Chapter 5 - Human Resource Planning and Recruitment

Chapter 5 - Human Resource Planning and Recruitment

1. 2 kinds of markets affecting employers

   • consumer market
     • demand for G&S
   • labor market
     • supply of people to produce G&S
       • labor shortage
       • labor surplus

2. 3 keys to effectively utilizing labor market

   • have a clear idea of their current configuration of human resources
     • strengths
     • weaknesses
   • know where they are going in the future & be aware of how their present configuration of human resources relates to the configuration that will be needed
   • develop programs that will address discrepancies between the present configuration & the configuration required for the future

3. HR planning process

   • 3 steps
     • Forecasting
       • Primary goal
         • Predict areas within the organization where there will be future labor shortages or surpluses
       • Methods
         • statistical methods
           • historical precedent
         • judgmental methods
           • subjective judgments of experts
       • Determining labor demand
         • leading indicator
           • statistically objective measure that accurately predicts future labor demand
             • complemented by subjective judgments of people who have expertise in the area
       • Determining labor supply
         • historical statistical models
           • transitional matrices
             • the proportion (or number) of employees in different job categories at different times
             • how many people move in one year from one state (outside the organization) or job category to another state or job category
         • judgmental techniques
         • both internal & external
       • Determining labor surplus or shortage
         • The longer one has to adjust to these kinds of surpluses & shortages, the easier the adjustment
           • forecasting is a critical strategic human resource activity
     • Goal setting & strategic planning
       • Goal setting
         • Purpose
           • focus attention on the problem
           • provide a benchmark for determining the relative success of any programs aimed at redressing a pending labor shortage or surplus
       • Strategic planning
         • Options for Reducing an Expected Labor Surplus
         • Options for Avoiding an Expected Labor Shortage
         • critical because the many options available to the planner differ widely in their expense, speed, effectiveness, amount of human suffering, and revocability (how easily the change can be undone)
         • in job categories where skills are perishable & need to be updated continually, many laid-off workers will take any work within their area to prevent a gap in their employment history
           • after very long periods of unemployment, people may give up looking for work altogether
         • Pervasive options
           • Downsizing
             • 3 reasons for downsizing
               • reduce costs
               • the introduction of new technologies or robots reduces the need for a large number of employees
               • change the location where they do business
             • Definition
               • planned elimination of large numbers of personnel designed to enhance organizational effectiveness
             • short-term effect on costs, long-term effect on organizational effectiveness
             • 3 reasons for faiilure
               • Although the initial cost savings are a short-term plus, the long-term effects of an improperly managed downsizing effort can be negative
                 • loss of talent
                 • disruption the social networks needed to promote creativity & flexibility
               • Many downsizing campaigns let go of people who turn out to be irreplaceable assets
                 • replace
                 • re-hire at higher salary
                   • boomerang employee
               • Employees who survive the purges often become narrow minded, self-absorbed, & risk averse
             • Key to success
               • surgical strategic cuts that reduce costs & improve the firm’s competitive position
           • Early retirement programs & buyouts
             • 4 reasons for that older workers have no intention of early retirement
               • improved health + decreased physical labor in many jobs
               • fear of the cut of Social Security
               • age discrimination legislation + the outlawing of mandatory retirement ages have created constraints on organizations’ ability to unilaterally deal with an aging workforce
               • employer's concern about losing the wealth of experience that older workers bring to their companies
             • 2 advantages of old workforce
               • experience & stability
             • 2 disadvantages of old workforce
               • more costly because of their higher seniority, higher medical costs, higher pension contributions
               • older workers may block the advancement of younger workers because they typically do best-paid jobs
           • Temporary workers & independent contractors
             • 5 advantages of temporary workers
               • flexibility
               • frees the firm from many administrative tasks & financial burdens associated with being the “employer of record.”
               • small companies that cannot afford their own testing programs often get employees who have been tested by a temporary agency
               • temporary agencies train employees before sending them to employers, which reduces training costs & eases the transition for both the temporary worker & the company
               • objective perspective to the organization’s problems & procedures that is sometimes valuable
             • temporary workers
               • part of a large employment agency & more or less rented by the primary employer
             • independent contract workers
               • more or less freelancers & not part of any organization
                 • virtually all the burden falls on the worker himself or herself
                   • rarely provide any job security, health benefits, or retirement support
                   • many of the jobs are poorly paid
                 • gig economy
           • Outsourcing, offshoring, & immigration
             • Outsourcing
               • get services performed by an outside organization
               • logical choice when a firm simply does not have certain expertise & is not willing to invest time & effort into developing it
               • may reduce costs by hiring less expensive labor to do the work
             • Offshoring
               • move the work outside the country
               • help bottom line
               • may harm many citizens who lose their jobs & look to their government for relief
             • Immigration
               • foreign workers are brought to the country
           • Altering pay & hours
             • labor shortage
               • garner more hours out of the existing labor force
               • preferable as not having to give training
               • short-time: workers enjoy added compensation
               • extended periods: stress and frustration from being overworked
             • labor surplus
               • employers can sometimes avoid layoffs if they can get their employees to take pay cuts
                 • not easy as wages tend to be “sticky”
               • 2 types of workers in the case of hour cut
                 • salaried workers
                 • hourly workers
                   • furlough
                     • controversial: pay cut rather than hour cut
     • Program implementation & evaluation
       • Purpose
         • esure that some individual is held accountable for achieving the stated goals & has the necessary authority and resources to accomplish this goal
         • ensure that all programs are in place by specified times & that the early returns from these programs are in line with projections
   • the process of analyzing & identifying the need for & availability of human resources so that the organization can meet its objectives

