Design of an Induction Programme for New Employees on the Magnificant miniaturesLline - Essay Example

Colours R Us (CRU) Overview: - The organization is a manufacturer and supplier of high quality paint and have demand to manufacture and supply paints in smaller containers CRU” main customer asked for smaller pots of different colours. At present CRU in some how fulfilling the demand of the retailers and this additional demand for Miniature live of products put additional pressure on management. Though CRU have 500 fulltime employees in all and manufacturing and packaging staff working in shifts even then it is facing staffing problems. CRU’s location related problems over all wages rates national trend of higher employment, attraction towards job recruiting problems and retaining employee aggravating the problems. In these situation CRU Proposed to select thirty employees for special miniature product line. So to solve this human resource management related problems and to place Right people at Right place CRU appointed a HR consultant. 1. Design a process for recruiting and selecting the new employees for the “Magnificent miniatures” line. As an HR consultant responsibility for designing employee recruitment and selection systems is the prime responsibility. After all attracting and hiring the right kind and level of talent are critical elements of business effectiveness. Stocking a company with top talent has been described as the single most important job of management (Hand, 2002). Now before recruitment starts, HR consultant has to assess the labour supply and demand, when planning starts. In the process of Human resource planning any wrong estimation can lead to significant financial costs. So first of all labour supply and demand has to be properly estimated. In the present case, where CRU need more workers than will be available. So CRU has to take the approach includes, training and retraining of existing workers, grooming current employees to take over vacant positions (succession planning), promoting from within, recruiting new employees from out side of the firm, subcontracting part of the work to other firms, hiring part timers or temporary workers and paying overtime to existing employees, which approach or approaches are appropriate will depend on their relative costs and how long the labour shortage is expected to last. For instance, if demand exceeds supply by only a small amount and this situation is deemed temporary, paying overtime may be less expensive than hiring new workers, which entails extra costs for training and legally mandated benefits (such as social security payments and workers compensation insurance) (Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., Balkim, Dravid B. & Cardy, Robert L., 2004). Now if we see the CRU, we find that labour demand is more than supply. CRU has 500 employees and they need to recruit only 30 persons. They are working only 5 days a week. So looking at the labour market conditions of UK, CRU could ask for employees, willing to work on 6 day or overtime for manufacturing and packaging staff. This manufacturing and packaging staff also working in 2 shifts so if needed, third shift could be started because in the neighbourhood, the companies mainly software and call centers run 24 hrs. In the UK, there has been a fall in employee demand and the recruitment difficulties has risen as 84% of companies reported in the survey of all 12 months in year 2006. (Accessed from the website www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm? 1s). Another option for CRU is to train and retrain the employees especially selected within the ranks for the new job and plans their succession. This process of recruitment may motivate employee in general, due to additional value of their job. Training and succession planning may motivate employees and somewhere compensate their lesser wages in comparison to other industries/organizations (Koontz & Weihrich, 2004). Now after carefully evaluating all the possible options of recruitment. CRU must opt for the last one i.e., train its own employees and manufacturing and packaging) units for “magnificent miniatures” line. Other employees, working in the main product line, could compensate the places vacated by these employees through overtime. To start the recruitment process, CRU must announce the job’s availability and seek application from inside and referrals. Selection process begins with hire or no hire decision regarding each applicant for a job. As an HR consultant, one should determine the characteristics required for the effective job performance and then measuring applicants on those characteristics. In case of CRU wherever main emphasis is on internal selection, performance of each employees should be scanned carefully. In the process, consultant must determine the characteristics that differentiate people, which are most important to performance. Evaluation of employees’ motivation levels also plays a major role for selection. The senior vice president at arrowhead central states that “we were learned from experience that you can teach skills, but you cannot teach attitude” (Piper, 1999). So care should be taken in internal selection that highly motivated persons having right attitude to excel must be selected. Their past experiences and performance should be the sole criteria their selection for “magnificent miniatures” line. 2. Design an induction programme for new employees on the “Magnificant miniatures” line. The staffing process is not, and should not be complete once applicants are hired or promoted. To retain and maximize the human resources, who were so carefully selected, organizations must pay careful attention to socialize them. Socialization has to be done through induction