Recruitment Process, Employee Motivation, Attraction and Retention - Literature review Example

Human Resource Issues Table of Contents Human Resource Issues Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 4 Personnel selection 4 Recruitment process 5 Employee attraction and retention 6 Human resource cost recommendation 9 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 10 Executive summary The development and growth of small and medium enterprises remains a goal of major modern economies like the United States, Canada and Australia. Through SMEs, private partnerships and entrepreneurship is cultured and this spurs economic growth and prosperity in a country. Australia is one of the major economies that have appreciated the roles played by the small and medium enterprises and this explains the government incentives that have targeted the small and startup businesses in the country. The success of every small and medium enterprise is the development of people resource that is capable to meet the goals of the organization and work in a concerted way towards the realization of maximum growth. One of the opportunities that are currently available in the country is the provision of body boarding schools in the suburb areas of Western Australia. In this report, the human resource needs of pioneer body boarding schools to be established in the suburb areas of Western Australia will be discussed. This business will seek to engage the services of qualified coaches, lifeguards and offices workers among others as an initial step towards establishing a functional unit. This report will evaluate the business needs of the establishment as a way of helping in the process of initial recruitment and retention of employees. Introduction Every small and medium enterprise owner has plans and aspirations that include seeing his business grow to satisfy the needs of the customers. This can only be achieved if the employees are attracted, selected, trained and retained in a competitive manner that ensures only the best delivers the goals of the business. The ability of the employees to deliver the goals of the organization depends on their levels of motivation and the opportunities of personal growth available. The competition and competitive advantages of SMEs in today’s business environment differs significantly as compared to what was seen in the last 20 years1. As a pioneer organization, the roles of the first few employees engaged must be distinctly defined. This is more so applicable to strategic decision making process which is critical in establishing the body boarding school in a region with more day schools. This paper will describe the human resources practices that will be adopted by body boarding school to be established within the suburb areas of Western Australia. In order to begin on the right footing and remain competitive in a location dominated by day schools, proper human resources practices must be adopted and implemented2. Personnel selection The establishment of relevant employees for a pioneer small and medium enterprise is governed by three principles. These include the process of employee identification, evaluation and selection which will lead to the attraction of the best employees with the goal of the organization at heart. During this phase, the organization must establish a set of traits and qualifications that they seek from the new employees before the evaluation and identification process can be began. The desired traits will be categorized under psychological, socio-demographic traits and characteristics and professional experience3. Professional coaches who will be tasked with the educational needs of the students must possess necessary experience and traits that can enable them relate well with the clients. The office workers and other administrative employees will be tasked with the marketing of the business and handling of inquiries from potential clients. As a result, they must be experienced in customer service and the ability to handle marketing and inquiries within the organization. The selection stage will also have four phases which will include the preliminary identification of the necessary skills, the primary selection and the final secondary selection phase4. Recruitment process Like in most small and medium enterprises, the issue of access to finance and the cash flows remain of major concern to body boarding school. The actual recruitment process therefore presents a number of challenges which must be adequately mitigated for the organization to begin operation in the right footing. The use of recruitment agencies that is commission based may affect the financial viability of the organization due to the startup amount that will be redirected to the process. One of the best opportunities available is the use of do-it-yourself approach that gives the potential employees a chance to control their chances of being hired5. As a startup school is a suburb area dominated with public day schools, professional teachers, coaches and office staff can easily be reached. The cheapest and more viable option in this situation is the use of word of mouth referrals and business networking to generate candidate possibilities. Trust is critical to a pioneer organization as it will lead to entrusting the new employees with vital role of managing both the resources and operations of the business. Word of mouth is thus helpful in this regard as the people involved in building the network can be informed of the qualities and aspirations desired before the selection phase begins6. The presence of small and medium enterprises in social media has increased significantly due to the interactive nature of the engines that allow low cost agencies to post their ads for free. Through twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, a professional search can be conducted on the specific area of concern. In most cases, startup organizations wish to cut cost and attain a quick financial win which leads to the use of short cuts in the recruitment