CASE 1

In the case “ What it was really like working as all Abercrombie `Model`” by Alicia Cook she tells that she was hired just by the way she looked, which met the company´s standards and how they wanted their employees to look. Very homogeneous looking group of people and they were asked to do a certain kind of makeup and wear certain clothes for work. Also, they were pointed out a group of people which were not capable to work in the store due their looks but were okay to work in the stock still. 

This is bad discrimination by people appearances and the employer made a mistake also when he didn’t look into their backgrounds or anything. It was also probably bad for the company that they weren’t interested in the applicant’s motivation or former jobs which could have said something about the interest on the job.

Recruiting and selecting employees

HR managers are responsible for designing employee recruitment and selection systems. All managers need to be able to use and understand these systems.

The most important job of management is stocking a company with top talent.

When labor supply exceeds labor demand firms may have to use pay cuts, reducing the number of hours worked, and work sharing. There might be different tactics such as early retirement incentives, severance pay and outright layoff. Reducing hours can save money from recruiting and training of new staff.

Forecasting strategies; quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative forecasting rely´s on past data, relationships between staffing levels and other variables( output, revenues) These relationships may not always hold. Also now days firms are struggling with such things as rapid technological change and global competition.

Qualitative forecasting rely´s on experts qualitative judgments or subjective estimates of labor demand and supply. Pro is that they are flexible in whatever should be considered. Con is that subjective judgment is not that accurate.

Terms:

Labor supply = the availability of workers with the required skills to meet the firm´s labor demand.

Labor demand= how many workers the organization will need in the future

Human resource planning HRP= the process an organization uses to ensure that it has enough people of right kind  to deliver the wanted outcome. If not valuated well may cause layoffs for example. HRP failures can lead to significant financial costs.

Hiring process consists of recruitment, selection and socialization. Recruitment is finding qualified candidates for a certain job. The job´s availability must be announced inside and outside of the organization. Selection is hiring or not hiring someone. Requires defining the job description and characterizing it and after that measuring the applicants according those. Socialization orients new employees to the organization.

The importance of line managers and line workers in hiring is crucial because the line personnel are actively seeing the new employees in the field

Determining characteristics important to performance

The characteristics of a job.

The culture of the organization.

The different people in organization may want different characteristics of the new hire.

Measuring characteristics that determine performance as setting up some kind of level test.

The motivation factor ( performance = ability x motivation) It is hard to say from the interview but you can lok for the previous job performances or extra activities if they can tell you anything how motivated one is.

Who should make the decision?

The recruitment must comply with the legal requirements and making HR staff responsible for the recruitment usually avoids legal problems. It is also convenient usually for the HR to do the recruitment.

Customer-Driven HR

Recruitment is your opportunity to sell the job, organization and maybe even the community for the applicant. First go where the applicants are; facebooks, linkedin etc. Peple want to know about working atmosphere, career opportunities, work-life value, characteristics and pay. Its an opportunity to attract right kind of people.

Treat applicants like customers. Explain interviews and assessments well so that they cant be understood in a wrong way for example in the areas that are not directly related to work.

After the recruitment if the applicant weren’t selected but left with a good impression you might have made a new customer or recommend your company.

Different channels in recruiting; current employees, referrals from current employees, former employees, former military, customers, print and radio ads, internet ads and social media.

Social media in recruiting.

Is now days a big part of communication and our culture so naturally easy in recruiting as well. So because you might be visible for your future employer as well remember to act correctly in your own social media channels

External vs. internal candidates

External hiring gives fresh perspectives to a firm. Sometimes it is also cheaper to hire externally. On the other hand old employees might not be that welcoming for a newbie with new ideas

Internal hiring is usually less costly than external. The current employees see that there are possibilities to new opportunities in the company if the hiring happens internally. Downside is if the former coworkers expect some kind of special treatment from the one in a new position.

“Reliability is the consistency of measurement. If a measure produces perfectly consistent results that measure is perfectly reliable.”

“Validity in the extent to which the technique measures the intended knowledge, skill or ability.”

Ways of choosing people are interviews, personality tests, letters of recommendations, honesty tests, ability tests, application forms, assessment centers(usually for managerial positions), drug tests, reference checks, background checks, handwriting analysis. Usually interview is the most valuable of these.

Legal issues in staffing

Discrimination is prohibited on race, color, sex, religion and national origin. Employers can ensure this by making sure that selection techniques are job related.

Also age discrimination and people with disabilities.

Affirmative action programs.

Negligent hiring which can cause the employee committing a crime during his/hers job. So background checks are for the safety of employers and employees.

Managing Human Resources, Global Edition 2016 Gomez-Meja, Balkin, Cardy. 177-208

Information only related to the job should be asked in the interviews

Sources:

Managing Human Resources, Global Edition 2016 Gomez-Meja, Balkin, Cardy. 177-208