LECTURE 1 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING & EMPLOYEE SELECTION

Transcription

1 LECTURE 1 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING & EMPLOYEE SELECTION

2 Learning objectives To discuss the planning and recruitment of human resources in services We often come across following statements by the customers after getting service: Oh! I did not expect such bad behavior of employee working for a highly reputed company or I was amazed by the personalized treatment extended to me by the employee of company in spite of his / her busy schedule What is infers? 4.1 Role of human resource in services Service Employee: Direct contact with customer The interaction with the employee may influence customer's perception The vision of the firm is reflected through the employee s orientation towards service delivery system It is not only the technology and process design, but it is the person who directly contacts the customer, influences the most customers perception. Human resources are the efforts, skills and capabilities that people contribute to an employing organization (Leopold et al, 1999). Human resource is a very important asset for any service organization which can help in achieving sustainable

3 competitive advantage. In many service organizations like financial and technology based service companies, the brand value is measured according to the level of intellectual capital, human capability and commitment derived from human resources in the company Types of human resource in services The service organizations generally employ large number of people or human resource which is a significant contributor to the variable cost of organization. The human resource employed in any service industry can be of following two types. Customer facing employees or front line employees such as human servers at bank tellers. This can be further high-contact services and low contact services. Supporting employees of back office, not facing the customers, employees such as human resource professional providing recruitment and training services to colleagues. We can see a large employee base in service industry like education, consulting, telecommunications. For example, Infosys has nearly one lakh employees working all across the world. The recent challenge in managing services is the global service network, where offices of service organizations especially like ITeS are located in different regions/countries. The main challenge is to search for the perfect match between global client expectation with the knowledge, skill and capacity of a team of employees located in different offices all across the world.

4 Managing human resources and their selection is based on the roles and jobs they perform. There can be many types of service personnel based on various categories as mentioned in Table 4.1. TABLE 4.1 TYPES OF SERVICE PERSONNEL Basis of classification Background and the level of service provided Full time versus contingent Type of job or work performed Skill Customer contact Categories Professional service employees Consumer service employees Full time Subcontractors Blue collar White collar Skilled Semi-skilled Unskilled Customer contact Non- contact employees Description of categories Possess high level of education such as doctors and lawyers Provide relatively standardized services such as salesperson at retail outlet Usually get fringe benefits and other allowances Security and housekeeping Factory workers Office workers Pilots, Doctors Operating personnel or maintenance personnel in airline industry Personnel at Cash counters of any retail shops Bank tellers and air hostess Managing databases of customer details

5 4.1.3 Challenges that employee faces Any employee may face different kind of challenges in service organization. For example the stress level of a surgeon performing lifesaving surgery will be very different from the stress level of employee handling the billing counter at any super market. The challenges employee face can be organizational driven or customer driven Organizational driven Lack of resources Conflicting performance targets Nature of job in terms of stress Rewards & appraisal system Lack of resources Same person handling queries over phone and taking care of reception in some hotel. Conflicting performance targets Productive target of reducing average call handling time versus the quality service to the customer by being courteous and spending more time. Nature of Job Job performed by a lawyer with victim versus by a receptionist in some office. Rewards & Appraisal system How to define performance standards in service organization?

6 How much effort employees should put to perform? What is the amount of maximum ensured payments? Customer driven Constant presence & direct contact Each customer wants special personal treatment Customer s unrealistic expectations Constant presence of customer may put employee under pressure because customer is observing all the activities of employee. Unrealistic demand of customer is another challenge for employees. Example: A customer wants to use mobile phone in a flight while flying in air. This expectation is against the regulation of Airport Authority of any nation. 4.2 Human Resource Management (HRM) Human resource management deals in acquisition & utilization of human resources. HRM is comprised of HR planning and selection and people management as shown in figure 4.1.

7 FIGURE 4.1: COMPONENTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Human Resource (HR) planning in services Human resource planning deals in Having right number of people Representing right mix of people Located at right places & right time Aligned with organization s objectives & customer s expectations Planning in advance to strike a balance between human required and human acquired. It is the process of forecasting the future demand for employees and supply of potential employees and bridges the gap between supply and demand to address issue of shortages and surpluses of human personnel. Human resource planning in services Small service firms or large service firms

8 Objectives of people joining service firms Type of skill required Long range planning versus short range planning Front line and back end employees Examples of HR planning in services Small kiosks of Frankies need 2-3 persons per kiosk whereas a big hospital needs doctors, nurses and administration. Long term goal to be in one company or just short term plan with part time job. Specialist as in beauty saloon or a security guard. Fast food employees hiring can fall under short range HR planning versus HR planning in Airlines with long range focus HR planning based on customer contact In services the planning of human resources and hence recruitment and selection procedure is highly dependent on High contact and low contact services Customer contact is the percentage of time a customer spends in service system. Example: Low contact services can be seen in banks whereas high contact services can be seen in hotel industry and education. High contact services are difficult to control because of longer customer contact hence requires greater interpersonal dynamics. Frontline and back office employees The front end part of services where customer comes into contact or the service system accessible to the customer

