Communication as an Important Element of a Business - Case Study Example

?Introduction In the business world it is important to have coordination between the different departments of an organization. Communication is an extremely important element of a successfully run corporation. The reason communication is so important is because businesses are made up of people (Blalock, 2006). Carl Robbins is the campus recruiter at ABC Inc. He has been working for the company for six months, but his first recruiting efforts was just starting. In April Carl Robbins successfully recruited a class of promising students. Mr. Robbins assumed that the human resource process would go smoothly, but he was met with a variety of issues. Issues After he recruited the class of students in April Carl Robbins had to perform a series of human resource activities to incorporate the recruits into the company. The activities included training schedule, orientation, manuals, policy booklets, physicals, and drug tests among other issues. Carl gave his word to the operations supervisor, Monica Carrols, that everything would be ready on time. By June 15th when Carl verified the paperwork some of the new recruits did not have their transcripts of file or their applications completed. None of the recruits had taken the mandatory drug test and the employee manuals were incomplete. The use of mandatory drug testing helps create a safer working environment (Sofsian, 2011). Another issue was that the room Carl separated for training was being used by the IT department for the entire month. Carl had double booked the room. Alternative Solutions Carl Robbins created a lot of problems due to his inability to coordinate activities correctly. Coordination is very important in order to achieve business goals (Blurit). Carl should have planned things out better and if he needed help it was his responsibility to ask for more resources to be assigned to his department such as a personal assistant. Based on the circumstances an alternative solution could be to cancel the recruiting efforts. This option would eliminate the problems of the recruited employees not being ready for work at the June deadline. A disadvantage of that option is that it would make Carl look bad in the eyes of the other executives of the company. Carl could do some damage control explaining that the IT department took away his ability to train the new employees. ABC Inc. needs the influx of new labor in order to comply with their needs. Due to the mess with the recruited employees the company could fire Carl Robbins from his position. Employers should follow precise steps when firing employees to avoid wrongful termination legal problems (Urgentbusinessforms, 2011). Based on that option the company would lose a recruiter that was trained by the company six months ago. The option would place all the blame of the problem in the hands of Carl Robbins. The option would establish that ABC inc. is not tolerant of administrative incompetence. A problem with this option is that the company would not receive the new labor requirement it needs on time. The company already has a group of excellent college recruits that the firm needs to provide an influx of youth and potential to the company. A third alternative solution is to give Carl Robbins more time to take care of the human resource tasks that Carl was unable to complete on time. In order to ensure that Carl does not mess up again in this process the company should assign a special task force to oversee the progress of Carl. The task force can be composed of one to three human resource specialists. These human resource specialists would work in alliance with Carl to get all the things that need to get done on time. The special task force would only oversee Carl’s recruiting efforts work for this first round of recruiting. In the future once Carl receives the proper training to perform the job himself Carl would work independently in his recruiting efforts. Carl Robbins recruited a group of college recruits that had excellent credential to fulfill the human resource needs of ABC Inc. of obtaining more labor for its operations. The company already invested thousands of dollars in this recruiting effort and more importantly months of recruiting work to identify the best candidates. College recruiting efforts cost are very costly business initiatives (Ere, 2010). Based on the current scenario Carl messed up and the recruits won’t be ready on time. An alternative solution is to hire temporary employees for a period of two to three months in order to give Carl more time to prepare his team of new recruits. In order to hire the new recruits the company would hire a temporary placement agency. The temporary employees would receive one week training. During the two of three months of the temporary employee initiative Carl Robbins would be given the chance to properly train and transition the new recruiting class into the corporate culture of ABC Inc. At the end of the two to three month period the temporary employees would be replaced by the Carl Robbins recruiting class. ABC Inc. is depending on the new recruiting class to be ready by July. Based on the company’s human resource requirement these employees were supposed to be ready by that timeline. The college recruits have the knowledge and capabilities to do the job they were hired to perform. An alternative solution for the company is to have the new employees working by July without receiving the training and other human resource requirements that the company normally follows. The company would implement an alternative plan that would enable the new employees to receive the training and other materials within 60 days after starting their jobs. The training which is one of the most important aspects could be given in a two week period while the employees work by using an online learning mechanism. Optimal solution There were five alternative solutions identified to deal with the problem. The cancel the recruiting efforts was not selected because this option does not allow the firm to receive the new labor force they need. The company would lose all the recruiting time and the candidates that were identified in the process. The second option of firing Carl Robbins was also not selected because this option damages the administrative team of the company and it disregards the recruiting effort Carl had performed. It is very possible the Carl might have recruited an excellent round of employees. Since Carl is a new employee it would be wise to give Carl Robbins a chance to prove himself. The option of selecting temporary employees to be replaced by the recruiting class was not selected because these temporary employees could be very inefficient workers since they do not have the proper training and because they do not have any incentive to produce since they know they are going to be fired in two to three months. The option of starting the recruiting employees without proper documentation and training was also rejected because this option places the firm at risk. The new workers due to their lack of training could pose a safety risk for the rest of the workers. The optimum solution that was selected was to give Carl Robbins more time to complete all the human resource requirements for new employees while at the same time assigning a HR task force to oversee his work. This is the best option because the firm already invested a lot of time and money in Carl Robbins and his recruiting class. The new task force could accelerate the process so that the new recruits can enter the work force faster. Also the task force will train Carl so that in the future he can better handle the responsibilities associated with recruiting a group of new employees. Conclusion ABC Inc. hired Carl Robbins to become its college recruiter. During the early stages of his employment the company did not monitor adequately the work performed by Mr. Robbins. The first recruiting efforts Carl performed were full of issues because he did not plan out his duties associated with the recruiting efforts efficiently. The training room incident showed that there was a lack of coordination across the organization. The alternative solution that was chosen to deal with the problem was to give Carl Robbins more time and to create a task force to monitor the recruiting efforts. It was better not to overreact to the situation and to give Carl a chance to prove his value to the enterprise. References Blalock, M. (2006). Why Good Communication is Good Business. Wisconsin Business Alumni. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.bus.wisc.edu/update/winter05/business_communication.asp Blurit.com. What are the Importance of Coordination? Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.blurtit.com/q776908.html Ere.net (2008). College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.ere.net/webinars/college-recruiting-on-a-shoestring-budget.asp Sofsian, D. (2011). The Importance of Employee Drug Testing. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Employee-Drug-Testing&id=74361 Urgentbusinessforms.com (2011). Employee Termination Forms – 2011. Retrieved April 15, 2011 from http://www.urgentbusinessforms.com/employee-termination-forms.asp Read More