Executive Summary

Human resource management is one of the pillars on which stands the foundation of any and every organization. It deals with various aspects of organizational structure and looks into several organizational policies thereby playing a vital role in strategic planning of an organization. Though human resource management is a vast topic, job analysis and recruiting processes are highly significant. Thus, through this weekly summary, this paper will answer various discussion questions pertaining to the same. This essay will look at Ford pertaining to the organizational infrastructure including recruiting procedures, job descriptions, its elements, classifications, job analysis and methodologies as well as elements has a major scope in the corporate world. However, what I found the most important as well as the most interesting and pragmatic sub topic through this week’s learning experience is all about performance appraisal or performance evaluation.

Performance appraisal is a “distinct and formal management procedure used in the evaluation of work performance” (Introduction: Performance Appraisal) or as the detailed definition of the procedure suggests, performance evaluation a structured formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor, that usually takes the form of a periodic interview (annual or semi-annual), in which the work performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with a view to identifying weaknesses and strengths as well as opportunities for improvement and skills development” (Introduction: Performance Appraisal). Hence, the importance of performance evaluation becomes obvious and can be applied to our organization through various methodologies including graphic scale, checklist, forced choice, ranking, paired comparison, forced distribution, MBO, and BARS (Dessler, 2000) as well as with the aid of incentives, bonuses and word of appreciation and a pat on the back. Research by Luis et al. (2001) suggests that performance evaluation when applied adequately can reap massive fruitful results including improved customer satisfaction diffusing from employee satisfaction, ameliorated work performance and product quality, ease in retaining trained and diligent work force and so on and so forth.

Business Strategy Review:

Ford Motor Company is a global corporation made up of the world’s most recognizable cars, trucks, and Suv’s (www.fordmotorcompany.com). It consists of eight major companies that can be separated into three categories based on their origins. First there is Mazda, which comes from Japan. Next we have the American automotives, which are Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. The third group consists of European cars, and they are Land Rover, Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Volvo. Together they make the Ford Motor company the world’s second largest manufacturer of cars and trucks. The Japanese company offers consumers a wide range of prices, because of this people of all economical stature buy their products. Together the three American companies provide the same price ranges. Finally, the European line is strictly for the high rollers. In this essay, I have researched these eight companies and found that the reason for the Ford Motor Companies success lies within the fact that they have all the consumer groups covered. The only company in the first group is Mazda. For the less financially endowed, they have the Protege, and the 626.Those with a little more money might go for the luxury of the Millenia, or perhaps the Miata if they are looking for a sportier car. Mazda also makes a minivan, for all the soccer moms and large families, called the MPV. Price ranges for all of these automotives come from $12,000 and go up to $33,000. The second group also covers the price ranges fairly well. Ford takes care of the cheaper cars with it’s Focus and Escort, which go for $11,000-12,500. The Explorer is the most purchased SUV in the world, probably because it’s right in the price range of most working Americans at $16,000-35,000 (except for teachers of course). One of the most popular cars that Ford produces is the Mustang, it’s got a legacy in America that is backed up by the thousands of people who purchase it ever year, most of which are males that have been blessed with money at an early age. A Mustang starts at $21,000 and goes up to $32,000. Then we have the Lincoln, purchased by the rich retired people and the Mafia. All the Lincolns are sleek, luxurious, and expensive. These cars are large and powerful, giving both safety and comfort to their owners. Recently the Navigator was developed, and provided the wealthy people of America with an SUV of their own. At last we come to the third group. All these companies fit well together because of their prices, they are all priced over $36,000. Land Rover provides amazing SUV’s to those who have the ability to purchase them. The next three, with the addition of Lincoln, make up the Ford Motor Companies ‘Premier Automotive Group’. These three companies aim their sales at upscale consumers worldwide. The Aston Martin is known for it’s high-tech products, and it’s high prices as well. Jaguar is an amazing car that combines sportiveness, elegance, and raw power. Volvo itself stands for safety, durability, and a premium mode of transport. One cannot drive down any road without seeing a Volvo at some point. The European cars provide toys for even the wealthiest of people and back their prices by producing the most precise and breathtaking cars to hit the road.

HR Strategy

Planning and strategic decisions about recruiting include both internal and external recruiting. There are various internal sources of recruiting that work effectively to accomplish the targeted organizational goals. As Buford, Bedeian & Lindner (1995) & Zoller (1996) define, “recruiting is the process of generating a sufficiently large group of applicants from which to select qualified individuals for available jobs” and apart from the external sources including media advertising, walk-ins, public and private employment agencies, educational institutions, state agencies, government programs, direct recruiting (Lindner & Zoller), there are internal sources that are effective. These internal sources of recruiting include employee referrals and internal job postings (Lindner & Zoller). Good, experienced, trained and hard working employees when make referrals, organizations must feel obliged. This is because, employee referral is one internal source that has so far proved quite effective in the recruiting procedure worldwide. Employee referrals minimize the work load and share the responsibility with the management which otherwise remains solely responsible for recruiting the right people at the right time (Lindner & Zoller). What makes this internal source effective is the reason that those applicants that are referred by the working employees have a clearer picture of the organizational expectations, aims and vision and can shape their expectations from the organization and their duties accordingly in a better fashion than applicants that are recruited directly through other sources (Lindner & Zoller). Another very effective internal source of recruiting is internal job postings. Vacancies year round can be filled in by the working as well as the deserving employees that can be found, located and analyzed internally through the application of performance appraisal. “These vacancies may represent promotions (upward moves) or transfers (lateral moves). Posting and circulating notices of vacancies maximizes employee awareness of job openings. The notice should include such items as title, department, job summary, qualifications, and salary and should be placed on bulletin boards, announced in meetings, and otherwise communicated to employees” (Lindner & Zoller). Thus, this internal source of recruiting remains effective to date as it involves internal inspection and review of the working employees without having to tap the external sources.

Interviewing is one of the principal elements of recruiting and obviously the most crucial of all. Both the interviewer as well as the interviewee need to be well-prepared, focused, confident and most of all considerate and well- informed. However, an interviewer must have a clear knowledge what he or she can and must or should ask. The kinds of questions depend basically on the types of interviews. There are roughly and generally three kinds of interviews that classify the types of questions that an interviewer can ask the applicant during the process of recruitment (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc). These types include: (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

Ø Structured Interview (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

Ø Unstructured Interview (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

Ø Behavioral Interview (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

Hence, an interviewer can ask direct, highly focused, rigid, limited, specific and definitive questions with the aid of “Structured interviews” (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.). These questions include pointed questions that belong to a particular set of questions or are a part of the sequence. Through unstructured interviews, an interviewer can ask questions that are more “conversational” and involve a rather “give and take of information” (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.). In addition to the above, an interviewer can ask questions as classified by the behavioral interviews wherein “the interviewer will ask very pointed questions regarding how you have handled specific kinds of situations, or how you would anticipate dealing with the kinds of challenges presented on the job. A sample question in a behavioral interview might be “describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way” or “describe a time you dealt with a difficult customer or co-worker” (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.).

Sample questions that an interviewer may ask, include the following:

(*All questions are taken verbatim from the research sources under consideration)

What are your career goals and objectives? (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

Tell me something about yourself. (Insurance Staffing Consultants Inc.)

What do you see yourself doing five years from now? (Mulligan)

How do you make yourself indispensable to a company? (Mulligan)

What’s your greatest strength? (Mulligan)

What’s your greatest weakness? (Mulligan)

Tell me about a time when your course load was heavy. How did you complete all your work? (Mulligan)

Tell me about a time when you had to accomplish a task with someone who was particularly difficult to get along with. (Mulligan)

How do you accept direction and, at the same time, maintain a critical stance regarding your ideas and values? (Mulligan)

What are some examples of activities and surroundings that motivate you? (Mulligan)

Tell me how you handled an ethical dilemma. (Mulligan)

Tell me about a time when you had to resolve a problem with no rules or guidelines in place. (Mulligan)

However, where there are certain guidelines for interviewers for asking the possible questions that can be termed as positive. Interviewers must be very careful regarding the critical as well as responsible job that they are shouldering. On the same account, interviewers must not ask certain questions that should be avoided. These interview questions include those questions that might provoke the interviewee. In addition to the above, questions that are capable of or have even a slight probability of providing a cultural clash or serve as communication barriers or are too personal must not be inquired by the interviewee who is the prospective employee of the company. Questions that are capable of compelling the applicants to get off the track and get offended or burst out must be avoided at all costs. Discriminatory questions or questions that reflect the interviewer’s bias or prejudice or suggest offensive remarks or the “system’s” prejudice must be avoided at the time of the interview. Moreover, in case of the interviewer and the interviewee belonging to different genders, questions that suggest gender discrimination thereby arousing sentiments of resentment must also be avoided. Thus all sorts of questions or statements that have even the slightest possibility of creating negative emotions including irritation, mental disturbance, feelings of resentment, hatred or might offend (and so on and so forth) the interviewee must be avoided by the interviewer during the process of recruitment that is while interviewing.

Budget: Flexible Staffing

Flexible staffing options have various advantages as well as disadvantages. Here is a list pertaining to the same:

Ø “Temporary reassignment” is one of the primary flexible staffing options. With the help of temporary reassignment, organizations can “cross-train” their employees thereby generating “generalists and specialists” (Flexible staffing Options).however, disadvantages include affected employee morale. This is because “the employee may feel that management is using him or her. Clear and positive communication is essential in these situations” (Flexible staffing Options). Moreover, “managers must monitor the assignment and determine a course of action should the assignment become permanent” (Flexible staffing Options).