process. Before adopting any method of recruitment, an organization must review the costs involved and adopt an approach that is within its budget. Adopting a knee-jerk reaction kind of recruitment process can create redundancy and lead to wastage during the operation phase that may affect the success of the business7. Employee attraction and retention Selection and recruitment alone cannot be considered as the backbone of a pioneer small and medium enterprise as the challenges may demotivate the employees and increase employee turnover. Employee turnover at the initial phases of the business operation can spell doom to the business and decrease its chances of succeeding and achieving its primary goals. Therefore, approaches must be adopted that will enhance employee attraction and retention which is cost effective for a business8. To remain competitive and profitable, a startup SMES must adopt employee retention strategies to reduce the impacts of employee turnover on the business. As a new idea within the Western Australia region, the potential employees lack the adequate information on the basic operational approach and this will impact on their output. The use of orientation and onboarding enables an organization to create a culture of treating employee’s right at the beginning. At body boarding school, the process of recruiting employees will not mark the end of the human resource roles. The different professionals engaged must be able to understand the operations of the business and this can only be achieved through the adoption of orientation and onboarding9. The needs of students in boarding schools vary significantly with those of day scholars and this makes it essential for the management to adopt employee training approaches to ensure that their skills are improved in line with the needs of the environment. Employee motivation The motivation of employees plays a critical role in the attraction and retention of the best professionals that can assist the business achieves its goals within the set time limit. Motivated employees are considered as an asset to an organization as they understand the needs of the business and work towards achieving them within the goals set. Employee motivation is critical in small and medium enterprises as the level of operation requires them to make personal sacrifices and work longer than other mainstream employees. For body boarding school, the leadership of the business is not fully organized and this presents an opportunity to motivate the employees10. Through focusing on leadership development, the organization can improve the skills of the workers and eliminate the centralization of roles within the organization. Through the creation of leadership, the organization will be able to create a strong culture of cooperation and teamwork which will build the skills of new recruits and motivate them to work towards the realization of the organization goals11. Though the initial phases of operation may be challenging and demoralizing to employees, the organization must strike to ensure that the motivation levels remain high at all times irrespective of the challenges faced. This can only be achieved through setting good leadership and separating the aspects of morale from motivation which will ensure that no matter how demoralizing the situation may be, the employees will always remain motivated12. The use of incentives and better pay package will not only attract the needed professionals to the organization but also lead to retention and motivation at all times. The establishment of a culture of appreciation and reward of efforts is essential in the success of startup small and medium enterprises. To prove to the new employees that the organization appreciates their efforts and contributions, a reward scheme must be developed that rewards hard work and dedication. This motivation package must be well tailored and communicated to ensure that all employees understand how their actions and inactions will be appreciated from the inception stages13. Human resource research has indicated that the development of a happier and motivated culture in a business can only be possible if the management adopts this at the inception stages. By involving the employees in the management issues and appraising their efforts and dedication, the likelihood of success for the organization will most likely be increased and its impacts on the organization will be felt through better returns despite the stage of operation14. Human resource cost recommendation Human resource cost for every organization must be evaluated before the business can be launched and potential employees attracted or even recruited. This is because an inflated cost may affect the profitability of the business and contribute to failure at the initial phases of operations. A number of HR activities must be conducted all of which will require resources and manpower to achieve and successfully implement. The startup policies and procedure costs must be evaluated and determined before the recruitment exercise can be begun. These includes the cost of disciplining employees, addressing the grievances, handling sick leaves and absenteeism, internet and IT needs of the business among others15. Contractual documents for the recruitment process must also be included in the initial human resource costs and these include the costs of producing the offer letters, handling employment of immigrants and asylum seekers among others. Others include the development of starter forms, induction lists, reference requests, advertisement and handling of the applications and the interview process. Based on the environment and area of operations, the organization can achieve these goals independently without engaging recruitment agencies at a cost lower than $1000. Conclusion Hunan resource management plays a critical role in the success of every organization in the 21st century and this is even more critical for small and medium enterprises startups. 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