Synopsis 

Amna, the recruitment specialist at Fatima Group, is asked to evaluate if there is any other way
through which they can increase the universities they target every year for their talent acquisition
program Empower to lead. After analyzing various competitors and their techniques over the
years and the changes they have made Fatima group realized that they should be able to use their
resources in a more efficient way to increase their target limit. Therefore, the company first need
to analyze the possible ways they have to accomplish their goal. There are two possible
situations for Amna to go with after considering the pros and cons and it’s up to Amna to decide
which one to choose to get the best outcome. There is an option to use digitized network like
gamification to test the caliber of the candidate and move forward according to that which will
help eliminate the candidates that are not suitable for the position or they can go for trade-off
position.

Purpose

This case provides an idea of the difficulties that a recruitment department/agency faces during
the hiring process with limited resources. It allows the students to think of the possible options
for the company to resolve the issue and enhance their cognitive skills. The class starts to line up
the challenges that the company faces and the opportunities available in the process so they can
figure out the best possible solution and learn to dive deep inside the details to understand the
restrictions present with limited resources. This case can be taught to the Business
Undergraduates and Masters students (MBA) that specifically focus on Recruitment process.

Teaching Objectives

 To have good command of the subject matter

 To enhance the cognitive skills
 To demonstrate the role of the companies
 To explain the issues faced due to limited resources 
 To understand the situation faced by the recruitment department
Teaching Questions

Question 1:

Do you think Fatima Group was successful in creating an Employer Brand? If yes, why were
they successful? If not, what do you think lacked in their way?

Yes, Fatima group was successful in creating an Employer brand because of these particular
reasons:

Fatima group strived to make a mark as the Employer of Choice for young graduates and took
some particularly interesting initiatives to open its doors to the candidates. With a Fertilizer plant
in Sadiqabad spanning over 950 acres, Fatima Group invited students from various universities
to spend a weekend with them. From visiting the heart of the Ammonia and Urea plants,
accessibility to the Golf Course, Management Club facilities and topped off with lavish lunches
and dinners with the senior management, it provided the perfect opportunity for young minds to
experience life at Fatima Group.

To contribute in the field of education, Fatima Group also engaged its senior management in
delivering talks in various universities, these included LUMS, LSE, UET, UMT, and others with
an ambition to listen to the voice of the youth and to curate their career paths in the competitive
job market. 

In 2018 Fatima Group launched their E2L to target a few selected universities with a criteria for
selection. The program was structured to give exposure to all functions within the organization
before placing the candidate in their parent function. A well thought through learning &
development model was placed for Fatima Group’s new hires to inculcate and monitor the
growth trajectory of every single individual.

The way they conducted tests, engaged students in interviews, and held activities at assessment
centers were revamped each year to ensure they had selected the best of the best talent while
creating a great experience for the candidates. They made adjustments in the recruitment drive
based on the feedback they got every year.

Through all this Fatima group was successful in creating the Employer brand.

Question 2

What other options would the Fatima Group there could be that Fatima Group can do for
increasing the target universities?

Currently, Fatima Group is using the traditional means of talent acquisition/recruiting which
involves the campus drive, online assessment, panel interview and before handing the offer letter
another assessment is conducted at their premises. 

One of the options that Fatima Group can undertake is adopting an online recruiting platform.
The online recruiting platforms streamline the process of recruiting and makes it easier for the
company to shortlist the best candidate for the job. Everything is automated in these platforms.
Freshteam from Software Company Freshworks is one of the leading software for recruiting,
some of the features included in the top of the line package are:

 Resume Parsing
 Job Requisition Management
 Social Media Integration and Recruiting
 Interview Scheduling
 Talent Pool Management

One of the challenges for Fatima Group was targeting universities on a low budget. The pricing
which includes the maximum features cost $200 per month for 50 users. The yearly cost would
be $2,400 which translates to PKR 392,400.