programme, which involves orienting new employees to the organization and to the units in which they will be working. It is important that new employees become familiar with the policies, procedures and performance expectations of the company. In the present situation where we follow the internal recruitment mostly, CRU do not have to invest more in induction programme because most of the employees know about the company’s policies, procedures etc. But even then their reorientation towards their new job and CRU’s new requirements and performance expectations must be elaborated. Through induction programme, CRU’s management could clearly outline its priorities and needs as well as jobs/roles requirements. In CRU, through most of the selected employees are from internal sources, so he/she may know the organizations culture and values but this new job may require lot more. Through the new employees are from the same organization but have different past experiences and mindset. So induction training must be used to weed out negative experiences or mindset. CRU’s HR consultant has to take care of the induction programme so that it could provide person liaise and cooperate and be able to work together. They must develop contacts and relationships. As induction programmes normally aim to provide new variety of experiences and contacts and also integrates the employees to new environment. CRU’s induction programme must be designed to provide to employees the knowledge about new projects and new needs. Induction programme for “Magnificent miniatures” live must be formulated in a way through which knowledge about new product preferences of customers must be explained. In this training programme, they must be told that due to their dedicated services to the organization, they had been given the opportunity in the new product line They must be motivated many times so that their productivity and performance could be improved. Basically, induction programme have three aspects i.e., acquisition of new working skills and abilities, adoption of appropriate role behaviour and adjustment to norms and values of the work group. In CRU, the “Magnificient Miniatures” like may need different kind of skills and abilities, especially to packaging staff, has to be provided to newly selected employees. Again in the new line, the new team has to evolve new roles and behaviours as well as values and norms, which may not be present in their past working group. More and more communication between new members and experience sharing in induction programme could enhance the motivation of the new employees. Due to this effective induction programme they may form an effective team and which ultimately prove the new product line successful. 3. Show how the line managers will be involved in the recruitment and selection process and the induction programme for “Magnificent miniatures” In many organizations, the HR dept. or consultant routinely makes staffing decisions, particularly for entry-level jobs. Basically HR Dept. must ensure all legal requirements and since they are usually responsible for processing initial contacts with applicants and is often the repository of information about applicants so the organizations find it easier to let the HR dept. follow through and make hiring decisions. However having the HR dept. play the central role in hiring has one obvious drawback. This system leaves the line managers/personnels out of the process that is critical to the operations effectiveness. It is the line manager, after all, who are intimately familiar with the line jobs and who must work with the candidates selected in the hiring process. As we know that recruitment and selection is one of the expansive and time-consuming process. (Accessed from website www.cipd.co.uk/training/MANER/about.htm). Selecting an effective team is the initial task but in the tight labour market where supply is less than demand, to manage employees and retain them is the prime responsibility of line manager. In the changing scenario, getting best from the team is the job of line managers. So in selecting and providing induction training, the involvement of line managers has to be maintained. Through involving live managers in the process of selection and induction, HR manager/consultant can easily identify the actual roles and profiles needed for a particular position. Identifying actual roles and responsibilities and identifying the requirement potential in the newcomer is prerequisite for successful selection and induction process. Line managers can normally understand the various social and behavioural factors, which must be required for the particular position in a particular employee. CRU’s must have to include line managers in its selection and induction procedure. CRU’s basically doing internal recruitment and selection so the live manager’s view will be the most important factor in selecting the employees for “Magnificent miniatures”. In internal recruitment, line managers must be part of the selection process right from the start. With the HR consultant, line manager must be part of selection process right. From the start with the HR consultant, line manager must be part of the selection team. He/she may be part of interview board and in the process of decision-making his views must be taken as prime importance. 