UNIT 2 Human rsource management enhancing hr policy

UNIT 2
THE CONCEPT OF BEST FIT EMPLOYEE
•Human Resource Planning- Importance, Forecasting and
Matching Demand and Supply
•Job analysis- Job Description and Specification
•Recruitment Importance and Sources Selection Process,
•Types of test and Interview
• Induction and Socialization- Process and Methods.

Human Resource Planning-HRP
• HRP is the process of forecasting a firm’s future demand for, and supply
of, the right type of people in the right number.
• It is only after this that the HRM department can initiate the recruitment
and selection process. HRP is a sub-system in the total organisational
planning. Organisational planning includes managerial activities that set
the company’s objectives for the future and determines the appropriate
means for achieving those objectives.
• As an integrated part of strategic management, HRP is variously called
strategic manpower planning, or employment planning.
• Robbins and Coulter says “HR Planning is the process by which manager
ensures that they have the right number and right kind of capable people
in the right places and at the right times.”
• According to K Aswathappa, “HR Planning is the process of forecasting a
firm’s future demand for, and supply of, the right type of people in the
right number.

Levels of HRP
Micro level Basics:-
1. Demand Forecasting :- Uses historical and current operations data to
identify future needs and Analyzing the current workforce to identify
potential shortage and surpluses in various job categories in future
2. Manpower supply Analysis :- Scanning the current labor market to
determine the workforce available and analyzing any gaps between the kind
of workforce needed with what is available.
3. Manpower Planning:- Set priorities and develop plans for employee
recruitment, retention and development and workforce reductions.
Macro Level HRP
1. HRP Focuses on aligning human resources administration with the
organization’s mission and overall strategic plan.
2. Examines employee-management policies and procedures and their effect
on HRM.
HRP has always a linkage with all the HR function starting from the
recruitment to Retirement.

Features of Human Resource Planning

FACTORS AFFECTING HRP
HRP is influenced by several considerations. The more important of them are:
(i) Type and strategy of organisation
The type of organisation is an important consideration because it determines
the production processes involved, number and type of staff needed, and the
supervisory and managerial personnel required.
Manufacturing organisations are more complex in this respect than those that
render services.
The strategic plan of the organisation defines the organisation’s HR needs. For
example, a strategy of organic growth means that additional employees must be
hired. Acquisitions or mergers, on the other hand, probably mean that the
organisation will need to plan for layoffs, since mergers tend to create, duplicate
or overlapping positions that can be handled more efficiently with fewer
employees.

(ii) organisational growth cycles and planning,
•Need for planning is felt when the organisation enters the growth stage. HR
forecasting becomes essential. Internal development of people also begins to
receive attention in order to keep up with the growth.
•A mature organisation experiences less flexibility and variability. Growth
slows down. The workforce becomes old as few younger people are hired.
Planning becomes more formalised and less flexible and innovative. Issues
like retirement and possible retrenchment dominate planning.
•Finally, in the declining stage, HRP takes a different focus. Planning is done
for layoff, retrenchment and retirement. Since decisions are often made
after serious financial and sales shocks are experienced by the organisation,
planning is often reactive in nature.

(iii) environmental uncertainties
•HR managers rarely have the privilege of operating in a stable and
predictable environment.
• Political, social and economic changes affect all organisations.
•Personnel planners deal with environmental uncertainties by carefully
formulating recruitment, selection, and training and development policies
and programmes.
• Balancing mechanisms are built into the HRM programme through
succession planning, promotion channels, layoffs, flexitime, job sharing,
retirement, VRS and other personnel related arrangements.

