You Make the CallSituation 4
Jeremy Jenkins, who operates a 30-truck freight hauling business in Florida, tries to
show what he calls “fairness, firmness, and friendliness” in dealing with employees.
The firm’s personnel include drivers, mechanics, and clerical and secretarial employees.
Jenkins’s approach has contributed to an atmosphere of reasonably good employee
relationships. However, Jenkins is finding that the paperwork associated with payroll
preparation, government regulation, tax reporting, and other personnel matters is
becoming burdensome. It is also placing heavy demands on his office staff.
An outside leasing company has offered to take over much of the firm’s human resource
management work by transferring personnel to its own payroll. The cost would be 3
percent of payroll. Additional benefits and services, including training classes on
subjects such as workplace violence and sexual harassment, are available at additional
cost. Jenkins is pondering the feasibility of contracting with the leasing company.
Question 1 How can Jenkins be sure that the leasing company is reputable and that he
will receive real value for the money?
Question 2 How would transferring employees to the leasing company be likely to
affect employee relationships within Jenkins’s firm? Will employee loyalty be
transferred to the new “employer”?
Question 3 What steps should Jenkins take before entering into an agreement?