An Analysis of Hopwood Mfg. and Lambert University

Fortune 500 companies need talent in order to grow and thrive irrespective of their industries. Universities are often graded and ranked on how well students are placed for full-time professional positions once they graduate. There is an obvious synergy here, with companies needing talent and universities looking to find employment for alumni. Hopwood Manufacturing, a Fortune 500 company, contracted with David Maggert, to professionalize the company's management. Mr. Maggert had ties to Lambert University and sought to utilize this relationship to help develop the management trainee program at the Hopwood Manufacturing Company. This is a very common practice today, with universities holding career day events, hosting companies who are interested in hiring trainees and interns.

The process seems very simple in nature, but the hiring process can be very complex, with many moving parts and many parties involved. It isn't as linear as a hiring manager interviewing candidates, and picking the best one. There are recruiters, benefit coordinators, peer interviewers, department managers, and then added complexity of adding third parties. Human Resource Management consultants, external recruiters, and college recruiters or liaisons could also be involved to help coordinate and provide qualified candidates.

David Maggert and a Hopwood Manufacturing Human Resource representative, Wendy Blair visited Lambert University in order to recruit college candidates for its internship program. Over two-hundred students attended a presentation the night before the interviews were to take place. Only a dozen students were selected to interview. During the presentation, Wendy Blair seemed very uninterested and acted unprofessionally. The next day the Hopwood representatives met with the students, which was an all-day affair. At the end of the day when all of the interviews were complete, Robert Harvey, a professor who helped coordinate-word choice with the university, met with Maggert and Blair. Mr. Harvey was taken aback by some of the comments of the Hopwood HR Representative. Ms. Blair believes that Hopwood cannot extend an offer to a female Hispanic student, as the young woman may be placed at a Hopwood plant in the Southern United States. There seemed to be undertones of possible racial issues if the student were to go to those plants. This is startling to hear and even more surprising coming from someone who works in Human Resources.

The backroom hiring politics at a company such as Hopwood may have worked for them in their own "bubble", but these questionable hiring practices are now affecting the students, faculty and staff of a small-town college. It is unfortunate that this type of behavior exists in any company, let alone a large Fortune 500 company. Human Resource employees should understand and be aware of what is unacceptable and what proper hiring practices are. As a consultant to the management team at Hopwood, David Maggert has a duty to his client to inform someone of this issue. Although he is less of an agent of the company than his counterpart, he is still representing the company in the work he is performing at the college.

Robert Harvey and Sharon Wilson, have a duty to serve the students and the interests of the college. They are in a rather precarious position, knowing that there are discriminatory practices at work by a third party, affecting their students. Although Harvey and Wilson have the opportunity to brush