Companies should enjoy a legal right to hire replacement workers during strikes due to several reasons. First, the employers need to ensure the survival of their companies during strikes and this can only be achieved by hiring temporary replacements. The hiring of temporary replacements as opposed to permanent replacements may help to lessen some of the risks associated with hiring striker replacements such as costly legal suits and an increase in violent acts. Second, employers should be allowed to hire replacement workers not only to maintain the balance of relative bargaining power between the companies and the labor unions but also to reduce labor costs. It has been argued that passing legislation that seeks to ban the hiring of replacement workers during strikes would significantly shift the balance of relative bargaining power to labor unions at the expense of the employing entities (Holley, Jennings, & Walters, 2012).
Allowing companies to hire replacement workers during strikes would also ensure that workers go on strike for justifiable reasons as they have full knowledge that they can be legally replaced during a strike. Employers have used the tool of threatening to hire replacement workers to bring the striking workers to the negotiating table (Holley et al., 2012). However, although employers should be allowed to hire replacement workers, the process should only include the hiring of temporary workers to avoid suits of breach of contract when the permanent strikers are reinstated after a settlement is reached or upon making an unconditional request for reinstatement to the employer. It may also be difficult to replace a large number of striking employees quickly, hence the need to hire temporary replacement workers as negotiations proceed with the respective unions representing the permanent employees.
Unions Duty and Impacts
Labor unions the world over are mainly charged with the responsibility of providing a fair representation to unionized workers, particularly in terms of bargaining for their interests in labor relations (Pohley & Luchak, 2014). The implications of providing a fair representation are many and varied for employers, with available literature demonstrating that most employers view the union movement as a destabilizing force in their quest to reduce labor costs and enhance worker productivity (Godard & Frege, 2013). The two-year Crystal Sugar strike serves as an example of how the employer refused to meet the demands of workers due to feelings that the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union was unfairly increasing labor costs and constricting employee productivity (Elk, 2013). Other employers have viewed unions in a positive light, arguing that their representation duty has had a positive impact on employee turnover and satisfaction while simplifying collective bargaining agreements.
The duty of fair representation has impacted unions in terms of giving them the authority to rectify the imbalance of power by developing some semblance of equality in bargaining over the employment contract between employees and companies, ensuring that employers come to a collective agreement with employees to have access to a stable labor force, and developing frameworks for labor market bargaining (Godard & Frege, 2013). The inability of the BCTGM union to force Crystal Sugar to agree to a collective bargaining agreement with employees, for example, demonstrates the diminishing power of unions due to reasons such as globalization of labor, outsourcing, government action, and competition (Elk, 2013). Lastly, employees are impacted by the unions duty of fair representation in terms of having an avenue to collectively air their concerns and challenges to the employer and also to negotiate with the employing entity concerning their wages, work hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.
Godard, J., & Frege, C. (2013). Labor unions, alternative forms of representation, and the exercise of authority relations in the U.S. workplaces. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 66(1), 142-168.
Holley, W.H., Jennings, K.M., & Wolters, R.S. (2012). The labor relations process (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Pohley, D.M., & Luchak, A.A. (2014). Balancing efficiency, equity and voice: The impact of unions and high-involvement work practices on work outcomes. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 67(4), 1063-1094.
At this point, the senior executives of Best Built Casinos have to develop the strategies for hiring and retaining workers. This task is particularly important at the time, when many clients of the company may not want to use their services and the management has to right-size their workforce.
First of all, they need to find candidates that can best meet their performance requirements. This is why they should focus on the pre-employment screening of their workers. In particular, they need to look at the previous work experience of these people, and the references that their former employers can provide.
It should be noted that in some cases, the pre-employment inquiries of companies can pose significant difficulties for them, especially if they try to get access to the information that is confidential. For example, many conflicts arise when employers ask questions regarding the disability of a candidate (Dale, 2003, p. 210).
Apart from that, businesses are not allowed to discriminate against a candidate, if this person has a record of being a whistleblower. The problem is that many workers can be dismissed if they report illegal activities in which businesses can be engaged. However, companies must not take this issue into account when evaluating a future employee (Reuvid, 2005). If the managers of Best Built Casinos overlook these issues, they can face many legal challenges.
