Staffing
Analyze the case “Staffing Evaluation at Hallmark”. answer the following questions.
- Critically evaluate Hallmark's staffing index. What are its pros and cons?
- How can Hallmark use technology for tracking applicants and onboarding its new hires to include improving efficiency and effectiveness of staffing functions?
- How can Hallmark use the system to track:
- company turnover,
- downsizing, and
- retention?
- 4 How should these be measured? Be sure to explain the different staffing metrics and how each is used.
Hallmark, founded in 1910, is the largest U.S. manufacturer of greeting cards and the owner of Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola Crayons.71 The company pursues a differentiation and innovation strategy and uses creativity and emotion to help people connect to its products, including its stationery, party goods, photo albums, home decor, collectibles, a cable television channel, and books.72 To hire quality people more consistently, Hallmark needed a tool to help it focus its staffing efforts on what is most relevant to the company—that is, on business-relevant cri-teria that would allow it to more consistently hire quality em-ployees to best execute its strategy.73 However, Hallmark didn’t want the tool to be too complex. To launch the effort, Hallmark created a staffing index to evaluate the quality of the firm’s past hires to source and screen candidates more effectively. Upon hiring a new employee, the person’s line manager makes an immediate assessment of the employee’s intrinsic abilities and desirability. To avoid using complex formulas that require a specialized background to understand, the rat-ings are simple and focused on measuring the quality and timeliness of Hallmark’s hiring system.74 The possible new hire ratings are as follows:75 1 = Average 2 = Above Average 3 = Good 4 = Very Good 5 = Walk-On-Water Good After 6 months, the hiring manager uses the same five-point scale to evaluate whether its initial expectations have been realized. The data are used to compare new hires who consistently get top ratings with those who don’t to identify any distinguishing factors that can be used to make the hir-ing process more effective.76 According to one expert, Hallmark is on the right track by keeping its system simple and not getting too wrapped up in the numbers and by focusing on the end result of making good hires. Hallmark views the staffing index only as a means to an end and knows that ultimate staffing success will be gauged not by these metrics but by the organization’s performance
