Case 5.1 Under- or Overhanging the Hiring Process *

The name and location of the business have been altered.

Nelsons Equipment Rental is a multigenerational equipment rental business. They offer construction equipment rentals for larger commercial construction jobs in and around the state. The owners were two brothers, Jerry and Nick, who had taken over the business from their father when he retired. They were in need of an assistant project manager to join their staff to handle all the paperwork involved with moving their equipment from their base of operation to each job location. They had been trying to handle this task on their own, but as a mid-sized operation, they did not have a great deal of human resources experience. Their strong suits were operational and customer based.

Through a business consultant, they were introduced to a recruiting firm as a possible way to take the pressure of finding a suitable candidate to move their business forward. They had never used an outside vendor to help recruit someone. In their limited management experience, they had not heard positive feedback on paying someone to do a job they thought they could do. Their business consultant put some of their fears to rest, and an initial discovery meeting was held between Jerry, Nick, and Gina from the recruiting firm. They discussed the role, the company history, and what they were looking for with regard to skills and experience. The meeting was fairly quick, and Gina assured them she would work on finding appropriate candidates as quickly as possible.

As Gina reviewed their job advertisement, most of the elements were clear and concise related to what they were seeking. She made some adjustments, presented a revised version of the advertisement to Jerry and Nick, and after discussion, they were ready to move forward.

Gina placed the posting on some Internet-based job boards, as well as with some local recruiting centers (i.e., local workforce solutions and chamber of commerce). Within a few days, she was able to screen and filter out some contenders for the role. Excited with her results, she presented the three candidate resumes, along with a summary of skills and experience related to what Jerry and Nick had asked for.

Both men liked what they saw, and interviews were conducted. After the initial interviews, Gina met with both men to discuss the outcome. It took another week, but they were eventually able to connect via phone and decide that two of the three candidates demonstrated considerable value. Then, the unexpected occurred. Jerry asked if Gina had performed a communication/personality assessment for this and the other candidates. It caught her off guard since this was the first time one was mentioned. Jerry went on to say that some of their leadership (supervisors, foremen, etc.) had also taken these tests as part of their prehire assessments. She informed them that none of the candidates had, but she could turn those results around for the remaining candidates. Upon doing so, one of the candidates withdrew (feeling they were taking too long). When she completed the evaluation with the final candidate, she circled back with both and shared the results.

The additional information provided indicated the candidate (Sue) could come across a bit assertive but demonstrated a strong can-do attitude and had great soft skills related to communicating with customers. It further suggested that Sue liked to have information related to what she was working on so she could effectively complete and produce results with minimal interruption to the workflow. As Gina discussed this with them, Jerry indicated this was a negative for him. He wanted someone operationally minded and less warm and fuzzy, but Nick liked the sound of it, as he was mainly involved in customer interactions and felt this would bring great value to them in the long run. They then asked for additional information about Sue and for more candidates to consider, which prolonged the process. Gina went back to her office, followed up with Sue on the remaining items, and spent some time seeking more candidates. She was a bit concerned that Jerry and Nick were not on the same page with who and what they wanted to hire for, even though they were pretty clear about skills and experience. In the end, Gina had a difficult conversation with the two about identifying their needs and asked why the change of plans from one set of skills and experience to another. Sue clearly had the experience they wanted, but something was missing. In the end, Gina elected to step away from working with Nelson. She decided the two would not be able to agree upon what they needed, and until that time came, there was no candidate who would meet their changing needs.

1. Why did Gina decide to quit her job?

2. What was the problem with those Nelson brothers as co-owners of their firm?

3. If they had not hired Gina, what would have happened?