Today's Employees Crave for Additional Responsibility - Coursework Example

Human Resources Management Human resource managers are responsible for managing the human resources, a fancy way of saying employees, for a corporation. More specifically, the human resources department’s main considerations are hiring and retaining employees. This may sound like an easy task but is actually a quite complex set of duties including recruiting, screening, hiring, performance standards and reviews, policy and salary proposals, employee team building and relations, leadership directives in addition to varies other responsibilities as directed by the individual company. The ‘HR’ department has many responsibilities but two, employee acquisition and retention are far and away the most imperative. The HR managers job description requires them to interview applicants to determine their specific qualifications and if they would be a suitable fit for a particular company. The selection process includes many measured steps that begin before the application is filled out. Initial screenings that include reference, credit and background investigations only begin the lengthy, complex selection process. The HR manager’s other main focus is employee retention. The health of any company is contingent on these two factors being managed well as will be demonstrated in this discussion. Employee retention is contingent on employee satisfaction. According to surveys conducted in 2004, more than half of all Americans are unhappy with their jobs, a figure that is up from the 40 percent who expressed dissatisfaction only a decade ago. According to the study, there are a number of factors contributing to the decline that can be seen across all income levels. These factors include constantly changing technological requirements, rising productivity demands and changing workplace expectations on one side and a changing view of the role of work in the lives of incoming workers on the other (Franco, 2005). Research conducted through Purdue University to help improve productivity and customer satisfaction has revealed a direct link between employee happiness and customer satisfaction as well as overall profitability (Childers, 2005). Employee satisfaction has been proven to be directly related to overall productivity within an organization, whether the employees are in direct contact with the end consumer or not. This relationship can perhaps best be seen in the service-profit chain described by a report given by members of the Harvard Business School faculty. According to authors James L. Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W. Loveman, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger, there are several links in this service-profit chain beginning with the premise that profit and growth are stimulated primarily through customer loyalty. This loyalty is dependent on customer satisfaction which is influenced in turn by the value of services provided to the customer. The value of these services comes from employees who are happy, loyal and productive. Yet, employees can only be happy, loyal and productive when they have a responsive, results-oriented support system backing them up (Heskett, et al, 1994). A decade later, the Purdue University study supported this service-profit chain in reverse by focusing on the employees within corporations who had little to no actual contact with the end consumer. This study also demonstrated that the happy employee deep within the company is more likely to work hard to help other employees within the company with whom they have contact. These other employees, feeling their voices are heard and satisfied that their needs are met, are then more likely to take personal interest in pleasing the customers. These satisfied customers increase exponentially into a loyal market base and much greater profitability for the company (Childers, 2005). More than a cooperative team working together to meet the customers’ needs, companies with happy, productive employees increase their productivity simply by reducing the need to train new employees as a result of high turnover thanks to an increased employee loyalty. This employee loyalty developed as a result of customer service within the organization further translates to a more competitive market edge. Loyal employees have an active interest in helping their company be successful. This translates into enhanced customer service on all levels. This increased customer service offers a competitive edge that “creates volume, extended stays, repeat business and the always valuable word-of-mouth recommendations to build your future business” (Enhance Your Competitive Edge, n.d.). Although it is difficult to quantify the exact value of these concepts, a few statistics can help to illustrate the great potential inherent in quality services. Based on information collected, the SPSS reported only four percent of all customers with problems complain, but the average person with a problem will eventually tell nine other people about it. Satisfied customers on the other hand, will only tell five other people about their experience. Since the cost of acquiring a new customer is estimated to be between 5 and 7 times greater than the cost of retaining current ones, the importance of staff satisfaction in retaining a competitive edge is emphasized further by the estimate that the cost of hiring and training a new employee is up to 10 times greater than retaining current ones (Using Satisfaction, 1996). Contributing on a more subtle scale, staff satisfaction provides companies with the ability to quickly react to changes in their customer base or to developing problems within their own organization. By encouraging open communication between all levels of staff, employees in direct contact with customers can more quickly and easily solve issues and report changes or requests. Employees who are not in direct contact with customers also have the opportunity to report inefficiencies, shortages or issues in trying to meet customer concerns (Using Satisfaction, 1996). Open communication leads to feelings of ownership among the employees who will, in turn, tell other workers about the company, further enhancing its competitive edge in the ability to attract and retain the best talent in the area. Understanding the benefits to both productivity and competitive edge in establishing high levels of