Business administrators should also develop a formal recruitment and retention policy. It should include the standards that future candidates should reach. The managers should also identify a set of qualities and competencies that their employees should have. These criteria can help the company identify and recruit the best professionals.
Moreover, business administrators should adopt the most objective performance assessment methods. These techniques should identify the contribution of every worker and reward them for their performance (Edenborough, 2007). In this way, they can retain the best employees. These are the main elements of the retention and recruitment policies.
Furthermore, references obtained from other companies can also greatly benefit Best Built Casinos. As it has been said before, the evaluations provided by the former employers of a candidate can be very informative, since they can throw light on the attitudes, values, and performance of candidates (Dale, 2003, p. 210).
However, they should not try to obtain private information about an employee. Additionally, the candidates should be able to challenge or dispute the reference if they believe that it is inaccurate (Dale, 2003, p. 210). This is the main issues that the business administrators should keep in mind when developing their policies.
Finally, the senior officers of this company should focus on the rightsizing of the organization. They should remember that frequent lay-offs of workers can lead to the conflict with trade unions. The management should take several steps. First of all, they should assign workers to those projects that are understaffed. Secondly, they need to offer unemployment relief to their workers.
These are the strategies that Best Built Casinos should implement at the time, when the financial performance of this organization can decline. Moreover, they need to develop an effective HR policy and find ways of rightsizing the company. Furthermore, they should establish better relations with trade unions since these organizations are responsible for protecting the workers rights. These are the main steps that they should undertake.
Reference List
Dale, M. (2003). Managers Guide to Recruitment and Selection. New York: Kogan Page Publishers.
Edenborough, R. (2007). Assessment Methods in Recruitment, Selection & Performance: A Managers Guide to Psychometric Testing, Interviews and Assessment Centres. London: Kogan Page Publishers.
Reuvid, J. (2005). Managing Business Risk: A Practical Guide To Protecting Your Business. Boston: Kogan Page Publishers.
This paper focuses on the needs of the staff, line manager, and executive management in regards to human recourse services. The main focus is in the department of transport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
While concentrating in the transportation department, the paper looks at the priority of the needs of the three users in the airline. Further, exploration of the various methods of communication that are appropriate to employees at different levels will be carried out. Finally, the paper explains different key components of effective service delivery within the transportation department.
Users of Human Resource Services
There are three key users of human resource services within the transport department. These three users include the staff, line manager and executive management.
Staff
Members of staff have several needs to be addressed by human resources department for their smooth operations. These needs could include their satisfaction, as well as, training and development within the department.
The members of staff are concerned about acquiring up to date skills. Their development to match the changing technology in the transport sector is of exceptional good to them. Therefore, the employees expect the human resources to go through frequent training to all the staff to help them improve on their skills and qualifications and be competitive in the market (Martin & Jackson, 2010).
Line Managers
The human resource services are quite serious to the operations of business managers. Line managers are members of management to whom the employees or members of the staff in the department openly report. Line managers have superior responsibilities in comparison to the other employees.
Services that are important to the operations of a line manager within the transport department include solving grievances and conflicts that arise among employees (Martin & Jackson, 2010). The other is working on improving performance of the staff and the entire department.
The other need of line manager would be to determine the human resource develop performance management systems. Typically, one of the roles of line manager is the daily personnel management and monitoring work processes (Martin & Jackson, 2010). This will avoid unnecessary labour costs incurred without suitable returns.
Executive Management
There are several needs of the executive management that they would be happy to probe the human resources address. These include improving on the image of the transportation department, working on cost savings mechanisms, and ensuring that the departments principles are strictly observed (Martin & Jackson, 2010).
It is of much interest to the United Arab Emirates is to be recognised as an employer of choice. The company and narrowing down to the department are greatly concerned with the treatment modality of their employees.
UAE as a company and the transport department, as well as, the management expects the human resources to achieve a balance in the recruiting process. The management expects a balance in the selection of the most suitable candidates. The management also expects the human resources to formulate a schedule that would ensure talented candidates are retained.
The management is keen to witness the human resources encourage employees to sweep up the companys philosophy. The human resources are then to create the conducive environment that suits working of the employees for higher productivity (Martin & Jackson, 2010).
