The Difficulties in Recruiting, Training, Motivating - Essay Example

PAPER ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN RECRUITING, TRAINING, MOTIVATING AND REWARDING STAFF IN A GIVEN FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANY TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 3 Organizational behavior .. 5 Difficulties in Recruiting, Training, Motivating And Rewarding Staff in Davenham Group .. 5 Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ..11 Goal Setting Theory . 13 Reinforcement Theory.. 14 Issues Related To the Working in Groups and Teams...15 Individual Differences in Context of Financial Organization .. 16 Conclusion 17 References. 19 INTRODUCTION Human resource management (HRM) is a vast area and its theory and practices provide understanding the organization and its employee's problems. It is based on organizational behavior and it includes several issues including Safe, Healthy and Happy Workplace, management style, performance reward and bonuses, evaluation or appraisal system, feedback system, knowledge sharing and exchanging of ideas and taking opinion of the employees and so on. Creating a healthy and peaceful workplace to its employees will ensure that employees feel happy and homely and stay with organization for a very long time. Surveys are good and an effective way to judge employees feelings towards organization. Sharing information about, sales, new clients, management objectives, company policies, employee personal data etc. ensures that the employees are as enthusiastic about the business and they are devoted towards their organization. Involving employees in taking decision for the company and their opinion for making improvement leads company to success. If top management involves their employees in company's affairs, they will feel recognition and self respect and they will perform even better. It also helps in building trust and motivates employees. Bonuses or reward can also be a good and effective way to encourage and motivate employees. Through this process, they will get to know that, they are performing well in the organization and they are beneficial for the company as well. Bonus must be designed in such a way that people or employees understand that there is no payment in terms of bonus unless the company gets the profit and also exceeds the level of profitability. Bonus and reward is also based on team's success and the individual's performance. Feedback is also an important factor in HRM process. If an employee or a person is performing well, he will participate to enhance or Increase Company's productivity. He/she will be appreciated for this and should be recognized for his/her work in a positive and in effective way. Evaluation of the performance should be taken fairly. There is a need to develop a performance evaluation system which focuses on individual performance. Self rating as a part of evaluation process encourages or empowers employees. Evaluation becomes fairer if it is based on the records of and achievements of the employee. HRM practice and policies provide several good and effective ways of organizing and managing organization's functions. It also gives or provides help to develop effective strategies for making the company or organization more productive and successful. Employees play a lead role in any organization, so the polices and practices regarding employee or human resource should be followed effectively and in a good manner. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR Organizational behavior is the body of knowledge which describes, analyzes and explains how organization influences the behavior of the members or employees and how they respond to the performance and ecology/culture of the organization or environment. Organizational behavior focuses on several functions and process of organization such as recruiting, rewarding, compensation, motivation etc; it also focuses the problems and difficulties of the organization. DIFFICULTIES IN RECRUITING, TRANING, MOTIVATING AND REWARDING STAFF IN DAVENHAM GROUP (Finance Company in UK) Davenham Group is a leading specialist, commercial finance company performing its functions in UK. Established in 1991 and divided into three divisions: Asset Finance Trade Finance Property Finance Laurie.J. Mullin (2002) says every organization has its own functions and strategies to operate its company or organization effectively. They should follow some organizational rules and regulation to make the company more productive. While performing different functions and activities, company deals with several issues and difficulties. DavenHam also faces these problems such as recruiting process, traning, motivating and rewarding employees or staff. Recruitment process in a company (DavenHam) Recruitment is the process of screening and selecting qualified people for a job for an organization or firm (Mullin 2007). There would be two types of recruitment in the company, external recruitment and internal recruitment. External recruitment is the process of recruiting and selecting employees from outside the organization and internal recruitment is within the company or organization may be hiring a person on someone's place. This process should be followed effectively and properly to choose a best person for a company. If a company failed to choose or define its overall recruitment strategy and hiring objectives, then recruiting program may fail to meet the company's needs and objectives. Companies and HR personnel have to make great efforts in recruitment process and selection of the suitable candidate. Recruitment is usually a costly process and time consuming for both employees as well as job hunters. According to the company (DavenHam) problems and difficulties regarding recruitment process are: External factors i.e. increase in staff or employees movement due to the change in business environments. Multiple candidate origin or source due to lack of talent in candidates. Increase in the quantity of applications for job due to the changing economic conditions. Complexity of data such as application for jobs in various formats i.e. mail, faxmail, e-mail and so on. Filling heavy or bulky information and retrieval of data due to incompatible source of information. Inability to filter the data effectively because its time consuming, filtering a data manually i.e. screening and retrieving of resumes is a difficult job. Wasting a precious or substantial amount of time on interviewing unqualified and less talented candidates as compared to the deserving ones. There is no combined database for information storage and retrieval and also locating previous candidates while hiring. Lack of coordination and collaboration among hiring team in the organization. Training at a Finance Company (DavenHam) Training is an important factor in HRM. Training is a continuous process. It is always needed in an organization, while performing any function or activity of the organization. Some companies provide or give training before starting the job, some do in between and some give training during the job, to make job more effective and to enhance the individual's skill set level. Through training process, employees can learn several new and different things regarding their job and workplace. Learning is a never ending process and training plays an essential role for making employees more productive and responsible towards their work or job. According to finance company perspectives, these points should be followed while giving training: Business improvement training courses and programmes. Finance training for qualified accountants or qualified candidate. Financial awareness programmes for those who work outside of finance and accounts. Personal development, Leadership training, Team Building programmes and giving business environment training. Conferences & Events would also be very essential in training the employees. During training process, employees may face several problems and different issues as well. Many of the problems occurring in the training process reflect lack of knowledge in training process and a failure to involve suitable people to give training to the employees. Course development must be carried out in a systematic and in effective manner to minimizing the problems in training. Company should hire trained and qualified people for training. Careful analysis of the trainees is very important with attention to the disagreement or difference between what employees can do and what they should be able to do. Training objectives should also be taken place effectively. These objectives are the expected change in the performance of trainees after, as a result of training. Training should be job oriented and reflects the goals, objectives and policies of the organization. If these objectives are followed properly in training, problems are lees probable to occur in this context. Interaction between the trainees and the external environment also plays a vital role and several problems occur in terms of business environment and learning about this is also important. The effective and general principle to be followed is that learning can take place only through the active participation of the trainees. Trainees should be involved in planning every step of employees own learning process. Planning for evaluating of employees can be problem as well because evaluating an individual is a difficult task to do. This involves evaluation at the training site as well as evaluation of the trainees at their workplaces and also regarding their performance towards job. All the steps in the training process should be revised and re-evaluated again so, if any problem reoccurs, it would be minimized or resolved immediately. Process of Motivating In a Company (DavenHam): Motivation is a desire to achieve a goal, combined with the energy to work towards that goal or it's a kind of desire or movement within a person. Employees who are motivated and encouraged by the organization or management will perform their functions effectively and they play a lead role in the productivity of the organization. Being a motivated employee doesn't mean that employee gets excited or fully committed to their work, but it means that they will complete the tasks set, by giving their best performance in that. Sometimes there is a distinction between positive and negative motivation. Positive motivation is a response which includes enjoyment about the tasks that are involved in work or job. Negative motivation involves undertaking tasks because undesirable outcomes can be expected. In any organization, whether it's a finance sector or some else, motivation of employees is a key factor in all organizations. From organizational behavior perspectives, it's an important thing or a factor followed effectively in organizations. Motivation gives employees self respect and self recognition in the company. Employees should feel that they are valuable for the organization, appreciation or motivation can be taken in different ways by giving some rewards, any certificates to appreciate employees work or through giving promotion in a job. Managers can motivate employees by including these factors i.e. confidence, trust and satisfaction and also create an environment that reinforces or encourages these factors. Motivation has several theories and practices to discover i.e. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Theory X and Y by Douglas McGregor (1960). Fredrick Herzberg's Two Factor Theory. Aldfer's ERG Theory Including Existence, Relatedness and Growth Needs. McClelland's Motivation Theory. Cognitive Evaluation Theory. Goal Setting Theory. Reinforcement Theory. Adam's Motivation Theory. Expectancy Theory. ABRAHAM MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS Abraham Maslow (1940-50). Abraham Maslow's theory of motivation is defined in context that, what an employee and person needs from their organization or from their external environment and society. Maslow's theory includes physiological needs, security needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization. Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50's and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remain existing and its effectively followed in organizational behavior for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development from organization point of view. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs relating the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfill their own unique recognition and potential. Physiological and Biological includes air, food, water, shelter etc. Safety needs i.e. protection, security, law etc. Belongingness and Love needs such as work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. Esteem needs refers to self-steem, ahievement, independence, status, prestige, managerial responsibility as a boss etc. and Self-Actualization needs includes realizing personal potential and recognition, self-fulfillment, personal growth in a company or society. Employee in an organization always need to get these things as mentioned above and these are the basic needs that an employees always want and to recognize his/her personality in the organization by fulfilling his/her desires effectively. It's the responsibility of an organization to fulfill employees' needs and wants by providing them the best and satisfactory environment. GOAL SETTING THEORY It's a goal setting theory which says that, train the employees of the organization to achieve the high motivational level of the employees (Latham & Smith 1990). It is about setting a target for the employees or person and giving him/her a chance to complete the given task. If any challenge is given to the employee or employees, they become motivated and put their efforts to complete the task. Higher would be the goal; higher would be the challenge of achievement. In achieving the target or goals, an