(iv) Time horizons
•there are short-term plans spanning six months to one year.
•there are long-term plans which spread over three to twenty years.
• The exact time span, however, depends on the degree of uncertainty
prevailing in an organisation’s environment.
• Plans for companies operating in an unstable environment, computers for
example, must be for a short period.
•Plans for others where environment is fairly stable, for example a university
plan, may be long-term.
•In general, the greater the uncertainty, the shorter the plan’s time horizon
and vice versa

(v) type and quality of forecasting information

• A major issue in personnel planning is the type of information which
should be used in making forecasts.
• Table 4.2 illustrates the type and levels of forecasting information useful
to personnel planners.
• Closely related to the type of information is the quality of data used. The
clarity with which the organisational decision makers have defined their
strategy, organisational structure, budgets, production schedules and so
forth.
• In addition, the HR department must maintain well-developed job-
analysis information and HR information systems (HRIS) that provide
accurate and timely data.
• Generally speaking, organisations operating in stable environments are in
a better position to obtain comprehensive, timely and accurate
information, clearer definition of strategy and objectives, and fewer
disruptions.

(vi) Labour Market
•Labour market comprises people with skills and abilities that can be tapped
as and when the need arises.
•When one talks about labour supply, the following deserve due
consideration:
• The size, age, sex and educational composition of the population
• The demand for goods and services in the country
• The nature of production technology
• Employability of the people

(vii) off-loading the work
•Several organisations outsource part of their work to outside parties either
in the form of sub-contracting or ancillarisation.
• Outsourcing is a regular feature both in the public sector as well as in the
private sector.
•Most organisations have surplus labour and they do not want to worsen the
problem by hiring more people. Hence, the need for off-loading.

HRP-process
Step 1: Analyzing the Environment
•Analyzing the environment marks the starting point of Human Resource
Planning (HRP). It involves scrutinizing both external and internal factors to
identify potential issues, threats, and opportunities shaping the
organization’s strategic planning.
•External environment:
•Competitors
•Legal environment
•Internal environment:
•Strategy
•Technology factors
Environmental scanning refers to the systematic monitoring of the external
forces influencing the organisation

Step 2: Predicting Labour Demands
•HR Demand forecast-Demand forecasting is the process of estimating the
quantity and quality of people required to meet future needs of the
organisation.
•Predicting labor demands is essential to avoid labor shortages that often
impede business expansion. Various methods are employed to forecast how
business needs will influence HR requirements. Here are two basic method
categories:
•1.Qualitative Methods: Qualitative techniques like the Delphi and nominal
group techniques involve expert collaboration to create forecast statements
and assumptions. These methods, although time-consuming, allow for in-
depth discussions and idea sharing among experts.
•2.Quantitative Methods: Quantitative techniques, such as trend analysis,
rely on historical data to project future workforce needs. Crucial steps in
trend analysis include selecting appropriate business factors, plotting
historical records, computing productivity ratios, determining trends, and
making necessary adjustments for future projections.

Step 3: Assessing Labour Supply
Labour supply assessment focuses on both internal (existing workforce) and
external (potential recruits) resources. These resources are crucial to
determine the supply required in the present and the future.
Internal and external labor supply can be explained as:
Internal Supply: Internal labor supply refers to the available individuals and
jobs within the organization. Human Resource Information System (HRIS)
data projects future trends based on current patterns.
Internal Supply Armed with HR audits, planners can proceed with the
analysis of internal supply. The techniques generally used for the purpose
are: (i) inflows and outflows, (ii) turnover rate, (iii) conditions of work and
absenteeism, (iv) productivity level, and (v) movement among jobs.

Inflows and Outflows The simplest way to forecast internal supply
is the inflows and outflows method

• External Supply: External supply encompasses individuals in the broader
labor force who are potential recruits. The relevant labor market varies
based on job skills. For highly skilled positions, it might be a national or
global market, whereas for unskilled jobs, it typically is the local
community.
• External Supply In addition to internal supply, the organisation needs to
look out for prospective employees from external sources. External
sources are important for specific reasons: (i) new blood and new
experience will be available, (ii) organisation needs to replenish lost
personnel, and (iii) organisational growth and diversification create the
needs to use external sources to obtain additional number and type of
employees.
• Sources of external supply vary from industry to industry, organisation to
organisation, and also from one geographical location to another. Some
organisations have found that their best source of future employees are
colleges and universities, while others achieve excellent results from
consultants, competitors or unsolicited applications.