Ø “Job Sharing” is another form of flexible staffing. It also has various advantages and disadvantages. Advantages include the following:

Ø Organizations benefit economically in a way that they save fifty percent of the performance incentives when employees share duties and do not hold full-time status (Flexible staffing Options). Moreover, the over time charges are also occasionally applicable and “employee satisfaction and productivity is often increased because the job structure has provided the hours needed to meet personal concerns and he/she generally has the energy and motivation to produce more in less time” (Flexible staffing Options).

Ø However, there are several jobs that cannot have a dual nature and therefore cannot simply be shared among employees. Furthermore, the “paperwork” increases to almost double when more employees are working on the similar tasks. “Job sharers would need to have similar organizational styles, be able to communicate effectively and efficiently, and work together well and if one job sharer resigns, it can sometimes be difficult to recruit another person in a timely manner to share the position” (Flexible staffing Options).

Conclusion

Hence from the above discussion, it is evident that human resource management is a vast field with a wide scope and offers a rich array of sub fields regarding personnel management as the weekly summary suggests.

Success of the recruitment plan can be gauged with the aid of constant review and weekly or bi- monthly or monthly and quite often annual evaluation of the recruitment plan. Thorough scrutiny can reveal the weaknesses and strengths of the recruitment plan thereby revealing the success factor of the recruiting and staffing strategies. The performance of the recruiters both the recently hired employees and the previously more trained employees can be used as one of the most obvious, pragmatic, clear and expedient metric to evaluate the success of the recruitment plan. Sound and professionally efficient performance of the recruiters will imply that the recruitment plan is successful. Lethargic and upsetting performance by the recruiters that might disturb the organizational equilibrium and serve as the obstacle in the path of the organization’s success can be used as the evaluation tool for the success of the recruitment plan. Moreover, review of the recruitment plan in terms of the guidelines given by various consulting firms and other organizations can also help in gauging the success of the recruitment plan.

The best way to handle a candidate’s competing job offer is to exactly know the requirements or simply put the demands of the candidate. If money is the motivator or professional prestige in terms of the designation or a fancy title is what the candidate is looking for, simply hit the point and provide him with better incentives, bonuses or an attractive package which he finds far better than the opposing firm. Moreover, look for the weaknesses of the competing firm and try to focus on your strengths and bargain accordingly both with the candidate and the competitor if need arise.

In order to make a recruiting plan work for the well-being of one’s organization, it is highly significant that ALL the strategic recruiting considerations must be addressed by the human resource managers in a recruiting plan. This is because if the strategic recruiting considerations are not addressed, chances are that the organization might fall prey to the highly competitive nature of the corporate world. With the world rapidly transmuting into a global village, firms need to be strategically sound in their recruitment procedures in order to hire the best possible employees available to the market thereby generating huge profits and augmenting customer satisfaction as well as establishing their reputation as a successful brand name. Hence, if the strategic recruiting considerations have loopholes, the organization will fail to have an experienced and well-trained as well as competent workforce essential for the accomplishment of the organizational goals.

References

1. Introduction to performance appraisal. Retrieved July 6, 2003 from: http://www.performance-appraisal.com/intro.htm

2. Dessler G (2000). Human Resource Management, Eighth Edition. Copyright 2000, 1997, 1994, 1991, 1988 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. Compilation. Copyright _ 2002 by Pearson Custom Publishing.

3. Luis R. Go´ mez-Meji´a, Balkin D. & Robert L Managing Human Resources, Third Edition. Copyright _ 2001 by Prentice-Hall A Pearson Education Company, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458.

4. Buford, J. A., Jr., Bedeian, A. G., & Lindner, J. R. (1995). Management in Extension (3rd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Extension. Zoller, C. (1996). Filling a Position in a Small Business, Extension Fact Sheet: Small Business Series, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Extension

5. Lindner & Zoller. Recruiting employees for small businesses: a little planning goes a long way. . Retrieved July 6, 2003 from: http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/1382.html

6. Interview Tips. Insurance Staffing Consultants. Retrieved July 6, 2003 from: http://www.insurancestaffing.net/interview_tip00.htm

7. Mulligan B. Interviewer’s Favorite Questions and Answers. Retrieved July 6, 2003 from: http://www.jobweb.com/Resources/Library/Interviews__Resumes/Interviewers_92_01.htm

8. Flexible Staffing Options. Retrieved July 6, 2003 from: http://www.ps.vt.edu/supervisorscorner/flexstaff/