Recruitment, Selection and Dealing with Employee Turnover - Essay Example

Introduction Human resource management practices aim at developing appropriate ways of improving and sustaining organizational performance. Human resources are regarded as valuable and potent resources in an organization. These important assets should be effectively managed for the success of the organization even if how difficult they are to manage (Gupta 2006). Human resource managers should maintain their contributions at an appropriate level or adjust them in order to meet the organizational demands. Human resource department should tailor its services so that they fit the organization that it serves. Some of the functions of the human resource management which enhances the performance of an organization are recruitment, selection and dealing with employee turnover. This essay focuses on the significance of these functions and how they should be applied in the Australian company which has been evidenced with increased employee turnover and job mismatch. As the Head of HRM in this company, I should overhaul the current policies of these functions so that the organization is able to reduce staff turnovers as well as enhancing job match by employees in efforts of achieving job satisfaction. But before any steps are made, it is necessary to review these problems; identify their causes and effects and finally look at the strategies which the human resource management should use in reducing these problems and thus enhancing the success of the organization. We look at employee turnover for this organization by first knowing what it means and establishing the possible sources of staff turnover that may have caused the current problem. Ongori (2007) defines employee turnover as the rotation of workers within the labor market; between jobs and occupation; between firms; and between the state of being employed and unemployed. It measures the relationships of employees within the organization, regardless of the reasons as to why they quit. He argues that staff turnover can either be voluntary or involuntary depending on the factors that causes it. For instance, if one makes his own choice to leave then it is voluntary, but when factors like death or the incapacity of a member of staff, make one to leave a job, then we refer it as involuntary turnover. Different researchers have highlighted various factors that lead to employee turnover (Bluedom, 1982; Kramer et al. 1996). Ongori (2007) categorizes these factors into two: job related factors and organizational factors. According to Firth et al. (2004), the job related factors include job stress, stressors, lack of commitment in an organization and job dissatisfaction among the employees. These are some of the factors that may make employees to move from one organization to another or leave an organization. Role stressors and role ambiguity also leads to turnover. Role stressors include various factors that lead to job related stress while role ambiguity refers to the difference in what employees expect and the actual role they feel to do. This causes uncertainty in what they should do hence bringing up misunderstandings. In addition, lack of sufficient information on how to perform given tasks, extensive job pressures, and poor performance evaluation tools may make employees feel that they are less involved hence less satisfaction in their jobs and careers. This reduces their attachment to the organization. It is necessary to understand these factors so as to spell out the work roles of employees. This will help in avoiding the quit of jobs by employees due to the lack of role clarity. Employees may also decide to quite their jobs in a firm due to organizational instability. Zuber (2001) argues that employees tend to stay in a work environment that is predictable and vice versa. Alexander et al (1994) supports this argument by stating that there are high levels of staff turnover in organizations where inefficiency is high. Employees will move to stable organizations where they are able to predict their career development. There is also need to inform employees through strong communication systems. Labov (1997) shows how necessary it is in lowering staff turnover. Our human resource management department should make employees to feel comfortable to stay in the organization. They should make them understand the atmosphere in which they are working. Poor personnel policies, lack of motivation, poor recruitment policies, poor grievance and poor supervisory practices lead to increased staff turnover. This is because there are no proper management policies and practices with regard to employees meaning that, the recruitment is not done scientifically, promotions are not made according to the spelt out policies, and there are no proper grievance procedures being adhered to. This results to the decisions of quitting by employees. Gniffet et al. (2000) highlights how pay and pay related variables determine the turnover behavior. Their analysis shows the relationship between performance, pay and turnover. They conclude that if performers are not sufficiently rewarded, then they quit. If their jobs lead to high financial incentives, employees are encouraged to stay in the organization. Other organizational factors that lead to staff turnover include lack of recognition, poor managerial style, toxic work environment, lack of competitive compensation system (Abbasi et al. 2000). In analyzing the effects of employee turnover in an organization we realize that it seems to be expensive for the side of the organization. When employees quit from an organization, then it means that their positions need to be filled and this replacement process is usually associated with high costs. These costs include the search in the external labor market for the appropriate candidates, selection of the candidates, and