Human Resource Management to a Practical Application - Example

Heading: Human Resource Management to a Practical Application Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 14, 05, 2010 Human Capital Selection Strategy Human capital can no longer be over emphasised as a critical component in ensuring an organisation maintains a competitive advantage in the ever increasing competition among companies to maintain market dominance or acquire gains in new and emerging market fronts. Human capital is the face of the company and their selection should be above board to ensure the best are not only selected but are chosen from amongst the best. Human capital is the brand of the organisation and these resources should be carefully selected as they can either be of negative or positive effect to the organisation’s objectives realisation which in effect determines organisations performance and profitability. Human capital is a core pillar in running an organisation and has a direct reflection towards an organisation’s profitability. The role of employee recruitment and their subsequent output in relation to organisations objectives is vested in the human resource department (Miller 2006). The human resource department supervises human capital investment to ensure maximum returns from any resource investment in the form of individuals in view of continuous and perpetuating objectives of an organisation. Any organisation has objectives and strategic plans to meet these objectives through the use of human capital. It is the human resource unit that ensures competent, knowledgeable and well informed individuals join and get enough motivation to meet organisation’s expectations. The below mentioned factors and strategies are suggested to ensure the right team is hired to join the organisation in view of its long term objectives: Job Advertisement and Publicity Positions to be filled within an organisation should be properly advertised and ample time given for publicity and submission of applications. This is important as it helps reach to the public and subsequent customers that the company is growing and expanding. Such a move not only helps get skilled and qualified manpower but presents a forum to communicate to a market group who would be reached via job advertisements. Job openings could be advertised through use of electronic media, local newspapers and recruitment agencies where important and detailed information on the job should be clearly narrated as presented by the human resource department (Torrington 2008). Proper relay of information could influence how best an organisation attracts skilled personnel who stand out in a crowd. Information on an advert gives much information about an organisation and could to great extent stimulate and existing group of professionals towards job application. The job adverts are prepared by the human resource personnel after carefully preparing the ground on the nature of the candidates to be hired. This would involve tightening the loose ends on information to be placed on the adverts and expectations from the prospective candidates in terms of skills and work involvement. Academic Qualifications and relevant work experience The human resource department in collaboration with relevant departmental heads should come up with a list of expected academic qualification on a post to be filled. This could include level of study reached, grades scored and other professional trainings that could be an added advantage towards meeting the organisation’s objectives (Pathak 2005). Proper academic qualifications and adequate training will ensure the organisation gets the right people and avoid overhead costs through the need to further train employees after hiring. The cost of extensive training could be detrimental as it could eat into the organisations hard earned returns. Moreover time that could have been spent in the organisation’s core business is spent in individual training activities and this could mean reduced productivity. It is worth mentioning that this does not dispute human capital training from time to time in response to changes in the market but this should be short training in terms of time as opposed to extensive training on a particular field. Academic qualifications scrutiny of respective candidates should be given ample time and this should be noticeable in the resumes submitted. This is a filtering period to get the right academically qualified human capital. Work experience of the expected candidates will also reflect how best the candidates have gained skills with time through practical work in relation to their training. This is important as it gives room to get a glimpse of the candidate’s ability to make sound judgement under minimum supervision while performing roles within the organisation. Team Work Evaluation Expected candidates are expected to join an already running and properly properly functioning team of workers.Its iron that sharpens another iron and so are human interactions. They are not coming in to work in solitary but in harmony with other. Their levels of team work should be carefully analysed by running a background check on their roles in past job assignments and if they ever assumed a leadership role while executing their past jobs (Pinfield 2004). A straight forward method could involve engaging the candidates in a written questionnaire to help get a rough picture on their attitudes towards various activities that would involve collaboration while working. Feedback on problem solving procedures on the part of the candidates could provide a rough picture on their reaction while in a team