Recruitment, Selection, and Retention: Working with and Leading People - Assignment Example

Task Recruitment, Selection and Retention   1a) Discuss a suitable recruitment and selection process for South East Windows. The recruitment andselection process is a vital part of quality management (Cooper and Robertson 2003) because a good recruitment process, along with the ability to keep good people, helps an organization to maintain its competitive advantage. Thus, a corporate image is highly affected by the ability of an organization to recruit and select the best people (Cooper and Robertson 2003). The following should be considered by the South East Windows to become effective in recruiting in selecting the best employees for the opened job positions. Attracting people itself is a complicated job (Roberts 1997). “Marketing the job” should also be part of marketing strategy. This can be done through providing a fresh view of the employment contract especially that nowadays, employment is no longer viewed as a life-long agreement between the employee and the employer and the latter does not hold all the cards anymore. Employees can always look for other employers when they feel that they are exploited or undervalued (Dale 2003). Using a competency framework is also important in posting job openings (Fellows 1999). The competencies needed for the candidates are emphasized such as the descriptions of the necessary attainment, achievements and abilities and aptitudes (Dale 2003). Marketing the entire organization is also important especially that the image of the company is very important in recruiting the best candidates (Dale 2003). If the company is able to attract a large number of candidates for a specific job requirement, it is believed that its recruitment program is effective because in the process, it gives the employer an opportunity to choose from a larger number of aspirants (Branine 2008). Of course, selection tools and processes like psychological tests, interviews and etc. are necessary to achieve the objective of getting the best people for the job. Such processes can help employers to gradually set aside the better applicants from the rest in terms of rendering better performance and aid employers to make the right judgment in selecting from better applicants who is the best for the vacant position (Cooper and Robertson 2003) and determine the characteristics of the applicants and verify if they conform with what they stated in their curriculum vitae (Vaughn 2007). In the study conducted by Stewart and Knowles (2000), interviews are the best ways in determining and selecting the right applicant. Doing thorough interviews could help in identifying the best candidate that possess the required qualifications. Doing telephone interviews, online tests, having assessment centers and requiring references could also be of help in the selection process (Straus, Miles and Levesque 2001; Shackleton and Newell 1994). The aforementioned techniques and tools can help South East Windows to effectively prevent problems such as absenteeism, high employee turnover, low job satisfaction and low organizational commitment (Cooper and Robertson 2003). 1b) Other than money what additional benefits could be offered to the new team? It has been proven in many ways that employment is not always about money. Like the Best Practice model, one of the general models of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), South East Window can develop bonus systems, job or career plan, career development, grievance systems, and employee involvement (Akhtar & Mak 2003) to ensure commitment from the newly hired employees. These are on top of the usual benefits like health and dental and life insurance. South East Window can also rely on certain practices such as promoting from within, giving trainings, profit sharing, job security and having well defined job descriptions Delery & Doty 1996). 1c) What pieces of legislation should the management team be aware of? In the selection process itself, employers should already begin to be aware of not violating laws against discriminations particularly gender, age and racial issues (Ramlall 2006). Further, employers should be aware of always complying with the minimum labor standards particularly with the minimum labor wage (Ramlall 2006).   Task 2- Building Winning Teams   2a) Discuss group culture and how it can contribute to the organization’s success? Corporate or group culture begins with having a vision and strategy that everyone in the group especially the leaders should recognize (Love 2009). According to Roberts (1997), the culture of the organization can help get the employees to do what they should do in the way they are expected to perform. Even in the recruitment process, it is important that employers ensure that applicants match with the culture of the company. Hence, it is necessary to carefully determine in what kind of business background does a certain candidate has been successful. It is also necessary to identify the SWEAT of a candidate (strengths, weaknesses, experiences, aspirations and talents). Hence further, it is important that companies know and understand their own cultural style because it can aid them in matching candidates for their companies and in making informed decisions regarding the kind of employees they need within their organization and as well to match the expectations of the applicant (Love 2009). According to Devis (2007), an organizational culture has key elements such as: (1) its attention should focus on the human aspect of the life of the organization, and sees meaning and learning in every aspect of the organization; (2) it should give emphasis on the need to create adequate systems of shared meaning to aid employees to work together for the common goal; (3) it should oblige members particularly the leaders to recognize the effect of their behavior on the culture of the organization; and (4) it should support the view basic assumptions of the organization affect the relationship of the organization to its environment. The organization’s capacity, effectiveness and longevity can be possibly best gauged by looking at the culture of the organization. Apparently, organizational culture contributes to the image of company. Organizational culture generates energy that will be absorbed by the organization and thus create momentum to succeed (Devis 2007). 