Recruiting as an Essential Tool of an Organization - Essay Example

Running Head: THE USE OF PLANNING BY ORGANISATION TO GAIN MORE The Use Of Planning By Organisation To Gain More Creative Workforce Name] [Name of Institution] The Use Of Planning By Organisation To Gain More Creative Workforce Recruiting today is taken a lot more seriously and given a lot more thought than it used to be. The case of planning by organisation to gain more creative workforce is fairly typical. The organisations used to chart the productivity of their communication-sector employee-recruiting department by the amount of money recruiters spent hiring individuals. Their goal was simple--spend as little as possible. In fact, their recruiting departments' productivity did go up, but without much thought about quality. Bill Smith, Motorola quality manager and vice president, said, "If you hired an idiot for 39 cents, you would meet your goal" (Poe, 2001). To improve quality and effectiveness, the organisations realized that something would have to change. Now the recruiting departments measure how well its recruits subsequently do' Did they turn out well, or did they need remedial help' Increasingly, recruiting is an essential tool; our competitors recognize that it is a competitive weapon. To land a production job at Toyota, for instance, takes at least 18 hours. Once prospective employees complete a general knowledge exam and they are tested in their attitude toward work, the company then takes the top 30 percent and scrutinizes them the way American organisations do their managers. (Leopold, 2002) These promising candidates go in groups of 12 to interpersonal skills assessment centres run by Kentucky State University for a session on problem solving. Prospects are then given a hypothetical problem and told, for example, "that a lawn mower manufacturer has production problems. The winners ask the right questions and work together to find solutions" (Sparrow, 2004). Candidates also go through a manufacturing exercise and are asked to improve on the method they were taught. Less than 10 percent of applicants survive the final probing interviews. Most UK firms do not go through such an extensive recruiting process as Toyota, but they are getting more serious about it. It may be just in time. It is estimated that since most of the baby boomers now hold jobs, the work force will slow way down from 2.4 percent in the 1990s to 1.2 percent in the 2000s. The Bureau of Labour Statistics estimates the number of jobs will grow faster than the labour force (Bernstein, 2002). Organisations will have to appeal to different groups, notably women and minorities, who will make up two-thirds of the new work force. Finding and keeping quality employees are the battle cry of the 1990s. The senior vice president of corporate relations at K-mart UK, says, "For UK corporations, tomorrow' s competitive battle will be won or lost on the strength of their ability to build and retain a skilled work force" (Gilley, 2000). Everyone is talking about the labour shortage, but it seems to be a matter not of shortage but of finding and keeping the right people. There are always people, but not necessarily ones that meet our needs. Once they are found, it is a matter of being able to keep them. One company that has a good track record on both of these accounts is a medical organization that is one of the best managed in the world: Merck & Co. Arthur F. Strohmer, executive director of Staffing and Developments, emphasizes that Merck places heavy emphasis on meeting very high standards in its recruiting activities, for example, targeting certain schools as being the "best" for the disciplines it needs. Merck, like Motorola, bases much of its campus recruiting on the past performance of employees who have come from certain schools. Many organisations try to do the same thing. Either consciously or unconsciously, organisations keep returning to the same source for personnel. Whether they are truly successful or at the mercy of random selection depend on how organized they are. Many managers make choices based on assumptions rather than knowledge about which types of individuals actually do better than others. All too often the selection process is highly subjective, with applicants recognizing this and trying to play the part they need to play. Organisations need some way to recruit those who are best for their particular organization. (Walton, 1999) Two organisations that have given systematic thought to this employee selection process are Merck and Hewlett-Packard (HP). Almost everyone recognizes the importance of the initial interview. On the forefront of this movement is Merck. It developed a new Interview Skills Workshop, which has helped redefine the interview process. Art Strohmer notes, "We're committed to getting the very best people, not only to fill the jobs that are open now, but to grow with us in the future" ("Skill"). He says that to find the best candidates in disciplines they need, Merck interviewers must be able to develop better skills for identifying the best. Candidates have become increasingly sophisticated at interviewing. Some even take seminars in how to interview and how to present themselves. Merck's workshop teaches interviewers to keep control of the interview. Once education and technical qualifications of candidates have been verified, the workshop trains these managers how to isolate those job characteristics essential to perform the work. (Bach, 2000) One of Merck's interviewers, Julie Satmary, director for Accounting Standards and Training, says there are 20 or 30 personal characteristics you would like each employee to have, but in a 25-minute interview you do not have time to explore all of them. She says the course taught her to hone in on the three or four characteristics most important to a particular job, for example, the ability to work independently, to operate under close supervision, to be organized, and to resolve problems. Art Strohmer believes