Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection - Term Paper Example

Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection Table of Contents Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection 1 Executive Summary 3 1.Introduction 4 2.Recruitment Strategy 5 2.1 Recruitment criteria 5 2.1.1.Decision Making and Coordination 6 2.1.2.Communication Skills 7 2.1.3.Educational and Professional Qualifications 7 2.2.Recruitment process 8 2.2.1.Review of the resumes 8 2.2.2.Interview 9 3.Selection strategy 10 4.Recommendations 11 5.Conclusion 12 Reference 13 Piderit, S 2000: Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change, Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, no. 4, pp.783-794 14 Appendix A: Job advertisement 15 Job Details 15 To be successful in this role, you will need to demonstrate: 16 Appendix B: Form 17 Appendix C: Tests 20 Executive Summary The following report has been developed to evolve the recruitment plan for a job in the Department of Arts, Queensland Government. The position for which the recruitment process is being developed in the following paper is one of Manager who is responsible for the management of the portfolios in the Department of Arts, which is a department of the Premier and Cabinet in the Queensland Government. The office that the recruitment process aims at filling is a temporary one (refer to Appendix A for details.) The Department of Arts is one of the most important portfolios that is looked after by the cabinet of the Queensland Government, where the main role of the department is to motivate and encourage development in the arts and cultural sector of the area. It also looks at ensuring that the public funds are invested in the correct areas so that the economy and the society of the region can progress. The scope of the job is very vast, as it will involve gathering of information for the formulation of the policies which deal with asset planning, leasing tenure management, security and emergency operations and other such activities. The process of recruitment for the job will be a detailed one, as the office is of considerable responsibility. The panel who will be involved in the selection process will consist of three experts, including the manager of the HR department, and two experts from the Department of Arts so as to ensure that the person who is hired is qualified for the job. The process will begin with screening of the application forms, where firstly the resume and the covering letter will be reviewed; following which the written answers which are a part of the application form (for further details refer to Appendix B of the paper) will be reviewed (Guest, D, 1987). Once the candidates for the interview have been short listed, the panel will conduct the interview, based on the results of which the right candidate for the position will be appointed. The process of selection and recruitment is a lengthy one. The following paper looks at developing the process of recruitment for the job, which includes identification of the qualifications and development of an organized screening and recruitment process. 1. Introduction It is imperative for an HR professional to ensure that an appropriate candidate is hired for a position, as hiring a wrong candidate might result into critical problems for the organization in the later stages. Thus, the HR professional should develop a recruitment and selection strategy beforehand as per the requirements of the vacant position. For this particular position, the HR professional would focuses on identifying, listing and justifying the key selection criteria needed to be considered for the position under analysis. The professional would also develop the recruitment strategy and the selection process to be undertaken to hire an appropriate candidate for the vacant position. Further, the HR professional would provide and justify the selection methods and decision process to be undertaken to select the most suitable applicant for the position. 2. Recruitment Strategy  The process of recruitment has always been considered as the most crucial and significant process of the HRM. When one reviews the functioning of the various organizations, one observes that the process of recruitment is seen today as highly significant as the main objective of all agencies today is to maximize their profits through their human resource so the employment of the correct individuals for the job is important (Barry D 1997). The underlying of all recruitments that are made is that the individual that is employed is a liability on the organization. As has been specified by Bratton J and Gold J, it is important for an organization to recognize the fact that the retention of employees is important, and there has to be investment made into ensuring that a strong and stable employment relation is evolved which is based on a mutual understanding of the aims and objectives of the other. At the beginning of every recruitment there has to be ensured that there is identified the qualifications that are desired for the job so that the screening process can be carried out in an organized manner. In the following section of the paper the qualifications that are required for the job will be identified, as it is important that the process of recruitment is well developed and effective. 2.1 Recruitment criteria The criteria that are required to be fulfilled by a candidate for the job have been identified in the section below: 2.1.1. Decision Making and Coordination Tremendous Supervisory skills: One of the most important skills that is required for the job is that of a supervisor, given the fact that the office of a manager will involve coordinating between the various elements that are coordinated by the departments of arts. Thus, while screening the resumes of the applicants the managers need to look for applicants who have had experience leading teams and coordinating between various activities. Planning and policy development skills: The office of the manager requires planning for the development of the various projects, as the office looks at assisting the development of various policies (Armstrong, M, 1987). The candidate should therefore have experience in organizing and decision making, where the candidate should be able to take decisions and implement them successfully. The position also calls for assisting in the policy formulation for the department of arts for the development of the region. This can be ensured through providing the candidates with hypothetical situation that would help asses the strategic managerial kills of the candidates. Ethical Consideration and political neutrality: This is one of the most important criteria that have to be met by the applicant. There has to be ensured that as the position is one of a bureaucrat in the government’s office the applicant is able to perform in office without being influenced by any political considerations (Benson, J. 1996). During the interview there can be various social and ethical issues which are being faced by the Australian society can be presented to the candidate, and based on the answers the applicant can be judged in their neutrality and ethical stand (Prechel H, Morris T, 2010). Cultural Sensitivity: The job that is presented is for the Arts department and the Australian department is one which is an amalgation of various cultures and ethnicities. The manager will have to sensitive to the needs of the various cultures in the society, and should not be a person who is biased in favor or against any community of the society (Voydaoff P, 2001). 2.1.2. Communication Skills There has to be ensured that person who is employed has brilliant communication skills where he or she can effectively communicate and interact with the various teams that are working in the department (Legge, K. 1978). This is significant as it is important that the manager coordinates and facilitates interaction within the department for smooth running and functioning of the various activities of the department. 2.1.3. Educational and Professional Qualifications There are certain professional and educational skills that are required for the post. The applicants have to be qualified in the field of management as well as in the field of engineering as the department looks at the development of various buildings, car parks, etc. The applicant will have to gather information and review the policies, and therefore requires a basic knowledge in these fields (Smith S and Mazin R A, 2004). At the time of the interview there has to be ensured that the various certificates that have been submitted by the applicant are original and that there have been no duplicate or fake certificates submitted for the consideration during the period of recruitment. 2.2. Recruitment process The process of recruitment is important as there has to be ensured that the applicant is able to embody the needs of the organization, and is able to meet the criterion of the organization so that the aims of the company can be realized (Keenoy, T. 1990). There have been many theories that have been evolved over the years to ensure that the process of recruitment is carried out in the best possible way, so that there is no distinction between the needs of the job and the person. One such theory has been developed by Algera (Algera J.A., H.F.J.M. van Tuijl & P.M. Janssen, 1994) where they have specified three basic recruitment strategies: Ensure that the most qualified person is employed Ensure that the characteristics are altered to suit the abilities of the people Ensure that the employees are trained to fit the profile that is required 2.2.1. Review of the resumes The recruiters usually employ the process of best quality to recruit new employees. The best possible method is to recruit from a large pool of candidates. Advertisement can be placed either in the newspaper but this only reaches who read the newspaper, while the internet allows the organization to reach a wider pool of candidates, and this is the main reason why the recruitment will be announced online (Bratton J, Gold J, 2003). It is usually believed that the person who is employed should be able to meet the criteria that has been set by the organization, and the person who is able to fulfill this criteria to the full usually gets employed (Guest, D. 1997). The criteria have already been identified in the section above in the paper. This form of process is very expensive, and the organizations usually try to ensure that they base the recruitment process on the internal and external factors so that the process would be less taxing on the financial resources of the organization. The external recruitment process is one where the organization needs a wider pool of applicants to choose from to fill in the position, under which they call for applications through advertisement, which is being followed in the paper for the recruitment (McDuffie, J. P. 1995). This is highly efficient and economic as it allows for the organization to draw from a large base while employing the least effort and time. The process is also more economic and makes use of the most minimal of the resources. It also makes it easier to screen the resumes, and select the ones which meet the criteria that have been established. Once this has been accomplished, the list of the short listed candidates can be called in for the interview process. 2.2.2. Interview Various scholars have emphasized on the fact that the interview part of the recruitment process is the most significant. This is mainly due to the fact that it is during this process that one can gather the most information about the candidates and where the personal information about the candidates can be gathered (Piderit, S 2000). The assessment of the skills of the candidates can be measured through exams and the interview can be utilized to ensure that the personal view of the candidates can be assessed. Some of the scholars believe that the process of interview should be structured and a pre decided set of questions should be directed towards the candidates, but the process developed in this paper will adopt the unstructured form of interview where the panel will ask questions to the candidates based on their choice so that a well informed interview can be developed (Kalliath T and Brough P 2005). The various criteria have to be met by the candidates to qualify for the job, where the candidate has to be politically neutral and is sensitive to the cultural needs of the region. 