Employee Resourcing - Article Example

EMPLOYEE RESOURCING: A CASE STUDY - 3951-SDFZ-0307 --- 29260a14 INTRODUCTION Employee resourcing, is an aspect of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (Wikipedia 2008) and, simply put, means the positive recruitment and selection of workers in a firm or organisation, as well as ways in which employee performance is maximized, thus reducing such occupational hazards as wastage and staff turnover. But employee resourcing covers a wider area than mere recruitment and selection of workers, or issues that deal with their management, retention and output. It involves an in depth look at such things as forecasting methods, planning, i.e."soft" planning (in contrast to "hard" planning which is becoming less and less an issue of present-day employee resourcing) HRM Guide (2008), resourcing information (such as demographics), redundancy issues, and job description and purposes. But it is virtually impossible to grasp what employee resourcing is, along with other issues and examples that surround it, without first grasping, to some extent, its root which is the concept of Human Resources (HR). The idea of human resources has been around since the Neolithic Revolution, c.10, 000 BP, as far back as man's earliest sign of civilization and organization which is agriculture according to Gilman (n.d.). Its focus is, generally, on utilizing human effort towards the production of goods and services. In this sense it can be categorized into the "older" and the "more modern" view of it. The older sense is the "hard" aspect which can simply be seen as labour, one of the four factors of production. This aspect centres more on the utility of man as a "resource" of production, than on the better chances of his productivity in an easy, fun and more need- sensitive environment'working condition. "The biggest lie told by most organisations is that 'people are our most important asset'. Total fabrication: they treat people like raw material" Hammer cited by Morrell (n.d.). The more recent look at human resources, chooses to disregard this term entirely in favour of "Human Capital" Wikipedia (2008), thus viewing employees as valuable human initiators achieving a desired goal, rather than mere utilities. Human Resource Management (HRM), which is the management of human resources, further reflects employee resourcing, and indeed employee resourcing can be said to be an aspect of human resource management. "The main functions of HR administration, staffing and performance management within employee resourcing consist of several distinct, but interrelated management activities." ( Raiden et al., 2004: p.7). So a study in employee resourcing is definitely a study in human resource management. This interchangeability has even given rise to Human Resource Planning (HRP) which is an important step'branch in employee resourcing. It is this planning that makes for better recruitment and selection of the workforce in a business or organization, as well as its maintenance for achieving objectives. For employee resourcing, human resource management serves the following functions: " 1.) Selection 2.) Training and Development 3.) Performance Evaluation and Management 4.) Promotions 5.) Redundancy 6.)Industrial and Employee Relations 7.) Record keeping of all personal data 8.) Compensation, pensions, bonuses etc in liaison with Payroll 9.) Confidential advice to internal 'customers' in relation to problems at work & 10.) Career development" (Wikipedia, 2008) Modern businesses and organizations utilize demographics (the characteristics of the employees-factors like age, gender and class), diversity (the variation inside the work population-that recognizes gender, racial and sexual differences and provides an atmosphere of tolerance for those things), and competency (skills and abilities) in making decisions that affect its well being. "Skills are your abilities and areas of strength you learned through many different activities, including work, extracurricular and volunteering experiences, and hobbies." (India Education 2008: n.p.) Competency Based Human Resource Management or CBHRM is an approach "that links human resources activities such as learning and development, resourcing, performance management and human resources planning to a competency profile". (Wiki CBHRM). These three things-demographics, diversity, and competency-affect the decisions (selection-wise) in carrying out employee resourcing. BORDERS COLLEGE HISTORY AND BACKGROUND: Borders College in Scotland is an educational institution that is located in the beautiful settings of Dun, Edinburgh, Galashiels, Hawick, Peebles and St. Boswells. The head office is at Thorniedean House, Melrose Road, Galashiels, TD1 2AF. It is the only Further Education College and primary source of institutional education in the region of the Scottish Borders. Its website is www.borderscollege.ac.uk. The school came into being in 1984 through the amalgamation of the Agricultural Centre of Newtown St. Boswells, Duns Agricultural Centre, Galashiel's Technical College and Henderson Technical College of Hawick. The administrating body/Board of Management consists of the Chair's Committee, the Audit Committee, the Finance and General Purposes Committee, and the Remuneration Committee. Borders College (2007) POLICY REGARDING EMPLOYEE RESOURCING: Borders College owns a comprehensive and open policy regarding employee resourcing. This policy, according to a clause in it, is reviewed on an annual basis by the Joint Consultative Committee of the institution. The following is a policy statement, which was released to take effect starting November 2007, regarding the school's attitude and stand towards employee resourcing: "It is the organisation's policy to recruit the best person for each vacancy, regardless of gender, race, creed or disability. Applications for employment, training and promotion are monitored by ethnic group. Any pattern of inequality will be addressed. Whenever possible, existing employees will be invited to apply for promotion opportunities." A look at this generalized statement points notably at, inter alias, five things that were mentioned earlier on: 1.) Hiring based on competency 2.) Provision for diversity 3.) Training and development 4.) Performance evaluation and management 5.) Promotion. While the first deals specifically with selection and recruitment, the other four also provide means of maximizing the output of employees. The policy then goes on to break the statement down into eighteen clauses, each expanding on an aspect of the already summarized view. 1. SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT: In Borders College the senior manager in charge must first justify the need for a new post and/or replacement, since this changes from time to time. The Appointment Committee must then prepare and submit a vacancy report for consideration by the Personnel department. Copies of the advertisement are placed on internal notice boards for existing staff to have the chance to apply. According to the policy: "A decision to interview, short-list or offer employment will take no account of an applicant's trade union membership or non- membership and any relationship to current members of staff. Where, however, any member of the interview panel has a conflict of interest, this should be recorded and, where necessary, that interviewer removed from the panel." (Borders College 2007: p.2) In the event of insufficient number