environment. An inquiry into the candidates extra curricula activities could also help judges their human interaction levels. Goals and Visions An organisation has both short and long term goals. Candidates expected to join the organisation should also be asked to share out their goals within a certain period of time during the interview session to help ascertain if such goals are in congruence with the organisations goals. A recruitment process is like buying a product from a market stall (Williamson 2000). A candidate vision and goals in life could as well give the character and attributes of him/her as a product. A recruitment process should not be viewed as a mere implementation exercise to fill a vacant position but employees should come in and help build the organisation’s brand name in the long term by perfectly matching their aspirations with that of the organisation. Current Employees Involvement in Recruitment Process Existing employees could as well be involved in the recruitment process either directly or indirectly. They are better placed to know the overall expectations of new entrants and the best areas they could possibly fit in. They could be asked to forward proposals on expectations towards a job opening and also be invited to assess the applicants during the interview process. According to Kaarsemaker (2008, p.15) this would be beneficial in boosting confidence amongst existing employees and could also promote a positive team work environment by warmly welcoming new entrants since they directly and indirectly participated in selecting them to be part of the organisation. Organisation Culture and Ethical Practices The recruitment process should clearly define the organisation culture and best practices. There could have been traditional way of doing things but change in response to market dynamics should be embraced. A good example would be to clearly review how the organisation has recruited in the past and evaluate if the recruitment process produced results that were expected. As stated by Lipiec (2001, p. 15) this is visible through performance evaluation of current employees who were part of a previous recruitment process. This would be helpful to identify what more can be expected from prospective future employees to ensure productive performance at the workplace. Realistically not all applicants will be hired after the interviewing exercise. Those who will not be absorbed still remain assets to the organisation in a number of ways. Past applicants who had initially indicated their wish to join the organisation should be looked at as this would save a lot as little time would be spent in evaluating them. This is so as the organisation has information regarding them in the human resource applications database. Any applicant who engages in the organisation’s interview process and is not selected as of now remains a potential future employee and most importantly a potential customer. It is suggested that, as part of the whole exercise, those selected together with those not selected be invited for a meal sponsored by the organisation. At this forum the organisation could take steps to further evaluate the selected candidates on their behaviour while in particular environments and also as part of advertisement pass information on what the organisation deals in within the market (Howes 1993). The organisation will not only have treated the applicants with decorum but also pass positive information that even if not selected now the organisation highly values their desire to be part of it. This is beneficial as it adds values to the organisation’s brand name. Recruitment Options and Market Target Various recruitment options exist within the sphere of the organisation. To reduce the time involved in scrutinizing potential applicants the organisation can as well rely on referrals from company employees and others associates who have had an interaction with the organisation in the past. The organisation could as well contract recruiting agencies and human resources consulting firms. This will ensure the whole process is above board and that the right candidates selected are a perfect match for the job at hand (Wood 2009). This ensures the organisation continues in its daily operations without interruptions by not engaging directly in the interviewing process. It also saves on time. Other options could be engaging in campus recruitment especially when the target is getting recent graduates to join the organisation. Such a move would also ensure the organisation keeps in touch with stakeholders involved in human capital training and get to learn on new training trends that could be of benefit to the organisation long term strategies. Time Factor In many instances there is minimal time allocated within the organisation to conduct interviews. The time allocated for each candidate can be shortened but also checks should be placed to ensure the entire process does not result to a compromised selection in terms of qualification and expected skills (Jackson 2007). A more effective method would be to develop a checklist that would be used to assess individuals. The checklist should in summary format and broken down into several of technical and general competencies sections. The various sections should then be allocated to various individuals in the interviewing panel to take the candidates through. This will not only ensure an organised way of doing things but also saves a lot of time. Candidates can also be interviewed partly through phone calls. This will help get rid of basic questions and ensure that during one to one engagement only details dealt