INCIDENT - A Degree for Meter Readers
Judy Anderson was assigned as a recruiter for South Illinois Electric Company (SIE), a small supplier of natural gas and electricity for Cairo, Illinois, and the surrounding area. The company had been expanding rapidly, and this growth was expected to continue. In January 2014, SIE purchased the utilities system sewing neighboring Mitchell County. This expansion concerned Judy. The company workforce had increased by 30 percent the previous year, and Judy had struggled to recruit enough qualified job applicants. She knew that new expansion would intensify the problem.
Judy was particularly concerned about meter readers. The tasks required in meter reading are relatively simple. A person drives to homes served by the company, finds the gas or electric meter, and electronically records its current reading. If the meter has been tampered with, it is reported. Otherwise, no decision making of any consequence is associated with the sib. The reader performs no calculations. The pay was $10.00 per hour, high for unskilled work in the area. Even so, Judy had been having considerable difficulty keeping the 37 meter reader positions filled.
Judy was thinking about how to attract more job applicants when she received a call from the human resource director, Sam McCord. "Judy," Sam said, 'I'm unhappy with the job specification calling for only a high school education for meter readers. In planning for the future, we need better-educated people in the company. I've decided to change the education requirement for the meter reader job from a high school diploma to a college degree."
"But, Mr. McCord,' protested Judy, "the company is growing rapidly If we are to have enough people to fill those jobs we just can't insist that college graduates get paid to do such basic tasks. I don't see how we can meet our future needs for this job with such an unrealistic job qualification."
Sam terminated the conversation abruptly by saying, -No. I don't agree. We need to upgrade all the people in our organization. This is just part of a general effort to do that. Anyway I cleared this with the president before I decided to do it."
Questions
1. Should there be a minimum education requirement for the meter reader job? Discuss.
2. What is your opinion of Sam's effort to upgrade the people in the organization?
3. What legal ramifications, if any, should Sam have considered?
4. Based on the information provided in this incident, what tasks would likely be included in the "Duties Performed' section? How would this affect the job specification section?