulting firms), or when a unique opportunity to acquire top talent in an area important to the organization presents itself, then talent-oriented staffing may be more effective. 5. List the costs and benefits of having an internal staffing focus. Then list the cost and benefits of having an external staffing focus. What are the trade-offs between the two approaches? Answer: An internal staffing focus helps keep employees committed to the company because they can see themselves having a career there. Internal staffing also results in the new hire getting up to speed faster because he or she is already familiar with company policies, culture, customers, etc. An internal staffing focus also prompts a company to develop a pool of talent that is likely to be both able and willing to assume leadership roles when they become available. It can also be faster and cheaper to hire internally and the company has a more accurate assessment of the talents and potential of its employees than it does of outsiders. Internal staffing focuses on the talents and capabilities of employees who are currently employed in the organization. As a result, possible costs of an internal staffing focus include failure to introduce new ideas and inability to identify new ways of doing things. Additionally, training and development costs may be higher. Finally, the company might also miss out on hiring great talent that does not currently work for it, and these highly talented people often end up working for competitors. An external staffing focus can help reduce costs in the long term by reducing a firm’s training costs. Employees’ skills may be more current because the company can hire people trained in the newest technologies and theories. External hires may also be able to see the company from a fresh perspective and have insights that improve the company’s performance. An external staffing focus can generate resentment on the part of employees who are passed over for a job within the company in favor of an outsider. It is also more difficult to fully evaluate external hires because less information is known about them compared to people who already work for the company. External hires may not have as much of an understanding and appreciation of the company’s history and culture as an internal hire. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Form a small group of four to five students. Identify a business that you could start. What type of business would you propose? What business strategy would you follow? What staffing strategies would you use and why? How does the resource-based view inform your thinking? Answer: Answers depend on the business identified, but should parallel the contents of Table 2-3. Business Proposal: A tech-focused coworking space offering high-speed internet and smart office solutions. Business Strategy: Differentiate through premium technology and tailored workspace solutions to attract tech startups and remote professionals. Staffing Strategies: Recruit skilled tech support and customer service staff to ensure seamless operation and high client satisfaction. Implement continuous training to keep up with technological advancements. Resource-Based View: This view emphasizes leveraging unique resources, like advanced tech and highly skilled staff, to create a competitive advantage and deliver exceptional value to clients. 2. Opening vignette exercise: Working individually, or in a small group, reread the chapter vignette on Starbucks and address the following questions. Be prepared to share your answers with the class after 20 minutes. a. What staffing issues would create the biggest obstacles to Starbucks’ ability to execute its growth and specialization strategies? b. What would you recommend Starbucks do to overcome the obstacles you identified? Answer: a. A shortage of talent produced by a tight labor market could be a problem, as could high turnover rates. If the sourcing, recruiting, and selection systems Starbucks uses stop producing appropriate hires, it will no longer be able to acquire the talent it needs to execute its high level of customer service. b. Focusing on retention will help alleviate the effects of a tight labor market. Further enhancing its training, development, and promotion opportunities might further boost retention. It could also continue to invest in new sourcing and recruiting ideas and technologies to continually generate new applicants and build up its database of online candidates, and publicize its strengths and benefits as an employer to maintain its positive employer image. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Think of an organization that you currently work for or have worked for in the past as you complete the “Measuring Your Firm’s Climate for Diversity” assessment in the Develop Your Skills feature. How well do you think the organization’s climate for diversity score reflects its talent philosophy? Answer: The main takeaway intended for this exercise is the idea that having any particular philosophy, not just one about diversity, is not enough. Organizations often have good intentions but fail to fully live up to them, in part because they do not assess whether or not they are doing so. Many organizations will have a very impressive statement about valuing diversity and their talent in general, but when employees are asked how valued they feel their responses reflect room for improvement. This links to the importance of having a well-developed and clearly-stated talent philosophy that drives human resource and staffing strategies, and to measure how well the organization is living up to these principles and goals. CASE STUDY Integrating McDonald’s Business, Human Resource, and Staffing Strategies People are McDonald’s most important asset. The company’s success depends on the satisfaction of its customers, which begins with workers who have the attitudes and abilities required to work efficiently and provide good customer service. To execute its growth strategy, McDonald’s has identified people as one of its three global corporate strategies. McDonald’s claims that as an employer, it wants “to be the best employer in each community around the world” It also makes a “people promise” to its employees that “we value you, your growth, and your Contributions.” Its five “people principles” reflected by its human resource strategy are: respect and recognition; values and leadership behaviors; competitive pay and benefits; learning, development, and personal growth; and ensuing that employees have the resources needed to get the job done. McDonald’s has executed its operational excellence strategy well by tracking key indicators of product and service quality, speed, and accuracy. The company has also identified its people practices and approaches that substantially impact the firm’s turnover, productivity, customer satisfaction, sales, and profitability. This has allowed it to develop a business model that emphasizes not only financial and operational factors but also people factors that improve the company’s results by improving employee commitment, retention, productivity, and customer loyalty. Because its business strategy relies on providing customers quality, cleanliness, quick service, and value, McDonald’s works hard at hiring people who want to excel in delivering outstanding service. Many of its restaurant employees are teenagers, and McDonald’s is their first employer. The company tries to recruit and hire the best people, retain them by offering them ongoing training, and then promote from within to fill its managerial positions. To ensure that it is recruiting the right people, the company has identified important skills and behaviors that it looks for in