Step 4: Bridging Gaps
•Gap analysis merges labor demand and supply forecasts. This critical process
identifies potential skill shortages or surpluses. By aligning environmental
forecasts with supply and demand projections, HR planners evaluate the
organization’s readiness to pursue different business scenarios in alignment
with its objectives.
Step 5: Implementation Planning
•Following the analysis, implementation planning outlines the necessary
steps to put the chosen solution into action. This phase ensures that
decisions made in the above steps are translated into actionable plans,
setting the sequence of events in motion.
Step 6: Oversight and Evaluation
•Oversight and evaluation involve monitoring the effectiveness of human
resource plans over time. Any deviations from the plans are identified, and
corrective actions are taken as needed. Feedback from various outcomes is
utilized to measure the extent to which human resource objectives have
been achieved.

IMPORTANCE OF HRP
Personnel Needs Taken care of
•Basically, HRP gives the number and type of people required in the coming
period. When these numbers are adhered to, organisations will be assured of
the right number and the right type of employees. In the absence of HRP,
organisations tend to run the risk of shortage or problem of surplus labour
force.
Part of Strategic Planning
•HR planning can become part of strategic planning at two ends.
•At the beginning of strategic planning, HRP provides a set of inputs into the
strategic formulation process in terms of deciding whether the types and
numbers of people are available to pursue a given strategy.
•At the end of strategic planning process, HRP is relevant in terms of
implementation concerns. Once the strategy is set, executives need to make
resource allocation decisions, including those pertaining to structure,
processes and human resources. In most successful companies there is
virtually no distinction between strategic planning and HRP.

IMPORTANCE OF HRP….
creating Highly Talented Personnel-HRP facilitates succession planning-finding
a replacement for a retiring executive. Quick replacement ensures continuity of
business. Any delay leads to lobbying, speculation, gossiping, confusion and
lowering productivity.
International Strategies
•International expansion strategies depend upon HRP.
• The department’s ability to fill key jobs with foreign nationals and the re-
assignment of employees from within or across national borders is a major
challenge facing international businesses. With the growing trend towards
global operation, the need for HRP will grow, as well as the need to integrate
HRP more closely into the organisation’s strategic plans.
•HRP will grow increasingly important as the process of meeting staffing needs
from foreign countries and the attendant cultural, language, and developmental
considerations grow complex. Without effective HRP and subsequent attention
to employee recruitment, selection, placement, development and career
planning, the growing competition for foreign executives may lead to expensive
and strategically-disruptive turnover among key decision makers

Foundation for Personnel Functions
•HRP document is of great help in preparing job description and job
specification and also in employee hiring. The fundamental duty of any HR
department is to hire right people for right jobs. The perfect match between
job and ability can be ensured when there is clarity about the competencies
expected of a hiree.
•HRP provides this clarity. It provides enough inputs for the training
department to design an appropriate training programme.
• HRP exercise shall be useful to review compensation practices and packages
which would help attract and retain talent. Benefits and incentives may also
be reviewed in the light of the HRP document.
•Developing global leaders is yet another contribution from HRP. MNCs like
Microsoft, Toyota and IBM have well set policies and procedures to identify
potential talent and rotate such people globally so as to enable them to
become world class leaders. HRP helps in identifying talent, making a list of
vacant global assignments and preparing action plans for rotation.

Unite the Perspectives of Line and Staff Managers
•HRP helps unite the perspectives of both line as well as staff managers.
Although HRP is initiated and executed by the corporate HR staff, it requires
the input and cooperation of all managers within an organisation
•No one knows better the needs of a particular unit or department than an
individual manager responsible for the area.
•Communication between HR staff and line managers is essential for the
success of HR planning initiatives.

