Continuous Improvement and Innovation Briefing Report for Woodhouse Recruitment

Woodhouse Recruitment is based in central Melbourne and is a recruitment agency offering recruitment services, including sourcing, screening and selecting candidates to meet clients’ requirements. The company was established in 2010 by Simon and Petra James, a husband and wife team who are the Directors of the company. The company also employs a receptionist, five recruitment consultants and an Administration Manager. The agency plans to recruit a further 2 new consultants to start with the company in early 2018.

The company specialises in the recruitment area of Administration and Office Support, Accounting, IT and Sales and Marketing for both permanent and temporary staff. The company sees its point of difference as being an owner operated, boutique recruitment agency. The company currently has approximately 30 clients who regularly use their services.

At a recent management team meeting, the management team (the Directors, Administration Manager and the Senior Recruitment Consultant), discussed the need to implement systems and processes for continuous improvement and innovation into the company. This is in part based on the need to stand out from the competitors in an industry where there are a large number of recruitment agencies. A number of issues were discussed at the management meeting, which the management team feel need further exploration as part of introducing continuous improvement systems and innovations.

The company states on its web site that it has the following delivery service standards:

• Service Promise: we are clear in what we offer and the benefits it brings to you
• Service Delivery: we offer consistent and reliable service to you
• Customer Relationships: we are open and friendly with all of our customers
• Compliance: we ensure we adhere to all ethical and legal requirement

However, service standards have not been clearly defined and there are no performance indicators in place to measure performance.

No formal performance indicators in place to measure key service standards including how quickly candidates are recruited to fill jobs or how many of the candidates pass the trial period effectively.

There is no social media strategy in place. Currently the company is not using social media to market positions or to source candidates but recognizes this is an area for development. Currently most candidates are usually found through the

existing database (60%) or through advertising on job search web sites.

While all recruitment consultants are expected to have minimum qualifications and experience, there is no process in place to ensure that recruitment consultants continue to participate in professional development activities to keep their skills up to date. There is also no performance appraisal system in place.

The business currently does not have any formal sustainability initiatives in place and is conscious of moving towards a green office environment both to be an environmentally friendly business, as well as to reduce costs.

• Annual sales revenue for financial year 20 14 - 2015 is $1,350,000, an increase of 10% from the previous year.
• Increase in profits for this financial year compared to the last one is 9%
• 16% of placements are in the IT area, 18% in accounting, 20$ in sales and marketing and the remainder in administration and office support.
• 60% of revenue is from repeat client business.
• Fill rate is 40% (where fill rate is the number of job orders filled by the number of job orders received multiplied by 100).
• Average time to fill contracts for 2014 were as follows:
• Temporary contracts are 8 days
• Contract work is 20 days
• Permanent search 23 days
• Executive search 33 days

Strategies for Improvement

Key performance indicators currently used to measure business performance focus on financial indicators, including net operating profit and sales revenue. The company

Develop a continuous improvement and innovation briefing report.

Review the scenario information and, based on your review, select two topics or areas that you can research and review, develop continuous improvement and options and then plan to implement innovative processes for. One of these topics you select must be in relation to improving a sustainability program.

When you have identified the two topics or areas, you will then be required to prepare a report to your manager (your assessor). Your report should be written in clear and concise English and contain relevant headings to address the required information. As a guide, your report should be 3 to 4 pages long.

The student is to submit a report that is clear and concise and approximately three

to four pages in length.

Your topics or areas for improvement that you will plan a continuous improvement and innovative processes for, one being a sustainability program

1. Ideas may include: key performance indicators in relation to Service Standards, particularly Service Delivery, a social media strategy, Learning and Development framework, Performance Appraisal system and process, key performance indicators for recruitment related metrics, improved recruitment database or software, sustainable stationery supplier and supplies.

2. As set out in the instructions, one initiative must be a sustainability program, which could include: supporting sustainable supply chains, referencing standards, guidelines and approaches, such as sustainability covenants and compacts or triple bottom line reporting, addressing environmental and resource sustainability initiatives, such as environmental management systems, action plans, green office programs, surveys and audits, introducing green purchasing, implementing government initiatives, improving resource and energy efficiency. 

3. Identify and discuss a range of strategies that you can implement to monitor and evaluate the current performance and sustainability of your topics/areas for improvement. Identify at least two strategies for each area selected.