3. Selection strategy Based on the various criteria that have been identified by the paper the candidates will be tested and interviewed, where the qualifications of the candidates will be studied and registered. The candidates will be judged on the basis of these criteria and the candidate who is knowledgeable in the field, or has had prior experience will be considered for the post (Perry-Smith, J., & Blum, T. 2000). The candidate who is chosen will also have to have excellent communication skills and knowledge about the needs and the demands of the society of the region as the job is closely related to the development of policy for the Department of Arts. The candidate who is able to demonstrate the ability to plan, research and develop strategies while taking care of the policies of Queensland Health would be selected for the position. Continued improvement in terms of quality of service would also be a pre-requisite for selection (Adler 2007).The position being a managerial and team lead one would require the candidate to demonstrate proven management and leadership skills. The candidate who had in his or her past work experience being able to demonstrate these qualities effectively would be considered for the post (Festing M 1997). The candidates who were interviewed will be short listed to the best five and then the interviews will be reviewed, and then the panel of the three experts would take a call on which candidate is the best for the job, and the person would then be hired. 4. Recommendations Screening of the resume: The HR practitioner should screen the resumes sent by the applicants carefully and access their skills as per the requirements of the position. However, the practitioner should also be careful of the fact that a well-written resume may not mean a good candidate and therefore, should take care to probe about the skill sets of the candidate properly during the interview stages. Asking leading questions: The interview should be conducted in a combination of structured and un-structured pattern. While structured questions would help in understanding the basic skills of the candidate, unstructured questions would mean spontaneous answers and understanding the other abilities, such as quick thinking, decision-making, pressure handling etc, of the candidate. Background check: It is also imperative for the organization to conduct a thorough background and reference check of the shortlisted candidate before offering the position. This would help in saving the company from further embarrassing situations in the future. Training interviewers: The organization should train the interviewers to ask leading questions and how to identify the right candidate for the profile. Often the inability of the interviewers to identify the right candidate leads to the recruitment of inappropriate candidates. 5. Conclusion As the position under analysis is that of a Manager, it is essential to conduct case study analysis with the selected candidates to understand whether the candidate is able to demonstrate abilities to take up supervisory skills. Further, the candidates should be asked various leading questions to understand their opinions about team work, team building, managerial roles and providing opportunities to the team. Further, the person should have excellent communication skills so that he or she is able to communicate the management's viewpoints to the employees and vice versa without creating any miscommunication between the two. Together with the recruitment process, it is also important to emphasize on the selection strategy. The HR professional should take care of hiring the right candidate for the profile and select the candidate who has the correct skill sets matching with the profile. Reference Algera, J.A., H.F.J.M. van Tuijl & P.M. Janssen, 1994: Performance management and team building, Personnel Management Guide, Vol. 73, No. 6, pp 86-89 Armstrong, M, 1987, Human resource management: a case of the emperor’s new clothes?, Personnel Management. Vol. 19, No. 8, pp.30-35 Barry D 1997, Strategy Retold, Towards a narrative view of strategic discourse, Academy of Management Review, Vol 22, No 2, pp 429-52. Benson, J. 1996: Management strategy and labour flexibility in Japanese manufacturing enterprises, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.6, No.2, pp.45-57 Bratton J, Gold J, 2003: Human Resource Management, Theory and Practice, 3rd edition, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, pp 78-103. Festing M 1997: International HRM strategies in multinational corporations, Management international Review, January 1997 Guest, D, 1987: Human resource management and industrial relations, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 503-521 Guest, D. 1997: Human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp.263-276 Keenoy, T. 1990: Human resource management: rhetoric, reality and contradiction, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol.1 No.3, pp.363-384 Kalliath T and Brough P 2005: Work-life balance: A review of the meaning of the balance construct, pub, Journal of Management and Organization, Vol. 14 No.3, p323-327  Legge, K. 1978: Human resource management: a critical analysis, in Storey, J. (ed.) New Perspectives on Human Resource Management, London, Routledge, pp.19-40 McDuffie, J. P. 1995: Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol.48, No. 2, pp.197-221 Perry-Smith, J., & Blum, T. 2000: Work–family human resource bundles and perceived organizational performance, Academy of Management Journal, 43, pp1107-1117 Piderit, S 2000: Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: a multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change, Academy of Management Review, vol. 25, no. 4, pp.783-794 Prechel H, Morris T, 2010: The effects of organizational and political embeddedness on Financial Malfeasance: Dependence, Incentives and Opportunities, American Sociological Review, Vol 75 (4), 2010, pp 331-350. Smith S and Mazin R A, 2004: The HR answer book: an indispensable guide for managers and human resources, pub, Border Books, p88-90  Voydaoff P, 2001: Incorporating Community into work and research, pub, Human Relations, Vol.15 No.64, pp1609-1637 Appendix A: Job advertisement Job type: Temporary Full-time Category: Facilities/Asset Management Classification: AO8 Location: Brisbane – CBD Job ad reference: QLD/AQ526/10 Closing date: 11-Oct-2010 Salary per annum: $97702 - $103334 Salary per fortnight: $3744.90 - $3960.80 Salary other: Total remuneration: - Job duration: for 12 months Document/s: aq526_10_role_description.pdf       arts_qld_facilities_ branch_org_chart (kev).pdf        guide for applicants aq.pdf        offline_application_coversheet.doc       Contact name: Gavin Fox Contact details: 0400 901 304 Job Details The role supports the Director, Portfolio Management and Operations with expert advice provision on property management related issues and manages the delivery of services relating to asset strategic planning, building owner services, leasing and land tenure management, security and emergency operations, car park operations and service delivery related to portfolio services.  