Recruiting Highly Skilled Employees Overseas - Case Study Example

Student: Professor: Course: Institutional affiliation: Date: Table of Contents Implications of recruiting a German engineer for a multi-national automobile manufacturing organisation based in Victoria, Australia 3 1 Introduction 3 2 Skills hindrance 3 3 Cultural conflict 5 4 Expenses 6 5 Dissatisfaction amongst other employees 7 6 Unusually high expectations 9 7 The engineer’s personal situation 10 8 Conclusion 11 References 12 Implications of recruiting a German engineer for a multi-national automobile manufacturing organisation based in Victoria, Australia 1 Introduction An automobile multinational based in Victoria Australia has decided to recruit an engineer from Germany. The engineer has extensive expertise designing vehicles for the international market. This idea seems all too good but there are several issues that need to be considered by the management as the likely implications of deciding to recruit from Germany as opposed from recruiting from within Australia or within the company itself. Scholars such as Pravin 2004) advance the argument that recruiting highly skilled employees from outside has its share of problems just like it has benefits. Some of the issues that may arise include cultural incompatibility, employee conflicts, and expenses in increased remuneration and reduction in motivation within the rest of employees who feel bypassed in the recruitment. This paper will seek to address these issues exhaustively under the respective sub headings in order to portray a clear picture to the chief executive officer of the company on the likely implications of deciding to recruit an engineer from Germany. 2 Skills hindrance Every organization has its way of going about its operations. This is to ensure quality is guaranteed in terms of the standards that the organization has set for itself (Denison, 1990). It is the assumption that skilled worker or technician will transfer the appropriate skills to the new company he is hired into without much hiccups. But the situation is a bit different and could cause the adjustment period to be very long for the new organization (Denison, 1990). The skilled engineer from Germany obviously has accumulated a lot of knowledge and skills in designing globally competitive car models but not for the Australian based multinational. It is also true that the engineer is used to a certain way of going about processes in the former work place from the marketing research of the new product, to research and development and eventually to designing and eventually to the actualization of the design. The system at the new company will not necessarily be working in the exact way the older system was working. Essentially then, the engineer will be a difficult position adjusting to the new system, it may serve to limit his capabilities as an engineer. His skills and the approach he has been used to make new car designs might have been very practical and successful in the previous work place but maybe in collision path with the strategy and implementation process in the new workplace. In such scenarios Pfau & Kay (2002) suggest that efforts should be made by both the engineer and the management to ensure there is no conflicts in as far as the engineers work is concerned and the company’s strategy is concerned. It is important to note that the success of an individual in any working position is not entirely linked to the set of skills or experience one has but also on the system that one has worked in (McKeown, 2002). if the skilled engineer finds the new systems and strategies adopted by the new company as. Surprisingly different from what he has been used to, he is highly likely to take a longer time adjusting due to the fact that he wants the system to adjust to how he wants things done. Groysberg (2012) views it as a situation whereby the individual is sticking to his experience as the indicator of how systems should work but not adjust to dynamic systems that differ depending on several factors. In this regard then, it is true that extensive experience in a different setting is not always an indicator that a person who has the experience is capable of achieving the same success somewhere else. Adaptability is the real issue and should be a focal point in analyzing the attitude of the new recruit before complete commitment to hiring has been made (Longenecker, 2013). 3 Cultural conflict While it is simple to get an experienced and talented employee from another company, it is not very easy to instill new culture and norms to the individual as the ones he is used to. Employees are humans and not robots. In this sense, they take a long time to adopt an organizational culture of a company they are working for. It takes a relatively longer time to remove the old culture from the individual and make him adopt the new culture to fit into the new organization (Bond, 2004). In light of this reality, the new German engineer is obviously used to the organizational culture of the company he was working for. Organizational culture being an identity and a guide to how one should conduct himself for the benefit of the whole organization, can be a big issue when trying to fit the engineer into the new working environment where the company has different strategies and beliefs to make it reach its objectives although they may not be so different from those of the former company. There will be the need to familiarize the new engineer with the company’s values, norms and beliefs which he has to abide with for as long as he is working for the company. He will have to design products that are reflective of