Prioritizing Needs of Users
After identifying all the needs of the three main players, appropriate methods are utilised to ensure that they are solved. Therefore, prioritising of users needs is necessary in ensuring that they are properly addressed.
During the recruiting of individuals, talent should be prioritized to enable the business focus on efforts that would ensure productivity and innovation. In resolving conflicts, the human resources should prioritize equal treatment with no bias. The solutions should be timely to ensure the conflicts do not bear negative consequences on the activities of the transport department (Martin & Jackson, 2010). Carrying out frequent training and workshops entrenches the companys philosophy in the employees.
Methods of Communication
There are three methods of internal communication that are utilised in the department. These include use of telephone, memorandum and notices. Internal communication can be defined as the relaying of data that occur between employer and employees.
Line managers use memos to communicate to employees or the staff within the department. The use of memos would provide concise information and allows easy flow of information across, as well as, up and down the company (Martin & Jackson, 2010). It is used to make requests and present informal reports.
Telephone communication is utilised by employees to create requests and to inquire about the department issues. They are mainly used in cross communication. The executive management, usually use notices to communicate vital issues with the staff. Notices of changes or AGM of the United Arab Emirates can be gained through this avenue.
Key Components of Service Delivery
These are the main topics concerning the delivery of services in any organization. These issues if well taken care of can lead to greater productivity and boost working relationship with the organizations. First, building and maintaining good working relationships helps minimize any misunderstanding or disputes that may arise between employees.
A good working relationship between employees boosts the relation between the individuals (Martin & Jackson, 2010). Dealing with difficult customers helps the individuals demonstrate their level of professionalism, as well as, keeps the customers in touch for a long time relationship.
References
Martin, M., & Jackson, T. (2010). Human resource practice (5th ed.). Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.
The paper covers four employee policies formulated from four emerging issues in the field of human resource management. These emerging issues that are mentioned are health and safety, equality and diversity, recruitment and selection along with non-discrimination and anti-harassment. The paper covers the reasons as to why various managers have been failing to manage their firms.
The reasons as to why the policies on the issues must be included in an employee handbook have been covered with special emphasis on the negative impacts of these issues to an organization. The paper also examines some of the governmental laws that emphasized on the implementation of these policies within an organizational setting.
Research Paper
Several companies in different nations around the globe have failed continuously to attain their set goals, visions, and objectives. This has necessitated the investigation of emerging issues in the Human Resource Management sector in order to fix the weaknesses affecting most organizations.
There has also been a need to give the advantages of creating certain policies that prohibit individuals from going against the accepted codes of conduct for the set goals to be attained.
Among the emerging issues, this paper will concentrate on health and safety, equality and diversity, recruitment and selection along with nondiscrimination and anti harassment. The paper will also explore the relevance of formulating policies on these issues along with governmental laws that support the policies (Barrett, 2006).
In the recent past, most firms have failed to attain their set goals and objectives due to the fact they have lost their highly skilled personnel through death among other fatalities. The accidents on the employees of a certain firm may happen either from within the firm or outside. Furthermore, the living environments for such workers are usually poor to an extent that they are affected health wise.
The health and safety of a work force also affect the processes taking place within a firm thus there will be no consistency. When there is lack of a safety and health policy, the chances of missing innovation within the firm is also high. In fact, a good working environment is in most cases associated with high productivity.
A good working environment can only be created through the implementation of an effective health and safety policy (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2009).
This policy is in line with one of the community strategies of the European Commission which states, health as well as safety is part and parcel of the social and moral obligations of a firm. The policies of a company should not be permanently based on economic parameters.
The workers cannot be in a comfortable environment if they have other problems to attend to such as sufferings, reduction in the status of life, family-related problems, damages, and decrease of life span. The reason as to why the health and safety policy was included in the policy manual was to create a comfortable working environment through various ways so that the set goals and objectives are attained.
First of all, a comfortable workplace will be created through the creation of fewer health and safety risks to provide better chances for rehabilitation. A health and safety performance of various activities will lead to a smaller number of accidents, injuries, and liabilities.
The workers will also be relieved from legal expenses and medical costs. There will also be minimal cases of absenteeism, thus, higher job performance. The provision of safety and health measures through investments, management practices, and training will ensure a safety and healthy workforce.
