Hartson Printing Services, Inc.,* was a midsized company (revenues of approximately $12 million per year) serving the southern United States. The owners, a husband and wife, had personally managed the company for most of its nearly 25 years in business. However, as the company had grown, it was becoming more and more difficult to personally manage all of the details of daily operations. As a result, Angie and Joe Hartson decided to create and fill a new position as General Manager (GM) of the printing company. The GM would handle all of the day-to-day operations of the facility, leaving the owners free to make more strategic decisions as well as get some needed time off.

Once the decision to recruit a GM had been made, Angie and Joe decided that the best way to find a person for the job was to advertise. They discussed the kind of person that they were interested in hiring in some detail and then sat down and wrote out the following advertisement for the new opening:

Now Hiring: General Manager—Printing Services Industry

Looking for strong leader to aggressively manage and grow a high-quality printing business. Duties include daily management of midsized operations, including projects ranging from personal business cards to small-volume book binding. Candidates must have good leadership, management, and P&L skills and be able to manage in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment. An Equal Opportunity Employer. Send résumé and cover letter to P.O. Box 66452, Gadsden, AL 35901.

* The name of the printing company and its location have been changed.

The Hartsons sat back after looking at their work and congratulated themselves on writing their advertisement. They put it in the local newspaper and the Birmingham News the next day, and within two weeks had more than 145 responses—many more than they really had anticipated. However, as they started going through all of the responses, they realized that none of the applicants really fit what they needed for their print shop. They had received replies from an extremely diverse group of respondents with no real knowledge of an operation of the size of Hartson Printing. The cover letters didn’t provide them with any valuable information on the skill sets of the applicants, and the résumés were “all over the map.” One of the applicants was currently an Assistant Night Manager at a local fast-food restaurant, but was convinced that she could manage their $12 million print shop. Another was the retired former president of an international multibillion-dollar firm, and neither Angie nor Joe could figure out why he would want such a small-scale job opportunity.

They decided to take some time away from the office to work their way through the other résumés. They scanned through more than 140 of them over the course of two full days and found out that none of the applicants really fit what they needed in a GM. Angie and Joe couldn’t figure out what on earth the applicants were thinking! Most had no idea what kind of firm they were applying to, and the few who did didn’t fit with the owners’ vision of what they would need to be able to do and the background necessary for successfully filling the job. The Hartsons couldn’t even find one applicant that they wanted to interview for the job. At this point, Angie suggested and Joe agreed that they might need some professional help, so they called a local consulting firm that had experience in management recruiting.

The next day, Tom, an HR Consultant, came to speak with Angie and Joe. He asked to see the advertisement and the résumés from the respondents. He took one look at the ad and thumbed through some of the résumés, and immediately saw what had happened. He quickly started working with the owners on a new advertisement that ended up looking as follows:

General Manager Wanted—Full P&L Responsibility

Starting salary $60,000+ with opportunity for performance incentives to be determined jointly with company owners.

Hartson Printing Services, a $12 million firm in Gadsden, AL, is seeking an experienced Printing Services Manager who will be responsible for all day-to-day operations for our printing firm. Please review our product and service line at www.hartsonprinting.com for details on the company.

Qualifications will include at least 15 years in printing and/or publishing industries; experience with bid and proposal processes; experience with short run and quick throughput jobs; knowledge of pre-press preparation, pressroom, and binding operations; knowledge of maintenance schedules for common printing equipment used in Hartson’s offices; at least 5 years in a management role with responsibility for planning, organizing, and controlling the work of at least 5 employees; knowledge of organizational budgets and experience in a P&L role; 4-year business degree; proven skills in cost containment in a midsized printing firm. Relocation required.

To apply, provide a résumé and cover letter to Hartson Printing Services, 318 Main St., Gadsden, AL 35901. Hartson is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

The Hartsons reviewed the advertisement, and immediately had some questions for Tom. Once these questions had been answered, the three agreed that they would like to immediately get the ad published in order to get the process of finding a strong GM for the business back on track. The Hartsons were excited about this fresh start and were beginning to look forward to the interviewing process (another significant challenge!).

Question:

1. In what external recruiting sources would you choose to publish the new advertisement? Be specific and provide your reasoning for your choice(s).