induction and training costs for the attainment of those qualities that were held by a former employee. Besides, the output will decrease or be maintained but at a cost of overtime payment. Researchers show that increased turnover rate impacts negatively on the profitability of the organizations if not effectively managed. Turnover is associated with both direct and indirect costs. They affect customer satisfaction and profitability, productivity, management time as well as sales. According to Johnson et al. (2000), the cost of hiring and training for new employee is approximately 50% of his annual salary. As a human resource manager, I should set strategies that minimize employee turnover. Changes need to be made on the policy options or improving the already existing policies on recruitment, selection; induction and training; wage payment and job design (Ongori 2007). The increased costs of labor turnover require the identification of various reasons as to why employees leave jobs hence determining the appropriate action to be taken. The organizational management seeks to provide measures to be used in increasing the effectiveness of their investment in human resources as well as the overall performance of the organization. The organization should engage, retain its employees, and optimize the values of the employees through a proper design of the jobs, commitment and motivation. This support enhances the employees to stay in the organization. Secondly, knowledge should be made accessible so as to lead to high performance and creation of a strong corporate culture. This makes employees feel that their efforts are appreciated hence reducing the chances of leaving the organization. The management should establish essential processes of ensuring that work is well done, accountability, good working conditions, and hiring choices that enhances the retaining of employees within the organization. Proper understanding of recruitment factors, motivational and retention factors of employees should be emphasized due to the increased costs associated with employee turnover (Basta & Johnson, 1989; Badawy, 1988). Managers should involve their employees psychologically in their roles through the internalization of the values on the importance of the work well done and other job characteristics. Skill variety, task identity, task significance, job autonomy and job feedback are necessary in determining the turnover of employees. Workers who have a variety of these characteristics tend to stay long at work. Job involvement influences job satisfaction and increases the commitment of workers to the organization. According to Blat & Boal (1989), job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction and organizational commitment reflect a positive attitude. Job involvement entails the extent at which workers identify themselves with the job, the degrees of commitment or loyalty that the employees have to the organization. Management should therefore enrich, compensate and empower the employees properly so as to enhance the continuity of workers in the organization. Managers need to coach and help workers in solving their problems. Superiors should be encouraged to empower the subordinates by delegating some of their responsibilities making them to be more satisfied. This reduces the chances of quitting by committing them to the organization. The second problem that faces this Australian company is job mismatch. There has been evidence on poor matching of employees with their work roles. This job mismatch is focused by either skill mismatch or educational mismatch. (Sicherman 1997), has illustrated that overeducated employees get paid less than if they were matched while the undereducated employees get more than if they were matched. Mavromal et al. (2010) adds that over skilling also form part of job mismatch. He categorizes them into four: a) Well-matched.:-in this case, an employee is matched in both skills and education. b) Only overeducated: the employee is matched in skills but he is overeducated. c) Over-skilled: the employee is matched in education but he is over-skilled. d) Over-skilled and overeducated. The employee is matched in both skills and education. Chavelier (2003) regards job satisfaction as a way of showing the extent of match between employees and jobs. Job mismatch is associated with job satisfaction, wage earnings and mobility outcomes. According to Kler (2005), the overeducated employees have lower job satisfaction, with the exception of the satisfaction associated with job security and hours worked. Mavomaral et al. (2010) reports that overeducated or over-skilled employees earn less as compared to the matched employees. He also analyses the relationship between job match and job satisfaction where he says that well matched employees have highest rates of job satisfaction. He compares the job satisfaction between the over-skilled employees with the well educated and overeducated employees. He found out that the job satisfaction for the over-skilled employees was less that of well matched and the overeducated employees. Those individuals who are both overeducated and under skilled show the lowest overall job satisfaction and the pay they get make them to either stay or quit a job. Research shows that voluntary quits are higher in employees who are only over-skilled, and those who are overeducated and over-skilled. Considering the overeducated only, it is realized that their pattern in job separation is more similar to that of matched workers. Job mismatch has an effect on wages that employees receive. Researchers indicate that job mismatch is associated with less wage payment. This reflects a lower productivity. However, the overeducated workers receive higher pay suggesting high productivity. Various interpretations made indicate that job mismatches that do not reduce job satisfaction