employee will be happy and more encouraged that he has chosen for this target and he did his/her best to accomplish its target. Goal-setting theory has its limitations as well, in an organization; a goal of a manager may not arrange with the goals of the organization (Latham & Locke 2002). The goals of the organization in which a person is an employee and the goals of the individual may be conflicting. For complex tasks, goal-setting may help an employee accomplish its task as soon as possible, rather than focus on its performance or effectiveness the work. REINFORCEMENT THEORY Fred Simmons Keller (1969) says that, motivation is the driving force and it's within a person or any employee of the organization. It's basically reinforced or encourages an employee in such way that they are willing to start work more effectively. It can be done through, if an organization start giving an employee difficult task to achieve by noticing its competency level. From an employee perspective, organization will be responsible to encourage and reinforce his/her employee in such way that they get motivated and they feel their presence in the organization. They also put their efforts to achieve the challenging goals. Rewarding staff/employees in a company (DavenHam): Rewarding and compensating employees is important in any organization. It's a good way to encourage and motivate employees, that they are performing well in the organization and they will get some reward or incentives to appreciate them (Langley 2006). Employees who contribute to meeting organizational goals or who improve the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of the company should be rewarded. Awards should be used as a perfect way to recognize present and past performance to motivate employees to continue their high performance in the organization. Michael Armstrong (2002) says that there should be some criteria or process in an organization to give rewards or awards to encourage employees. The process of rewarding staff in a finance company will be followed as: All employees of the organization must be eligible for the recognition and getting rewards. Employer and employee should know on what behaviors, performance or actions are being rewarded and recognized in the process of rewarding and compensating. Favoritism will not be included in this process; there should be justice in rewarding employees. Develop awards like "employee of the month", that will be really encouraging for the employee and also effects its performance in the company. Monetary awards are also good enough to recognize employee's performance and reward can be differing according to other individual performances. An increase in pay is also an effective and encouraging way of rewarding process. Other ways can include certificates, shield or plaques and so on ISSUES RELATED TO WORKING IN GROUP AND TEAMS According to David Cleland (1996), work groups, subgroups and teams are becoming necessary in any organization. The delegation and dividing of duties makes work more effective and productive. Teams work more readily. It is an effective way to involve employees and solve their problems. Process of working in organization becomes effective and issues will also be minimized by making groups and teams. Making Team and groups are the process of combining and unifying a group of people with a common objective, for making organization more productive. Team development process includes defining, analyzing, planning, implementing and evaluating. A combination of these factors will help to produce a productive team in an organization Successful or productive team posses the following qualities: Purpose and direction of making team and focus on organization goals and objectives. Problem solving and decision making. Effective communication among employees Participation in different activities by giving their best performance. Leadership skills. Coordination. The most critical factor in the team development process is the continuous evaluation of the team performance and redefining of goals and objectives. Evaluating teams or workgroups should be necessary because it shows the performance of the employees. It also gives information about the way they work for organization. Robbins & Finley (1995) say that as a team or a workgroup perform well for the productivity of the organization, some issues and problems can also occur in this process of making and developing teams. Reasons for team conflicts and failure include internal competition; company fails to recognize team performance in proper and effective way, lack of clear goals and objectives, team being inappropriate for a problem which occurs in an organization, lack of mutual understanding & coordination and negative thinking or impression about other members of the team. Teams and workgroups should understand the company's objectives and goals clearly, so the chances of occurring issues and problems would be minimized. Mutual understanding and coordination among team members is an important factor in a successful and productive team. So team fellows or members should focus their attention towards team and company success. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CONTEXT OF FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION People are different from each other although individual differences seem to be to variant among them, how people are different, how well can people be described in terms of an average person. Some people and groups are different in terms of sex, culture, age, religion or ethnicity and these factors may create differences among people, whether it's business environment or our society or general environment. It may also include cognitive abilities, interpersonal skills and styles, and emotional reactivity. In an organization people create difference and make distances between them by the name of different culture, language or religion, this will also affect organziation, team or workgroup as well as individual himself. For making business environment and organization good and effective, these differences should be removed and employees should work as a team or group by ignoring these differences. Existing of these factors may create or develop problems in the organization, which effects company's good performance and productivity. CONCLUSION Organizational Behavior (OB) provides study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act and perform in organizations. Its also clarify the people/employees and organization relationships in terms of employee in the organization, as a group, organization, and as a social system. It also describes to develop or build better relationships among employees and create good and healthy work environment by achieving company's goals and objectives. Teamwork in workplace is very important as well. By removing differences and distances, employees should only focus on company's success. 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