This means that you will: • Provide expert advice to the Director, Portfolio Management and Operations on Building Owner responsibilities and related issues. • Develop, implement and ensure effective, coordinated and high quality strategic and operational advice in the delivery of property, leasing, tenant management and land tenure management for the portfolio. • Manage and maintain whole-of-Government and the portfolio’s asset and property information systems to ensure compliance to portfolio and whole-of-government reporting requirements. • Lead the development and implementation of appropriate risk management systems and frameworks to protect the portfolio’s assets, including the management of Government insurance and associated complaints and claims. • Effectively and efficiently manage the Cultural Centre Car Park Operations ensuring alignment with the strategic and business operations and appropriate risk management practices. • Effectively and efficiently manage the Security and Emergency Services Operations ensuring alignment with the strategic direction of the portfolio and its stakeholders. Refer to role description for further duties. To be successful in this role, you will need to demonstrate: • Shapes strategic thinking – you understand the strategic objectives of the organisation and have demonstrated experience in the development and implementation of strategic and operational plans, policies and procedures. • Achieves results – you evaluate and understand critical factors in the delivery of property services and centre operations and respond flexibly to changing demands whilst focusing on the outcome to ensure work is delivered to a high standard. • Cultivates productive working relationships – develops, builds and sustains relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders anticipating the needs of clients and delivering mutually beneficial outcomes. • Exemplifies personal drive and integrity – understands and operates within legal and public policy constraints and limitations and operates in a professional manner when representing the organisation with stakeholders and executive management. • Communicates with influence – you have a high level ability to communicate and negotiate effectively, both orally and in writing including the preparation of correspondence, reports, and submissions to senior managers and executives, clients, departmental and industry representatives. Appendix B: Form Minimum requirements for this job Please refer to the job description for full details of the job requirements Personal details Legal work status:  *  Permit expiry:  dd/mm/yyyy Title:  * First name:  * Preferred name: Middle name: Last name:  * Email address:  * Work number:  Note: Discretion will be exercised if calling this number Home number: Mobile number: Home address Address 1:  * Address 2: Suburb/Town:  * State: Postcode:  * Country:   * Mailing address Only complete if different to Home address Address 1: Address 2: Suburb/Town: State: Postcode: Country:   General information Where did you find out about this job? If "Other", please specify: Equal employment opportunity/Diversity information Please indicate if you belong to any of the following groups.  Note: The completion of this section is voluntary and the information is treated confidentially. The information is used for statistical purposes only. People with a disability: Aboriginal people: People from a non English speaking background: Torres Strait Islander people: Women: Australian South Sea Islander: Referee details Please note that you only need to complete this section if required by application material for this job.  Discretion will be exercised if contacting these referees. Referee 1 name: Referee 2 name: Referee 1 contact number: Referee 2 contact number: Referee 1 relationship: Referee 2 relationship: Permission to contact: Permission to contact: Current government employee Are you currently employed by the Queensland Government? If yes, please answer: Job title: Classification:   Person ID: Organisation:   Location: Job type: Are you officially registered as a deployee with the Public Service Commission? Have you received a Voluntary Early Retirement benefit from a Queensland Government entity within the last 12 months? If yes, date of receipt:    dd/mm/yyyy Upload files Please attach all required documentation as requested in the role/position description attached in the job advertisement.   Size limit: 2MB per file (up to 3 files can be attached individually) Click on 'View files' to ensure that correct attachments are uploaded  Note: Word documents are preferred Please note that the “Track Changes” feature must be turned off on a Word document before submitting. Failing to turn this feature off even after accepting all the changes, may result in an error when processing your resume. Other required information Please provide additional information if required. The information submitted here may be used as part of the selection process.  Note: Maximum 1000 characters Declaration * It is important that you read our privacy statement thoroughly. By providing your personal details and work history to the Queensland Government through this website, you acknowledge that you understand that any part of this information may be shared by more than one government organisation or may be used by a contracted service provider, where appropriate, in relation to recruitment and selection.  I declare that the information I have entered here is true and accurate:  Appendix C: Tests Case study analysis: The candidate should be able to demonstrate the ability to solve issues and handle crisis under any situation. In order to evaluate these skills, the candidate would be asked to solve certain case studies and given marks according to the solutions offered. Written test: Various situational questions would be asked to the candidate in a written test to find out what solutions the candidate would offer for such critical issues. The questions would largely focus on networking, coordination and operational issues. Mental ability tests: In order to understand the mental ability of the person and to gauge his performance under pressure, it is important to conduct various verbal, mathematical and reasoning ability testing. An integrity test would also be conducted to understand the candidate's attitude towards theft and other unlawful activities. Read More