  Another option is to collaborate with the online job portals, they can post the job opening in
which they can link their online test which will help the company in diversifying their target
market as they wont need to go to any particular university. 
Question 3:

 In your opinion what Fatima Group is doing differently as compared to its competitors? 

Fatima group is a company that believes in creating a memorable experience for the candidates,
not just plain recruitment, they want to engage the candidates in the activities and have them
understand the values that the company follows and wants their employees to follow as well.
They don’t want the candidates to just sit forcefully to listen to them; they want them to be fully
active and engaged with them in the process throughout.

What other employer brands (Jazz, Unilever, HBL) mostly do they don’t really want to engage
with their candidates rather they conduct recruitment drives annually hosted by universities,
conduct online interviews and select the candidates on that basis and then an interview to finalize
the hiring process and all of this is without actually engaging with the candidate, candidates
usually start the job and get to know about the company with time.

As much as all of this is normal what Fatima group wants when they hire is not this, they like to
engage with their candidates to know who they are hiring, nature of the candidate, will they be
able to adjust in the company for a longer period of time or they will leave after a short while, all
of this is important for Fatima group. This is what Fatima group is doing differently from its
competitors.

Question 4:

Out of the two options which one would be the most effective in targeting more universities in
less resources? Select only one option, and provide at least two advantages for your selected
option.

IF 1 OPTION CHOSEN:
st

The best option for Fatima group is to use the digitized format like gamification and job
simulations to test the caliber of the candidate because this way they can target as many
universities as they want to in one go. Targeting a maximum number of universities in one go
will help them find the best pool of candidates with the required level of caliber they are looking
for and in return they won’t have to use a massive amount of resources they are always worried
about. Digitized formats are getting very popular these days as students prefer them a lot more
and they don’t have to go anywhere and this also helps companies decide candidates that are
eligible without having to waste their time as well.

The first advantage by choosing this option that Fatima group can achieve is that they will have a
waste number of students applying for the same position and through the digitized portals and
they will be able to choose the candidates that will be best suitable for the next round based on
the scores from the games and simulations.

The second advantage that Fatima group will have is that this way they won’t have to waste the
resources on a large number of students in the first step rather once they will have a selected
number of candidates they can use those resources more efficiently and effectively.

IF 2 OPTION CHOSEN:
nd

The best option for Fatima group is that they can go for the trade-off position and they can
conduct online recruitment tests for the targeted universities and decide a number of new
universities to visit and use their resources there to find a diverse amount of talent and do things
a little different than they usually do every year by going to the same universities.

The first advantage that they can have is that they won’t be leaving their targeted universities and
they will be able to target a few more universities this will help them decide in future if they
want to add any of the new targeted university into their permanent list and this will only be done
if the response and talent they find is good and up to their requirements.

The second advantage would be that they will be able to evaluate a large number of universities
and they will be able to get them online as well this way they could target a set of new
universities and already targeted universities can be with them through online recruitment. This
will allow Fatima Group to attract a large influx of candidates and find diverse talent and
enhance their brand even more.

Question 5

Given you were leading the talent acquisition team for the company, how differently would you
create a memorable candidate experience?
Although Fatima Group has created a renowned brand image in the context of employment.
There are still some things that can be applied which can enhance their brand image. If I was the
team lead for the talent acquisition I would have done the following things.

 Social Media 

Usage of Social Media can help companies to showcase the candidate experience. With the
introduction of job posting features on Facebook Fatima Group can post jobs and link their
online assessment for talent acquisition. They can make small snippets in which they can
showcase their office culture using Instagram and Snapchat which will help the future candidates
whether to apply or not. With the help sponsored post it will be only shown to the students of
Universities.

 Telling Employee Stories

Fatima Group can tell the stories of their employees which can showcase their time in the
Organization. They can post the stories on the website and shoot videos of employees telling
about the organization and posting it on social media platforms.

 Increase in Social Media Interaction

With the help of sponsored ads the companies will eventually generate more response from the
students on their social media platforms, with this they should respond to the students if any
query is raised in this way students will be more inclined towards the company as there will be
one-on-one interaction between the organization and the student.

Teaching Plan

Class Duration: 60 Minutes

The instructor can start the lecture by asking the students “do you know what recruitment means?” or
“What is included in the recruitment process?” which will start a thinking process in students minds and
they will define recruitment in their language or what they think recruitment is or they will start naming
the various steps they think are included in the recruitment process. Both of these questions will generate
almost the similar answers and will help boost the energy of the students. The instructor then answer what
he think is recruitment and what this case is all about. After this instructor can start with the history of the
company, what they company is about and what they do in their recruitment department, how they
conduct the drives and select the universities for recruitment. The instructor can go forward by identifying
the two options and take votes for the best possible option and reason with it. The instructor can further
discuss if anything else can be done or not for the remaining time left.
History (10 minutes)
 Established in 1935 as a company for trading goods and soon after that they started their
business related to manufacturing of various goods.
 A small trading company and now it’s grown as one of the main enterprises in Pakistan.
  Played an important role in boosting the economy of Pakistan and made large
investments in the manufacturing plants by using the latest technology and promoting
manufacturing processes on a large scale.
 Operates in sectors of energy, commodities trading, sugar, mining, fertilizers and textile
 A parent company to many different subsidiaries.
 Fatima Fertilizer Company Limited which was incorporated on December 24, 2003.
 NIC Lahore a joint venture of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and
Fatima Ventures.

Side Note: Students should be able to grasp how Fatima Group evolved over the years, and how enriching
it was from a small company to in the big leagues.
Introduction (5 Minutes)
 Fatima group strives to make a mark as the Employer of Choice for young graduates and
took some particularly interesting initiatives to open its doors to the candidates.
 Fertilizer plant in Sadiqabad spanning over 950 acres, Fatima Group invites students
from various universities to spend a weekend with them.
 Contributes in the field of education, Fatima Group also engages its senior management
in delivering talks in various universities.

Business Portfolio (25 minutes)

Operating Business Sectors:
1. Energy
2. Commodities trading
 3. Sugar
4. Mining
5. Fertilizers and textile

Talent Acquisition:
Talent Acquisition in Pakistan:
 Problems faced by the companies.

Talent Acquisition at Fatima Group:

 Strives to make a mark as the Employer of Choice for young graduates and took
some particularly interesting initiatives to open its doors to the candidates.
 Fatima Group launched their E2L program.
 Management Trainee Officers (MTOs) and Graduate Trainee Engineers (GTEs).
 Problems faced by targeting only limited number of universities.
Competitors:
 New and improved digitized methods to conduct recruitment drives.
 Different companies using different methods to attract as much candidates as
possible.

Target Goals (15 Minutes)

 Ensuring Credibility throughout the process.
 Strategies.
 Creating a memorable candidate experience
 Hiring Process
 E2L

Future
 Mr. Jamshaid, the lead talent sustainability at Fatima Group was aware that they could
target more universities and expand in other cities.
 Challenge faced by them was the limited resources that were allocated for their program
Empower to Lead.
 There was a lot of potential out there in other universities.
  Could look for ways to target the other universities too staying within their resources and
maintain their credibility in the hiring process.
 A plan in near future to include more online tools for assessment and opt for more
automated processes in the years to come.

After discussing the future concerns and possible plan instructor can ask the students whether what they
are thinking of doing next is enough or not? If not then what else can be done?
Suggested Board Plan:

-Competitors
-Strategies
-Hiring Process
-Drivers behind E2L
History: Fatima Group:
-1935 -Evolved over the years
-Small trading company -Empower to Lead
-Manufacturing goods -Creating an Employer brand
-Different sectors

Future Concerns:
-Eligibility criteria
-Limited resources
-Limited target
-Limited Potential