Mrs Vilma DMello is Administrative and Personnel Manager at Southern Travels.

She is
fifty-two, a widow, and had joined Southern Travels after spending nineteen years as
Personnel Officer in a large car manufacturing company. She is not very comfortable in a
small company and not familiar with computerised service industry; but she gets on well
with her staff and is quite efficient within the firm. She is responsible for day-to-day
operations and controls the Canteen Manager, the Caretaker and the Security Officer. She
has recently been given the responsibility of recruitment as the M.D., Atul Kalra, no
longer has the time to handle it himself. Vilma has to advertise for staff and interview
candidates for Marketing, Reservations and other support functions.
As most jobs in the company are at the office assistant level, the applicants are mostly
fresh, inexperienced graduates in their first job; consequently, there is a high turnover and
recruitment ads have to be placed very often. The ads attract a heavy response and Vilma
has to spend a great deal of time in short-listing and interviewing the applicants. She has
been trying to streamline the process by using a checklist and limiting the interviews to
ten minutes. Atul Kalra, MD is uneasy about the companys recruitment procedure. Two
managers, Manisha Bedi, Marketing, and George, IT, have already expressed
dissatisfaction with the recruits who are very immature and have no idea of what their job
involves. Evidently, the interviewing does not assess qualities of patience and ability to
adapt to routine which are required for the companys job functions. He decides to
review the selection process and sends Vilma the following memo.
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Date: 22 April, 2017
To : Vilma DMello
From: Atul Karla
Subject: Recruitment

Recruitment seems to be costing too much here. We have to make a saving of 50% on our budget
immediately. We must have less press advertisement, more cost-free promotion. Please study these aspects
and report to me, Manisha and George a week from today.
Are our interviews effective? Please show me the application form and the checklist you use to assess
candidates. Why do our recruitment ads attract such poor candidates? Please cover all these points in your
report. Please present your report orally next week Friday, 3 oclock.
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Discuss the memo in groups; present findings in 3 minutes

Each group to improve the memo and submit online by tomorrow, 7 Sept, 5.00 p.m.