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 organization’s 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 workforce’s 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 organization’s 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 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 worker’s 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 company’s development.
For a firm to attain its set goals and objectives, it should be devoted to eradicating prohibitive inequalities and enhance diversity within the organization’s 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 employee’s 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 individual’s 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 individual’s 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 employee’s 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.
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 one’s 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.
This paper examines the attributes needed to hire an effective staffing manager, compares human resource planning for a large international bank and for a local police department as well as evaluates the processes behind recruitment effectiveness.
Through globalization and the process of outsourcing and offshoring, employee teams are no longer isolated to merely being within the same building, state or country, rather they are now scattered across a wide breadth of countries, regions and business cultures which staffing managers need to take into consideration.
It is based on this that this paper will tackle the various characteristics needed in hiring an effective staffing manager, the inherent differences between a local and international organization and how to measure recruitment effectiveness.
Hiring a Staffing Manager
When it comes to hiring a staffing manager for an organization, the following are the key skills and attributes I would focus on when deciding on a proper candidate:
Capacity to understand the requirements of a job
The most important capacity for any staffing manager is the ability to understand the needs of a job versus the type of employee candidates that would apply for it. A job’s requirements are not limited to the skills needed in order to perform it well; rather, they extend to the capacity of an employee to be able to understand the various nuances and key details needed to be able to do a job well.
Such an attribute is often gained through experience and, as such, it is necessary for a staffing manager to be able to determine how an employee’s experience correlates into being able to meet the requirements of the job that is available successfully.
Being able to create an effective hiring strategy
Another of the requirements needed by a staffing manager for an organization is the capacity to develop an effective hiring strategy. What must be understood is that most large enterprises have a relatively high churn rate as compared to smaller organizations due to the sheer amount of employees that work there. As a result, it is often necessary to replace a percentage of a company’s employees on a yearly basis.
An effective staffing manager should be able to examine the staffing needs of the company versus its regular employee churn rates and come up with a hiring strategy that ensures that a constant stream of employees are able to replace those that leave while at the same time ensuring that the company does not hire too many workers. This can help to reduce operational losses as a result of having an insufficient workforce.
Other examples of effective hiring strategies that a staffing manager needs to take into consideration are the type of medium they would utilize in order to hire employees. Within the past 15 years the internet has created a means for the HR departments of companies to reach out to a broad selection of employees through websites such as LinkedIn.com.
Taking this into consideration, a staffing manager might consider using traditional means of getting prospective new hires (i.e. through newspaper ads) or use the internet, which is far cheaper. The ability to determine which strategy would be the best and most affordable for the company is one of the qualities needed in a staffing manager.
Hiring Experience within a Particular Industry
In explaining the intricacies in hiring practices, Moeller & Harvey (2011) state that “no two industries are equal” in that a staffing manager in one particular industry cannot be unilaterally placed into a whole different industry and be expected to be able to do their job well without a few years of experience.
Moeller & Harvey (2011) explain that employee candidates in various fields of expertise each have their own different nuances and unique skills that they bring to the table. However, there are subtle differences in their aptitude that only experienced staffing managers are able to discern and are thus able to place the correct employees in the right teams (Moeller & Harvey, 2011).
One example of this can be seen in the case of hiring a game designer for a gaming company, there are different specializations that need to be taken into consideration such as an individual’s expertise in the programming language that will be utilized, the platform that will be used for development as well as their knowledge in developing new applications to suit the needs of the company.
Due to the various technicalities associated with game development, it would take an experienced staffing manager in this industry in order to determine whether someone is a right “fit” for a particular position.
If you took a hiring manager that was experienced in hiring people for call centers and had them develop a hiring strategy for the gaming company that was just mentioned, it is likely that they would put in place ineffective strategies (Guthrie & Olian, 1991). It is based on this that when hiring a new staffing manager, it is important to determine how much experience they have within the industry that the company operates in.
Comparing Human Resource planning for a large international bank and for a local police department
While banks and police departments have a similar need for personnel in order to handle day to day operations, their organizational structure is significantly different, thus necessitating different human resource planning strategies. First and foremost, the organizational structure of most international banks is more horizontal rather than vertical as compared to a local police department.
