Ways and Means Aer Lingus Can Apply to Recruit the Right Calibre of Cabin Crew Staff - Assignment Example

Resourcing: Recruitment and Selection Introduction In the wake of stiff competition, organizations are becoming smarter in recruitment and selection of the right personnel to handle various tasks. The human resource professionals are being tasked with the responsibility of recruiting and selecting the best talents with the capability of keeping the organization ahead of its peers. There are a variety of strategies that the HR professionals can uses in their recruitment and selection of the right people for who can propel the company forward. Due to tough economic times, the cost of recruitment is a big concern for the company. The following are some of the ways and means that Aer Lingus can apply to recruit the right calibre of cabin crew staff. Recruitment This is the act of resourcing for talents with the capacity to bring desirable changes to the organization through immediate contribution or long-term benefits (Beardwell and Clayton 176). It always involves systematic attraction, identification, selection, and redeployment of people of great value to the organization (Taylor 41). The employees to be identified must consist of individuals with potential of boosting internal mobility, countering perceptions of elitism, and supporting wider cultural changes needed in the organization. A company that is experiencing problems with its workers can also consider sub-contracting of workforce since it has numerous benefits. Recruiting Innovative Leaders The identification of authentic and innovative leaders in the stream of the talent pool is one of the most difficult responsibilities for the HR professionals since most of them are currently employed and thus are not looking for a job (McDonnel 211). Most effective and advance recruiting options available for HR professionals to exploit include peer referrals, professional societies and alumni lists, and special media networking among others (Wilkinson and Redman 33). The use of technology by the HR team is also likely to result into fruitful candidates suitable for the job who can help the company advance. The sourcing of middle to upper level management is crucial and may need peer referrals since others already have a strong knowledge of the strengths and capabilities required in various departments (Siobham, Morley and Forley, 190). The use of peer referrals helps in the identification of the candidates who possess the needed skills and can easily cope with the organizational culture. Professional societies are also another way of sourcing potential candidates for key positions in the company (Ralston 13). More unique and functional areas require professional societies to identify and recruit the right candidates with the ability to perform various challenging tasks for the company. Since the business societies are composed of specialists and scientist, needed for research and development, the specialized societies are important in identifying people for such positions. Behavioural and Professional Assessment Strong scientific basis for behavioural assessment and the influx of technology has enabled the HR professionals’ access various tools that they can use for their recruitment strategies. The behavioural assessments are amongst the tools than can be successfully used in selecting and recruiting people to perform specific tasks for the organization (Mellahi and Wood 14). Individual differences provides the HR professionals with the opportunity to administer proper selection as they capitalize on various experiences of each person in coming up with the best candidates. The use of cognitive ability test provides good candidates for the management level than most of other recognized methods. The cognitive ability test that applies space visualization, word fluency, and symbolic reasoning is good in determining the creativity of candidates needed for various tasks (Llorens and Kellough 15). Personality tests are also ideal method for recruitment since it enables the HR professionals to determine meaningful relationships between specific personalities constructs (Roberts 177). Biographical information can be used to asses a person creativity approach which can be useful for the organization development. The use of biographical information enables the HR professionals to know the particular abilities and attributes needed to perform particular tasks, which can propel the company forward (Lewis and Heckman 16). The situational judgment tests are important in assessing a candidate ability to deal with various daunting tasks and challenging situations. Person-Organization Fit Assessment The selection of the right person for the job highly depends with the ability of a person to fit in the organization culture without problems and within minimal time. The organization culture can provide value based instruments that can be used in selection setting to assess the candidate ability to work successfully within the organization (Marchington and Wilkinson 211). The employees who fit well with the organization culture have high levels of job satisfaction and organization commitment. Those who do not fit into the organizational culture may be a liability to the company as they are associated with physical and psychological problems at the work hence lowering their productivity (Gunnigle, Heraty, Morley and McDonnel 88). Behavioural Based Interviews The successful approach to predicting future performance of an employee is by applying behaviour-based interviews, which are customized according to organizations requirements. This strategy enables the recruitment tea to discover how an applicant performed in particular employment situations they faced in the past (David, Gunnigle and Morley 71). It assesses the candidate’s leadership skills in the past and thus can be used to predict the behaviour in an event of a likely outcome in the future. This enables the HR professionals to gauge the leadership skills of a person based on their behaviours in certain circumstances. Succession Planning The art of succession paling is becoming popular since most leaders are recognizing the fact that the workforce qualities they need are already under their own roof. The lifetime of most workers of an organization expires with time and as such, the management must plan successfully for the replacement of the gone workforce. The effects of the recent economic crisis and hiring freezes is making most organizations to look inwardly as they develop new talents to take on various tasks left by other workers (Caers and Castelyns 12). Succession planning is good for middle and top management due to their great importance to the company. The organization should identify and take their time to develop potential successors by creating opportunity for them to develop skill and