Recruitment: Getting the Right People
See also
Purposes and Importance of Recruitment
To
be effective, recruitment strategies should be linked to Human Resource Planning. Human Resource Planning (HRP) compares an
organization’s workforce abilities to its future demands. organizations that do not do
Human Resource Planning may experience labor shortages or labor surpluses that result in
layoffs.
One
of the main HRP activities is estimating the organization’s labor demand – how
many employees the organization will need in the future. To correctly forecast its
labor demand, organizations should consider variables such as the possibility that its
labor requirements may increase as demand for its product increases, but increased
productivity may offset some labor demand. Similarly, the organization should
forecast the labor supply as part of its HRP. For example, if an organization
estimates that its demand for workers will increase but the labor supply will decrease,
then the organization can take appropriate actions to avert problems. It can
increase what it pays to workers as a way of being more effective, tap overlooked pools
of potential employees or outsource some activities, for instance.
Many
organizations conduct job analyses as part of Human Resource Planning. A job analysis is the process of identifying and
describing the aspects of a job. Human Resource departments then can use job analyses to
communicate a job’s tasks, duties and responsibilities and to screen job candidates.
Organizations
also must determine how many candidates they need for each position. Yield ratios
are the number of job offers it takes before someone accepts. For example, an
organization may find that, on average, it has to offer a job to three people before one
accepts.
(Include
figure below, if space permits)
Figure
1: Human Resource Planning
2. Legal Considerations
Organizations
must recognize legal factors that may influence their recruitment efforts. In many
industrialized nations, laws prohibit discrimination in hiring decisions or require
organizations to recruit from protected classes such as people with physical disabilities.
As part of recruiting practice, organizations should learn how the specific legal
considerations of their country constrain the recruiting process.
In
In
the
3. Sources of Recruiting
The
goal of recruitment is to attract qualified job candidates. Identifying the sources
most likely to contain qualified candidates saves time and money.
Current employees: Some organizations post job openings
internally before seeking applicants from outside. This process allows current
employees the chance to move up in the organization or into jobs they would enjoy more.
Referrals from employees: Research has found that employees hired
through referrals from existing employees tend to be more loyal and more satisfied.
But an organization may become too homogenous if employees only refer people like them.
Former employees: Organizations sometimes rehire employees who
were laid-off or worked for the organization temporarily and demonstrated potential. Many
organizations use temporary workers hired through temporary help agencies to meet labor needs
as project/programme purpose ebbs and flows and eventually hire some of them full time.
Print advertisements: Newspaper and trade magazines are used by
employers to advertise positions locally, nationally or internationally.
Internet advertising and career web sites: The
Internet allows organizations to advertise jobs globally through relatively inexpensive
online advertisements. Many organizations also post positions on their own Web sites and
job-search sites.
Employment agencies: Many organizations use employment agencies –
often nicknamed headhunters – to recruit and screen candidates for a job.
College recruiting: Many organizations have recruiting programs
that target specific colleges or certain degrees, both undergraduate and graduate.
Recruiting employees at colleges and universities is equally effective for
undergraduates and graduates. However, graduate project/programme purpose schools represent an almost
ideal recruiting environment. MBAs are an elite pool of experienced talent,
trained in general management and specific functional areas.
4. Internal Recruiting
Internal recruitment refers to individuals who
already work in the organization but are given the opportunity to apply for a vacant job within
the organization. When positions become available, organizations need to decide
whether it will fill the position internally. Employers also should decide whether
only employees who work in the specific group will be considered or whether
cross-functional mobility will be considered (such as from finance to marketing
departments).
In
some cases, organizations choose to promote from within because of their familiarity with
people in the organization; also familiarity with procedures and policies gives them an
edge. Other times, organizations opt to transfer employees – without promoting
them – as a way of providing a broader range of experience. For management
trainees, job rotation exposes these up-and-coming employees to various parts of their
organization. Job rotation also can be used to provide employees in high-stress jobs
with a change of pace and prevent burnout. In addition, recalling or rehiring
employees who have retired will become more common as global demographics change.
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Improved
morale of promoted employee |
Possible
morale problems of those not promoted |
Better
assessment of abilities |
Potential
lack of diversity at top |
Lower
cost for some jobs |
Political
infighting for promotions |
Motivates
employees by signaling opportunities for advancement |
Less
likely to introduce innovation or fresh ideas |
Have
to hire only at entry level |
Too
close to new subordinates |
5. External Recruiting
Recruitment
of outside talent occurs when the organization goes into the external labor market to fill a
vacancy. External recruitment may occur
at any levels, from entry-level to senior-level positions. Every project/programme purpose will find
it necessary to engage in external recruitment. Even organizations that boast of
opportunities for internal promotion find it necessary to recruit from the outside to
replenish voluntary attrition and retirements. At minimum, these organizations recruit
externally to fill lower-levels job ladders as incumbents move into higher-level
positions.
organizations
that seek the best person typically look both internally and externally for job
candidates. Several multinational organizations have chosen CEOs who not only are
from outside of their organizations but also outside of their industries. For example,
IBM selected Louis Gerstner Jr., former CEO of RJR Nabisco. Sometimes it is more
economical for organizations to hire specialists from outside rather than incur the expense of
training current employees for positions that require new skills. effective
organizations seek individuals who perform at high levels almost immediately after joining.
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Best
qualified, if chosen from pool of internal and external candidates |
Perceived
as rookies by current employees or may not “fit” |
Fresh
perspectives and different approaches |
Learning
curve to understand the organization’s policies and procedures |
Less
expensive than training employees promoted from within |
May
cause morale problems for current employees not promoted |
More
likely to provide diversity |
Longer
socialization process |
May
bring insight into competitors |
May
retain attitudes from old job |
6. Nontraditional Recruiting
organizations
should not rely on only one source of potential candidates. For some vacancies, the
strategy will be to hire from the available labor supply in the immediate vicinity and
traditional recruiting methods work well. Most clerical and semi-skilled jobs are
filled locally. For other positions, the strategy often involves looking nationally
or internationally – especially if the position is very specialized.
Organizations
will need new methods for recruiting as the 21st century progresses. In
many countries, the labor force is shrinking and employment patterns are changing because
of declining birth rates and increasing life expectancies. For example, the
workforce will decrease by 2% annually in
Nontraditional
labor pools include welfare recipients who are transitioning to work, retirees who seek
second careers and workers from foreign countries. Some members of these groups may
require training, but organizations may be able to partner with the government or nonprofit
organizations if the organization doesn’t want to or can’t provide training.
organizations
can recruit well-trained but underrepresented groups at conferences for women, minorities
and retired executives. In the
7. Timing of Recruitment
Well-managed
organizations not only forecast the numbers and types of job vacancies in the future, but
they also estimate approximately when they will occur. In situations such as
college recruiting, which occurs in well-defined cycles, organizations also have the
option of either being an early or late entrant into the recruiting process. Most
undergraduate and graduate school students consider job offers as they are received, so
organizations improve their chances of attracting high-potential students by entering the
recruitment process early.