Vertical organizations, such as police departments are “militaristic” in their organizational structure since a clear emphasis is placed on the structure of authority and how it results in the distribution of tasks. This can be seen in its use of titles such as captain, chief, etc. wherein a pyramidal structure of authority is implemented with little in the way of horizontal authority and capacity for shared responsibility for particular activities.
While banks do have a similar leadership structure, as seen in the case of vice presidents, presidents, CFO, CEO, etc., the fact remains that its organizational structure is more horizontal in terms of task delegation and employee job roles. This can be seen through its various departments, units and resource divisions where there is a certain “overlap” in terms of authority, operational guidelines and shared practices.
Also, the main “luxury” so to speak for banks is that they can often hire and then train personnel and place them into particular positions.
This means that they can source potential employees from a vast pool of potential candidates whereas police departments, with their clear emphasis on rank, cannot practice the same human resource development strategy and have to rely on a limited pool of candidates who have the correct rank despite other candidates showing a greater deal of aptitude and skill for a particular position.
Thus, when it comes to human resource planning the main difference is that placement for local police departments is usually based on achieved rank regardless of skill whereas for an international bank hiring practices are based on perceived skill and capacity to do a job regardless of what sort of “rank” they used to have. Another difference between the two organizations comes in the amount of personnel needed.
For large international banks, it is normally the case that they would need substantial amounts of personnel in order to keep operations running while the amount of personnel needed for a local police department is usually much smaller.
Police departments can usually source personnel from local residents or through graduates of a police academy that is nearby whereas international banks have to take into consideration international locations and source personnel from a wide array of countries.
There are also skill specializations that need to be taken into consideration wherein banks often need a more diverse array of employees with skill specializations (i.e. business development, accountancy, customer service, etc.) as compared to a police department that does not have the need to specialize in as many different kinds of operations.
The last, and certainly one of the most important differences between the two organizations, is the fact that police departments have two classifications of personnel (i.e. civilian and police officer) whereas banks have just one (i.e. an employee).
The reason behind this dual method of employee classification is due to the nature of law enforcement agencies (i.e. enforcing social law and imposing order) resulting in the need for civilians to handle the day to day operations as seen in the case of the HR department of most precincts which are composed of civilian personnel.
This, of course, creates a far more distinct human resource planning endeavor as compared to banks since the HR department has to balance the needs of the precinct between its police and civilian personnel whereas a bank just concentrates on its one type of employee classification.
Evaluating Recruitment Effectiveness
When it comes to evaluating recruitment effectiveness, this can be analyzed through: employee churn rates, proper alignment with job requirement, meeting a company’s hiring goals, and job performance (this can be seen through supervisor reports).
Employee churn rates
This term refers to the rate of employees leaving a company versus the amount who enter or stay. Based on the work of Hilditch-Roberts (2012), it was noted that churn rates are often a good indicator of effective recruitment practices since it is the responsibility of the HR department to hire people that they know would be able to stay for a significant period of time within a company (5 years or more).
The problem with high churn rates in companies is that this can create severe problems in operational performance given the time needed to hire a new employee, train them to be able to do the job properly, and help them integrate into the company culture (Hilditch-Roberts, 2012).
As a result of nonperformance within a specified job role (whether managerial, upper management or lower-tier employee), this limits the capacity of a company to be able to provide services or manufacture products effectively.
It is based on this that when examining the effectiveness of the recruitment methods utilized by an HR department within a company, the employee churn rate would be one of the first indicators of either the presence of good policies in hiring employees that would help to raise the operational performance of a company or the presence of adverse policies that result in employees staying for a relatively short period of time (i.e. 1 year or less) resulting in operational losses.
Alignment with Job Requirements
Another method of evaluating recruitment effectiveness is to examine whether the individual that was hired has the proper skills and experience that are required by the job.
As explained by Blasco & Pertold-Gebicka (2013), when it comes to examining the effectiveness of the hiring practices employed by a company, it is necessary to determine whether proper care and attention have been made towards aligning an employee’s skills and capabilities with the requirements of the job.