applicants. McDonald’s has found that the best way of hiring quality crew members is to advertise inside the restaurant and attract local people and/or friends of existing employees. McDonald’s also recruits at local job centers and career fairs, using hiring material with a clear message targeted at its intended audience. As McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook says, “If you get the people part right, the rest will follow.” Questions: 1. How would you describe McDonald’s business strategy? What are the foundations of its competitive advantage (what are the sources of its success)? Answer: McDonald’s business strategy is centered on both growth and operational excellence. The foundations of its competitive advantage are both its people and its processes. By carefully recruiting and selecting its people, McDonald’s ensures that customer service-oriented people are hired. McDonald’s then trains them in additional skills that are needed for good performance. By identifying and tracking the people factors that affect business results, the company is able to evaluate and continually improve the alignment between its staffing and business strategies. 2. How has McDonald’s aligned its business, human resource, and staffing strategies? Answer: Pursuing both growth and operational excellence strategies requires a continual influx of employees with good customer service skills, providing ongoing training and development, and retaining talent. McDonald’s has a clear understanding of the skills and behaviors it needs in its new hires, and has developed a staffing strategy that produces these characteristics. 3. What are some possible talent-related threats that could eat away at McDonald’s competitive advantage? Would higher turnover or a tight labor market in which it is difficult to find talented people be a problem? What would you recommend the company should do to maintain its competitive advantage over the next five years? Answer: A tight labor market would make hiring more difficult especially in the younger age bracket, it hires from the most. Higher turnover would also be a problem, and be particularly expensive in light of its training investments. To maintain its competitive advantage, McDonald’s could further build its image and brand and find ways to appeal to its biggest labor pool of teenagers (it is in the process of redesigning its uniforms, for example). It could also find ways to retain current workers, and target its recruiting message and benefits as an employer to additional segments of the labor force such as senior citizens and people who need part-time or flexible work arrangements due to school or family responsibilities. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT You should have a list of jobs and companies that your team will have access to for the project. You now need to decide which job and organization to use for the semester project and begin collecting information on the company, its business strategy and competitive advantage, and how it currently sources, recruits, and selects for the position you identified. You also need to identify how the position is strategic for the company in some way. Before the next class, you should confirm that you will have access to one or two job experts and solidify the job and organization your team will use for the project. Specifically, you need to include the following in your report: 1. A brief summary of the organization, its business strategy, and its culture. 2. An explanation of why the position you chose is strategic for the company (why should attention be given to improving how it is staffed? What are the implications of having low versus high performers in the job?). Describe the strategic context of your future proposal for recruiting and selecting for this job—what must future hires be able to do to help the company execute its business strategy? 3. Responses to each of the nine strategic staffing decisions presented in Table 2-6 and a justification for each of your recommendations. Note: It is a good idea to read the applied case assignments for the rest of the chapters to guide your research and identify how your job experts might provide useful information for future sections of the project. Chapter 3: The Legal Context LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain why complying with staffing laws can be strategic. • Discuss different types of employment relationships. • Describe different types of staffing-related lawsuits. • Discuss the role affirmative action and equal employment opportunity play in a firm’s staffing processes. • Describe various barriers to legally defensible staffing. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. Complying with staffing laws is obviously a good idea from a moral, ethical, and legal perspective, but doing so can also be strategic for firms. In addition to avoiding the expense of lawsuits and the negative public relations associated with litigation, legal compliance allows companies to capitalize on the strengths of diversity and perform better by appealing to a broader customer base. 2. Employees, independent contractors, and contingent workers have different types of employment relationships with firms. Employment relationships may also be “at will,” meaning that either party can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any legal reason, with no liability as long as there is no contract for a definite term of employment. 3. Disparate treatment is intentional discrimination based on a person’s protected characteristic. Adverse impact occurs when an action has a disproportionate effect on a protected group, regardless of its intent or actual disparate treatment. Fraudulent recruitment is the misrepresentation of the job or organization to an applicant. Negligent hiring occurs when an applicant is hired that the company knew or should have known poses a risk to third parties, and the person harms another person. Negligent referral is misrepresenting or failing to disclose complete and accurate information about a former employee. Trade secret litigation occurs when confidential information from another company is acquired after an employee is hired by a competitor, or during the interview process. 4. Equal employment opportunity in staffing means that the firm’s employment practices are designed and used in a “facially neutral manner”—in other words, they clearly do not illegally favor some applicants over others. Affirmative action is the proactive effort to eliminate discrimination and to ensure nondiscriminatory results in the workforce. Affirmative action plans describe in detail the staffing procedures and standards an employer will take to remedy the underemployment of certain groups. Affirmative action plans can include, but are not limited to, provisions for nondiscriminatory recruitment, training, and promotion. 5. Various barriers to legally defensible staffing exist. Some barriers tend to be specific to a particular employer, rather than being societal or cultural in nature. The “like me” bias, stereotypes, ignorance, and prejudice are common barriers, as are uneducated hiring managers. Other general barriers based in societal or cultural practices or norms tend to be external to the employer. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Do laws prohibiting certain kinds of hiring discrimination benefit only job seekers? Or, do companies benefit from the enforcement of discrimination laws? If so, how? Answer: Because the employer usually has more power than employees in the employment relationship, laws and regulations help to limit the employer’s power and prevent unfair discrimination. Laws and regulations also help to promote fairness and consistent treatment across different employees. If employment laws did not exist, many organizations would likely discriminate against people in hiring and promoting decisions, applicants would be misled to believe that employers represented a better opportunity than they really are, dangerous employees could hop from one job to another without previous employers having to disclose the threat they pose, and dangerous people could be hired who threaten the safety of other employees. Companies also benefit from employment laws. By encouraging and providing guidance on how to attract and hire people based on their job qualifications rather than biases or stereotypes, the laws and guidelines help to improve the quality and performance of a firm’s employees. 2. What is meant by “at-will employment” and what advice would you give an organization considering this type of employment relationship? Answer: In an at-will employment relationship, either party can terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any legal reason, with no liability as long as there is no contract for a definite term of employment. Although at-will employment allows an employee to quit without reason, it is most often invoked when an employer wants to fire an employee at any time for any legal reason, or for no reason at all. Case law varies from state to state, making it difficult for employers to know when, or if, they can rely on the at-will nature of the relationship. To help avoid discrimination claims, firms should follow formal discipline and termination procedures whenever possible even when an at-will relationship exists. The at-will clause is best thought of as a legal defense to keep the organization from being forced to follow its own policies inflexibly. For example, at-will employment allows an employer to quickly dismiss an employee who is behaving dangerously without having to proceed through a two-warning, suspension, and finally the termination procedure that could take weeks. 3. What is the difference between flow, stock, and concentration statistics? How is each type of statistic used? Answer: Flow, stock, and concentration statistics are used to determine if disparate impact has occurred. Flow statistics compare the percentage of applicants hired from different subgroups to determine if they are significantly different from each other. Stock statistics compare the percentage of men, women, or minorities employed in a job category with their availability in the relevant population of qualified people interested in the position. Stock statistics are used in utilization analysis. If one subgroup is selected at a rate that is less than 80% of the selection rate for another protected subgroup, adverse impact is indicated. Concentration statistics compare the percentages of men, women, or minorities in various job categories to see if men, women, or minorities are concentrated in certain workforce categories 4. What is affirmative action? What is an affirmative action plan? Do you feel that affirmative action is a good way to remedy past discrimination? Why or why not? Answer: Affirmative action is the proactive effort to eliminate discrimination and its effects, and to ensure non-discriminatory results in employment practices in the future. The goal of affirmative action is to provide employment opportunities to groups formerly underrepresented in employment, particularly Blacks, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and women. Affirmative action is also required for handicapped persons, disabled veterans and Vietnam War veterans. An affirmative action plan describes in detail the actions to be taken, procedures to be allowed, and standards to be adhered to, to establish an affirmative action program. Affirmative action plans can include, but are not limited to, provisions for non-discriminatory recruitment, training, and promotion. Procedures for internal record keeping, auditing, and reporting are often included to ensure compliance and measure the program’s success. Affirmative action programs may give preferential treatment to underrepresented protected groups. Numerical benchmarks are usually established based on the availability of qualified applicants in the job market or qualified candidates in the employer’s work force. These numerical goals do not create quotas for specific groups, nor are they designed to guarantee proportional representation or equal results. A contractor’s failure to attain its goals is not in and of itself considered a violation – a failure to make good faith efforts to attain the goals is. Opinions regarding whether affirmative action is a good way to remedy past discrimination, or not, are based on personal experience and opinions, beliefs about the role of merit in the staffing process, and whether or not equal employment opportunity will occur in the absence of these programs. 5. Which three general barriers to legally defensible staffing do you feel are most common? What can companies do to remove these barriers? Answer: The six barriers to legally defensible staffing are the like me bias, stereotypes, ignorance, prejudice, perception of loss by persons threatened by EEO practices, and uninformed hiring managers. Answers to the first part of the question are generally based on personal opinion and experience. Ideas for removing the barriers include training, performance management, and compensation practices that develop, identify, and reward appropriate staffing behaviors. Aligning all areas of HR to support equal employment opportunity is critical. Hiring more diverse employees can help firms that are currently more homogenous to overcome their biases, and communicating clearly with those who feel threatened by EEO practices can help them understand that the focus is on merit and not preferential treatment to anyone. Stereotypes, ignorance, prejudice, the like me bias, and uninformed hiring managers may be addressed through training and coaching. EXERCISES 1. Strategy exercise: Analyzing Adverse Impact Mary was recently hired as an HR generalist at Super Foods, an organic grocery chain. One of her first assignments is to review the store’s data on its cashiers to identify if its hiring and promotion practices have had an adverse (disparate) impact on men or women. Mary generated the following reports from the company’s employee database to use in her analyses. Working in groups of three to four students, use this information to determine whether there is evidence of sex discrimination for cashiers. Write a brief report explaining why there is or is not adverse impact. If there is, try to identify what might be happening and suggest ways the firm can reduce it. Stock Statistics Job Category: Cashiers Current Cashiers Availability in Relevant Population Men 30% 50% Women 70% 50% Answer: Comparing their utilization rates, males and females are equally represented in the available population, but only 30% of the Cashiers are male. Males are thus underutilized in the Cashier position, suggesting discrimination against men. Flow Statistics Job Category: Cashiers # Applicants # Hired Selection Rate (in %) Men 200 100 50% Women 150 75 50% The 80% rule states that, “a selection rate for any race, sex or ethnic group which is less than four-fifths (4/5, or eighty percent) of the rate for the group with the highest rate will generally be regarded by federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact, while a greater than four-fifths rate will generally not be regarded by federal enforcement agencies as evidence of adverse impact.” There is no evidence of disparate impact in the hiring process — the selection rates for men and women are both 50%, suggesting no sex discrimination is taking