Chapter

11

Staffing

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you will be able to:

1. Outline the human resource planning process.

2. Define job analysis, job description, job specification, and skills inventory.

3. Define equal employment opportunity.

4. Describe the recruitment process.

5. Define affirmative action plan.

6. Discuss reverse discrimination.

7. Define tests, test validity, and test reliability.

8. Discuss the different types of employment interviews.

9. Discuss potential problems in the interviewing process.

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Staffing Process

• Job analysis• Determining, through observation and study, the pertinent

information relating to the nature of a specific job.

• Job description• A written statement that identifies the tasks, duties,

activities, and performance results required in a particular job.

• Job specification• A written statement that identifies the abilities, skills,

traits, or attributes necessary for successful performance in a particular job.

• Skills inventory• Consolidates information about the organization’s current

human resources.

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Skills Inventory

• Six broad categories:• Skills: education, job experience, training, etc.

• Special qualifications: memberships in professional groups, special achievements, etc.

• Salary and job history: present salary, past salary, dates of raises, various jobs held, etc.

• Company data: benefit plan data, retirement information, seniority, etc.

• Capacity of the individual: scores on tests, health information, etc.

• Special preferences of the individual: location or job preferences, etc.

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Human Resource Issues

• Human resource planning• The process of getting the right number of

qualified people into the right job at the right time.

• Also referred to as personnel planning.

• First question: “Where are we now?”

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Human Resource Forecasting

• Attempts to determine the future human resource needs of the organization in light of the organization’s objectives.• Answers the question, “Where do we want to go?”

• Variables considered during forecasting• Sales projections.• Skills required in potential business ventures.• Composition of the present workforce.• Technological changes.• General economic conditions.

• All levels of management should be involved in the forecasting process.

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Transition

• Organization determines how it can obtain the quantity and quality of human resources it needs to meet its objectives as reflected by the human resource forecast.

• Activities pertaining to transition• Recruiting and selecting new employees.

• Developing current or new employees.

• Promoting or transferring employees.

• Laying off employees.

• Discharging employees.

• Some human resource departments now maintain a replacement chart for each employee.

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Relationship among Human Resource Elements

Figure 11.1

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Equal Opportunity Laws

Figure 11.2

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Equal Opportunity Laws (cont’d)

Figure 11.2

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Recruitment

• Seeking and attracting a supply of people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be selected. • If internal sources prove to be inadequate, external sources

are always available.

• Temporary help• People working for employment agencies who are

subcontracted out to businesses at an hourly rate for a period of time specified by the businesses.• During organizational expansion, they are used to augment

the current staff.

• During organizational downsizing, they become flexible staff that can be laid off easily and recalled when necessary.

• Disadvantage: Lack of commitment to the organization.

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Recruitment (cont’d)

• Employee leasing companies and PEOs (professional employer organizations) • Provide permanent staff at customer companies.

• Issue workers’ paychecks.

• Take care of personnel matters.

• Ensure compliance with workplace regulations.

• Provide various employee benefits.

• Provide highly skilled technical workers for long-term projects under contract between a company and a technical services firm.

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Internal and External Staffing Sources

Figure 11.3

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Legal Considerations During the Recruiting Process

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) offers suggestions to help eliminate discrimination in recruitment practices.

• Maintain a file of unhired female and minority applicants who are potential candidates for future openings. Contact them first when an opening occurs.

• Utilize females and minorities in recruitment and in the entire human resource process.

• Place classified ads with content that does not indicate any sex, race, or age preference or qualification for the job.

• Advertise in media directed toward women and minorities.

• All advertising should include the phrase “equal opportunity employer.”

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Selection

• Decision making• Human resource/personnel department

does the initial screening of recruits.

• Final selection decision is left to the manager of the department with the job opening.

• Less frequently, the human resource/personnel department is responsible for both the initial screening and the final decision.

• An alternative approach is to involve peers in the selection decision.

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Legal Considerations during Selection

• Affirmative action plan• Written document outlining specific goals and

timetables for remedying past discriminatory actions.