Blasco & Pertold-Gebicka (2013) go into more detail in regard to this perspective by explaining that one of the current practices utilized in most companies has been a form of role integration wherein instead of having two employees doing two different jobs, it is often the case that job roles are combined into a single job to save money on employee salaries and benefits.
As a result, job requirements often require a more diverse skill set requiring HR departments to implement more stringent hiring guidelines (Blasco & Pertold-Gebicka, 2013). Failure to do so often results in reduced operational effectiveness on the part of the employee, which is an indicator of ineffective recruitment practices.
Operational Performance of a Company
Another means of determining recruitment effectiveness is by examining the overall operational performance of a company based on the adherence of employees to their performance metrics.
Within the past decade, one of the ongoing trends when it comes to measuring employee performance and thus their eligibility to be promoted to different positions within the company has been through the use of metrics of performance (Carter, 2004).
These are often numerical based means of measuring the performance of an employee via the amount of work accomplished within a particular period of time, the number of orders fulfilled, the amount of sales made, etc. Basically, metrics can be thought of as a statistically proven means of determining the “worth” of an employee based on the level of work they do for the company.
Woodka (2011) explains that it is the correlation of employee scores based on their rates of performance with the expected level of operational performance set forth by the company that helps to determine whether the company is performing at an operationally adequate level.
If the metrics by which employees are measured show that they are underperforming, then this would reflect on the overall operational performance of the company (Woodka, 2011).
If there are low levels of operational performance which can be traced to employee performance and not to external factors (i.e. changes in consumer tastes, natural disasters, etc.), then it can be stated that the recruitment practices that have been implemented within the company are ineffective and need to be changed since the employees that have been hired are not performing at an adequate rate by the company’s standards.
Examples of instances where this occurs can be seen in the call center industry and the retail industry wherein the statistical basis between employee performance and their expected output by the standards of the company can be seen more easily.
Reference List
Blasco, S., & Pertold-Gebicka, B. (2013). Employment policies, hiring practices and firm performance. Labour Economics, 2512-24.
Carter, M. R. (2004). The ABCs of staffing decisions. Nursing Management, 35(6), 16.
Guthrie, J. P., & Olian, J. D. (1991). Does context affect staffing decisions? The case of general managers. Personnel Psychology, 44(2), 263-292.
Hilditch-Roberts, H. (2012). A best practice guide for hiring consultants. Strategic Direction, 28(3), 3-5.
Moeller, M., & Harvey, M. (2011). Inpatriate Marketing Managers: Issues Associated with Staffing Global Marketing Positions. Journal Of International Marketing, 19(4), 1-16.
Woodka, M. (2011). Staffing solutions. A manager’s guide to labor cost management. Long-Term Living: For The Continuing Care Professional, 60(8), 24-26.
From the article, it is evident that the lack of better competency models stalls the hiring process of new employees. Organizations accrue huge costs when they hire incompetent or staff who later leave the company out of dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is imperative that hired staff members be maintained through talent management. In this case, the cost of not hiring through the right process falls into either “hard or soft costs” (Grigoryev, 2006, p.16).
An example of hard costs is the employee salary, which would otherwise be paid to a right and competent employee. An example of soft cost “is the lack of confidence in the management and lack of morale in the workforce” (p. 17). It is to be noted that both hard and soft costs have a negative impact on the organization’s overall performance. This can be evidenced by “low levels of emotional intelligence, temperament and sometimes technical and professional incompetency” (p.17).
Therefore, Core competency modeling is the systematic approach through which successful hiring can be achieved. This requires a critical evaluation of the position to be filled, skills required and the consistency of the job with the organization’s goals. Some of the steps to be considered during core competency modeling include the following (p.17). First, delineate the expectations of a certain job position in relation to the goals of the organization. Secondly, assess the practices that lead to the success of a job outcome. Thirdly, the development of major competencies in the practices assessed earlier. Fourthly, draft an interview protocol that is behavioral-based. Finally, interview the job candidates using the interview protocol.
In order to maintain the above process as a protocol in the hiring process, there must be a developmental plan on the same. Moreover, another requirement is a performance review system to assess the model’s effectiveness.
According to the article, the hiring panel of interviewers or the managers should be trained on how to use the model (p.18). However, this model requires good planning for managers to hire and nurture the right employees.
