In mid-October of 2020, Rico Ruiz, Director of Organizational Development at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), had to decide on a Digital Badging Platform (DBP) to support a professional development program hosted by University of South Florida (USF) for delivery to TGH's health care workers in the proposed People Development Institute (PDI). Ruiz was approached by TGH's CEO, John Couris, about a challenge with organizing and tracking the engagement of professional development of employees across its various departments. TGH was a highly respected hospital with nationally ranked clinical programs. Couris insisted that the development of the professional skills of 8,100 members in their interactions with other employees and patients needed to be better organized and tracked. Couris was prepared to invest $10M over a 10-year period into a healthcare professional development center, PDI, in partnership with the USF Muma College of Business. Dr. Matthew Mullarkey, a professor and co-director of USF's Doctor of Business Administration program, where Couris was in his second year of study, thought a system of micro-credentials based on academic digital badges could provide an innovative way to credential TGH's employees as they completed developmental programs through USF. The digital badges allowed for better tracking of TGH employee development and they could be stacked into more meaningful credentials such as college credits and certificates. Additionally, employees could share their earned digital badges on social media which would be free marketing for TGH. Although he had 19+ years of experience in education and organizational development, Ruiz knew nothing about digital badges or DBPs when first approached by Couris. After meeting with a DBP consultant who specialized in the digital badging space, Ruiz was able to narrow his choice to 3 DBPs: Accredible, Badgr, and Credly. Couris needed a proposal by Mid-November, giving Ruiz ten days to select a DBP and author a

This case offers students an opportunity to observe employee engagement through key events that took place at YellowStarr Financial Services before and during a software platform migration. Steve Keldan, who served as CEO of YellowStarr, founded the company in 2002. Lisa Murphy was hired as the Human Resources Director for YellowStarr in 2011. In her first few years, Murphy was challenged with building a human resource team that could manage more than 100 new employees for the growing company. In 2015, YellowStarr needed to undergo a software platform migration with FinanceConnect, its proprietary customer data web-based software that presented retirement plans, investment options and pricing in a simple, easy-to-navigate way. As Human Resources Director, Murphy was tasked with the duty of supporting the migration from an employee standpoint, which meant hiring new talent, minimizing employee turnover, and promoting a healthy, positive culture that encouraged employee engagement. Before and during the migration, Murphy made decisions that appeared to both help and hurt engagement. Implementations included fewer training initiatives, relaxed dress code, and employee-led activity committees. As of 2018 with the migration project almost complete, YellowStarr faced high employee turnover rates. No longer having to deal with the firefighting associated with the migration, Murphy needs to decide what steps to take both short-term and long-term to improve upon YellowStarr's employee engagement so the company is an employer of choice for new and existing employees.

In April of 2018, Mike Horsfield, CEO of Rock Valley Physical Therapy (RVPT), was scheduled to meet with shareholders to discuss the future ownership of the company. All RVPT shareholders and key executives were licensed physical therapists. Most of the shareholders and a large number of important, long-term employees expected to retire in the coming years, with retirements starting in 2020. RVPT's line of credit was tied up in their growth strategy, leaving them unable to cash out those seeking retirement. Horsfield had a lucrative offer from a Private Equity (PE) firm to buy into the business, which would provide the funding for those planning to retire, but he was concerned about how a profit-focused PE investor might change RVPT's culture and its patient-focused medical practice. The offer was tempting, but he was unsure how to present the offer to the shareholders and whether he should argue for or against accepting the PE firm's offer. As the only MBA among the shareholders, Horsfield's opinion carried weight and could sway the decision.

In fall 2018, the 64-year-old owner of a small 5th-generation family business in rural Iowa has not begun succession or retirement planning. His older daughter asks to talk with him about possibly taking over the store someday; Skip defers this talk until after the busy harvest season. A few days later "Big Ag Feeds" (disguised) offers to buy his business; they want an answer by year-end. Skip discusses the offer with his wife. If he accepts it, ownership would transfer to Big Ag in four years, ending the family business legacy. Skip always assumed he would keep the business in the family, yet now he considers this option and three others: 1) Counter-propose to transfer ownership to Big Ag in one year ("clean break" to retirement). 2) Groom his daughter to succeed him as owner/manager; 3) Hire an outside manager to run the store (retain ownership). Seeing that times are changing (huge agribusinesses are replacing small farms, with repercussions for his business; emerging technologies and new government regulations bring other opportunities and threats) Skip believes the next owner/manager will face a tougher road than the rough road he traveled in his career journey.