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Assignment Details

Managing Human 7HR011

Module name Resources Module Code
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attention of
Due date 19.06.2017
Assignment title SG Cowen Case Study
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Introduction
SG Cowen was established in 1998 and Societe Generale purchased Cowen and it is
France based international bank. SG Cowens investment bankers focused on
emerging growth companies in two sector but highly profitable areas, health care and
technology. This approach depended on deep knowledge collected through its equity
research team, highly regarded for its coverage of both health care and technology.
Had a good background in Boston and was expanding several other offices, as far as
San Francisco, Dallas, and London which is expanded geographically which generated
the need for new recruitments ; to fulfil the global needs and wants Chip Rae, Director
of recruiting at SG Cowen identified professional expertise and working on it.

The hiring decision was made by SG Cowen in the early winter and spring of each year
to fill a new class of associate. The company has sourced through internal and
external ways. This case elaborates on the current recruitment and selection process
which is practiced. Hence this study will explore and critically analyse the key decision
points taken.

Theoretical analysis of recruitment and selection

Recruitment and selection are one of the main HR function which has evolved
dramatically throughout. The practice of recruitment and selection has assumed
greater important as it has positive impact to improve the performance of the
organization (Omolo, Oginda and Oso, 2012). Organisations adopt various methods
to attract suitably qualified candidates to their opportunities. One such method that has
picked up pace is on-campus recruitment restricted to core schools (Hanigan, 1991)

In this modern competitive business world most organizations are following different
ways of Recruitment and Selection process. Internet is the main factor that runs the
process within the short time period. Considering the traditional Recruitment and

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selection using physical location, interviews, employer references and etc. Same as
SG Cowen conducting their recruitment and selection process (Withiam, 1996;
Campion, Palmer and Campion, 1997). In the case study on campus recruitment is
having more part compare to other hiring process. It is one the ways of one to one
interview and during this process data and information are effectively store and transfer
to super Saturday. During the selection process employer reference are consider by
SG Cowen. Employer references are used actively by SG Cowen as evident from the
case study and this forms an essential part of their selection criteria.

Key decision points in SG Cowen hiring process

The process after that can be broken up into three stages. Each of these stages helped
the company make a decision about the candidate and is a key decision point for the
firm. Different parameters were looked at different stages. The three stages and the
decision points in each are as follows:

Stage 1 - Informational interviews

After the campus presentations, interested students were invited to visit the SG Cowen
office and interact with the bankers there. Though this process was not evaluative,
some amount of insight about the candidate could be gathered in this stage. Some
decision points that were involved in this stage were:

1. Is the candidate interested in the company? - Chip Rae believed that this stage
helped in self-selecting students who were actually interested in the firm. He believed
that the students who wanted to be more prepared for the first round interviews will take
the effort and visiting the office.
2. Is the candidate a self-starter? - SG Cowen was a boutique firm and had an
entrepreneurial culture. Most of the associates were given responsibilities and decision
making power right from the start. Due to this, it was believed that if a student went the
extra mile to know more about the company, he would fit well in the culture of the firm.
That is why having a background as an entrepreneur helps the case of the candidate.

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Stage 2 - On campus round
In the on-campus round, interviews were done to screen the candidates for the Super
Saturday. These interviews were conducted by the associates or senior associates
from the firm. This was because Rae believed that the senior employees should be
involved in the final interviews and on closing offers. It was also believed that the
associates and senior associates will be more in tune with the requirements of the job
and will be more rigorous in assessing the skills. There were two rounds of interview
conducted and finally 3 candidates were shortlisted from the school.

Some decision points which are considered in this stage are:

Does the candidate have the required skill set for the job? - The associates and
the senior associates tested if the candidate was competent enough to be a part
of SG Cowen. As the banking sector required specific skills, this was an
important criterion.
Is there a cultural fit between the candidate and the company? - Chip Rae
believed that having a cultural fit was more important than a person who lacked a
bit in the skills. The cultural fit included things like if the person will be able to
devote the long hours, to forego a social life and be able to adjust to a new
location.

