Question

Explain the role of HRM in Recruitment, Selection and workplace training.

Answer 1

Human resource management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. HR should therefore provide us with the concepts and techniques that we need to carry out the “people” or the personnel aspects of our management job.

• RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:

Selecting the right person at the right time for the right job, shall ensure efficiency in the Organization’s performance. In this regard, recruitment is related to other human resources activities within the staffing function in many ways.

There are primarily two forms of recruitment: internal and External.

Due to the internal recruitment, with more conveniences and lesser hassle, the recruitment process could be organized to screen and consider the candidates for specific positions as compared to the external recruitment process where either there is a need to hire an external agency to organize the recruitment drive or to employ additional workforce from the Organization itself to recruit externally, but by putting burden upon the resources relatively more owing to the choices of venue, strength of the external candidates, etc. Moreover, since the internal recruitment could be conducted faster, it saves upon time and thereby time being money, the costs are also relatively lower. In addition, money spend on advertising would also be negligible owing to internal circulation of the recruitment notification itself.

The factors affecting the job recruitment as under:

• The Recruitment Policy of the Firm
• The Planning activity of the overall Human Resource Department for the Organization
• The strength of the Firm and its size of operations
• The financial cost involved in the Recruitment process and the budget allocated for the same
• When there is not much of a need to employ additional personnel from the external sources, etc.

Recruitment can supersede, for example, the function of Job analysis for the selection of employees. Therefore, for the selection process, Job Analysis is the procedure that is used for determining the duties and skill requirements of a job and the kind of person who should be hired for it. Hence the key role of Job analysis is analyzing, describing and providing specifications in terms of

• Determining duties and skills
• Listing job duties, responsibilities, reporting, conditions, supervision
• “Human requirements”

In the recruitment activity, keeping on mind the Job analysis, firstly, an HR manager must collect information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning, selling, teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and when the worker performs each activity. Next, the Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids should be considered. This category includes information regarding products made, materials processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services rendered (such as counseling or repairing). Then there should be an analysis of the Performance standards. The employer may also want information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance). Management will use these standards to appraise employees. Next phase would be the Job context. Included here would be the information about such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule, and the organizational and social context—for instance, the number of people with whom the employee would normally interact. Information regarding incentives might also be included here. Human requirements would be the next step. This include information regarding the job’s human requirements, such as job-related knowledge or skills (education, training, work experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, physical characteristics, personality, interests).

In this manner, Job analysis information could help the Recruitment process within staffing and selection.

Recruitment thus helps in improvising the overall Organizational culture through the attempt of creating a dedicated workforce and facilitating various other HR functions through the core process of recruiting worthy employees for the organization who have the potential to learn and grow and perform for the Organization.

• TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The next HR role would be in the functional area of Training and Development. The term training refers to the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as a result of the teaching of vocational or practical skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, and performance, while Development is an act of improving by expanding or enlarging or refining. It is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance. It is also viewed as a life-long goal and experience.

Training in an Organization is essential due to:

• Creating a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organization.
• Enhancing the company's ability to adopt and use advances in technology because of a sufficiently knowledgeable staff.
• Building a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company's competitive position and improves employee morale.
• Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.
• When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
• To "benchmark" the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort
• As part of an overall professional development program
• As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization
• To "pilot", or test, the operation of a new performance management system

The generic steps for Training are:

• Organizational Objectives
• Training Needs Assessment
• Set Training Objectives
• Select the Trainees
• Select the Training Methods and Mode
• Choose a Means of Evaluation
• Evaluate the Training Program

Various methods of Training and Development are:

• On the job training

- Induction Training

- Job Instruction Training

- Coaching and Mentoring

• Job Rotation ( Eg. Jump seating)

Off the job training

• Role Playing
• Lecture Sessions
• Case Studies and Incidents
• Conferences and Seminars
• Committee Assignments

Certain areas of Employee training include the following:

• Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs.
• Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.
• Customer service: Increased competition in today's global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
• Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
• Ethics: Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today's diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.
• Human relations: The increased stresses of today's workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can help people to get along in the workplace.
• Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.
• Safety: Safety training is critical where industrial safety is concerned like working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc.

Training and Development therefore reaps the following general benefits:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
• Increased employee motivation
• Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
• Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
• Increased innovation in strategies and products
• Reduced employee turnover
• Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training
• Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training, product launch etc.