experience necessary for the future role. Careful consideration should be taken when selecting individuals for succession planning as any mess can cost the company dearly (Billsberry and Gilbert 21). The organization should be willing to spent time and resources to slate the selected individuals for the key projects and opportunities as they develop their skills. Assessment Centres The use of assessment centres enables a company to have a wide range of benefits that comes from globalization, innovation, market share, and identification of visionary leaders together with talent management (Beardwell and Clayton 56). Assessment centres focuses on the influence and design in terms of competencies, and the nature of an event so that the chosen professionals deliver that is required of them according to the organizational culture. The use of assessment centres applies differently in various organizations and they have various cultural implications. The use of assessment centres is part of corporate strategy and talent management with great benefits to a company especially during tough economic times. It enables a company to identify leaders who are visionary, inspirational, and entrepreneurial in their duties hence have the capability of propelling the company forward. The use of assessment centres is of great benefit to a firm since it promotes internal managers, screen external applicants, diagnose development needs while at the same time develop behavioural skills (Redman and Wilkinson 109). Recruitment Consultants This is a form of business contacting whereby matters related to recruitment are entrusted to a private firm as they have the expertise and the capacity to handle it effectively. Recruitment consultants are of great importance to companies especially during tough economic times coupled with the loss of potential employees. In house management of the recruitment process is sometimes costly and this makes most of the firms to seek recruitment agencies to help them handle the whole process of recruitment. Recruitment consultants provides a firm with the best advice on the recruitment process and enable them to get the right people needed to perform specific tasks based on their requirements (Marchington and Wilkinson 60). This also enables the firm to eliminate the time and resources, which would have been spent by the HR department, and instead they use that time and resources in other important duties. The recruitment agencies also assist the firm to gets the best talent pool concerning market situation thus enabling them to have the best talents. Finding the right people for the job is quite important for the company but is sometime a daunting task and this is the reason why it is sometimes advisable to seek the services of recruitment consults. Some of the recruitment agencies offer value added skills like expert market advice, market trends and benchmarking salaries which is of great important for the development of a company (Lewis and Hechman 13). A company needs to build strong working relationships with recruitment consultants and invest time and energy in their relationship to enable them work effectively as tackle human resources issues. Recommendations Aer Lingus is undergoing tough times in its business cycle thus; it needs to make a strategic decision to come up with cost effective framework for recruitment. The company needs to look for innovative leaders who have the capability to overturn it into productivity status. Among the methods they can apply in the recruitment process involves the use of behavioural assessment, person organizational fit assessment and behavioural assessment. They should also arrange for succession planning so that top and middle managers who quit their jobs are replaced at a minimal cost and without negatively affecting the productivity of the company. Assessment centres are also of great importance for a company undergoing tough challenges with their work force hence they should consider using their services. Their competitor Ryanair is conducting direct interviews and training for their selected candidates, this would be costly for Aer lingus due to logistics required for the whole process (Scandinavian Aviation Academy, 2013). Despite using the above options, the most recommended way for them to reduce the cost of recruitment process is to employ the services of recruitment agency. Aer Lingus is suffering from economic problems and it needs the most cost effective way of staff recruitment so that it can compete successfully with its peers such as Ryanair. Company that employs the services of recruitment agency, are likely to benefit from specialist consultancy. Recruitment agencies have a lot of experience and expertise in matters related to job placement hence are likely to provide necessary advice to Aer Lingus on how to deal with the recruitment process. They fully understand the labour market hence can help the company in selecting and filtering unsuitable candidates for the various vacancies within the company. A lot of cost will be reduced in unnecessary job boards and other forms of aggressive advertisement. Some agencies offer training of the selected recruits thus enabling the company save on cost that would otherwise be used in training purposes. Aer Lingus is likely to get assistance with the current market values to attract top candidates if they employ the services of recruitment agency. Since some of the recruitment agencies have international footing, they have wider nets of targeted candidates, who can be of great benefit to the company. The time, which would have been spent by Aer Lingus in recruitment process, is greatly saved and they can exploit the time saved by solving other challenges of the company. Recruitment agencies have a lot of expertise and professionals hence will help the company to avoid legal issues, which may arise from recruitment process. The salaries and remuneration of the selected employees will also be benchmarked with their competitors like Ryanair to avoid losing their employees to other firms. Works Cited Beardwell, Julie and Claydon, Tim. Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach. New Jersey: Financial Times Management. 2010. Print. Billsberry, John and Gilbert, Louise. Using Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory To Teach Different Recruitment and Selection Paradigms. Journal of Management Education, April 2008; vol. 32, 2: pp. 228-247. Caers, Ralf and Castelyns, Vanessa. LinkedIn and Facebook in Belgium: The Influences and Biases of Social Network Sites in Recruitment and Selection Procedures. Social Science Computer Review, November 2011; vol. 29, 4: pp. 437-448 David, Collings., Patrick, Gunnigle and Morley, Michael. 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London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; 5 edition. 2010. Print. Read More