The Mentorship Program at TVH

Group Thermote & Vanhalst—TVH—is a global organization that spe­cializes in constructing and repairing forklift trucks. The organization's expansion presents Paul Sanders, HR director at TVH, with a tough problem: TVH doesn't have a system to capture, store, and leverage employees' knowledge. There is a massive inflow of young people who lack technical know-how, and specialized knowledge is lost when older employees leave the company. In order to deal with this problem, Paul Sanders introduced a mentorship program. This program helps older employees transmit their knowledge and know-how to younger employees.

Paul realizes that the transition to the mentoring system has not gone smoothly when he gets a letter from Freddy Jacobs, one of his most respected employees. Freddy challenges him with the following:

"Lately we are doing nothing but explaining work processes to the young guys. Our own work has to be put aside, and why? Moreover, the young guy at pre-packing has never seen a forklift truck in his life, but he started off in charge of three older people. We have worked together successfully for more than 30 years, and I hope that you will deal correctly with this situation." After Paul finished reading the let­ter, he frowned. Experienced workers were putting a lot of effort into teaching newcomers the tricks of the trade, but the older workers were now becoming upset because of the career opportunities given to the newcomers. Paul believes that an insufficient transfer of knowledge is at the heart of many issues at TVH. How can he optimize his system to manage knowledge efficiently?

Questions

8-29. If you were Paul Sanders, how would you deal with the issues raised in the letter?

8-30. What would make the mentoring program a success? How would you define success, and failure?

8-31. Under what circumstances would you choose these training processes?

Nurse Recruitment at Gulf Hospital

Gulf Hospital (GH) is one of the leading hospitals in the country, known for providing quality healthcare services at affordable prices. Its vision is to become a national healthcare center, providing better, faster, and friendlier care. Its internal strategy focuses on continuously improving service quality and achieving higher customer satisfaction. However, both doctors and patients have recently complained about the impatience of some nurses, their lack of cooperation, and their lack of relevant experience. The nurses have been accused of creating a bad atmosphere in some departments due to their inability to get along with each other. Nurse turnover has been increasing over the last 2 years, reaching 20%. With current plans to enlarge the Pediat­rics Department, there is a need to recruit and select 25 new nurses over the next few months.

Most nurses at GH are recruited internally: 70% of the applications come from referrals, 10% from the hospital's Web site, and the rest are spontaneous applications. Only 5% of the nurses are recruited externally, using classified ads in the local newspaper. Since publication of the job opening 4 weeks ago, Hussam, the HR director, has received 250 resumes. After screening for education and experience, he is left with 100 candi­dates. Hussam wants to improve the selection process. The following are the elements that give Heba, the new HR assistant, a headache.

Hussam insists on interviewing the nurses himself, because he be­lieves that doctors and supervisors do not have the HRM background to do it effectively on their own. Since they are disappointed with the be­havior of the newer nurses, the directors of the three different recruiting departments (pediatrics, trauma, and maternity) also want to interview personally those nurses who will work in their departments.

Finally, the nursing director also wants to be included in the job interviews. But the nursing director, the department heads, and the nurses themselves have regular arguments about the role of nurses! And all of them want to interview the nurses because they have quite different beliefs about the way nurses should be selected. All these people are very busy, so Hussam has decided to carry out panel selec­tion interviews. Each candidate will be interviewed by the HRM direc­tor, the nursing director, and the potential department head. Some of the nurses are considered for two different departments.

From the job description, Heba assembled the job specifications:

(1)   nursing degree in the country of origin and necessary licenses from the local government;

(2)   minimum of 2 years of experience in the specialized nursing field;

(3)   flexibility and willingness to learn new skills (GH is not a big hospital, so nurses will be asked to perform multiple tasks in some situations);

(4)  positive attitude, enthusiasm, and helpfulness; and

(5)  fit with the team. GH wants a family-like environment that helps patients feel better during their stay.

Questions

Assume you are Heba. Hussam has asked you to organize the panel interviews. The panel interviewers are Hussam, the department heads, and the nursing director; the department heads and the nursing direc­tor have never conducted selection interviews before.

7-23. What are the challenges or potential pitfalls in this situation?

7-24. What sequential steps should be followed to design and con­duct effective job interviews in this situation?

7-25. Would you conduct a crash seminar on interviewing skills for the doctors and the director of nursing? Why or why not? What would you teach them?