RasGas vs Shell: Recruitment Policy Comparison - Research Paper Example

? RasGas vs. Shell: Recruitment Policy Comparison Introduction As Jackson argues, recruitment has become one of the most important functions of any organisation. Unalike in the past, it is becoming ever more important for organisations, small and big, to have a well laid recruitment process which will give them the best talent in the market. Traditionally, firms would only involve themselves in recruitment functions only when looking to fill a specific position or positions in the firm. This has however changed and the process of recruitment is a continual process which any firm has to manage and maintain continually even in those times when the firm is not looking to fill any particular positions. This new need in the HR department has led to new recruitment strategies and policies being developed and implemented by many firms around the world. The search for talented and effective employees is therefore a continual process and many organizations are endeavouring to seek for talent as early as possible. However, as the new needs for recruitment have arisen, many firms have taken to different strategies. The strategies that a firm seeks to use in the recruitment affect their recruitment policies and eventually affect the business strategy and its standing in the market. It is therefore absolutely necessary to look at how different firms address this recruitment challenges. It is also necessary to consider other factors such as environed. For instance, two firms in the same industry but operating in different environments can end having different recruitment policies. Differences in economic and legal environments can be useful in deciding the kind of recruitment policies an organization uses. Firms have to therefore keep this in mind and understand how their recruitment policies and strategies affect their business strategy. RasGas vs. Shell Different firms have different business strategies to enable them to achieve their goals (Ulrich et al, 2012). Every business has a HRM strategy which is able to help them to have the right human resources to help them in achieving their goals. As Kearns (2012) says, even firms within the same industry and sector can have varying HRM strategies. The following is a comparison of RasGas and Shell BP companies. Both are energy production companies with Shell BP dealing with petroleum oil and RasGas dealing with Liquefied Petroleum Gas. RasGas is a Qatar based firm while Shell is a UK based firm. A closer look at the two firms indicates that these two firms have quite different HRM policies. Shell BP’s HRM policy is geared towards developing human resource talent from as early as possible. The firm tries to work with potential employees as early as when they join college to make sure that it is able to develop its talent as early as possible. This can be seen with regard to the ways in which the firm has developed various platforms to help in identifying various talents in the market and nurturing them. The same is not seen in the RasGas human resource policy. Unlike Shell BP, RasGas prefers to use the traditional method of recruitment where the firm just advertises for job vacancies and then receives applications which are then considered followed by interviews and selections. This is a very traditional method and while it has its advantages such as cost savings, it has its disadvantages. The main disadvantage, of course is the fact that the firm is not able to secure the finest talent in the market (Jackson, Schuler and Werner, 2011). Shell employs a lot of resources in terms of time and money in looking for talent and recruitment of potential employees. However, this approach is very expensive and most of the potential employees who benefit from the firm’s training and development do not necessarily end up in the firm but go to work with other firms, sometimes the competitors of Shell. The above indicates that Shell likes to have a prior contact with the potential employees in order to ensure that before they take in an employee, they will be taking the right person and therefore not have to fire people from their jobs. This therefore means that although the firm spends too much money in implementing its recruitment process, it saves a lot in the long run. RasGas on the other hands seem to prefer not spending too much prior to engagement of the employee. As Ulrich et al (2012) says, modern HRM strategy requires a future oriented vision where the firm plans its HRM strategies and policies in accordance to its future needs rather than the current needs. To be able to have a HRM strategy that is future oriented, it means that such organisations have to be very serious with regard to the recruitment processes. This as Evans (2012) says calls for well laid recruitment processes which will help the firm to develop strong roots with regard to its human resource. Non Discrimination In human resource management, this is becoming a very serious issue, especially with globalisation. Many firms have to ensure that employment opportunities are given without discrimination or segregation of any type. This refers to discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, background or physical disability (Cannon & McGee, 2011). With regard to the issue of non-discrimination, shell has a very clear policy which says that employment and the offering of posts will be done on a merit basis. However, RasGas does not have clear policy on this. Although there is no evidence for discrimination in RasGas, the firm does not have clear policies or guidelines which define the way in which posts are offered within the firm. This is in contrast to Shell BP which has a well laid policy and which is well communicated not only within the firm but to the outside world through its recruitment website. The lack of a clear policy on such an important issue can be a gap which can lead to such negative issues happening because the recruitment staff may make mistakes when left to act on their own with regard to the way in which they carry out recruitment and promotions within the workforce. As Pynes (2013) says, it is absolutely necessary for any organisation to have a well laid policy in the issue of discrimination in order to make sure that the firm will have a diverse workforce. Non discrimination policy helps a firm to have sound workforce but also helps in creating good public image as well as avoid law suits. This is especially so with the increasing globalisation of businesses. Businesses like RasGas and Shell BP