solution

Recruiting
Recreational Vehicle Surveyors

Liberty Engineering
Company is located in a large suburb of Geveland, Ohio. The company was founded
during the 1940s and does a considerable amount of drafting and design work for
the major automotive companies and their suppliers. When sales in the auto
industry are high, Liberty Engineering experiences a significant volume of
work. However, when recessions hit the automotive marketplace, work at Liberty
also sharply decreases.

In an attempt to
stabilize revenues, the president of Liberty Engineering decided it would be
prudent to diversify the company by bidding on government contracts. The
company had little experience in these areas, but the president felt that this
would not preclude it from bidding on contracts and obtaining them.

Within a six-month
period, the company had bid on and lost two contracts. However, a third bid
pertaining to the safety and use of recreational vehicles proved to be
successful. The contract was for several hundred thousand dollars and was
granted on a cost-plus basis.

The government was
interested in obtaining information regarding how people actually use
recreational vehicles such as pick-up truck campers, motor homes, and various
kinds of camping trailers. Ultimately, the purpose of the study was to
determine what additional safety rules, if any, should be established relating
to the manufacture and use of recreational vehicles. Among the pieces of
information desired by the government were how much weight citizens place in
their recreational vehicles, what kinds of trailer hitches are in use, whether
recreational vehicles have proper suspension systems, and to what extent
citizens are aware of the safety features of their recreational vehicles.

In Liberty Engineering’s
proposal to the government, the company stated that it would recruit, select,
and train qualified individuals to survey over 1,000 recreational vehicles. The
surveying would be done at three different sites: in the desert, at the
seashore, and in the mountains. At a meeting with government officials, three
locations were selected: Lake Mead, Nevada; Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; and
Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee. Two other important decisions were
also made at the meeting. First, to ensure consistency of data collection, all
surveyors would be trained together at a campground at Smoky Mountains National
Park. Second, the employees would then be divided and sent to their respective
job sites. It was also decided that each survey crew would consist of one leader
and four surveyors, and that two crews would be sent to each data collection
site.

All responsibility for
recruiting and training the 30 employees (6 leaders and 24 surveyors) fell upon
the shoulders of Bob Getz, the new human resource director. Getz had worked as
a designer for Liberty Engineering for 20 years before being transferred to
human resources. At the same time that a project Getz had been working on for
two years ended, the then-current human resource director resigned, so he was a
logical choice. In addition, Getz was well-liked by most of Liberty’s older
employees and knew a great deal about the company’s policies and procedures.
Getz’s major shortcoming was that he knew little about staffing activities.

Before recruiting
potential job applicants, Getz knew that he would first need to develop a set
of job descriptions for all 30 employees. Since crews would be doing
essentially similar survey positions and that of the leader. Hence, he obtained
the list of data that was to be tasks into four job positions. Getz realized
that the job duties of each surveyor would collected on each vehicle,
determined the tasks required to collect the data, and divided the ultimately
need to be changed based on actual experience. Nonetheless, he sketched out the
following job descriptions

Surveyor 1 Take pictures
of recreational vehicle with a camera. Interview driver and record information
received

Surveyor II: Read and
record scale weights for each recreational vehicle tire. Take tire pressures
and measure tread depth. Record make, size, and air capacity of each tire.

Surveyor III: Unhook
trailer hitch, if present and record make of hitch, ball diameter, and whether
levelers are present. Determine type of suspension on recreational vehicle and
count number of leaf springs, if present

Surveyor IV: Stop
recreational vehicle as it enters campground, explain to driver the purpose of
the study, ask the driver to participate in study. When survey of recreational
vehicle is complete, discuss the findings with the driver

The leader’s
responsibilities would be to plan daily work activities, motivate the employ.
ees to do the surveying, complete all forms, and do occasional troubleshooting

With job descriptions in
hand, Getz met with Norm Larson, vice president of Liberty Engineering Company,
who was ultimately responsible for conducting the recreational vehicle surveys.
During the meeting Getz learned that all 30 employees were to meet at Smoky
Mountains National Park on June 10. They were to be trained on the job for four
days, and the company would provide them with lodging and food while they were
there. All employees were to provide their own transportation to the park, to
their subsequent job sites, and then back home. The company would pay them for
travel time but would not provide any mileage allowance, lodging, or food. Upon
arrival at the job site, employees would need to find accommodations for July
and August, and would receive no lodging or food allowance from the company
during their stay. Once work commenced at each job site, employees would be
responsible for providing their own transportation to and from the campground.

All employees were to be paid $11.15 per hour.
No vacation benefits, sick days, or other major benefits would be provided. The
company would, however, provide benefits mandated by law such as Social
Security and workers’ compensation. No one under the age of 18 would be hired
because of safety reasons.

After the meeting with
Larson, Getz decided he should check with the campground management at the different
job sites. He learned that most recreational vehicles leave campgrounds early
in the morning and enter late in the afternoon. Few arrive or depart between 10
and 4 pu In order to survey a maximum number of vehicles, crews would need to
work from 6 AM to 11 AM and from 3 to 8ps, a total of ten hours a day.
Therefore, each crew could work a four-day-on and a four-day-off schedule. Getz
was told that temperatures at Cape Hatteras would range between 65 and 95
degrees Fahrenheit, while at Lake Mead they would range between 85 and 115
degrees Fahrenheit. Neither of these locations would provide employees with any
shade, hence, employees at these sites would need to work in the sun and wear
uniforms, including hats. The Smoky Mountains National Park location would be
cooler Part than the others and surveying could be done in shaded areas. When
Getz asked the camp- ground managers whether they knew of any people who would
be interested in working on the survey project , their response was, “You’ve
got to be kidding.” The manager at Lake Mead campground flatly told Getz that
he could not conceive of any person being willing to drive from Lake Mead to
Tennessee and back under the conditions he outlined. He suggested that Getz put
a want ad in the Cleveland newspaper. After talking with the campground
managers, Getz was quite depressed. He knew that he had to hire 30 employees
within the next few weeks. He knew that six of them had to have sufficient
leadership skills to get the job done while not antagonizing the employees so
much that they would quit. He further realized that the 24 surveyors would have
to enjoy the outdoors and be willing to tolerate extreme heat. He realized,
too, that the ideal surveyor would be one who had above-average knowledge of
auto mechanics, legible handwriting, reasonable communication skills, and an
ability to work well with others under adverse conditions. What Getz did not
know was how he could recruit and hire 30 people who fit this to description.

ESTIONS

1. If you were Bob Getz,
how would you recruit the needed employees?

2. Evaluate the Lake
Mead campground manager’s suggestion that Getz recruit employees by placing a
want ad in the Cleveland newspaper

3. What should the firm
do if they are unable to recruit sufficient employees for the job?