This is a management in$-$basket exercise that asks you to assess four employees and help them with

career management issues.

You are the Human Resource manager in a branch of a corporation that designs, sells, and publishes

customized business publications for a variety of businesses in the Midwest. Your facility is one of six

across the country. As one of the largest employers in a somewhat rural area along an interstate your

organization values retention and is always more interested in promoting from within than going

outside to recruit talent.

A new corporate initiative called Career Conversations was just developed to retain employees and to

make better use of their talents. For the first time, employees were asked to submit career

management forms, describing their career goals and what they thought they needed to do to achieve

them. As expected, employees were unfamiliar with the process and so their answers were pretty

sketchy. These forms, along with performance appraisal summaries for the employees had been

forwarded to the corporate office for review. In the future, supervisors will be trained to use this

material to discuss career planning with their employees.

In addition, a pilot program was announced $($Leverage Talent$)$ to offer special incentives and

opportunities to employees to increase their value to the organization and to retain them.

Today you received a packet of information from the Corporate HR Director. It identified four of the

employees at your facility as eligible for the Leverage Talent program, and included a description of the

additional company resources that would be made available to you. It also included: their career

management forms, performance appraisal summaries, notes by their current supervisors, and career

paths within the organization that might be appropriate for each person, along with expected job

openings in the future.

For your midterm examination, you will decide how to spend your allotted Leverage Talent budget for

these four employees, and will describe how you would conduct a career conversation with each

person.

This should include:

$1.$ A plan for working with the employee to identify current competencies and potential

competencies that may not be reflected on their career management form. Offer evidence

from their performance evaluations and supervisory comments.

$2.$ Work with the employee to identify current need areas that will need to be addressed to move

forward, particularly those reflected on their own career management form.

$3.$ Introduce the career paths that they might consider and resources that would be available.

Refer to the O$*$Net job descriptions to explain the jobs and needed competencies. Although

they need to choose for themselves, what would you tell them to inform their choice?

$4.$ Finally describe how you would allocate the resources available for their development for each

employee. What additional resources would you recommend that the organization provide in

the future to help them continue to develop?

Your final product should be a five to seven page document.

II$.$ The Employees

A$.$ Chris Tollefson is a recent college graduate in Business Administration, age $21,$ who joined the

company six months ago. He just completed the company$$s pre$-$supervisory training, and is

working as a team coordinator in the packing department. He is planning a wedding for the

summer.

B$.$ Jeanine Gonzales is a single mother with a high school education, age $28,$ who has been working

for the company for $5$ years. She has voluntarily completed a number of Word Processing and

spreadsheet training programs online, and has been very helpful instructing the other office

employees in these skills. She is classified currently as a typist III, but because of her company

experience she often takes over when the office manager is gone, and she is very good in

resolving customer problems on the phone.

C$.$ George Fuller is a widower with a high school education, age $64,$ who has worked for the

company for $40$ years. George has turned down management positions in the past$$first when

his children were at home and he was an active Little League coach, and later, when his wife had

a lingering illness. George is technically a production expediter, but most people would tell you

that George is the one everyone goes to when they need help because of his vast knowledge

about how the production process works. You worry about what will happen when George

retires.

D$.$ Sarah Sunheim is a $22$ year old single woman and self$-$proclaimed free spirit. She has a high

school education, and has worked for the company for $4$ years as one of the few female forklift

drivers. Sarah$$s attendance record had been a little spotty in her first few years, but in the past

year she has not missed a day of work. She attributes this to her new focus on healthy living.

$*$Please refer to the documents on the following pages

The Leverage Talent Cover Letter: