Recruitment Strategies In IBM - Essay Example

Recruitment is no more about filling a gap between the current staff employed and the desired level of staff required. It is also not about Person-Organization (P-O) fit because the recruiters’ perception of fit is often inaccurate as they are more concerned with the hiring decisions than the actual fit between an applicant and the organization (Westerman & Cyr, 2004). Recruitment today is more about alignment with the overall corporate strategy and the goals. The entire process of recruitment, selection and induction has to be synchronized with the corporate objectives. IBM, having one of the most professional workforces in the world, employs approximately 329,000 employees and operates business in 170 countries around the globe (IBM, 2009). They employ staff worldwide across different disciplines ranging from technical IT areas to the non-technical disciplines of Sales, Finance, HR and Legal (Monster, 2008). Being a globally integrated company, they need to keep changing their business model radically and shift its value proposition. Thus, attracting and developing individuals is critical to IBM’s success (Schmidt, 2005). Recruitment strategy There are three main steps in the recruitment process – identification of the requirements, attracting the right candidates and the selection from the applicants. The right job description and the job specifications help to attract the right candidate and eliminate unwanted work involved in the selection process. IBM has the reputation of being the resilient to market forces and strong leadership. They strongly follow the online recruitment process and it is their key recruitment strategy. Online recruitment includes their own website www.ibm.com apart from key online recruitment websites such as monster.com (Monster, 2008). Online recruitment supplements and complements other forms of recruitment. Online recruitment enables reaching a wider audience, and being in the IT industry, this reflects its nature of business. Besides, online recruitment process is cost effective and it also allows continuous improvement of the process. Online recruitment and selection process has saved time spent by as much as 25 percent (Kumar, 2003). They accept applications online as well as through emails. In addition, they adhere to the traditional forms of recruitment such as sourcing through headhunters and recruitment fairs. Thus, they outsource recruitment as well as keep it in-house their website. For graduate trainees they have a different strategy. Their inclusive work environment makes every employee feel valued for their contribution. The company fosters a feeling of innovation, a culture of collaboration; they offer a stimulating work environment to summer interns (Graduate Jobs, 2008). They foster a culture of innovation because they believe that innovation in products and services is possible only with a renewed focus on people. IBM has a history of commitment to diversity and is not merely to fulfill any mandatory requirements. They focus on eliminating barriers and understanding regional constituencies. Diversity offers them competitive advantage as diverse teams help them give the best results to their clients (IBM, 2010). There is consistency and alignment between the diversity strategy and the business imperatives that makes IBM stand out. Diversity is a bridge between the work place and then market place. As part of their diversity program, IBM tied up with Inroads – an organization, with whose help IBM could find and place minority students in internship jobs (Martinez, 1996). Preference is given to Hispanic, African American and Native American high school and college students with grades of 3.0 and above. The diversity initiatives at IBM are run by volunteers and supported by senior management (Womenintechnology, 2007). Women are offered the flexibility to work from home and are rewarded for their contribution and not for the time spent at work. Its flexible work culture has helped IBM to attract a sizeable number of women in their workforce. To add to their diversity initiatives, IBM started the EXITE (EXploring Interests in Technology and Engineering) camp where they recruit women and disabled youth (Ability Magazine, n.d.). This strategy enables them to reach groups that are unrepresented in the technical work force and at the age of 12 or 13, they are able to identify students with technical inclination. Through their mentoring program they keep in touch with the students and train them to pursue a career at IBM in due course. Referral bonus programs are increasingly being used by companies and IBM finds it more effective than job portals. They offer a referral bonus that is double the industry average of between $250 and $350. About 24 percent of the new hires at IBM come through employee referrals (HR World Editors, 2008). As a part of their corporate strategy towards knowledge management, IBM-Sernet (Italy) redeploys retired skilled staff in the form of consultancy services (Brooke, 2003). IBM believes that older employees have a positive role in cultural transmission of corporate values and knowledge management. It is in alignment with their corporate strategy as it enables them to retain high level of professional skills and achiever greater cost flexibility as they can contract out services. In addition, it allows the organization to widen the scope of its services apart from providing the employees an oppurtunity for gradual retirement. Selection process The search process at IBM traditional differed for senior executives and for the middle level executives. They advertised through newsletters and posted messages on bulletin boards (Kumar, 2003). For senior positions they relied on the networking of industry contacts. Selection is based on experience, skills and overall academic achievements. Peer interviewing Peer interviewing is one of the selection processes at IBM that allows the members of a work group to help evaluate job candidates (Frase-Blunt, 2001). This method helps to build a comprehensive company culture. This results is a higher degree of acceptance of the candidate, higher degree of retention, and a better brand recognition. Non-discrimination The principle of non-discrimination is respected in the selection process which ensures that people with disabilities have the same oppurtunities as the non-disabled (ASPHI ONLUS, 2007). Hence during the search process, they omit any description of the ideal candidate that is not job-specific. Their ads on the internet are accessible equally to all and they also ensure that documents regarding recruitment convey the message that the organization has towards the disabled. IBM wants to highlight that recruiting the disabled should not be taken as an obligation or a legislative requirement to be fulfilled but the company should strive to improve integration of people with disabilities at the workplace. Induction IBM uses video-game techniques and the virtual world of the internet as an induction tool which enables new employees to mingle, interact and share ideas in the virtual world before their first day on the job (HRM, 2007). They are using the internet to break down the barriers of distance and satellite-office environments. Through this method the new employees learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and honing up sales skills before meeting the clients. The program called IBM@Play provides the employees a flexible way to learn while maintaining their work and personal schedules. This is a next frontier in its initiatives for learning, which IBM feels will be able to help employees across the world to develop their skills in technology, management, sales and business development. This program also enables the employees to draw on the older employees’ collective intelligence and skills, to discuss skills and compare their working experiences. IBM uses technology to connect people, form social networks and collaborate to handle business challenges. Ongoing talent development IBM’s involvement with the employees does not end with the induction after selection. Their training and development programs are ongoing as they provide comprehensive resources to develop new skills and improve the existing ones. Towards meeting this goal, they have the Individual Development Plan where they identify the individual strengths, skills, interests and goals, which help the manager to create a plan (IBM, 2010a). Through their mentoring program they pair the employee with a senior professional for advice and support. They also provide a learning service for their employees as well as customers. They offer online briefings, detailed help-on-demand and electronic monitoring. They encourage their employees for voluntary participation in accredited educational programs for which they refund the tuition fees after satisfactory completion of the course. IBM also focuses on continuous skills development within the professions. These help an individual to measure his/her skills against worldwide standards and take control of their own future. It enables an employee to achieve recognition and success in the chosen profession. IBM focuses on talent management as it cost effective to train than to recruit afresh (IBM, 2007a). They recognize that more than financial incentives, less tangible inducements such as skills development and internal advancement oppurtunities are more effective in retaining staff. Skills training enhance motivation among the employees which also makes them feel more valuable and valued. Investing in their workforce helps IBM not only boosts productivity but also helps them realize the return on their investments in their technology solutions faster. Thus, IBM follows the norms of the recruitment process. They use external agencies as well as have internal recruitment programs such as employee referral and also through the company website. Their advertisements carry the job descriptions which serve to attract the right candidates. Their advertisements carry honest information and in a way that does not give unwanted information. They have aligned their recruitment strategy with their overall objectives. They pursue a strategy of diversity and non-discrimination in their recruitment process. They also value mature employees who they re-deploy. Their selection process becomes simple because their recruitment process attracts the right candidates which save time and energy. They follow the method of peer-interviews which makes the candidate feel comfortable and at ease during the selection process. They have a unique induction program where technology is used to overcome the barriers of distance. They also have an ongoing talent development and induction program which enables the employees to continuously improve the skills, acquire and develop new skills and learn from the experience of the mature employees. Individual focus helps the company managers as well as the employees to understand the strengths and the interest along with the goals. The overall strategy of recruitment, selection, induction and ongoing training program of IBM is not merely to make profits for the company. It is meant to keep the corporate objectives of fostering a feeling of confidence, a feeling that one is valuable keeping in mind the interests of an individual. IBM stands out from the crowd because of their highly skilled workforce and enables them to compete on a worldwide scale. References Ability Magazine. (n.d.) Youth Tech Camps: An IBM Initiative. [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 ASPHI ONLUS. (2007) Guidelines for integrating people with disabilities into workplace. IBM ITALIA FOUNDATION. [Online] accessed from 25th January 2010 Brooke, L. (2003) Human resource costs and benefits of maintaining a mature-age workforce. International Journal of Manpower 24 (3), 260-283 Frase-Blunt, M. (2001) Peering into an interview. HR Magazine December 2001, 71-75 Graduate Jobs. (2008) IBM. [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 HRM. (2007) Learn-while-you-play program gets IBM recruits up to speed. Human Resource Management International Digest 15 (4), 14-15 HR World Editors. (2008) Employee Referral Bonus Jackpots: 15 Companies with Awesome New-Hire Incentives. [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 IBM. (2007a) Winning the Battle for Talent. [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 IBM. (2009). IBM Strategic Analysis, [Online] accessed from 25th January 2010 IBM. (2010) Diversity 3.0™. [Online] accessed from 25th January 2010 IBM. (2010a) How will you grow? [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 Kumar, S. (2003) Managing Human Capital Supply Chain in the Internet Era. Industrial Management and Data Systems. 103 (4), 227-237 Martinez, M. N. (1996) Looking for young talent? Inroads helps diversify efforts." HRMagazine 41.n3 (March 1996): 73(4). Business & Management Journals. Monster. (2008) Monster Case Studies. IBM. [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 Schmidt, R. (2005) The Limits of Organizational Theory and Incentives, Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 17 (4), 144-148 Westerman, J. W., & Cyr, L. A. (2004). An Integrative Analysis of Person–Organization Fit Theories. International Journal of Selection and Assessment 12 (3) Womenintechnology. (2007) What does “diversity” mean to us at IBM? [Online] accessed from 26th January 2010 Read More