From serving as the former president of MSSU’s Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), to engaging in work-based learning projects at La-Z-Boy and the City of Joplin, alumna Allison Tillman, ‘24, has an impressive history of participating in projects bigger than herself, so when Ramin Zarrabi—plant manager of Ruskin in Parsons, Kansas—offered Tillman an internship, she was thrilled.
“He sought an intern to help with a project that would better measure person-organization fit in new hires,” the human resource management graduate explained. “I have always been interested in recruiting and talent management, so I was excited.”
Tillman began by analyzing job descriptions provided by the company to better understand qualities and values needed to be successful in those positions. After developing a list of values, she interviewed nearly 40 employees and supervisors.
“I asked them to describe their own job duties in detail and to provide an opinion on whether these values were truly relevant in their jobs,” she said. “Interviewees also had the ability to add or subtract values as they saw necessary.”
With the finalized list, she worked with ChatGPT to draft a questionnaire to measure the values.
“I found that a self-scoring assessment would be most helpful for Ruskin to use,” Tillman said. "I took online coding classes and used AI to build the data submission method. Then I created a website using coding software to host the questionnaire.”
When candidates submit their responses, their scores are uploaded directly to a Google Sheet and scores for each individual value, as well as the “points earned” for each question. The Sheet provided a weekly summary report and sent an update on average scores, the week’s top scores, and a graph for the data.
Finally, it was time for Ruskin to learn about Tillman’s work.
“In real time, I demonstrated to the supervisors how their scores were uploaded, color-coded, and calculated,” she said. “I gave a rundown of the project from beginning to end, including how I came to the final product, the reasons the questions were chosen, and why this would serve them in their hiring and selection process.”
To say that Ruskin was impressed with her work would be an understatement:
“I was blown away at her progress,” said Zarrabi. “Allison is a very talented individual and has a bright future ahead of her.”
Allie Lay, HR leader at Ruskin’s Parsons’ plant, worked closely with Tillman on her project. She echoes the same sentiments as Zarrabi.
“Tillman was such a pleasure to work with on this project,” she said. “She was able to take an idea and bring it to fruition even more so than our team initially imagined. This project has completely changed the way we screen and recruit candidates for our organization—I have no doubt that she will have an incredible impact on the HR world throughout her career.”
Dr. Sarah Holtzen, assistant professor of Management supervisor for Tillman’s internship, talks of the significance of this opportunity.
“This is the first internship I have supervised that required the candidate to have AI literacy skills, which reflects the growing demand for candidates who have experience leveraging AI in a business setting,” said Holtzen. “Because our human resource majors are taught how to effectively prompt, critically refine, and ethically integrate AI interactions with their own ideas and efforts, Tillman had the foundational AI skills needed to not just meet Ruskin's needs, but to take her own AI knowledge and expertise to the next level.”
The internship also shows how MSSU facilitates these kinds of experiences for these students.
“The opportunity never would have presented itself were it not for Dean Elke Howe's efforts to connect IET advisory board members with the Plaster School of Business faculty and students,” Holtzen continued. “I am grateful our campus culture supports these types of interdisciplinary efforts.”
Even more, Tillman, who now works at Ballard Health in Tennessee as a sourcing specialist in their recruiting department, takes pride in her accomplishment.
“Presenting my work to Ruskin was one of my proudest moments in this process,” said Tillman. “I hope that Ruskin finds a use for it for many years to come.”