place. Concentration Statistics Job Category Cashiers Stockers Cleaners Men 30% 70% 65% Women 70% 30% 35% Women are concentrated in the Cashier job (70%), and men are concentrated in the Stocker (70%) and Cleaner (65%) jobs, suggesting that disparate impact exists. Looking at the three tables together, we see that although Super Foods is selecting men and women as Cashiers at the same rate, the utilization rate of women in the Cashier position is greater than the utilization rate of men. This suggests that although there appears to be no discrimination in the hiring of cashiers, men are less likely to stay in those jobs. The finding that men are concentrated in Stockers and Cleaners is noteworthy, as it raises the possibility that men might prefer those jobs to the job of cashier, as well as the possibility that sex discrimination against women is taking place in the Stocker and Cleaner positions. This will warrant additional analyses by Mary. To try to improve the retention of men in the Cashier position, the company needs to first identify why men are leaving. Perhaps the pay, hours, or working conditions for the Stockers and Cleaners are better, or perhaps the Cashier position is not what they expected it to be. It is also possible that although no sex discrimination existed during the recruiting and hiring process, once on the job, male cashiers experienced discrimination that caused them to disproportionately quit. Only additional research can determine the cause of males’ underutilization in the Cashier position. 2. Opening vignette exercise: The opening vignette describes how Abercrombie & Fitch engaged in “creative” recruiting to fill sales jobs with candidates who matched the company’s carefully constructed marketing image. The high-profile clothing retailer staffed its stores with good-looking, young white men and women, and touched off a lawsuit that ultimately cost the company $40 million and a barrage of bad publicity. Working alone, or in a group of three to five students, answer the following questions and be prepared to share your answers with the class. 1. Do you think Abercrombie should be allowed to staff its stores in a way that reinforces its marketing image? Why or why not? Answer: Responses to this question tend to be based on personal experience, and opinion. Students sometimes refer to experiences they have had in which diversity helped or hurt their group’s performance. Diversity is often part of an organization’s value statement. Having diverse ideas and perspectives are better reflect customer demographics and can improve a firm’s performance. Students generally end up discussing how diversity is an asset to organizations. Nonetheless, some students will often argue the point that if a company wants to hire people who reinforce a particular image, it should be allowed to do so if the characteristics being used are not illegal. Abercrombie should not be allowed to staff its stores in a way that reinforces its marketing image if it leads to discrimination or exclusion. While aligning staff with brand aesthetics is a business strategy, it shouldn't compromise principles of diversity and inclusion. Hiring practices should prioritize skills and qualifications over appearance to foster a fair and equitable workplace. 2. What are some alternative ways Abercrombie can staff its stores legally and still project a desirable image? Answer: Abercrombie wants to appeal to 18-22 year old college students. Restricting its hiring to people in this age bracket, and who are demographically homogeneous, would not only be illegal (based on Title VII), but would also not reflect the demographics of 18-22 year old college students. Identifying the values, interests, and styles college students like, and focusing its marketing on product and values-related images, could be one way to take the focus off of hiring homogeneous employees. Also, the company could hire diverse people who actually reflect the demographics of college campuses. This is what the company is now doing as a result of the consent decree. Even Abercrombie’s website is now filled with pictures of diverse models. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: The best test of any question posed to a job applicant is whether the employer can demonstrate a job-related necessity for asking the question. Because both the intent behind the question and how the information is to be used by the employer are important, an employer should consider whether the answers to the question, if used in making the selection, will adversely affect and screen out minorities or members of one sex. This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature presented five improper interview questions (provided again here), along with an explanation of why each question should be avoided. Working with a partner, identify what the employer really wants to know by asking each question and come up with an alternative way to find out the same information. 1. How many children do you have? Answer: This question can be an inappropriate way of asking about a person’s availability to work, which is an otherwise appropriate topic. A legal question would be: “Do you have responsibilities other than work that will interfere with specific job requirements such as traveling?” The employer wants to gauge the candidate's potential work-life balance and availability. Instead of asking about children, a more appropriate question is: “Can you describe your availability and how you manage work responsibilities?” This approach focuses on job-related factors without delving into personal life or potentially discriminatory areas. 2. What is your native language? Answer: If the job requires additional languages, you may legitimately inquire into languages the applicant speaks and writes fluently, but not how an applicant acquired the ability to read, write or speak the language. 3. To what clubs or organizations do you belong? Answer: To get similar information that is job related it would be better to ask: “Do you belong to any professional or trade groups that you consider relevant to your ability to perform this job?” The employer might want to understand the candidate's interests, networking skills, or community involvement. A better alternative is: “Can you describe any relevant activities or experiences that contribute to your skills and qualifications for this role?” This focuses on professional and skill-related aspects rather than personal affiliations. 4. What is your height? What is your weight? Answer: If the height and weight restrictions are necessary for job performance, asking, “Are you able to lift a 40-pound weight and carry it 40 yards?” would be appropriate. The employer may be trying to assess if the candidate can perform certain physical tasks. Instead, ask: “Are you able to perform the essential physical requirements of this job, such as [specific task]?” This approach focuses directly on job-related capabilities without infringing on personal privacy or risking discrimination. 