Managing Qualified Employees

04/04/2013

Today’s sub-topics

• 1. The Strategic Importance of Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees

• 2. Recruiting and Retaining within an Integrated HRM System

• 3. Recruiting Methods and Sources• 4. Recruiting from the Applicant’s Perspective• 5. Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination• 6. Reducing Recruiting by Retaining Employees

1. The Strategic Importance of Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees

• Recruitment & Selection - Recruitment involves searching for and

obtaining qualified applicants for the organization to consider when filling job openings / coming up with job descriptions

- Selection is everything an employer does to encourage qualified and productive employees to continue working for the organization

The Strategic Importance of Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees

• Strategic Choices - Questions that need to be addressed during HR

strategic planning can include: How many employees do we need to hire in the

near future and in 3-5 years? Are we going to pay above market average? Are we looking for employees who are different

from our current ones? What competencies do we need from them?

The Strategic Importance of Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees

• Reducing Expenses and Improving Productivity - e.g. JPS Health Network, the problem was that 17% of

the nursing jobs were vacant, and if a nurse resigned, it took 6-7 weeks to find a replacement

Solution: reduce the vacancy rate

shorten the time need to fill vacancies improve the requirements and quality of the job

description and consequently the quality of the applicants

The Strategic Importance of Recruiting and Retaining Talented Employees

• The Value of Retaining the Best Employees - Recruiting people in line with the organization’s

needs and then finding ways to keep them! → Reduced overall labour costs → Improved productivity - Disadvantages of turnover Cost of filling empty positions Less experienced employees stay Key people / talent moves to competitors

2. Recruiting and Retaining within an Integrated HRM System

• Links to other HR Activities Effective planning minimizes unexpected

labour shortages created by managerial actions such as excessive layoffs (in response for example to an external event) and failing at the same time to develop effective succession plans

Recruiting and Retaining within an Integrated HRM System

External environment - Labour markets: e.g. during the high tech

boom of the 1990s, employers spend money to recruit talented computer programmers

- Technology: electronic / internet recruiting is a significant trend, reduces cost for the organization (e.g. screening to assess applicants’ basic qualifications)

3. Recruiting Methods and Sources

• Internal Labour Market The organization’s current employees are one

source of applicants - Job Postings: prominently display current job

openings to all employees in an organization - Talent Inventories: a database that contains

information about the pool of current employees

Recruiting Methods and Sources - Promotions: moving into a position of higher

status (hierarchy), usually associated with higher pay

- Transfers: a lateral job transfer, employees can develop a broader perspective of the organization through a long-term development

- Disadvantages: most qualified employees may never be considered, static perspective

Recruiting Methods and Sources

• External Labour Market People who don’t work for the organization /

work for other organizations - Walk-in Applicants, electronic applications,

employment agencies and search firms, school placement services and trade associations

Recruiting Methods and Sources - Employee Referrals: when current employees

inform their friends / family about openings in their organization and encourage them to apply

- Foreign Nationals: Host country nationals, people working in their own

country Third country nationals, people working in a country

that is neither their own nor that of the parent company

4. Recruiting from the Applicant’s Perspective

• Giving Applicants the Information they Need Compensatory approach, most job seekers

make trade-offs between different job and organizational attributes

Realities of the current labour markets focus on economic issues

Sociological factors, individual needs, interests, abilities

Recruiting from the Applicant’s Perspective

- The Organization: applicants can differ considerably on the information they will attend to .. Characteristics such as size, location, general reputation, management ethics, hires / layoffs

- The Job: fit between jobs and skills, status, nature of work

- HR Practices: benefits (health insurance, security) flexible work, training / learning opportunities

5. Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination

• EEO – 1 Reports Employer Information, giving an accounting of the

workforce composition of an organization using 4 factors (job family, sex, race / ethnicity, employment status)

- Electronic Applicant Tracking System: collects and stores the needed information automatically using a standard format that lists the job content and skill requirements based on a job description

Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination

• Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs) Intended to ensure proportional

representation or parity, or to correct underutilization of qualified members of protected groups in an organization’s relevant labour market

- Arguments in favour of AAPs Increase the diversity of the applicant pool

Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination

Beneficial to society, by avoiding to have significant portions of the population caught in a vicious cycle of low economic achievement

- Arguments against AAPs Reverse discrimination Pitting groups against each other leads to

greater discrimination against each other

Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination

• Breaking the Glass Ceiling The challenge for organizations is to balance

their desire to recruit the best available talent with their desire to break through the glass ceiling

e.g. Colgate-Palmolive ‘we wanted the best person we could get, but

that person had to be a woman’

6. Reducing Recruiting by Retaining Employees

• Understanding the Reasons for Turnover - Low Job Satisfaction: dislike the job, work overload,

inflexible scheduling - Poor HRM Practices: low compensation, little

recognition, lack of fairness - Labour Market Conditions: low unemployment

rates, better opportunities elsewhere - Other Role Commitments and Time Conflicts:

family, leisure, community

Reducing Recruiting by Retaining Employees

• Improving the HRM System Listen to employees’ interests and concerns Provision of regular and honest feedback Discussion of career / development plans• Managing Layoffs A short-term cost-cutting solution e.g. 3M gives displaced employees first consideration

(for 6 months) for other job openings within the unit