Management Essay Sample: Shell Company Analysis

Shell is a multinational company which is a global leader in the oil and gas industry. It was formed in 1907 and headquartered in Hague, the Netherlands while its parent company is incorporated in England and Wales. Shell offers solutions that help the world to meet energy needs in ways that are environmentally, socially, and economically viable at present and in the future. Shell has been operating in Singapore for over 100 years, and it currently hires 3,100 employees. Due to the increased demand for oil and gas, it plans to expand its operations in Singapore.

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Job Analysis

Following the companys plans to expand its operations in Singapore, there will be a need to employ 50 new chemical engineers. The new employees will help the company in coming up with innovative ideas and better solutions to the energy problems experienced not only in Asia but also globally. The recruitment of the chemical engineers will begin with a job analysis. Rao (2008) defined job analysis as an examination of job that is both formal and detailed. It involves a systematic investigation of the responsibilities, duties, and tasks that are necessary to do a job. Rao further defined tasks, duties, and responsibilities. To him, a task is work activity that is identifiable and executed specifically for a purpose. Duty is a larger segment of work that comprises several tasks that are accomplished by an individual. Job responsibilities are obligations to implement certain tasks and duties.

In implementing this job analysis, the main goal is to identify what the employees (chemical engineers) do in their jobs and what they need to do their job successfully (Bohlander & Snell, 2010). A structured questionnaire will be designed to gather all the information required in the job analysis. The process of job analysis will involve five major steps: organizational analysis, identification of the position to be analyzed, a collection of job analysis data, preparation of job description, and preparation of job specification (Rao, 2008). The organizational analysis will be performed to get an overall picture of the different jobs in the organization, relationships between jobs, organizational objectives, and linkages between various jobs and their contribution to not only efficiency but also the effectiveness of the organization. Workflow and organizational charts will be used. This job analysis will be about that of a chemical engineer. Data to be collected for job analysis will involve personal qualifications, desired behavior, and characteristics of the job. There are various methods available for data collection: job performance, personal observation, critical incidents, and interviews, panel of experts, diary method, and questionnaire (Rao, 2008). Preparation of job description will involve a detailed description of the job contents regarding operations, responsibilities, functions, duties, and so forth. A job specification will involve the conversion of the statements in the job description into a job specification. The job specification will comprise a written statement of personal characteristics regarding experience, traits, training, and skills needed to carry out the job.

Job Design

According to Grobler et al. (2006), job design is a manipulation of relationships and functions, and also changing the content of a job in such a way that not only satisfies personal needs of the job holders but also accomplishes organizational goals. Job design is concerned with structuring jobs to improve both organizational efficiency and employee job satisfaction (Bohlander & Snell, 2010). In this case, the organizational goals of Shell are to increase innovation, productivity, and generate better solutions while the individual needs of the job holders, the chemical engineers are safety, health, and motivation (job satisfaction). Job design influences the way work is to be performed. Consequently, it also affects how employees feel about the job, the amount of authority they have, the quantity of tasks they need to accomplish, and how much decision-making they need to perform on the job. During the design of this job design, some of the crucial partners include line managers, other HR professionals, and company employees.

Job design in the company will be carried out by changing, modification, and enrichment of jobs done by chemical engineers to capture the talents of potential employees while also improving the organizational performance of Shell. For example, there is a need to eliminate unnecessary job tasks in jobs currently done by chemical engineers or come up with a better way of performing work. The job design that will be carried out will largely focus on achievement of organizational objectives, ergonomic considerations, behavioral concerns, and industrial engineering concerns, as outlined by Bohlander and Snell (2010). Further, the job design will also recognize the capabilities of the employees (the chemical engineers) who will be performing jobs. To address the behavioral concerns, two methods will be employed: job characteristics model and job enrichment model. The two models have been widely employed to increase job satisfaction among employees. Ergonomic considerations include provision or design of tools in the workplace that can be easily used by human beings and also help in minimizing inconvenience as well improving safety. It has been found that there are over 1.8 million workplace injuries due to bending, lifting, and typing resulting in medical benefits, absenteeism or wasted time, and lost productivity (Bohlander & Snell, 2010). The ergonomic aspect of job design for chemical engineers will ensure that jobs they will perform will be designed to be safe and efficient while also improving safety, performance, and comfort of the employees.

