As the excitement surrounding the move into their new offices wound down, the two principal owners of LearnInMotion.com, Pierre and Jennifer, turned to the task of hiring new employees. In their business plan they’d specified several basic goals for the venture capital funds they’d just received, and hiring a team topped the list. They knew their other goals—boosting sales and expanding the website, for instance—would be unreachable without the right team.

They were just about to place their ads when Pierre asked a question that brought them to a stop: “What kind of people do we want to hire?” It seemed they hadn’t really considered this. They knew the answer in general terms, of course. For example, they knew they needed at least two salespeople, a programmer, a web designer, and several content management people to transform the incoming material into content they could post on their site. But it was obvious that job titles alone really didn’t provide enough guidance. For example, if they couldn’t specify the exact duties of these positions, how could they decide whether they needed experienced employees? How could they decide exactly what sorts of experiences and skills they had to look for in their candidates if they didn’t know exactly what these candidates would have to do? They wouldn’t even know what questions to ask.

And that wasn’t all. For example, there were other tasks to do that weren’t necessarily included in the sorts of things that salespeople, programmers, web designers, or content management people typically do. Who was going to answer the phones? (Jennifer and Pierre had originally assumed they’d put in one of those fancy automated call directory and voicemail systems—until they found out it would cost close to $10 000.) As a practical matter, they knew they had to have someone answering the phones and directing callers to the proper extensions. Who was going to keep track of the monthly expenses and compile them for the accountants, who’d then produce monthly reports for the venture capitalist? Would the salespeople generate their own leads? Or would LearnInMotion.com have to hire web surfers to search and find the names of people for the sales staff to call or email? What would happen when the company had to purchase supplies, such as fax paper or printer ink? Would the owners have to do this themselves, or should they have someone in-house do it for them? The list, it seemed, went on and on.

It was obvious, in other words, that the owners had to get their managerial act together and draw up the sorts of documents they’d read about as business majors—job descriptions, job specifications, and so forth. The trouble was, it had all seemed a lot easier when they read the textbook. Now they want you, their management consultant, to help them actually do it.

QUESTIONS

I To assist Pierre and Jennifer in developing much-needed job descriptions, follow the steps outlined in the job analysis process and design a job description for the positions of web designer, salesperson, and receptionist.

II As part of the job analysis process you will follow in question 1, evaluate the methods of collecting job analysis information and discuss which ones you would recommend (including why) to Pierre and Jennifer as part of developing the job descriptions.

III As their management consultant, would you recommend they use quantitative or qualitative methods, or both? Why?