9 The part of service system hidden from access and view of customer is back end services, which enables the front end services of service organization. For a successful service, both front end and back end services have to be performed with utmost care. Example: In any restaurant employees working in the kitchen or employees responsible of procuring raw food items are back end employees. Any delay in food preparation or quality of food will influence the quality of service regardless whether the back end employees come in contact with customers or not. The type of skill that is interpersonal and technical skills for front end and technical skill for back end employees are very important to consider while recruiting a service employee Issues and challenges in HR planning in services High attrition rates Depends on the employee satisfaction, motivation and leadership of the organization High degree of customer interface Skill and expertise required and the discretion given to the employee Managing cultural diversity Global presence serving region specific client. Forecast human resource requirements as shown in Figure4.2 considering Length of planning horizon

10 Constraints like overtime limitations, service capacity and cash flow in service organizations. FIGURE 4.2: FRAMEWORK OF FORECASTING HUMAN RESOURCE NEEDS Employee recruitment and selection Recruitment Identifying and attracting people who could fill positions within the firm and then securing them as applicants based on the required qualifications. Selection

11 Select based on the clearly established criteria for the performance of the job. Recruitment and selection is very important for service organization as the kind of people selected influences the culture of organization. Example: Infosys have been collaborating with universities and building development centers to hire the bright and best human resource. We can see the steps of recruitment and selection followed by service organization in figure 4.3. FIGURE 4.3: EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCEDURE

12 4.2.5 Imperatives of selection & recruitment in services Most of services need frontline employees, which directly interact with customers. It is important to select based on Flexibility based on situations Tolerance for ambiguity Empathy Age Education Sales related knowledge Check the applicant s service orientation Abstract questioning Situational vignette Role playing Methods of recruitment Direct recruitment method Companies visit various Universities and campus to interview potential employees face-to-face. The information regarding job profile and expectations from the employer is shared. It is adopted mostly where technical and professional skills are prime objective. Indirect recruitment method In this method companies advertise vacancies through media such as newspapers, magazines etc. to reach to a large pool of potential employees.

13 Companies cannot recruit and select specific professional or technical skill. Less skilled jobs for which large supply of talent is available can be explored using this method. Third party recruitment method Recruitment done through third party agencies like employment exchange, private professional and consultancy services. Examples: In India many companies assist in e-recruitments like naukri.com and monster.com. Most of the companies are going for online application forms and online assessment methods like McKinseys and Accenture, which can be inexpensive recruitment methods. The other way of recruitment can be through a good alumni network. The recruitment methods can be evaluated based on the cost of recruitment per employee hired which generally includes advertising fee, agency fee, referral bonuses, cost of conducting campus interviews and walk-ins. The other way of evaluating recruitment method is by determining yield ratio. Yield ratio is defined as percentage of applicants from a recruitment source or recruitment agency that make it to the next stage of the selection process Methods of selection 1. Asking for Bio-data or biographical note 2. Personal interviews 3. Intelligence tests to test the quality of understanding or mental ability tests 4. Aptitude test to check the ability to acquire a particular skill 5. Achievement test to measure the proficiency of applicant s acquired knowledge

14 Example: Recruitment and selection stages of software companies 1. Phase 1: Aptitude test 2. Phase 2: Technical interview 3. Phase 3: HR interview 4. Phase 4: Final Interview CASE EXAMPLE: Workforce planning and recruitment at Tesco As per Tesco, a UK based retail chain, manpower forecasting is required generally when following changes may happen in the company. 1. When company expands and opens new stores anywhere in the world 2. Vacancies are created due to resignations, retirement and promotions of the employee. 3. Changes in job processes and technology need new jobs to be created and then require appropriate skill. Planning Process Tesco starts its recruitment process at the end of February every year with quarterly reviews to adjust staffing levels and recruits. The strategic objectives of expanding with new stores and meeting customer requirements are the main inputs to recruitment planning. Workforce planning and recruitment at Tesco Recruitment and selection

15 Tesco provides a clear job description and person specifications as shown in Table 4.2 and illustration in Table 4.3. It helps applicant to know what is expected of from him/her. At the same time it helps managers to ensure whether employees are carrying out jobs with appropriate standards. TABLE 4.2: JOB DESCRIPTION AND PERSON SPECIFICATIONS AT TESCO The title of the job Job description to whom the job holder is responsible for whom the job holder is responsible a simple description of roles and responsibilities Person specifications Specifications required in a person needs to do a particular job. Skills Characteristics Attributes

16 TABLE 4.3: AN ILLUSTRATION OF JOB DESCRIPTION AND JOB SPECIFICATIONS AT TESCO Job Description Job Non-food manager Reports to Area of business Job Purpose Store manager Stores all non-food areas To drive business improvements and performance in non-food. To coach and develop the non-food team to give customers the best service. Person specification Skills Leadership skills, such as influencing others and decision making. Operating skills, such as managing staff and stock management. General skills, such as communication, planning and problem solving. (Source: workforce-planning.html accessed on 15 August 2012) CASE EXAMPLE: Recruitment and selection at Marriott Marriott international is a leading lodging company with its presence in 73 countries. Marriott follows the spirit to serve to be the foundation of Marriott culture. By spirit-to-serve means that Marriott considers their people to be the most

17 important asset. Marriott recognizes the contributions from all the employees using performance reward system. Sprit-to-serve also means that the guests or customers of Marriott appreciate quality, Consistency & Personalized service. The recruitment team of Marriott guides the potential employers regarding the recruitment process to minimize the applicant s stress. The recruitment & selection process evaluates the applicant for the following competency areas: Leadership Managing execution Building relationship Learning and applying professional expertise Generating talent and Organizational and Capability Source: