Smelly's.Shoes
At 18. Page White began her career with Smelly's Shoes, a shoe retailer, as a stock clerk. Her
desire to interact with customers, combined with a knowledge of the shoes and their
manufacturers, led her to applv and be promoted to floor salesperson within the first six months.
Today, six years later. Page is Regional Manager of a four state area. with combined sales of 2.4
million dollars, from 14 stores, and 143 employees. Sam Smelly believed that anyone, even his
relatives, should start the same place he did: at the bottom, then go as far as their energy, talent,
desire. and abilities could take them. Promotion from within is embedded in Smelly's culture and
heritage, believing that success comes from not only knowing your products. customers, and
function, but also the company.
Smelly,s management expects employees to assume responsibility for their own careers and to
let management know what position they wish to hold, what they want to learn, and what their
long and shon term goals are. Such a philosophy isn't for everyone. There is a 22"10 turnover for
new hires within the first year, but it drops to 3"10 for managers who have adapted to a culture of
such high expectations. Page, impressed with your initiative as a pan time student and part time
employee, challenges you with a special assignment: Page asks you to help her develop a new
position titled "Human Rersource Manager," and suggests that if you perform well in the following
special assignment, you may be on your way to fast tracking your career at Smelly's too.
Specifically, she asks you to develop a job description, an advertisement for Smelly's Shoes'
newsletter, and a job analysis for a Human Resource Manager who will report to her at job grade
S9. She would like to meet within one week to discuss the descriptions, newsletter advertisement,
type of job analysis used and why, and your internal recruiting suggestions.
You are to bring a rough draft for Human Resource Manager description and analysis to- the
meeting. Based upon your drafts an internal search for best candidates will begin.
Assignment
Prepare the following·
1 Job description (to include purpose. duties and responsibilities,' work experience requirements,
working relationships. educational requirements. skills and competencies. expectations and
success factors).
2. Describe the job analysis you will use and why.
3. Internal recruiting suggestions.
4. Create a sample newsletter advertisement.