Writing and Teaching Cases: A Handbook for an Incredible Research Methodology and Learning

Writing and Teaching Cases: A Handbook for an Incredible Research Methodology and Learning .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Nov 14, 2023

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CASE 1 Effective Talent Acquisition at OHPL

Olive Health Products Limited (OHPL) was a US-based organization that extended the business in the Indian Subcontinent along with different states of the US. OHPL manages back office operations from the Hyderabad office located in the southern region of India. The Indian office had a staff of more than 100 employees including Sales, HR and operations to cater the needs of US Clientele. The organization was mainly dealing with B2B model to provide pharma products. It is the beginning of April and the second wave of Covid-19 was already posing a challenge, meanwhile, North India had celebrated one of the major festivals of colours ‘Holi’. On April 1, 2021, Mr. Dave, Senior Manager-HR along with Ms. Tani Gupta, Senior Executive- HR felt restless as the festival was in the last week of March and four out of ten joined three months back, had resigned.

Olive Health Products Limited (OHPL) was a Private Limited company incorporated on 31 March 1992. It was classified as a NGO and was listed at the Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. Its sanctioned capital was Rs. 500,000 and its contributed capital was Rs. 110000. It was involved in the wholesale of pharma machinery, equipment and supplies. The competitors were Suvarna Rekha Exports Private Limited, Archi Breweries Private Limited, Tekay Prefabs Pvt Ltd, Magma Fincorp Limited, Siddhi Overseas Private Limited, etc.

OHPL group was one of the topmost pharma company specialized in providing wide-ranging Turnkey services right from designing to ordering for engineering and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products like Liquids, Ointments and specifically Soft Gelatin Capsule Products.

The Turnkey project services include the following.

• Consultancy and Manufacturing Services.

• Production of a tailor made range of process equipment. Commissioning of the project.

• Product Know-how and process technology for client’s specific products.

Mr. Vinayak Rao, CEO of the group, was a Mechanical Engineer, masters in Industrial Engineering and management studies. He had an expertise and niche on various leading Engineering and Pharmaceutical companies with an overall experience of around 20 years. For past 15 years he is actively involved with the Soft Gel industry. Mr. Rao is backed up with professionals of the highest order.

The company was well equipped in terms of manpower requirements along with the updated usage of technology in order to execute jobs on a turnkey basis from design and development to production as was clearly evident from the database. Moreover, as and when required the service staff is outsourced including people like specialized Equipment Designers, HVAC Consultants, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering Consultants, Instrumentation and Process Control Specialists, Associate Architects, etc. The companies procedure and systems are in line with other organizations in the sector for setting up projects.

They are associated with top notch professionals in the pharma industry from India and USA purposefully for Soft Gelatin Capsule Products from Germany and USA. They extend their services in the development of new products and novel process technological upgradation or transformation.

OHPL is a competitive organization. This was popularly evident with the fact that they out performed even during pandemic. OHPL had orders and repeat orders from their clientage including national and international. The orders included complete projects, SGC Manufacturing and Process Equipment and services. Incidentally, during the last few months, some of the top most reputed companies signed OHPL for their exclusive projects in India and overseas. This clarifies the strength and competitiveness of OHPL.

Mr. Dave, a forward looking HR professional keep visiting management institutions across India in search of good candidates in addition to job postings on various job portals. In fact, he hired thirty sales executives through video conferencing during pandemic also. The huge clientele generated through the staff at US locations demanded the availability of staff throughout the year. Though there are no sales target pressures like the service industry yet to boost productivity incentives are paid significantly if sales are high. In fact, incentives account for two to three times of salary in many cases. The organization is leading the market in terms of salary payments (Table 1). The take -home salary is higher in comparison to other companies in the industry. The package is lucrative in real sense and individuals do not hop to other organizations for attractive salary. More specifically when it comes to hiring sales and marketing personnel for managerial profiles, the organization is considered as a better pay master.

Mr. Dave is experienced for 20 years in the field of manpower acquisition knew well that lucrative packages can attract good candidates but cannot account for employee retention. He further believed that person organization fit (P-O Fit) also play a major role. To ensure P-O Fit the recruitment process is divided into three stages:

1. Initial screening for basic qualifications & knowledge.

2. Interaction with ‘Operations’ to identify the technical understanding level of the candidate.

3. HR round for the assessment of confidence, responsiveness, consistency, sales capability, communication skills, fluency, vocabulary, accent and presence of mind and salary negotiations.

Based upon interactions the HR and Operation’s staff select the candidate, though before joining Mr. Dave conducts detailed session with the selected candidates to acquaint them with the job requirements. He explains to them that OHPL is a US-based organization and clients are based therein so night shift working is the primary requirement. He also tells them that candidate needs to work upon their sleeping habits, eating habits and fitness. In fact, the new joiners are also asked for casual walks and refreshments during the initial months as the organization is concerned about their fitness being more likely outcome of night shift working. The parents, friends should be informed in advance that it is fine if you sleep for long hours in the day time or not able to attend Indian festive ceremonies like Deepawali, Holi, Rakshabandhan since these are working days as per company policy. He aimed at clarifying organization’s expectations well in advance to avoid bearing bad hiring cost.

Since the organization with over 3000 products dealing into B2B market, the clients are all learned, tough yet interested in the product and their conversion largely depends upon the alternatives offered by the salespeople to buy time in case of unavailability of demanded product. The smartness and wide product knowledge of sales executives help him converting leads into an actual sale.

The selected candidates attend fifteen days of classroom orientation training followed by three months ‘on the job training’. The socialization process takes 3 to 6 months so no sales pressure is there for this duration. The trainees are divided into three categories based upon their skill sets and performance during training. The executives with excellent grasping power with command over communication skills and product knowledge are put in category A followed by category B candidates who are good learners in terms of product knowledge but hesitant in communication. The individuals who are not able to pick up both product knowledge and lack communication skills belong to C category. The aim of training is to move trainees from C to B and then to A.

The first three months are probation period and they can avail one paid leave per month during probation. After completion of probation, they are entitled to avail of two paid leaves per month along with eight US holidays. The organization also offers additional benefits for employees working on big festivals. The employees can accumulate up to 72 leaves and beyond that, there is provision for leave encashment. The company has 5.5 days work week.

The organization was doing well in terms of profitability but pandemic has put the staffing issues at stake. Many of those who went back during lockdown did not turn up. Those who joined were willing to go to festival celebrations. The HR department was able to manage everything until recently when Covid- 19 cases started rising again and four sales executives went on leave for ‘Holi’ and not willing to come back. On top of this few negative comments posted on the online review website stating that the organization is a ‘Horrible place to work with’, ‘Can’t get off for Holi/Deepawali even!’ and so on. Mr. Dave is finding it hard to explain to the top management that festivals account for leaves and attrition. He also understands that attitudinal restructuring of fresher’s cannot be done in a span of few months.

Read the case study and identify the issues.

1. Describe the process and stages of talent acquisition.

2. Suggest the appropriate recruitment strategies

3. Suggest the appropriate retention strategies

Table 1.1 Salary Structure

TEACHING NOTES

This case was written by Garima Mathur, Indira Sharma, Somya G Rajan, B Yashaswini Murty, Vani Agarwal, Reetu Kumari, Anirudra Prasad Yadav. The case was developed with the help of Alpine Pharma Pvt. Ltd, Ahmadabad which wish to remain disguised. The case is intended to be used in class room study to illustrate talent acquisition.

Abstract

Olive Health Products Limited (OHPL) is a Private Limited company incorporated on 31 March 1992. The organization is mainly dealing with the B2B model to provide pharma products. It is classified as a Nongovernment Company and is registered at Registrar of Companies, Mumbai. Its authorized share capital is Rs. 500,000 and is involved in the Wholesale of machinery, equipment and supplies. The competitors are Vaksons Automobiles Limited, Magma Fincorp Limited, Suvarna Rekha Exports Private Limited etc. The major problem in the case was talent retention as the employees P-O fit was missing, due to the US culture being a mandate in the organization. The minor problems were other organizational issues related to talent acquisition, for example, selecting candidates with the right attitude or help them develop the same, keeping them motivated, competency mapping, sourcing the right talent etc.

Teaching Objectives and Target Audience

The case deals with talent acquisition skills to reach the target audience along with the strategies to be followed for retention of employees. The case leaves the question of identifying more ways to reach the targeted audience in an effective manner. The case can be used for analyzing the stages of talent acquisition, hiring cost and competency mapping. The case focuses on the executives and post graduate students for individual analysis.

Teaching Approach and Strategy

The case and the references must be provided to the executives and students one-day prior for individual discussion and write up. Students must be asked to present the case and support arguments logically in the class.

The instructor and participants should be prepared for the following concepts:

• Concept, process and stages of talent acquisition.

• Hiring cost, Bad Hiring cost, components of bad hiring cost.

• Competency mapping and determinants.

• P-J fit and P-O fit. Recruitment Strategies Retention strategies.

• Determinants of attrition.

After analyzing the case the case users will be able to:

• Understand the concept, process and stages of talent acquisition.

• Analyze hiring cost, competency mapping.

• Draft the retention strategies.

• Understand and describe P-J fit and P-O fit Describe the determinants of attrition.

Analysis

The case is a close ended case followed by questions. Case is suitable for examination, written assessment, role play, and presentation

Solutions to the Questions

Q 1. Describe the process and stages of talent acquisition.

Answers: Talent acquisition refers to the process of finding, attracting, and hiring skilled individuals to fill open positions within an organization. It involves various stages and steps to ensure that the best candidates are selected for the available roles. Here are the typical stages of the talent acquisition process:

1. Workforce Planning

2. Job Analysis and Description

3. Sourcing

4. Screening

5. Interviewing

6. Assessment and Testing

7. Reference and Background Checks

8. Decision-Making

9. Offer and Negotiation

10. Onboarding

Q 2. Suggest the appropriate recruitment strategies

Answer: The organization should plan better approaches for hiring and recruiting the right fir for the job. The various recruitment strategies are mentioned as under:

1. Employer branding

2. Job postings

3. Employee referrals

4. Social media recruiting

5. Talent sourcing

6. Campus recruitment

7. Employer partnerships

8. Employee value proposition

9. Candidate experience

10. Data-driven approach

Q 3. Suggest the appropriate retention strategies

Answer: Retention strategies refer to the various approaches and actions that organizations implement to retain their employees, customers, or clients. These strategies are designed to create a positive and engaging environment, foster loyalty, and reduce