Reference no: EM132822105

HR Mini-Case 2-2: What's Their Job All About?

A student from the local community college was scheduled to meet with Jennifer Soto at 11 a.m. Jennifer had been asked by the college's faculty contact to make sure she discussed the project that was to be a central focus for the placement with the student. Jennifer had several ideas in mind when she agreed to take on a student placement. The company was in need of serious attention to its job analysis policy and procedures. Jennifer saw this as a win-win situation. Tiffany Mantillo was in her third year of studies in HR management at the college. She was eager to gain experience in the area of job analysis along with having an opportunity to practise her interviewing and analytical skills in a real work setting. The meeting with Jennifer gave her an opportunity to explore the possibility of gaining valuable experience, which Tiffany believed could help her to attain that all-important first professional job following graduation later that year. During the interview, Jennifer told Tiffany what steps the company, Belsize Kitchen Solutions, had taken in the last two months towards improving its job analysis programming. Tiffany was asked what she knew about this programming area. The student's answers impressed Jennifer, particularly the comment that job analysis should be seen as a "cornerstone for other HR programming." A week later, Jennifer contacted the college and confirmed that Tiffany was her choice for the placement. She also outlined that the focus of Tiffany's project work would be in the area of job analysis. There was some discussion about the course content Tiffany had taken prior to the placement. The college representative's answers made the Belsize manager feel comfortable in having Tiffany join the company's HR team. Tiffany had been asked to complete a tentative work plan that would accomplish what Belsize wished to do in the job analysis project. She carefully noted the strategic relevance of the project to the company's success along with a range of methods that could be used to collect job information from the various work groups in the company. She finally sent a detailed project timeline with check-in points to her placement supervisor. The concluding remark in her outline stated, "At the end of this project, any Belsize employee who participated in the job analysis project would say that they have no doubt what their job is all about."

Case written by: Gary L. Gannon, CHRP Program Coordinator & Professor School of Business, IT & Management Durham College 

1. Tiffany has decided to use an interview format to gather information from Belsize's sales staff. Identify two additional aspects of this job, beyond product knowledge and selling skills, which this student would want to investigate in her interview.