The Importance Of Aligned Recruitment And Selection With Business Strategy

HR Planning Process

Question:

Write a report about the strategic HR planning process.
 

It is imperative that recruitment and selection should be aligned with business and strategic plans. For instance, if the strategy of the business is to leverage the highly skilled manpower to develop innovative products such as in research and development, then the recruitment method and selection techniques adopted are significantly different from that adopted from hiring sales employees for a bank. The role of recruited manpower and their significance in the overall strategy impacts to a large degree recruitment and selection. 

The main process for building a workforce is HR planning. This involves the following steps.

The strategic HR planning process has four steps:

• Assessing the current HR capacity
• Forecasting HR requirements
• Gap analysis
• Developing HR strategies to support organizational strategie 

Besides, the HR also needs to deploy strategies for retention of talented employees and enhance the overall job satisfaction of the employees which would minimise retention and assist in building of an able workforce. 

The various steps to recruitment and selection are given below.

• Step 1: Identify Vacancy and Evaluate Need
• Step 2: Develop Position Description
• Step 3: Develop Recruitment Plan
• Step 4: Select Search Committee
• Step 5: Post Position and Implement Recruitment Plan
• Step 6: Review Applicants and Develop Short List
• Step 7: Conduct Interviews
• Step 8: Select Hire
• Step 9: Finalize Recruitment

Each position requires a documented Recruitment Plan which is approved by the organizational unit. A carefully structured recruitment plan maps out the strategy for attracting and hiring the best qualified candidate and helps to ensure an applicant pool which includes women and underrepresented groups including veterans and individuals with disabilities. In addition to the position’s placement goals the plan contains advertising channels to be used to achieve those goals. The recruitment plan is typically developed by the hiring manager in conjunction with the Departmental HR Coordinator. Placement goals identified are displayed on the position requisition in the ATS.

Recruitment plan elements:

1. Posting Period
2. Placement Goals
3. Additional Advertising Resources
4. Diversity Agencies
5. Resume Banks  

Besides, the above a detailed job description also is required so as to define the underlying role and associated responsibilities.

Technology can be used as an enabler in the recruitment and selection process by conducting interviews through video conferencing and other technological aids and hence ensuring that the potential candidates minimise their travel. Additionally, as a screening test the company may introduce an online test which would allow for initial screening of the candidates.

Equal opportunity legislation which ensures that equal opportunity is provided to each employee.

Equal pay for equal work which ensures parity of payment for same work

Equal opportunity legislation ensures that each candidate is provided equal opportunity to be selected and ensures that candidates are not discriminated based in gender, age, religion, race and origin. Hence, it acts as an anti-discrimination act and there provides equality of opportunity to all candidates to prove their merit and hence ensures fairness in recruitment.

The first role that job analysis plays is to define the success factors of a company’s personnel. Different companies have very different definitions of success.. Only after these factors have been defined can staffing begin.

Once success factors have been defined, then the company can break down the components of success into the various roles that need to be filled. Only then can actual jobs be defined.

Once the roles of an organization have been defined, then the company can break up the roles into actual jobs and provide each job with a specific set of tasks.. Once a job has both a description of tasks and has been situated within the larger company, then the company can begin to hire people.

Steps to Recruitment and Selection

However, during the process of job analysis, a company that plans to hire staff must also give thought to how much money it is willing to donate toward human resources. Proper job analysis provides a useful idea of the relative costs versus benefits of hiring various staff and gives a rough idea of the salaries that staff members should be paid.

In order to ensure that position description is kept up to date, it is imperative to regularly consult the current position responsibility in the organisation. The person who is currently occupying the position should be asked to define the roles and responsibilities after periodic intervals which would ensure that position is kept updated. Feedback from the reporting manager may also be sought.

In order to ensure that person specification is kept up to date, it is required that job description should be taken into consideration and skills should be added keeping in mind the addition in the job description.

The person specification is a description of the qualifications, skills, experience, knowledge and other attributes (selection criteria) which a candidate must possess to perform the job duties. The specification should be derived from the job description and forms the foundation for the recruitment process.

Local newspapers will find local candidates, with the advantages that they already know the area, have a place to live and won’t be distracted by having to assimilate their families, enroll children in school and find their way around. 

Many online job websites exist where you can advertise your job, often for free. The downside, though, is that you may receive thousands of resumes from applicants that aren’t a great fit for the job. Nearly every industry has one or more job websites targeted toward specific types of jobs, such as nursing or journalism.

Consider any of the publications you read or scan regularly for your business, whether print or online. Chances are that job seekers in your industry are reading them, too. Many print publications also have online versions, which may be exact replicas of the print version or considerably different. 

Post job openings on social networking sites — some showcase your company in a casual, friendly atmosphere, while others target a professional audience. These sites are widely used by millions of people. If your company has a blog — even if you aren’t the blog writer — mention the opening there too.

Ask for References

Testimonials and networking can be valuable in helping you make the most of your time and money. Ask colleagues — within and outside your company — where they have had success seeking job candidates. Get specifics; ask how many responses they received from each source, how long they ran their ad and how well the applicants fit their job openings.

Specialised agencies to be used by organisations include following.