Stage 3 - Super Saturday

The 30 students who were shortlisted in the on campus round were invited to the SG
Cowen office for the final interviews. These interviews were conducted by the senior
employees of SG Cowen. Each candidate had to go through five interviews and each
interview lasted for almost half an hour. The major decision points which were
considered while evaluating a candidate were as follows:
Do they demonstrate a pattern of success in their past life? - Schoenberg
believed that what a candidate has done in the past did not matter much in

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 choosing the ideal candidate. It was very possible that a person had a different
career choice before, but he excelled in whatever he did. Such a candidate
proved to be a good candidate.
Will they really love working at SG Cowen? - Fennebresque, the CEO of the
company, believed that it was essential for a person to like what he is doing in his
job. A person might be good at something, but if he doesnt like it, then there is
no point in him doing the job.
Are they interested in technology and emerging markets? - SG Cowen was a
boutique firm which focussed on technology and emerging markets. So a
candidate which had an interest in these areas proved to be an asset.
Will they be committed to the firm and be loyal to the firm? - In the banking
industry, the company used to have high turnovers as many employees used to
shift to a different firm. So, it was essential to have people who were loyal to the
firm.
Do they have good interpersonal skills? - The work required the employees to
interact with clients who were looking for a person with energy and enthusiasm.
Thus, interpersonal skills became an essential job requirement.
Will they be good team players? - The life of an associate was strenuous as he
had to spend long hours at work. Most of the deals were the result of team
activity and so, good team players were needed.
Are they mature in their judgements? - Since most of the decisions taken at SG
Cowen involved a lot of risk and responsibility, the candidates were expected to
show maturity in their judgements SG
Are they technically sound? - In the banking industry, it was very essential to
have knowledge of core finance concepts. Most of the decisions taken were
based on analysing financial data and making specific models. Hence, the
candidates needed to have strong technical skills.
Are they flexible and versatile? - Due to the inherent uncertainties of the job, the
candidates were required to be flexible and versatile

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Evaluation of the SG Cowen selection criteria

Different components of the hiring process have been evaluated in the following
manner.

Informal Interviews

SG Cowen used informal interviews to gauge the interest of students in their firm. Each
core school had Team Captains who would usually be the alumni of these schools and
were responsible for interaction with the candidates. This was extremely beneficial as it
gave the students a chance to learn about the banking industry. However, students at
non-core business schools did not have such an option and had to approach bankers
themselves for conducting these interviews. This process was difficult and cumbersome
as usually the bankers would have extremely busy schedules. As described by
Schoenberg, SG Cowen was not very receptive to the people from non-core business
schools. The process of informal interviews might thus create an undue advantage to
people from core business schools.

Also, the team captains are not human resource professionals and thus may end up
testing only skills and not personality. This might lead to bias creeping in the process as
the team captains might be selecting candidates on few characteristics and thus
stereotyping the candidates. The involvement in recruiting activities was taken into
consideration in the performance reviews which decided year-end bonuses. This might
be an insufficient motivation for the team captains.

Employee references

According to the employer view point that they are investigating the candidate
background when making informed hiring decision. This was much more useful to help
their decision making. They are limited time commitment and cost savings. By giving
evidence on the colleagues behalf (Manojkrishnan, 2001).

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According to the SG Cowen case study that they use references from the past
employer. These were so much helpful to decision making process. And this is evident
that for Natalya and Ken for reference. However, there is an adverse or favorable site
because it depend on the information given by the previous employer it may be negative
or positive. And the waiting time for the response from the previous employer is
questionable. So these kind of factors affect the decision making process. McArthur
(1990) and Hobel (2001) suggest that accurate references take time and it make more
commitment to managers who are involve in the hiring process. If not the interviewer
can inform to candidate before the interview that to bring their past performance sheet
or evaluation sheet at the initial stage of his/her interview McGarvie, B. (2014)

Evaluation of the candidate

This competitive market is tighter for recruiting employees. Choosing the top candidate
is one of the best practices in Human Resource Management (Bandura, 2002). SG
Cowen faced complex situation to select the suitable and best candidate. Out of four
candidates two candidates need to be select, therefore all four candidate need to be
analysis for the best selection.

