Publications

September 2018
Article

Assembling the Sales Team

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts, making each hire a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. Most companies adopt two common practices: They hire on the basis of “experience” and/or look at their best reps and try... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Selection and Staffing

3 Feb 2020
Interview

Lou Shipley: [How to Build a Culture of Enablement]

By: Lou Shipley

This episode of Reveal brings Lou Shipley, investor, lecturer, and previous CEO of Black Duck Security. Lou details sales enablement's role in delivering sales excellence and an effective new hire onboarding experience. View Details

Keywords: Hiring; Company Culture; Sales; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Culture

April 2018
Article

Compromised Ethics in Hiring Processes? How Referrers' Power Affects Employees' Reactions to Referral Practices

By: Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Bradford Baker and F. Gino

In this paper, we explore referral-based hiring practices and show how a referrer’s power (relative to the hiring manager) influences other organizational members’ support (or lack thereof) for who is hired through perceptions of the hiring manager’s motives and... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Ethics; Perception

01 Dec 2017
News

Case Study: The Doctor Deficit

seeking temporary staffing. Finding talent is an enormous source of expense and inefficiency in the industry, adds Nazem, who estimates that “nearly 100 percent” of health care institutions will need temporary staff this year. The idea isn’t new. Temporary medical... View Details

Keywords: April White

9 AM – 10 AM EDT, 20 Mar 2019
HBS Online

HBS Online Business Analytics

Develop a data mindset and the analytical skills to interpret and communicate data. This course will demystify data analysis and equip you with concrete skills to apply in your work or further studies. Program Dates: March 20, 2019 - May 15, 2019 View Details

May 1997
Case

Center for Women & Enterprise: Looking for a Director of Development with "The Scrappiness Factor"

By: Thomas J. Kosnik and Natalie Zakarian

Andrea Silbert is founder of the Center for Women & Enterprise, a nonprofit with a mission to empower women to become economically self-sufficient and prosperous through entrepreneurship. She must select a new senior sales executive, decide how to share... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Selection and Staffing; Entrepreneurship

Educators

January 2021
Article

Sales Hiring Is Hard to Do (Don't Make It Harder)

By: Frank V. Cespedes

In the aggregate, hiring in sales is more expensive than many companies’ cap-ex decisions. But it rarely gets the same attention and companies fail to deal with challenges inherent in sales hiring. Unlike many other business functions, there is no easily identified... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing; Human Resources

Read Now

2015
Working Paper

Discretion in Hiring

By: Mitchell Hoffman, Lisa B. Kahn and Danielle Li

Who should make hiring decisions? We propose an empirical test for assessing whether firms should rely on hard metrics such as job test scores or grant managers discretion in making hiring decisions. We implement our test in the context of the introduction of a... View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Management Practices and Processes

Read Now

October 2010 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Baxter's Asia Pacific 'Talent Edge' Initiative

By: Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi and Christopher Poliquin

This case examines whether multinationals have a potential competitive weapon in aggressively exploiting social schisms in host labor markets and in hiring and promoting senior managers from excluded groups. View Details

Keywords: Labor; Selection and Staffing; Groups and Teams

Educators

June 1973 (Revised December 1977)
Case

Affirmative Action at Aldrich

By: George C. Lodge

Keywords: Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Policy

September 2000
Background Note

Professional Services Module One: Introduction to the Challenges Facing PSFs

By: Thomas J. DeLong, Ashish Nanda and Scot H. Landry

This initial module was meant to clarify how the course would be useful to students who would be starting PSFs, working for them as an employee or contractor, managing them, or hiring them from the client side. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Selection and Staffing; Management; Service Delivery; Service Industry

May 2013
Supplement

Paul Thomson: Walker Insurance

This is the Spreadsheet Supplement for Walker Insurance: Paul Thomson (HBS Case 813057). Includes Exhibit 1a, Exhibit 1b, Exhibit 2, Exhibit 4, Exhibit 5, Exhibit 6, and Exhibit 7. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Organizations; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Search; Search Funds; Sales Force Management; Sales; Sales Channels; Insurance And Reinsurance; Insurance Companies; Acquisitions; Hiring; Service Management; Service; Insurance; Salesforce Management; Selection and Staffing; Insurance Industry; United States

September 22, 2008
Article

How to Minimize the Risks of Hiring Outside Stars

By: Boris Groysberg, Lex Sant and Robin Abrahams

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Selection and Staffing

Read Now

01 Sep 2012
News

The School of Life

battled it out in an ever-increasing test of nerves, a kind of Darwinian gauntlet. Early NASA executives had decided this was how to identify who had been born with “the right stuff.” Many companies looking to make top staffing decisions... View Details

Keywords: Professor Clay Christensen; Educational Services; Management

29 Apr 2014
News

"Pull People Through"

Keywords: mentoring; diversity; Credit Intermediation and Related Activities; Finance

June 2005 (Revised August 2006)
Case

The Perfect CEO

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

A venture capitalist must decide among three highly qualified candidates to be CEO of a start-up software company. Each has unique strengths and weaknesses and will take the company in very different directions. Whom should he recommend to the board? View Details

Keywords: Selection and Staffing; Competency and Skills; Leadership Style

Educators