5. Are you able to work on Christmas Day? Answer: Questions asked to availability to work should be job-related, including: “What hours or shifts can you work? Can you work on weekends and/or holidays? Are there specific times that you cannot work?” Asking about a candidate’s willingness to work a required work schedule is legal. Once a person is hired, an employer can collect data on protected characteristics including marital status and the number and age of someone’s children, which could be used in a discriminatory manner in making employment decisions, but are necessary for insurance, reporting requirements, or other business purposes. When facing charges of discrimination, the employer must prove that answers to all questions on application forms, or in oral interviews are not used illegally in making hiring and placement decisions. The employer must establish that the questions do not seek information other than that which is essential to evaluate an applicant’s qualifications for employment. It is thus strategic to review all procedures used in screening applicants, eliminating any that are not justified by business necessity. The employer wants to determine availability for specific work schedules. A better approach is: “This role requires occasional work during holidays. Are you available for flexible scheduling, including holidays, if needed?” This focuses on job requirements while being clear and non-discriminatory. ADDITIONAL EXERCISE Go to http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/index.cfm and select a recent EEO litigation settlement. Summarize the issue(s) presented in the case, identify the relevant EEO laws, and explain why the court ruled as it did. How could the company have prevented this lawsuit in the first place? CASE STUDY Global biopharmaceutical company Pfizer believes that a diverse workforce leads to more innovative and creative thinking.. The company also feels that inclusion is the foundation to the ownership culture that it wants to build among its its employees. Pfizer recognized that better attracting and retaining diverse employees would require it to pay more attention to its diversity and inclusion initiatives. In addition to relying more on its worldwide diversity and inclusion leadership council comprised of senior executives from around the company, Pfizer also created employee resource groups including people with disabilities, Latino/Hispanics, African American and LGBT employees to better apply their ideas to influence company results. Questions 1. Why is Pfizer interested in improving diversity and inclusion at the company? Answer: Pfizer believes that employee diversity and inclusion is related to more innovation and creativity in the company. By having greater diversity of ideas, experiences, and cultures it is possible that a wider diversity of ideas will emerge. 2. How does a proactive focus on diversity and inclusion improve Pfizer’s legal compliance? Answer: Focusing on performance and merit rather than protected characteristics is the best way to be legally compliant. The EEOC may also consider a company’s proactive diversity and inclusion efforts as part of the process of understanding if a company engages in unintentional discrimination. 3. If you were in charge of diversity and inclusion at Pfizer, what would you do to further improve diversity and inclusion at the company? Answer: In addition to the employee resource groups Pfizer could screen recruits on pro-diversity and inclusion characteristics to improve its ability to maintain an inclusive culture and leverage the potential benefits of its diverse workforce. It could also conduct employee surveys to assess the company’s inclusion climate and set goals for maintaining key drivers of diversity and inclusion such as survey results, job application rates by people from different protected groups, and measures of innovation and creativity. Holding all employees responsible for conducting themselves in appropriate pro-diversity and inclusion ways might also help, as well as proactively sourcing quality talent that has also shown itself to be creative and inclusive. ADDITIONAL CASE STUDY Diversity in Hiring Lauren Rice is trying to decide which of two applicants to hire. One has slightly better skills and more experience, but the other is also well qualified. The first candidate is Black and the second is Hispanic. Lauren’s department is 40 percent Black and has no Hispanics even though the company’s core values include promoting diversity. How would you advise Lauren regarding her hiring decision? Companies with a desire to change the composition of their current staff that have been unable to justify the selection of one well-qualified candidate over another well-qualified candidate may now be able to more openly use race or other “diverse characteristics” as a “plus” factor. Writing for a divided U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor approved the careful use of race in educational settings as a “plus” factor in university admission decisions, recognizing the critical importance of building a diverse student body. This decision has modified the old rule that race could be used as a plus factor only when two student applicants were equally qualified (which rarely happens as it is virtually impossible to be “equally qualified”) to allow race as a “plus” factor with respect to qualified individuals. This seemingly slight shift from equally qualified to merely qualified creates a foundation for a qualified minority candidate to bypass a qualified non-minority candidate. Applying the message sent by Justice O’Connor to a business context, Lauren should be advised to hire the Hispanic applicant. (Of course, hiring decisions are complex, and review by the human resources and legal departments is always wise in situations that could threaten litigation.) Choosing qualified minority candidates over other qualified candidates is always controversial, but the Supreme Court suggests that it may take 25 years before a truly racially blind selection process could become the legal standard without harming needed diversity. This may be a reasonable life span for the lawful use of race in building a nation of diverse workforces. In the meantime, one expert explains that, “In general, it is unclear whether an employer can legally consider race, gender, etc., even in a holistic way, unless as part of a remedial affirmative action program. Accordingly, the safer approach is for employers to achieve their diversity goals more indirectly—through what may feel like winks, nods and disguises—since directly considering diversity may serve only to introduce another player to your workplace; the plaintiffs’ lawyer.” 1. Who should Lauren hire and why? Answer: Either choice is acceptable – the focus is on the explanation of the candidate chosen. If the Supreme Court’s decision in an educational setting is generalized to the workplace, then hiring the second candidate would be the appropriate choice. If the focus is on hiring the very best candidate, even if a candidate that would increase the company’s diversity is also qualified, then the first candidate would be the appropriate choice. 2. How do you think an applicant’s race should be considered in hiring decisions? Answer: Students’ articulation of why they would choose one candidate over the other helps them to think through and determine their own opinion about diversity and how best to achieve it in the workplace. Expanding their thinking to the role of race in hiring decisions generally requires them to broaden their perspective and further understand their own perspective on how best to attain a diverse workplace. An applicant’s race should not be considered in hiring decisions. Hiring should be based solely on qualifications, experience, and fit for the role, ensuring fairness and equal opportunity. Consideration of race could lead to discrimination and undermine the principles of a merit-based selection process. 