the company’s position in terms of norms, values and beliefs no matter how much he might be tempted to do things as he used to in the previous organization. Bond (2004) contends that it is important that the management takes all the required effort to ensure the engineer understands the culture of the company and more so practice it for the benefits of the company since it has been tried tested and proved to work for the company even through culture is dynamic. Cultural difference may in a way affect the working of the German engineer since Australia is a different setting from Germany. In Australia communication is in English which is unfamiliar with the engineer. This may be a hindrance to effective communication with other design team members when they are working on projects with the engineer. It will be prudent for the management to devise ways to break the language barrier that may inhibit interpersonal communication between the engineer and his team members as well as with the top management. Being from a different culture from that of Australia too means he holds some personal beliefs, norms and attitudes that may differ with those held by his immediate workmates and as such both the employees and the engineer need to be briefed with the basics of the different national cultures to reduce conflicts resulting from misunderstandings on petty but culturally important issues to either party. Briscoe, Schuler, & Claus (2008) propose this as a measure to enhance diversity and cohesion in the work force to achieve maximum productivity. 4 Expenses Human resource departments always have the choice between external or internal recruitment. Internal recruitment is cheap to the organization considering that all the advertising and recruitment process will be avoided in filling the vacant position. Internal recruitment may be limited in the sense that new talent and ideas may not be injected into the company since the employees used to the system fill the vacant position. External recruitment is therefore important in injecting new inspiration, new ideas and talent into the organization (Longenecker, 2013). The decision to recruit an engineer from outside may have been informed by the experience of the engineer on the global level. This means that the engineer will most likely be paid a higher remuneration package than that of other employees in his rank at the organization. There are also other benefits to accompany the pay package all to ensure the company retains the highly valued engineer. At the end of the day it means the company will incur higher expenses in retaining the engineer than it would have had it recruited from within the company or within the Australian market. In the event that the company decides to harmonize the remuneration for the entire workforce, it will mean that the salaries have to be raised particularly for the employees in the same rank as that one of the new employee who will most probably demand a higher pay. Aswanthappa (2005) argues that this is a common practice in such situation which has the implication will be increased expenses in relation to new employee remunerations. It might come as good news to the rest of the employees in the particular department or rank but will definitely put a burden on the company as regards the remuneration expenses (Aswanthappa, 2005). It maybe important that management makes it clear from the beginning how much the engineer will receive as remuneration and evaluate the likely implication it will have on the salary structure put in place by the management. 5 Dissatisfaction amongst other employees Employees are aware of their environment. They read intentions and objectives in any change that happens within the organization affecting the human resource of the company (Briscoe, Schuler, & Claus, 2008). In this sense, it will not go without noticing, that a new employee has been recruited for a lucrative position in the company. This is likely to demoralize the employees within the company who would have considered themselves qualified and best suited to fill the position. Companies that tap from the internal talent achieve the benefit of boosting the moral of employees within the company and reduce employee turn over (Longenecker, 2013). The internal recruitment may however not be a desired option in industries where product lifecycles are short but for cars whose product lifecycle can go for more than five years, internal recruitment may be considered (Zacharatos, Hershcovis, Turner, & Barling, 2007). If existing employees feel they have been ignored in the recruitment process they are not likely to offer support to the new recruit for the engineer position. This means the company may not be able to achieve cohesion among the employees and organizational effectiveness when the general perception is that the existing employees are not adequate enough in terms of skills and experience to move the company to its objectives (Briscoe, Schuler, & Claus, 2008). Apart from this, Groysberg (2012) states that the likeliness that the new recruit will be paid a higher package than the rest means that the existing employees may cause the rest feel demoralized simply because they feel they are equally qualified but unfairly remunerated by the company. As such they will offer services that do not reflect their full potential since they believe they should also withhold their capability just like the company is selectively deciding pay perks. The recruitment of an outside individual to a top position in the organization will also cast a shadow of doubt on the company’s capability of recruiting talent from within the organization through employee development programs. Talented workforce who can be tapped locally may prefer to work with other organizations that develop talent from within since they believe they have a chance of growing within the ranks and advance their careers at another place on not with this particular organization. Such image will means that the company will have a hard time attracting local talent due to the image it portrays in the job market (Longenecker, 2013). This will also be the case within the company since the existing engineers feel they don’t fit the bill and there is no way they will be considered as resourceful to the organization when it can tap outside talent. Given a chance they would switch to a place where their contribution is appreciated by the management (Longenecker, 2013). 