HR
departments can review time-lapse data, which
shows how much time on average elapses between decision points in the recruitment
process. Historical data from the organization’s recruitment process may show
résumés begin arriving 10 project/programme purpose days after an advertisement appears. On
average, it may take the organization three days to invite applicants in for interviews, eight
days to arrange interviews, five days for the organization to choose someone 14 days for the
potential employee to decide whether to accept the job, and 30 days for the new employee
to begin working. In this example, the data indicates that vacancies should be
advertised 70 days before the position is expected to be filled, if the organization wants
to avoid downtime caused by having no one in a position.
Looking
at time-lapse data and yield rations, mentioned earlier, an organization can create more
accurate charts that show when specific numbers must be achieved such as the number of
résumés received and when decision should be made. It also helps organization to
adjust the recruitment process if they realize that they are behind schedule in filling
positions by changing the geographic scope of their recruitment effort.
8. The Message
Expectancy
theory says people tend to do those things that are rewarded. It suggests that job
applicants will pursue jobs whose rewards they perceive as having personal or professional
value. Organizations usually first communicate to potential employees through
messages that appear in postings and advertisements. Employers need to use clear
messages about the job requirements, responsibilities and rewards so they attract
appropriate applicants and not unqualified applicants.
Many
organizations use a “shotgun” approach to communicating the attributes of a job
to potential managerial and professional applicants because they are unsure what job
attributes are the most attractive to potential candidates. After all, job
attributes play a significant role in whether potential employees pursue and accept jobs,
according to research. Blue-collar employees value job security, for example.
In contrast, managerial and professional employees value opportunities for promotion.
The content of the message should contain information about whatever job attributes
most likely appeal to the level of applicants sought.
Employers
often have assumed that it is to their benefit only to tell a job applicant about the
positive aspects of the organization and job. This sugarcoating is
controversial. Numerous studies have found that employers should not sugarcoat jobs.
Instead organizations should provide what is known as realistic job previews –
positive and negative information that is accurate. Realistic job previews increases
the number of recruits and reduces turnover by reducing overly optimistic expectations,
according to research. Realistic job previews also tend to increase organizational
commitment, job satisfaction and performance.
9. The Applicant’s Perspective
To attract applicants, employers should understand what factors influence job candidates and how they decide whether to accept a job offer.
Self-esteem
affects how individuals undertake job searches. Applicants with high self-esteem
have a stronger belief in their own competency. Individuals with a strong need for
achievement usually undertake more intensive job searches than other applicants do.
Similarly, job seekers with high self-esteem apply for more jobs than originally had
planned and more than job seekers with low self-esteem.
By
young adulthood, most job applicants have narrowed their choice of occupations to one or
two options. Economic factors, psychological factors such as needs, interests and
abilities, and sociological factors all influence people’s decision-making when
selecting an occupation. Individuals ultimately choose an occupation when they find
a job that most closely and clearly meet these needs.
After
people identify an occupation that meets their needs, they begin looking for an
organization that hires people for that occupation. In general, job seekers do not
identify all their options and simultaneously evaluate them. Instead, they are far
less systematic and evaluate opportunities sequentially. If a job meets an
individual’s minimum criteria, the person accepts the offer. If not, the person
rejects it. New college graduates are the exception because they often receive
multiple offers simultaneously. One key criterion for all applicants is their
non-compensatory reservation wage, the minimum pay necessary to make the offer
acceptable. After the reservation wage is met, individuals switch to a compensatory
approach, evaluating tradeoffs between different job attributes.
10. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Recruitment Sources
Employers can evaluate the effectiveness of different recruitment sources by tracking how long employees recruited from each source stay with the organization.
Recruiting
costs can be analyzed in many ways. An organization should determine the most cost-effective recruiting method for each
situation. For example, organizations incur different expenses when they pay cash
awards to employees who refer successful applicants than when they buy
advertisements. One useful measure is calculating the average cost per employee hired. A more
sophisticated way is a utility analysis, which
compares recruitment-related expenses to the economic benefits accrued to the organization through
an improved recruitment process, better employee retention and higher levels of
performance.
Line
managers can increase the HR department’s effectiveness by providing feedback on the
quality of applicants from different recruitment sources. Line managers can create
spreadsheets to accumulate data that can be analyzed by the HR department.
Figure 2: Example of a Line Manager’s Spreadsheet for
Feedback on Recruitment
Source |
Number of Employment
Offers |
Number of Acceptances |
Total Cost |
Turnover After 1 Year |
Average Performance
Rating at 1 Year |
Referrals |
|||||
Print ads |
|||||
Internet ads |
|||||
Agencies |
|||||
Colleges |
|||||
beneficiaries |
|||||
Source: Managing Human Resources by Luis R. Gómez-Mejía et
al. |
|||||
Recruitment: How to Attract Knowledge Workers
External recruitment places a significant role in locating knowledge workers and may occur at any level. The goal of recruitment is to attract the most qualified job candidates. The organization can be reactive in its recruiting and wait for resumes to arrive, or it can have a strategy to identify a pool from which it will select knowledge workers with the potential for creativity and innovation desired by the organization.
Identifying the sources most likely to contain qualified knowledge workers saves time and reduces expenses. Research has found that employees hired through referrals from existing employees tend to be more loyal and more satisfied. However, an organization may become too homogenous if employees only refer people like themselves. Many organizations also hire for permanent positions gifted employees who initially worked for the organization temporarily. For example, some new economy organizations hire knowledge workers as consultants or on a free-lance basis and then offer full-time jobs to the most dazzling.
In recruiting high-potential knowledge workers for lower-level positions, one common practice is for organizations to support research programs at key universities in hopes of having an inside track for identifying promising students working with well-known research professors. This relationship frequently leads to summer internships for such students and long-term employment if the student proves to be a good fit with the organization. Another technique is to have well-regarded knowledge workers visit their alma maters periodically to create a pipeline that keeps the organization visible within engineering, management and science departments at key universities.
Our research suggests that three factors significantly affect the success in attracting knowledge workers. First, the salary must adequately compensate them for their abilities. Not recognizing their individual value will drive them away. In fact, some scholars have argued that in the future knowledge workers such as exceptional software engineers may have agents who negotiate their employment packages just as basketball players today do. Second, individually tailored compensation packages affect the organization's ability to both attract and retain knowledge workers and provide long-term incentives for sustained contribution to the organization. Finally, knowledge workers often seek autonomy and freedom at work.