3. If an organization is interested in diversifying its employees, how would you recommend that it legally do so? Answer: If students are against using race as a “plus” factor, this question prompts them to think about alternatives. If they support using race as a “plus” factor, this question prompts them to consider other ways of promoting diversity. Diversifying recruiting efforts, ensuring that recruitment and selection practices are not discriminatory and that hiring decisions are based solely on merit to decrease any preferential treatment given to non-minorities, and relying less on employee referrals that are likely to generate more of the same homogeneity that currently exists in the firm are possible answers. To diversify employees legally, an organization should implement inclusive recruiting practices, such as broadening job postings to reach diverse candidates and using unbiased language. Additionally, they should provide diversity training and create clear, equitable hiring criteria. Regularly reviewing and adjusting policies can further promote a diverse and inclusive workplace. SEMESTER PROJECT You should have finalized your choice of job and organization and begun collecting information about it from the organization, the Internet, and from http://online.onetcenter.org/. This week, finish your background research on the job and organization, and add to your report a description of the existing staffing systems for the job. The goal this week is to get the groups well underway in their analysis of the organization and their chosen job. They should gather information from as many different sources as possible, including the company, the Internet, and O*Net. Taking a few minutes in class to show students how to use O*Net at the URL above can help get them started, but if no Internet access is available in the classroom the site is user-friendly and students should be able to find what they need on their own. Students should not rely on their job experts yet, unless the expert is willing to participate for more than 30 minutes or so. Their expertise will be needed during the job analysis phase. After this week they should have added to their report a description of the staffing system used by the company for the job they have chosen. This information may not be complete, but as long as they have a general idea of how the company recruits and selects for the position, they will have enough information to serve as a foundation for the rest of the project. Chapter 4: Strategic Job Analysis and Competency Modeling LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Explain why doing a job analysis can be strategic. • Describe the different types of job analyses, and for what they are used. • Define job description and person specification, and describe how they are used. • Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different job analysis methods. • Describe how to plan a job analysis. • Describe how to conduct a job analysis TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. A job analysis is the systematic process of identifying and describing the important aspects of a job and the characteristics a worker needs to do it well. It identifies the job’s important tasks and working conditions as well as the tools and technologies people doing the job use. The goal is to define the ideal candidate for the job from the perspective of the company, its strategy, and the employees with whom the person will work. A job analysis is strategic if it aligns the firm’s current as well as future job requirements with the company’s business strategy. 2. A job description is a written description of the duties and responsibilities of a job. A person specification summarizes the characteristics of someone able to perform the job well. Based on the job description, the person specification profiles the personal skills, qualifications, abilities, and experiences that the organization needs to evaluate candidates during the recruitment and selection process. 3. Different methods can be used to conduct a job analysis. The critical incidents method uses subject matter experts to provide examples of good and poor performance incidents that have occurred on the job. This method helps job analysts identify extreme behaviors but not necessarily typical day-to-day behaviors. The job elements method asks a panel of job experts to identify and rate the worker characteristics that influence success on the job. Although the process can be difficult to explain, it is efficient, and relatively fast. The structured interview method involves interviewing job experts about the job and the required worker characteristics. Although this method can be quick, the job analyst needs to minimize any political biases imparted by the job experts involved in the process. A task inventory is a list of tasks generated by job experts and grouped in categories reflecting major work functions. The functions are then evaluated on dimensions relevant for assessing job candidates. Task inventories are objective and produce reliable descriptions of the job but fail to capture worker characteristics displayed infrequently. Neither do the inventories identify the characteristics that distinguish superior from average or barely acceptable workers. The Position Analysis Questionnaire is a structured job analysis questionnaire that is fast, cheap, and useful for almost any position. Like any structured questionnaire, the predetermined questions limit the information the job analyst can obtain. Also, the reading level of the questionnaires may be too high for job experts providing input on certain positions. 4. The steps in planning a job analysis are to (1) determine the time and resources that can be invested in the job analysis, (2) identify the job experts who will be able to participate, and (3) identify appropriate job analysis techniques to use. 5. The steps in conducting a job analysis are to (1) get the support of top managers; (2) thoroughly communicate the purpose of the job analysis to all participants and ensure they are diligent about completing tasks objectively; (3) collect background information about the job, the business strategy, and the organization’s culture; (4) generate task statements that describe the work done on the job; (5) generate the KSAOs associated with each task statement; (6) form job duty groupings; (7) link the KSAOs back to the job duties to be sure they are appropriate; (8) collect critical incidents to better distinguish excellent from poor performers; (9) weight the duties of the job; (10) construct a job requirements matrix summarizing the information collected; and (11) write a job description and person specification. 6. Competency modeling involves identifying more broadly defined components of a successful worker’s repertoire of behaviors needed to do a job well. Competency modeling often comes from the top of an organization and serves to reinforce an organization’s culture. By contrast, KSAO statements are derived mostly by job analysts for staffing purposes. A job rewards analysis identifies the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of a job. The rewards that are identified can be used to recruit candidates and match them with certain jobs. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Why do you think some organizations choose to not perform job analyses given their benefits? What could be done to increase their willingness to analyze jobs? Answer: Some firms are simply unaware of the benefits of job analyses, while others are unwilling or unable to devote the time or resources to doing them. These barriers can be addressed by selling key decision makers in the firm on the benefits of job analysis, including hiring better people for the job and company, as well as greater legal defensibility. Starting with a single job or job family and demonstrating the improved staffing outcomes can help to convince managers that job analyses are worthwhile. Explaining the costs of litigation and how job analyses are the best defense can also be effective. 