with. In-House Training The human resource department should also do short refresher training on those who are expected to be part of the interview panel. This would ensure everyone is well acquainted on the expectations from the candidates. When everyone is well aware on what is happening the whole exercise would run in a well coordinated fashion ensuring the right candidates are selected for the job (Walter 2002). This will also reduce duplications in assessment roles hence reducing time spent on individual candidates Recruitment Process Planning Recruitment process for an organisation is a noble task and proper planning should be given strict considerations. The human resource department should develop workflow charts and time schedules for each activity that involve the recruitment process. Workflow diagrams and time schedules should indicate time allocated for each activity form the time of advertising the post, the interview process, job orientation and expected time of starting the job. Planning will ensure greater efficiency in the whole process ensuring all activities are covered and within time allocated (Walter 2002). Recruitment diversification It would be of great importance for the organisation to carefully analyse the market forces and cultural factors that surround their operating environment. Any issue that could be interpreted prejudicial in the hiring process should be looked into as it could affect the brand name of the organisation at large. Factors such as candidates with disabilities, sex and religious affiliations within a certain environment should be addressed before hand so that the process in not faced with issues that could be detrimental for the organisation (Bing 2009). Human resource department could as well come up with strategies that address special interest groups long if it is anticipated that such factors could influence the hiring process. Issues arising The hiring process might not necessarily get the expected candidate. The organisation should be prepared for such an eventuality and the human resource department should then explore other avenues of attracting the required personnel. This would mean exploring head hunting options or outsourcing personnel depending on the time the services are required. Short term consultancies could also be options to consider. Conclusion The process of hiring within an organisation is extremely important and should not be hurried in any way. Human capital is the face of the organisation and getting it right is the first step towards productivity and increased returns.The process of filling posts within an organisation should not be looked at as just an exercise to implement but should be given special consideration to ensure a proper team is consolidated in view of meeting the organisation’s long term objectives. The human resource department is an integral part of an organisation’s day to day running of activities and its role in recruitment should never be neglected. The department has a better view and professional grasp of human influences in productivity and its role should then be of much help towards meeting the organisation’s objectives. The human resource department role does not end at the recruitment process but its role is much wide as the department ensures that the human capital investment deployed is maximised to its full use. The human resource department will ensure proper motivation of the deployed personnel and advice the management from time to time on the areas needful of improvement in ensuring maximisation of human resources within the organisation References Bing, M, Davison, H & Garner, B 2009, ‘Employee Relations with Their Organization: the Multidimensionality of the Equity Sensitivity Construct’ International Journal of Management, Vol. 26, no. 1, 47-49. Howes, P & Foley, P 1993, ‘Strategic Human Resource Management: An Australian Case Study’, Human Resource Planning, Vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 24-28. Jackson, J & Mathis, R 2007, Human resource management, Cengage Learning, Chicago. Kaarsemaker, E 2008, ‘Employee Share Ownership as Moderator of the Relationship between Firm-specific Human Capital Investments and Organizational Commitment’ Management Revue, Vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 13-17. Lipiec, J 2001, ‘Human Resources Management Perspective at the Turn of the Century’, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 13-17. Miller, D, Madsen, S & John, CR 2006, ‘Readiness for Change: Implications on Employees' Relationship with Management, Job Knowledge and Skills, and Job Demands’, Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 30-34. Pathak, R, Budhwar, P & Singh, V 2005, ‘Best Hrm Practices and Employees' Psychological Outcomes: a Study of Shipping Companies in Cyprus’ South Asian Journal of Management, Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 39-41. Pinfield, L & Morishima, M 2004, ‘Taking the Measure of Human Resource Management Flows’, Public Personnel Management, Vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 52-55. Torrington, D, Hall, L & Taylor, S 2008, Human Resource Management, Prentice Hall, London. Walter, R & Sleeper, B 2002, ‘Employee Recruitment and Retention: When Company Inducements Trigger Liability’, Review of Business, Vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 62-65. Williamson, I 2000, ‘Employer Legitimacy and Recruitment Success in Small Businesses’ Theory and Practice, Vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 8-13. Wood, G 2009, Human resource management: A critical approach, Taylor & Francis, Washington. Read More