HR: Recruitment & Selection

Human Resources: Recruitment & Selection

• Strategic recruiting has become a cornerstone for companies, in which recruiting practices are developed in alignment with long-term strategic goals
• The most effective recruiters are well informed and efficient in communicating with potential recruits
• Outsourcing (external) channels for Recruitment & Selection are increasing
• Online tools are increasing in variety, like social media
• Initial selection uses "rough cuts" to decide whether an applicant meets basic qualifications, using application forms and background checks
• Substantive selection determines the most qualified applicants from basic qualifications, using written tests, performance tests, and interviews
• Contingent selection makes a final check with drug tests and medical exams before making an offer to applicants

Substantive Selection

• Written tests assess intelligence, aptitude, ability, interest, and integrity
• Performance-simulation tests have higher face validity and their popularity has increased

Interviews

• Most frequently used selection device, still carries a great deal of weight
• Structured interviews are most effective, and required by employment legislation in some countries
• Panel interviews minimize influence of individual biases and have higher validity

Trends In Recruitment & Selection

• Talent recruitment and retention involves an increasingly competitive landscape
• The focus should be on a mindset that emphasizes the importance of talent to the success of organizations

Human Resources: Training & Development

• Training focuses on basic skills, technical skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, and diversity

Basic Skills Training

• Many employers believe that graduates lack basic skills like communication and numerical ability

Technical Skills Training

• Technical training focuses on new technology and new structural designs

Problem-Solving Skills Training

• Activities sharpen logic, reasoning & problem defining
• Activities improve abilities to develop and analyze alternatives, and select solutions

Interpersonal Skills Training

• Enhancing interaction with coworkers and clients
• Teamwork and Teambuilding activities

Training Methods

• Training historically meant formal training
• Organizations increasingly rely on informal training, which is less structured & planned, and easily adapted to situations and individuals

On and Off the Job Training

• On-the-job training includes job rotation, apprenticeships, shadowing assignments, and formal mentoring programs
• Off-the-job training includes live classroom lectures, videos, public seminars, self-study, group activities, and e-training
• Increasing variety of digital training platforms known as 'E-Learning'

Trends in Training and Development

• The trend is towards a learning ecosystem

Evaluating Effectiveness of Training

• Measuring impact & ROI considers employee satisfaction, the amount employees learn, the extent to which they transfer the material from training to their jobs, or the financial return on investments in training

Human Resources: Performance Management

• Three major types of behaviour to consider including task performance, citizenship/engagement, and counter productivity (disengagement)
• Most managers believe good performance means doing well on the first two dimensions and dealing with the third

Purposes of Performance Evaluation

• Make general human resource decisions
• Identify training and development needs, pinpointing employee skills and competencies needing development
• Provide feedback to employees as the basis for reward allocations and to identify poor performers

What to Evaluate

• Individual task outcomes, behaviours, and attitudes

Who Should Evaluate?

• Traditionally, the manager evaluates, but that is changing
• Now peers, subordinates, and the employee can be involved, such as with 360 degree feedback

Improving Performance Evaluations

• Use multiple evaluators
• Evaluate selectively
• Train evaluators
• Provide employees with due process
• Monitor bias
• Give constructive feedback
• Different national cultures value different modes of performance evaluation, such as individual vs collective

Linking Performance & Benefits

• A benefit program should be suited to the organisational culture, reflect values, demonstrate economic feasibility, and be sustainable in the long term
• Benefits will likely improve employees' psychological well-being and therefore increase organizational performance, but should be distributed fairly to avoid inequity

Managing Poor Performance

• Involves mediations, redundancy, and terminations
• HR departments take center stage when unpleasant events such as disputes, poor performance, and downsizing occur
• Employees must be able to trust their HR professionals to maintain appropriate confidentiality and a balanced perspective
• Managers must be able to trust HR professionals to know the laws and represent company's perspective