reflect voluntary underutilization of qualification and skills. While, the mismatch that reduces job satisfaction reflect involuntary underutilization. Job mismatch related to only over education has little effect on job satisfaction. Job mismatch influences job mobility which is clearly illustrated through job separation. Voluntary mobility usually reflects job dissatisfaction of the employee. There is evidence that the combination of over-skilling results in job mobility. Over education alone does not influence job mobility because over education is regarded as a consequence of choice due to compensating differences such as absence of job pressures and location advantages. For some, it may be due to the inability of getting a job that matches the employee’s education on employability. On the other hand, over-skilling imposes on the real costs of an employee represented in the form of market failure. Due to the greater investment of the organization on employee turnover in terms of selecting, induction, training, maintaining and retaining employees in an organization, we should strive hard to minimize the employee turnover as well as improve our recruitment and selection process so as to establish a stable work force. Recruitment as a human resource management function is defined as a process of looking for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for various jobs in an organization.” This process of finding and attracting applicants for employment starts when new recruits are sought and ends when the applications have been submitted. This leads to the creation of a large pool of applications from which new employees are selected for employment. This function precedes selection and is regarded as a continuous process which develops a pool of qualified applicants who will serve future human resources needs (Dessler 2005). The significance of recruitment involve:- i. Attraction and encouragement of more applications for jobs in an organization. ii. Creation of a large pool of applicants from which suitable and best applicants are selected. iii. Determining the requirements of the organization, currently and in future, in conjunction with planning and job analysis activities. iv. Linking of employees with employers v. Increasing of the success rate of the selection process since it decreases the visibility of those who are overqualified and under qualified. vi. Reducing the chances of job applicants who once recruited and selected leave the organization within a shorter duration. vii. Finally, it increases the individual effectiveness of recruiting techniques as well as the success of the organization. After recruitment, selection of best candidates follows. Gupta (2006) conceptualizes selection as a process of either choosing the best candidates, or rejecting unfit candidates, or even both. It is assumed that more candidates are made available through the recruitment process (Prasad 2005). Selection entails the choosing of the suitable individual from all the qualified applicants. The selection process involves searching relevant information of the applicants in evaluating their suitability to the job. Candidates are assessed in accordance to the employment policies. In simple terms, this process is an employment function which starts as soon as application letters and resumes have been received with a major concern of reviewing them to determine the basic qualifications (Gupta 2006). An applicant who does not meet the required qualification is not considered. The job related qualifications that are looked at involve preferred education; knowledge and skills; and experience as per the job description. Selection should match the applicants’ qualifications with those given in the job description. If they match, then the applicant is hired. On the other hand, unsuitable candidates are weeded out. This function is so crucial since there is no goal which can be achieved in an organization if the right people are not selected. Failure to select the proper individual leads to wastage of money, time and this lowers the performance of the organization. Organizations need to build up a stable work force through the scientific selection and placement of employees. This reduces employee turn over and absenteeism, at the same time increasing the productivity and efficiency of the enterprise (Dessler 2005). Through the selection policies, our management team is required to use a given guideline depending on the analysis done on the work force and work load. Secondly, there must be a comprehensive job specification and description made available, and it is through it that we make comparisons with the applicant’s qualifications. Thirdly, there must be sufficient number of applicants from which the best fit employees are selected. The human resource managers should use various procedures with barriers that every applicant must come across. These barriers will screen the applicants and thus eliminate the unqualified during the selection process. Conclusion Employees are regarded as important assets in an organization and therefore they should be treated with a lot of attention. In fact they form the back bone of the organization in providing quality services and products so as to survive in the global competition. Management should encourage proper meeting of employees with their work roles and to reduce employee turnover by redesigning the policies on recruitment and selection processes. Managers need to examine the causes and effects of both job mismatch of employee turnover and recommend various strategies to be used in retaining and motivating employees in an organization and thus enhancing competitiveness in the global market. Managers should understand that employees’ need should be monitored with great care, otherwise the organization will decline. 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