operate on a global world and they cannot afford to operate without global standard across their many departments, human resource included. Personal Development Personal development is one area where every firm need to be able to have good policies. In a global commerce environment, the competition for talent has changed the rules of the game with regard to how organisations relate with their employees (Werner, Schuler & Jackson, 2012). Those firms that fail to offer an environment that will help the employees to grow face the difficulty of attracting the best talent. According to Lussier and Hendon (2012) employees don’t want to work in an organisation that does not accord them a chance to develop. The other importance for firms being able to implement the personal development for its human resource is the fact in such an environment, the firm sis able to develop a competent and motivated workforce that will help the affirm to competent in the market. As a result, helping employees to develop their careers and to become better is also in the interests of the firm and is important for the overall human resource strategy. However, personal development is not an easy human resource policy to develop. Many firms have to be very careful with regard to the way they implement this part of their HRM policy. With regard to Shell, the firm understands very well how imperative it is to have an environment that supports personal growth for employees. Shell is very keen on making their workplace an environment which supports the employees as they growth through their careers. This can be seen in the way the firm insists on having systems which will support the employees as they grow. This can also be seen in the way they search for raw talent. It is very evident that right from the market, Shell BP looks for those employees potentially able to become great people rather than individuals who will only remain at the same point throughout their career work. RasGas also seems to understand the importance of personal development and has implemented a number of policies to help create a work environment that supports employee’s personal growth. This can be seen in the firm’s statements on its website where the firm emphasizes the need for providing this environment. However, a closer look at both these organisations indicates that Shell BP has a better policy in this area. As a result, there are those issues which must be looked at to make sure that the firm sis able to help the employees to develop. The RasGas National Development Programme (NDP) is one of the important ways in which the RasGas has tried to ensure that its employees are able to grow. The program is designed to help new as well as already existing employees to be able to learn while on the job. This is a hands-on training opportunity and it is geared towards helping the employees to be productive at work as well as creating a supportive environment. Recruitment Sources Recruitment sources can range from recruitment bureaus to working together with colleges and universities to placing advertisements on publics media in order to call interested applicants. Both Shell and RasGas use multiple recruitment sources. However, Shell seems to be more focused on internal recruitment systems where the firm is able to interact with its potential future employees before employing them. Instead of a situation where the firm places advertisements on the public media and asks for people to apply, the firm looks for ways to interact with the potential future employees and developers them throughout their journey. This can be seen with regard to some of the programs which the firm runs such as the Assessed Internships. These Assessed Internships according to Shell Global (2013) help the individual to learn whether they have chosen the right career and also help them to immerse themselves to know what their chosen career will entail. While giving the potential future Shell employee an opportunity to engage in real projects and learn about their career, these Assessed Internships also acts as a way for Shell to identify the right talent from the interns. The advantage of having these interns is that at the end of the internship program for every student, the firm does not have any legal obligation to hire the intern. This means that the firm can take the desired employees and leave out those who did not show any signs of any potential of talent. With these Assessed Internships, the firm creates a very big pool for potential employees thus never needing to hire form other outside sources. RasGas on the other hand doesn’t seem to have this kind of a policy and depends on getting the talent from the public without necessarily having a prior encounter with their future employees. Procedures and Processes Many big firms such as RasGas and Shell BP have very long processes which include many stets developed in order to filter all the potential employees down to the very best. Shell has a well developed structure and process which aids in making sure that the firm only gets the best employees. The processes include the following; The students and graduates forum which allows applicants to be able to apply for positions in the firm is the first step for applicants. Shell offers students and graduates an opportunity to work in Shell in an informal way which is an opportunity for university students and fresh graduate to build skills which will make them employable. After the potential employees have attended the Shell Recruitment Day they then enter the students and graduates program before becoming full employees. This is the commencement of a process that will land a potential future Shell employee to become complete employees. These long processes help the firm to achieve a few recruitment strategies. First, it helps the firm to be able to select only the best talent and secondly, it helps to make sure that there the issue of discrimination is eliminated. It also helps the interviewees to relax and therefore be able to display their best qualities. RasGas does not seem to have long processes in terms of its recruitment processes. The firm seems to use simpler traditional recruitment processes to get their employees from the market. Interviews As identified above, Shell Bp uses long processes in its interviews of employees in order to make sure that the firm is able to get the best talent from the market. The interviews take a number of days and follow a specific procedure to make sure that the applicants are given the best opportunity to prove that they have what it takes