Case 2: AllSeasons

AllSeasons is an employment agency providing casual staff to the hospitality industry. Client businesses are across the range: pubs, clubs, restaurants, night clubs, fast food outlets as well as hotels and motels. The clients require staff on a temporary basis, so that they can cope with the large and irregular fluctuations in demand that are typical in the hospitality industry.

AllSeasons negotiates contracts with business clients to provide temporary staff with specific skills and certifications for an agreed cost. Staff are hired for jobs such as bar attendant, bar useful, waiter, cook’s assistant, room attendant, receptionist etc.

When a client business determines that it will need temporary staff, it will issue a staffing request against the contract it has previously established. When AllSeasons receives a staffing request the contract number is recorded by the Contract Manager.

The Contract Manager reviews the terms and conditions of the contract and determines whether the staffing request is valid. For example, the staffing request is valid if the contract has not expired, the type of request that has been requested is listed on the original contract and the request fee falls within the negotiated fee. If the staffing request is not valid, the Contract Manger sends the staffing request back to the client with a letter stating why the request cannot be filled, and a copy of the letter is filed. If the staffing request is valid, the Contract Manager records the details as an outstanding request and forwards the request to the Placement Officer.

In the Placement Department, the type of skills and experience requested are matched with the available staff. If a suitable person is found, he/she is marked as “reserved”. If a qualified person cannot be found, or is not immediately available, a memo (letter) is created that explains the inability to meet the request. The memo is attached to the staffing request. All staffing requests are then sent to an Arrangements Officer.

In the Arrangements Department, the prospective casual worker is contacted and asked to agree to the placement. After the placement details have been worked out and agreed to, the casual worker is marked as “placed”. A copy of the staffing request and an invoice for the placement fee is sent to the client. The staffing request, the “unable to fill” memo (if any) and copy of the invoice (if any) is sent to the Contract Manager.

If the staffing request was filled, the Contract Manger closes the open request. If the staffing request could not be filled the client is notified. Finally, the staffing request, the “unable to fill” memo (if any) and the copy of the invoice (if any) is filed in the Contract Office.

AllSeasons is expanding their operations in permanent placements of hospitality staff, and the new system should support interviewing candidates for permanent positions. AllSeasons needs to shortlist three candidates from the available pool of applications through comparing skills and experience with the characteristics of an open job. The details and applications of shortlisted candidates will be sent to the client for interviews. AllSeasons will schedule interviews after consultation with the client and candidates. The client will advise AllSeasons of the outcome of interviews in writing. The rest of the hiring process should be similar to that of a casual staff. AllSeasons wants the new system to support their expanding business through placements of casual as well as permanent staff.

AllSeasons also wants the new system use emerging technologies, such as mobile devices, cloud computing, big data and social networks for decision making, improving various business processes and to provide quality services to various stakeholders and job seekers.