of application or insufficient standard of application, the post is readvertised. Skill tests, where appropriate, are given, and those with a disability who meet the minimum required criteria are granted an interview with consideration for their disability. When a candidate is approved, details of the job, such as the salary and terms and conditions accompanying the position, all agreed to by the Principal, is made available to the applicant, and he or she signs the document to show approval. Likewise, in the event of internal promotion, the applicant is made aware of the conditions attached to the new position, as well as what would happen if he or she is unsuccessful in the interview. This outcome of failure is usually a post interview counselling. Copies of the Notification of Engagement Form, otherwise known as the PERS5 form, are sent by the Personnel Department to all necessary departments, such as the Strategic Development Manager, the Publications Department, and the Health and Safety Department. The policy further adds that: "All internal and external appointments will be made subject to a satisfactory probationary period of up to six months. The progress of new employees will be monitored closely by their line manager during this period and they will be interviewed by the appropriate manager during, and at the end of the probationary period. A recommendation as to whether the employment should be confirmed must be made on the Probationary Period Review Form." (Borders College 2007: p.4) The probationary period is only extended once to a period of four months if there are some doubts regarding the employee's suitability for the job. Within this extended probationary period, there are monthly evaluations of progress. Employees are notified, through writing, regarding the outcome of the probation. (Borders College 2008: p.45) 2. MAXIMIZING EMPLOYEE OUTPUT: Taking a closer look at the college's policy on employee resourcing, one gets to see that there are provisions for not only recruitment and selection but also creating a workplace that is encouraging as it is challenging to employees. The institution makes provision for promotions by offering existing employees the chance to apply and be interviewed for higher placements in job positions, while also attempting to make this opportunity free and fair for all involved. Likewise it takes into consideration the issue of diversity by making provisions for both the minority and the disabled: In accordance with the College's equal opportunities policy, steps will be taken to encourage people from under-represented groups to apply for positions at all levels in the College. In addition, attempts will be made to accommodate the particular needs of any person suffering from a disability within the meaning of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 at all stages of the recruitment process (Borders College 2007: p.3) Skills, training and performance evaluation are highly regarded as reflected in hiring based on competency and the evaluation of progress, even into an extended probationary period of four months if the employee does not measure up to the standard expected. Regarding salaries, pensions, and other forms of payment, the college makes these fair by stating that "Each letter offering a job will also be accompanied by a statement of the main terms and conditions of employment relating to that position" (Borders College 2007) and that "Appointments of all employees should be made in accordance with the approved establishments, grades and rates of pay recognised by the Board." Borders College (2008). All these aid towards reinforcing the work attitude, potentials and output of those employed. SHORTCOMINGS: The institution's policy towards employee resourcing, however, falls short of making room for more positive employer-employee relationship, beyond recruitment and selection. It does not, within itself, specifically state terms that counter negative global issues which arise in places of work-factors such as gender-although this is treated wholly in another policy (Borders College 2007)-race and sexual orientation, which would have been a bonus to its diversity-sensitive policy. Neither does it speak extensively of the other Human Resource Management functions: Special Trainings and Career Development, and dealing with Redundancy. CONCLUSION: It is a known fact about employee resourcing that "There is no 'right way' of carrying out resourcing practices and many factors hinder the ideal of 'professionalism' in this professional domain" (Employee Resourcing 2008 ) In consideration of that fact, the Time and Motion study, written about by Wilson (1999), which attempts to see optimal human resourcing as an ordered management of the period spent in work (time) and effective action (motion), could be the only suitable offer for Borders College-and any other institution, organization or business elsewhere in the world. This indeed is present in the responsibility of Borders College: "The requirements for staffing of all organisations change over time." (Borders College 2007: p.2) REFERENCE LIST Borders College (2007), Administrative Scheme, [Online] 1-4 Available from: http://www.borderscolege.ac.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Borders College (2007), Employee Resourcing Policy, [Online] 1-4 Available from: http://www.borderscolege.ac.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Borders College (2008), Financial Regulations for Borders College, [Online] 1-4 Available from: http://www.borderscolege.ac.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Borders College (2007), Gender Equality Scheme, [Online] 1-4 Available from: http://www.borderscolege.ac.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Gilman, A. (n.d.) Lecture Outline and Study Guide. Anthropology 316, [Online] 10-12 Available from: http://www.csun.edu/anthropology/Assets/Gilman/319_general_handout.pdf [Accessed 18th September 2008]. HRM Guide (2008) Resourcing Strategies, [Online] Available from: http://www.hrmguide.co.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. India Education (2008), Self Evaluation, [Online] Available from: http://www.indiaeducation.net [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Morrell, K. (n.d.) Employee Resourcing, [Online] Available from: http://www.kevinmorrell.org.uk [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Employee Resourcing (2008) Employee Resourcing: Course Guide, [Online] Available from: http://employee-resourcing.info [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Raiden, A., Dainty, A., Neale, R. (2004) The Development of strategic Employee Resourcing Framework for construction. [Online] 7 Available from: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/workshops/04-Edinburgh/04-Raiden.pdf [Accessed 18th September 2008]. Wiki (2008) CBHRM, [Online] Available from: http://competencywiki.ihrm.ca/wiki/index.php/CBHRM [Accessed 17th September 2008]. Wikipedia (2008) Enterprise Resource Planning, [Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning [Accessed 17th September 2008]. Wikipedia (2008) Human Capital, [Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_capital [Accessed 17th September 2008]. Wikipedia (2008) Human Resources, [Online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources [Accessed 17th September 2008]. Wilson, F. (1999) Organizational Behaviour: A Critical Introduction. Oxford, Oxford University Press, p.114. Read More