Assignment
Leaside Beverage Works Ltd. (LBW) is a rapidly growing producer of flavoured colas and ginger ales. They recently started exporting to the US and their sales volumes have begun to pick up even more. A year ago a new CEO, Amelia, was hired to manage this growth and she immediately created two new roles: a VP of sales and a director of manufacturing. Previously the VP of sales duties were performed by the former CEO. When the job of manufacturing director was created, Amelia hired an HR specialist to conduct a job analysis, which resulted in the following KSAOs being required: Bachelors degree in a relevant field; Minimum of ten years of experience in industrial management; Excellent verbal and written communication skills; Excellent organizational and managerial skills; Thorough understanding of the policies and practices used in the manufacturing division.
Amelia, in her haste to fill the two positions quickly, put the word out across her network and received about five strong referrals from people she respected. She had informal conversations with all five people referred to her and chose the two she instinctively felt were the best. While a key requirement for the job of VP of sales was to have extensive beverage industry experience and networks in this industry across North America, Amelia selected Rob from the automotive industry because he came highly recommended from a good friend who praised his sales track record. For the manufacturing director job Amelia picked Sera because they both graduated from the same top business school, had similar hobbies such as hiking and painting, and felt they would get along well together. Amelia, no stranger to hiring personnel during her 15-year career, has always made hiring decisions on this basis.
Rob embraced the chance to work at LBW as he looked forward to the new challenge of working in a different industry and to travel across the US. However he did not realize it would take so long to learn this new industry and to build new networks. By the end of the first six months, his department was quite far away from meeting sales targets, mainly because he had not yet gotten to know the key decision-makers in the companies placing large beverage orders.
On the other hand, Sera was able to get up to speed quickly in her new position. Like Amelia, she had a preference for working with those she had good relationships with in the past, and hired about ten people from her previous projects. She immediately placed three of them in the most senior positions on her team without seeing if there was anyone already at LBW who could do those jobs well. The remaining seven were placed either in the roles of packers or schedulers. According to the job descriptions, the only physical requirement for packers is to have the ability to stand for a seven hour shift with three breaks in between and to move bottles from the conveyer belt into boxes. For the schedulers, no physical requirements were identified.
The way all of these new employees were hired were a source of concern for Dennis, the VP of HR. Longtime employees were also coming to him with complaints about not being considered to for the more senior positions, despite their tenure and successful track record with LBW. This concern was amplified after seeing the results of a study he conducted of the demographic profile of LBW's workforce which showed the following:
I. Age: 24 years and less: 15%; 25 - 50 years: 65%; 51 years and older: 20%
II. Gender: 96% - identified as male; 4% - identified as female; 0% identified as other or non-binary
III. Qualifications: 34% have a college diploma, university degree or trades certification
IV. Cultural diversity: 20% - immigrants; 10% - visible minorities; no indigenous
No employees self-identified as having any physical disabilities nor had any ever filed requests for accommodations.
In this scenario,
I. Which one of the two selection approaches discussed did Amelia use? Provide specific examples from the scenario to explain your answer. And which one of the two selection approaches would you, as an HR professional, use and why?
II. Assume you were at LBW and were responsible for the hiring for the manufacturing director job. Based on the information provided in the scenario, list and describe two selection methods/assessments that you would choose to use and why. (Hint: aim for those whose validity co-efficient values are very beneficial)
III. When asked why she selected those particular seven candidates for the roles of packer and scheduler, Sera indicated that they met the BFOR requirements. (i) what does BFOR refer to? AND (ii) based on the scenario, is Sera justified in using BFOR as a reason for hiring these candidates? Explain
IV. (i) List and describe the "designated groups" identified in Canadian legislation. AND (ii) Which of these designated groups, if any, are missing from LBW's workforce?
V. (i) List and describe four "protected groups" according to human rights legislation in Canada, AND (ii) How are they different from "designated groups"?