JOB ANALYSIS
• Talent management starts with understanding what jobs need to
be filled, and the human traits and competencies employees need
to do those jobs effectively.
• Organizations consist of positions that have to be staffed. The
organization chart (see Figure 4-1) shows the title of each
supervisor’s position and, by means of connecting lines, who is
accountable to whom, who has authority for each area, and who is
expected to communicate with whom.
• organization chart- A chart that shows the organization wide
distribution of work, with titles of each position and
interconnecting lines that show who reports to and communicates
with whom.

• job analysis- The procedure for determining the duties and
skill requirements of a job and the kind of person who should
be hired for it
• job descriptions- A list of a job’s duties, responsibilities,
reporting relationships, working conditions, and supervisory
responsibilities—one product of a job analysis
• job specifications- A list of a job’s “human requirements,”
that is, the requisite education, skills, personality, and so on—
another product of a job analysis

The supervisor or human resources specialist normally collects one or more of
the following types of information via the job analysis:
● Work activities. Information about the job’s actual work activities, such as
cleaning, selling, teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and
when the worker performs each activity.
● Human behaviors. Information about human behaviors the job requires, like
sensing, communicating, lifting weights, or walking long distances.
● Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids. Information regarding tools
used, materials processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or
law), and services rendered (such as counseling or repairing).
● Performance standards. Information about the job’s performance standards
(in terms of quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance).
● Job context. Information about such matters as physical working conditions,
work schedule, incentives, and, for instance, the number of people with whom
the employee would normally interact.
● Human requirements. Information such as knowledge or skills (education,
training, work experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes,
personality, interests).

USES OF JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION
• RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION- Information about what duties the job
entails and what human characteristics are required to perform these duties
helps managers decide what sort of people to recruit and hire.
• EEO COMPLIANCE- Knowing a job's duties is necessary for determining, for
example, whether a selection test is a valid predictor of success on the job.
• PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL- A performance appraisal compares an
employee’s actual performance of his or her duties with the job's
performance standards. Managers use job analysis to learn what these
duties and standards are.
• COMPENSATION- Compensation (such as salary and bonus) usually depends
on the job’s required skill and education level, safety hazards, degree of
responsibility, and so on—all factors you assess through job analysis.
• TRAINING- The job description lists the job’s specific duties and requisite
skills—thus pinpointing what training the job requires

Conducting a Job Analysis
There are six steps in doing a job analysis of a job, as follows.
STEP 1: Identify the use to which the information will be put because this will
determine how you collect the information.
Some data collection techniques—like interviewing the employee—are
good for writing job descriptions.
Other techniques, like the position analysis questionnaire we describe
later, provide numerical ratings for each job; these can be used to compare
jobs for compensation purposes.
STEP 2: Review Relevant Background Information About the Job, Such as
Organization Charts and Process Charts. It is important to understand the
job’s context.
For example, organization charts show the organization wide division of
work, and where the job fits in the overall organization.

Conducting a Job Analysis…..example
• A process chart provides a detailed picture of the workflow. Thus, in the
process chart in Figure 4-3, the quality control clerk should review
components from suppliers, check components going to the plant
managers, and give information regarding the components’ quality to
these managers. Finally, an existing job description may provide a
starting point for revising the job description.

Business Process Reengineering(manufacturing….)-
•Business process reengineering means redesigning business processes,
usually by combining steps so that small multifunction teams, often using
information technology, do the jobs formerly done by a sequence of
departments.
•Business process reengineering (BPR) aims at cutting down enterprise costs
and process redundancies on a very huge scale.
•The basic reengineering approach is to:
1. Identify a business process to be redesigned (such as processing an
insurance claim)
2. Measure the performance of the existing processes
3. Identify opportunities to improve these processes
4. Redesign and implement a new way of doing the work
5. Assign ownership of sets of formerly separate tasks to an individual or
a team who use new computerized systems to support the new arrangement

JOB REDESIGN- Experts typically suggest three ways to redesign specialized
jobs to make them more challenging.
Job enlargement means assigning workers additional same-level activities.
Thus, the worker who previously only bolted the seat to the legs might attach
the back too.
adding additional activities within the same level to an existing role. This
means that a person will do more, different activities in their current job. For
example, an employee who will now also manage her own planning where
this was formerly done by her manager.