See also Selection
Communication in organizations
INTRODUCTION
Monopoly
organizations in general, and monopoly utilities in particular, have a poor track record
of retaining the employees they recruit from outside the utility sector of activity. A recent
study in the
The
transition from monopoly to competition presents many challenges for a utility embedded in
the old culture. Recognizing the necessity of recruiting and retaining highly
qualified personnel is one such challenge. There is no guarantee that an outside
hire is the right person to help the utility move successfully into the future.
Nonetheless, it is a serious loss when the utility identifies and hires the right outside
employee – only to lose that employee because of culture clash or other reasons which
have little or nothing to do with the opportunities of the position itself.
Recruitment
and retention of key outside staff are universally regarded as critical determinants of a
successful organization in a effective environment. This Module will review the
experiences of successful organizations in recruiting and retaining the employees they
really want. It will also examine the steps that executives of the organization can
take to motivate, protect and develop outside hires. The challenges for the organization in
acquiring and retaining outside talent consist of a series of discrete steps:
recruitment, selection, socialization and retention. The organization that successfully
navigates through each of these steps is well on its way to achieving success in its
markets.
I.
Introduction-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1
II.
The Human Resources Management (HRM) Framework for Recruiting and Retaining Outside Talent
4
A.
Strategy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
B.
Administration ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
C.
Change------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6
III.
Recruitment and Selection--------------------------------------------------------------- 8
A.
Developing a Pool of Candidates---------------------------------------------------- 9
1.
Recruiting at project/programme purpose Schools – the MBA Phenomenon------------------------- 10
2.
Recruiting Talent from Other organizations----------------------------------------- 11
3.
Use of Temporary Employment Agencies----------------------------------------
12
4.
Outsourcing of Functions-------------------------------------------------------- 12
IV.
Selecting
from the Pool------------------------------------------------------------------ 14
A.
The Selection Interview-------------------------------------------------------------- 14
B.
Selection Tests---------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
V.
How a organization can Facilitate New Employee Socialization----------------------------- 16
Retaining
Talent--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
A.
The Five R’s of Managing Knowledge Employees: A Case Study-------------------
17
B.
Compensation----------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
1.
Employee Stock Plans----------------------------------------------------------- 20
2.
Variable-Pay Plans-------------------------------------------------------------- 20
3.
Competency-Based Plans------------------------------------------------------- 21
C.
Work Environment------------------------------------------------------------------ 21
1.
Empowerment through Participative Management and Goal Setting--------------- 21
2.
Managers as Coaches----------------------------------------------------------- 22
3.
Performance Evaluations--------------------------------------------------------- 22
4.
Training Opportunities----------------------------------------------------------- 23
5.
Work Schedules
23
Assignments-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24
Bibliography-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26
Glossary-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
27
Questions
& Answers---------------------------------------------------------------------------
28
Bringing
outside talent into a organization should represent a required core competence of every senior
manager in the effective organization. organizations regularly fail in the marketplace
because senior managers treat recruitment and retention of key personnel as
inconsequential matters. Or, they view recruitment and retention as the
responsibility of the HRM Department, expecting it to take care of these matters.
These approaches are obsolete, representing inadequate views of the importance of an
organization’s human resources and how the organization can succeed in a effective
environment.
We
will begin by reviewing the human resources management framework of a organization to
facilitate the recruitment and retention of outside talent.
A
major challenge for successful organizations is to be able to attract, assimilate, develop,
compensate and retain a competent and knowledgeable workforce. Having a
knowledgeable workforce, the “intellectual capital,” represents a effective
advantage in today’s global and constantly changing environment.
Every
sizeable organization has a Human Resources Department (HR Department), although not
necessarily by that name. Personnel Department or Employee Relations Department are
other widely used terms for the same set of functions. Irrespective of their names,
quality HR Departments play a key role in employees’ work and career lives, as well
as in achieving strategic project/programme purpose objectives. HR Departments typically handle
recruitment, selection, training and career development, and retention, as well as issues
of performance evaluation, compensation and discipline. In government organizations
and in organizations with a monopoly culture, the roles and functions of the HR Department
are well defined and extensive. Its role is generally viewed as autonomous from the
roles of line managers. More recent trends in human resources management demonstrate
the need for a mutually supportive and synergistic relationship between the HR Department
and the line managers who are responsible to ensure the performance of the organization.
The
modern concept of the HR Department can be seen in the most successful organizations in the
effective market economy. In the monopoly organization, the HR Department is
directly responsible for many of the core HR functions such as decisions regarding
recruiting, selecting, training, compensation levels and discipline. Line management
is often in the position of having to cope with the results of HR Department actions,
having little if any direct input.
In
the effective organization, the Human Resources Department and project/programme purpose unit managers
become partners. The HR Department provides expert knowledge and advice and
administers HR activities. At the same time, responsibility and accountability for
the performance of the human resources of the organization become direct responsibilities
of the project/programme purpose unit management. The practical meaning of this shift is that
decisions about core human resource management functions are brought into the project/programme purpose
unit. Line managers become decision-makers about recruitment, selection, career
development, compensation and the like.
Does
this mean that the HR Department becomes less important than it was during the monopoly?
No, quite to the contrary, the HR Department will become more important than
previously. The HR Department becomes more results and performance driven. Not
only will the HR Department be expected to contribute to organization profits, but it will be
expected to be able to demonstrate the contribution that it makes to
profitability. HR professionals will become partners with the line managers,
who bear ultimate responsibility for organization results and profits. Top leaders of the
most successful organizations have often stated that human resources management is too
important to be left to HR specialists alone. For human resources management to be
successful, general managers must be involved.
[Notes to learners: read David Ulrich’s article, “A New Mandate for Human Resources,’’ in Harvard project/programme purpose Review.]
The
proactive roles of the Human Resources Department in the effective organization are
strategy, administration and change. Each of these roles will be explained.
A.
Strategy
The
Human Resources Department staffs and coordinates the strategic planning activities of the
organization. This brings the HR Department directly into the organization process where
decisions get made about the project/programme purpose goals of the organization as a whole. Human resources
professionals can perform a comparable role at the project/programme purpose unit level. In addition,
HR professionals will be skilled at integrating the strategic components of the organization
and translating them into the specific HR plans and actions required for
implementation. HR professionals also play a major role in the process of culture
change, proactively designing state-of-the-art human resources policies.
B.
Administration
Human
Resources Departments have always carried a large responsibility for maintaining
information about the organization’s human resources. In most organizations, this
responsibility represents a major and complex challenge of record keeping and information
systems management, involving employee records, meeting legal requirements, facilitating
benefits and payroll, and so forth. Unfortunately, the perception of many line
managers has been that HR Departments are primarily involved in record keeping.
