CASE STUDY 2 It Isn't Rocket Science!

Pizza Barn provides upscale takeout pizzas and has locations in major cities all across Canada. Miranda Jones, an HR analyst working at the corporate offices in Vancouver, was concerned as she reviewed statistics pertaining to the workforce during the past six months. She noted that over the past half-year, pizza makers (known as "dough masters" within the company) had a high turnover rate. Miranda compared Pizza Barn's numbers to those of other companies in the industry and found that employees were leaving at three times the industry average. Further, pizza makers were staying with the company for an average of only three weeks.

To better understand what was happening, Miranda began talking to managers at various locations across the country. Eric Anders, the manager of the Regina location, could not understand why he had such difficulty keeping staff. "Being a pizza maker is such a simple and basic job. It isn't rocket science! However, people just don't seem to like working here. When they quit, the pizza makers keep telling me that this just "isn't their scene," whatever that means. It seems like dough experts think this is going to some type of exciting job and dynamic place to work and are then disappointed once they actually start doing the job."

When Miranda asked about Eric's recruitment and selection process, he told her that he places advertisements at the local high schools and universities, goes through the resumes that come in, and selects the best candidates to interview. To save time, he invites four or five people to meet with him at the same time and spends about 20 minutes asking each a few behavioural questions. Eric asks for one or two references, which he does check before hiring anyone. The interview also involves a test for manual skills, as pizza makers need to be coordinated. Conversations with managers at different locations across Canada yielded the same results. All managers followed processes similar to those Eric had outlined and were experiencing high levels of turnover. Miranda was perplexed. The recruitment and selection processes were thorough and yet something wasn't working.

Questions:

1. What changes would you suggest to the recruitment and selection processes for "dough masters"? Why?

2. Should all Pizza Barn locations across Canada use the same recruitment and selection processes? Do geographic diversity and differences in the labour market mean these processes should differ on the basis of location? Why or why not?

3. Should Miranda be concerned about the turnover of pizza makers? Why