2015 SHRM STUDENT CASE COMPETITION AND CAREER SUMMIT
Case Competition Rules & Regulations
Preparing for the Case Competition
There are many ways a team can prepare for the Case Competition. Remember, teams will be judged on
both their HR knowledge and oral presentation skills.
Here are a few suggestions to get started:
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Review HR related course textbooks. Case samples may be used as examples.
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Conduct practice sessions in a timed environment – 15 minutes will pass quickly.
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Practice mock competitions using sample cases, and assume the role of an HR professionals who
represents the interest of the organization. Determine what would need to be addressed to
successfully solve the issue put forth in the case study.
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Practice the oral presentation in front of people. Have the “audience” ask questions to prepare
for possible questions the judges may ask during the competition.
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Do not overlook critical things like deciding who will present which portion of the solution and in
which order.
SHRM Resources
Sample case studies can be found on SHRM’s Member Resource website.
Maintaining Integrity of Event
By registering to compete in the Case Competition, participants agree to abide by the SHRM Code of
Ethics and maintain the highest level of integrity throughout the competition.
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Work on the case assignment must be completed by the team only.
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Teams are expected to conduct any and all necessary research through publically available
resources. Use of all library resources, class textbooks and websites, such as SHRM.org are
welcomed.
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Teams are expressly prohibited from securing advice from advisors, professors, parents, friends,
or other personal contacts.
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Teams will be disqualified from the competition if it is found that a violation has occurred.
New 2015 - Virtual Preparation
New this year is virtual preparation. This allows not only for more teams to compete, but also expands
the prep time from 4 hours to 4 days. During that timeframe the team will prepare the following:
Written Executive Summary
The written summary is limited to two pages and will be judged and scored in advance of the event by a
panel of judges.
Oral Presentation
The oral presentation consists of a PowerPoint presentation the team will present at the event. The
presentation should be no longer than 15 minutes. A panel of judges then will ask questions and judge
the presentation.
Receiving the Case Scenario and Preparation Documents

The “team captain” (*) will be the main point of contact between SHRM and the team.
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The team captain will be emailed a link to the case assignment 3 weeks prior to the competition
to prepare their written and oral submissions.
The case assignment will be sent on the Monday (12:00am EST), 3 weeks prior to the start of
the competition, and the team will have 4 days, until the Thursday of the same week
(11:59pm EST) to read, analyze and submit their submission.
The team captain must confirm receipt of the case assignment. If not received the team will be
disqualified.
It is the responsibility of the team captain to submit the required documents. Those not
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submitted in the required format may be ineligible to use in the competition.
*For more on the team captain’s role and responsibilities see the individual and team eligibility
requirements.
When to Submit the Written Executive Summary and Oral Presentation

The team’s completed submission, both written executive summary and oral presentation
(PowerPoint presentation), must be received by the Thursday of the same week the case
assignment was sent. All submission must be made by 11:59pm EST. Submissions received
after the deadline will not be accepted.
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A confirmation receipt will be sent to the team lead’s email.
Changes may not be made to the PowerPoint presentation after it has been submitted.
Note: Plan to print off copies of the PowerPoint slide deck and prepare presentation notes before
attending the event. Copies of the presentation will not be available on-site.
Guidelines for Submission

Do not reference the name of your college/university in either of your submissions. Each team
will be provided a team number.

When saving documents, use this following naming protocol:
Team Number X Oral Presentation.pptx
Team Number X Witten Executive Summary.docx.
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Changes will not be allowed to the team’s written executive summary or PowerPoint
presentation after submission.
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Should the submissions be in a different format, which when printed or presented affects the
formatting, changes cannot be made on-site.

It is the judges’ discretion to downgrade the score based on presentation – written summary
and PowerPoint.
Written Executive Summary Format
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The written executive summary should not exceed 2 pages
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Times New Roman, 12 point
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Single spaced
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Must be saved in Microsoft Word 2013/XP format
Oral Presentation – PowerPoint Format
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Presentations must be submitted on the PowerPoint template supplied.
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There is not a minimum or maximum number of slides. Use discretion when preparing the
presentation to ensure the recommendation is clear and concise.

