MODULE TWO ASSIGNMENT TWO
Question 1
Part of the overall process of recruitment and selection is consideration of internal or external recruitment. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two strategies.
Professor Rodger’s seven point plan and Munro Fraser’s five fold grading system are used in recruitment and selection. For what purpose are they used? Should they be adhered to carefully or used as guidelines? Explain your opinion.
Answer 1
Internal Recruitment entails hiring from within the organisation
Advantages of internal recruiting The organisation and the employee are already familiar with each other i.e. employee’s work ethic, organisational culture, staff value preposition, employee engagement methods and organisational vision, mission and objective.
While there will be a learning curve, the on-boarding process is likely to be faster with an existing staffer than with an outside hire.
Increased morale and retention within the rank and file of the organisation because other employees will see that there is room for advancement and reward for a job well done creating a sense of security for other employees which may even lead to an increase overall productivity of the organisation.
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There will be continuity of operations because the chances that an internal employee will transition into the new role with minimal downtime is very high.
Form an HR onboarding perspective, there will be less paperwork to be done because all information about the employee is known to the organisation already.
Disadvantages of internal recruiting
Internal recruitment, a fresh perspective on how things are done might be curtailed
It limits the pool or resource the organisation may choose from particularly it is looking for a specific skill set or qualifications.
In small organisations, promoting one person over another may lead to potential animosity among the ranks can create a discord in the workplace that may affect the organisation.
It could lead to stagnation because the organisation run the risk of maintaining a status quo that doesn’t allow for new ideas or direction.
The position occupied by the employee before taking up the new role has to be filled, so the whole process has a ripple effect down the ladder of the organisation if it decides to strictly recruit internally until it gets to a stage where it may have to bring in a new people at entry point.
External Recruitment entails hiring from outside the organisation
Advantages of External recruitment
External recruitment brings in new talent and new ideas to the organisation which may make it stay competitive.
There is no limit to potential employees you can screen/interview because the organisation greater pool of candidates, thus the chances of finding that right person for the job is high.
It allows the organisation to be exposed to a more diverse set of skills and experiences.
It is less likely to cause resentments with your current team.
Recruiting fresh talent from the outside may allow the organisation to target the key players that makes its competition successful thus give it insight into what the competition is doing to be successful
Disadvantages of external recruitment
Recruiting externally is typically time consuming and a more expensive process than hiring within the organisation
Employee morale may be damaged because current employees may feel that their chance of career development within the organisation is lessens. This may lead to a decline in productivity.
In external recruitment, it is usually more difficult for the organisation to assess the candidate because it has no prior direct experience with the candidate. Thus, it may have to take a risk and rely on the references provided by the candidate.
The onboarding process of the externally recruited employee is usually longer because it takes more time to train and get the external candidate accustomed to the organisation system and processes
It may be difficult to decipher from the candidate’s information if he/she will fit into organisation’s culture or if his ideas will integrate with existing ones and not lead to conflict with current employees.
Professor Rodger’s seven-point plan Munro Fraser’s fivefold grading system
Physical make-up: appearance, bearing, speech, health. Impact on others: appearance, physical makeup, speech
Special Aptitudes: dexterity in the use of tools. i.e. manual, mechanical, words (written and oral) Acquired qualifications: awards, education, vocational trainings
Interests: social, practical, intellectual, constructional, physical activities, hobbies Innate Abilities: ability to comprehend and learn fast
General Intelligence: intellectual capacity Motivation: success rate, consistency in following through desire, individual achievements
Circumstances: any special demand attributed to the job i.e. ability to Travel or work late nights Adjustment: team player, ability to cope with stress, ability to manage pressure, ability to get along with people, ability to adapt to change
Dispositions: steadiness, self-reliance, dependability, composure, team spirit Attainment: experience, qualifications, certifications, awards and accolades. It will be observed that the two framework outline qualities that are desirable and essential while looking at requiring the best person for the Job. However, it is my opinion that these recruitment and selection frameworks are somewhat outdated now. A closer look at some of the outlay of the framework appears have the potential of being discriminatory e.g. physical make-up, but nevertheless they continue to form the basis of many person specifications in current use as it is common to differentiate between requirements that are essential to the job and those that are merely desirable.
