Hiring for the Big Picture
Organizations are combinations of different types of capital: financial, physical and human capital. Staffing is the function used to build a workforce to pursue strategic outcomes such as profitability, customer satisfaction and market share. A workforce is an expensive asset with wages being the biggest expense, followed by benefits. How you acquire, deploy and retain your people is critical to the success of every company. Acquisition involves determining the KSAOs (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics) needed to perform each job effectively. Deployment is the person-job match as well as future internal staffing opportunities such as promotions. Retention processes seek to minimize voluntary-avoidable turnover.
Start with workforce planning to determine the quantity and quality of talent needed, then, like a matchmaker, find the right people for the right job. The best practices include casting a wide net with sourcing, targeted recruiting (external and internal), measurement of final candidates and selection of the best candidate and their acceptance of the job offer.
Making Diversity a Recruitment Goal - Active or Passive?
Active recruitment of female applicants and minority applicants (as well as all underrepresented workers) occurs through advertising and professional organization posting. Minority and female candidates are at a statistical disadvantage in the marketplace when it comes to many career fields and industries. Using traditional sourcing resources to increase candidate flow is a broad-based approach when often a targeted method is required to reach qualified underrepresented applicants. Some of the best US companies that model active recruitment are Dell, General Mills and Target, which were named to the DiversityInc Top 50 List. However, it was not always this way. Target, in particular, was charged with several EEOC violations in the past, which they overcame through education and focus on staffing system improvements.
Passive recruitment, in comparison, considers applicants that apply, diverse or not. This can be due to a lack of experience on how to reach niche markets or the company not stressing the importance of diversity. The competency of those doing recruiting is a key indicator as well as top management support for the values of inclusion. Hiring managers make the hiring decisions and they must receive diversity training.
The Rest of the Functions in Human Resources
So what makes staffing so important? What about training, compensation, benefits, employee relations, records, events and health/safety/security? Are not these major functions also important? Of course they are, but by hiring the best the rest will work out better.
Retention - Stay or Go?
There are many myths about retention:
• Money is the main reason people leave
• If you train people, you are training them for another employer
• Hiring has nothing to do with retention
People often leave jobs for reasons that have nothing to do with the job. The employer is limited with preventing these departures for personal decisions. But what is under company control are issues of job design, work flexibility, training, career advancement, pay and benefits. Employees want a supervisor they respect, co-workers they enjoy and recognition for a job well done. These are the drivers of retention.
Turnover is when people leave an organization and have to be replaced. It is costly, affects recruitment efforts and company reputation. It can be classified as involuntary (poor performance or violation of rules) or voluntary (such as another position, dissatisfied, retiring). Controllable turnover is when employees leave for reasons that could be influenced by employer; this is the turnover that the company must make efforts to prevent. Common methods used are open communications, employee surveys and exit interviews.
ASSIGNMENT:
Kelly's Kar Kleaning is a full-service, high-tech, high-touch car wash. Mr. Kelly is customer-focused and gets a lot of repeat business. The job of attendant is a demanding one and fast paced. The starting pay is $8.00 an hour with brief training. The managers hire the staff. Mr. Kelly does not keep formal turnover data, but he thinks the turnover for attendants has been increasing. The managers are now complaining about the high level of turnover and the problems that creates. Mr. Kelly calls on you as an HR expert for assistance in figuring out what to do about the problem.
Conduct academic research on motivation and retention and, in a 3 page APA-formatted report, help Mr. Kelly by answering the following questions:
• What methods can be used to motivate the attendants to remain satisfied with their job or improve their level of satisfaction?
• What retention drivers (actions) would you suggest that he consider taking to reduce the turnover?
• Putting yourself in Mr. Kelly's shoes, what further information do you need to know from the managers about the problem?
This paper must be 3 pages of complete content (cover page and reference page are separate) and have in-text citations. The paper will be in APA style (both in formatting the paper and reference page). One scholarly article as a minimum should be included in the paper.