Rock Blocks is a concrete manufacturing company. The company has been in busines

Question

Rock Blocks is a concrete manufacturing company. The company has been in business for over 60 years, and furnishes concrete blocks for building and landscape use. The company is owned and operated by the third generation of the founding family and has over 600 employees. Customer demand for the company’s products is growing, but Rock Blocks is having difficulty attracting and hiring enough manufacturing talent to keep up with demand. The company typically posts openings for its specialty positions on internet sites including Monster.com and on its own careers site, but the quality and quantity of applicants has been falling in recent years. Company president Roy Hanby explains that, “concrete manufacturing isn’t a popular career choice. Unless someone has family or a friend working in the industry, it can be hard to convince them of the potential of the job.” Hanby explains that starting salaries and career growth potential are high, and many employees feel proud having made something that many people will see and use and that will be around for a long time.

Questions:

1. How can Rock Blocks increase the number of people that apply with the company? How can realistic job previews be used to increase interest?

2. Why do you think that potential applicants might not be enthusiastic about the idea of applying for jobs with Rock Blocks? What can recruiters do to change these perceptions?

Explanation / Answer

(1)

First of all, the company should work towards increasing the application base. This can be done by conducting the recruitment activities in several channels simultaneously. Innovative and new channels will include social media, word of mouth, internal employee pool and so on. Some other forms of channels are the feedback websites such as Glassdoor and Yelp. If realistic job previews (RJP) are followed, the jobs posted with match exactly with the experience faced by the existing employees occupying the position. When new applicants verify the incumbent employee feedback with the jobs that are posted (note that this is very easy nowadays as the employees can give feedback anonymously through some websites like Glassdoor), they will feel confident and if the requirement and features match their needs, they will definitely apply. Moreover, word-of-mouth promotion of these jobs will have a more evolved effect in the job market.

(2)

Note the industry is manufacturing and then within that, it is concrete manufacturing. This makes the jobs unattractive due to the feeling of hecticness at prima facie. Coupled to this remains the fear of downfall of the infrastructure industry in recession and a slow turnaround thereafter. The clarity that the country will need more and more infrastructure in the future just to serve the public and hence there is a potential change of perpetuating growth and prosperity is not evident is the applicant's mind. This has to be built up by making the job postings transparent, informative, and relevant. Furthermore, the recruiters should direct the application process always through their career webpage where they can post the communication from the existing employees/ senior managers regarding the potential future prosperity. A short text or video files can be uploaded there to reflect on these aspects.

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