The other relevant aspect of the implementation of the health and safety policy within the firm is that the workers will be able to fit easily into the working processes. The personnel will also be highly motivated and will have a likelihood of improving on the levels of their skills for the jobs performed. This policy within a firm ensures that the processes and activities taking place are not disrupted.
The health and safety policy is also relevant as it is associated with better performances, efficacy, quality services, and an innovative workforce leading to higher job performance. Furthermore, this makes it easier for the company to attain the set goals and visions. In fact, most researchers have attested that the incorporation of health and safety measures bring about positive impacts on the performance of a firm (Drucker, 1955).
Companies from different nations tend to lose their highly proficient staff due to the fact that there is no equality within their working environment. Managers usually have the mentality of treating their workers unfairly by either rewarding individuals that are not supposed to be rewarded or by favoring others while being strict on others.
In most cases, the rights of the disabled within the working environment are never considered while in other firms; special attention is granted to men while less concentration is put on women. Some companies solely employ their citizens, relatives, or members of royal families. Some firms reward persons from specific ethnic groups while they do not reward individuals from other ethnicities.
The absence of equality and diversity within a firm cannot lead to the attainment of the set goals and objectives. With special regard to this, equality and diversity are a very fundamental issue that needs to be addressed in each and every workplace. The major obligation of any management is usually to ensure that equality and diversity are embraced within the workers environment.
The availability of equality usually leads to team work. If individuals within a working environment are offered equal opportunities on the available resources, all the workers will work towards the achievement of the set goals and objectives (Banjoko, 1996).
In order for the set goals and objectives to be attained, all services within the workplace should be made available to all members of staff in spite of their gender, disability, race, age, religion, or belief. Inequality along with lack of diversity is some of the major attested obstacles to a companys development.
For a firm to attain its set goals and objectives, it should be devoted to eradicating prohibitive inequalities and enhance diversity within the organizations practices and procedures. Members of staff should be treated equally and with the same interest, attention, courtesy and reverence in spite of their sex, race, religion/belief, disability, age, and caring obligation.
The legal service of London supports the notion of equal payment of workers in the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
This firm has tried to come up with the equality and diversity policy within its employee manual so as to be in accordance with the Sex Discrimination Act 197, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Human Rights Act 1998, the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favorable Treatment) Regulations 2000, the Fixed-Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favorable Treatment) Regulations 2000, the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief Act) Regulations 2003, and the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.
All the laws were proposed by the legal service commission of London (Burns, 1978).
In the creation of a comfortable environment for all the employees, there is need to treat all the members of staff equally and fairly without any form of discrimination. The enhancement of equal chance in relation to access to the available materials along with equality in the convening of the needs of the workers will lead to a higher job performance.
Most departments within the companies fail to perform well simply because of a poor recruitment and selection criteria. Most managers tend to allocate workers basing on their physical well-being instead of basing on the knowledge and familiarity of an individual to the task. Workers are usually allocated to departments that they are unwilling or rather unfamiliar with.
When a member of staff performs a job that he is unwilling to do, then the probabilities of producing a good job are nil. The allocation of jobs to workers basing on their relationship with a manager may also have a negative impact on the performance of an organization (Armstrong, 1999).
Recruitment and allocation of members in fields that they are not qualified tends to weaken the performance of that particular sector. If a proper selection criterion is not followed in the allocation of workers to a certain field, then there will be higher chances of another weakness in any other department.
Weak departments that produce poor results will have a negative impact on the general performance of the company. The company may also be defeated by highly competitive firms.
The purpose of creating this policy was to allocate workers in departments that they are familiar with. This is for the purpose of creating a strong workforce in different departments of the firm.
The allocation of workers in sections that they are highly versed with the expected knowledge and skills aids in the provision of a comfortable working environment free from stress. Allocation of workers in different fields basing on the best selection criteria will make the company to have a higher propensity of achieving the set goals and objectives (Mintzberg, 1973).
The policy was also created to shun away from assumptions that a woman can do well in certain departments while a man does well in other departments. The members of staff should be allocated in different sections basing on their skills, aptitudes, talent, and know how.
The policy was also developed in order to conform to the requirements of the Sex Discrimination Acts 1975 and 1986, Race Relations Act 1976 and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Human Rights Act 1998 of the United Kingdom. The policy was also developed to shun away from future challenges that may arise from the damages caused by allocation of an untrained staff in a certain field.