 Job rotation means systematically moving workers from one job to
another.
 Psychologist Frederick Herzberg argued that the best way to motivate
workers is through what he called job enrichment.
 A software developer moving over to customer service for a short time to
understand how product features impact the user experience.
 Job enrichment means redesigning jobs in a way that increases the
opportunities for the worker to experience feelings of responsibility,
achievement, growth, and recognition—and therefore more motivation.
 by adding dimensions to existing jobs to make them more motivating.
Examples of job enrichment include adding extra tasks, increasing skill
variety, adding meaning to jobs, creating autonomy, and giving feedback.

• STEP 3: Select Representative Positions- Next, with a job to analyze, the manager
generally selects a sample of positions to focus on. For example, it is usually
unnecessary to analyze the jobs of all the firm’s 200 assembly workers; instead a
sample of 10 jobs will do.
• STEP 4: Actually Analyze the Job- The actual job analysis involves greeting each
job holder; briefly explaining the job analysis process and the participants’ roles in
this process; spending about 15 minutes interviewing the employee to get
agreement on a basic summary of the job; identifying the job’s broad areas of
responsibility, such as “calling on potential clients”; and then interactively
identifying specific duties/tasks within each area using one of the methods we
describe just below.
• STEP 5: Verify the Job Analysis Information with the Worker.. performing the Job
and with His or Her Immediate Supervisor. This will help confirm that the
information (for instance, on the job’s duties) is correct and complete and help to
gain their acceptance.
• STEP 6: Develop a Job Description and Job Specification The job description lists
the duties, activities, and responsibilities of the job, as well as its important
features, such as working conditions. The job specification summarizes the
personal qualities, traits, skills, and background required for getting the job done.

METHODS FOR COLLECTING JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION
• There are many ways (interviews or questionnaires, for instance) to
collect job information.
• Job analysis interviews range from unstructured (“Tell me about your job”)
to highly structured ones with hundreds of specific items to check off.
• Managers may conduct individual interviews with each employee, group
interviews with groups of employees who have the same job, and/or
supervisor interviews with one or more knowledgeable supervisors.
• Use group interviews when a large number of employees are performing
similar or identical work, since this can be a quick and inexpensive way to
gather information.
• The basic rule is to use those that best fit your purpose. Thus an interview
might be best for creating a list of job duties.
• The more quantitative “position analysis questionnaire” may be best for
quantifying each job’s value for pay purposes. Before actually analyzing
the job, keep several things in mind.

TYPICAL QUESTIONS- Typical interview questions include the following:
•What is the job being performed?
•What exactly are the major duties of your position?
• What physical locations do you work in?
•What are the education, experience, skill, [and any certification and licensing]
requirements?
• In what activities do you participate?
• What are the job’s responsibilities and duties?
•What are the basic accountabilities or performance standards that typify
your work?
•What are your responsibilities?
•What are the environmental and working conditions involved?
•What are the job’s physical, emotional, and mental demands?
•What are the health and safety conditions?
•Are you exposed to any hazards or unusual working conditions?

• STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Many managers use
questionnaires to guide
the interview.
• Figure 4-4 presents one
example. It includes
questions regarding
matters like the general
purpose of the job,
supervisory
responsibilities, job duties,
and skills required.

