HR human resource planning and recruitment

Case study No 2: A Selection Challenge Summary Mary Herzen felt lucky to be hired for the supervisory position in the Patient Services Department at Northside Hospital. She had lost a similar job at Central Hospital three months earlier. Chris Sapiros was Mary's boss and had conducted the selection process. It took him five months to fill the position as a result of the internal job-announcement and job-interviewing procedures. Two employees in the Patient Services Department had applied for the supervisory job: Juanita Ramirez, 32, who had been in the department for eight years, and Sue Williamson, 26, who had less experience. Both were rejected because they were not seen as strong enough to be promoted. Chris told Mary about this when he met with her on Mary's first day on the job. He suggested that Juanita might be a problem and told Mary to handle it the way she saw best. He then took her to the department, introduced her to the staff, and left her to settle in. Later that day, Mary held meetings with each of her new employees. The meeting with Juanita turned out as predicted: She was defensive, uncommunicative, and noncommittal. For example, Mary wanted to learn what Juanita's job duties were, but could not get adequate replies. Finally, in exasperation, Juanita began arguing that it was Mary's job to tell Juanita what to do. Mary replied that they would have problems if this was as well as they were going to communicate. Juanita then told Mary that she had not been promoted because she was Hispanic, and accused the hospital of discrimination. She began to cry and said she was not going to answer any more questions. CASE QUESTIONS 1. Should Chris have informed Mary about the internal applicants before offering Mary the job? 2. Was meeting with each employee as part of Mary's orientation a good idea? 3. Evaluate the agenda Mary used. How could it be im- proved? 4. How should Mary respond to the issues Juanita is raising