Question 2
Apply your knowledge of communication processes and communication barriers to identify risks of ineffectiveness – and how that might be avoided in any two of the following contexts:
Team briefings
Team meetings
Presentation of the benefits and disadvantages of suggestion schemes
Negotiation of flexible hours for personal reasons
Use of work-based examples will be well rewarded
Answer 2
From my knowledge of communication process and barriers, I believe that the risk of ineffective communication be a breakdown communication between both parties. This occurs when both parties fail to deliver or process the received message. In the event where there is no continuous sending and response in communication, the parties risk not understanding the idea of the others is trying to communicate and thus cannot co-operate. This may lead to team disharmony, misinterpretations of messages and conflict in the workplace.
For communication to be effective, the follow assertions must be considered
All communication barriers i.e. language barriers, must be removed
Questions like what, when, why, how and to whom the communication is meant for must be answered
Level of comprehension/IQ level of the receiver must be considered
Using a work-based example
Team meeting
As the team lead of Notore Admin/employee relations department, I was given a mandate to reduce production overhead of by 20%. I understood that this reduction in expenditure is equal of 40 employees’ salary, it was important to explain the gravity of this situation to my team members. So, I decided to have for a team meeting with the HR Team and all line managers. To avoid the risk associated with ineffective communication, knowing that the comprehension level and attention span of my team members were not the same as the team is a mix of very busy individuals ranging from mid management executives to entry level executives of Notore and whose office location were different from that of the head office where the venue of the meeting was intended to be held, I decide to send a memo via the teams official intranet, hand deliver a hard copy of the memo to their offices and give each member a call to brief them about the meeting, its agenda and answer any query they may have.
Reflecting on the feedback I got form the team, I decided to use the key phrase “looking at optimising Organisational budget, a remedy to employee termination” to capture team members’ attention. I explained the difficulties faced within the last fiscal year due to wasteful expenses which were incurred by divisions within the organisation and highlighted the board’s mandate to reduce the production overhead by 20% which may result in terminating 40 employees’ contract or implementing a pay cut to employees across board. Then, I outlined the possible implication of the action on the organisations productivity and suggested some guiding principles which may erode wasteful spending within the next fiscal year. After a series of questions and deliberation, the meeting resolved to abide by these principles. At the year of that fiscal year, expenditure was cut down by 18% and profit realised by the organisation increased by 30%.
Team Briefing
There was a time during my employment with ASSBIFI when an opportunity to achieve a desirable result which will ensure that I surpass my mandated target for the year presented itself. The problem then was that I did not have all the desired skillset to fully optimise this opportunity. So, I decided to invite three other colleagues whose strengths were in the skillset I lacked. After explaining the idea, what needed to be done and benefits from completing the task together, we all agreed to form a team. The beauty of the team was that, at every stage we get to, a leader naturally emerged base on what needed to be done at the time and which team member’s strength was most suited for the task. The challenge we faced was that we were situated in different departments and different locations of the organisation. However, decided to use, emails, phone, video communication (skype, facetime) to brief each other about the progress we made while we recourse to having our team briefing every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month at the head office. During our briefings, the team lead of that stage of the project explains all the progress project had achieved and assign task to each member while the team agrees on a deliverable date. Question were asked, and clarifications were made. The results achieved at the end of the project which led to the adjournment of the team marvelled us and the organisation.
Question 3
Job design is defined by L.E. Davis as:
“The specification of the contents, methods and relationships of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organisational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder.”
Recent UK surveys indicate that employees who work from home are happier in their work and more likely to stay with their employer.
Describe examples, from experience or from study, of circumstances where L.E. Davis’ definition is not true. (6 marks)
Identify and explain briefly the elements of the above definition which are in accordance with the home-worker’s experience. (6 marks)
Why do businesses increasingly encourage home-working and what problems are faced by line managers?
Answer 2
I remember a colleague named Tolu who was a middle aged African, known to be full of energy and his naturally positive aura which made people around him better versions of themselves. This characteristic was my deciding factor when he asked to join my team. Two months into joining my team, he became a shadow of himself and he would always put in requests to work from home which was not bad, but I discovered that the quality of his work had diminished and that the other members of the team were disgruntled by the fact that he was never in the office. This was very dishearten. I tried all reinforcement tactics that I knew to get him back to his best, but none worked. So, I decided to have a heart-to-heart conversation with him. He resisted at first, but later confided in me that some of the team members were harassing him and that he had some personal family issues going on, all of which has knocked down his confident on the Job. We discussed how he can get his confidence back, suggested that the he see the counsellor and then laid down a plan to catch the culprits. The plan was successful, and the culprits were dealt with according to the policy of the organisation. David became better version of himself and the team learnt a valuable lesson from the incident.
