Selection Strategy for Merino Textiles - Essay Example

Report on a Selection Strategy for Merino Textiles for the General Manager prepared by Insert Here Insert Your Number Here 16 May 2011 Executive Summary Mireno Textiles has new owners who have added $20 million to the company for expansion program. This expansion program will require an additional 70 employees to man and operate new machineries for textile production and other yarn activities to produce textile products. Louise, the HR Manager, is problematic because Brian, the General Manager, wants to short cut recruitment and training functions. Louise has been trying to explain that human resources functions need a stable and effective HR Department to be manned by HR personnel. Added to this is the problem of recruiting and training machine operators. Brian wants the new personnel as soon as possible without adequate recruitment and training. Louise’s job has been multiplied but she doesn’t get any support from the General Manager. The two has to reconcile their moves in time for the entry and decision of the new owners. Table of Contents Title Page No. 1.0 Introduction……………………………………….. 5 1.1 Purpose………………………………….. 6 1.2 Scenario………………………………….. 6 2.0 Recruitment and selection………………………. 7 2.1 Training and development……………… 8 3.0 Performance Management……………………… 8 3.1 Performance appraisal………………….. 8 3.2 Motivation………………………………… 9 3.3 Soft Skills………………………………… 10 3.4 Shaping employees’ capabilities……..... 10 4.0 Application of theories…………………………… 11 5.0 Conclusion……………………………………….. 11 6.0 Recommendations………………………………. 12 7.0 References……………………………………….. 14 1.0 Introduction (max 250 words) An effective HR Department will provide the company effective people to man the sensitive jobs of selecting qualified personnel for the various jobs of machine operators and an effective workforce for the different machineries in the production of textile and fabric products of the company. The role of the human resource department is significant to the attainment of the organisation’s goals and objectives. The manager has to maintain a good and effective rapport with his employees. The employees too have to establish an effective communication with the customers. Meeting the needs and wants of customers is the job of both the manager and employees. The human resource department has to focus on identifying and selecting persons capable of implementing the organisation’s plans. HRD should maintain employee performance and see to it that that they are highly motivated. Without motivation employees cannot function well. Other HRM functions include job analysis, appraisal, and performance standards. Effective management looks at managing people in many angles by answering questions like: How do employees work effectively? How can they be motivated? How can they work as a team? This first objective is on managers, so that they can deliver the necessary management techniques to the employees. The next line of concentration will be on the people or employees. Both managers and employees have to be prepared, and their preparation stems from the basic knowledge of their jobs and the organisation’s objectives. They must be prepared for the multitude of changes that will occur later on as the situation progresses. Human resource planning is concerned with identifying resources to the business needs of the organisation. It helps answer the questions: how many are needed in the organization, and what particular skills and capabilities should the people possess? (Armstrong, 2006, p. 363) Human resource management also determines the number and type of employees needed in the team and where the labor supply should come from. Recruitment, training and development, and assignment of people should all be in accordance with the organisation’s objectives. Existing employees can be trained, developed, redeployed, transferred or promoted for future skill needs. New recruits should be carefully selected to ensure suitability for future positions. The organisation’s objectives are crucial to the staffing process. The manager should see to it that recruits meet the qualification standards of the organisation. Specification of the qualifications, identification of persons possessing those skills, and moving people into the jobs should be emphasized in the organisation’s staffing strategy. (Miller, 1984, p. 58) 1.1 Purposes 1.1.1 To develop a theoretical framework and logical proposal presentation for Mireno Textiles and recommend to the General Manager HR practices for recruitment and selection, staffing, training and development; 1.1.2 To provide a proper and effective recruitment strategy for Mireno Textiles. 1.2 Scenario Brian and Louise both have a problem: they are in a dilemma since they belong to a new environment which is still unknown to them; unknown in the sense that Mireno Textiles, an organization they think they know is under a new management, whose styles and objectives for Mireno are still unclear to them. Brian wants to please the new owners while Louise wants to work for the improvement of the organization by applying human resource management concepts that the company should strategize in order to gain competitive advantage. The company has 80 years experience in fabric production in Australia but is facing strong competition in the global market. It is also encountering trade agreements and other problems international firms are facing today. Brian has been with the company for 20 years, while Louise, the HR manager, has been with the company for 12 months. Their problem is simple actually – they want to please the new owners who have invested $20 million for an expansion program. The expansion would necessitate an additional 70 personnel from the existing 400 employees. The employees would be spread to the different departments including machine operators, and for wool dyeing and yarn spinning. 