Question

Riipen Case Study The Situation:

Riipen’s mission is to end the very real social problem of underemployment. Employment or income as the number 1 reason students list for choosing to attend post-secondary has grown from 50% to 90% since the year 2000 (Source: New America). Disturbingly, nearly 1/2 of university and college grads are underemployed in North America (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York). We also know now that if a recent graduate starts their careers underemployed, they’re more likely to stay underemployed 5 years (67% likely) and 10 years (50% likely) later (Source: Strada Education, Burning Glass). Lack of relevant experience is listed as one of the top three reasons why recent grads are rejected from the candidate search. This means first jobs matter. We can no longer rely on a recent graduates first job as the landing pad where they gain the experience to launch their careers. Students need to gain relevant experience throughout their degree to set themselves up for success upon graduation and for the rest of their careers. Riipen aims to solve this problem by bringing the relevant work experience to students right in the classroom where it’s for course credit and doesn’t require them to put off their graduation by taking an internship or co-op. To date, Riipen has enabled 50,000 students at 150+ post-secondary institutions to partake in 1.5 million hours of applied learning with over 10,000 industry partners. Beyond experience, students’ need a way of connecting to the right potential employers and articulating their skills and experience to increase their chance of finding relevant employment. Currently, Riipen solves this challenge by offering a student portfolio where students can collect skill verifications, written recommendations and now even badges for their work that they can market to employers in their network to increase their chances of being hired. Now that we’ve built up global talent pool of industry-vetted student profiles, our organizations want the ability to search through the data base and invite students that have chosen to opt in to gain access to exclusive job opportunities only available to students the can demonstrate experience and skills through Riipen projects. The goal is to a) increase the number of channels that students and employers can connect to make better employment matches b) to increase revenue streams so that Riipen can invest in growing the student, employer, educator, ecosystem and increase access to project-based learning and better employment outcomes for students/companies.

The Ethical Dilemma:

As seen in the scenarios included in the link below, Riipen is debating whether to charge more for this service (let’s call it “Riipen.Recruiter” [play off of linkedin recruiter]) and increase revenue which in turn would allow Riipen to reach more students but may reduce the % of students that get hired through the app in the short term or whether to charge less for the Riipen.Recruiter so that more companies can access and a higher % of students using the platform get hired, however, growth is delayed and Riipen reaches fewer students in the longterm.

Questions:

2. What are the moral roots of the company?  

• What were Riipen’s values at its inception?
• How has Riipen’s values evolved since its inception?
• If the values changed discuss what caused the change?
• In the early stages of Riipen business what competing values did the organization have that informed their actions regarding dealing with clients and their funding source?
• Identify the Institution’s competing values that have led to its difficulties in addressing the current problem.

Answer 1

1)The moral roots of riipen is to train and provide people with work experience and prepare them for employment.

2)At its inception, riipens value were to eliminate the social problem of underemployment.

3)Since inception, riipens value has evolved from providing practical experience to connecting alumni for job opportunities. Also, exclusive job opportunities are present to students who have chosen riipen projects. Riipens primary goal is now to expand the reach and not to solve underemployment.

4)Values have changed for growth rather than focusing on the aim of the organization. Riipens success and growth of its alumni network has caused the change.

5)In the early stages, it was clear that riipen wanted to prepare students for further employment and not generate revenue sources.Riipens funding could have come from donations or trusts etc. Clients could provide funding after employment as they wished.

6)The institutions requirement to fund the growth rather than staying the same size led to this difficulties in current situations.