Recruitment Strategies

To get employees to work in the company, the company will have to recruit them. There are various methods of recruitment that the company will utilize to fill the gaps created by the expansion strategy. These include employee referrals, use of placement consultants, outsourcing recruitment, headhunting, and online recruitment (Dhar, 2008). Each one of these strategies has pros and cons. Online recruitment, also known as e-recruitment or internet recruitment, is increasingly becoming a popular choice for many companies. A survey conducted by Parry and Tyson (2008) revealed that some of the major reasons why companies prefer online recruitment to traditional methods of recruitment are b accessibility of a large pool of candidates, cost effectiveness, speed of hiring, ease of use by candidates, and ease of use by the organization. Considering the number of employees and their seniority level, the company is going to utilize online recruitment. The company has been successfully using e-recruitment for a very long time and therefore the use of this method will not cause a lot of challenges

The online recruitment strategy suggested for this process goes beyond posting an advertisement on the companys website and then waiting for the potential candidates to submit their applications through the e-mail. Instead, the recruitment process is made much more effective by utilizing the power of a database that is integrated with a web interface. The entire online recruitment process will be managed in such a way that it can deliver considerable savings due to its efficiency. The use of the online platform will result in many benefits. Social networking sites have been found to be useful during job search activities as well as attracting and screening applicants (Nikolaou, 2014). The e-recruitment platform will facilitate faster transfer of information over geographically dispersed locations as well as sites, and it will reduce the number of transactions required for each candidate. The online process will also eliminate the need to use the traditional bulky application packs and thus save postage as well as time spent organizing envelopes. When there are changes, the information can be easily updated. Online recruitment will also free up HR staff as well as managers to focus on their priorities of frontline service delivery. The online strategy will also save a lot of advertising costs since there will be no need to advertise the job in various media (Magoon & Aubin, 2007). The online method is programmed in such a way that it captures data efficiently and therefore facilitates generation of critical performance measurement information such as conversion rates, success rates, diversity of the applicants, and so forth. The online method enhances the companys perception among the potential job applicants. By utilizing technological solutions in activities such as recruitment, it portrays the organization as modern and professional, and therefore it can attract forward-looking potential applicants who become interested in working with the company. To exploit the power of the corporate website, there are some things that need to be modified. The job posting will be made easy to locate by using a simple navigation scheme.

Selection Strategies

Selection of a candidate to hire involves identifying the final applicant who manages to go beyond the interview stage. The stage of selecting a successful candidate is done following the completion of the interviews. At this stage, the recruitment committee will assemble to discuss the interviewees. In this case, a search committee evaluation tool will be used not only to justify decisions but also make them as objective as possible. Documentation used during the interviews will be used to demonstrate a selection decision. The reason why documentation will be used is to make sure that the best candidate for the position has been selected by qualifications. During the selection process, there are some activities to be carried out. These include carrying out reference checks to obtain information regarding a candidates behavior as well as work performance from previous employers (Deb, 2006). Such information could be critical for decision making regardless of the candidates abilities, skills, and knowledge. Usually, a candidate's past performance is a good predictor of future success. The references will have to be obtained from previous and current supervisors who can provide more information about the candidates job performance. The reference check should not be ignored because a hiring mistake is very costly regarding wasted time, money, and energy. It is also important to verify some information with referees to avoid being subjected to unnecessary legal consequences. For example, if a staff member gets involved in harmful behavior which has been clarified during reference check, the company might be held to be legally responsible for carrying out negligent hiring.

References of the candidates who made it to the final stage will be contacted just before giving them an offer. Information that is derived from the process of reference check will be considered as part of the overall decision-making and should also carry considerable weight. If possible, the candidate should supply signed copies of previous performance reviews. In circumstances where the candidates current supervisor is not available, the HRs should be contacted for further discussion. Conducting reference checks may involve a comparison of various methods. One method is to perform an online reference because of its advantages such as speed, cost effectiveness, relationship with the area, and customized solutions (Anand & Chitra, 2016). Reference checks can also be done on the phone. In this case, there is a need to prepare carefully such as familiarizing oneself thoroughly with information. It is also important to set up an environment that motivates the referee to respond honestly, willingly, and honestly. There is a need to descri...