2.0 Recruitment and selection Recruitment includes planning, environmental scanning and an analysis of organisational objectives, including strategies and policies in order to ascertain the right quantity and quality of employees when and where necessary. This means forecasting human resources needs to ensure that the organisation has qualified people in the job. Human resource planning is important to the organisation’s achieving its strategic goals. It is defined as “the process for ensuring that the human resource requirements of an organization are identified and plans are made for satisfying those requirements”. (Armstrong, 2006, p. 363) Human resource planning can result into the provision of clear linkages between human resource functions and organisational objectives, effective demands on labor markets, cost-effective recruitment and selection strategies, and systematic and responsive human resource policies and practices in all areas. (Nankervis et al., 2009, p. 9) The job of the employees in delivering service or product of the company should be in line with the objectives of the organisation. Apart from the need to closely link an organisation’s recruitment plan with business strategies, it is also important that the methods chosen to select the best applicants from its attracted labor pool are effectively linked as well. Selection techniques should be in line with the agreed job design and other recruitment activities that will result in qualified, skilled and well-motivated employees who will contribute to the fulfilment of the organisation’s objectives. (Nankervis et al., 2009, p. 12) 2.1 Training and Development Training and development have to be applied in a systematic way. The organisation is viewed as a system, and training as a subsystem. Training must include product knowledge and an appreciation of the company, its history and philosophies. The objective of training and development focuses on the design and implementation of training systems to successfully impact organisational performance. (Smith & Mazin, 2004, p. 65) A successful training programme takes the trainee through the difficult barrier to the final stage when he or she can perform all of the skills at once and can have the ability to think a stage in advance so that the trainee has control of the selling situation. 3.0 Performance Management Performance is something that an employee contributes to the organisation according to his/her own capabilities and talents. It aims to emphasise their capabilities and individual talents that should contribute to the entire performance of the organisation. Performance management also aims to provide the means through which the staff can provide better results for the benefit of the customers. (Armstrong, 2000, p. 1) Managers are not the only ones accountable for their performance, but responsibility is shared between managers and team members. The strategy should be to involve everyone in the team, and that everyone is jointly accountable for the results; if something goes wrong, all should be blamed for the fiasco. Performance management also involves communication between the manager and the employees. Both have the reciprocal need to communicate what needs to be done in order to establish a clear understanding for the employee’s job function, on how the employee can contribute to the success of the organisation’s objective, and how to improve the overall job performance. 3.1 Performance Appraisal Appraising individual employees is one aspect of needs assessment. Beaumont (1993, p. 74) argued that “the grounds (i.e. criteria) on which an employee is appraised should reflect the larger competitive strategy of the organization”. Indeed, it would certainly reflect on the organisation’s strategic development. Beaumont (1993) further states that some of the leading advocates of Total Quality Management are highly critical of performance appraisals based on individual employees. Line managers appraise their employees and in turn, they are being appraised by their own superiors. 3.2 Motivation When people are motivated, they accomplish goals. In the workplace, workers can be very productive when they feel they are a part of a team, or part-owner of business. They feel this sense of belongingness and so they strive for the company’s success. This is one of the many kinds of motivation that affect individual behaviour in the workplace. People always connect work with life’s fulfilment, and connect their satisfaction at work with their feelings and satisfaction of life and happiness with their family. Work and life balance suggests a balance for life and what people do. Theories of motivation include those expounded by Frederick Taylor who is known as the father of scientific management. He defined work in terms of the specified tasks designed for the workers to follow. The workers have no independence and they cannot judge between what is right and what is wrong in the workplace. (Luecke and Hall, 2006, p. 18) Abraham Maslow (1943), who is the originator of the human-need theory, formulated the pyramid theory of need. He arranged it like a pyramid or ladder. Basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid. As one set is met, the need moves up the ladder to the next. Another is the need structure, order, law, and limits, and the need for strength in the protector. The next in the ladder is belongingness and love needs that include the need for recognition, acceptance and approval of others. Self-esteem needs include how people value themselves, including their love and respect for others. There are also the desires to know and understand. Self-actualizing needs include those where people place their goals for their career. (Kopelman et al., 2006, p. 233) 3.3 Soft skills Workers of today’s global organizations should not only possess technical skills but also soft skills or communication skills. Soft skills are the “things that differentiate companies from their competitors and employees within those companies from each other ... [and] the majority of companies have access to similar technology but their human capital and soft skills can never be replicated in the same way as technology” (Nikos Bozionelos cited in McGahern, 2009, p. 22). Hard skills refer to technical knowledge or skills that individuals learn from colleges or vocational schools. 