Maple leaf shoes ltd case study

HRP1000 Assignment 1 (15%) Chapter 5 CASE STUDY Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. A Case Study in Recruitment Robert Clark was a worried man. He looked at the letter from Sam Polanyi, president of the Leather Workers’ Union’s local unit in Maple Leaf Shoes again. Polanyi had warned him of “dire consequences” if the firm did not proceed slowly on automation in its local plant. The union had urged its members to adopt a “work slow” tactic beginning next month. Worried by the decline and demise of giant organizations such as General Motors, Chrysler, and Nortel, Maple Leaf’s workforce was strongly against any impending automation that could further reduce the workforce number at a time when the unemployment rates in various parts of Canada were at historical highs. In three months’ time, the contract negotiations with the same union had to be concluded. Automation and the newly proposed workweek would surely be important bargaining items. But what option did the firm have now? The competition from China, Korea, Indonesia, and Malaysia was devastating. Just in the last six months, the firm had lost two major retail suppliers in the United States, which had pointed out that Maple Leaf’s shoes were too highpriced for its customers. Meanwhile, there were industry rumours that a major Indian footwear firm is planning to enter the North American market. When that materializes, Maple Leaf Shoes will likely face even greater competition at home. India has had a long history of producing quality footwear and can also take advantage of its cheap labour and emerging high-tech industries in producing high fashion, cheap dress shoes, and high endurance “cross-trainer” footwear. The recent warning from the local Human Rights Commission (HRC) did not help matters either. Apparently two female employees, who were denied promotion in the past, had complained to the Commission. They had argued that the promotion criteria employed by the firm for supervisory positions worked against women. When the HRC looked at the complaint, it did not consider their cases to be strong enough to proceed further. However, it had warned the company about the concentration of women in low-paid jobs and lack of clear job specifications for supervisory positions. The Commission had urged immediate remedial actions, including an in-depth look at supervisory competencies and job specifications. The firm was expected to come out with a remedial plan in the next 12 months. To top it all, neither Pat Lim nor Jane Reynolds was there in Wilmington to help him. John McAllister, the firm’s previous human resource manager, had resigned to take up a similar position in Western Canada. Maple Leaf Shoes had not hired a new manager in his place. Until 1 now, Pat Lim, General Manager (Marketing) was overall in charge of the human resource function, although most of the routine decisions were made by Jane Reynolds, who in the past had served as special assistant to John McAllister. But recently Reynolds had been admitted to a local hospital for a surgical procedure. Clark has now been informed that Reynolds will not be returning for some time. Given all the pressures, Clark decided to immediately fill the human resource manager’s position. Clark retrieved the job ad the company had used when hiring John McAllister. He made some minor changes to it and decided to place it in local newspapers as soon as possible. A copy of the final advertisement that Clark prepared is shown in Exhibit 1. It was after making arrangements for the newspaper ad that Clark remembered his childhood friend, Joy Flemming, who ran a temporary-help agency in Toronto. Clark and Flemming were schoolmates and had kept in touch with each other over the years. Flemming had built up a successful agency that supplied clerical and office staff on a temporary basis. While Clark knew that Flemming’s agency primarily supplied clerical workers (and some technical/supervisory personnel), he was convinced that Flemming’s years of experience in the local industry would have exposed her to successful human resource professionals elsewhere. He decided to hire Joy to also conduct a search.