Recruitment, Training, and Selection - Essay Example

? Recruitment, Training and Selection Questionnaire of Introduction As d in Chapter LVMH Company is a multinational company with an employee base of over 100,000. The study also has a base on human resource management activities that revolve around selection, training and recruitment. In line with the statement of purpose as mentioned earlier on, it will be necessary to make a direct translation of how the processes are carried on at the company given that the processes involve so much management and diversity, contingency and planned processes (LVMH, 2013). This section therefore seeks to create a questionnaire based on all the objectives as was mentioned in chapter 1. In light of that, the section will come up with a collection of 10-15 questions in a questionnaire specified to highlight the company position on selection, training and recruitment. The content of the questions will seek to exploit the three aims and objectives as stipulated earlier on as well as verifying the statement of purpose. There will also be an analytical look at the questionnaire through a discussion and relation to the obtained objectives and discussions. Variables of success will be discussed based on the analysis as obtained from the analysis and in relationship with the universal conducts as stipulated in Human Resource management. This will give rise to the findings that are supposed to be implemented by the company. Questionnaire-The Recruitment, Selection and Training of LVMH As stated, the questionnaire will make a focus on the important areas of study. The questionnaire will gauge whether the employees were recruited through a competitive selection process or whether there were any intermediaries in the whole process. After being hired, what specific types of training are done, if any and what values are added to the employees in these trainings. There is also a test on the effects of new technology on the employees in improving the productivity of the company. The employee response to the satisfaction achieved as a result of adapting the trainings received as well as the motivation that is added to their valuable human resource ability (Jeffrey, 2011 ). As a result of the data collected from such surveys, the human resource department is able to collect information that will be used in the formulation of policies. These policies will be used to rectify the weaknesses that may be involved in low performance at that stage in the company. This questionnaire is based on an interview carried out on a sample of 30 employees of LVMH Company representation. The same questionnaire was administered on employees from the different departments and the aim was to get the effectiveness of the process of recruitment, training and selection of all employees regardless of the company position. The questionnaire was carried out in France, headquarter of the company. This is because of the high representation of employees in the country. The country does not also have a uniform human resource endowment based on the classes of people and the results will therefore be a possible representation of all the regions of presence. Based on the information needed, the focus was both on primary and secondary data. The secondary data was collected from academic journals, books and other online sources that were relevant to the study. The primary data was collected from direct association with employees and they were to answer closed ended questions (Jeffrey, 2011 ). A collection of 14 questions collected from 30 respondents therefore becomes the basis of this chapter. The questionnaire that was conducted took the form of the questions below: 1. How was your potentiality and eventual recruitment to this company generated? Through; a) Direct applications b) Placement consultants c) Job portals d) Employee referrals e) Head hunting f) Any other (please specify) 2. How many rounds of technical interviews were carried out on you? a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) More than 3 3. Did you get any buddy mentor who helped you adapt to the company? a) Yes b) No c) I could adapt easily on my own d) No 4. What was the duration of the selection as well as induction process? a) 1 week b) 2 weeks c) More than 2 weeks c) It is a continuous process 5. For how many years have you been working with LVMH Company? a) 0-5 years b) 5-10 years c) 10-15 years d) More than 15 years. 6. In the recruitment process that you went through, did the organization clearly define the objectives, requirements and the candidate specifications of the position to you? a) Yes b) No 7. How are the affirmative action needs of the company satisfied and how can they be clarified in the selection process that you underwent? a) Poor b) Adequate c) Excellent 8. How would you as an individual rate the company recruitment process? a) Fair b) Good c) Fairly good d) Excellent 9. How would you rate the effectiveness of the process of interviewing as well as the whole selection process? a) Poor b) Adequate c) Excellent 10. What are the parameters used to determine the employee need for more training? a) Length of time at the station b) Contingency issue c) Company regulation 11. Is training mandatory for all levels of employed staff in the organization? i. a) yes b) No ii. If yes, how many hours of training on approximation basis do you receive in a year? (Please approximate) 12. On what basis is the need for training analyzed in LVMH Company? a) Employee performance b) Performance counseling c) Competency framework d) Based on need e) Any other, please specify. 