Recruitment and Retention within a Complex International Market - Dissertation Example

 Recruitment and Retention within a Complex International Market INTRODUCTION Employee recruitment and retention is one of the challenging tasks of organizations at present. Out of the four Ms of business resources, Man, Material, Machine and Money, Manpower seems to be the most critical aspect of business. Only man would be able to think and take decisions and he is responsible for utilising the other resources. So the role of manpower in an organization cannot be questioned by anyone. Globalization has created lot of opportunities to the business world because of the free trade agreements between many countries as part of the globalization and liberalization policies. The rules and regulations for working in overseas countries have been reduced by many countries because of the shortage of locally available skilful manpower resources. It is difficult for an organization to grow and face challenges from the globalized world using incompetent work force. Work force or the man power is one of the important segments of every organization and the Human Resource Department (HRD) which is responsible for recruiting the workforce of an organization should take extreme care while hiring professionals. In order to cater the needs of the current business requirements diversified workforce is necessary. Most of the big organizations are working in an international environment because of the globalization and liberalization policies and the role of diverse workforce at the work place has been increased for the past two decades. Outsourcing and offshoring are the common business strategies as per the current trends and the selection of diversified workforce is important for the success of such business strategies. Competitiveness and talent are the two sides of the same coin. Competitiveness in fact devised from talent it is related to business strategy more than it related to human resources. Human resources is now accepted as the part of business strategy rather than a resource (Grant Thornton, 2009). Compared to recruitment retention of the employees seems to be the difficult task for the organizations. Skilled or better experienced professionals are less in number even though unemployed youths are large in many countries. Globalization and liberalization has increased the chances of overseas assignments for unemployed youths and many organizations are at present trying to recruit professionals from overseas countries. For example, America is one of the biggest labour markets in the world which experiences shortage of manpower in most of the employment sectors. This paper briefly explains the employee recruitment and retention strategies in an overseas work environment. It also explains various selection tools, organizational goals and different approaches to human resource management. CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF RECRUITMENT STRETEGY Recruitment is a legal process of obtaining sufficient number of qualified people at the right place and time so that the people and the organization can select each other in their own best short and long term interests (Richardson, n. d, p.2 ). Recruitment is the process which is adopted by the organizations to fill the vacancies in the organization. Various factors should be considered for the successful recruitment process. Recruitment can be conducted internally and externally. Internal recruitment allows the existing employees to get higher promotions or higher grades, but it will never fill the vacancies completely in the organization. Recruitment can be conducted internally through promotions and transfer of existing personnel within the organization at different places (Richardson, n. d, p.5). External recruitment helps the organization to fill all the existing vacancies. Moreover, it can bring new concepts and ideas to the organization. Internal recruitment is the cheapest and quick option compared to the external recruitment. Internal recruitment will create another vacancy in the place of the promoted employee (Recruitment methods, n. d). The strength and weakness of the organization is well known to the internal employees and they can adapt to the environment more quickly than the outsiders. Internal recruitment always shift vacancy from one place to another and at some point of time, organizations have to depend external recruitment for the complete filling of all the vacancies existing in the organization. Drifting of vacancies inside organization might not help the organization in the long run. In short, internal recruitment is a temporary solution for organizations whereas external recruitment is the permanent option even though external recruitment is a lengthy process compared to internal recruitment. Another advantage of internal recruitment is that people already familiar with the business and how it operates, but the organization may not get the option of new ideas from outside sources (Recruitment methods). Organizations can save lot of money from the training purposes of their employees if they were able to adopt internal recruitment strategies. Fresh or even experienced candidates from outside sources may need vigorous training in order to make them aware of the company policies which can be reduced considerably by adopting internal recruitment methods. At the same time the organization would not get the benefits of new ideas, if they opt for internal recruitment. External recruitment will bring the luxury of new ideas to the organization which can affect the growth of the organization positively. Internal recruitment always motivates the employees and which will automatically improve their productivity. For example, consider a supervisor who was expecting a promotion to the managerial post. If the organization places an outsider as the manager, the supervisor would definitely be demoralized. On the other hand if the supervisor was able to achieve the deserving promotion, his loyalty towards the organization increases and his productivity also increases. At the same time it might not be possible for the organization to have efficient employees always to include in the promotion list. For example, for a managerial post along with work experience, academic qualifications were also considered. It is not necessary that an existing supervisor may have both. Under such circumstances, the organizations would opt for external recruitment only. Unilever believe in the strength of a diverse workforce and for that purpose they often go for external recruitment strategies. They recruit a diverse workforce which reflects the demographics of consumer base. Diversity at workplace helped Unilever to fulfil the talent needs that will keep the company competitive and successful in the market. Diversity helped them to understand the marketplace by valuing the ideas and thoughts of all employees and other stakeholders in the business (Meeting a diversity of needs, n. d) SELECTION TOOLS Recruitment is not an easy task. It involves