4. HR recruitment process

   • Primary purpose
     • identifying & attracting potential employees
   • Goal
     • generate large numbers of qualified applicants
   • Individual job choice–organizational recruitment process
     • Personnel policies
       • Definition
         • organizational decisions that affect the nature of the vacancies for which people are recruited
           • most important in the 3 influencing factors
       • Internal vs external recruiting: Job security
         • promote-from-within
           • recruits for upper-level vacancies internally
             • 2 disadvantages
               • upset current managers of employees who are recruited away
               • bring in recruits from external sources often helps spur creativity and innovation
         • due process
           • formally lay out the steps an employee can take to appeal a termination decision
             • high job security
         • employee-at-will
           • either party in the employment relationship can terminate that relationship at any time, regardless of caus
             • low job security
               • less attractive
       • Extrinsic & intrinsic rewards
         • “lead-the-market” approach
           • pay higher-than-current-market wages
         • some areas require intrinsic rewards (e.g. military service)
       • Image advertising
         • advertise just to promote themselves as a good place to work in general
     • Recruitment sources
       • Internal vs external sources
         • 4 advantages of internal sources
           • generate a sample of applicants who are well known to the firm
           • minimize the possibility of inflated expectations about the job
           • cheaper & faster
           • inside hires often outperform outsiders
         • 3 advantages of external sources
           • for entry-level positions and perhaps even for some specialized upper-level positions, there may not be any internal recruits from which to draw
           • outsiders may expose the organization to new ideas or new ways of doing business
           • strengthen one’s own company & weaken one’s competitors at the same time
             • cold calling
               • recruiters from one company call an employee of some other company who has the skills they need & try to get that person to switch sides
       • Direct applicants & referrals
         • Direct applicants
           • people who apply for a vacancy without prompting from the organization
         • Referrals
           • people who are prompted to apply by someone within the organization
       • Electronic recruiting
         • use the organization’s own web page to solicit applications
         • use the web is to interact with the large, well-known job sites
           • Disadvantage
             • sheer size & lack of differentiation
         • Facebook
           • Disadvantage
             • difficult to control negative WOM
       • Public & private employment agencies
         • Public employment agencies
           • serve primarily the blue-collar labor market
         • Private employement agencies
           • perform much the same service for the white-collar labor market
           • charge for referrals
           • one doesn’t have to be unemployed to use the service
             • headhunters
       • Colleges & university
         • on-campus interviewing is the most important source of recruits for entry-level professional & managerial vacancies
         • college internship program
       • Evaluating the quality of a source
         • develop & compare yield ratios for each source
           • percentage of applicants who successfully move from one stage of the recruitment & selection process to the next
     • Recruiter
       • Recruiter's functional area
         • whether their recruiters are specialists in human resources or experts at particular jobs (supervisors or job incumbents)
         • applicants find a job less attractive & the recruiter less credible when he is a personnel specialist
       • Recruiter's traits
         • warmth
           • the degree to which the recruiter seems to care about the applicant & is enthusiastic about her potential to contribute to the company
         • informativeness
         • timing
           • recruiters have a bigger impact early in the job search process
       • Recruiter's realism
         • If the recruiter goes too far in a positive direction, the candidate can be misled & lured into taking the job under false pretenses
         • Applicants are highly sensitive to negative information
       • Enhancing recruiter impact
         • recruiters can provide timely feedback
         • recruiting can be done in teams rather than by individuals

Images and files in the map