1.

Best Foot Forward Ltd (BFF)

Best Foot Forward Ltd (BFF) operates five stores in the north-west of England, selling shoes (such as ballet and tap) for adult dancers. Up until 2017, the business was growing, due to its reputation for quality products.

A new Managing Director, Jessie Thompson, was appointed six months ago to reverse the recent poor performance of the business.

BFF has never sold dance shoes for children and Jessie would like to expand into this market. Another business, specialising in selling children’s dance shoes, closed down three months ago. Jessie is also concerned by market research which suggests that customer service is poor in BFF’s stores. All store managers have been told to attend a five-day off-the-job training course on customer service.

To support the launch of the children’s range, Jessie plans to create a new position of Marketing Manager (Children’s Shoes) who will work alongside the Marketing Manager (Adults’ Shoes). This employee will be recruited internally, despite many former employees from the children’s shoe retailer which closed down still being out of work.

Table 1 gives some data about the recruitment of staff within BFF.

Table 1

	Internal recruitment	External recruitment
Cost of recruitment	£500	£2500
Number of days taken to fill the job	20 days	60 days
Cost of induction	£200	£1500