The relevance of including this policy in the employees manual was to avoid wastage of time by an employee in attending to a task that he/she has never done before. Apart from spending a lot of time in performing the task, the worker may also produce a shoddy job leading to a poor job performance. This may make it difficult for the firm to attain its set visions, goals, and objectives.
The policy will ensure that the shortest time possible is taken in performing a certain task. The policy will also aid in minimizing the burdens on other highly experienced workers in other fields that they have not been allocated to. In the absence of the policy, workers may experience the burdens of being allocated departments that they are not familiar with (Bass, 1985).
This firm regards employees as its indispensable assets. They are therefore worth shielding from perils like harassment and discrimination. In most cases, organizations that allow harassment and discrimination at the work places are always at risk. The policy is raised to prevent employees from engaging in such activities that may harm other professional leading to poor job performance (Guest, 1991).
Individuals within the working environment may create hazards by subjecting their colleagues to unlawful activities for instance harassment of workers by their colleagues. As a matter of fact, this has been a major growing liability trend in human resource.
If the employees, who are the major contributors of success within the organizations, are harassed, then the set goals, objectives, and visions will not be attained. To protect professionals from such activities, certain strategies must be put in place to guide the behavior of the members of staff (Weisinger, 1998).
Discrimination and harassment within an individuals working environment can cause injuries to employees. This behavior also promotes poor morale among the workers and reduces the levels of productivity. The concerned organization may also be exposed to expensive litigation losses. Some of the losses may be in terms of larger amounts of money, time, and energy as well as highly trained members of staff.
This necessitates prompt implementation of the non discrimination and anti harassment policy. The policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment were also developed to conform to the standards of two imperative federal antidiscrimination laws. These laws are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
These policies are usually aimed at being hired, receiving compensations, upholding a job, obtaining training, getting a job promotion and receiving equal opportunities in different working situations. Most of the laws from different nations outlaw discrimination and harassment on the basis of age, sex, racism among other aspects.
Other federal as well as state laws outlaw sexual harassment. This is in most cases very expensive to an organization. This is due to the fact that there is reduced productivity and morale, wastage of time, high medical expenses, officially authorized fees along with liabilities.
According to Luthans, harassment through the creation of hostile environments includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, job-related threats for rejecting sexual advances, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individuals work performance (Luthans, 1998).
Either form of harassment where men harass women and women harass men is costly to a company. Due to the fact that discrimination and harassment are expensive to a company, there is a need for measures to prevent such perils and wrongdoing.
The inclusion of the policy of anti discrimination and non harassment of the employees manual will act as a guiding material regarding the behavior of the workers to avoid causing harm on their colleagues (Burns, 1978).
Conclusively, all the issues that may affect the performance of an organization should be addressed in order to enhance a good working environment for the set goals and objectives to be attained.
The formulation of policies to be followed by the employees should be effected in organizations that are aimed at achieving their visions. Formulated policies ought to be strictly implemented by the employees for the visions to be met. Disciplinary measures should also be formulated to ensure that individuals who break the set policies are attended to accordingly.
List of References
Armstrong, M. (1999). Human resources management practice. London: Kogan Page.
Banjoko, S.A. (1996) Human resource management. Lagos: Saban Publishers.
Barrett, D.J. (2006). Leadership communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bass, B.M., (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press.
Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.
Drucker, P. (1955). The practice of management. Portsmouth, UK: Heinemann.
Gomez-Mejia, L. R., Balkin, D. B., & Cardy, R. L. (2009). Managing human resources. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Guest, E.A. (1991). Human resource management. London: McGraw-Hill.
Luthans, F. (1998). Organizational behavior. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
Mintzberg, H. (1973). The nature of managerial work. New York: Harper & Row.
Weisinger, H. (1998). Emotional intelligence at work. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
In their efforts to reduce their hiring costs and increase their employees success, most organizations are being forced to embrace internal hiring. Currently, this approach is preferred over other approaches owing to its numerous benefits. In the past, companies favored external hiring over internal hiring because it was thought that external hiring added new talent to an organization.