Maintaining accurate and complete records on a organization’s human resources is an
important function in any organization. Being negligent or ignoring tasks related to
record keeping can result in major costs and inefficiencies for the organization.
C.
Change
During
the transition from monopoly to competition, human resource professionals can make a major
contribution by serving as change agents; they can facilitate the transformation of the
organization culture by communicating change and by creating ways to enable change. HR
professionals should also be highly connected with employees and be attuned to their fears
and concerns. In crucial and highly constructive ways, the HR professionals can
serve as the representatives of front line employees when decisions affecting their work,
careers and jobs are made. Maintaining a high performance workforce in the
effective project/programme purpose environment is the major challenge faced by all organizations. The
HR Department and its professional staff are vital elements of this effort.
At
some point, every organization has to go to the external labor market to bring new talent into
the organization. The HR Department and line management are the two poles in any
project/programme purpose organization, around which most of the action regarding quality and quantity of
staff revolves. In the monopoly organization, the HR Department tends to play the
dominant role. In these organizations, the Human Resources Department often has sole
responsibility for recruiting and retaining talent. In organizations operating in a
effective environment, the relationship between the HR Department and line management in
recruitment and retention of talent changes fundamentally.
The
two boxes below summarize the prototypical style of the HR Department in the two kinds of
work organizations.
In the monopoly organization, HRM functions tend to
be quite predictable and uniform throughout the organization. The HR policies and rules
tend to be spelled out in writing and in great detail. These policies and rules are
perceived as rigid. In practice, outside talent comes into the organization directly from
high school or university. The HR Department has the dominant role for managing the
recruitment of outside talent. Once hired, these employees grow up with the organization,
and, in most cases, the new employees expect to remain with the organization until
retirement. Promotions and salary raises are fairly predictable, even if not
rapid. Although few of these organizations have a formal policy of lifetime employment,
in practice it is almost assured.
[Notes to learners: required reading in Module 3, Building Trust with Front Line Employees.]
In the effective organization, HRM functions
become distributed between the Human Resources Department and line managers.
Strategic management of human resources becomes a powerful tool to make the organization
nimble and efficient. Until recently, “a leap of faith” was required for
anybody to believe that management of human resources could have a large effect on the
bottom line. There is a growing and high-quality body of empirical research that
demonstrates that HRM policies and practices have an impact on organizational
performance. In the effective organization, HRM policies tend to be flexibly written
and flexibly applied. A central goal of HR policies should be to attract and retain
a talented, highly committed, highly productive workforce. This way the organization can
succeed by satisfying its beneficiaries and achieving its financial goals and obligations to
shareholders and other stakeholder groups.
We are now going to focus on recruiting and retaining employees.
Recruitment
and selection are analytically distinct processes, although they are generally sequenced
closely together. Recruitment can take place within the organization or from the
outside. Internal recruitment refers to individuals who already work in the organization
but are given the opportunity to apply for a vacant job in another unit of the
organization. Internal recruitment may involve a promotion or it can be a lateral
move.
In
this study unit, we will be concerned with recruitment of outside talent. This
occurs when the organization goes into the external labor market to fill a vacancy.
Outside recruitment may target all levels, from entry-level positions to very senior
positions. Every project/programme purpose will find it necessary to engage in external
recruitment. Even organizations that pride themselves on providing opportunities
for promotion from within, will find it necessary to recruit from the outside to replenish
– at the very minimum – the lower levels of job ladders as vacancies develop
when incumbents move into higher level positions.
The
particular culture of a project/programme purpose organization will have a large impact on its recruitment
and selection strategies. There is a clear difference among organizations emphasizing
promotion from within and organizations seeking the best-qualified person for every
vacancy. The organization that emphasizes promotion from within generally recruits in the
external labor market only to fill vacancies at the entry levels. The organizations that
emphasize the best person will be more likely to look both to internal (i.e., within the
organization) and external (i.e. external to the organization) sources for candidates whenever a
vacancy occurs.
Not
surprisingly, organizations that have a monopoly culture are more likely to adhere to a
promotion from within policy than are the organizations characterized by a market
culture.
The
effective organization relies on being able to attract and retain talented individuals who
can perform at a high level almost immediately after joining the organization, and who will
also be motivated to keep abreast of changes in the environment and in his/her field of
expertise. The challenges facing these organizations are to identify the pool of
talented individuals and then to successfully compete with other organizations to attract
them. effective organizations typically hire employees from outside to fill
vacancies at all levels of the organization.
Where
should a organization go to find potential candidates for employment? In the effective
organization, the responsibility for identifying the skills and background desired to fill a
particular vacancy normally rests with the line manger, working together with the HR
Department. The line manger is in the best position to know exactly what the
requirements of the job are. Effective line managers will work closely with the
professional staff of the HR Department to prepare the job description and other
documentation which form the basis for the development of a recruitment strategy.
Development
of a recruitment strategy is an essential step. organizations should not rely on only
one source of potential candidates. Nor should the recruitment phase of the process
be concluded until there are enough individuals in the pool so that relevant comparisons
of qualifications can be made. Without a predetermined recruitment strategy,
the tendency is to accept the first candidate who comes along that meets the minimum job
requirements.
Well-known
sources of recruitment in Western countries include placing advertisements in newspaper
and journals, government and privately sponsored employment agencies and recommendations
from employees. All of these sources can make important contributions to developing
a pool of candidates for selection. The HR Department is in a good position to
organize and conduct the recruitment effort. There is no need to establish a
precise number of candidates that should be in the candidate pool. The test of
adequacy should lie in the confidence that the pool has enough qualified applicants so
that when the selection is made, the candidate will provide the high quality performance
that required outside recruitment to begin with.
For
some kinds of job vacancies, the recruitment strategy will be to fill the vacancies from
the available labor supply in the immediate vicinity of the office or plant where the job
will be performed. In these cases, a strategy of relying on advertisements in the
local newspapers, or the local employment agency, or even word of mouth, might be a sound
recruitment strategy. Most clerical, semi-skilled and craft jobs will be filled from
the pool of talent available in the local community. For many other kinds of
vacancies, the recruitment strategy will require looking regionally, nationally or even
internationally. A prominent example of where a national or international
recruiting strategy is common is in filling professional and other job vacancies that
require a high level of university or technical education.
In
modern effective organizations, particularly those with an international perspective, much
effort is exerted to recruit graduates with the MBA degree, especially those who graduate
from one of the elite training grounds for MBA’s in Europe and
It
is a fact of life that in the world of effective organization, professional employees and
employees on the managerial track change organizations several times in a career. This
pattern may be most pronounced in the
We
will consider several of the leading strategies used by organizations in the effective
environment to obtain the most qualified individuals possible to provide high levels of
performance in the professional and managerial ranks.