13. i. According to you, training is provided to enhance your; a) Technical skills b) Soft skills c) Both a and b d) Any other (please specify) ii. If training is provided in the area of soft skills, what are the programs offered to the employees? (Please tick appropriately) a) Communication skills b) Assertive skills c) Creativity d) Sensitize on culture e) Any other, please specify 14. How does the company evaluate success of the training program on the employees? a) Observation of the post training performance b) The feedback of the employees c) Determining the specific returns on investment d) Any other (please specify) Specifications about the Questions Most of the questions were factual and did not therefore require much secrecy. The questions were therefore answered according to the different experiences of each of the sample employees that took part in the exercise. The questions are also not a matter of wholesome and specifically require information from the individuals. Such views may only be applicable to situations where the company general issues are required (Bell, 2010). The participation was also voluntary only that it was to be made possible for there to be a representation from all the company departments. As stated earlier on, there were 30 participants answering a set of 14 questions on issues related to selection, training and recruitment. For the purpose of soliciting for a more accurate response, there is supposed to an array of time upon which the questions were to be answered. Judith Bell (2010) on this issue states that a more accurate response in research can only be obtained if the respondent is at ease with the situation. So it was necessary to create a situation that does not elicit any form of negative prejudice or coercion. After the discussion of the information that will be done on the above research, there will therefore be a correlation as indicated in the company hiring process as stipulated in chapter 1. It will also seek to create a relationship with the training process and, the recruitment process and the selection process as well as establishing whether the employee life cycle has any response related to the research results. Discussion of the Questionnaire Measurement Description The measurement and discussion the questionnaire is based on the answers that were given. The responses are based on the confirmative answer ‘Yes’, disapproval answer ‘No’, an opinionated answer and those answers that are based on timespan. In analyzing the responses to the questions, it was easier to work with groups because getting responses from individuals and analyzing them as such would be hectic (Weinstein, 2011). To easily discuss the responses, it was realized that most of the responses were similar depending on how long the respondents had stayed at the company. The participation in the questionnaire was voluntary and the willingness was based on whether the employee had time to participate in the exercise. For instance, of the 30 participants, 3.4% of them had stayed at the company for just less than 5 years. The distribution of the employee contribution can be summarized in the table below: Length Of Time At The Company (Years) Percentage (%) Less than 5 3.4 3-5 30 5-10 56.6 Over 10 10 Results of the Questions from a Point Of Discussion Question 1: In this question, 21 of the respondents (70%) cited that they were identified and made available to the company through consultants. However, it was realized that most of the employees who had been at the company for longer periods were sourced through employee referrals. All the options were represented but apart from these two, the others had almost negligible margins. Question 2: In this question, the top management people who participated indicated that they went through more than three steps during the interview screening. In this section, there is a possibility that high ranking officers require more processes than the low ranking supervisors. Question 3: 25 employees (83.3%) admitted to having a mentor who took them through the general orientation in the company. A smaller percentage indicated that they did not need a mentor because the environment looked either familiar or there were other people known to them in the company who created a conducive environment for their working. The points of entry to the company apparently determined the condition created. Nevertheless, all the employees that are in the company in one way or the other had a mentor that facilitated their working environment. QUESTION 4: The duration of the selection process was also dependent on the post being applied for. There are some processes that required more procedures than others. For instance, all the employees in the senior positions indicated that their procedure took more than two weeks and to some extent, it is a continuous process. A paltry 5 employees (16%) indicated that their duration had taken less than a week and this could be linked to their positions of being junior employees. QUESTION 5: Most of the employees (56%) indicated that they had stayed at the company for between 5-10 years. Only 3.4 % of those who participated had been at the company for less than 5 years. This was not however supposed to alter the accuracy of the results since the idea was to look at recruitment, training and selection. It was important to mix them as such because this would give the real picture of the changes that are taking part at the company. QUESTION 6: 27 of the 30 respondents responded