Bitstream Human Resource Management Essay

This case study is related with the selection process- the process of selection is about choosing the right people for the right job. In this case we assume that we have already chosen interview as an appropriate instrument to measure candidate’s performance in selection criteria. Our task will be to prepare right questions for the candidates that let us predict the most adequate candidate for the job. Bitstream is a software company that has identified an opportunity to develop and market a new product. The company develops digitalized type fonts for display type font for display screens and technology. Their revenues come from retail sales and OEM sales. Jim Sole, the brand new president was hired in 1992 to substitute the former president, the founder of the company. Jim was a very successful professional and had much great experience in this area. Jim found the organization needing some changes, like a reorganization of the structure, a clear clarification of the short/term goals and a need to enhance the teamwork within the company. These problems would be solved with reorganization of the bonus plan they have, and to delegate decisions to the employees, to make them have the need to have responsibilities and decision making power. This company had grown at a rate of 25% and had a forecast of future growth at 15%. The regular growth, plus a 15% nominal turnover in the company shows that almost 40% of people from one year to another are new. They come up with the idea of developing a network print manager, related to the work they do in the printing environment. This new product would handle printing times, printing queues or even different specifications of the work to be printed. It requires already market-existing technology but also innovation made by the company. There is a new project in the hand of the company and is a great eager to the appearance of this product in this market, and is known that there is a market segment to this product easily identifiable. To complete this task correctly, Jim Sole started looking for the right person to fill the gap of the new project manager. He talked with his friend Peter Dromeshauser, an executive recruiter (â€Å"Head Hunter) and gave him some indications concerning the job. Peter then come up with 4 names that we are going to analyze in the following. CRITERIA FOR FILLING THE POSITION: There are some aspects of selection criteria like checking the individual’s personality cross match with the requirement so for this Jim Sole can do following things. Conduct a test for job with required specifications Job requirement can be objectively evaluated in matrix/tabulated formed and personalities of each individual could be assessed based on test interview and questionnaires. Primary task would then confine to select the test for candidate. This test should be planned with industrial psychologist and may contain test interview or test questionnaire. Requirement for job has been 1. Candidate should be able to imbibe the culture of organization and in BITSTREAM there was problem that due to talented employee it became a political place and sometime became difficult to align them to organization goals. 2. Since it is mentioned in case that for sales and marketing jobs it had been a hard task to verify their qualities to handle the organization with new plans and achieve set target for sales. 3. Before going to further selection procedure Jim can reject individuals by having evaluated some preliminary criteria. E.g. Salary expected after negotiation, would they like to work with emerging companies. 4. Jim can formulate a questionnaire specifically evaluating the requirement  of job; he wanted to be in employee. This includes better decision maker, better understanding of existing network, aggressive in strategies etc. 5. Content of questionnaire and test interview should be to evaluate how individual will react to particular situation, analytical questions related to human relationship management, related to target achievement in sales, new product launch. This would help to assess their individual qualification and experience with respect to their requirement much better. To ensure that the interview will be valid we first review job specification and develop â€Å"checklist† with relevant criteria for the job. According to the CVs we have received we can then register our assessment relative to each of the important job dimensions. Trough the reading of this case, we are given a series of indications that show the key criteria to fill the position. Therefore, we found pertinent main points to characterize the four candidates, and gave a scale in terms of importance to them, to have a general overview of their qualities and fitting to the job. * Relation with Novel *Entrepreneurial skill (flexibility, intellectual curiosity, risk taking) * Experience in new Launch * VAR Experience * Networking Experience *Salary *Team work * Relation with Novel Criteria: SALARY- Encompasses a simple yes or no answer. It is acknowledged that Bitstream offers up to $120,000 in wages. This includes $80,000 in salary, $40,000 for bonus potential plus stock options from the company. This is perceived as the highest bid to offer to candidates since it was seen adequate to the market reality. Additionally, a higher offer could disrupt the salary structure of the firm. ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILL- Within this terminology we consolidated 3 major characteristics that the company looks for: Intellectual curiosity, flexibility and risk taking. This means that we look for a person who is open minded and willing to learn, who responds well to any given environmental change while regarding risk as a challenge. TEAMWORK- Is the ability to work with other people in order to achieve a common goal. This means that it is necessary to partially sacrifice personal ambition and goals. DECISION MAKING- Regarded to be one of the most important attributes in business management, especially in small organizations. It is the ability to â€Å"make the call† and it requires a lot of self confidence, knowledge and courage. EXPERIENCE IN NEW LAUNCH- This job will require someone who has experience in the distribution channel. The product needs to be in the right time at the right place. A good Communication channel is also necessary since we will be introducing a new product with a new set of characteristics where advertising and promotion play an important role, therefore making marketing knowledge a valuable tool. VAR AND NETWORK CHANNELS- VAR (value added retail) and Network channels are important since it is the working tool. VAR will be the active channel that the company is going to use, while network channel is the background of the companies activity Those grades presented in front of the topics are the top punctuation the candidates can have and give a rate of importance we have given to them. Mr. Mitchell was discarded by us because of the need of a higher salary, which could be a problematic issue with other employees and create a bad environment. Although he has a very impressive CV and many good managerial, social and entrepreneurial characteristics the salary issue is related with the well-being of the company, and therefore it is of our opinion he must be discarded. Adding, he might be the older of the four candidates (according to the year of finishing degree), and as he is working in a big company, he might not have the experience of small company relations and procedures, a point Jim referred would be important.