it is essential for Merck interviewers to understand the exact requirements for each job. He says Merck will be putting a much heavier emphasis on the development of very clear specifications for each of the jobs for which it is recruiting ("Skill"). He points out that interviewers should focus on the skills and knowledge needed to do the job effectively. Merck's hiring process begins when the hiring managers determine what technical skills, aptitude, and behavioural characteristics will be necessary to do the job. When a candidate arrives, the hiring manager evaluates the person's technical skills. The interviewer then evaluates the behavioural or personality traits of the candidate and also tries to evaluate intangibles like interpersonal skills, motivation, initiative, leadership, and so forth. The primary tool Merck uses to evaluate these intangibles is probing questions like: "Give me an example of a situation in which you've had to use your interpersonal skills," "How do you handle that situation'" "What was the result of your handling of the situation'" "How did you feel about the results'", "How did your co-workers feel about it'", "How did your superiors feel about it'". Hewlett-Packard and Merck provide some shining examples of successful, but traditional, recruiting approaches. Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation (SRC) rebuilds gasoline and diesel engines and is one of America's most successful small organisations. The company has been featured on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) special called "Growing Your Own Business." Numerous articles, including a feature article in INC magazine, have praised its high growth rate, outstanding quality, and leadership. Jack Stack, SRC's president, would say the critical element in its formula is its people. The company is renowned because of the way it trains and trusts its employees. Top managers give a great deal of authority to their employees, who are taught finance and responsibility and are expected to make decisions and be accountable for them. This philosophy fits in with its hiring policy. In the early history of the company, hiring decisions were made in the traditional format, with the human resource director making all those decisions. Now the work group decides whom to hire. At SRC hiring is a group activity. No employee, past or present, has been hired or been interviewed by only one person. Gary Brown, human resource director for SRC, notes: "We all look at different things, before we accept a prospective applicant. He or she might have had as many as five or six interviews with individuals whom the applicant will work with, if they are hired." (Bernstein, 2002) SRC's human resource department is responsible for initial recruiting and screening of prospective employees to determine if they might fit in with the SRC philosophy. After this point the approach becomes more non-traditional. Once the human resource manager has determined that a prospective employee might fit in, in terms of work ethics, temperament, and so forth, then the prospect talks to the work group or those with whom the prospect will work. This step might involve talking to two to five people, maybe more. Later, this group gets together. One negative appraisal by any one of these people will prevent a prospective employee from working for SRC. SRC's hiring procedures work for it but are not for everyone. In these times of labour shortages in key areas and, more importantly, skills shortages, not everyone can afford to be picky; SRC can because of its reputation as an excellent place to work. Even though the company pays only $6 or $7 an hour, it has 2,500 applicants for a plant that may have only 300 people. This overabundance of applicants occurs despite the fact that many other local industries are recruiting the same type of employee, and these organisations pay considerably more. It is SRC's reputation that recruits employees. The same power of a good reputation also helps others, like Merck, which recently had 12,000 applicants for 125 sales positions. Like other organisations, SRC receives applications for employment from state employment agencies, private recruiters, and walk-in traffic. However, none of these sources provides the majority of its hires. Its most reliable source of new employees is through its own employees. There is no worry about negativism here. At SRC approximately 70 percent of new hires come from employee referrals. If an employee wants to recommend someone for a job, the human resource department simply asks the employee to fill out a Recommend for Hire form. (Mullins, 2005) In essence, when SRC's employees fill out this form, they are putting their reputation and credibility on the line. The company expects its employees to use good judgment--and employees know that. Gary Brown emphasizes that "if an employee does refer a bad person, then we [SRC] will never take another referral from them." These employees are naturally concerned about their own reputation. As Brown comments, "If good employees recommend someone, they will not let that person fail." References Bach, S. & Sisson, K. (2000), Personnel Management: a comprehensive guide to theory and practice (3rd Ed.)' Blackwell Publishing: Oxford Bernstein, A. (May 20, 2002), Too many workers' Not for long. Business Week, 127-130. Gilley W. Jerry, Maycunich Ann, (2000), Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change: An Introduction to Strategic Human Resource Development, Perseus Books, pp 103-113. Leopold, J. (2002), Human Resources in Organisations, Prentice Hall. Mullins, L.J. (2005), Management and organisational behaviour. 7th ed. London: FT Prentice Hall Poe, A. C. (April, 2001), Hiring in the hinterlands. HRMagazine, 81-88. Sparrow Paul, Brewster Chris, Harris Hilary, (2004), Globalising Human Resource Management, Routledge, pp 18-29, 67-75. Walton, J (1999), Strategic human resource development, Financial Times Prentice Hall, Harlow, England. Read More