ASSESSMENT CONTEXT
Human Resource Management (HRM) is concerned with organising and looking after people in the workplace. On a day-to-day basis this includes recruitment, selection, training and development and assessing staff performance. An important part of HRM is workforce planning. This involves getting the right people in the right place at the right time. It also involves identifying the numbers of people required to enable the business to operate at full efficiency. These people need to have the right skills to do the job. Recruitment and selection are the most critical and significant human resources functions. Unless the organization has the best available employees, it will not be able to grow and flourish in the market. The drive and motivational levels of the employees need to be high to enable the company to attain its goals. All the steps of the recruitment and selection processes are equally important in attracting and retaining the right talent. A major part of management's job is ensuring that good policies and procedures are in place to ensure the successful recruitment and induction of high quality employees.
TASK 1. Analyse Strategic & Operational plans and policies
For this task, you are required to study the following 2 documents and answer the following questions: Search for this and answer the Q1, Q2, Q3 (I, ii, iii)
a) Tourism Australia enabling strategy (An extract from the Tourism Australia Corporate Plan 2016 - 2017)
b) Tourism Australia Recruitment Policy
Q1) Outline the recruitment and selection process for Tourism Australia. How does the Recruitment Policy ensure that suitable candidates are attracted to Tourism Australia?
Q2) What policies and procedures are in place to ensure that all shortlisted candidates are treated equally and that the selected candidate is likely to share Tourism Australia's culture and values?
Q3) Explain the purpose of the following documents listed in the forms section at the end of the Recruitment Policy:
i) Behavioural Questions Manual
ii) Interview Guide Template
iii) Selection Assessment Form
TASK 2 Develop recruitment and selection policies and procedures and supporting documents
A job description should detail the purpose, tasks and responsibilities of the job. It is of great importance both in the recruitment process and the subsequent management of safe practice following appointment - for example it can help with induction and training. On the other hand, a clear and comprehensive job specification is the key tool for successful recruitment. The job specification enables the organisation to profile the ideal person to fill the job and provides potential applicants with information about what they will need to demonstrate to show their ability to undertake the role.
It is important to list the skills your new hire will need to fulfil his duties. You get much better results from your recruitment process if you advertise specific criteria that are relevant to the job. Include all necessary skills, and include a list of desired skills that are not necessary but that would enhance the candidate's chances. If you fail to do this, you might end up with a low-quality pool of candidates and wind up with limited choices to fill the open position.
Interviewing short listed candidates is an important component of the selection process and can take various forms. You can choose to ask open ended or closed questions, or a combination of both, to find out more about each candidate. Often, open ended questions take the form of either behavioural or situational questions. A behavioural interview question focuses on asking questions about past experiences and how the candidate acted whereas a situational interview focuses on potential future events and how the candidate would intend to react.
E.g. Behavioural - Tell me about a time when you were under pressure to achieve and how you handled this pressure.
Situational - Imagine you need to submit a report to a deadline, however your computer breaks down and you lose your saved report. How do you resolve this?
Finally, remember that interview questions are designed to allow you to assess the person's competencies to fulfil the job role so all questions should be work related.
This task requires you to place yourself in the role of the recruiter and interviewer to develop an appreciation of the interview process.
a) Write a position specification by
• Finding an advertised position that appeals to you
• Creating a position specification and position description for the position
• Writing an essential and desirable criteria for the position
See Dwyer pages 265-267 and also the following link to improve your understanding of the difference between a job specification and a job description - https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/academic-advising/difference-between-job-specification-job-description-402164.html
b) Prepare a series of questions the interviewer would ask for this position. The set of questions should include behavioural, hypothetical reflective, open non directive and closed directive questions.
See Dwyer pages 273-4.Further useful information about framing interview questions can be found at https://w3.unisa.edu.au/recruitment/information_for_panel_members.pdf
c) Design a standard form for the interviewer to rate each candidate and record key points for each interview
To allow proper comparison of each candidate and assess their suitability for the role, you will also need to develop a matrix that allows you to allocate a score against each of the key selection criteria for the role to enable you to compare the suitability of each candidate.
See Dwyer pages 271-273and for more information on developing a selection criteria matrix, go to https://www.utexas.edu/hr/manager/hiring/form.html.
Once the candidate interviews are completed, the selection panel then needs to prioritize the candidates to decide on which candidates will be offered positions and which will go on a reserve list if the preferred candidates do not accept their job offers. There are a number of key steps that still need to be taken to ensure that the best candidate is selected and "onboarded" into the organisation.
d) Write a summary of the key steps to be undertaken in dealing with the shortlisted candidates during the final selection process, prior to the new employee's selection and induction to the organisation
TASK 3: INDUCTION
Employee induction programs will reduce the reality shock and cultural shock of the new employee in the short term. At this stage, you have understood the importance of induction.
Guidance note: Do not underestimate the impact of a good induction. HR research has found a thorough and positive induction radically increases the likelihood the employee will stay with you long term. Use what's relevant to your workplace. NB: under the National Employment Standards (NES), you must give all new employees a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement which can be found at the Fair Work Online website: fairwork.gov.au
When you design your induction, remember to complete an induction plan for each new starter. Your induction process may include some or all of the following elements:
• Introductions and Welcome events
• Workplace tour
• WH&S procedures and evacuation
• Codes of conduct and ethics
• Business overview
• Who's who
• Nominated buddy
• A working safely plan
• Training plan: organisational, mandatory and job specific
• IT system orientation
• Copy of the Fair Work Information Statement
• Policy and procedural requirements, e.g. equal employment opportunity
• Performance management processes and professional development
For your position you created above, your first task is to create an induction checklist to track that the new employees has received all the essential information, training etc. to become a productive and motivated employee by:
a) Identifying the issues that you decide to include in the induction checklist for your successful applicant.
b) Identifying the key staff or departments that will need to be involved in the induction process
Ensuring that your new employee is properly inducted into the organisation is crucial to ensuring good performance and building loyalty. Your next task is to write 150-200 words on the following task:
c) Describe how you would ensure that the induction process is completed properly and how you would obtain feedback that the induction process is ensuring that the new employee is performing satisfactorily during the initial probationary employment period.