Principles of Human Resource Management - Essay Example

?The recruitment policy outlines broad guidelines on how an organisation intends to deal with recruitment and selection of its employees. As such, itis important for the Human Resources Management (HRM) practitioners to understand the legal requirements relating to the employment of people and their application to the recruitment and selection process of the employees. Basically, “recruitment can be described as those activities in HRM which are undertaken in order to attract sufficient job candidates who have the necessary potential, competencies to fill the job needs towards assisting the organisation in achieving its objectives.” (Swanepoel, 1998, p. 291) On the other hand, selection can be defined as the process of determining the candidate with the best qualities for the job (Jackson & Schuler, 2000). This essay therefore seeks to critically discuss the importance of knowing the legal implications related to the key concepts explained above by the HRM. To select is to discriminate when it comes to recruitment and selection of employees. The issue in this case is not about discriminating but it is about how to discriminate fairly. In simple terms, it is concerned with how this process is done in relation to the human resources management process where job applicants must be treated fairly. In as far as the processes of recruiting and selection are concerned, it can be seen that the most important aspect is that of fairness. The employers need to be fair when they choose candidates to fill the vacant posts in their organisations. Grobler et al (2006) suggests that employers must not be influenced by factors such as race, gender, culture or physical status of a person when they select people to employ in their organisations. From this point of view, it can be seen that the government has the role to put laws in place that are meant to protect the interests of everyone so that they are not treated unfairly when it comes to recruitment and selection of the employees. The laws of any country guide the operations of all the organisations operating in that particular country and they are supposed to observe all the regulations stated in the recruitment policies. For instance, the Fair Work Act 2009 in Australia is a law that requires all the organisations to practice fair employment practices right from their recruitment and selection processes. Under this law, no one is supposed to be unfairly treated as a result of gender, sex role or religion which may result in that person not getting employment even though he is qualified for that position. This law is meant to promote fair recruitment as well as labour practices where candidates for the job posts are not disadvantaged because they do not belong to a certain group of people. An organisation which does not observe this law will be committing and offence and a lawsuit can be filed against that company. It is therefore very important for the human resources management practitioners to have an understanding of the legal requirements relating to employing people. An organisation which fails to observe these legal requirements may be risking its operations given that they can have their licence cancelled and this will negatively affect the whole organisation. Companies which also fail to respect the legal requirements of employing people will risk losing money as they can be forced to pay large sums of money for violating the employment laws of the country. America is also one of the countries with clearly outlined legal requirements relating to employment of people. According to Prafdar (2001), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 no organisation should discriminate or harass potential employees on the basis of race, religion or creed. Any company that violates these legal requirements will be committing an offence and can be prosecuted by the court of law. To avoid negative impacts on the company as a result of violating the employment laws, it is very important for the human resources practitioners to have an understanding of the legal requirements guiding the recruitment and selection policies of that particular country. If a lawsuit is filed against the company as a result of discrimination of the potential employees, the company will get negative publicity which may affect its operations. As a result, the company may not be able to attract skilled workers which will affect its growth and development in the long run. On the other hand, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 shows that companies may not recruit people who are under age. This is not allowed by the law as it will be the same as exploitation which can be related to slavery. The laws are specifically meant to protect the interests of all citizens hence the HRM practitioners have to be very careful when they recruit and select the people to work in their organisations. If they recruit people who are under age, they will be liable to be prosecuted by the courts. This is not encouraged since the organisation involved will suffer financial losses whereby it can be ordered to pay compensation to the affected people. It can be noted that the Fair Labour Standards Act has set the minimum age at 14 years for anyone who can be able to work in areas not related to agriculture. The organisation will also likely to get negative publicity which can affect its image. It may not be able to achieve its goals and objectives given that people will not trust its operations which can negatively impact on its growth. If a company uses unfair means of recruiting and selecting job candidates, it will also be risking losing some of its employees since they may not be satisfied with the treatment when it comes to getting promotion within the organisation. This will negatively impact on the overall performance of the organisation since it will risk losing skilled workers as a result of dissatisfaction related to unfair labour practices. It is therefore important for the HRM to safeguard the interests of the organisation at all costs. The HRM practitioners need to understand the legal requirements relating to employment of people in order to avoid conflicts within the organisation. The HRM should know the rates of wages so as to avoid a situation where they can violate the laws of the country. When an organisation decides to recruit candidates for its vacant posts, it will have agreed to abide by the law which provides the framework and guidelines that need to be followed in order to satisfy the needs of every person involved. If a given organisation violates these laws, the courts can enforce them and penalties in the form of heavy fines can be imposed on the organisation that would have committed this offence. In most cases, disputes related to pay can arise within an organisation and this can affect its operations. It is therefore important that the HRM practitioners know the legal requirements with regards to minimum wages when they recruit and select the employees so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the future which may disturb the performance of the employees. According to Aitoro (2011), the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal for the organisation to discriminate against someone who is qualified for the job on the basis of his or her disability. The law does not allow this and any organisation that practices such kind of action will be committing an offence which can attract a penalty in the form of a fine. Depending on the situation, an organisation can also risk losing its operational licence if it fails to abide by the law related to discrimination on the basis of disability. The law also require the employers to provide “reasonable accommodation” to the employees with disabilities. The organisations are also expected to offer special needs to the employees with disabilities such as equipment that will allow the affected people to carry out their tasks without the help of the assistants. There will be need for the organisation to modify the equipment such as ramps that can allow the free movement of people who use wheel chairs. Thus, when it comes to recruiting and retaining the employees with disabilities, the local companies should understand the legal requirements (Aitoro, 2011). Failure to do that may result in them facing different problems that may affect their operations. Over and above, it can be concluded that the concepts or recruitment and selection are somehow interrelated as they specifically deal with activities in HRM concerned with attracting sufficient job candidates with the necessary potential, competencies to fill the job needs towards assisting the organisation in achieving its objectives as well determining the candidate with the best qualities for the job respectively. However, companies operate in environments characterised by legal frameworks that guide the operations of all organisations. As discussed above, when it comes to recruiting and selecting the employees, the local companies should understand the legal requirements of which failure to do that may result in them facing penalties which may affect the effectiveness of the organisation. References Aitoro JR 11 March 2011, ‘When it comes to recruiting and retaining employees with disabilities, local companies should understand the legal requirements are just a starting point Washington Business Journal,’ Washington Business Journal, viewed 24 March, 2011, Fair Work Act 2009, viewed 24 March, 2011-03-24 http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2009A00028 Grobler, P et al 2006, Human Resource Management, Thompson Learning, London. Jackson, SE & Schuler, R 2000, Managing Human Resources: A Partnership Perspective, South Western College Publishing, NY. Prafdar, EW 2001, Looking to bring your first employee on board? We'll help you understand the legal requirements of hiring staff so you don't hit any rough waters down the line, viewed 24 March, 2011 Stone, RJ 2010, Managing human resources, Wiley desktop edition, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton. Swanepoel, BJ 1998, Human resources management: Theory and practice, JUTA, CT. l Read More