staff satisfaction within an organization, it is also important to understand the various factors that can impact how happy employees are within an organization. Although it might be supposed that wages and benefits carry the lion’s share of the weight in measuring staff contentment levels, reports indicate there are a variety of other factors that bear significant weight of their own. According to Bavendam Research, the largest factor contributing to employee satisfaction is not fair rewards but real opportunity for the individual (2005). It is important to note that opportunity in this sense is not referring to promotions only, but also to the opportunities to take on new challenges, solve problems and gaining increased responsibility. Continuous high job stress was the second strongest factor reported in this study. In discussing this aspect, researchers pointed out that job stress was not necessarily referring to the actual challenges of the job itself, but rather to the extent to which either the job performance or the worry and concern about the job interfered in individual employees’ lives. The more the job inserted itself into personal lives, the higher stress was associated with it. More stress equaled significantly less employee satisfaction. The remaining four factors contributing to staff satisfaction in decreasing relative strengths were listed as being company leadership, work standards within the workplace, fair and adequate rewards for the work performed and adequate authority being distributed among employees for them to accomplish the tasks required of them. All four of these factors can be grouped under the major heading of organizational culture and warrant a closer look into what this entails. Organizational culture is a significant driver of employee engagement and satisfaction which can ultimately lead to the success or failure of a company. This heading deals in large portion with management within the company as well as with work standards, fair compensation and the opportunity for individual responsibility. It is up to management to design jobs well, provide adequate support and set goals for the employees within an organization so as to provide them with challenges to meet and methods of measuring performance (Childers, 2005). As has been shown, open communication from both the top down and the bottom up is essential to developing a culture in which all members feel important to the success of the whole. Management can encourage this communication model by providing ample opportunities for employees to submit feedback and showing a response to that feedback. Training manuals for management employees stress the importance of management’s role as a personal coach to identify strengths and weaknesses, the role of advisor to identify areas in which employees might excel and the role of appraiser to offer both positive and negative feedback to employees in a nurturing environment that encourages growth (Employee Development, 2003). The positive work environment thus created leads naturally to more effective problem-solving and conflict resolution within the workplace, resulting in higher work standards and happier employees. Although compensation rates can fluctuate, if employees further have the authority to make decisions that affect their ability to perform the tasks assigned them, less frustration is able to build up and conflicts can be handled quickly and effectively at lower levels. With an adequate work environment that focuses on high standards, open communication and quick conflict resolution, employees become happier and more willing to take ownership in the success of the company as a whole. This engagement of the employees further leads to much more effective customer service, especially when coupled with employees who have adequate authority to deal with concerns at the lower levels, which leads to much improved customer satisfaction. Productivity is also increased when employees are satisfied as absentee rates decrease and employee turnover is reduced. When happy customers are created, they are more likely to become repeat customers and will help the company through word-of-mouth advertising. In addition, happy employees encourage other talented, motivated workers who wish to work in such a positive environment to apply to open positions within the company, increasing the company’s competitive edge in a variety of fields at once. The manager or human resource officer must be able to combine the application, interview and verification process with a knowledge of what ‘red flags’ to look for in each part of that process. The person responsible for hiring determines, to a large extent, the success of their employer. This fact is especially magnified for small businesses that may not have a capable replacement on staff. Until the void is filled by a capable applicant, the entire business suffers adverse affects. The person in charge of hiring is an important responsibility in any company but large corporations are able to absorb a few judgment errors in employee selection. An employer of hundreds or thousands have few positions that only one person could do. A small business and other various organizations may have, for example, five employees each with a specific function. An analogy is a musical band that would likely have to replace a very integral part of the group such as the drummer with a stranger. Almost 80 percent of U.S. businesses employ less than 10 people. A majority of businesses must make the right call when hiring another team member and they must do it quickly. I have learned through experience and by research that by following a few guidelines, the employer can at least increase their odds for finding the right match for the position (Sloan, 2006). Pre-employment screenings ascertain basic information required for every job applicant. This procedure facilitates a systematic and orderly process from the beginning. In this phase, the employer documents the applicant’s identification and job classification for general record keeping purposes. Additionally, the applicant is classified as to their appropriateness for a particular position. Information is ascertained as to the applicant’s education, training and other qualifications. These initial groupings expedite the process and facilitate an increased propensity for a justifiable hire. Generally speaking, it is illegal for an