4. Student must identify at least two strategies that can be used to monitor and evaluate the current performance in both initiatives. For example, for the sustainability program this may include current electricity charges, purchasing from sustainable suppliers, recycling and re-using supplies such as paper and ink, etc. Other strategies may include benchmarking against industry standards (in the resources provided or external resources and referencing against strategic and operational plans.

5. Analyse and provide a detailed account of the current supply chain and the (operational, product or service) systems the business is using to deliver their service. Explain what is working well and what could be improved.

Measurement of Performance

6. Student should provide an analysis of the information provided in the case study which may include the out-of-date database, the stationery supplier and supplies, repeat business clients, recruitment candidates, focus of placements, profit.

7. Identify how the topics/areas for improvement performance could be measured, including an outline of the assessment tools or techniques that could be used. Evaluate the effectiveness of each tool/technique.

8. Student should outline at least one assessment tool or technique for the measurement of performance, which should include key performance indicators and may include audits and inspections. The effectiveness of each tool/technique should also be included. For example, if the student chooses audits as an assessment tool, the effectiveness may be that this is a measure that can be regularly used and that looks at many aspects of the business.

9. Identify at least two specialists that could help Woodhouse Recruitment. For example, this may be to identify technology and electronic commerce opportunities or to implement your ideas about continuous improvement and innovation. Include their contact details, the services they offer and a rationale

10. as to why it may be beneficial for the company to use their services.

11. Students should identify at least two specialists, their details and a rationale as to why their services would be beneficial to the initiatives that they have selected.

12. Conduct research and analyse and report on trends and opportunities relevant to Woodhouse Recruitment in relation to your topics/areas for improvement. Use the resources provided by the assessor as listed under ‘Required’, as well as any other relevant resources.

13. Students should provide an analysis on the trends and opportunities relevant to Woodhouse Recruitment. For example, a key trend for the industry is the use of social media in recruiting and the need for a clear social media strategy. Key statistics for the industry are as follows: Total revenue for the industry as a whole is $11 billion. Low annual growth of 0.2%. Demands for services are greatly influenced by Australia’s unemployment levels and business confidence. However, hiring expectations of employers appear too high, as shown at: http://au.hudson.com/latest-thinking/hudson-report-q12015 

14. Compare Woodhouse Recruitment's business performance statistics to industry benchmarks and provide an assessment of why or why not the company may not have met their targets.

15. Students should compare information from the resources provided and speculate why targets have not been met. This may include where they are focusing their recruitment activity, lack of social media exposure, on-going professional development for consultants, number of days to fill positions, fill rates.

Specialists to Help Woodhouse Recruitment

16. Discuss three examples of other innovative business ideas that Woodhouse Recruitment could adopt and implement.

17. Students may identify a range of examples. For example, use of social media, professionalization of recruitment consultants, use of employee value propositions in recruitment, improving use of company’s database to search for candidates, removing requirements for candidates’ specific qualifications, performance appraisal system, performance measure related to the service standards, sustainability measures.

18. The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

19. It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment, seek their feedback, and ask for the place, date and time of your meeting.

Attach your report to the email.

The report should be sent at least three days prior to the meeting.

Assessor: ensure that the presentation fulfils the criteria listed above. If not, return it to the student and request a resubmission.

Thoroughly review the student’s report prior to the meeting and comment on the ideas provided

When you are satisfied with the student’s presentation, respond to their email by

giving them the place, time and date of their presentation.

You will need to organise at least three other students to attend the meeting. They should have successfully submitted their presentations and should give their own presentations in the same session to minimise any advantages not presenting first may give.

Participate in a meeting to discuss your continuous improvement and innovation report.

Your assessor will organise two other students to attend your presentation. These students will be playing the role of the management team.

At the meeting, you should discuss the key findings of your report, as well as your ideas for continuous improvement and innovation in the business.

During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate your interpersonal skills, as well as your ability to build trust and confidence and encourage creativity in the management team. To do this you will need to demonstrate throughout your presentation your ability to clearly and confidently present information, encouraging questions from the team, discussing/brainstorming ideas and active listening techniques.

Make notes as required of the feedback provided. At the end of the meeting, you will need to take on board feedback provided and agree with the management team on the best way forward with your continuous improvement and innovation initiatives.

Assessor: at the end of the meeting you are required to provide feedback to the student and agree on the details of their initiatives for the next assessment.

1. Send an email to all parties involved (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

The email should summarise the ideas agreed to and seek final agreement to proceed with the initiatives based on the meeting discussion and as summarised in the email.

Assessor: the email’s text should reflect the feedback given to them during and after the meeting.