The Role of the HRD and How It Contributes to the Organization's Strategic Goals - Paper Example

Introduction

The Human Resource Department (HRD) is a critical division of any organization. The role of the HRM is to manage people for the benefit of the organization. In more specific terms, the role of the HRM is to attract, develop and maintain the right group of employees in the organization to facilitate their efforts towards the attainment of organizational objectives. According to Wong, Tan, Ng, and Fong (2013), the presence of the HRM in an organization is crucial for the organization because it creates a friendly environment for employees to work as well as builds the culture of the organization with a view of making an organization competitive. Thus HRM contributes to the strategic goals by availing a workforce that is skilled and competent to meet the various needs of the organization in tandem with its mission.

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Purpose of the Analysis, Report and Resulting plan

Having the right employees in the organization is essential for such organization to accomplish to accomplish its goals. That is, attracting the right people to the organization is important in that it allows the HRD to easily nurture the skills and competencies of the recruits to fit its goals' framework. Finding the right talent is not only critical to the success of the organization but can as well be a cost for the organization as estimates suggest that the cost of finding and hiring a new employee is as high as a quarter of a million dollars, and this can be even more expensive if a wrong one is employed (Seseri, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of the analysis to identify the weaknesses with the current recruitment strategies and develop a plan on how such strategies could be improved for the best interest of the organization. The report will assist the HRD to attract and retain workers effectively. The report will identify and discuss two strategies and recommend how they will help the organization to achieve its goals.

Goals of the Organization and how HRD Contributes to the Attainment of these Goals

The first goal of the organization is to reduce the cost of operation by 10 percent by the end of the first half of 2019. This is expected through the adoption of more efficient practices in the organization. The HRD will contribute to this goal by attracting and hiring a skilled and dynamic workforce. These employees are capable of competently working in a fast-moving environment.

The second goal of the organization to increase the level of customer satisfaction by 10 points by the end of the first half of 2019 by leveraging on the strengths of a diverse workforce. The department will contribute to the effort geared at achieving this goal by attracting a culturally sensitive workforce and offer the necessary training to the prospective employees on how to best handle the organization's customers. This will be achieved through regular competency acquisition programs within the network of the organization's outlets.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Current Strategies Used in the Department

Currently, the department uses two major recruitment strategies to attract and retain employees in the organization. The strategies are formal interviews and company-wide referrals.

Strengths of Formal Job Interviews

Carrying out interviews out interviews allows the HRD to collect in-depth data about the candidates. It enables the interview panel get a comprehensive understanding of the candidates by learning from them verbally, enabling the HRD manages to gauge the competencies of the candidates by comparing their responses with the qualifications and skills as spelled out in their resumes (Edenborough, 2007). In getting in-depth formation, the panel is more equipped to make the right decision about the qualifications of candidates.

Strength with interviews is that it enables the HRD to collect information about personality traits of the candidates. Having excellent communication skills, for instance, means that the employee is likely to offer better customer service or gel well with other employees in forming organizational teams (Edenborough, 2007). Thus, through interviews, interviewers acquire considerable knowledge about the people skills of the candidates.

Weaknesses of Interviews

Interviews consume a lot of time and resources to conduct. The entire process of selection carrying out the interview may take a lot of time and yet fail to deliver the right. This is because some of the questions commonly asked by may not give a correct picture of the competence of the candidates (Dale, 2003). Adoption of semi-structured questions can generate more informative responses from the candidates.

Interviews may create a platform for biased responses and biased reactions from the panel. Candidates may choose to impress and not give genuine responses. Equally, interviewers can generate biased perceptions regarding the candidates thereby creating an intimidating environment (Edenborough, 2007). This can undermine the candidates' confidence and also their willingness to provide accurate information. The implication is that they such a strategy needs to be discarded.

Strengths of Company-Wide Referrals

Referrals of the best candidates are done by managers and supervisors of the current workforce. The advantage of this approach to recruitment is that it takes uses a substantially small amount of time and money to recruit the required employees (De Varo, 2016). Since it is an internal process, all is needed for the top leadership to announce the needs of the organization and task the line managers to recommend the right candidates for the required posts. Hence, it is cost-effective.

Another strength lies in the candidates' grasp the internal operations of the company. This method has a lower risk of recruiting the 'wrong' employee for the advertised position since they are recommended by supervisors who are well-informed of their competencies (De Varo, 2016). Since it reduces the cost of recruitment, the HRD needs to consider how to integrate the strategy with the new recruitment strategies.