2b) One of the supervisors is trying to bring a more people focused atmosphere into workplace and wants to introduce a team character, you are required to produce such a piece of work for him. I would recommend the human relations school of thought that focuses communication, leadership and motivation. In this model, employees are seen as proactive individuals that are highly capable and worthy of giving confidence and to be considered as partners (Kaye 1999). This model makes the employees as the most important resource and vital as a key in reaching the company’s goals (Baker 1999). Moreover, it can be better to consider also the 7practices suggested by Pfeffer (1998) which can likewise help in introducing a team character. The said 7 practices: ensuring employment security, selective hiring, self-managed team, high compensation which is dependent on performance, training and development, reducing status differences and sharing of information. 2c) Discuss Belbin’s team roles and how and how they can be applied to the organization in order to promote effective team working and meet the demands of the new contract. Team role is defined by Dr. Meredit Belbin as the ability to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way. It was found by Belbin in her research that team roles could actually shape the success or failure of the organization/team. Belbin identified different roles in an organization, which are as follows: a) Implementer – this refers to the individual who takes ideas and applies them in practice; b) Shaper – refers to the one challenges others to move forward; c) Finisher – refers to the one who anticipates outcomes and fixes problems in the process and ensures that everything will work well; d) Plant – refers to the person who solves complicated problems; e) Monitor/evaluator – refers to the individual that sees all options and thinks carefully and accurately; f) Specialist – refers to the person who provides technical and specialized knowledge; g) Coordinator – this is the matured or respected person in the group who promotes and clarifies the team’s goals; h) Team worker – refers to the worker that usually avoids and prevents friction within the group; and i) Resource/investigator – refers to the worker who is good at networking and at looking for opportunities. A team could function well when there is a balance between those different team members and when they know their respective roles, use their respective strengths and manage their own weaknesses.   Task 3- Leadership   3a) Should the dictatorial/ autocratic management style be removed and if so what approach should management take to new and existing employees? No, the dictatorial style of management should not be removed totally in an organization especially when it employs many low-skilled workers although it should not be the primary management style of an organization. Such style is not encouraged in the organization because a dictatorial manager does not trust his subordinates and just gives orders and the line of communication is simply one-way. Such style will not bring any help in developing a positive culture and people-focused atmosphere and in creating a team character. It will just put the good and successful recruitment selection process into naught because it will just drive away the motivation and interest of the employees to work for an organization. Instead, a democratic style of management will be much better because a manager or leader who is democratic puts trust in his/her subordinates, empowers them and listen to their sentiments and advice. This facilitates two-way communication. But it has setbacks in certain moments when an important decision is needed to be rendered immediately. 3b) Discuss the differences between being a manager and leader. Warren Bennis gave distinctions between a manager and a leader in his book On Becoming a Leader (2009). The following are the distinctions: (a) a manager administers while a leader innovates; (b) a manger maintains while a leader develops; (c) a manager is a copy whereas a leader is an original; (d) the focus of a manger is on the systems and structure which is in contrary to a leader whose focus is on the people; (e) a manager has a limited range of view while a leader has a long-range perspective; (f) a manager depends on control while a leader depends on trust; (g) a manager just accepts reality while a leader does not just accept a reality but do investigation instead; (h) a manager’s questions are how and when whereas a leader’s questions are what and why; (i) a manager looks on the bottom line while a leader looks on the horizon; (j) a manager imitates while a leader originates; (k) a manager usually accepts the status quo while a leader would normally challenge it; (l) a manager is a good soldier while a leader is his/her own person only; and (m) a manager do things that are right while a leader do the right things. 3c) How can morale be improved and objectives achieved? The morale of the employees can be improved and objectives can be effectively achieved by primarily having a strong leadership and clear vision from the management (Armstrong & Baron 2002). The methods employed in the implementation, the operation itself and the workforce must all be aligned with the objectives of the organization. A failure of an organization to make such alignment will not help in gaining the trust, loyalty and motivation among its employees. Having a strong positive company culture that is in line with the mission and vision of the organization and made firmed by constant communications, training and performance management is also necessary to motivate the employees to achieve the company goals (Armstrong 2004). Also, like what was mentioned previously, viewing the workforce as proactive individuals who are competent, capable, worthy of confidence and as partners can help improve the morale of the employees (Kaye 1999) most especially that employees are recognized as the most valuable resource of the organization. Providing training and development to employees and good compensation schemes would make the employees feel how important they are to the organization and would boost the morale of the employees. The high morale of the employees will definitely of help in the attainment of the company goals (Druker et al. 1996). Moreover, the goals the best way to achieve the company goals is if the management and the employees share the same interest and concern, showing that the management, workforce and the organization itself are acting together as a team in a well-balanced way (Armstrong 2004). Task 4- Work and Development Needs   4a) Discuss how different learning styles can be used to train and develop the new employees. Trainers need to understand how they can encourage learners or new employees to receive information more efficiently. One of the popular view is taking note of VAK (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic. Thus, trainers develop learning activities that emphasize learning through seeing, listening or doing or experience. Learning through experience may also involve reflective time to allow trainees to internalize what they have experience and convert them into learning. To effectively devise the appropriate training method, it is necessary that trainers conduct training needs analysis (TNA) or self-assessment questionnaire to determine not only the aspects needed to be developed but also the learning styles of every trainee (Redford 2007). 4b) Explain how work will be allocated within the team. It is important that the work is well distributed among the team members to maintain the balance within the team. Reduction of status differences could be a key in balancing the allocation of work within the team. The organization should as much as possible aim at treating team members as equals and not on emphasizing a big deal on titles. As such, the leader is able to distribute the work load of the team equally, including him, without having considerations for who should get more or less tasks based on different factors such as title, years of service, seniority, gender, socio-economic, religion and etc. (Pfeffer 1998). 4c) How can performance be measured and improved upon within the workplace?   One of the most relied tools for measuring the performance of an organization is through setting Key Performance Indicators (KPI) which help an organization to determine and measure its progress. At first, the organization should analyze its mission, identify its stakeholders and determine its goals. All of these are measured by the KPIs. An organization may use the percentage of its income as one of its primary indicators. On the other hand, a department like a customer service team may have one of its Key Performance Indicators the percentage of the customer calls responded in the first minute. It must be noted that the Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable (Reh, no year). Primarily, the performance of the team can be improved by training and development of the skills and abilities of its employees especially that they are the face of the company to its customers. Aside from the development of their skills, trainings make employees realize that the organization is committed to employment security policies since it wants to keep them for a long period of time. This will help motivate the employees to commit themselves back to the cause of the company, thus exert their efforts to improve their performance accordingly. The performance in this case can be measured through return-on-investment or ROI. However, it has been said that the results of the training are not easy to measure quantitatively because the benefits of trainings are intangible (Pfeffer 1998). Providing trainings and developments to the employees do not only improves the abilities of the employees but also increase the capability of the organization itself (Armstrong & Baron 2002). References Akhtar, S & Mak, SKM 2003, “Human resource management practices, strategic orientations, and company performance: A correlation study of publicly listed companies”, Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 510-515. Armstrong, M 2004, Strategic Human Resource Management, Kogan Page Publishers, London. 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Stewart, J and Knowles, V 2000, “Graduate Recruitment and Selection Practices in Small Businesses”, Career Development International, no.5, no.1, pp. 21-38. Straus, SG, Miles, JA and Levesque, LL 2001, “The Effects of Videoconference, Telephone and Face-to-Face Media on Interviewer and Applicant Judgments in Employment Interviews”, Journal of Management, vol. 27, pp. 363-381. Vaughn, T 2007, “Recruiting the Right People”, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, February 8- February 14 Issue, pp. 66-67. Read More