• All federal contractors and subcontractors with contracts over $50,000 and 50 or more employees must develop and implement written affirmative action plans.

• Monitored by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

• Reverse discrimination• Providing preferential treatment for one group (e.g.,

minority or female) over another group (e.g., white male) rather than merely providing equal opportunity.

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Suggestions for Developing an Affirmative Action Plan

Figure 11.4

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Selection Procedure

Figure 11.5

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Testing

• Aptitude tests• Measure a person’s capacity or potential

ability to learn. • Psychomotor tests

• Measure a person’s strength, dexterity and coordination.

• Job knowledge tests• Measure the job related knowledge possessed by a

job applicant.

• Proficiency tests• Measure how well the applicant can do a sample of

the work that is to be performed.

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Testing (cont’d)

• Interest tests • Determine how a person’s interests compare with

the interests of successful people in a specific job.• Psychological tests

• Attempt to measure personality characteristics. • Polygraph tests

• Record physical changes in the body as the test subject answers a series of questions; popularly known as lie detector tests.

• Test validity • Extent to which a test predicts a specific criterion.

• Test reliability • Consistency or reproducibility of the results of a test.

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Polygraph and Drug Testing

• Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 that severely restricts the commercial use of polygraph tests.• Those exempt from this restrictive law

• All local, state, and federal employees (however, state laws can be passed to restrict the use of polygraphs)

• Industries with national defense or security contracts• Businesses with nuclear power–related contracts with

the Department of Energy• Businesses and consultants with access to highly

classified information.

• Generally, a drug-testing program is on stronger legal ground if it is limited to job applicants.

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Background and Reference Checks

• Falls into three categories: • Personal • Academic • Past employment

• If an applicant is rejected due to information based on a credit or any other report from an outside reporting service, he or she must be given the contact information of the organization that developed the report.

• The reporting service is not required by law to give the person a copy of his or her file, but it must inform the person of the nature and substance of the information.

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Types of Employment Interview

• Structured interview is conducted using a predetermined outline.• Use of structured interview tends to increase reliability

and accuracy.

• Two variations of the structured interview• Semistructured interview

• Interviewer prepares main questions in advance while retaining the flexibility to apply techniques like probing.

• Situational interview • Uses projective techniques to put the prospective

employee in action situations that might be encountered on the job.

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Types of Employment Interview (cont’d)

• Unstructured interviews

• Conducted using no predetermined checklist of questions.

• Other types of interview techniques used include:• Stress interview

• Designed to place the interviewee under pressure.

• Board (or panel) interview• Two or more interviewers conduct the interview.

• Group interview• Several interviewees together in a group discussion.

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Problems in Conducting Interviews

• Interviews are subject to the same legal requirements of validity and reliability as other steps in the selection process.• Validity and reliability of most interviews are

questionable.

• Personal biases, by the interviewers can play a role in the interviewing process.• Halo effect

• Occurs when the interviewer allows a single prominent characteristic to dominate judgment of all other traits.

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Interviews

• Conducting effective interviews

• Give careful attention to the selection and training of

interviewers.

• Standardize the interview process and questions.

• Instruct the interviewer to put the applicant at ease.

• Immediately record information obtained during the

interview.

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the interviewing process.

• The final step is to make a personal judgment regarding which individual will be selected for the job.

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Transfers, Promotions and Separations

• Transfers• Involves moving an employee to another job at

approximately the same level in the organization with basically the same pay, performance requirements, and status.• Planned transfers are usually an excellent development

technique.

• Can be helpful in balancing varying departmental workload requirements.

• The most common difficulty faced is when a “problem” employee is unloaded on an unsuspecting manager.

• Promotions• The two basic criteria are merit and seniority.

• Both past performance and potential must be considered.

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Transfers, Promotions and Separations (cont’d)

• Separations• In voluntary separations, many

organizations attempt to determine why the employee is leaving by using exit interviews.

• Involuntary separations involve terminations and layoffs. • Laid-off employees are called back if and when

the workload increases.

• Terminations should be made only as a last resort.