Recruitment and Hiring Employees: Human Resource Hiring Process

Hiring employees needs to involve finding candidates with the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that will help the company achieve its objectives. A company cannot expect to succeed if it does not attract and retain talented employees with suitable skills and intellectual capital. By developing the job specifications and carefully screening through resumes, testing, and applications, a proper strategy should be implemented. Interviews should be tailored to the specific job, and decisions should be made on the determination of job fit, team fit, and company fit. Often it is the responsibility of the Human Resource department to hire employees effectively. By influencing who works for the company, Human Resources contributes to basic elements of the company’s success such as quality, profitability, and customer satisfaction.

The trend today is for companies to adopt Total Quality Management (TQM), a process intended to improve the company’s performance. This concept is intended to improve the way people accomplish work. One of the main elements of TQM is having quality employees. TQM achieves its biggest successes when departments, such as the Human Resource Department, improve the chance of success of the company, promoting superior strategy execution through quality employees. TQM works to make sure the company’s culture and its business philosophy permeates through every facet of the company. This means the efforts of the Human Resource Department are crucial to the company’s success. In fact, the most important part of selecting and hiring new employees is ensuring they fit well in the company’s culture and contribute directly to the company’s success. The goal is to find new employees who can further the cause of carrying out the current strategies and who can produce results that the company is seeking. Human resources must therefore know the vision, mission, strategy, and objectives of the company when selecting and hiring new employees.

It is important to know when the right time to hire a new employee is. There can be disadvantages and advantages to doing this. One way to tell it is time to hire a new employee is when it is obvious that in doing so, the company will achieve further success. The Human Resource Department must plan ahead in order to make the decision to hire new employees. Setting specific goals can measure the success of addressing labor shortages. These goals should include specific amounts which indicate whether new employees should be hired and when this should be done. The Human Resource Department has many options to resolve a labor shortage, but this must be done carefully, because surpluses can arise if too many new employees are hired. This means that forecasting should be completed.

The purpose of forecasting is to try to determine supply and demand, helping predict labor shortages or surpluses. Forecasting can use statistical methods or subjective judgment. Statistical methods usually predict more precisely than a human can. Companies usually forecast demand for specific job categories by doing a trend analysis, which involves constructing and applying statistical models that predict the future labor demand, given any leading indicators. Leading indicators include changes in the economy, the actions of competition, and/or changes in technology. Although this is an accurate measure, there should be subjective judgments of experts in order to get the clearest picture. After the company has determined the labor demand, the company’s labor supply can be obtained.

Some of the options of the Human Resource Department has to avoid a shortage are included in the table below.

A top priority in a successful strategy execution is building a capable employee base. Companies need to choose their talent very carefully. Meeting the company’s goals depends on competent personnel. This means the company must recruit and retain employees with the relevant experience and the needed intellect. The most widespread method for eliminating a labor shortage is hiring temporary employees, contract employees, and outsourcing work to employees at another company.

With a contract employee, the company does not have to pay employee benefits. They offer flexibility, because they can easily be let go when needed. However, contractors do not know the internal software programs and may need training. Their physical conduct and performance is not controlled by the company since they are not considered employees. Companies should always consult with the Human Resource Department on the legal requirements of expanding their labor force with contractors.

Temporary employment is popular, because it gives employers the flexibility they need when demand for products change rapidly, and temporary employees are cheaper. Usually, the necessary training is taken care of by an employment agency. These agencies usually require temporary employees do testing as well. The nice thing about temporary employees is that they may be able to bring outside knowledge into the company.

Outsourcing is defined as contracting with another company in order to perform a broad set of services. It can also pose challenges. Quality control, security violations, and poor customer service can make the cost savings not worth outsourcing. It is important that the employees involved in outsourcing have the skills for the position they are filling.

Once a company has determined exactly what it is looking for in the open position, it can then use resumes to investigate the best candidates. The Human Resource Department must review resumes to ensure they meet the requirements of the position, such as, education, experience, and professionalism. Resumes should be a candidate’s best work, so recruiters typically pay close attention to the details of the resume, such as, typos, misspellings, incorrect grammar, inappropriate graphics or colors, and other inappropriate things that should not be on a resume (nicknames, marital status, race, health, and gender). Red flags are also gaps in work history, and whether their work history shows a backwards career. Accomplishments and an excellent GPA are proper for a resume and typically impress recruiters.

During the pre-screening process, the Human Resource Department should ask for references, previous salaries, copies of transcripts, and salary requirements. Also, the recruiters may pay close attention to whether the candidate follows directions on the application. Other pre-screening steps that may need to be followed are drug testing, a math quiz, an Accounting quiz, a grammar test, and a variety of computer screenings.

For the interview, recruiters are very conscientious as to whether the candidate arrives on time and how professionally he or she is dressed. Recruiters often ask questions about the company and the position to see how much the candidate took the time to research the company. Also, the Human Resource recruiters may want to discuss the company, its mission, and its vision. During this time, the recruiter can observe the candidate to see if he or she is listening, taking notes, or even seems interested.

Other ways recruiters judge candidates is asking questions about their resumes to see if they know what they are talking about, seeing what questions they have and how intelligent they are, and considering if they are a good fit for the company. Once the interview is over, recruiters often do a background check, call their references, and negotiate the salary of the position. It is important for recruiters to trust their instincts in regards to potential new employees. Without a smart, capable results-oriented team, the implementation-execution process ends up being hampered by missed deadlines, wasteful efforts, and managerial ineptness. Therefore, hiring quality employees is an essential ingredient of success for the company.

The hiring process is a crucial element in obtaining an excellent staff that will help the company achieve its goals. TQM should be implemented and understood throughout the company in order to search for quality employees who will improve the company’s performance, and help the company carry out its mission. Forecasting can help recruiters know when to hire by assessing a labor shortage. At this point, the Human Resource Department must decide whether to hire contract employees, temporary employees, new hires, or to outsource the work. Resumes and applications should be carefully examined. It should be established how well the potential new hire fits in the company’s culture, whether their grades and salary requirements meet the job parameters, and how they answered the interview questions. Making sure the candidate will fill the shoes of the position in demand is a crucial element in meeting the company’s objectives. Therefore, the hiring process is a very important role for the Human Resource Department.