The Effects on the Human Resource Employee and the Company - Research Paper Example

 There are numerous roadblocks, missteps and mishaps inherent in the hiring process. Avoiding these events can assist a Human Resource employee in becoming a more cost effective, reliable, and ultimately, a valued individual in the workplace. Recognizing the steps needed to achieve that objective then is of utmost importance to those individuals wishing to advance their career(s) in the human resource field. One of the first necessary steps for a manpower analyst looking to hire an employee is to understand the labor market and how it affects the search for someone to fill the position. Therefore, knowledge of the specific labor market or markets….within which the organization is operating – in terms of the people involved, the catchment area and competing employers, for example – helps the manpower analyst to identify the likely availability of future recruits and ensures that any future recruitment activity is at least cost effective (Pearson 83). Pearson says that in order to at least be cost efficient a manpower analyst must at the very least know the labor market as it stands in a geographical area that ensures viability for the company. Pearson says, “Many individuals when first looking at a labor market are faced with such questions as; what labor market(s) are we in, what competitors do we have to worry about, where do we get our future recruits, and what part(s) of the labor market should we be monitoring” (Pearson 83). Job Hiring/pg 2 Pearson goes on to answer these questions by defining the organization’s labor markets with a focus on two factors. Those two factors are the occupations the organization employs, and its competitors for labor (Pearson 83). A manpower analyst must know and understand what type of employee is required and where is that employee going to come from. It would not make much sense to look for a research scientist when a craftsman is what is needed. Once the analyst has a working knowledge of what type of employee is needed, then the analyst must take the time to figure out where that employee is going to come from. A question to keep in mind would be; “why advertise nationally if a local pool of qualified employees exists?” The “catchment area” then becomes quite important. “The catchment area will be determined by the proximity of competitors, types of employees involved, their age and sex, and the provision of transport and housing (Pearson 83). There are other factors to consider in the type of employee as well. Is your company a small company? Will the employee need to interact with just a small number of other employees, or will the prospective employee need to interact within a large organization? Are the requirements of the job such that an individual will be required to work well alone, or will the person need to interact with others in a variety of ways? Is the employee going to be an executive, and if so what will be his/her duties and responsibilities? Other considerations might include, do we need a certain gender of employee, or does the company wish to look for a minority to fill the position? All of these considerations and many more are questions to answer before beginning the search for a new employee. Job Hiring/pg 3 Once the analyst has defined the employee characteristics needed to succeed at the position, defined his labor market and has a working knowledge of his catchment area the analyst can then take on the next step. That next step is to know of, and understand, the number of different categories that an analyst must take into consideration. One of these categories is to know your competition. What are your competitors doing to lure good, long-term viable employees while ensuring that they will be retained by the company. The human resource department (or individual) could very well be scrutinized under the most stringent of cost effective management. The company may wish to know how cost effective hiring new employees is, what process the human resource department is using to hire new employees and even the philosophy of hiring and how it affects the rest of the employees. Another very important consideration is to factor in what type of organization the individual is being scrutinized by, especially if the hiring company or agency is a governmental one. A whole new myriad of conditions and requirements come into play when the organization is a government agency. A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report (GAO 03) cited a variety of different, and ongoing, problems that were presented within the hiring process as pertaining strictly to government agencies. Job Hiring/pg 4 Defining the job and determining the appropriate pay is complicated by the classification processes and standards, which are outdated and not applicable to the work of today (GAO 03). The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has reclassified several of the standards, especially for health care and law enforcement professionals, but there is still much to be done. There are three other factors cited in the GAO report that a human resource individual employed by almost any governmental agency must also keep in mind. Those three factors are; the time it takes to hire a new employee, the assessment tools the government uses to assess prospective employees are ineffective, and unclear, poorly written and communicated job postings cause confusion and delays in the hiring process. What the OPM recommended for these three factors included the following, an interagency project to modernize federal government job postings and listings, an automated hiring process that can improve hiring timeliness and efficiency and they have initiated a strategic plan to acquire and use improved assessment tools. All four of these factors play a role in governmental hiring, and they play a role in the business industry as well. The human resource employee has by now at least some idea of what type of individual is needed to fill the position and where that individual is most likely to be found. Job Hiring/pg 5 One of the next considerations that the human resource employee must remember is the vast number of government regulations that he/she must comply with. A human resource employee must understand that these regulations and standards are guidelines that in most cases need to be adhered to. In many cases, the hiring of a minority or a certain gender of employee is necessary to adhere to these standards. In the introduction to his book Recruiting and Hiring Minority Employees, Richard A. Young states: In the past, many employers saw no reason not to engage in unfair practices. It is, therefore, up to today’s employer to correct past wrongs – a step which calls for new and unorthodox methods (Young 1969). If what he says is true, and the human resource employee hires someone of that attitude, then what new and unorthodox methods are going to be espoused by that new employee? Knowing that government regulations call for a certain number and type of employees does not necessarily mean that the employees need have baggage that comes with them. The interview process will give the human resource employee a sense of what the prospective employee is like and having and researching their track record will enhance that sensibility, but the human resource employee must keep in mind that the coice will have long-term financial effects on the company. If the hire does not fit well with the firm, even if all guidelines are followed, it will cost the company money. The costs for the company to train the employee and the wages earned while there are just a few. Job Hiring/pg 6 The next step then is to recruit the right individual. In Hiring Right, a Practical Guide, Susan Herman states: “Recruiting is a form of selling, and selling by a member of the organizational family is using the inside track (Herman 94).” Herman feels that, in her own experiences, using an organizational insider who knows both the organization and his or her associates and friends well is one of the most fruitful ways to recruit new employees. She states that many organizations are paying their employees for good referrals. Once the human resource employee has received a good referral (or several hopefully) the next step is to interview the prospective employees. Interviewing is a special art, but it is a technique that can be learned quickly and implemented quite efficiently once learned. “The art of effective questioning is at the heart of effective interviewing” (Beaty 94). Beaty says that being good at asking questions is one thing, but knowing what to evaluate is quite different. The costs associated with a poor selection are tremendous. At the very least the human resource employee is probably burdened with hiring another employee if the first selection does not work out. It is essential, therefore not only be good at asking the right questions in an interview but also in understanding what is essential to high productivity and superior performance from an employee. Hiring a highly productive employee takes time and a plan. If any Joe Blow off the street will work, then none of the above steps are even necessary and the human resource employee is probably not needed as well. Job Hiring/pg 7 To hire the best employee for the position then (since we have already defined the position) takes a certain amount of hard work and strategy. In Beaty’s book he outlines a “predictive model” to assist the human resource employee in creating good interview techniques. This model depends on a work analysis, a strategic analysis and a cultural analysis. His model is a more in-depth way of analyzing exactly what are the prospective employee’s characteristics. After he has used this model to understand the needed characteristics he uses an “interview model” to take him into the interview process. These are excellent models to use for a company or agency that does a lot of hiring, in a lot of different areas. The models do not work however for the small business owner, who hires sparingly and does not have a comprehensive model for doing so. Much of the hiring process can be done away with when dealing with a small company. Lin Grensing says that; “Much of the information you are looking for in interviews is the same whether you’re hiring a mechanic or a vice-president” (Grensing 1986). Grensing advocates creating a list of twenty “core questions” for each interview not matter who is being interviewed. He does caution however not to use the exact same questions for each interview, instead personalizing them to meet the company’s hiring needs at that time. Whether what is used is a comprehensive program specially designed to interview specific individuals for specific jobs or positions, or whether the human resource employee uses a standard “core” set of questions there are still other considerations during the interviewing process that need to be touched on. Job Hiring/pg 8 Richard D. Arvey states that, “there is considerable evidence that the interview is neither a reliable nor a valid selection device” (Arvey 79). He says that the interview process is fraught with stereotyping and gender basing, and should not be used to select employees. What is interesting to note about Arvey’s assertions is that they were made in the 1970’s and were generally discounted as not necessarily true by later studies. His statement, however, does show that not everyone is going to use the interview as the process to select an employee, or at the very least, they will not give the interview as much weight as other considerations. If you do decide to use the interview as a part of the process then one thing to remember is that it should be conducted in an environment conducive to your objectives, and that it should be one where you and your interviewee are comfortable. “It is important to have the first meeting to see if the “chemistry” and other things are compatible,” says Roger Williams. In his book How to Evaluate, Select and Work with Executive Recruiters he espouses the interview technique whether it is done informally over a dinner, or formally meeting in the company’s conference room (as an example). Other experts say that hiring executives or high producers might be better served by using the “track record approach”. Charles Dailey agrees with some of the experts that say the interview approach is outdated and should be done away with. Jog Hiring/pg 9 In his book; Using the Track Record Approach he states that “the major shortcomings of interviewing can be found in its emphasis on prestige (or social merit), its reliance on the interviewer’s ability to judge, its reliance on imprecise trait ratings and its inflated expectations (Dailey 1982). He says the track record approach is a much simpler system. “One way to lower the expectations of managers and personnel professionals is to define the selection task as one of documenting the candidate’s track record” (Dailey 1982). An advantage to using this type of system is that the burden for providing evidence is transferred to the candidate, but the interviewer remains responsible for seeing that the evidence is judged validly (Dailey 1982). Whatever process is used to determine a viable candidate it is important that the interviewer maintain control of the event from beginning to end. “An interviewer must be secure enough that he does not immediately need to refer to an application blank in order to form a first opinion of the applicant’s qualifications” (Young 1969). By showing the applicant the respect he/she deserves and allowing them to express themselves in free and comfortable style will enhance the interview process and allow the manpower analyst to better judge the strong, viable candidate compared to the candidate that may be lacking some of the necessary characteristics. The final step is to decide on the appropriate candidate and negotiate an employment contract (or an offer of employment). Using well written documentation is essential and will relieve the pressure on the human resource employee. Job Hiring/pg 10 One thing that the human resource employee must always remember is that the prospective employee has the right to defend himself. Dailey says that “An ancient legal precept states that a person has the right to defend himself or herself in court, facing the accusers” (Dailey 1981). Having to face an accuser in court is no fun for any individual (except perhaps the attorneys involved) and could have far reaching effects on the human resource employee and the company. Ensuring that all regulations and standards are met, as well as following company guidelines is also part of the manpower specialist’s role. If the role is played well then a company can benefit greatly from his or her efforts. . Job Hiring/pg 11 References Arvey, Richard H. Fairness in Selecting Employees. Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1979 Beaty,Richard H., Interviewing and Selecting High Performers. New York, Wiley and Sons, 1994 Dailey, Charles A. Using the Track Record Approach. New York, Amacom, 1982 Grensing, Lin. A Small Business Guide to Practical Selection. Seattle, Self-Council Press, 1986 Herman, Susan. Hiring Right a Practical Guide. London: Sage Publications, 1994 http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS37278, accessed Feb 10, 2006 http://purl.acess.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS50491 accessed Feb 10, 2006 Pearson, Richard and Walsh, Kenneth. How to Analyse Your Local Labour Market. Brighton, Eng.: Gower Publishing, 1983 Williams, Roger K. How to Evaluate, Select and Work with Executive Recruiters. New Hampshire, Consultants News, 1981 Young, Richard A. Recruiting and Hiring Minority Employees. New York, AMA, 1969 Read More