2. If time permits, spend some time prior to class observing the front-desk clerk at a local hotel. In any case, create a job description for a Hotel Paris front-desk clerk. The Hotel Paris s competitive strategy is To use superior guest service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability. HR manager Lisa Cruz must now formulate functional policies and activities that support this competitive strategy by eliciting the required employee behaviors and competencies.

As an experienced human resource director, the Hotel Paris s Lisa Cruz knew that recruitment and selection processes invariably influenced employee competencies and behavior and, through them, the company s bottom line.

Everything about the workforce its collective skills, morale, experience, and motivation depended on attracting and then selecting the right employees.

In reviewing the Hotel Paris s employment systems, she was therefore concerned that virtually all the company s job descriptions were out of date, and that many jobs had no descriptions at all. She knew that without accurate job descriptions, all her improvement efforts would be in vain.

After all, if you don t know a job s duties, responsibilities, and human requirements, how can you decide who to hire or how to train them? To create human resource policies and practices that would produce employee competencies and behaviors needed to achieve the hotel s strategic aims, Lisa s team first had to produce a set of usable job descriptions.