3.4 Shaping employee’s capabilities It is important that an organization conducts workforce planning and employee development. This is the initial stage of training and development. Organizations have to introduce various changes in their marketing strategies, product orientation, and employee management. (Galloway, 2011, p. 59) Business firms should develop their employees to become industry stars. Companies spend much to hire what they call industry stars. And while they spend much, they should strive to maintain them in the company. Studies revealed that only 30% of the manager’s performance come from his own capabilities and talents, and 70% is derived from the resources and qualities of the company he/she came from, for example the company’s reputation, information technologies, leadership, training, and the chemistry of the team he/she was once a part of. In other words, this industry star could not be performing 100% the way he/she performed in the company of origin. (Groysberg, Nanda, and Nohria, 2011, p. 4) 4.0 Application of Theories The importance of the HR Department is emphasized in this report. Without the support of the HR department, the organization cannot function well. Merino Textiles has not given much importance on the functions of a human resource department. True, the new owners might question why management and the few personnel of human resource department have not completed the interviews and recruitment processes in the expansion program. But it can be explained that the management and personnel who were given the tasks to recruit the necessary personnel are only extra careful in getting the right people for the right job. The skills needed are for machine operators and those to take charge of technical jobs which require knowledge in the new machineries to be bought. The machineries and the personnel to handle them will require time for orientation and mastery of the equipment. If the personnel or operators are not well trained, accidents may happen, and the outcome of the fabric and products will not have quality. 5.0 Conclusion Human resource management must be a major activity of an organisation because the objective of HRM and HR development is to promote and pursue the aims and objectives of the organization. It also aims to have a quality human resource that will sell its products or serve the customers. An organization cannot function well without human resource management, or a division of the company known as human resource department. This function and part of the organisation identifies the organisation itself. If the people are not well trained, then that organisation is not an effective organisation. There will be 70 personnel expected to be added into the present 400 members of the workforce of Mireno Textiles. Seventy personnel is not easy to handle if they are not properly oriented and trained according to their skills and capabilities. Should they be assigned to man the new machines, there will be accidents and unexpected incidents that will cause more problems and expenses for the company. Recruitment should coincide with the purchase of new machineries and equipment. Training and development should be a part of the recruitment process. Some questions will have to be answered: Who will conduct the training using the new equipment and machineries? What are the training modules? How will the training be conducted? How long will the training be? Added to the training activities is the question of funding. Of course, when training is conducted, there has to be expenses. All these things should be taken into consideration. Briefing and training handouts should also be furnished to the new owners and for them to approve. 6.0 Recommendations It is recommended that: The new management should be given briefing and orientation on the workings of the company, and furnished the necessary guidelines so they can conduct the necessary evaluation and decision making; A briefing handout for the new owners should include the above guidelines and recommendations, including the literature on human resource theories and functions; Recommendations should be provided for the formation of a human resource department for Mireno Textiles that will handle human resource practices, conduct recruitment and selection, and other HR activities. New employees should be able to present soft skills which refer to how people communicate, or how they sell and market themselves, how they behave and how others perceive of them. Soft skills also refer to how employees impress others and the way they negotiate with people. The new owners will be informed of the current workforce including all information about activities, financial statement and standing, and things that need their crucial decisions. It is also important that new employees who will be recruited by the HR Department under Louise possess the necessary soft skills. Soft skills are communication skills which are learned through constant interaction with peers. Soft skill is also associated with leadership and other aspects of human resource. References Armstrong, M., 2006. A handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page Limited. Beaumont, P., 1993. Human Resource Management: Key Concepts and Skills. California: Sage Publications. Galloway, L. 2011. Maximizing technology to enable change. Chief Learning Officer [e-journal], Available through City University London [Accessed 16 May 2011]. Groysberg, Boris, Nanda, Ashish, and Nitin Nohria. The Risky Business of Hiring Stars. Harvard Business Review, July-August 2005. Web. 18 Apr 2011. Kopelman, R., Prottas, D., Thompson, C., and E. Jahn, 2006. A Multilevel Examination of Work-Life Practices: Is More Always Better? Journal of Managerial Issues, 18(2), p. 232 [e-journal], Available through: Staffordshire University Library [Accessed 3 April 2011]. Luecke, R. and Hall, B., 2006. Performance management: measure and improve the effectiveness of your employees. United States of America: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Maslow, A. H., 1943. A theory of human motivation. In F. Goble, Ed., The third force: the psychology of Abraham Maslow, pp. 233-6. United States of America: Zorba Press. McGahern, R., 2009. 2009. Post-graduates use soft skills to succeed at work. Training Journal, [e-journal], Available through: City University London [Accessed 5 May 2011]. Miller, E., 1984. Strategic staffing. In C. Fombrun, N. Tichy, & M Devanna, Eds., Strategic human resource management. United States of America: John Wiley & Sons. Nankervis, A., Compton, R., and Morrissey, B., 2009. Effective recruitment and selection practices (5th ed.). Australia: CCH Australia. Smith, S. & Mazin, R., 2004. The HR answer book: an indispensable guide for managers and human resources professionals. New York: AMACOM Div. American Management Association. Read More