During the 2000s, a hotel chain in Phuket instituted a recruiting plan based on referrals from current employees. This system worked, primarily because the operation had a strong, competent staff during that period. However, problems began to develop in the 2010s as fewer and fewer people applied to fill the increasing number of positions at the hotel.
Despite a shrinking pool of applicants for an expanding number of jobs, the human resources manager continued to rely on the employee referral system for his labor supply. He justified this decision by saying, “Even though fewer employee are available, the employee referral method brings employees into our chain who know about our work and our expectations. That’s because these people have friends working here. In the long run, this knowledge will help us keep training and orientation costs down.”
Unfortunately, the manager’s program is failing miserably. The hotel is desperately short of staff. To acknowledge the problem, the hotel chain developed a new position; director of recruiting. You have been hired for this position. You are asked to prepare a recruitment plan that taps labor supplies that your chain has failed to develop over the past several years. Your first problem, however, is convincing the human resources director of the need for such a recruitment program.