Making a tough

personnel decision
a t N o v a Wa t e r f r o n t
Hotel

Shannon Smith
Candidate 1
Event manager at Nova
Waterfront for last three years
Consistently received good
performance evaluations
Completed one year of college
at James Madison University
Had a very easy and informal style
Lacked leadership skills
Major Characters
Matt Mayes Laura Green
Candidate 2 Director
Director of event planning for 2
Worked for a smaller sister hotel as a
years
Senior Event Manager
Hiring manager at Nova
Had been in his position for two years Waterfront Hotel: with the
company for 15 years
Had an associate degree in business
Responsible for defining the job
administration from Pierce College
description and taking input from
Received good performance evaluations
and his supervisor’s support for the move the hiring team about the
selection criteria
Had a dominant and formal style Degree in hotel and restaurant
management and experience as
Have some leadership skills and was a front desk manager
hungry and eager to grow
Worked with 600 people groups and lacked
experience of handling larger events of 1200
people groups
 Situational Analysis(1)
Opening for senior event manager
 Responsible for handling complex events like conferences, wedding receptions, meetings and parties
 Core responsibilities of the position were to work with clients, plan events, coordinate//oversee an event from
execution to wrap-up/evaluation

Selection team for the process

 Green, the hiring manager
 Green’s boss, the general manager
 John Wilson, Director of Event Management
 Alex Hartnett, Senior Banquet Manager
 Peer of the position within the department, a senior event manager
 A subordinate of the position, Michelle Sederas, Event manager and another event manager

Current Situation
 To save time, Green pulled selection criteria together and sent to selection team asking for top three criteria
 Criteria selected are : leadership, innovation/creativity, and holding people accountable
 Based on the top three criteria suggested, Shannon Smith and Matt Mayes were interviewed
 Post interviews, selection team shared their opinion but could not reach a satisfactory decision
 Situational Analysis (2)
1 2 3
Selection team comprised –
the hiring manager, his/her An outside recruiting and
The Hiring manager was
boss, peers of the position selection firm was hired for
responsible for recruiting a
(within and outside the initial screening of
selection team
department), and candidates
subordinates of the position

6 5
Existing people could also
apply for a new opening
provided they meet the
given criteria
holding people accountable
4
For the selection criteris,
Nova prepared a list of
2 persons – Shannon Smith
criteria and the top 3 were
& Matt Mayes, for in-person
selected – leadership,
interviews
innovation/creativity &
Recommendation : Hire Shannon

She is capable of getting the job done

She was able to keep every one happy

Her score were better than Matt’s

It serves Nova’s key value of serving people first

She was accustomed to work with higher level of

budgets, forecasts and size of groups
HRM Concepts and Theories
There are two types of recruitment Internal
and External. The advantages of internal
sources of recruitment:
o Reduced hire time and shortened on-
boarding times
o They’re prescreened for culture fit.
o Cost less; as per research external hiring
may cost 1.7 times more than internal
hiring
o Strengthen employee engagement
Leadership and Management are two different concepts, a
good manager may not be a great leader.
Trait theory of leadership says leaders are born and not made, behavioural theories of leadership
says is on the actual behavior and action of the leaders and not on their traits or characteristics. As
per behavioral theory of leadership a manager needs 3 skills:
oTechnical
oHuman
oConceptual