When developing the content, remember, the team takes on the role of a team of HR
professionals presenting to their organization’s senior management.

Although teams cannot note the name of their college/university, they can include team
member names.
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Sound effects and video clips are not allowed in the presentation. Teams will not have access to
Wi-Fi (i.e. YouTube videos) during the presentation.
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Graphics are allowed in the presentation.
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The oral presentation must be saved in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013/XP format. Presentations
will be viewed on computers with Microsoft office.
Team Presentations

Appearance and demeanor (i.e., attitude, interactions with others) should reflect a professional
attitude. These components of professionalism contribute to the team’s overall score.
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The time limit for the presentation is 15 minutes followed by Q&A by the judges. Time limits will
be enforced. If the presentation goes over 15 minutes, the judges will stop the presentation.
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Wear business attire.
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Do not dress in college/university colors or wear clothing bearing any reference to your
university. This applies to students and advisor/faculty members.

To ensure no bias, perceived or real, teams are assigned a number and are asked to reframe
from referencing their college/university name.
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You can share your names during the presentation and on the slide deck.
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Note cards are allowed to be used during the presentation.
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Although all team members do not have to present, they must be present at the front of the
room during the presentation and be available to answer questions.
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Teams proceeding to the final round will not be able to make any changes to their PowerPoint
presentation. However, teams will be able to change what they say for the final round.
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Handouts and/or props or displays are not allowed. An exception will be made in the event of
any technical difficulties. Teams are encouraged to plan in advance and bring copies of their
slide deck to present to the judges (up to 3 judges) should this occur should any difficulties arise.
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Ten minutes will be allotted to fix any technical or equipment problems after which the teams
must use their handouts.
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If a team’s PowerPoint slide deck is not compatible and cannot be displayed in the judging room,
the team may present their findings without the slide deck. It will be the discretion of the judges
to take off points. Teams are encouraged to plan in advance and bring copies of their slide deck
to use to present should this occur.
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Presentations will be displayed on laptops that operate on the Windows platform and will be
pre-loaded for the team.
Preliminary Round
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Teams will be informed on-site of their designated presentation time. All preliminary round
presentations will occur on the first day of the event – Friday.
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If a team is late, and/or misses their designated presentation time, it is not guaranteed an
alternate time can be accommodated.
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All team members must be present at the front of the room during the presentation, even if
they are not presenting.
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Student chapter advisors and individual attendees are allowed to sit in on preliminary rounds of
judging. Limited seating will be available to view judging of the oral presentations and will be
available on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Those participating in the case competition are not allowed to sit in on other teams’
presentations.
Final Round
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The final round will occur on Saturday.
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Teams will present in front of 3 panel judges, all other Case Competition team’s and general
Summit attendees.
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The finalists (top 2 teams in both undergraduate and graduate divisions) will be announced
Saturday morning.
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Teams will have a period of time to prepare before they present, although they will not be able
to make adjustments to their PowerPoint presentation.
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A flip of the coin will determine which team presents first.
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The finalists may not listen to the other presentations.
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Preliminary scores are not used for the final round – scoring is based solely on the final
presentation.
Scoring
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A separate panel of judges will rate the oral presentation and written executive summary based
on the rubrics that are provided along with the case.
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The written executive summary will be scored in advance of the event.
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The oral presentation is worth 60% of the total and the written executive summary is worth
40%, to total 100%.
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A sample rubric will be provided to the team as a part the virtual preparation documents.
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At the end of the 15-minute presentation and Q&A period, the two teams from each division
with the total highest points combined from all scoring elements will go on to the final round.
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After all teams have competed in a preliminary round, and the finalists in each category have
been determined, the finalists will compete in two final rounds (one for the undergraduate
teams and one for the graduate teams) on Saturday.
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The winning teams will be announced during the closing session on Saturday afternoon.
Tiebreakers
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In case of a tie entering the final round, the team with the highest score in the Written Executive
Summary will move to the final round.
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Once teams have presented in the finals, judges will score their presentation. If there is a tie in
the final round, the team with the highest ranking during the preliminary round will win the tie.
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