Leading
effective organizations increasingly recruit at the best-known graduate school of project/programme purpose
in Europe and
project/programme purpose
schools, such as the ones mentioned above, represent an almost ideal recruiting
environment. MBAs represent an elite pool of managerial talent, trained not
only in general management, but also in different functional areas such as marketing,
finance, accounting, operations management and human resource management. Most
institutions that offer the MBA will require four or five years of work experience as a
prerequisite for admission into the program. Admission to an elite MBA program is
highly effective. One advantage of recruiting at elite project/programme purpose schools is that
the organization does not need to be concerned with the initial screening process. In all
likelihood, all of the students will be highly intelligent, ambitious and eager to make a
mark in the project/programme purpose world. Recruiting at a project/programme purpose school is both economical and
efficient. MBAs have relevant work experience and state-of-the-art training in
management and key project/programme purpose disciplines. The MBA degree is highly practical,
preparing graduates to immediately perform and contribute to the organization. They bring
to the organization leading edge management and project/programme purpose knowledge.
project/programme purpose
schools generally have dedicated career centers. The staff of these centers will
manage the recruitment process (sending out resumes, arranging interview appointments and
the like) and develop the relationships with recruiters. A class of MBA graduates
represents a group of highly qualified potential employees looking for challenging career
opportunities. It becomes much more difficult to identify the same talent, once it
becomes diffused in diverse, geographically separated, organizations. The recruitment
process at a graduate school of project/programme purpose is two-staged, summer internships and full-time
employment. Recruiters come to campus and conduct interviews with MBA
students. It is valuable for organizations to forge relationships with project/programme purpose schools
and to develop an alumni pool, which will be very helpful in conducting future recruiting
efforts.
2.
Recruiting Talent from Other organizations
Although
employees at all levels change jobs more frequently in the United States than in most
other countries, it would not be correct to say that recruiting talent directly from other
organizations is restricted to the United States. Obviously, employees in a free society
can leave one employer and seek a job with another employer. But in the
organizations
seeking talent from other organizations generally use two methods: The first is basically an
informal network approach, where people in one organization know someone in another organization,
etc. It is difficult to obtain reliable data on how widely the networking approach
is used or with what results. It is safe to say that networking is an important
component of recruitment in most organizations, although rarely formalized.
Much
better known, and perhaps more effective, is when organizations engage the services of
project/programme purposees that specialize in locating and recruiting talent. These organizations, often
referred to as “headhunters” or executive search organizations, have developed a
sophisticated methodology to recruiting needed talent from competitor organizations.
Generally speaking, professional search organizations are fairly expensive, but they are
efficient and do much of the screening for the employer. They become very valuable
as organizations diversify and require new areas of expertise. The search organizations
manage a diverse group of job candidates, representing many areas and levels. In
addition, search organizations can be helpful in the salary negotiation process with the
candidate. Executive search organizations are very common worldwide. Using the
services of a search organization can be very efficient. They have been around long enough
so that guidelines have evolved on how best to engage and use such a organization. For
example: Know the organization you hire. Go beyond reading the literature, interview
consultants in depth, check references and learn how the organization operates. Settle for a
solid, stable and well-organized search organization, with an excellent track record. Work
closely with the consultant who represents the search organization. Be cautious when a
organization tries to impose a candidate you do not think is the best fit or pushes excessive
demands for the services that it renders.
Search
organizations earn their revenue through a percentage of the salary of the person they located if
the search is successful. In some cases, these organizations are on a retainer to the
organization, which has the benefit of the search organization becoming very knowledgeable about the
organization’s work requirements. In other cases, the search organization receives a
flat fee for services rendered.
There
are many temporary personnel organizations, providing employees to organizations for short and
long-term assignments. Traditionally, these organizations provided only clerical and
secretarial personnel. Given the ups and downs of the project/programme purpose landscape, there have
emerged many temporary organizations providing professional staff. A organization can obtain the
services of professionals (engineers, accountants, technicians and the like) through the
temporary agency. In many ways, this avenue could be advantageous, enabling the
organization to get to know the temporary employee before having to decide to offer him or her
a permanent position. In addition, they present a good last resort option.
Many organizations use temporary agencies in order to make sure that they do not overhire.
Microsoft and other high technology organizations, aware of the ups and downs of the market,
use employment agencies as part of their overall human resources strategy. They
want to protect their core group of permanent employees and make sure that they do not
overhire, especially in the event of a recession and the prospect of layoffs.
4.
Outsourcing of Functions
In
this study unit, we have considered various considerations for a organization as it decides on
a strategy to obtain the talent necessary to make the transition from monopoly to
competition and to prosper in the new effective environment. In addition to
recruitment, there is an important trend underway for effective organizations to outsource
certain functions. Most prominent among functions that are being outsourced to organizations
that specialize in that work are information technology and computer services. Other
functions that are increasingly being outsourced to specialized organizations are payroll,
benefits and other data intensive and technical services. Many organizations have a
very difficult time recruiting information technology personnel (such as programmers and
software engineers), or they come at such a high price, that the organizations own volume of
work cannot support a full-time person. In these and other circumstances,
outsourcing can be a prudent approach to obtain quality performance, even though it is
done by individuals who are not employees of the organization.
The
objective of a recruitment strategy is to generate a sufficiently large pool of candidates
so that the person selected or hired for the job accomplishes what was intended when the
decision was made to go into the external market. The HR Department typically
does most of the screening of applicants and reduces the pool to a small number.
However, it is important that the line managers, responsible for the activities in which
the newly hired person will work, are involved in the interviewing and final stage
selection activities.
Selection
(or hiring) should be viewed as an integral part of the organization’s strategy to recruit
and retain talent. Selection is the process of matching the qualifications of the
individuals in the recruitment pool with the requirements of the job that is going to be
filled. The objective is to select the most qualified person. There exist a
wide range of exercises and methods that a organization can use to select the candidate from
the pool. Among the most common selection methods, used alone or in combination, are
interviews, tests and reference checks. There are no right or wrong
methods. Many research studies have been conducted on how to insure a high success
rate in selection. Most of these studies have demonstrated that the single best
predictor of success on a new job is the individual’s record of performance in past
jobs. Any line manager with responsibility for selection is well advised to enlist
the assistance of the HR Department and its specialists for advice and support.
[Notes to learners: read, “Looking to Hire the Best. Ask the Right Questions. Lots of Them.”]