in the positive (yes) to this question. The remaining three had one employee who had been at the company for more than 10 years and two more who recently joined the company. The indication here is that there are clearly defined roles per person and all the discrepancies that occur (giving rise to the 10%) was a result of contingencies at the time of entry. QUESTION 7: 1% of the employees indicated that the affirmative action issues were perfect but 80% indicated that the actions were adequate. That would require a different form of research and actually create a functional analysis in which there was a question on why there are some kinds of gender flaws in the company. However, the gender issues were important in the objectives of this study to try and see whether some recruitment procedures are in demand of the male or female gender. QUESTION 8 This is perhaps the most important question on gauging the competency of the procedure. 67% of the people intimated that the process is fair, 20% of the people indicated the process as being good and the rest indicated that the process is excellent. It was important to note that the people who indicated that the process was excellent again are the people who had stayed in the company for more than 10 years and some were participants in the human resource department. QUESTION 9: This is a question on rat5ing the procedure of recruitment of the process at the company. As was in question 8, there is a relationship between the answers given in this section. 80% of the people indicated the process was adequate and there were changes in the responses of the other remaining percentage but the correlation was the same. 10% indicated that the process was excellent and had their own reasons in which there were no provisions for that ion the questionnaire. There were however some contraindications in this question because some respondents did not answer the question. QUESTION 10: The need for training is a subject of contention. However, 93% of the employees (28) determined that it is the policy of the company that all the people should participate in some training considering the market changes in the needs of the customers. The3 other options had low scores on this issue. This means that the company highly identifies the need for training especially to the employees who has been at the company for some time and would lack the necessary dynamic skills. QUESTION 11 Based on question 10, there is a direct correlation between the training attained and the company policies. Therefore, 89% of the employees indicated the answer in the positive. Only 11% of the employees indicated in the negative. This was a proof enough that the company had value in the development of its human resource through training. On the hours that are used per annum on training an employee, there is dependence on the level of employment that an employee is getting to the company. For instance, top level employees only require a week during the vacations in which case there are 5 hours of training per day. That gives 25 hours only as opposed to a new recruit that would require almost 100 hours. These were the range of the answers given by the employees during the interview. QUESTION 12 On the basis on which the competency of the training is measured at the company, the Human resources department of the company records that the company does the training for various reasons. The measurement of success or competency of the training, according to the questionnaire that were used indicated 30% of the employees responding that performance is an indicator of success in training, 28% of the workers also indicated that the competency exhibited at that level is an indicator of the success achieved. The need to train took a lot of the responses in that there was a high of 40% of the respondents indicating that when the contingent need has been satisfied, then the company is able to indicate that the train9ing succeeded. QUESTION 13 Training to the employees is a strong requisite for acquisition of both the technical skills and the soft skills. These two are used to indicate that the employees have to get the best out of a training program. Soft skills are the skills acquired to make especially those in top management to manage their work more efficiently. Technical skills are more viable in the employees whose hands-on work require that they do a lot of physical work. The third option (both soft skills and technical skills) in fact comprised of more than 99%. The last question had big number of the employees indicating that the employees had a high level of creativity and motivation at the end of the training program. Therefore, creativity ranked higher than the other needs. Determinants of Success and Findings The research question in the methodology indicated six factors that will indicate a success to the development of the results of the questionnaire. Together with the objectives in chapter 1, there is a trend that will be realized by the findings of the research questionnaire. Therefore, success will only be realized at this point when the objectives are being met effectively. That is to say that the company has adapted the right recruitment process, the right training is being carried out and the selection process is very clear and adaptable (Sims, 2007). The success factors will therefore be a clear methodology in the recruitment. Alignment of the techniques of selection to the goals of the company will be indicated as another success factor. The last success factor is an indication that