GB520 Unit 4 Recruiting Strategy and Decision Matrix Example

Thirty-Six Licensed Technicians in Two Years: A Unit 4 Recruiting Strategy With a Decision Matrix

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Purdue University Global

GB520: Strategic Human Resource Management

Unit 4 Recruiting Strategy

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[Date]

The contractor, the acquisition target and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

The Target

The workforce plan from Unit 3 found that Kestrel Refrigeration Services needs about 18 new journeyman technicians a year for two years, plus two or three experienced CO2 lead technicians a year, to staff its tripled installation plan and the Illinois branch. Kestrel's current recruiting brings about eight journeymen a year, mostly through employee referrals. The regional market is tight: equipment manufacturers, supermarket chains' own maintenance teams and other contractors are all hiring refrigeration technicians.

The Four Options

1. Expanded registered apprenticeship. Kestrel would run a registered apprenticeship with a community college's refrigeration program, raising intake from 8 to 22 apprentices a year. Apprentices work on crews under journeymen and attend classes two evenings a week for about four years.

2. Lateral hiring with retention terms. Kestrel would recruit licensed journeymen from other contractors and from manufacturers' service teams, offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus repayable in part if the technician leaves within 18 months, plus pay near the top of the market for CO2 experience.

3. Acquiring a small contractor. A twelve-person refrigeration contractor near Chicago, whose owner is retiring, has nine licensed technicians, one lead and about 40 supermarket service accounts. Its price would be about $2.4 million.

4. Subcontracting. Kestrel would hire a mechanical subcontractor's pipefitting crews to work on installations under Kestrel's leads during the busy season.

Exhibit 1: The Decision Matrix

Each option gets a score on four weighted criteria, where 5 is the best and 1 the worst:

Time to productive capacity (30 percent): apprenticeship 1, since an apprentice takes about four years to complete; lateral hiring 5, about two months; acquisition 4, about six months to close; subcontracting 5, available within weeks.

Cost per productive technician (25 percent): apprenticeship 3, about $52,000 per completed journeyman after tuition, supervision and non-completers; lateral hiring 4, about $20,000 over two years in recruiting, sign-on and pay premium; acquisition 2, about $240,000 per licensed technician, though the price also buys customers; subcontracting 2, about $50,000 a year in markup per full-time equivalent, with nothing retained.

Risk (20 percent): apprenticeship 4, mainly completion risk; lateral hiring 3, since hires may leave for the next offer and their skill is uneven; acquisition 2, with integration and flight risk; subcontracting 2, with quality and schedule control held by another firm.

Fit with the strategy (25 percent): apprenticeship 5, since apprentices learn Kestrel's CO2 standards from the start; lateral hiring 3; acquisition 3, bringing a branch and local customers but different work habits; subcontracting 1, building no lasting capability.

Weighted scores: lateral hiring 3.85; apprenticeship 3.10; acquisition 2.85; subcontracting 2.65.

No single option wins on every criterion: lateral hiring is fastest at a good cost, the apprenticeship fits best, and only the acquisition brings a ready-made Illinois branch.

The Strategy: A Portfolio by Role and Timing

Cappelli (2008) argues that firms facing uncertain demand should combine developing talent internally with buying it from outside, so that each covers the other's weakness. Kestrel's strategy does that.

Lateral hiring carries the first two years. It should supply about 20 of the 36 journeymen and most of the five experienced leads. Recruiting will target technicians at manufacturers' service teams and smaller contractors, where CO2 experience exists but advancement is limited.

The apprenticeship supplies the following years. Apprentices hired now complete in about four years. Kestrel should expand intake this year so that the pipeline is in place when lateral hiring becomes expensive. Some apprentices complete early with prior experience, which will add a few journeymen within the two years.

The acquisition is evaluated as the Illinois entry, not as a hiring tool. At about $240,000 per technician it is expensive as recruiting, but it would bring nine licensed technicians, a lead and customers to a market where Kestrel has none. The decision belongs with the growth plan, with retention agreements for the acquired technicians if it proceeds.

Subcontracting fills the remaining installation-season gap. It should cover about 6 to 9 journeyman equivalents during the peak months, shrinking as hires and apprentices arrive.

Recruiting Messages and Channels

Uggerslev et al. (2012) found that what attracts applicants changes across the recruiting process: early on, job and organization features matter most, while later, how recruiters treat applicants and how the process feels gain weight. For Kestrel, early messages should feature what scarce technicians value, CO2 training, a route to lead and mostly local work, and later stages should be quick, with offers within a week of the interview.

Channels should match the source. For lateral hires: referrals with a bonus, trade association job boards and direct outreach to technicians at manufacturers. For apprentices: high school career programs, veterans' transition programs and community college refrigeration classes.

Costs

Over two years, the recruiting strategy would cost about $400,000 for 20 lateral hires, about $280,000 a year for the expanded apprenticeship's tuition and supervision, and about $450,000 a year in subcontracting markup at the peak. The acquisition is outside this budget.

Risks and Safeguards

Repayment clauses for sign-on bonuses are restricted or regulated in some states, so the terms should be reviewed before use in each state where Kestrel hires. Aggressive lateral hiring invites competitors to respond, and Kestrel should expect to lose some of its own technicians to counteroffers, a risk the retention work in Unit 9 addresses. Apprentice completion should be tracked by cohort, with mentors assigned in the first year, when most departures happen.

Measures

The strategy should be tracked by time to fill, acceptance rate, cost per hire by source, first-year retention by source and apprentice completion. Cascio et al. (2019) recommend estimating the cost of each source together with the quality and tenure of its hires, since a cheap source that produces short-tenure hires is expensive.

References

Cappelli, P. (2008). Talent on demand: Managing talent in an age of uncertainty. Harvard Business Press.

Cascio, W. F., Boudreau, J. W., & Fink, A. A. (2019). Investing in people: Financial impact of human resource initiatives (3rd ed.). Society for Human Resource Management.

Uggerslev, K. L., Fassina, N. E., & Kraichy, D. (2012). Recruiting through the stages: A meta-analytic test of predictors of applicant attraction at different stages of the recruiting process. Personnel Psychology, 65(3), 597-660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2012.01254.x