• HR consultancies for overall guidance and proves management
• Test platform providers to conduct testing
• Job websites
• Training institutes that may provide manpower directly
• Psychometric test conducting agencies and portals 

Specialist psychometric skill assessment ensures that the candidates have the requisite temperament and attitude that would be required and also enables in bringing out hidden qualities of the candidate. Cultural fit with organisation values can also be tested using this method. 

• Review Applicants and Develop Short List
• Conduct Interviews
• Select Hire
• Finalize Recruitment i.e extending the offer and negotiating the key terms of the same

Training needs to be provided regarding the following.

• Writing effective job description
• Designing recruitment plan
• Various evaluation methods and their merits and demerits along with practical examples for deployment
• Conducting interviews
• Designing pay packages
• Ensuring that legislations are not violated

Factors to be used are as follows.

• Performance in the tests following the induction
• Performance on the job
• Feedback from the trainers during the induction process
• Feedback from trainees using 360 degree feedback
• Feedback of the training or induction program from trainees 

No Planning

• Many companies do not invest enough time and money in their orientation program. Much research and planning is required beforehand. There may be a need for repeated instructions, which leads to a waste of resources. A valuable program is well-researched, made interesting and carefully organized, taking into consideration the goals of both the employer and the employees.

Management Involvement

• With the orientation left to the human resource department, top level managers usually exclude themselves. Communication about the orientation does not take place well in advance. Often, the mere appearance of managers is their maximum involvement. Their role is not an interactive one. They fail to realize the opportunity to effectively communicate company goals to new employees. They can also be role models by emulating company standards. Above all, this could be an opportune moment to welcome the employees personally.

Ineffective Handouts

• Handouts do not receive much attention. These usually resemble an itinerary containing the content of presentations for the day. A handout should ideally contain a brief synopsis of the topics covered during the orientation. Checklists of key points can be recorded. This way, it can be used as a reference by any employee later. Further, all the information can be placed on record at the company website.

No Follow-Up

• Most companies do not have follow-up sessions after an initial orientation program. It becomes difficult to gauge whether the new employees are comfortable with company policies. Periodic follow-up sessions are ways of finding out how the employees perceived their workplace. Concerns or problems can be addressed at this time. These follow-up sessions can also be a platform for airing new ideas and suggestions.

Ways to improve induction training are as follows

1. Use lots of visuals – avoid heavy text based training. Educational researchers have found that 83% of human learning occurs visually.  Our right brain prefers visual information and can process pictures hundreds of times faster than the left brain can process words.  Use video, photos, diagrams and colour.
2. Tell stories- Stories and metaphors provide an emotional connection to information and can be an ideal when trying to get people to remember numbers.
3. Be Positive – Use positive language.  Tell people what they can do, rather than what they can’t.
4. Involve senior management- Senior leaders drive the culture of the company.  They need to be seen and involved with induction training as a way of welcoming new starters.
5. Answer why questions- Too often companies teach staff how to do something but not why.  Company processes get perpetuated without people ever questioning why they need to do something.
6. Participative learning methods- Ensure training is active rather than passive.  Give demonstrations and get workers to have a go and coach them.     Ask learners questions that get them to relate to the training in terms of their own experiences. 
7. Test – Using quizzes in induction training improves message recall and retention.
8. Communicate your Core Values- Great companies have staff that clearly know what the company does and does not do.  Spend a lot of time indoctrinating staff on your core values and culture.
9. The importance of safety – Poor inductions undervalue the importance of safety.  It’s crucial to let new starters know from the outset how important safety is to the company. 
10. Standardize training- Induction training must be structured.  This ensures consistent, standardized training throughout the company.  Only if you have standardized training can you have a buddy system.  Otherwise, workers teach new starters bad habits and wildly different standards of training.

A probationary period is a stretch of time during which a new or existing employee receives extra supervision and coaching, either to learn a new job or to turn around a performance problem.

The purpose of a probationary period is to suspend or modify the usual employment rules for an employee who is learning a job or struggling to perform. For example, let’s say an employee is struggling to complete monthly reports, sometimes handing them in late or failing to include the necessary information. After a couple of coaching sessions, the employee is placed on probation for six months. During this time, the employee will meet with his or her supervisor each week to review progress on the monthly reports and go over questions and concerns. The supervisor will provide detailed feedback and coaching. If the employee can’t improve during the probationary period, he or she will be fired. 

• Provide probationary employees with the appropriate departmental job description, and let employees know of any changes in job duties
• Inform probationary employees of performance and conduct standards, including the following:
• Reporting to work in a regular and timely manner
• Scheduled breaks or lunch periods
• Reporting sick leave use and other absences
• Dress codes/standards
• Appropriate conduct
• Conducting themselves in accordance with designated safety rules
• Departmental work rules
• Give probationary employees ongoing feedback and conduct periodic performance appraisals—learn more about conductingperformance appraisals
• If you determine that a probationary employee is not competent or is otherwise unqualified for their position, you and your department head should terminate the employment of the probationary employee—make sure to do this during the probationary employment period.
• When employees successfully complete the probationary employment period, draft a letter to welcome them as regular employees and give them the letter on the last working day of the probationary period.