GeoScot Industry - Case Study Example

GEOSCOT CASE STUDY Executive Summary GeoScot is a relatively new company, with only 3 years of industry experience. It has a small workforce and nearly enough available funding to invest into an expansion plan. With its expansion there is a requirement to hire additional staff members to meet the upcoming demand and production. For the better purpose of handling the influx of about 35 new staff members making the total staff above 50, there is a need to hire a new permanent manager. The decision to induct a permanent manager was based on the number of employees to manage and the dynamics of the company. To motivate the new and old members of the organization, it is proposed that several strategies be used. By sharing company information with all employees, mentoring the new workforce, integrating the work environment to work in teams and giving personal rewards on good performance are some of the strategies that will definitely increase the motivation. However with the expansion, there is a need to divide the office into two segments. Although an ideal option would be to integrate all employees in the old building, but due to lack of space and due to the disadvantages of shifting the office to another location, having two separate offices is the best option. This way the new employees are in the new building and the old employees in the old office, however both offices will be synced and interaction will be kept strong to integrate their functions. By doing this the experienced and the young graduates will be able to communicate and learn from each other which is essential for any organization. This recruitment will be done using the 'Realistic Job Preview' strategy in which the prospective geologists will be given exciting offers and shown the brilliance of GeoScot as well as a chance of earning a bright future for themselves. The drug tested, drug-free workforce will be shown to the world hence improving the reputation of the company and increasing the chances of earning better employees and contracts with partners in the future. Contents Contents 3 Hiring a New HR Manager 4 Factors to Keep in Mind 4 Cost 4 Personal Characteristics/Skills 5 Need for Evaluation 5 Company Dynamics 6 Company Policy 6 Total Employees 6 Decision 7 Motivation 7 Hygiene Factor 7 Mentoring helps in Motivation 8 Share Company Information 9 Integrated Work Environment 9 Encourage Groups and Teams 10 New Blood versus Old Blood 10 New Information 11 Different Perspective of the Market 11 Globalization 11 Location Decision 12 Recruitment Strategy 13 Job Description 14 Selection Devices 14 Application Form 14 Interview 15 Paper n Pencil Test 15 Assessment Centre 15 Drug Testing 15 Advantages 16 Disadvantages 16 Need Creation 17 Creating Awareness 17 Education about Drug Testing 17 Explaining the Need 17 References 18 Hiring a New HR Manager Employing a HR manager is a big decision for a company like GeoScot Ltd. since it is a small sized company and in its introductory phase. Usually when hiring any employee, there needs to be a complete evaluation of the candidates before any decision can be made. For the situation the company is in, the current requirements and the future needs all have to be kept in mind before the decision of part time or permanent HR manager is taken. Factors to Keep in Mind There are various factors that can influence the decision one way or the other. Cost The cost plays a major part in the decision making. A part time employee hired on a contract instead of on a permanent basis can give many economic benefits as well (Zhu, 2005). For example, GeoScot may need to invest in various funds related to each permanent employee, some of which is even paid to the employee when he/she leaves the organization. All these expenses are nil in case of contractual employees. So, hiring an employee on a contractual basis would be economically suitable as well. But since the organization is in the running for 3 years now, it would have some available funding to hire a full time HR manager. Personal Characteristics/Skills Sometimes a person is widely known in the industry for his/her experience, skills and value. Such a person is wanted by all organization, however only one company can employ that person. Usually such a person would demand that his/her terms and conditions be met. This might mean that the employ would work only full time or part time, would have a 5 or 10 year contract, want a salary above a million dollars etc. If such a candidate is found on low salary, then GeoScot should hire him/her since such a person would be competent, experienced and skilled in the areas where GeoScot is trying to expand (S. L. B., 2008). However obtaining such an employ on a low budgeted company like GeoScot is extremely rare. Need for Evaluation Hiring a new HR manager would require keeping a person at a high end of the hierarchy. To give a new person power and authority over other employees may be damaging if the candidate is not up to the task (Armstrong, 2006). Therefore when a hiring new person, usually a trial period is given in which the new employee tries to get acquainted with and get used to being a part of the organization. At the same time, the supervisors or seniors examine the employee as well so as to confirm that the person fits in the organizational environment and works well in the organization (Burke & Cooper, 2005). Thus, many organizations tend to hire people first on a contract of a specified period of time, and then according to his/her performance, hire him/her permanently, if required and suitable. Company Dynamics The job of a HR manage is to coordinate operations between all the other employees at the workplace. A candidate who will prospectively be employed should reliable, and a master at his/her specialization. If the candidate should be getting along well, in terms of, for example, timings and time flexibility, the nature of the job and workload, the work groups the employee is required to work in and the colleagues, the seniors and juniors and the interaction with them and the entire environment of the organization itself (centralized/decentralized, formal/informal) etc. (Armstrong, 2006). Assuming that being a new company, its dynamics are weak and the new employees that will be hired would be new to work, a full time HR manager is recommended to handle all HR related managers. Company Policy The company policy says nothing about hiring a new employee in terms of part time and full time, however looking at the company culture, some employees are full time and some part time thus any decision reached will not affect he company culture. Total Employees Consideration in hiring a full time or a part employee depends on the number of employees working in the organization. At present the company has around 25 employees already and plans to hire another 35 employees. Increasing the workforce will certainly need a full time HR manager to effectively manage the growing number of employees. Decision Seeing all the factors and analysing the current and future requirements of the company, it is recommended that a full time HR manager is hired. Although a full time employee will need to be paid a higher salary, bonuses and perks, GeoScot needs a full time HR manager due to the rapid expansion of the company. The full time HR manager would be more motivated due to his/her working conditions and feel internal attachment to the organisation which a part time employee can never feel. Motivation In order to achieve better output, the motivation level of the employees should be high. There can be several ways to motivate the employees, which depend upon and vary according to the environment and the setup of the organization and the needs of the employees, their self esteem n self efficacy, their organizational identity and determination to work etc. If one manages to enhance these and other factors behind motivation, it gets very easy and much simpler to motivate the employees. Keeping the case of the present organization in mind, some of the strategies that can be implemented to help motivate the employees, be it old or new, might be as follows: Hygiene Factor Hygiene factors relate to the factors that are important in order to make the employees function better and to the optimum level. These factors may include: Proper Lighting of the Work Place: so that there is better visibility of things especially the written material, causing comparatively very less stress and strain to eyes of the employees, reduces headache etc. Work Environment: the work environment and the physical setup of the place should obviously be comfortable, but should be properly office-like. This will help create an urge to work by making people comfortable at work. In addition to this, the work environment should be very comfortable, keeping in mind the fact that the employees spend their day there and if the environment is strenuous, tiring and exhausting, the motivation level would automatically become low due to lack of interest in work because of improper work conditions. Thus, the final output is reduced as well. Accessory Facilities: some accessory facilities that should be available that can help create belongingness and a make-feel-at-home environment. These may include either pick and drop services or vehicle allocation according to employee needs and availability of a cafeteria with full time good quality food, and other such simple facilities that can induce organizational commitment and sense of belongingness in the employees motivating them to work harder and harder for the organization. Mentoring helps in Motivation It would be of immense help that the old employees are set as mentors over the new employees who have similar tasks (Martin & Hetrick, 2006). This will help motivate old employees in a way that they will feel appreciated and acknowledge for their experience and old belongingness to the organization and would be highly motivated by that. This will also help motivate the new employees in a way that they will feel nurtured, supported, looked after and cared for. Share Company Information Sharing the information of the company regarding the transactions, achievements, failures etc with the employees can motivate them big time since this induces a great sense of belongingness to the organization in them and enhances their organizational identity. They feel they are an important part of the organization and that their presence at the organization and their contributions in the work do matter very much. This motivates them to a great extent and they strive to work even harder for the organization, viewing the organization as their own not just some place where they get paid for what they do. (Martin & Hetrick, 2006) Integrated Work Environment The work environment should be integrated and should be set up in such a way that the employees can interact as much as possible. The workplace should not be divided into separate cabins for each employee; instead, there should be a big room or hall having separate tables for all (Martin & Hetrick, 2006). This will help in reducing isolation and assists intermingling of employees that can help motivate them for the same reasons stated in the last paragraph. Moreover, when in case of work groups, the groups should be shuffled after every four or five tasks / assignments, the reason being that if the groups are not changed, the group members will be able to interact only with each other and would be limited to the group. However, if the groups are changed too frequently, like for every single task, the members would never be able to get along well with anyone in general. Encourage Groups and Teams The employees should be given more group assignments and less individual one since working in groups and teams helps employees to learn more from each other. Also, they feel comfortable in the fact that if they do not know something, one or the other of their fellow group members would know it and thus, it would be easier to work out the problem. Plus, working in groups assists intermingling of the employees and promotes friendship and companionship. It also helps in sharing of ideas, opinions, beliefs and experiences. It has been proved time and again that people working in groups produce much more and better output as compared to the people working individually on a task in isolation (Burke & Cooper, 2005). New Blood versus Old Blood Although experience is a prerequisite for hiring many of the employees in the organization, however the collective skills, knowledge and capability is also important. The suggestion to employ four experienced geologists is a good one since for a small sized company, taking risk by employing young graduates may be costly. However this suggestion should not be implemented. Having a mixture of experience and youth in an organization is important for the following reasons New Information The new graduates have been studying lately in the universities. Therefore, they have been taught the new researches that would not even be existent in times of the old graduates. Thus, the fresh graduates are loaded with new information and knowledge and therefore have importance of their own. (Jones, 1998) Different Perspective of the Market For the same reason, of having the latest knowledge of the research on the topic, the fresh graduates have a very different perspective of the market as compared to the old experienced personnel. They view the new market as it is and can implement the new strategies in a much better way. (Burke & Cooper, 2005) Globalization The fresh graduates are more likely to fit in a globally operating work environment as compared to the old experienced geologists. Being taught in an intercultural way (like the current way of teaching in the universities through out the world is), the young graduates are more likely to get accustomed to the global environment which is highly important in case of any contract ant even more important in case of this contract since it is with an oil company that would obviously be operating globally like most leading oil companies. (Jones, 1998) The blend of old and new blood in the organization adds creativity to the organization (Armstrong, 2006). Exchange of ideas between the old and new style is much more exciting and would more often than not bring new ideas to the table. Thus, the fresh graduates are far a valuable asset for a company than what they are perceived as of being. They can bring new technology, new methods and new ways to perform tasks that can be of immense help in achieving success over the competitors in the market. There can be no substitute for experience at the workplace and their importance can never be denied. Therefore a blend of experience and youth is recommended for all organizations. Location Decision Locating an organization is a very important decision since it can lead the organization to either success or failure. A wrong decision can highly de-motivate the employees and can ruin the organization (Kodali & Routroy, 2006). In case of GeoScot, it would be far better to have two separate offices, one for the old employees, while the other for the new employees. This suggestion is based on many reasons, like: The old employees are already apprehensive about the expansion. They are already highly concerned about the expansion that is about to take place in the organization. If, in this situation, the organization is moved to a new location, this will de-motivate the old employees to a great extent which will very evidently cause a fall in the productivity of the organization on the whole; which will in turn cause the reputation of the organization go down the drain and might take the prospective contracts away. (Kodali & Routroy, 2006) Plus, the new employees would be new to the organization and its environment and would not be accustomed to the processes and procedures so providing them with a completely new office where they can set the environment according to their requirements and preferences, would be a very good approach that can assist in building up an effective new workforce. (Tosh, 1989) However, it would be better that the two offices are located in close proximity so that they can always serve as one unit in many ways such as locality, availability of resources and interaction among the old and new employees (Tosh, 1989). Also, it would be better to have the offices located close to each other so that it would be easier for the old employees to mentor the new ones and for new employees to seek advice from the old ones. Recruitment Strategy GeoScot can best attract the graduate geologists to join heir company in Aberdeen would be through a lucrative and attractively made "Realistic Job Preview (RJP)". It is a recruiting approach that gives applicants all pertinent and realistic information about the job and the organization (Winfield et al., 2003). The better the job is explained in the job preview, the more likely it is for the graduates to bend towards the organization. After the graduates are attracted and inclined towards joining the organization, the organization needs to device a proper recruitment strategy to make sure that it hires the best possible graduates among the candidates available. A recruitment strategy is the strategy and processes that organizations implement in order to hire new employees is known as a recruitment strategy of that particular organization (Winfield et al., 2003). A good recruitment strategy would have the following parts (Anderson, 2004): Job Description It lists down and describes the job duties as well as desirable qualifications for the particular job. This will include a communication and interpersonal skills along with specialization skills in geology. Selection Devices After the job description, there is a list of selection devices that can be implemented to make sure the selection of appropriate employees. They are: Application Form It asks for general information (like name, age, address, contact number etc), educational background, previous experience, etc. Interview It includes the set of questions posed on a candidate in a face to face meeting. The main function of an interview is to check the confidence level of the candidate as well as his applicative expertise in a particular area. Paper n Pencil Test It is a written test designed to measure a particular attribute such as intelligence or aptitude. In case of GeoScot, it would mostly consist of questions to test the geological expertise. Assessment Centre It is the selection device where a candidate is given situations that are made-up or simulated managerial tasks in order to test the candidate on the basis of task management. Drug Testing Drug testing employees tells a company about how many of its employees are in the habit of taking drugs. Drugs cause severe damage to a person in terms of physical and emotional health. Having employees who take drugs can be seriously detrimental to a company who has strict policies against such actions. A client like American Oil that has just signed a contract with GeoScot is in a controlling position due to its size, thus it can dictate its terms. Thus it is imperative for GeoScot to portray a gesture of goodwill and improve on its relations with the partners. Advantages The main advantage of having the employees drug tested would be to help identify the productivity levels associated with each drug user. Such employees can be sidelined since they would have a very low productivity level than those who don't take drugs (Delogu, 2007). Furthermore portraying a drug free company is good for the reputation of GeoScot. More customers will be willing to purchase goods from the company and hence the goodwill factor will improve which is essential for a small scale company (Delogu, 2007). Disadvantages One main disadvantage of getting the employees drug tested is that they may get apprehensive about the fact that they are being tested. They might take it as an offence that their integrity is being questioned and their privacy invaded (Delogu, 2007). Need Creation Creating Awareness In this initial part the HR manager will try to create awareness of the drug testing. This will be putting up posters, sending emails to the employees and having general meetings about it. (Jones, 1998) (Delogu, 2007) Education about Drug Testing In this part, the employees will be told about the health hazards of taking drugs and how they can leave it. This will be done by organizing seminars and lectures from health institutes on the premises. (Delogu, 2007) Explaining the Need The explanation will be given to the employees about the need of having drug tests. This has to done by showing the positive side of testing and the advantages associated with it. Rewards may be announced so that employees are motivated to take part in the drug testing. (Delogu, 2007) References 1. Anderson, Valarie (2004). 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