The Number of Days

Question

Hello,

I was going through the case as a whole, noticed the part of the math where it calculated the 2000/250working days.

I am not so sure why and how am I supposed to divide the number of “Total Days Saved” by the number of working days? I still didn't get the “8” that we got out of that answer.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi there!

Happy to clarify as I'm the author of the case.

Feel free to comment on my answer if something is left unclear and I'll get back to it.

In that particular exercise, we are aiming to find out what is the net effect of the program i.e., if the client should go for it or not.

There is a cost element to the program, which is the amount that the company will need to pay out to its employees for the referrals.

And there is also a benefit for the referrals. The benefit consists of the productivity time saved by being able to hire for those currently vacant positions.

In the process of figuring out this latter point, we find out that this initiative will lead to 2000 working days saved, which if we translate in FTEs (that's why we divide by 250 days which is the average number of working days for an FTE once you take out the weekends). The resulting number is 8 FTEs.

Now, the amount it would've cost us to hire that FTE outside of referrals is 15K, which is why we then multiple 8 by 15k to figure out how much we saved as a consequence of the referral program. This is how we get to 120k.

Hope this clarifies your question.

Good luck with casing!
Cristian

Answer 2

Hi there,

Great question!

Just to follow-up with Cristian's answer, it's totally ok to clarify with the interviewer and make sure you're clear on why something is done a certain way.

Curiosity, done with high IQ/processing comes across well.

Answer 3

Number of working days saved: 2000

Number of days a person works: 5 * 50 = 250

Number of people “saved”: 2000 / 250 = 8 people

Answer 4

Hi Panak, I an the author of the case, so happy to clarify. You‘re absolutely right - both that the prompt could proa... (read entire answer)

Hi Panak, I an the author of the case, so happy to clarify. You‘re absolutely right - both that the prompt could proactively spell that more clearly, and that this a point where... (read entire answer)

Answer 5

Glassdoor is a good datapoint for that type of salary questions. Not 100% reliable, but directionally right (as long... (read entire answer)

Glassdoor is a good datapoint for that type of salary questions. Not 100% reliable, but directionally right (as long as they have a relevant number of datapoints).

Answer 6

Hi there, There's no concrete answer here on how to optimize this! However, what I can recommend is picking the 1-2 o... (read entire answer)

Hi there, There's no concrete answer here on how to optimize this! However, what I can recommend is picking the 1-2 offices where you legitimatelly have a connection and apply t... (read entire answer)