Reflective summary
Do you agree or disagree with the article content? Why or why not?
I do agree with the content of the article. This is because the hiring process of new employees fails when the right employees are not hired through the right criterion. The article proves that hiring the right employees goes beyond technical skills and competency. This means that behaviors are an additional factor that contributes to the success of a particular job position.
Is this information consistent with my prior knowledge of staffing organizations? Explain.
Yes, this information is consistent with past knowledge of staffing organizations. The information explains how the hiring process should be planned and be executed using a certain protocol and process. The information also insists on the importance of hiring employees who can deliver about the organization’s goals. The information also indicates the importance of employee motivation and talent management in the hiring process.
Will you be able to apply what you learned in your future and current HR career? Explain.
Yes, I will be able to apply the article’s information in the future. The article’s information is insightful for any aspiring or current human resource manager. The information offers guidance on the hiring process to any manager.
Would you recommend others to read this article? Why or why not?
I recommend others to read this article. The article provides a basis of guidance and further research on competency models that can be used during the hiring process. However, I also recommend others to research further on requirements for an ideal hiring process.
Reference
Grigoryev, P. (2006). Hiring by competency models. The Journal for Quality & Participation. Web.
This strategic plan proposal for Human Resource Management is meant to establish priorities, plans and activities for the management of human resource that supports Plan Australia’s efforts of protecting and supporting children and strengthening its management practices (Plan Australia, 2010, Home page).
The proposal focuses on the four organizational priorities which include: strengthening of its human resource management practices, building an effective work force to support children, providing learning, training and developing staffs and the children, and improving the overall organizational health and labor. This proposal is a representation of an important step of Plan Australia toward the achieving of its vision and mission.
Operating Environment of Plan Australia
Plan Australia is under one of the oldest but most successful children development organizations in the world with a neutral operating environment; independent from both political and religious agendas. So far it is working in 50 developing countries empowering communities to overcome poverty with the intention of ensuring that children achieve their full potential.
Its mandate around the world is to ensure that at least all children have access to the right of survival, full force development, and protection. The organization is also concerned with the full participation of the children in the family, cultural and social life.
Plan Australia’s organizational philosophy is to communicate its underlying values behind its work because it believes that strong relationships are built on the shared values (Plan Australia,2010, workforplan page). The belief behind this philosophy is that any persons sharing out their value are hopefully welcomed to join hands with Plan Australia.
Organizational Mission
For more than 70 years now, Plan Australia has fully engaged its efforts towards protection of the children. Its mission has remained committed to the welfare of persons below the age of 18 years (Plan Australia, 2010, work for plan page). Within this age bracket, the organization discovered that there is greater likelihood of child abuse going on around the world.
The organization therefore came up with policies to direct its mission. These policies consider any form of child abuse unacceptable considering that Plan Australia’s work is to ensure that children are protected and their rights acknowledged.
To be successful in this, the organization developed procedural guidelines which govern the welfare of children worldwide and the way they are handled (Armstrong, 2011). These polices are designed to protect and empower children and the staffs partaking in the organizational mission. So far Plan which is the mother body of Plan Australia has established itself in 50 developing countries where it is actively uniting and inspiring people to transform the world for children.
Plan Australia’s Vision
Plan Australia’s vision is to realize a world where children are fully taken care of in terms of being provided for, understood and acknowledged.
Operations
Plan Australia is just but a branch of one of the largest worldwide community development organizations which has got an international headquarter in the UK (Plan Australia, 2010, ourwork page). The Headquarters mandate is provide guidelines to its Plan branches to fundraise, build relationships, develop programs, advocate children rights, public educate and inspire young people to participate in its mission.
So far Plan has 18 offices in the already developed countries including plan Australia in Australia which have got the responsibility of fundraising (Australia, 2010, ourwork page). The money collected in these countries is then channeled to the head office which then transfers the resources to the developing countries offices. So far the total number of offices in the developing countries is 50.
Plans Australia’s Strengths and Cultures
The Plan organization has got a culture that goes all the way down its sub-braches. Within it, the organizations sub-branches are expected to uphold the main organizational guide lines which include the creation of ambassadors’ of the organization in its local offices environments.