employer to inquire as to an applicant’s ethnicity or religion and not recommended even while engaged in a casual conversation at any time during the hiring process. Discrimination, as defined by law, is a broad issue also encompassing gender and disabilities. A careful review of the employers’ responsibilities outlined under the Civil Rights or American Disability Acts is essential for whoever is involved in any step of the employee selection process. The application is used to categorize the applicant but often, it contains irrelevant questions. Though applications are fairly standard, the varied positions available in the job market are not. The selection process is streamlined by using forms that pertain more appropriately to the particular position. For example, asking the typing and office skills of an applicant for a welding job only serves to clutter and waste space on the application. Furthermore, using mass produced applications instead of those personalized by the company may contain questionable material from a legal perspective (Lindner & Zoller, 2001). Applications and resumes are the starting place for gathering information but the employer must verify these documents before making decisions based on this information. Studies have shown that almost half of resumes submitted to employers contain falsified qualifications, intentional omissions or outright lies. The finalists for the job should be given a second, brief application that again asks about any criminal activity and asks them to re-affirm that the information given is accurate, spelling out the consequences for making false representations to the company. The application should be perused in order to quickly identify items to be further investigated such as gaps of employment or hesitation to list the names of previous supervisors. All references should be contacted no matter how insignificant they may seem. I was reviewing the application of a seemingly bright and well-mannered young graduate who had very limited previous employment history and just one personal reference listed, his grandmother. A call to the grandmother revealed that this person had been a life-long thief and general trouble-maker. She asked me to keep her comments confidential which I did. Needless to say, the applicant was not retained by our company but may have been if the reference check was not performed. The candidate’s education and employment history must be thoroughly checked. If necessary ask the applicant to elaborate on their experience and education. “If possible, get a specialist to perform a background check. Consider that 1 in every 37 U.S. adults has been incarcerated” (Case, 2006). A brief interview can be held immediately following completion of the application. At this stage, both parties can make general assessments and determinations regarding whether or not this is a good fit (Mathis & Jackson, 1979). Typically, topics discussed range from career goals, job interests and salary requirements to location restrictions and availability. The interviewer will gain better information if the questions follow a structured format. The list of questions should be those that require a short answer and be limited to the topics just discussed. This pre-determined set of questions will not only streamline the process but help avoid questions deemed discriminatory. Investigating the background of an applicant begins with the level of practical information obtained during the interview. This includes questions concerning their character, health, education, experience and activities and hobbies enjoyed outside work. Information should be confirmed by someone other than the applicant including their credit, driving and criminal history along with confirmations from previous employers and the contacting of all personal references no matter how seemingly insignificant. Background checks are a tedious chore but the effort is much easier to tolerate when taking into consideration the high cost of not performing these checks. Taking an extra hour or more out of the work day to thoroughly investigate a potential employee could and most probably will save many hundreds of hours wasted on training a bad employee followed by a possibly lengthy termination and re-hiring process. Background checks must be strictly limited to job-related functions and to avoid potential litigation. Checks should always be documented to be able to later prove that the hiring decision was based on appropriate information. Standards of information should be applied uniformly within any job classification. “If one item is grounds for denial of a job to one person, it should be the same for any other person who applied for the same job” (Deland, 1983). For additional consideration, background checks are inclined to give a less favorable impression of some minority applicants. For this statistically relevant reason, all applicants should have the chance to further explain why they may have received a less than favorable recommendation from a reference. Credit checks are a measure of a person’s sense of financial responsibility. This may be a useful bit of knowledge for the employer especially if the applicant will be handling company funds. Of the two types, an investigative credit report is the more comprehensive. The very detailed and costly investigation includes interviewing the person’s past employers as well as personal and professional references. It requires that the applicant give their written consent whereas the more widely used method of checking the applicant’s consumer credit report does not. This method involves obtaining the applicant’s credit report from a credit agency. Performing a check of the possible criminal record of an applicant may be necessary if the sensitivity of the position necessitates it. Examples include jobs involving law enforcement, banks and day cares. Generally, criminal checks are legal and are commonly used by employers. “Many states have laws pertaining to the rights of employers to secure and use criminal records in making an employment decision” (Lindner & Zoller, 2001). Selecting the best employee should be an efficient, systematic process which can be accomplished to a greater degree than commonly assumed. Effective selection procedures should comprise testing, interviewing, and the checking of references, none of which should be given a disproportionate amount of