However, studies indicate that hiring from external source is not only expensive but also ineffective. By embracing this norm, organizations have been able to cut down on advertising costs, recruiting costs, and expenses used in training new employees. This paper seeks to highlight advantages gained by an organization when it adopts internal hiring.
According to business researches, internal hiring is the most efficient and appropriate way of filling organizations vacancies. Through this approach, an institution can reduce its recruitment costs and orientation training expenses and time. When an organization embraces this approach, its employees are given priority to fill the existing vacancy.
By doing so, an organization offers its employees with abilities to advance their career through regular training. As a result, employees can progressively develop and advance their careers.
Through career advancement, workers morale will be enhanced enabling them to dispense their knowledge and capabilities effectively. Equally, by improving on the workforces morale an organization can increase its productivity leading to an increase in returns.
Internal workers have no external offers, therefore an organization can easily agree with the existing employees on their remunerations, allowance packages, and conditions of vacancies. Through this, an organization can save on time, which could have been spent on negotiations.
Similarly, recruiting from external necessitates that an organization allocates time to advertise new vacancies, review job applications, hire recruiters, and organize job interviews. However, through internal hiring approach, the entire recruitment procedure can be reduced. Existing employees information can be accessed with ease from a database.
Similarly, to enhance the smooth operation of their companies, employers should adopt internal hiring over external hiring. As such, internal workers adapt faster to changes in an organization than external workers. Similarly, through internal hiring an organization can safeguard its traditions and confidentialities.
An organization is at a higher risk of compromising its privacy through external workforce than through internal workforce.
In this respect, external recruits than internal recruits would compromise on the organizations secrets such as annual returns, chemical formulas, processing formulas, workers payroll, and medical records. This confirms why companies such as Coca Cola have resorted to giving priorities to internal employees.
In conclusion, all companies should acknowledge that internal hiring offers them a chance to reduce recruitment costs, enhance employment security, cultivate a good working culture with their employees, and enhance cohesiveness and good relations among the employees.
In this regard, it would be appropriate for companies to give priority to the internal workforce over external workforce to enhance their operation and increase their profits. For instance, in the last decade, most of the Chinese and Indians companies have experienced stiff competition from other firms due to their failure to prioritize and maintain their internal trained employees.
Through studies and research, it is estimated that from the year 2005 to 2010 many companies and organizations were able to save $20 million from adopting internal hiring over external hiring. Equally, these organizations realized higher returns in the same period.
The article Are you hiring high performers focuses on the way new employees are hired at Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville. Its author, Matthew Weinstock, claims that annual nurse turnover reduces when efficient personnel is employed, and patients become more satisfied with the care they receive.
The hospital president and CEO emphasize the squishy stuff as the secret sauce that allows them to find right people. In this perspective, it is critical for the employee to be able to connect ones head and heart.
The first impression, the way the worker treats the patients, his/her attitudes and behavior are said to be tightly connected with the professional performance and should be considered when hiring personnel to bring on the best. Then a shared vision and mission should be implemented for the employees to have the same standards (Weinstock para. 11).
The HR initiative that is related to this article is the HR Business Initiative: Customer Service Improvements. It underlines the necessity of making business customer centered and focuses on customer feedback as a performance measurement tool. According to this initiative, the way employees interact with the clients is critical when providing efficient services. Being highly involved and listening closely to the clients needs, the employees will be able to deliver an excellent customer service and manage their career at the same workplace.
The implementation of this initiative in my organization will be beneficial because with its help only the best staff that values the work and can be close to clients will be hired. Except for that, there will be an opportunity to implement new online systems that are likely to streamline the process of hiring the most efficient personnel. Online programs can be also used to reduce the workload and systematize customer feedback (La Jolla 3).
There are several implementation challenges that I anticipate to Human Resource initiative. First of all, new programs that can streamline the working process should be bought, which is relatively costly. However, no additional equipment is required, as the computers that are already used by the employees can be utilized.
Except for that, all employees should receive special training, to which they might resist. Finally, the division of labor may be needed if the workload improvement is considered to be necessary, which might make the line managers reluctant to accept the change. Still, I believe that the initiative can be implemented in a short period (about two weeks).