2. How can job analysis make staffing more strategic? Answer: Job analysis aligns the requirements of a job and the job specification with the firm’s business strategy and competitive needs. By formally articulating what characteristics make an incumbent successful, and by linking those characteristics to specific job duties and organizational needs, job analysis helps to clarify exactly the kind of candidate that should be hired. Job analysis also helps to standardize the evaluation process used in screening recruits, improving the consistency of new hire quality. 3. How do you personally evaluate different job opportunities and decide which one(s) to pursue? Answer: This question identifies the job rewards that each student values. Some students will mention money, a desirable location, the opportunity to learn, opportunities for career advancement, a prestigious company name, the opportunity to travel, and the culture of the company. The variety of answers reinforces the need for a job rewards analysis and for customizing a recruiter’s “pitch” to best appeal to different candidates. 4. If supervisors and job incumbents disagreed about the relative importance of various job duties, how would you reconcile their conflicting opinions? For example, if a supervisor emphasized the technical aspects of a customer service representative’s job and the representatives emphasized the interpersonal aspects of listening to customers and understanding their problems, what would you do? Answer: Answers can illustrate the research finding that incumbents know best what is done on the job, but supervisors are best at judging what is important. Some students may prefer to trust the supervisors’ opinions, but others may correctly argue that employee opinion is also valuable and should be incorporated as well. Because supervisors are responsible for what their subordinates do and for the outcomes of their subordinates’ work, anchoring on the supervisor ratings and adjusting them using incumbents’ ratings is usually best. To reconcile conflicting opinions, I’d start by conducting a job analysis involving both supervisors and incumbents to identify and prioritize key job duties based on actual data. I’d then facilitate a meeting to discuss the findings and negotiate a balanced approach that integrates both technical and interpersonal aspects, ensuring alignment with overall job objectives and performance metrics. 5. Some jobs change so rapidly that companies do not feel that job analysis is appropriate because by the time one is done it’s already outdated. What advice would you give such a company to help them get the benefits a job analysis has to offer without wasting unnecessary time and resources doing a traditional job analysis? Answer: A traditional job analysis is always best and is the most legally defensible. If time and resources don’t allow for a full job analysis, coming as close as possible should be the goal. Using the job analysis process outlined in the chapter but not using as many job experts or going into as much detail can help companies realize many of the benefits of job analysis, although the legal defensibility of subsequent hiring decisions is not as strong as it would be if a more thorough job analysis is conducted. Conducting job analyses for families of related jobs or regularly reviewing and editing existing job analyses can also save time. EXERCISES 1. Strategy Exercise: Imagine that you are a staffing specialist in Vroom, a 10-year old company that manufactures toy cars. The cars are high quality and receive a premium price. Workers assemble pieces of the cars by hand on an assembly line. Some of the assemblers are great at what they do, but others have trouble keeping up and tend to slow the line down. Vroom wants to keep its labor costs as low as possible. However, it is willing to invest in assessment systems to evaluate job candidates and help it identify the most promising candidates to hire. You believe that your staffing system for the assemblers could be improved so there’s less performance variability among them. Unfortunately, it has been 10 years since the last job analysis was done for the position, and many of the tools and assembly methods have changed. After asking for money to use in conducting an updated job analysis on the assembler position, your CEO asks you to justify your request. Using what you have learned in this chapter, write a one-page report convincing your CEO to invest the money in the job analysis project and describing what resources you would need to do it. Answer: Answers should integrate the company’s business strategy of differentiation and the importance of maintaining product quality. The improved legal defensibility of hiring decisions could be mentioned, but the CEO’s interest is likely to be stimulated more by explaining how job analysis can improve hiring quality and thus product quality, and improve the consistency of the people hired. Although it does cost money to do a job analysis, the investment is likely to generate a meaningful financial return by decreasing the number of ineffective workers hired and increasing the quality of hires, which is critical to Vroom’s business strategy. 2. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Working in a group of three to four students, perform a job rewards analysis on the job one of your group members holds (or has held). Use the questionnaire in this chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature as part of your analysis. Summarize your analysis in a job rewards matrix. Then apply the results and describe the type of potential job applicant to which each reward might appeal. Answer: Answers vary with the job, but the job rewards identified could include pay, benefits, the opportunity to develop skills or lead others, and working with fun people. Another reward might be the opportunity to share what students know with others. Many seasoned and retired executives value speaking to classes or teaching courses to share some of what they have learned during their career and could find this type of reward appealing. To perform a job rewards analysis, we first used the questionnaire to gather data on various rewards associated with the job. We summarized our findings in a job rewards matrix, categorizing rewards into intrinsic, extrinsic, and social types. We then matched these rewards to potential job applicants: intrinsic rewards appeal to those seeking personal growth, extrinsic rewards attract those motivated by financial and material benefits, and social rewards are ideal for candidates valuing teamwork and recognition. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Using the web browser of your choice, identify two poorly written and two well written job descriptions. What makes the better job descriptions more effective? Now choose one of the weaker job descriptions and rewrite it to be more effective. Feel free to assume anything you need to about the job and organization to make these changes (but be realistic). Answer: Student responses differ depending on the job descriptions they find. The better job descriptions are often described as containing more information about the job as well as useful information about the company and its culture. More information about the type of candidate being sought is also seen favorably. When students rewrite the job descriptions it is a good idea to look out for an overselling of the job or organization—the information should be accurate and realistic while giving job seekers enough information to assess their fit with the job, unit, and organization. The role of employer branding often comes up in this exercise as well. Effective job descriptions are clear, specific, and include key details like responsibilities, required skills, and company culture. Poorly written descriptions are often vague or overly generic. For example, a weak description might read: "Responsibilities include various tasks." A revised version could be: "Responsibilities include managing daily operations, coordinating team activities, and ensuring project deadlines are met. Must have strong organizational skills and experience in project management. Join our dynamic team where innovation and collaboration are highly valued." 