Weaknesses of Company-Wide Referrals

Evidence from the department practices shows that the strategy does not necessarily generate the right candidates when used. This is due to skill scarcity within the workforce. This means that the department will be forced to look for skills outside the organization.

According to De Varo (2016), internal hiring limits the pool of candidates. This can as well limit the organization's chances of securing the right candidates. The implication of this is that the HRD may restrict the inflow of new ideas which is necessary to achieve the desired goals.

Suggested Changes Needed Based on the Analysis of the Current Situation

Internships

Internships can be an ideal strategy for recruiting first-timer employees. Having internship programs can enable organizations to attract raw talent and develop it for the benefit of the organization. Although the HRD may take time design such a program, it can be useful as it could enable the department to assess the ability of the candidates to fit into the organization's goals. In particular, it allows the department to examine the abilities, motivation, and interests of the candidates before accepting those (Zhao & Liden, 2011). If the interns fit in these categories, then they can be selected and coached acquire the competencies needed. As Northouse (2015) indicates, the best leadership is to bring out the best in employees and this involving coaching as well instilling the right motivation in the followers. Thus, having raw talent is an essential step towards attracting the right workforce as it enables leaders to bring the best out of the interns thereby making them vital assets of the company upon realizing that such candidates have what it takes to fit into the organization.

Designing internship programs is idea for the organization in its efforts to reduce the cost of operations as identified in the goals section of this paper. Internships create an opportunity for candidates to work at reasonably cost to the company while contributing to the overall production (Zhao & Liden, 2011). First, it reduces the cost of hiring in the sense that long process of carrying out advertising, selection, interviewing and job induction and training. Additionally, it can allow HRD to pick the right candidates hence reduce the cost associated with hiring inappropriate candidates. For an internship, by the time the HRD decides of retaining the intern as a permanent employee, it shall have assessed their qualifications and competencies through team leaders hence a reduction in the cost of hiring as envisaged in the goals.

Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment Marketing (RM) is a strategy that recognizes the power of employees in modern job placements. Today, the current job market is 90 percent candidate-driven as candidates want employers that can meet personal goals and address their interests (MRINetwork, 2015). Employers no longer have the control of who to attract in the current competitive world. RM is a strategic approach to recruitment whereby the HRD seeks to recruit the most skilled by candidates addressing their needed and preferences. It involves creating an attractive brand for the organization as an attractive career destination so that candidates can voluntarily apply. It includes techniques such as the use of social media (Jorn, 2015).

The use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can be useful in attracting a highly skilled candidate. Surveys have shown that, as of 2015, at least 84 percent of employers used social media to recruit employers (Wood, 2017). While this is the norm, it can be leveraged to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds as well as those candidates that have interests and abilities that rhyme with the goal of the company.

LinkedIn can be used to check qualifications and skills. The platform most acknowledged social media platform of sourcing candidates (Wood, 2017). However, it portrays little about the candidate other than those aspects relating to the job. Therefore, the use of Facebook and Twitter come in handy when making a comprehensive assessment of the candidates. For instance, these platforms can be used to asses candidates' interests, abilities, experiences and cultural competencies based on the activities on their social networks. Doing this would inform the HRD the interests, expectations and the ability of the prospective employees to work in a diverse in both employees and customers. As a result, the HRD can attract people who value relations, teamwork and also have good communications. The attraction of candidates with such skills and competencies can help the organization offer better customer service as well as reduce hiring costs.

References

Dale, M. (2003). A manager's guide to recruitment & selection. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page Publishers.

DeVaro, J. (2016). Internal hiring or external recruitment? IZA World of Labor. doi:10.15185/izawol.237

Edenborough, R. (2007). Assessment methods in recruitment, selection & performance: A manager's guide to psychometric testing, interviews and assessment centres. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page Publishers.

Jorn, A. (2015). New ways of personnel marketing and recruitment: New ways of personnel marketing and recruitment. Humburg, Germany: Anchor Academic Publishing.

MRINetwork. (2015). Recruiter sentiment study. Retrieved from https://www.mrinetwork.com/media/1036/2015_recruiter_sentiment_study_2nd_half.pdf

Northouse, P. (2015). Leadership theory and practice. (7th ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Sage. ISBN: 978-148331753

Seseri, R. (2018, January 29). How AI Is changin...