The
interview is an almost universally used step in the hiring process. Unfortunately,
most interviews are quite unreliable. That is a problem to be remembered, especially
since casual, unstructured interviews often have a great influence on the ultimate hiring
decision. Experts advise to avoid commonplace questions, such as “What are your
strengths and weaknesses?” or “Where do you see yourself in the next year, next
three years, etc?” These questions are well known and rehearsed by all job
candidates. Hence, they become of very limited value. In addition,
unstructured interviews are marred by biases, such as the well known “like me”
bias (people tend to hire people like themselves), or the order of applicants (if an
average candidate is interviewed after a poor one, the average candidate appears stronger
than is objectively the case).
The
unstructured interview, although widely used, can be made more reliable by turning it into
more of a structured interview. One approach to this is for different interviewers
to interview independently, using the same interviewing script. This technique is to
insure that interviewers do not influence each other. The different interviewers
should compare notes and reach a common decision based on their individual assessments.
ˇ
Have you ever been in charge of beneficiary
satisfaction?
ˇ
What standards did you use to measure your
performance?
ˇ
Describe in detail how you manage the
relationships with beneficiaries
ˇ
Were you successful?
ˇ
How do you measure your success?
ˇ
What were the key steps you took to be
successful?
Research
findings indicate that structured interviews conducted by multiple independent
interviewers generally yield good results.
Various
kinds of tests are regularly used in the selection process. Some are written tests to
determine the intelligence and/or personalities of potential employees. Testing in
the selection process was more popular in the 1960s and 1970s than it is today.
There are many controversies related to the use of tests and their use is in
decline. Another category is performance simulation tests. Simulations are
done as “work sampling.” Work sampling mimics the work environment, asking
candidates to perform tasks required by the job analysis. Another approach to
testing as part of selection, is the use of “assessment centers.”
Assessment centers involve the candidate, potential managers and peers, as well as
organizational psychologists. Candidates generally spend two to four days at the
center, solving problems, interviewing and playing project/programme purpose decision-making and strategy
games. All the while, their performance and actions are observed by
professionals and a record is kept. Assessment centers appear to be valid
performance predictors. However, they are very costly and time consuming.
External
candidates need to be recruited and selected. They also need to be brought into the
organization and placed in a job. The work content and the work environment will become
crucial determinants of whether the organization will be able to retain its most valued
staff.
The
effective organization will make a major effort to understanding the priorities of the future
employee, in order to inorganizational them into the initial employment package. The
individual's priorities may include compensation, career development, and level of work
responsibility or work environment. Initial employment offers should be tailored to
merge the priorities of the selected candidate and the needs of the organization. The
compensation package should be attractive enough not to be a source of discontent.
Knowledge of the labor market and latest compensation data are paramount. In addition, the
candidate should be able to see that the organization provides opportunities for career
development. The position should have responsibilities that motivate and challenge
the candidate. The work environment should be a good fit as well. Designing
the offer package is often an individualized process, taking into account labor market
forces and standards, as well as the individual to be hired. Many organizations offer
signing bonuses. Many organizations pay MBA students’ substantial signing bonuses,
covering also education expenses, such as student loans. In the
Once
employees have accepted the offer, the process of socialization begins. Socialization is
the process of familiarizing the new employee with the organization culture.
Professionals tend to undergo a very fast socialization process, as they can become
contributors immediately. Experts recommend that one way of retaining professionals
is to develop very strong social bonds and/or strong teams.
RETAINING
TALENT
Recruiting,
selecting and socializing external talent are crucial steps in assuring that a organization has
the high quality of personnel that will help it to accomplish its project/programme purpose
objectives. But none of this will be of much help if the organization is unable to retain
the talent that has been so diligently recruited. Retaining talent, especially
managerial and professional talent, is an important test of a organization’s effective
capabilities. Being successful in this regard requires a portfolio of HR policies
and practices. However, retention alone is not enough. There are many
known examples where organizations retain talent by paying very large salaries, but where the
personnel are not productive because of a negative work environment. A more
significant managerial challenge is to keep the talent creative and productive.
We
will now consider a case study of what keeps creative professionals productive and loyal,
an outcome which every organization in a effective environment seeks.
[Notes to learners: do an analysis of this case in
terms of its relevance to their current work situation.]
A.
The Five R's of Managing Knowledge Employees: A Case Study
To
better understand the challenges of managing knowledge workers, we conducted studies in
three diverse creative environments: universities, entertainment/media and high
technology organizations. Our findings on the key ingredients of managing professional
employees can be encompassed in five categories, which we can call the Five R's of
Managing Knowledge Workers for Creativity and Productivity: Recruiting, Rewards,
Responsibility, Resources and Relationships. Although there are many differences
among industries, when it comes to creative employees, it seems that the fundamental
concepts that managers need to implement to keep the creative individual productive over a
career are not greatly influenced by the particulars of an sector of activity or project/programme purpose
environment.
Recruitment: At some point all organizations
must go into the external labor market for employees. The organization can be
reactive in its recruiting and wait for resumes to arrive. Or, it can develop a
strategy to increase the likelihood that the pool from which it will select new employees
has the potential for the high levels of creativity and innovation desired by the
organization. It is not hard to guess which approach is most likely to have a good
payoff. It is striking how unsystematic many organizations are in making the all
important judgments about who to allow entry into the professional workforce. It is
a proactive plan of recruitment and selection that establishes the pool of potential
creativity for the organization. This is not the entire story, but it sure helps if
the raw material an organization has to work with is of an appropriately high quality.
Rewards: Without appropriate positive
rewards, it is unlikely that a knowledge worker will maintain a high performance
commitment to an employer, given the risks and effort involved. But, money is not
the only reward that matters. Our research suggests that three important types of
rewards strengthen an employee’s commitment to the organization. First, rewards
in the form of direct compensation help in initial recruitment and in retention, but are
not necessarily critical to motivation or performance. Second, rewards in the form
of unique or individually tailored compensation packages provide excellent long-term
incentives for sustained contribution to the organization. Finally, such
non-monetary rewards as public recognition and honors, and special awards, although not a
substitute for monetary compensation, are a key part of the overall incentive structure.
Responsibility: The kind of work environment
that is most likely to stimulate creative behavior is one which places a premium on
personal responsibility for individual and collaborative achievement. In the final
analysis, motivation for high performance must come from within the individual, but
certain environments are more conducive to stimulating creativity than others. For
example, a managerial emphasis on the quality of the contribution rather than with how or
where the work gets done should be encouraged. Successful organizations provide
opportunity for knowledge workers to participate in power sharing, especially in matters
of direct concern to the professionals, but it should not be limited to that. Power
sharing should include involvement in setting goals for the project/programme purpose unit. Wise
organizations provide opportunities to build intellectual capital – seminars, sabbatical
leaves and opportunities for exchange of ideas with peers are generally effective.