4. Opening Vignette Exercise: The opening vignette describes MITRE’s effort to develop a competency model for its systems engineers. As explained in the vignette, systems engineering is a broad discipline requiring a variety of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics. Performing a job analysis or developing a competency model for this type of job requires using different methods than would doing the same for a more static, lower-skilled job such as a cashier or mail sorter. Your assignment for this exercise is to describe how you would conduct a job analysis or create a competency model differently for these two types of jobs. How would the process differ? Would you use different sources of information? Answer: A job analysis for a more static job could rely on traditional job analysis methods such as the PAQ or a structured questionnaire method and be fairly accurate. Systems engineering would likely require a competency based job analysis, and include more interviews and critical incidents to fully assess the job and person requirements. The more static job might rely more exclusively on incumbents and their supervisors whereas the systems engineering position might include other experts in the organization who understand the impact of this job and its role in the company. CASE STUDY Imagine that you are the recruiting manager for RTMM Inc., a software development company. You have had trouble persuading top candidates to join your firm because it is not yet well-known. You have attracted a sufficient number of qualified candidates, but too many of them are turning down your job offers and accepting opportunities with your competitors. Based on your conversations with job candidates, you think that the key to increasing your job offer acceptance rate is to enhance candidates’ understanding of the company and its value proposition. To thoroughly identify the benefits of the job and of working for RTMM, you conducted focus groups with your current software engineers to learn what they valued about their jobs and about the company. This is the job rewards matrix you created through these focus groups: Reward Amount Differential Stability Annual bonus $18,000 average $0–$40,000 depending on company and individual performance Availability is based on company performance 401(k) 9% of base salary Same for all workers after 1 year of service Stable Development opportunities Depends on the project and skills used Differs by need and by job performance level Company annually invests at least $3,000 per employee in its formal training program Promotion opportunities Promotion rate averages 3 years Minimum of 2 years required for promotion; 50% are never promoted Varies according to company needs and individual performance Autonomy Above average Based on skills and job performance Stable Task variety Above average Same for all employees Stable Fun culture Above average Same for all employees Stable Your assignment is to identify the types of people who might be attracted to this opportunity, and to write a one-page letter to a hypothetical job offer recipient named Keisha Jackson, persuading her to accept the competitive job that you previously offered. Answer: People who like performance-based pay and who value doing a variety of things would be likely to find this opportunity appealing. The skill development and promotion opportunities would also be appealing to ambitious people. The opportunity to be a part of a smaller company rather than a large, bureaucratic one could also appeal to many people, especially if the smaller company was stable and/or growing. The letter to Keisha Jackson should highlight the job’s task variety, development opportunities, promotion opportunities, and bonus, as well as the company’s fun culture. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT Perform a job or competency analysis on the job as it exists now and as it will look in the near future. Summarize your findings in a job requirements matrix. Identify which qualifications are essential and which are desirable in new hires. Also do a job rewards analysis and summarize it in a job rewards matrix. Who might find the rewards offered by the job and organization attractive? These insights will help you complete the assignment in Chapter 6. “McDonald’s People Vision,” McDonald’s Corporation, http://www.rmhc.org/corp/values/ppromise/people_vision.html. Accessed July 10, 2006. “McDonald’s People Promise,” McDonald’s Corporation, http://www.rmhc.org/corp/values/ppromise/people_promise.html. Accessed July 10, 2006. “McDonald’s Commitment to Our Employees,” McDonald’s Corporation, http://www.rmhc.org/corp/values/ppromise/our_commitment.html. Accessed July 10, 2006. 4 Moore, D., Landa, A., and Nelson, S., “I-O Psychologists’ Roles in HR Systems,” Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, July 2001, http://siop.org/tip/backissues/TipJul01/17barney.aspx. Accessed July 10, 2006. 5 “World Class Service,” http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/franchising/us_franchising/ why_mcdonalds/world_class_service.html. Accessed September 17, 2010. 6 Fuller, G., “The Burger Meister: McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook’s View from the Top,” Personnel Today, October 10, 2006. http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2006/10/10/37557/the-burger-meister-mcdonalds-ceo-steve-easterbrooksview-from-the-top.html. Accessed September 17, 2010. Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, Available online at: http://www.uniformguidelines.com/uniformguidelines.html, Section 4(D). Based on Kucler, D.G., “Interview Questions: Legal or Illegal?, workforce.com, available online at: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/23/74/index.php. Accessed July 25, 2010; KFDS General Assistance Center, “Legal/Illegal Interview Questions,” Office of Human Resources Management, University at Albany, available online at: http://hr.albany.edu/content/legalqtn.asp; “Legal Issues in Employment Interviewing,” University of Kansas Medical Center, Equal Opportunity Office, available online at: http://www.kumc.edu/eoo/interview.html; See also Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424 (1971). “Diversity & Inclusion”, Pfizer, 2013, http://www.pfizer.ca/en/careers/great_colleagues/diversity_inclusion/ Pfizer, “Diversity and Inclusion,” Pfizer Annual Review 2011, 2011, https://www.pfizer.com/investors/financial_reports/annual_reports/2011/diversity-inclusion.jsp “Pfizer Turns Around its Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives,” Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology, December 2009/January 2010, http://www.diversitycareers.com/articles/pro/09-decjan/dia_pfizer.html. Grutter v. Bollinger (02-241) 539 U.S. 306 (2003) 288 F.3d 732. Mathiason, G.G., The plus factor. Workforce Management, August 2004, p. 14. Mathiason, G.G., The plus factor. Workforce Management, August 2004, p. 14. Segal, J.A., “Diversity: Direct or Disguised?” HR Magazine, October 2003, 48(10), available online at: http://www.shrm.org/Publications/hrmagazine/EditorialContent/Pages/legaltrends1003segal.aspx. Solution Manual for Strategic Staffing Jean M. Phillips, Stan M. Gully 9780133571769
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