Business Case Competition

WINNING PRIZE: 100,000/- PKR [Archived]

Meet the Winners

Asad
Amna

This year, the winners of the business case competition are Asad and Amna. As a team, they shared actionable knowledge that answered all the problems presented in the business case.
Their in-depth research and report gave them an edge over other experienced participants.
We have already started many initiatives this year and are expecting a great future ahead. We want to thank everyone who participated.

Question

This year, we are focusing on a specific topic under HR – employee retention and turnover – as part of our business case competition. The reason we are choosing this topic is because we want to promote growth in all our fellow teammates. If turnover is high, we lose talent; this also impacts our business continuity. If we are able to reduce turnover, this helps maintain our team size, and management and executive-level positions will open up more quickly. We will focus on resume writer turnover specifically. What steps can we take to improve turnover in each category (N, RW, SRW) listed in the 5-year projections below by 5%?

How will the winner be decided?

The Director of Operations at SmartWrite will go through each submission, carefully study the ideas you introduce, and score each idea that you share based on its quality.

  • If you share a good idea as part of your submission, you will get a “3” for that idea.
  • If you share a mediocre idea, you will get a “1.”
  • If you share a decent idea, but implementation is not feasible due to budget issues or some other bottleneck, you will get a “2.”

All the “idea scores” in your submission will be totaled. The winner of the competition will be the case with the highest total.

Please see our last year’s winner. The question they answered was “How can we shorten our training processes?” The 2020 winner will also have this level of detail and research.

What resources should I study to create a good submission?

SHRM, ADP, ATD, and Paylocity all publish phenomenal literature on turnover. These might help you get started. Please also don’t be afraid to look within. How can an employer ensure your retention?

Historical Growth & Strengths

historic growth infographic

2019 Survey Data

5-Year Projections

Here are my 5-year projections with three different variables (explained below)

Terminology:
  • Capacity: Clients served per quarter
  • N: Newbies: worked less than 6 months with us
  • RW: Resume Writers: worked less than 12 months with us, but more than 6 months
  • SRW: Senior Resume Writers: worked more than 12 months with us and then quit
  • Dataset 1: If we hadn’t made the training program and recruiting changes we made this year
  • Dataset 2: With the changes we made this year. (For rationale, please see calculations in section “Historical (2014 – 2020) Resume Writer Turnover Data”).
  • Dataset 3: If we cut turnover in each category by 5%.

Historical (2014 - 2020) Resume Writer Turnover Data

Some notes:
* Serial Number (does not coincide with employer ID number)
** Due to some of the recent changes we have made in our training, resource availability, and disciplinary measures, I feel that if certain people were hired now, their turnover would be different. In the right-most column, I adjusted turnover with these notes in mind. I feel it is safe to say our current turnover can be most accurately captured by the metrics towards the bottom right. These are the metrics that your business case should aim to improve by 5 percentage points in each category.
I’ve taken the liberty of color-coding reasons for turnover. This might give you some perspective on where we can begin.
  • If employees quit due to studies abroad, we can continue engaging with them on a monthly basis via our newsletter and support their education so that they can join us in a more senior capacity later if they desire.
  • Quality issues have been the theme of last year’s business case competition, but in your business case submission, do think about turnover due to quality as well.
  • Can counseling help retain employees who suffer from less-than-ideal work environments? Would a physical location (non-virtual setting) help? How can we keep these otherwise star performers engaged?
In your submission, think not only about how to engage resume writers at each category (i.e. how many months they have worked with us), but also how to engage them at each stage in their life.

Deadlines

If you have questions, please email contact@smartwritegroup.com. If you are ready to submit your entry, please fill out this form.
The deadline to submit your case is 03 April 2020.