weight over the other. The person(s) responsible for hiring would be much more effective if their approach was adaptive and streamlined. Many, however, are either are unaware of or simply ignore several aspects of selection that are vital to making quality hiring decisions. First and most importantly, the past job performance of a candidate is a good indicator of future performance. If an applicant has proved to be a self motivated individual, the skills needed for the new job can be taught. Those that lack this quality will likely be applying for another position soon. Employers also tend to overlook one negative aspect of an applicant’s employment history or personality if other aspects are positive. This is a common mistake made in many relationships on and off the job. The ‘negative factor’ must be carefully considered in regard to its importance to a particular position. Success on the job is a product of many features but failure could be the product of just one. Focusing in on one particularly good aspect of an applicant is another common mistake. Just because an applicant is willing to work weekends or has a winning personality should not be the determining factor in making a job offer. The person they are replacing may have refused to work overtime and was a bit surly. The employer, eager to alleviate these problems, may invite a new set of bigger problems by concentrating on one or two appositive aspects of the applicant. Employers should also realize that the expectations of potential employees have changed over the past few years. What used to be coveted, pay and position, has been replaced by overall job satisfaction. Employees today desire a challenge and want additional responsibility in addition to a comfortable relationship with their supervisor. Generally, these aspects of employment take precedence over the amount of pay (Witkin, 1980). Especially in the current economic climate, HR managers and organizations are experiencing the benefits gained for both parties that alternate and flexible work schedules offer. A human resources department would serve its company well by encouraging flexible work schedules and telecommuting where possible as overwhelming evidence has shown that these techniques lead to greater levels of productivity and employee retention. A company wishing to create such an environment in their workplace must develop new ideas rather than what has been tried and subsequently failed in the past. The federal government, for example, has experienced typical results of most corporations. In an effort to diminish the nation’s energy consumption, improve employees’ quality of life and lower it’s overhead expenditures, the government introduced the option of telecommunicating to almost two million federal employees in 1990. (Clay, 1998). Successful alternative work schedule programs should promote inter-organizational partnerships and cooperation between management and employees. Most organizations publish a newsletter which can be utilized to showcase success stories such as one describing an employee who is successful at work and at home as well because of an alternate work schedule. The implementation of effective hiring procedures saves the company or organization money, time and aggravation. Employing the wrong individual wastes many dollars in terms of advertising for a replacement, the interviewing process and subsequent training. There is also the negative impact to the overall morale of other employees. Any time and costs lost in the implementation of an effective hiring procedure is by far offset by the resulting benefits. Keeping employees saves thousands of dollars per employee in hiring and training costs. Keeping employees happy increases production as well. The effective HR manager is likely one of if not the most important employee in the company. Hiring and retaining a skilled HR manager is a company’s first responsibility. If this department is ineffective the company will be as well and will not be in business for long. References Bavendam Research Incorporated. (2005). Managing Job Satisfaction. Special Reports: Effective Management Through Measurement. Vol. 6. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from < http://www.employeesatisfactions.com/> Case, Linda. (2006). “Hiring Employees: Background Checks.” Start Up Nation. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from Childers, P. (September, 2005). Your Message Inside Goes Outside: How employees are treated within the company dramatically affects customer satisfaction and profits. HR Magazine. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from . Clay, Rebecca A. (July 1998). “Many Managers Frown on Use of Flexible Work Options.” American Psychological Association (APA) Monitor. Vol. 29, N. 7. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from Deland, R. (1983). “Reference Checking Methods.” Personnel Journal. Vol. 62. Employee Development and Training. (2003). Guide to Managing Human Resources. Ch. 11. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from < http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/pubs/managingHR/?x=671>. Enhance Your Competitive Edge Through Customer Service. (n.d.). Wisconsin: The Official Web Site of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from < http://agency.travelwisconsin.com/Programs/es98a.shtm>. Franco, L. (February 28, 2005). U.S. Job Satisfaction Keeps Falling, The Conference Board Reports Today. The Conference Board. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from from . Heskett, J.L.; Jones, T.O.; Loveman, G.W.; Sasser, W.E. Jr.; Schlesinger, L. A. (March/April 1994). Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work. Harvard, Harvard Business Review. Lindner, James & Zoller, Chris. (July 6, 2001). “Selecting Employees for Small Businesses: Doing it Right the First Time.” Ohio State Fact Sheet. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from Mathis, R.L. & Jackson, J.H. (1979). Personnel. St. Paul: West Publishing. Sloan, Jeff. (2006). “Hiring Great Employees.” Start Up Nation. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from Witkin, Arthur A. (July 1980). “Commonly Overlooked Dimensions of Employee Selection.” Personnel Journal. Vol. 59. Using Satisfaction Surveys to Achieve a Competitive Advantage. (1996). SPSS. Retrieved March 4, 2009 from < http://www.spss.com/dk/wp/statisfaction.pdf>. Read More