Trends in Performance Management

• There is a trend towards real-time performance data

Managing Organizational Change

• Change involves making something different
• When change is an intentional, goal-oriented activity, it is planned change
• The two goals of planned change which include improving the organization's ability to adapt to changes and change employee behaviour
• Change agents are those responsible for managing change activities

Sources of Resistance to Change

• Individual sources such as Habit, Security, Economic factors, Fear of the unknown, and Selective information processing
• Organizational Sources such as Structural inertia, Limited focus of change, Group inertia, Threat to expertise, and Threat to established power relationships

Overcoming Resistance to Change

• communication, participation, building support and commitment, develop positive relationships, implementing changes fairly, and selecting people who accept change
• Avoid manipulation, cooptation, and coercion

The Politics of Change

• Change threatens the status quo, making it an inherently political activity
• Politics suggests change is more likely to come from outside change agents, employees new to the organization, and managers central to or even slightly removed from the main power structure

Kotter's Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change

• Establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is needed
• Form a coalition with enough power to lead the change
• Create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision
• Communicate the vision throughout the organization
• Empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving
• Plan for, create, and reward short-term "wins" that move the organization toward the new vision
• Consolidate improvements, reassess changes, and make necessary adjustments in the new programs
• Reinforce the changes by demonstrating the relationship between new behaviors and organizational success

Action Research Change

• A process is based on systematic collection of data and selection of a change action based on what the analyzed data indicate
• The five steps include diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action, and evaluation
• It is problem-focused and reduces resistance to change

Aims of Organizational Change

• Organizational Development (OD) is a collection of change interventions and methods that seek to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being
• OD methods value human and organizational growth, collaborative and participative processes, and a spirit of inquiry (team-building & development)
• It focuses on how individuals make sense of their work environment

Stimulating a Culture of Innovation

• Innovation is a more specialized kind of change, is a new idea applied to initiating or improving a product, process, or services
• Innovations can range from small incremental improvements, such as laptop computers, to radical breakthroughs, such as hybrid or electric automobiles

Innovative Organizations

• Actively promote the training and development of their members so they keep current
• Offer high job security so employees don't fear getting fired for making mistakes
• Encourage individuals to become champions of change
• Once a new idea is developed, idea champions actively and enthusiastically promote it, build support, overcome resistance, and ensure it is implemented

Managing a Paradox

• All management is dealing with constant change and adaptation
• Managers can learn a few lessons from paradox theory, which states the key paradox in management is that there is no final optimal status for an organization

Organizational Change and Stress

• The role of leadership in managing and communication change is critical
• Changes are stressful because employees perceive aspects to be threatening
• Employees need to see the changes as fair

Managing Stress in the Workplace

• A model of stress includes potential stressors, experienced stress, and potential strains
• Potential stressors include environmental stressors, organizational stressors, and personal stressors
• Potential strains include physiological strain, psychological strain, and behavioral strain

Managing the Balance of Stress

• Because low to moderate levels of stress can be functional and lead to higher performance, management may not be concerned when employees experience stress at these levels
• What " a positive stimulus that keeps the adrenaline running" can often be seen as “excessive pressure” by the employee

Individual Approaches to Stress Management

• Take personal responsibility for reducing stress levels
• Individual strategies include time-management techniques, increased physical exercise & adequate sleep, relaxation training (mindfulness), and expanded social support networks

Organizational Approaches to Managing Stress

• Many organizational factors that cause stress are controlled by management
• Better selection and placement, realistic targets and KPIs, redesigning or modifying task and role demands, employee involvement & voice in decisions, organizational communication, employee sabbaticals, wellbeing programs, and building resilience within organizations

Work-Life Balance & Stress

• Gained momentum since the 1980s because there are more women in the workforce.
• Covid era further accelerated conversations around Work-Life Balance
• Flexible/hybrid working, employee support programmes, accessible work-places are examples of practices that can help manage WLB stress
• Different people & different generations prefer different work-life solutions