Resources: In each of the three settings we
studied, employers successfully fostered creativity by making time and money (often small
amounts) available to individuals for creative pursuits, and by encouraging internal
competition for the resources available. The resources that can assist productivity
include adequate workspace, time, equipment, clerical assistance, flexible work schedule,
and opportunities for interaction with colleagues, in addition to financial resources.
Relationships: Productive relationships
include supportive hierarchy/supervisor structures and positive, synergistic team/peer
relationships. Successful organizations in all three industries encouraged
managerial behavior on the part of their knowledge workers by offering critical
support from the hierarchy and by mobilizing peers to work together on innovative
projects. The best of these executives managed by giving the impression of staying
out of the way, even while they run a matchmaking service, putting each knowledge worker
in touch with others who can move his or her project forward.
Of
course, not all personnel required by the effective organization fit into the creative
professional category. And retention strategies need to fit the circumstances
of the particular category of employee and the work environment.
Among
the critical components of any retention strategy for most categories of employees are
rewards (compensation and benefits) and a stimulating work environment.
Compensation
needs to be based upon labor market standards and be effective, in order to be able to
attract and retain the best performers. Many organizations offer sign-up bonuses in
order to attract desired employees. The compensation package is more complex than
the base salary, fringe benefits and paid vacation days. Compensation has increasingly
been tied in with the performance of the organization. The theory of these approaches is
that employees will become more committed to high performance, and develop strong feelings
of loyalty to the organization. Below are some examples of these approaches:
[Notes
to learners: read the article, “Global Executive Compensation: A Look at
the Future.”]
1.
Employee Stock Plans
It
is common for organizations in the
2.
Variable–Pay Programs
Variable-pay
programs base some part of the compensation on the measured performance of the individual,
team, or of the organization as whole. The most common types of variable pay are profit
sharing and gain sharing. Profit sharing uses formulas that base part of the
compensation on the profits made by the organization. Gain sharing is based on group
productivity rather than organization profitability. Thus, employees or teams can be
rewarded, if they are more productive, even when the organization does not make any
profits. Variable-pay programs can be highly motivating for employees.
While
these plans have been in effect for managers for many years (pay for performance), they
are increasingly being extended to front line employees as well. In
3.
Competency-Based Plans
Competency-based
plans base pay on employee skills and how many jobs they can do, this way encouraging and
challenging them to acquire new skills and expand professionally. These plans are
most prominent among front line workers, but are expanding to white collar and managerial
categories of high performance organizations. Experts recommend that highly marketable
and hence effective skills should be rewarded with a premium, as a means of retaining
talent.
C.
Work Environment
Professionals
and managers are high achievers, thriving on challenges and responsibilities.
Organizations need to take into account the career interests of these individuals in order
to be able to more effectively retain them. Professionals are very committed to
their profession, but not necessarily to their organizations. Money is not the only
motivator for these employees. What drives them is their passion for their
career. Professionals tend to be very focused on their work and like to have
important responsibilities and challenging assignments. They enjoy complex problem
solving. They value support and recognition, and reinforcement that what they are
doing is important. Professionals also like autonomy in their jobs and work.
They seek educational and professional development opportunities, such as attending
training and conferences, in order to keep their skills updated. They require
satisfying and challenging career paths.
1.
Empowerment through Participative Management
and Goal Setting
One
of the main ways to ensure a productive work environment is empowerment through
participative management and an emphasis on career development. Participative
management is most common in effective organizations with flat and flexible
structures. It enables employees to participate in the process of decision-making,
which implies problem solving. The ability to participate in making important
decisions is challenging, involving responsibility and power. Goal setting also represents
an empowerment tool. Thereby, employees participate in the process of designing and
setting goals for their project/programme purpose unit or group, as well as for themselves.
[Notes to learners: read the
2.
Managers as Coaches
Professionals
view managers as coaches as highly positive. Professional employees are
career-driven. Specialists advise that career development should become a systematic
endeavor and become part of the performance evaluation process. The employee and
his/her immediate supervisor should spend time discussing career goals and development
within the organization. The manager needs to be a coach and mentor in order to facilitate
the growth and development of his/her employees.
3.
Performance Evaluations
Most
performance evaluations imply written assessments by the supervisor regarding
accomplishments, goals and plans for the next period and skills to be improved. It
would also be advisable to include a career development assessment.
The
performance evaluation process represents a very important event in the career lives of
employees. The performance evaluation determines how valuable the employee is to the
organization and his/her strengths and weaknesses. It represents the way an employee is
valued by the organization. Careers in organizations depend upon performance evaluations to a
great extent. Many rewards, such as promotions, bonuses, raises, training
opportunities and overall career development, hinges on the performance evaluation.
Assessments
are generally performed by supervisors, peers, one’s self, or by everybody
interacting with the employee. The immediate supervisor does the performance
evaluations in most cases. This situation is not ideal, as it gives to one
individual a great deal of power. It can also be unreliable due to personal biases
and subjectivity, and is becoming less feasible in an environment where employees are
organized in teams or telecommute.
Peers
may provide the most informed evaluations. They interact daily with the person being
evaluated, becoming very well acquainted with his/her performance. Multiple evaluations
performed by different people are generally more reliable than that written only by the
supervisor. There may be issues with the peer review as well. Either
friendship or enmity may play a role. If a group makes the evaluation, the
groupthink phenomenon may emerge and upset the process.
Self-evaluation
provides a very good opportunity for the employee to evaluate his/her own
performance. Problems may arise with boosted egos and self-serving biases, whereby
everybody has the tendency to see oneself as better than in reality. Another issue
is the potential contradiction between the self-evaluation and the supervisor’s
evaluation, leading to negative feelings. The self-evaluation is a highly
recommended tool – but only a tool – for career development.
As
far as professionals are concerned, as previously mentioned, they require substantial and
honest feedback. The performance evaluation should be very comprehensive. In
addition, career development is an important part of the evaluation.
4.
Training Opportunities
Training
is very important to managerial and professional employees. It is very important for
them to keep abreast of new developments in their areas of expertise. This is why;
they need to participate at training seminars as well as at conferences. Many
project/programme purpose schools also organize specialized conferences and courses tailored exclusively
for working professionals.
5.
Work Schedules
Professional
and managerial employees like to have autonomy over their time. They are usually
work driven and work far beyond the required schedule. But, they like to be in
control of their time. This is why it is advisable to allow them a high degree of
autonomy over their own schedules.