In order to evaluate this initiative, the employees will fill out the questionnaire and comment on how their work changed. The customer feedback will also be gathered and assessed for it to be compared with the views of personnel ( Evaluating the Initiative para. 1). As the implementation of the initiative requires two weeks, some time will also be needed do adapt to it. Thus, the assessment should be made at least two months after the implementation.
The approach, sources, phases, and scope of the project
The new hiring process project will be based on the traditional approach, which has a clear sequence of steps that are important in completion. In order to obtain excellent results, the approach has to be followed closely and any errors detected should be rectified (Kerzner, 2010).
An understanding of the scope of the project could be available from two sources that have been utilized in the development of the proposal (Kerzner, 2010; Lewis, 2011). It will be characterized by the following phases:
Initiation
Planning and design
Implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
Closing
It is important to note that the phases will be interrelated. For example, project execution can only take place if initiation, planning and design phases are done successfully.
The scope of the project will be on the premises of the main objective that it will the management will aim at achieving, which will be improving the efficiency with regard to hiring new workers. However, the scope of the project will be conducted in the context of various factors such as budget, resources and schedule that will be adopted (Lewis, 2011).
Requirements, activities and schedule of the project
In order to accomplish a project, it would be important to ensure that all the requirements would be met (Lewis, 2011; Schwalbe, 2013). The proposed project will need the following requirements for successful completion:
Skilled manpower
Computer software
Finances
Computers
Specifically, an adequate number of computers, with the appropriate software, will be availed to all persons participating in the new process of hiring. Thus, they will be required to have sufficient skills that would be important in using the software. In addition, about $5000USD will be required to execute the project.
Activities are specific actions that are adopted in a project with the aim of supporting outcomes. The following activities will be used:
Activity1: The management will identify the project leader.
Activity 2: The leader will initiate the project by planning and adopting a specific that will be followed.
Activity 3: Human resource personnel will implement the project under the guidance of the project leader.
Activity4: The leader will monitor and evaluate the executed project to assess its success rate.
Activity 5: The management will officially close the project on the premises of good success rate.
The project proposal will be implemented within a schedule that will have a specific duration for each activity and/or phase (Kerzner, 2013). The time and phases of the project are covered in the next section of this paper.
Activity duration, sequence of activities, a work breakdown structure, and labor requirements
The table below is used to display the activity and duration that would be taken in the project.
Activity
Duration
1
1 week
2
8 weeks
3
20 weeks
4
4 weeks
5
1 week
Figure 1. A table showing the activities and duration.
The sequence of events is displayed below.
Figure 2. A series of activities that will be adopted in the project.
The work breakdown structure will be as follows:
Figure 3. The work breakdown structure of the proposed project.
Labor requirements are important in every project because workers execute projects (Kerzner, 2013). The new hiring system will require a minimum of 20 highly qualified personnel who will ensure that the right candidates are hired. Their wages will be determined on the grounds of their academic levels and experience. In addition to their qualifications, they will be educated with regard to the new system.
References
Kerzner, H. R. (2010). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ. John Wiley and Sons.
Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lewis, J. P. (2011). Project Planning, Scheduling & Control: A hands-on guide to bringing projects in on time and on budget (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Schwalbe, K. (2013). Information technology project management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
The SG Cowens informational interviews seem to be in line with the companys corporate culture that values initiative and ambition almost as much as expertise. On the one hand, such an approach is certainly advantageous since it helps the applicants learn about the company and the industry and allows SG Cowen to filter out unmotivated applicants. At the same time, other selection tools yield the same results. For instance, if the applicants have to go through several application rounds or do a company-related case study, those of them who are not genuinely interested in SG Cowen will also self-select at a certain point. This is important because informational interviews are somewhat morally ambiguous as they emphasize a personal connection to someone within the company. Such a practice resembles nepotism since certain applicants may be able to get a job merely because a companys employer favors them.
Negative hiring experience within an organisation
While the SG Cowens hiring process is most certainly rigorous, it is, nevertheless, not necessarily efficient. The main flaw of its design is that those making the hiring decisions (that is, the bankers) seem to be there for the wrong reasons: they enjoy asserting influence and being the decision-makers but they do not necessarily have the companys best interests in mind. Moreover, the selection process is unstructured and not formalized, and the selection criteria are unclear and flexible.