6 Unusually high expectations The recruited engineer was obviously considered for recruitment because of the rich experience and excellent contribution he made at the former work place. It is important though to note that the success of the engineer might not only be tied to his skills and experience alone but also on the systems, people and relationships at the former work place. The management in Australia might be tempted to expect the engineer to replicate the same success he achieved in Germany within a very short time frame. This will most probably pile a lot of pressure on the engineer as more will be demanded of him. It is fair to realize that new recruits even though with expertise and experience in their line of specialization, take time to adapt to new environment and systems (Groysberg, 2012). It will take time for the engineer to build relationships and understand people in the organization which is vital. It will also take time for him to know who is responsible for particular matters in the organization. If he is not given enough time to adapt to the system first, then he may not achieve full potential and may feel misplaced within the new organization. The reason why many talented employees recruited from the outside get fired in their new stations is lack of performing and delivering high results as they used to in their previous stations (Groysberg, 2012). It can be blamed partly on the fact that they have not adapted fully to the new system and also on the fact that the new system has its own strategies and procedures that may not work in exactly the same way as the system in the employee’s previous work environment. This difference certainly impacts on the productivity of the employee. The management should task certain people in the organization to help the new employee understand how the system works so that he adapts quickly and is able to realize full potential. 7 The engineer’s personal situation While this may not be very much an issue to affect the operations of the company, it will be important for the company to ensure that it helps the engineer settle down smoothly into the new location by ensuring the family gets appropriate accommodation in Australia. If the family chooses to stay back then appropriate arrangements and agreements should be arrived at between the company and the engineer regarding holidays and leaves. Ensuring that the engineer’s personal issues are catered for is essential since employees give maximum productivity when they are not stressed. Family issues are a major source of stress for employees and recently human resource managers have been forced to intervene in helping employees solve family problems so that they can remain productive to the company (McKeown, 2002). 8 Conclusion As can be seen from the above analysis, hiring an experienced engineer from Germany for the Australian based automobile company will mean that the company can benefit from his extensive experience. However the company needs to be ware of several issues that may arise from the decision. They need to be handled well so that the company can benefit from their decision. If for example the company is not able to provide a conducive environment to allow the engineer adjust smoothly to the new system then he may take a longer time adjusting to the system, much to the dissatisfaction of the management who have huge expectations on him replicating the same success he achieved before coming in. the issues highlighted in this paper affect all organizations that recruit from outside and especially overseas and it’s the way the management handles the situation that makes the difference. References Aswanthappa, K. (2005). Human Resource and Personnel Management. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Bond, S. (2004). Organisational culture and work-life conflict in the UK. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy , 24 (12), 1-24. Briscoe, D., Schuler, R., & Claus, L. (2008). International Human Resource Management. Routledge. Denison, D. R. (1990). Corporate Culture and Organizational Effectiveness. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Groysberg, B. (2012). Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance. Princeton University Press. Longenecker, C. (2013). Creating human-resource management value in the twenty-first century: Seven steps to strategic HR. Human Resource Management International Digest , 21 (2), 29-32. McKeown, L. (2002). Retaining Top Employees. McGraw Hill Professional. Pfau, B. N., & Kay, I. T. (2002). Theories of Executive Human Resource Management. McGraw-Hill. Pravin, D. (2004). Human Resource Management. Pearson Education India. Zacharatos, A., Hershcovis, S., Turner, N., & Barling, J. (2007). Human resource management in the North American automotive industry: A meta-analytic review. Personnel Review , 36 (2), 231-254. Read More