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exelle Manufacturing Inc. decided to build its second plant

in a fairly small town in the Midwest. The new plant was

going to have the best equipment, with all the latest technolo-

gy. The first positions to be filled were for 15 maintenance

workers. Sherri, the human resources manager for the new

plant, was in charge of finding candidates to be interviewed by

the maintenance and production managers. The response to

an ad in the local paper was incredible: hundreds of candi-

dates replied. After four days of interviewing, only three job

offers had been made, and only one candidate accepted.

What happened.

Everyone had a different idea about what a "qualified"

candidate looked like. The HR manager used an old job

description to help her decide who to schedule for interviews.

The maintenance manager felt that, with the new equipment,

Programmable Logic Controls (PLC) experience was definitely

a job requirement, and therefore eliminated all candidates

without that particular skill. The production manager thought

that training in PLC skills would be provided by the company,

so he didn't even ask about PLC knowledge. Instead, he

focused on the candidates' ability to work with others,

Competency-Based

Job Descriptions