Planning and managing a major recruiting project - Essay Example

Planning and Managing a Major Recruiting Project Planning and Managing a Major Recruiting Project The article Planning and Managing a Major Recruiting Project by Armacost & Jauernig (1991) dwells on the use of project management approach in HR activities. Armacost & Jauernig (1991) start from the fact that recruitment is one of the core HR activities performed in each organization. Recruitment of ordinary staff is often presented by a well-organized routine; on the contrary, it is more difficult to find and hire the right candidate to fill an executive position.

Researchers state that CPM (Critical Path Method)/PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) approach is the right solution for such situations because it structures everything, breaks hiring process into smaller tasks and estimates time needed to do each of them.The article exemplifies the use of CPM/PERT on the real case that took place in the US Midwestern city. The search for Pension Financial Manager was vital because that person was responsible for $1.4 billion in pension funds and had to coordinate 8 consultants and assist the City Retirement System (Armacost & Jauernig, 1991).

In order to make the right choice, it was decided to break the process of searching and hiring into smaller meaningful steps. It allowed the commission to estimate time and resources required to find new person and meet the deadline. As a result, the process consisted of 13 smaller activities; each of them was analyzed in detail to consider different factors of influence that can complicate the process. Generally, this approach to HR activities allowed making better projections and analysis (Armacost & Jauernig, 1991).

Overall, the article comes to the conclusion that CPM/PERT approach is a good way to manage complex HR processes that are different from daily routine. Since every different case is treated as a project, it is vital to know how much it can take to make it happen. Having all plans and projections done, HR managers are more motivated to follow them and succeed at work. The article clearly explains why project management approach it good for HR processes and how managers can implement it in their work flow.

At the same time, this article was written more than 20 years ago so it does not present the full picture in its modern state. Today HR managers can use a wide range of special software for planning and managing both ordinary and major HR processes. Despite this drawback, the article is quite informative as it is based on real example and explains the essence of implementing changes in HR processes. Also, it contains enough details about each stage of recruitment process which is also good as it can be used as a framework for similar cases especially in public organizations.

Obviously this article can be expanded and advanced in context of modern technologies and software used by HR professionals. It would be great to see the list of possible software for project management and recruitment processes as well as their integration in similar cases. Now people tent to automatize certain processes at work and use special tool for data management that simplify processes of candidates screening. This article definitely lacks information about technologies; that is why further research is needed to update the approach discussed in the article and show how it can be even easier to implement in recruitment process with the help of IT solutions.

ReferencesArmacost, R. L., & Jauernig, R. L. (1991). Planning and managing a major recruiting project. Public Personnel Management, 20(2), 115. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA11080636&v=2.1&u=oran95108&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w