the new method is benefitting the company in te3rms of either increased income or reduced costs of operations. Findings In this section, we are to try and relate the objectives as indicated in chapter 1, the contents as indicated in the methodology section and the findings of the questionnaire and try to create a correlation. If there is a positive correlation, then the method will have succeeded in improving the company. The first issue to be addressed is the search to check the methods used at the company for entry of an employee to the company. As has been seen, the company employs several methods that are used to create a positive sense in the employment cycle. The company employs five methods in recruitment process; direct application, placement method, job portals, employee referrals and head hunting. All these methods are applicable and engage a lot of efficiency (Storey, 2007). However, from the questionnaire, the employees prefer the methods used on them which is through placement consultants. The company is said to have over 100,000 employees all over the world. This is an indication that the company used several different types of recruitment methods to get access to new employees. The use of employee referrals by consultant firms has taken over as the most preferred method in the management of recruitment since it is able to access so many employee pools. On the issue of training, there are two methods used to create dynamic awareness in the current trends of the employment cycle. The first method involves re-training the existing staff of employees to acquaint them with current trends in their work. The second involves training fresh employees to the company (Ster & Koster, 2007). Going by the results of the questionnaire, the employed staff undergoes a periodical employment cycle mostly during the vacations or holidays created for that purpose. A special training can also be created to make sure that the staff has the most current knowledge in the industry. For the incoming staff, there has been an indication from the previous research (chapter 1) that the process takes the entity of the methods used in acclimatizing them to the company. Therefore, orientation in the company is a culture and the questionnaire just confirmed that. Another finding was noted in the questionnaire is that much as the company uses consultants to seek for a pool for recruitment; the methods do vary from place to place. The human resource systems of the world are not the same. Some places have stronger human resource abilities and therefore the recruitment process cannot be the same in these places. There is therefore no centralized recruitment base in the host country. Even the branches in the country sometimes carry out their own recruitment exercises especially to the junior staff members. The effective recruitment process has benefitted the company a great deal. It has highly reduced the turnover rate of the staff members and this has saved the company a lot of money. From an economic point of view, the French companies incur close to 30% of salary of an employee in getting another one. At this point, the most important thing to consider is the correlation created between the literature review that was carried out and the findings of the questionnaire research. The research problem revolves around trying to justify the viability of the recruitment, training and selection at big companies in the presence and gauge its ability to match the old and new ways of doing the same work. This therefore means that there has been a recognized similarity between the old methods and a combination of the primary and secondary methods. Therefore, successful recruitment, training and selection takes into account the ability to improve the company by creation of a strong staff as well as a strong co-ordination of the different aspects of the company. Conclusion From the wide spectrum research at primary and secondary level, there is always a revelation of the similarities and differences between the different approaches to recruitment, selection and training (Wilson, 2012). This paper has therefore carried out a research questionnaire and shown the eventual results. Through a discussion, it has been found out that there are some things that need to be changed at the company but there are sound human resource development methods at the company. References Bell, J. (2010). Doing Your Research Project. New York: McGraw-Hill International. Bradley, L., & Thouesny, S. (2012). Call: Using, Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL Conference, Gothenburg. Chicago: Research-publishing.net. C.S, W., & M, R. (2011). Lessons From Research and Practice. New York: McGraw. Jeffrey, C. (2011 ). Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accoun. New York: Emerald Group Publishing. LVMH. (2013, 2 16). Translation of the French Financial Document. Retrieved 5 4, 2013, from LVMH: http://www.lvmh.com/uploads/assets/Com-fi/Documents/en/Results/2012/Documents_financiers_LVMH_2012_VA.pdf Regis, R. (2009). Strategic Human Resource Management & Development. Delhi: Excel Books India. Sims, R. R. (2007). Human Resource Management: Contemporary Issues, Challenges And Opportunities. London: IAP. Ster, M. K., & Koster, M. (2007). Human Resource Management: Classical Selection Methods and Alternatives. New York: GRIN Verlag. Storey, J. (2007). Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. New York: Cengage Learning EMEA. Wilson, J. P. ( 2012). International Human Resource Development. Brasillia: Kogan Page. Read More