These people help the organization with its mission and fighting poverty in the developing countries (Plan Australia, 2010, ourwork page). Besides, Plans’ staffs are culturally trained to be in a position to keep things happening according to Plans’ vision and mission. Its board members and the management panel are uniquely constructed in that they report to the board made up of volunteers who are the directors of the company.
This in itself is a strength to the organization since volunteers always have the heart of coming up with genuine suggestions that help stir forward the organization. Again, the organization has got promoters inform of landscape designers and television personalities who help in the promotion of the company (Dennis & Briscoe, 2008).
Strategic Context
Currently, Plan Australia has got only one regional office in Thailand which according to the researches we have conducted it is not sufficient for the multibillion populations in Asia. We therefore propose for the creation of another regional office in China which according to our research studies is undergoing rapid change in economy.
However, we also realize that China has got a socially insecure environment due to the incompetent security system in place (Armstrong, 2011). But this should not be taken as an excuse against the placement of a new office in China. Its geographical placement is so strategic that it will allow Plan Australia to address issues in the neighborhood countries such as India, Mongolia and Russia, etc.
References
Armstrong, M., 2011. Armstrong’s Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management. London: Kogan Publishers.
Dennis, R. & Briscoe, R. 2008. International Human Resource Management. Abingdon, Oxford: Taylor & Francis.
State agencies need highly qualified staff to offer best services to the public and remain competitive in the job market. However, current hiring processes rarely attract and retain talented employees in state agencies. Therefore, civil service hiring processes require a review to match the best practices in the labor market and remain competitive as public and private organizations compete for the best talents. The essay provides recommendations for improving hiring processes with the aim of attracting and retaining the best talents in state agencies.
Introduction
In a dynamic environment, every organization must rely on its workforce and leaders, their efforts, skills, knowledge, visions and experiences to attain success. Therefore, organizations must strive to enhance their competitive edge, human resource practices and develop themselves in such environments (Llorens, 2010). Such activities also apply to public organizations and government agencies as they compete with private firms for highly qualified potential employees. Therefore, state agencies must hire qualified employees to provide services to the public. As citizens continue to demand for high quality services from state agencies, the quality of the workforce in various departments becomes an increasingly a major source of concern. This essay explores hiring processes of civil servants with the aim of identifying possible problems and providing possible alternatives and recommendations.
Background
Hiring workforce in public agencies may be different from private practices because of bureaucratic approaches. In some instances, state agencies may still rely on the ‘classic civil service’ hiring process. Such a process eliminates some of the advantages and flexibility, like networking or referral found in private human resource practices. Hiring processes are designed to limit or eliminate possible conflicts of interests, political favors or nepotism that could have unwanted impacts on an agency. In addition, public agencies may find it difficult to attract and retain highly qualified individuals in some of the departments like IT, which require specific sets of skills. Individuals who apply for such positions may meet the minimum qualifications required under civil service employment criteria.
However, due to the obsolete job description and classification models, they may not possess the right skills required for effective employee performance. In addition, there are also reports that some candidates do not approve the hiring procedures, especially the lengthy two-step testing. Further, candidates cite relatively lower compensation that government agencies offer.
Given these multifaceted challenges in hiring processes of civil service workforce, it is imperative to understand how such agencies can improve on their hiring processes and other human resource practices, such as compensations and rewards. Therefore, state agencies should review recruitment, testing, selection, job classification and compensation structures with the aim of improving their processes.
Alternatives
Recruitment
Some of the state agencies have fragmented recruitment processes, which may fail to attract the right candidate for a position. Moreover, potential recruits who have associated civil service with poor career growth may not express interests in state vacancies. As older employees approach retirement age, public agencies will lose critical skills that would be hard to substitute with younger employees (Hays, 2004). Hence, civil agencies must focus on the best recruitment practices. For instance, private companies focus on earlier recruitment processes for replacement, and as part of succession planning processes. Therefore, the civil service must evaluate demographic characteristics and changes in the job market in order to create suitable solutions to their recruitment initiatives (Llorens, 2010).