The above definition explains a job design method that embraces the contract relations between the employer and employee that suits them and reflect a work-life balance model. This is also called flexible working which is a way of working that suits an employee’s needs while still deliverable his/her quota to meet organisational goals e.g. having flexible start and finish times or working from home.
Todays’ workplace has embraced this job design where employers engage worker off their main locations using information technology i.e. telecommuting like video conferencing, telemarketing, etc this allows employees work from home and if they need to come to the office the employer engage them using hotdesking which allow an offsite employee to use available work desk/station when they come in the office.
Businesses increasingly encourage home-working because of the following reasons
It can help retain the organisation keep working parents especially those who need to give specific attention with their children.
It helps reduce commuting time, avoid traffic, stress of commuting to the workplace and cost of fuel
It gives the employee a feeling of personal control over schedules, work environment which can allow then to take a break when they feel burnout due to work overload thus making employee less stress and more motivated to achieve set organisational goals
It allows the employer to divert funds saved on office space and other work facility to other core areas of the business
It gives employees a better work/life balance which is induced by less work-related stress
However, this job re-engineering approach do not come without its cons some of which are
It becomes very difficult for line-mangers to supervise the works of the employee effectively and this could lead to a possible deterioration in employees work quality.
The organisation will be face with high cost of telecommuting which can be very expensive
There could be a risk of information lost and/or theft due to high cyber crime
Manage request for flexible working can be very cumbersome and could lead to a demoralised workforce
Team cohesion may be at risk because employees are most times self-engage
Question 4
Read the scenario below and answer the questions which follow:
David is one of four commercial assistants in an office. He comes to work on time; takes the allowed hour for lunch; and leaves at the proper finishing time of 5 pm. He does the work set for him, adequately but slowly, and he never seems to have free time. He doesn’t volunteer for additional work or for overtime when it is required.
When pressure of work increases, David’s manager must manage that increase among three of the four staff. This irritates him. The staff contract of employment includes a clause requiring employees to carry out “any additional work which can reasonably be required of them”.
Which applications of HR theory would you advise David’s manager to consider and how would you avoid an adverse impact on the other staff? (13 marks)
What are the legal and ethical considerations of carrying out a preliminary disciplinary interview with David?
Answer
I will advise David’s use both the positive and the negative reinforcement HR strategies
I will advise that the manager train all his staff on how best they can get the job done and the try to the build team cohesion while advising him to also reward performance openly. Using open reward for performance i.e. staff of the week, gifts, financial rewards, etc as a Positive reinforcement system will certainly motivate David’s colleague, increasing their morale on the job and it may also motivate David to change his attitude to work.
I will advise the manager to reengineer David’s work like allow him flexible working schedule, job enrichment, rotate to another job, etc to see if this would spark him up on the job.
If this method does not work, I will advise the manager to have an informal private discussion with David and subtly stir up discussion that may make David open-up about his action and see where there is a reason behind his work-to-rule action. Then the manage could use a Praise sandwich where he praises David for his dedication to work outlining some of the projects he complete and using constructive criticism to explain how he can improve his performance on the job while reminding him of that his contract of employment includes a clause requiring employees to carry out “any additional work which can reasonably be required of them” than praise him on the efforts he has put into the job thus far. Then he should draw out a plan with David to aid his performance and inform David about the lifecycle of the plan.
From the discussions with David and given him tell to readjust, if the manager still observed that David is unrepentant about the way he does his job then I will advise the manager to use negative reinforcement strategies by taking him through disciplinary procedure. Giving oral warnings, first written warning and final written warming all, of which must be to allow David to change his attitude to work.
I would also advise the manager to ensure proper documentation of all this events and process and that it must be in line with the employee handbook of the organisation if they have one and the ACAS code peradventure David is dismissed and take the case to employment tribunal claiming that he was wrongfully dismissed.
The legal and ethical consideration of carrying out a preliminary disciplinary interview with David
The manager must consider that this is not a major case of misconduct and thus should have subtle discussions with David about how to improve his performance.
He must have informed David before hand of what their interview is about
He must be careful not to turn the informal meeting with David to a formal one. In the event the discussion gets serious he should adjourn the meeting while informing David that the matter will be discussed at a formal meeting.
His actions, words and body language should not judgemental of have a bias inkling toward David and he should try to make David as comfortable as possible.
He should take notes.
