The following appeared in a memo at XYZ company.” When XYZ lays off employees, it pays Delany Personnel Firm to offer those employees assistance in creating résumés and developing interviewing skills, if they so desire. Laid-off employees have benefited greatly from Delany’s services: last year those who used Delany found jobs much more quickly than did those who did not. Recently, it has been proposed that we use the less expensive Walsh Personnel Firm in place of Delany. This would be a mistake because eight years ago, when XYZ was using Walsh, only half of the workers we laid off at that time found jobs within a year. Moreover, Delany is clearly superior, as evidenced by its bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. After all, last year Delany’s clients took an average of six months to find jobs, whereas Walsh’s clients took nine.”

The following appeared in a memo at XYZ company.

“When XYZ lays off employees, it pays Delany Personnel Firm to offer those employees assistance in creating résumés and developing interviewing skills, if they so desire. Laid-off employees have benefited greatly from Delany’s services: last year those who used Delany found jobs much more quickly than did those who did not. Recently, it has been proposed that we use the less expensive Walsh Personnel Firm in place of Delany. This would be a mistake because eight years ago, when XYZ was using Walsh, only half of the workers we laid off at that time found jobs within a year. Moreover, Delany is clearly superior, as evidenced by its bigger staff and larger number of branch offices. After all, last year Delany’s clients took an average of six months to find jobs, whereas Walsh’s clients took nine.”

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

The memo in issue extols the benefits of using Delany Personnel Firm over Walsh Personnel Firm as the former employs numerous members of its staff who stay employed for years, whereas the latter employs more temporary workers who often leave the company after a brief time. After providing clear statistics to back up this claim, the memo goes on to suggest that XYZ should switch to Delany to eliminate any uncertainty in the hiring process. While this argument has a sound logic, it relies on several questionable assumptions.

First, the memo assumes that Delany Personnel Firm is in a better position to provide XYZ with qualified employees than Walsh Personnel Firm. It also assumes that the temporary workers of Walsh Personnel Firm are essentially inferior to the full-time staff of Delany Personnel Firm. However, this assumption is not supported by any facts. In fact, Delany Personnel Firm’s success relies on its ability to hire and retain talented employees. A firm with temporary employees constantly filling open positions will have difficulty retaining any long-term employees, which will have a major impact on its ability to attract new clients and retain existing ones. Another major problem is that Walsh Personnel Firm’s temporary workers are not likely to be as knowledgeable about the clients as are the permanent employees of Delany Personnel Firm. Moreover, the temporary workers of Walsh Personnel Firm are likely to lack the necessary experience to interview for positions with XYZ. For instance, a Walsh Personnel staff member who was hired to interview for a software developer position will not have the requisite knowledge of software development to be able to determine whether an applicant has the skills necessary for the position. As a result, Delany Personnel Firm’s employees will be able to conduct better interviews, and thus, will likely be able to find better candidates for XYZ’s positions than Walsh Personnel Firm. If XYZ were to rely on the temporary workers of Walsh Personnel Firm, it would only increase the likelihood of hiring unqualified applicants, which would only serve to alienate the clients, thus resulting in the loss of business.

Second, the memo assumes that Delany Personnel Firm is able to outperform Walsh Personnel Firm in terms of providing assistance to laid-off employees. The memo states that last year, those who used Delany Personnel Firm to find jobs quickly found jobs within a few months, whereas those who did not use Delany took an average of six months to find jobs. The memo fails to provide any reasoning as to why Delany is more successful than Walsh at helping laid-off employees find work, though such reasoning could easily be obtained by further research. For example, Delany Personnel Firm might be able to offer its clients more help in finding jobs by providing services such as career coaching. Alternatively, Delany might have more success than Walsh because its employees are more knowledgeable and skilled in interviewing for jobs. Regardless of the reason, however, the statistics cited in the memo only tell part of the story. For instance, it is also possible that Delany’s clients found jobs more quickly than those who did not use Delany, but took longer to start working than Delany’s clients. Finally, the memo fails to mention that Delany’s clients took an average of six months to find jobs before Walsh’s clients started finding jobs. If the statistics were adjusted to account for this, the statistics contained in Delany’s memo would probably appear worse than they actually are.

Finally, the memo fails to mention which statistics indicate that Delany Personnel Firm is more successful than Walsh Personnel Firm, and which statistics indicate that Walsh Personnel Firm is more successful. Without this information, it is impossible to evaluate which is the better option. Without this information, it becomes all but certain that XYZ will hire Delany Personnel Firm to provide its assistance with the laid-off employees.