While such a design has its advantages as each application is reviewed on a case-by-case basis, it also allows for personal and subjective preferences to come into play. For instance, one application is being evaluated based on her cultural fit even though she has lived in the United States and there is nothing to support the claim that she may have difficulties adjusting. Even more importantly, another applicants marital and family situation is discussed even though it is illegal to discriminate against a potential employee on this basis. If I could influence the hiring process, I would define at least minimal standards and rules that set the boundaries as to what should or should not be relevant to the decision-making.
It was a short conversation with Macys makeup counter manager. The interview covered a series of critical aspects in terms of the hiring process. It was crucial to discussing the selected subject with a hiring manager as she has an enormous scope of related experience and can provide some practical advice for a potential applicant.
Macys makeup counter manager shared some valuable insights on the hiring process in the course of the interview. Thus, she pointed out that honesty and punctuality are the top required qualities an applicant is expected to possess. According to the manager, the responses one provides during a job interview should be, first and foremost, sincere and relevant to the targeted position. In addition, the woman put a particular emphasis on the importance of proper preparation.
She recommended keeping all documents in perfect order and suggested they should contain verifiable data only. She, likewise, specified some signs that might hint at the positive outcomes of the interview. Hence, the woman noted that eye contact and a firm handshake, as well as an appointment for the second meeting, might mean that the employer remains satisfied. Finally, the manager shared her vision on advancement prospects, saying that their realization is mainly determined by the personal qualities of an employee.
The interview provides a series of valuable recommendations for potential applicants. The principle benefit of the managers recommendations resides in their practical character; thus, one receives a detailed action guideline while preparing for a job interview. Whereas some of the ideas might seem to be well-known, some points are worth revising. For example, the manager provides an explicit explanation of the way an applicant is expected to manage the papers and the presented data.
Delayering or reduction of the staff is an emergency managerial decision, which usually entails many adverse consequences. Provided that cutbacks occur, such a company as Xerox will have to face several challenges. First and foremost, we should mention shortage of qualified personnel, because very often cutbacks are chaotic and non-discriminative which means that some rather competent workers can be made redundant. Another problem that is almost inevitable is the atmosphere of fear in the workplace as every employee is greatly concerned with his or her position in the firm. Subsequently, this causes poor interpersonal relations among them. However, the biggest problem is the re-organization that must be undertaken by the management. One must bear it in mind that delayering may touch middle-rank managers, who act as a link between average members of the staff and the highest authority. The only possible outcome is poor coordination and performance. Apart from that, we must not overlook low retention of the staff members, who may be looking for another alternative.
Several steps should be taken in order to address these issues. First, the management has to explain that delayering is not motivated by mercantile reasons such as pursuit of profit. Secondly, even if the leadership is forced to resort to such measures, they must be very discriminative. Prior to making any worker redundant, one has to weigh up all pros and cons. As it has been noted earlier, the redundancies of middle-rank managers should be reduced to a minimum, because without them functioning of any firm is practically impossible. Finally, the restructuring will involve extra-training courses to the workers, because the scope and nature of the duties may dramatically change.
Xerox immense concern with the uses of technology, retention techniques and HR development can be ascribed to several motives such as the profitability of the firm; it is no secret that proficiency and competence of the personnel is by far the major determinant of the efficiency. Besides, the aforesaid aspects may shape the public image of the firm, this goes for potential customers and would-be employees, who may or may not be interested in cooperating with Xerox. Naturally, we have to acknowledge but the topmost priority is the cost-efficiency of the firm.
Another facet of the question under discussion is the relations with the competitors, for example, Canon or HP. Given the fact that the rivalry is very stiff, the management has to demonstrate that the quality of its services and products outmatches those of other companies. The clients feel safe while buying and using the products of this enterprise, and the degree of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction is directly proportional to the competence of the HR department. In this respect, we have to analyze another dimension of this problem, namely, staffs attitude toward their job. First of all, they must be certain that their position is secured. They also must be sure that their skills are constantly improving and that they have opportunities for professional growth. Otherwise, they may choose to leave Xerox, especially if they know that their services may be required by others.
To conclude, this paper illustrates the importance of HR management. Overall, we can argue that the task is many-sided: Xerox, one has to ensure its profitability, and this can be done only with the help of average subordinates, who must be competent, content with their job, and reassured.