Flexible
work arrangements seem to enhance motivation and performance. Forms of flexible
schedules include compressed workweeks (e.g., working four days a week for 10 hours each
day, rather than working a traditional schedule of eight hours per work day) or
flextime. Flextime enables the employee to have latitude over when she or he comes
to work, although they may have to work a specified number of hours and be at work at
certain times. In addition, many professional employees telecommute; they do the
work at home on a computer linked to the office.
ASSIGNMENTS
[Note: Assignments 1 and 2 should be completed
individually by each learner as the conclusion of this.
The Case study is conceived as a
team project. It should be introduced near the beginning of this Module so that the
teams can work on the different parts of the case as the relevant questions and issues
arise. As a result, this case is something that the learners will be working on
during the entire period of this Module. The final written report (or possibly, the
final report could be set up as an online discussion) of the teams and should be submitted
to the tutor at the end of the course.]
A. Assignment 1
This
assignment is about applying what has been learned in this Module to recent changes, (if
any), in the managers’ role in recruitment and retention at your organization.
Please answer each element of the question from your perspective as a manager.
Write
a short essay about how your role has changed during the past several years with respect
to each of the activities listed below?
ˇ
Your participation in the process of
recruitment and selection of subordinates.
ˇ
Your authority to make compensation decisions
affecting your subordinates?
ˇ
Your ability to develop individualized
recruitment packages.
ˇ
Your responsibility for evaluating the
performance of subordinates.
ˇ
Your ability to reward subordinates based on
merit.
ˇ
Your participation in making decisions about
promotions of subordinates.
Please reflect on the performance evaluation process in the unit/department in which you presently have managerial responsibilities. Considering what you have learned in this course with respect to retention of talent, how well does the existing performance evaluation system cover the following topics. Write a short essay on each of the questions below:
ˇ
Are the purposes of the performance evaluation
clear and persuasive?
ˇ
Are the methods for conducting the performance
evaluation appropriate for the task that needs to be accomplished?
ˇ
Please explain how the performance evaluation
system helps or hampers retention of the most talented employees in the organization.
C. Recruitment and Retention of Professional
Engineers: A Case Study
[Note: Learners should be divided into teams of
three to four members.]
You are part of the management team at the Electrical Research and Development Department at organization headquarters. A technological breakthrough is about to happen, making your plants more efficient and cost effective. In order to take advantage of this new technology in a timely manner, you need to hire highly educated, top-notch electrical engineers from the external market. The market for electrical engineers is very tight. Many of them have embraced information technology in order to take advantage of the booming project/programme purpose generated by the Internet. You are under pressure, time-wise, as well. In order to succeed, you need to have a team of top electrical engineers in place in a few months. As you well know, hiring these talented people from outside is highly challenging. It is, however, only part of the problem. You also have to ensure that they will stay with your organization.
The Recruitment Plan: Develop a comprehensive recruitment plan from which you will select a team of top quality electrical engineers.
The Retention Plan: Develop a retention plan, ensuring that these highly marketable experts will stay with your organization.
Examples of specific components that should be included in these plans are:
1.
Developing a pool of candidates.
2.
Selecting the best candidates from the pool.
3.
A effective compensation package for the new hires.
4.
A plan to ensure that these highly talented and marketable
employees will stay with your organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
A. Required
The
authors are psychologists and directors of career development at
Richard
J. E. “Global Executive Compensation. A Look at the Future,” Compensation
and Benefits Review, May/June 2000, 32(3): 35-38.
This
article focuses on the international trend linking pay to performance. Employee stock
ownership is becoming more prevalent worldwide, characterizing both executive and employee
compensation. Country differences exist and should be observed.
Ulrich,
David. “A New Mandate for Human Resources,” Harvard project/programme purpose Review,
January-February, 1998, 124-134.
This
article outlines and focuses on the new roles and functions of human resources
professionals and departments in the context of the new effective and globalized
project/programme purpose environments. Human resources professionals have become strategy
integrators, efficient administrators, change agents and employees’ advocates.
B. Optional
None
GLOSSARY:
Compensation Package: The
organization’s bundle of monetary rewards and non-monetary benefits for an employee.
Gain Sharing: A variable pay program that rewards group
productivity, irrespective of organization profitability.
Headhunting: A colloquial American term for
professionals or organizations specializing in executive and professional recruitment on
behalf of organizations.
Outsourcing: When organizations have entire functions
performed by specialized outside organizations. It is assumed that the outside organizations
can manage more efficiently and economically functions such as payroll and information
technology.
Profit Sharing: A variable pay program, using formulas
that calculate part of the compensation based upon organization performance.
Recruitment: The process of identifying, screening and
attracting desirable job candidates for organization positions. The outcome of
recruitment is a pool of qualified candidates for a vacant position.
Vesting:
Gaining entitlement to exercise stock options. It takes a specified
period of time for employees
QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS
A. Question 1: What is job analysis and of
what importance is it?
Answer 1: Excellent question. Although we have not devoted much attention to job analysis in this Module,
it is very important to an organization because it is the job analysis that provides the
foundation information for the job description and job specification, which in turn are
critical stages in the recruitment and selection of staff.
At
core, job analysis is the process of obtaining information about jobs. The data that
gets generated in this way serve as the foundation for most human resource management
activities. In general, job analysis involves collecting and recording job
information, and developing job descriptions based on the information. A job
description describes the activities performed on a job, and, as we have stressed, is a
key part of the recruitment and selection process. Also, from the job analysis, job
relevant training programs can be developed because information about skills and other
requirements to perform a job will be included. For more background on this you
might consult with the professional staff of the HR Department.
B. Question 2: Please give us a bit more
detail about the pros and cons of using temporary employees rather than hiring permanent
replacements.
Answer 2: Every country has laws governing
the use and payment of temporary employees. You need only to read the newspaper to
learn that unscrupulous employers often exploit temporary employees. However,
exploitation is not an inevitable outcome of using temporary employees. In uncertain
economic times or when the future direction of the organization is uncertain, temporary
employees are an attractive alternative to seeking, hiring, and training new permanent
employees for every vacancy. Especially in the high technology organizations it is very
common to have a small core of permanent employees who are insulated from short-term
economic shifts. Temporary workers can be quickly hired through a temporary help
agency as needed to meet demand. There are many other aspects that could be
elaborated, but again, I would suggest consulting with the staff of the HR Department.
C. Question 3: Once again, what is the main
idea behind a structured interview as a tool in selection?
Answer 3: First of all, there are no
absolutes. Keep this in mind. The degree of structure in an interview
concerns how planned the questions were before the start of the interview. A completely
structured interview is when all of the questions were planned in advance. Now all
questions need not be planned in advance. When some, but not all questions are
planned, you might call that a semi-structured interview. An unstructured interview
is not planned in advance. Research has shown that the more structured the
interview, the greater its reliability.
Interpersonal skill assessment
See also