Human Resource Management (Staffing)

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT(Staffing)

I.  Approaches to human resource management, appropriate human resource planning. Four steps of staffing.

The phrase “appropriate human resources” refers to those individuals within the organisation who make a valuable contribution to organisational goal attainment. This contribution is a result of their productivity.

On the other hand, “inappropriate human resources” refers to those organisation members who do not make a valuable contribution to the attainment of organisational objectives. Essentially, these individuals are ineffective in their job.

These steps are: recruitment; selection;training and performance appraisal.

II.  Recruitment (sources of potential human resources - internal and external, headhunting, knowing the law and the job: job analysis, job description, job specification).

Recruitment is the first step in providing appropriate human resources for the organisation once a position becomes open. Recruitment is the initial screening of the total supply of prospective human resources available to fill a position.

The purpose of recruitment is to narrow a large field of prospective employees down to a relatively small number of individuals from which one person can eventually be hired.

Many companies will try to fill a position that comes open with someone who is already a member of the organisation. If for some reason a position cannot be filled from within the organisation, there are numerous sources of prospective human resources outside the organisation.

-  Competitors.One commonly tapped external source of human resources is competing organisations.

-  An employment agency is an organisation that specializes in matching individuals seeking a position with organisations in need of them.

-  Readers of certain publications. Perhaps the most widely addressed source of potential human resources is the readership of certain publications. To tap this source, the recruiter simply places an advertisement in a suitable publication.

-  Educational institutions. Several recruiters go directly to educational campuses to interview students close to graduation as prospective human resources.

Modern legislation has a major impact on organisational recruitment practices. In order for a recruitment effort to be successful, the recruiter must reflect the laws that govern it. Modern legislation prohibits discriminatory employment practices based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. These practices include recruitment, hiring, firing, layoffs and all other factors involved in employment.

In essence, equal opportunity legislation protects the rights of a citizen to work and to get a fair wage rate, which is based primarily on merit and performance.

Finally, in order to be effective, recruiters must thoroughly understand the job they are trying to fill. A recruiter who did not have such an understanding would find it extremely difficult to attract the right organisation members.

ü  Job analysis is one procedure that can help recruiters gain this understanding. Job analysis determines which activities a job entails and the type of individual needed to perform the job.

ü  Job description is the term used to refer to these activities and

ü  job specification is the term used to refer to the type of individual needed to perform the job.

 Head-hunting is the recruitment process of desired employees for a company.

III.  Selection.

After recruiting, the second major step involved in furnishing appropriate human resources for the organisation is selection. Selection involves choosing an individual(s) to hire from all those who have been recruited.

The selection process is typically represented as a series of stages through which prospective employees must pass in order to be hired. All prospective employees are screened for such things as education and past performance in other jobs. They may be given intelligence or aptitude tests. An interviewer will talk to them and evaluate their personality, their personal ambitions and their physical appearance. Each successive stage has the effect of reducing the total group of prospective employees, until finally only the individual who will be hired remains.

IV.  Training.

After individuals have been both recruited and selected, they must be trained. Training is the next step in providing appropriate human resources for the organisation. Training is the process of developing qualities in employees that will ultimately enable them to be more productive and, as a result, contribute more to organisational goal attainment. Training in organisations can focus both on workers and managers. Training programs that focus on managers are called management development programs.

V.  Training. Performance appraisal; forms of appraisal.

After an individual has been recruited, selected and trained the task of making that individual a productive a prospective member of the organisation is still not finished. The fourth step in providing appropriate human resources for the organisation is performance appraisal.

Performance appraisal is the process of reviewing an individual’s productive activity to evaluate the contribution he or she has made to attaining organisational objectives.

Most organizations have some form of performance appraisal of their employees. The appraisals are usually carried out once a year. The manager makes an evaluation of the performance of the subordinate. This involves filling out a form or writing a report on the person concerned. After this, there is a meeting at which the two parties discuss the appraisal. A performance appraisal is a judgement on how well a person is doing his/her work.

There are many methods of evaluating a person’s performance at work.

Ø  A traditional method has been to give a ‘rating’. The subordinate’s evaluation is based on traits – qualities – that he/she shows in his/her work. Subordinates are judged on such things as knowledge of the job, reliability, initiative and sense of responsibility. The manager rates the subordinate by marking a letter or figure on a scale.

Ø  The most popular form of appraisal, in Britain and the United States, is Management by Objectives. This appraisal is based on a person’s performance, and how well he/she is achieving his/her goals. The manager and the subordinate agree on a certain number of objectives, which should be achieved in a given period of time. The focus is on results, not personality traits.

Ø  Another appraisal method is the Critical Incident Method. With this system, the manager keeps a record of goods and unsatisfactory examples of a person’s work. An advantage of the system is that the manager has to think about the subordinate’s performance throughout the year. Furthermore, specific examples of the person’s work can be looked at and discussed at the appraisal interview.