to become the next Shell employees. RasGas on the other had does not seem to have complicated or elongated interviewing processes. However, the difference between the two firms address their recruitment can be explained through the fact that these two firms are different in terms of their market orientation. While Shell is a global firm, RasGas is mostly based in Qatar and its operations are geared towards achieving the Qatar vision 2030 which also includes the concept of Qatarization. Unlike Shell which is a global firm, RasGas can afford to be lenient in the way it recruits its employees and still not lose its strategic edge (RasGas, 2013). Both Shell and RasGas seem to have a clear understanding of why attracting the right talent right from the recruitment point is important. The as a result, they have both developed policies which are geared towards helping the have competent interviewing processes. Advertising Both RasGas and Shell use advertising as a way to attract attention for potential employees. They both advertise in public newspapers as a way to not only confirm to recruitment requirements but also as a way to expand the pool of talent from which the institution gets its employees. Advertising as Lugonja (2011) says is a very important way to help a firm in getting talent, however, as Anand (2010) says, this is a somehow traditional method and may not be very relevant in the modern world. Many firms these days have identified better and more efficient ways of fetching for useful HR talent. This can be exemplified by Shell which has identified better ways of identifying talent in the job market without necessarily having to use public advertisements. As a result, Shell does not have to advertise in order to get new employees. The firm already has very advanced and well laid structures for getting talent and developing it in-house. RasGas has also found this as a very useful way to get its talent. Like many other firms, RasGas uses advertisements for job positions as a way to inform the public about any possible openings so that hey can apply. From a closer look at how both Shell and RasGas, it is clear that RasGas is more dependent on the advertisements as part of its recruitment. This is probably because unlike Shell, RasGas does no have the sophisticated mechanisms for making sure that it can get the talent it needs among its workforce. As a result, it has to depend more on advertisements as a way to expand its ability to get good talent. Conclusion It is very evident that the process of recruitment is very important for any firm. Firms such as RasGas and Shell have implemented very sophisticated recruitment processes thus indicating just how important the recruitment process is to these firms. This increased need to have better recruitment processes can be seen as a product of increased competition among businesses. As competition has become stiff, it has become necessary to make sure that the firm gets the best employees. The human resource can make or break an organisation. A workforce which is made of the right people, people who are good at interpersonal skills, innovation, problem solving and creativity, is able to give a organisation a strategic edge to survive the cut-throat competition which is in the market place. At the same time, the increased employee relations issues has mean that the organisation has to be very sure of what kind of an employee they are taking in before admitting such a employee. Unlike the earlier days, organisations these days can’t just drop an employee, even in cases where the employee has shown that he or she is incompetent, without attracting negative publicity. All these factors have lead to a situation where organisations want to be very sure hat they only take the best. As a result, many organizations have tried as much as possible to create processes which will help them to get the best talent without attracting any issues associated with labour. These processes include, as indicated by the above literature, the development of in-house talent as opposed to the traditional method of acquiring already developed talent. As has been seen with firms such as RasGas and Shell, many firms are realizing the need to make sure that they have the best talent. This approach to recruitment is going to continue being the de facto training as many firms, small and big, realise that recruitment is such an important process and it should be a continuing business strategy rather than something that is only done when the firm is looking to fill a specific position in the firm. As a result what firms like RasGas and Shell are doing is going to become the benchmark for recruitment, for both big and small businesses. References Anand, R. (2010). Recruiting with Social Media: Social Media's Impact on Recruitment and HR. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Cannon, A. & McGee, R. (2011). Talent Management and Succession Planning. New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Evans, R. (2012). Managing for Quality & Performance Excellence, 9th ed. London, UK: Cengage Learning. Jackson, S. (2012). Managing Human Resources for Environmental Sustainability. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Jackson, S. S. (2011). Managing Human Resources, 11th ed. London, UK: Cengage Learning. Kearns, P. (2012). HR Strategy. London, UK: Routledge. Lugonja, D. (2011). Recruitment of External Candidates as a Function of Human Resources Management in the Company. Munchen: GRIN Verlag. Lussier, R. & Hendon, J.R. (2012). Human Resource Management: Functions, Applications, Skill Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Pynes, J. (2013). Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Strategic Approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. RasGas. (2013). RasGas National Development Programme. Retrieved December 14, 2013, from RasGas National Development Programme: http://www.rasgas.com/Qatarization/NDP.html Shell Global. (2013). Assessed Internships. Retrieved December 13, 2013, from Shell Global : http://www.shell.com/global/aboutshell/careers/students-and-graduates/internship.html Ulrich, D. E. (2012). Global HR Competencies: Mastering Competitive Value from the Outside-In. New York City, NY: McGraw Hill Professional. Ulrich, D. et el. (2012). HR from the Outside In: Six Competencies for the Future of Human Resources. New York City, NY: McGraw Hill Professional. Werner, S., Jackson, S.S, & Schuler, S.R. (2012). Human Resource Management. London, UK: Cengage Learning. 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