Moreover, as competition for qualified candidates intensifies, civil service should also engage in competitive strategies, such as direct recruitment from institutions of higher learning. Such practices have proved quite successful in the private sector. Moreover, a few public agencies have embarked on partnership with colleges to offer training in specific skills (Llorens, 2010). This is a practice, which has allowed the private sector to recruit and develop their employees’ careers. The overall goal of civil service recruitment strategies must focus on attracting a pool of candidates who are qualified for the job.
State agencies should embrace technology, particularly social media to recruit potential candidates for various positions.
Job classification and description
Every job category should clearly define minimum qualifications required. However, tasks have changed together with job classifications. Nevertheless, public agencies have failed to review job classifications and roles of employees to reflect changes accurately. Moreover, state agencies tend to have rigid job descriptions that do not reflect today’s reality in the job market.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand that poor job classification and description may hinder civil service from hiring highly qualified staff.
Civil agencies should review job classifications and descriptions by focusing on skills, knowledge, experiences, competence and abilities required to allow employees to do the job effectively. Job classification should also indicate compensation structures for candidates. Thus, minimum qualification required must reflect the current knowledge, skills and experience that candidates should possess.
Testing and Selection
Hiring processes for civil service aid involves decentralized examination and selection processes. These processes consume time, are costly, create confusion and could fail to identify the right candidate for the job.
Therefore, public agencies need to review the complex testing processes, which may guarantee points to other candidates before they even attempt the tests. Recruitment and staffing processes should be highly competitive, should be based on merits, candidates’ personal characteristics, and ability to do the job.
Compensation
For highly competitive positions, state agencies may not have highly competitive salaries found in the private sector. While the private sector continues to review and negotiate salaries with potential employees, state agencies take considerably longer time to review their salaries to reflect the economic realities of the time. Moreover, state agencies may find it difficult to compete with private firms for highly qualified staff. In most cases, state agencies experience high rates of staff attrition because of low compensation (Hays, 2004).
Therefore, it is imperative for state agencies to review and conduct regular studies to determine the best salaries for highly competitive positions. This would ensure that they attract the best candidates and remain competitive just like their private counterparts. Therefore, public agencies should evaluate and consider salaries offered in the job market to attract and retain the best candidates and enhance employee job satisfaction (Yang and Kassekert, 2010).
Training and Staff Development
In most cases, state agencies may fail to invest adequately in training and development needs of the hired staff. This is contrary to the best human resource practices and employee career development.
It is imperative for state agencies to engage in employee training, particularly in dynamic fields like IT in which there are constant changes as new tools and knowledge emerge. Agencies that do not training their staff may not be able to have the right skills for developing, maintaining and delivering technical solutions to the public.
Therefore, state agencies must also conduct regular training to employees to enhance service delivery. Training and development would allow state agencies to hire, retain and develop their workforce’ careers and adapt to changes in the job market. Employees need to develop their skills in order to tackle new challenges, growing workloads and handle impacts of technology on their departments.
Recommendations
State agencies require robust recruitment processes that reflect practices in the labor market. They must engage and collaborate with recruit agencies and colleges to attract the best candidates.
Public agencies need to review and update their job description and classification systems regularly. Such processes would account for rapid changes in the job market, employees’ qualification and competition for talented employees. Preferably, public agencies should relate their practices with the best practices in the industry for specific jobs in order to maintain competitive advantages, salary structures, enhance recruitment, retention and career growth for employees.
State agencies need to eliminate tedious testing and selection processes. Instead, they need to develop testing and selection processes that reflect the needs of specific departments. Such approaches would enhance decision-making process when testing and selecting employees.
State agencies should conduct salary assessment regularly in order to align their compensation structures with the private sector. This would ensure that such agencies also attract and retain highly qualified staff.
Training and developing should promote skill and knowledge development in any sector. Hence, state agencies need to engage in life-long training and development practices to develop employees’ skills for better job performance and career growth. This process requires training need analysis to identify areas with knowledge and skill gaps.
Currently, the private sector has embraced social media for effective recruitment. State agencies should also adopt social media for conducting pre-interview evaluation of potential employees. This would save time and costs on hiring processes.