Natalya Godlewska

Strengths- Natalaya Godlewska is a person who can compete the market through her
professional and educational background as mention in the case. In education she is
leading one with the highest GPA. With the educational and working experience she
has good analytical skills to understand the financial market with a strong analytical
background. And she also had teaching experience in finance department as a teaching
assistant. Having working ethics and discipline she has positive comments from
previous employer. She can speak more than one language such as Russian, Polish,
German and French. Finally we can say that she had leadership skills and can- do
attitude.

Weakness- She can speak more than one language but she had some issues which
actually pull her down (less than perfect English language skills and possible internal

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fit). Therefore she lacked communication skill and also stiff and uncomfortable during
small talk.

Implications - Natalya is having qualification in educational background. And she has a

positive statement in employer reference and it keep her in the top place. However
consider to the cultural aspect might be reduce due to familiarized with the environment.

Martin Street

Strengths Martin Street is a MBA student and had substantial leadership experience.
And also he is a sporty person. He is a confident and articulate person with dynamic
personality and having good interpersonal skills.

Weaknesses - He is a beginner in the competitive market as prove in the case mention

that he had no business experience. According to the deep understanding in case he
didnt get any offers from other firms. And also recruitment in SG Cowen is
questionable.

Implications -Martin having confident with team working with the experience in military.
Compare to academic qualification with other candidate, it is an adverse for him.

Ken Goldstein

Strengths Ken Goldstein is a MBA student and had previous experience in the
competitive market. Having leadership skills and management accountant skills during
his working environment and he is one of the master blaster in previous workplace, as a
result his performance appraisals put him in the top 5% of the firm. And also having
excellent employer reference.

Weaknesses Compare to his previous senior post, working at a junior post might create
internal issues (too mature for a junior role). And also it might be affect other
workforces.

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Implications Having wide experience and different of skills are the favourable factors to
support him by his previous employer. His position might be different but with that
commitment he needs to do work life balance for his family.

Andy Sanchez

Strengths - Andy Sanchez is a MBA student and completed his undergraduate degree
in economics. He had previous experience in the current market and excellent
knowledge of the industry. And he committed to SG Cowen through the informational
interviews and also had an excellent GMAT and SAT scores.

Weakness - Andy Sanchez has low grades compare to other candidates and his low
grades however many create issues to his performance if he was selected.

Implications - Andy Sanchez is highly innovative and personable person who has
interest in SG Cowen, shows that several informational interviews. Excellent interest
and knowledge in the industry and have high GMAT and SAT. The issue is with his
grades compare to other candidates.

Summary

Commitment to the firm has been mentioned by Rae as the first evaluation criteria
suggesting its importance to the firm in making selection decisions. Also, committed
employees create extra value for the firm and encourage a culture of performance
(Shahid and Azhar, 2013). The following conclutions would be made as per the studies
and observations of the study.

Natalya Godlewska - Having education as well as professional qualifications and also

having favourable points by previous employer. But commitment with language is not a
big issue. Can easily find the recovery road for it.

Andy Sanchez - Having educational and professional qualification. And he has good
sound knowledge of competitive market. The weak grades can be eliminate by using

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training and development programme. Therefore, can improve the candidate skills and
performance.

Critical reflection on negative hiring experience

SG Cowens interview panel or team compromises of associates and senior associates

for the whole R&S process. It is stated that interview panel or team should consist of
different representative from the organisations to interact with the new candidate
(Dessler, 2003). Because multiple interviewers denote wide areas of interest, and when
the final interview is finalised all personal involved in the interview can take part in the
selection process to appoint a right candidate with different perspective (Ofori and
Aryeetey, 2011). Hence, it is evidenced in the study that at the final decision all senior
associates face difficulty in selecting a suitable candidate. For that reason it is very
necessary for SG Cowen to involve a multi-dimensional interview panel compromising
of HR personal to plan the entire R&S process, legal officer to check the background of
the candidate, and compromising of other technical staff to ensure that the candidate
possess technical knowledgeable to pursue his or her work.

In conclusion, SG Cowen has robust recruitment practices with emphasis on best fit.
Addressing concerns highlighted above can improve consistency and make processes
stronger.

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Canadian HR Reporter [online], 15(22), pp. 28-28.

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Dessler, G. (2003). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice
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