4. Explain why features of the recruitment, selection and induction for “Magnificent miniatures” are expected to have positive impact on retention. In CRU, we are mainly following internal recruitments and referrals. Internal job postings give current employees the opportunity to move into the firms more desirable jobs. Studies have shown that employees who were hired through referrals from current employees tended to stay with organization longer and displayed greater loyalty and job satisfaction than employees which were recruited by other means (Rynes, 1991). Generally internal sourcing, referrals have an added advantage that own employees know the company well and can recommend candidates who fit the organisational culture. In CRU, internal recruitment has to be made through internal transfers and sometimes promotions. This recruitment policy provides a clear signal to the current workforce that the organisation offers opportunities for advancement. Internal recruits are already familiar with the organisation's policies, procedures and customs. Internal recruitment has several advantages. They are 1) it is a good public relations, 2) it builds morale, 3) it encourages competent individuals who are ambitious it improves the probability of a good selection since information on the individual's performances is readily available5) it is cheaper than going outside to recruit 6) those chosen internally are familiar with the organisation and 7) when carefully planned promoting from within can also acts as training device for developing middle level and top level managers (Dravid and Stephen, 1989). Internal recruitment can enhance employee’s morale, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. A well-planned selection process always places a suitable employee at suitable position according to job requirements of the position and requisite skills. Gaps between expected and achieved productivity becomes lesser and lesser. This situation improves overall environment of the CRU and person/employees retention will become much higher. Employees basically need autonomy and creativity at workplaces. When the employees feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated and understand that he/she have proper environment to utilize his/her talent and skills then only he/she will remain with the organization. Internal recruitment and selection always provides them new opportunity. Job satisfaction and fulfillment through training, learning opportunities in CRU, retain employees most of the time. 5. Report your findings to the Board on improving retention in all areas of the business. A more efficient labour market is probably fueling turnover of workers who are unhappy with their current employers, forcing firms to treat employees better or risk loosing talent to competitors (Levering & Moskowitz & Sager, 2000). Turnover of the employees is one of the accepted feature of today's organisation but if it exceeds a certain limit, creates problems to the organization the average turnover rate of labour stands at 18.1%. So in 2006, in U.K’s almost one in five employees left their jobs and survey shows 80% leaving the jobs voluntarily. Most of the voluntary leaves represent what HR practitioners will have experienced as their organisations retention problem (Report on Recruitment, Retention and Turnover, 2007 accessed from Website www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm? 1s). CRU’s is also facing the same problem of more turnover but the policies adopted by the New HR consultant to recruit, select and to provide induction training for new product line “Magnificent Miniatures” must have overall impact on employees turnover and must reduce turn over rate. Recruiting through internal resources always been morale boosting for all the employees. Recruitment through internal resources always cost lesser than any other means of recruitment. Recruiting the known employees, needs lesser duration induction training programme and therefore it always reduce cost of overall recruitment process. Through internal recruitment, there are lesser chances of conflicts and takes lesser time to adjust in new settings. Through internal recruitment process, we can easily provide the clear signal to the current workforce that the organisation offers new opportunities for advancement. New opportunities, challenging situations, options to be creative provides more job satisfaction to employees who are ambitious and could retain them with in the organization. Now a day’s employee’s expectations are changing. They demand empowerment and expect equality with the management. They need quality of work life, innovation and more and more use of technologies. Employees want better treatment challenging jobs and career advancements. The new recruitment and selection policy in CRU will provide them career advancement, challenging job and scope for innovations. So these causes may prove sufficient to retain employees with in CRU. References: 1. Report on Recruitment, Retention and Turnover (2007), Accessed from Website www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.htm? 1s on 15th Nov. 2007. 2. Levering, R. and Moskowitz, M. (2000, Jan 10): The best 100 companies to work for. Fortune, 81-110. 3. Sanger, I. (2000, Jan 10), Compaq’s long road back. Business Week, 52. 4. Dravid A. Decenzo and Stephen P. Robbins (1989), Personnel/Human resource Management. PHI, New Delhi, P.121. 5. Rynes, S.L. (1991), Recruitment, job choice and post hire consequences: A call for new research directions. in M.D Dunnette and L.M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (2nd ed.0 Vol.2, 399-444, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists. 6. Accessed from website www.cipd.co.uk/training/MANER/about.htm on 15th Nov. 2007. 7. Piper, G (1999), Under Inspection Credit Union Management. 22, 48-51. 8. Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., Balkim, Dravid B. & Cardy, Robert L. (2004), Managing Human Resources. Pearson, Education Inc. 9. Hand.T. (2002), Choosing the right recruits Network World. 19,41. 10. Koontz, Harold and Weihrich, Heinz (2004), Essentials of Management: An International Perspective. 6th Edition, McGraw Hill Companies. Read More