References
Hays, S. W. (2004). Trends and Best Practices in State and Local Human Resource Management. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 24(3), 256-275. Web.
Llorens, J. J. (2010). Human Resources Management in a Changing World: Reassessing Public Human Resources Management Education. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30(1), 112-132. Web.
Yang, K., and Kassekert, A. (2010). Linking Management Reform with Employee Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Federal Agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20 (2), 413-436. Web.
Hiring the right people to work with is often a challenging task. For varying reasons, employers prefer certain candidates over others. Generally, choosing to work with people who are similar to us has a good side as well as a bad side. This paper compares the effect of hiring a likable fool and that of hiring a competent jerk. To a large extent, managers hire individuals based on their level of competence or how likable they are.
Fool versus Jerk: Who would you hire?
While some people prefer working with individuals with a likable personality, others would rather work with knowledgeable and experienced workers, whether or not they are lovable. Arguably, some managers would not care about individuals who are great performers if such individuals are not pleased to work with (Casciaro & Lobo, 2005).
While it is generally difficult to choose between competence and likability, I agree with the authors of the article that working with individuals who are lovable has greater benefits for any organization. A critical look at the article clearly shows that solid relations at the workplace can easily be formed when management focuses on employing individuals with a pleasant personality. Without a doubt, such employees are able to work very closely with one another to ensure the realization of organizational objectives. In addition, they can collaborate quite well on joint tasks (Casciaro & Lobo, 2005). Arguably, most managers will choose not to work with a competent jerk despite the fact that such a person may be an excellent performer.
By and large, organizations rely on teams to be able to deliver effectively on work tasks. In order to create great teams in the workplace, it is important to have an environment where great relationships may be built and strengthened. The creation and development of such teams is, however, a big challenge if individuals can not socialize well. Undoubtedly, hiring likable individuals simplifies the process of creating teams that can facilitate the achievement of organizational goals. Working with individuals who are similar in the way that they look at issues also improves the decision-making process in organizations. While reaching an agreement in a diverse environment has its challenges, decision making is fast and easy, where employees are similar in their approach to issues.
According to Casciaro and Lobo (2005), an organization will prefer a competent jerk over a likable fool for various reasons. While a fool might not be very knowledgeable, it is apparently easier to get information from him or her than getting it from a competent jerk. Typically, competent jerks might know so much, but what is known to them may not be passed to any other person in the organization because of their personality. On the contrary, a fool may be happy to share with fellow employees what is known to him or her without any reservations. There are, however, drawbacks associated with hiring likable individuals. First, the overall quality of work may decline due to a lack of seriousness. There is a possibility that managers who hire people who are similar to them create a room for laxity. As a consequence, individuals may end up having so much fun and forgetting to work as expected.
Conclusion
Based on the arguments presented in the article and as explained in this paper, I would personally prefer hiring a lovable fool instead of a competent jerk. Hiring a likable fool makes it possible for an organization to create high-performance teams and simplify the decision-making process. Furthermore, ideas can be shared among colleagues very easily.
Reference
Casciaro, T. & Lobo, M. S. (2005). Fool vs. Jerk: Whom Would You Hire? Web.
The use of wasta in hiring employees is a practice that has existed for many years. Here, one can utilize a network of influential relatives and friends to obtain an advantage in securing job vacancies. While many social costs can be directly associated with the use of wasta in hiring, proponents of the system suggests a number of benefits that can emerge from the use of wasta networks (often of family relations among other people that can be trusted).
The use of wasta in hiring employees is often considered as a fruitful method in securing trustworthy employees. Candidates that often secure job opportunities through the use of wasta are usually well known individuals within a network of company managers, influential shareholders, among other individuals concerned with running the day to day activities of companies. In order to secure job opportunities for given candidates through the use of wasta, most of the individuals that we have mentioned above (managers, shareholders, among others) are often related with concerned candidates.
Considering the sensitivity of certain type of jobs (such as those that involve financial transactions), it is always useful for companies to employ people that they can highly trust. Since one way of countering the challenge of employing trustworthy employees lies in the use of wasta when hiring new employees, the method has proved useful in some hiring situations. Owners of some business companies will often find it hard to give sensitive jobs to people that they cannot totally trust (William 1973). As such, most of them will rely on the use of wasta in filling such positions. People that have secured job opportunities through wasta will therefore be expected to return trust and hard work in their work.
Since the day to day running of many private business enterprises is often influenced by the owners of such enterprises, it is quite difficult for a non connected and ordinary employee to make positive impacts in such enterprises. Usually, employees hired through wasta will often find it easy to form positive relationships with their employers; hence, they can work with a high degree of freedom, confidence, and creativity; thus, making positive impacts at their workplace. Such workers can even view their jobs as a responsibility that extends beyond their workplace to influence their relationships with members of their wasta network. Such a direction is thus fruitful in driving employees to increase productivity.
Besides, many private business owners will often view the employees that they hired through their established trust network as apprentice candidates in need of experience and skills5. Such skills are often required before employees can take up strategic roles in companies. As such, employees (who have been hired through a network of trust) can access enormous support and resources from their employers in the direction of enhancing their skills. Such an arrangement is usually helpful in placing workers that have been hired through wasta in a career environment where they can work productively as they grow.
The use of wasta is therefore helpful in hiring workers that can attain high degrees of trust, confidence, and support from their employees. Such a direction is often applicable in private business enterprises, or in situations of sensitive jobs (like in financial transactions) requiring individuals that can highly be trusted by a company management. In areas where family business enterprises are predominant (like the Emirates region), the use of wasta in hiring employees is a predominant practice too.
Although the use of wasta in hiring employees is useful in taking care of trust challenges, it is not helpful in guaranteeing a high quality employee. Since the elements of education, competence, and experience within employee candidates may be overlooked at the expense of well connected candidates, a company’s management may well end up with non competent employees. When a company employs non competent employees, the effects of such a direction will trickle down to the society. Since the matrix of employees within companies is responsible for availing a range of products and services to the society, the quality of employees is thus proportional to the quality of products and services that are availed to the society. Therefore, since the use of wasta in hiring employees can compromise the quality of products presented to the society, a social burden is thus created.
Most of the benefits that we enjoy in our society today have arisen from the efforts of a creative, talented, and a hardworking breed of individuals within our population. Great innovative discoveries which have been credited in improving our lives have often developed from the type of people that have been described above. Thus, another main problem in hiring through wasta lies in its contribution towards discouraging talent and innovation in our society (Sachs 2011). Many people will work hard and utilize their talents in the hope of gaining society rewards through securing challenging job opportunities; thus, the acquisition of fruitful resources to further their talents. However, when job opportunities are given to individuals on the basis of their influential capacity within a network of powerful persons, the capacity of talented, but non connected societal members to utilize their talents is dwarfed. Such a direction will thus compromise the capacity of our society to produce innovative products, which can be helpful in tackling some of the societal problems that we face. Because of our incapacity in utilizing our talents to improve our wellbeing, a societal cost is thus created
Moreover, by failing to equally give employment opportunities to everyone, wasta is a promoter of a non equal society. Since, it gives opportunities to people within an already rich network of well connected persons; a substantial societal segment (which includes hardworking but poor individuals) is thus left out in sharing available job opportunities. Such an arrangement will thus limit the capacity of our society to distribute wealth among all societal members. What can be expected from such a system is the perpetuation of poverty within a society: a societal cost (Sachs 2011). Moreover, a frustrated group of individuals that have failed to secure employment (due to an unjust hiring environment reliant on one’s capacity to influence a network of employers) will arise. Due to frustration, such a group may turn to illegal activities like crime. An increase of crime rates within the society is thus another social cost that can originate from the use of wasta in hiring employees. Many societal ills like insecurity, family breakdowns, drug abuse, and exploitation, among others have an origin in unemployment and poverty.
Bibliography
Owen, William. Utilitarianism: for and against. New York: University of Cambridge Press, 1973.
Sachs, Jaffrey. The end of Poverty. New York: McMillan Publishers, 2011.
Sahar, Ben. How to Live Positively. New York: McMillan Publishers, 2011.
West, Henry. An Introduction to Mill’s utilitarian ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Zauderer, Naaman. Descartes’ deontological Turn: reason, will, and virtue in the later writings. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
