Scenario: You are a project manager for Advancement Corporation, which specializ

Question

Scenario: You are a project manager for Advancement Corporation, which specializes in providing quality pharmaceuticals to doctors throughout the United States. The company has over 20,000 employees. It is critical that skilled scientists and technicians be hired to ensure the proper development of pharmaceuticals through clinical trials. It is absolutely essential for Advancement Corporation to continuously recruit, select, and train qualified personnel. A predatory executive search firm has convinced many of the leading scientists in the company (about 20 people) to hand in their resignations after accepting employment with Advancement Corporation’s main competitor. As the project manager chosen by the CEO to address and rectify this crisis, you are granted the following authority: You have the ability to act as the CEO’s deputy. This fact is known throughout the company based on a top management meeting with the CEO. The whole company understands that this is a full-time project manager position.

Assignment:

As the project manager, respond to the following questions: In your opinion, what will be the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge that you will face in relation to planning and executing an ongoing solution to the company’s staffing dilemma? In developing a plan to be presented to top management, in your opinion, what factors should you consider in terms of the costs, scope, quality, and risk issues associated with your proposal for dealing with this crisis?

Explanation / Answer

Business organizations often develop recruitment and staffing strategies in order to place the right person at the right job, at the right time. However, most firms encounter numerous problems in the staffing process. In the context of Advancement Corporation, ongoing solution plan is to be formulated in order to save and protect company from staffing dilemma.

Advancement Corporation, a leading pharmaceutical company, provides quality pharmaceuticals to doctors. However, the company has now been facing critical problem in hiring skilled scientists and technicians due to several reasons. Staffing crisis is the biggest problem faced by the company in the current scenario. Company needs an immediate planned ongoing staffing solution to be executed in order to overcome the staffing dilemma.

The greatest opportunity that you should consider is the opportunity of getting in new blood. Some of the employees who are in the same place for long are likely to get stale. These employees are not innovative. Since the company must ensure the proper development of pharmaceuticals through clinical trials.

The injection of new blood will go a long way in making Advancement Corporation competitive. In the same context when new employees enter Advancement, it will remind the existing employees that they cannot afford to slack off. At the same time it gives you the opportunity to get rid of troublesome employees.
The greatest challenge that will face in relation to planning and executing an ongoing solution to Advancement Corporation’s staffing dilemma is the lacuna in intellectual knowledge that will take place. The training provided to employees will be lost. There will be a brain drain. The new people recruited must be trained quickly.

The leading scientists are leaving and they may take away the trade secrets to the competitor and the top sales managers may take away customers from Advancement Corporation to the competitor. The business of Advancement Corporation requires a high degree of loyalty and it will be lost because of the exit of these persons.

In developing a plan to be presented to the top management, I will consider the costs related recruitment, selection, and training of new personnel. In addition, I will consider the costs related to loss of knowledge, loss of loyalty, and loss of customers. I will pay special attention to the consideration of the cost related to loss of customers, and loss of trade secrets when employees leave our company. In addition, I will also consider the cost of disruption of business, late completion of projects, and cost overruns in projects because of new personnel.

The scope of the plan will be limited to the resignation of recruitment and selection specialists, leading scientists, and sales managers. The plan will limit itself to interactions with the personnel who have been persuaded to resign from their position. The plan will address issues relating to the recruitment and selection of personnel for replacing those that leave the company. It will address incentives including cash and benefits that may be offered to retain employees who have decided to resign from the company.

It will also address incentives including cash and benefits that may be offered to attract new employees that will replace those who have left. The scope will include training of the new employees. The deliverables will be the retaining or filling up of the positions of recruitment and selection specialists, leading scientists, and sales managers. The tasks will include meeting with the employees that have decided to leave, negotiating with them, and offering incentives to remain with the company. Also, exit interviews will be carried out with those who have decided to leave. The project completion date is three months from the commencement of the project.

There is an additional risk of losing customers and of losing trade secrets to the competitor. Risk issues relating to demoralization of the remaining employees is very important. There is the risk that the employees of Advancement Corporation who remain with the company lose motivation to work.

The quality issues involved in the project are the actual number of persons who can be persuaded to remain with the company. In addition, the quality issue with recruitment will be the skills, abilities, and qualifications of the new employees, the compensation package offered to the new recruits. The quality of training provided to the new recruits and the ease with which they can be placed in the vacancies created by the resignations.

The risk issues associated with the proposal for dealing with this crisis begin with the risk of high costs if recruitment and selection specialists, leading scientists, and sales managers leave Advancement Corporation en masse. The risks involved with this are the risk of brain drain, disruption of operations, loss of market share, and loss of competitive advantage.

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