Carl Robins Case Study Essay Example for Free

Carl Robins Case Study Essay The position of campus recruiter for a company is one of importance. The recruiter is the person who makes sure the company has access to the best candidates available. The first order of business for any recruiter is to set up job fairs, develop a list of possible candidates, and conduct on-campus interviews of those applicants. There are many skills needed by a campus recruiter, and for someone that is new to the position, training and guidance are keys to successfully learning the necessary skills that will help prevent or solve issues in a satisfactory manner. In April, ABC, Inc. decided they were in need of new employees, ones that could be ready to work by July. Carl Robins, the new campus recruiter for the company, is in charge of finding the necessary people. He successfully hired 15 new people to work for the Operations Supervisor, Monica Carrolls. Carl had six to eight weeks to coordinate the necessary activities, so that the new hires could begin working by July. Despite prompting from Monica, Carl did not realize the amount of effort required to set up the large training session required for the quantity of people he had coming for orientation. If Carl had thought to use a timeline for specific tasks, or even written a list of all requirements waiting for completion, he could have avoided the frustration and confusion he encountered. Carl Robins has been at his job for only six months and is excited by the success of his first recruitment effort. Unfortunately, Carl had no guidance to know exactly what tasks needed prompt completion to ensure that the new employees would be ready to start work on time. Monica Carrolls contacted Carl on May 15, and tried to guide him in the right direction by asking if he had all the necessary tasks organized – completed paperwork and drug tests, orientation manuals, policy booklets, and training space reserved. Carl assured her that things were running smoothly and would be ready on time, and that she would have all of her new employees when needed. It is hard to tell, based on the information  given, if Carl was over-confident or just did not realize the urgency required to get things completed on a timely schedule. Because of procrastination and his lack of skill, Carl has found several problems that managed to sneak up on him. There are several key issues facing Carl that need some serious attention. Due to the lack of proper time management, Carl has lost at least a month worth of time in which to get things organized. When Carl started to finalize all the necessary paperwork, he discovered several disturbing problems. One main responsibility for any campus recruiter is to â€Å"ensure that all required paperwork is completed appropriately during the interview process: applications for employment, indexes, and appropriate authorizations† (C.E., 2010). As he started to look through all the applicants’ paperwork, Carl discovered that many applications were incomplete, others were missing transcripts, and none of the new hires had completed drug testing. When he went to look at the necessary orientation manuals, he could not find one complete book, only three books with various pages missing. He then discovered that the training room was already booked for the entire month of June, so that Joe could conduct the computer training seminars. The first task that Carl needs to complete is all the incomplete applications and missing transcripts. He needs to contact the applicants to get the necessary missing information, and contact the college campus to get a rush on all the missing transcripts. The second task needing completion is the mandatory drug testing for all 15 people. Carl should know the company policy concerning the drug testing and should be aware of where the employees need to go to get the testing done. Carl was responsible for letting the applicants know â€Å"the circumstances under which testing will be required†¦ as part of a pre-employment screening, a random screening, as part of an incident investigation and reasonable suspicion† (Brown, 2010, pg. 2). As part of his job requirements, Carl needs to get all 15 people scheduled for testing immediately, so there will be no issues, legal or otherwise, by the time orientation starts. The third and fourth issues go hand-in-hand. Carl has to find a complete manual that he can get copies printed from, and find an available meeting room in which to conduct the orientation, since he did not reserve the training room early enough. For the manuals, he has two options to pursue. The first would be to contact the human resources department to see if there is a digital copy  available to take to a print shop, which would be the most cost-effective method. Otherwise, he will have to try to piece together one complete manual from the three incomplete ones he found. This option is more time consuming, for him and the print shop, because they have to deal with individual pages. Without knowing the exact process used at a print shop, the reader has to make assumptions that printing from a digital copy is easier than scanning individual pages into a computer before printing. As for the meeting room, even though Joe beat him to the ‘official’ training room, many companies have conference rooms large enough to hold a sizeable group of people. If ABC, Inc. does not have a conference room large enough, the only other option is to look at renting an outside meeting room. Many restaurants and hotels have rooms available for fairly decent prices, and even some local banks tend to have meeting rooms available, free for use by just about anybody. By having the issues sufficiently identified, along with some options to correct them, the first recommendation is for Carl to receive complete training for the job he needs to do. If he had been aware from the start of the amount of effort required in hiring a large group of people, and the activities required to get everything set up for orientation, Carl would have realized that he needed to be more aggressive in his efforts. Proper training would have shown him that applications had to be complete before the campus interview, and â€Å"following the campus interview, transcripts should be requested for all [new hires]†¦ preferably before the recruiters leave campus† (Indiana, 2011, pg. 1). Carl could have avoided the first issue completely, just by having all applications and transcripts complete before he offered jobs to the applicants. The second recommendation is to improve communications between Carl and the other departments, especially the human resources department. Better communication will help alleviate the other problems because the department heads could help Carl design an appropriate timeline for task completion. They could also have informed him that others would need access to the training room, giving him ample time to make other arrangements if necessary. By talking to other recruiters within the company – if there are any – Carl would have had access to the knowledge the others could have contributed. A more experienced recruiter could act as a mentor for Carl, showing him the exact processes used to coordinate all the required  activities. This would have helped Carl get things done in a timely manner. A third recommendation to help ease the burden on Carl, until he is well trained and completely comfortable with his job, is for him to focus on recruiting smaller groups of people at one time. A large group is too much for a new person to handle at one time. Many companies would rather have smaller groups of well-trained individuals than a large group that knows only the basics. This ultimately saves money on training costs while preventing the possibility of on-the-job accidents due to incomplete training. Because Carl had been at his job for only six months, he did not have a good grasp on the skills required by a campus recruiter, and this is what led to his frustration. To be an effective recruiter, Carl needs to develop these skills quickly, especially those pertaining to â€Å"strong time management, follow-through, and organizational skills, [along with] the ability to multi-task, resolve problems, and determine an appropriate course of action in a timely manner† (C.E., 2010). A mentor to oversee his training would have helped Carl recognize the areas he needed help in, thereby preventing any issues with incomplete paperwork, no manuals, and the lack of training space. Even though Carl faced many issues with his first recruitment effort, critical thinking and calm reasoning will allow him to learn from his mistakes, so that his next effort shows serious improvement. References Brown, A. (2010, April). Employee Drug Testing: Implement Policy to Save Money, Manage Risk. Alaska Business Monthly. Vol. 4, Article 21. Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Alaska+Business+Monthly/2010/April/1-p5643 C.E. (2010). What is a Corporate Recruiter Job Description? Retrieved from http://www.constructionexecutive.com/article_details/1691/What-is-a-Corporate-Recruiter-Job-Description.html â€Å"Campus Recruiter Responsibilities.† June 2011. Indiana University, 16 Sept. 2012. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/HRMwebsite/hrm/articles/recruit/response.pdf,