lot of complex processes which requires adequate planning and proper selection tools. It starts from the initial screening process and ends when the employee appointed at the right place. It involves procedures for the initial screening of applicant and for generating long and short lists. Moreover, it involves criteria for the selection of interview panels, interview questions, interview scores and panellists’ comments; results of tests etc (Richardson, n. d, p.5). The popular selection tools are written tests, interviews, group discussions etc. Most of the selection process starts by a screening test followed by a comprehensive written test. Those who succeeded in the written test would be called for group discussions, personal interviews etc. Analyzing the performance of the candidate in all the written and interview tests, the recruiters decide up on which candidate would be suitable for a particular post. Psycho tests are common nowadays to assess the emotional quotient of the job seeker. Intelligence quotients were give prominence earlier whereas at present emotional quotient has been given more prominence. At the same time it is possible that a job seeker may recently, taken the same test and had feedback, and may result in an adjustment of their approach. There's no real way around this other than to consider a test for what it should be, an adjunct to a face to face meeting and an additional tool to provide evidence of either hope or fears surrounding a candidate (UKCareers, 2009). Organization has realized that a even well qualified and experienced person might be a liability to the organization if he lacks emotional control. The current business world is filled with competition and stresses and only a person with strong emotional control would be able to executer his duties successfully. Lloyds TSB, one of the UK’s renowned financial institutions is using one of the most sophisticated online psychometric tests to help the recruitment process for its two-year Graduate Programme. This test, (20 minute long) is called Infinity Series Numerical Reasoning Test, which gives each candidate a randomised sample of questions, which minimises the risk that they will be able to prepare in advance or cheat. The bank’s recruitment management system contacts PSL’s system electronically whenever they are in need of personnel. The PSL system was able to send the right test to the suitable candidates at the right time. The candidate’s score is then automatically fed back to the recruitment management system which would take the final decisions upon the recruitment process (LLOYDS TSB USES ONLINE TESTING FROM PSL TO SIFT GRADUATE APPLICANTS, n. d) Online testing of the candidates provided the organization with immense benefits. It is cost effective and also it permits global candidates to participate in the written test. Thus the organization would be able to assess a wide range of diverse work force from online testing. The wide reach of internet helps the recruiters to extend their hands to every corners of the world to identify talents. After the online testing the recruiters can shortlist the candidates based on their performances in the online test and then even the interviews can be conducted using videoconferencing methods. Thus by using internet technologies an organization would be able to reduce the cost of recruitment considerably. EMPLOYEE RETENTION Employee retention, especially the best, most desirable employees, is a key challenge in organizations today. Organizations should be able to hear the complaints of the employees and they should take interest in discovering reasons for employees’ most serious complaints. Knowing what makes employees unhappy is half the battle when you think about employee work satisfaction, morale, positive motivation, and retention. Listen to employees and provide opportunities for them to communicate with company managers. If employees feel safe, they will tell you what’s on their minds. Your work culture must foster trust for successful two-way communication. (Employee Retention: Tips and Tools for Employee Retention, 2009) Most of the employees leave their organization mainly because of their differences with the managers who were the link between the organization and the employees. It is quite possible that an autocratic manager may contribute to the drop out of hundreds of employees. Organizations should realize the importance of managers in retaining the employees and their performances and the method of functioning must be constantly monitored in order to retain the employees. Some mangers may have some dislike towards certain employees only because of the ego issues. Moreover they may afraid if the employee was smarter than the manager. In such circumstances the managers might do something to remove the employee from his profession. Another important reason for the employee drop out is the poor work standards and low wages. All the employees like to have good salaries and better working conditions. If they get better offers from other sources they will leave the organization. Lack of safety at the work place is another reason for employee drop out. Most of the workplace jobs require lot of physical and mental efforts which will damage the physical and mental health of the employees. The employer has the legal and moral responsibility in protecting the health of the employees. They must ensure health and safety insurance facilities to the employees in case of an accident or unexpected diseases. The employer must provide all the protective equipments for the employees in order to ensure safety at work place. Adequate first aid facilities, clean toilets and washing facilities, etc are the basic right of an employee as far as health and safety issues are concerned. Unilever develop and retain employees by providing equitable opportunities, together with a challenging environment that rewards new approaches, risk-taking and novel points of view, thereby creating a culture that values diversity (Meeting a diversity of needs, n. d). Equal opportunity to all the employees will always encourage the employees to stay back in the organization. If the organization favours some people from a particular community or culture, others would normally be agitated. For example, if two supervisors working in similar capacities and performing equally well and the organization favour a particular supervisor for the promotion because of his culture or race, the neglected one would definitely leave the organization. ORGANISATIONAL GOALS Each recruitment must be aimed at preserving the organizational goals. An employee recruited and placed at the wrong place can create problems to the organization. Some organizations have a tendency to recruit highly qualified and talented people to their organization and fail to provide them suitable positions. Finally, in order to accommodate all, these organizations misplace talents which will never help the organization in achieving their goals. For example, consider an organization appoints a software professional in the sales department. It is difficult for the software professional to build up sales and hence he would be a failure as far as the organizational goals are concerned. Right person, at the right place and at the right time always bring dividends to the organization. Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions etc are the fundamental competencies required for an employee as far as an organization is concerned. Leading change means ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, n. d) U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal ROLE OF SOFT AND HARD HRM APPROACHES Hard and soft approaches to HRM are concepts developed by Michigan and Harvard universities. The Michigan model is more of a tough approach. It says that people are lazy by nature and they are led by self-interests which mean that there are two different and opposite sets of interests which contradict with each other. In other words the interests of the worker and the company would never go hand in hand. Managements should induce the appropriate behavior in workers so as that their actions compatible with interests of the company as per Michigan or hard model. On the other hand Harvard model argues that instead of thinking of people as lazy machines, it is better to deal with their emotions, feelings and motivations to increase their productivity. This model believes that the workers need a self realization in order to boost their efficiency. Managers should enable the workers for the self realization process and they should motivate workers properly using democratic means. Harvard model believes that people don’t hate working, they are not lazy also. But they need the proper strategy for motivating them (Soft and hard human resource management, 2008) Hard and soft approaches can be summarized as utilitarian instrumentalism versus developmental humanism. Hard approach is autocratic type of functioning in which the workers get less freedom and their opinions would not be valued by the organization. On the other hand, soft approach is more closer to a democratic way of functioning in which the workers get enough freedom and they can take part in the organizational matters actively.The following factors need to be analyzed in order to determine whether an organization opts for Soft or Hard approaches to HRM; Training received by employees and employee's perception of training and promotion opportunities (soft), Communication and trust between management and staff (soft), Integration of HR and business strategy including performance management techniques such as appraisal (hard), Control over setting work targets (hard) Organizational flexibility (hard) (Gill, 1999, p.15) Companies like Motorola and Pepsi-Cola are best examples of high ROM ('Return on Management). The ROM concept focuses on control: people-based management is founded on freedom. No opportunities are out of bounds, nobody fears failure, measurement is less important than achievement, and 'everybody turns when father turns' is anathema (Heller, 2006). In other words Pepsi and Motorola are keeping soft approach to the human resource management which helped them to retain their employees effectively. CONCLUSION One of the most difficult aspects of any business is the identification of suitable talents to the organization. Unemployed youths are huge in number all over the world, but the talents suitable for the global organizations are less. Recruitment of employees often did using internal recruitment methods and external recruitment methods. Internal recruitment method is always the cheapest and quickest option available for the recruiters whereas the external recruitment is always expensive and time consuming. Internal recruitment always fails to fill the vacancies completely whereas the external recruitment always fills the vacancies completely. Various selections tools are undertaken by organizations for the recruitment process like, online tests, interviews, written tests, group discussions etc. Retention of the employees is another important area in which many big organizations fail. Most of the employees who got good offers from other organizations would leave their present organization for better prospects. In order to keep the employees within the organization, the organization need to implement suitable human resource management strategies. Hard approaches to HRM are not the order of the day whereas soft approaches always help the employees to develop their trust in the organization. Better salary and working conditions along with rewards, recognitions, career prospects will encourage the employees to stay back in the organization. REFERENCES 1. Employee Retention: Tips and Tools for Employee Retention, (2009), Retrieved on 21 November 2009 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/retention/Retention_of_Employees_Tips_and_Tools_for_Employee_Retention.htm 2. Grant Thornton, (2009), Recruitment and retention: the quest for the right talent – report, Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://www.grantthorntonibos.com/Reports/Focus-reports/Recruitment-retention.asp 3. Gill Carol (1999), Use of Hard and Soft Models of HRM to illustrate the gap between Rhetoric and Reality in Workforce Management, Retrieved on 21 November 2009 http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:bCmAoKxezFIJ:mams.rmit.edu.au/d4lhtsmk45c.pdf+Hard+and+soft+approaches+to+HRM&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk 4. Heller Roberts (2006), Human Resources: Getting the most out of employees with people- based management Retrieved on November 23, 2009 from http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/management/human-resources.php 5. LLOYDS TSB USES ONLINE TESTING FROM PSL TO SIFT GRADUATE APPLICANTS, (n. d), Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:aT5RmwcOipYJ:www.testpublishers.org/Documents/Lloyds%2520TSB.pdf+selection+tools+in+Lloyd+TSB&hl=en&sig=AHIEtbQV4lcr_s9VllNlEXm7HeA90mSHVg 6. MANAGING/EFFECTING THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS, Retrieved on 22 November 2009 from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN021814.pdf 7. Meeting a diversity of needs, (n. d), Retrieved on 23 November 2009 from http://www.unileverusa.com/ourcompany/careers/diversity/ 8. Recruitment Methods, (n. d), Tutor2u. Retrieved on 21 November 2009 9. Richardson Margaret A.(n. d), RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES , Retrieved on 21 November 2009 from http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN021814.pdf 10. Soft and hard human resource management, (2008), Retrieved on 21 November 2009 from http://scarcityrent.com/2008/01/21/soft-and-hard-human-resource-management/ 11. UKCareers (2009), Selection tools for recruitment jobs, Retrieved on 21 November 2009 from http://www.recruitmentcareers.co.uk/Selection-tools-for-recruitment-jobs.htm 12. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, (n. d), Recruitment & Selection Retrieved on 21 November 2009 from http://www.opm.gov/SES/recruitment/ecq.asp Read More