• Questionnaires- Having employees fill out questionnaires to describe their
job duties and responsibilities is another popular job analysis approach.
Some questionnaires are structured checklists.
• At the other extreme, the questionnaire may simply ask, “describe the
major duties of your job.
• In practice, the questionnaire often falls between these two extremes.
• As illustrated in Figure 4-4, a typical job analysis questionnaire might
include several openended questions (such as “Give a brief description of
the main function/purpose of your job.”)
• as well as structured questions (concerning, for instance, education
required).

• Observation- Direct observation is especially useful when jobs consist of
observable physical activities—assembly-line worker and accounting clerk
are examples.
• However, it’s usually not appropriate when the job entails a lot of mental
activity (lawyer, design engineer).
• Managers often use direct observation and interviewing together.
• One approach is to observe the worker on the job during a complete work
cycle.
• (The cycle is the time it takes to complete the job; it could be a minute for
an assembly-line worker or an hour, a day, or longer for complex jobs.)
• Participant Diary/Logs- Another method is to ask workers to keep a
diary/log;
• here for every activity engaged in, the employee records the activity
(along with the time) in a log.
• Some firms give employees pocket dictating machines and pagers. Then
randomly during the day, they page the workers, who dictate what they
are doing at that time.

Quantitative Job Analysis Techniques
•Qualitative methods like interviews and questionnaires are not always suitable.
• For example, if your aim is to compare jobs for pay purposes, a mere listing of
duties may not suffice.
•You may need to say that, in effect, “Job A is twice as challenging as Job B, and so is
worth twice the pay.” To do this, it helps to have quantitative ratings for each job.
The position analysis questionnaire and the Department of Labor approach are
quantitative methods for doing this.
•position analysis questionnaire (PAQ)- A questionnaire used to collect quantifiable
data concerning the duties and responsibilities of various jobs.
•The position analysis questionnaire (PAQ) is a very popular quantitative job
analysis tool, consisting of a questionnaire containing 194 items.
•The 194 items (such as “written materials”) each represent a basic element that
may play a role in the job.
The items each belong to one of five PAQ basic activities:
(1)Having Decision-Making/Communication/Social Responsibilities,
(2) Performing Skilled Activities,
(3) Being Physically Active,
(4) Operating Vehicles/ Equipment, and
(5) Processing Information.
The final PAQ “score” reflects the job’s rating on each of these five activities.

Writing Job Descriptions
• The most important product of job analysis is the job description.
• A job description is a written statement of what the worker actually does,
how he or she does it, and what the job’s working conditions are.
• You use this information to write a job specification; this lists the
knowledge, abilities, and skills required to perform the job satisfactorily.
• There is no standard format for writing a job description. However, most
descriptions contain sections that cover:
1. Job identification
2. Job summary
3. Responsibilities and duties
4. Authority of incumbent/duty/responsibility
5. Standards of performance
6. Working conditions

Writing Job Specifications-
•The job specification takes the job description and answers the question,
“What human traits and experience are required to do this job effectively?”
Specifications for Trained versus Untrained Personnel-
•Writing job specifications for trained and experienced employees is
relatively straight forward.
•Trained people- job specifications tend to focus on factors such as length of
previous service, quality of relevant training, and previous job performance.
• The problems are more complex when you’re filling jobs with untrained
people (with the intention of training them on the job).
•Here you must specify qualities such as physical traits, personality, interests,
or sensory skills that imply some potential for performing the job or for
trainability.

• Specifications Based on Judgment- Most job specifications simply reflect
the educated guesses of people like supervisors and human resource
managers.
• The basic procedure here is to ask, “What does it take in terms of
education, intelligence, training, and the like to do this job well?” How
does one make such “educated guesses”?

• Job Specifications Based on Statistical Analysis- Basing job specifications
on statistical analysis (rather than only judgment) is more defensible, but
it’s also more difficult.
• The aim is to determine statistically the relationship between (1) some
predictor (human trait such as height, intelligence, or finger dexterity),
and (2) some indicator or criterion of job effectiveness, such as
performance as rated by the supervisor.
• The basic procedure is predictive validation. This procedure has five
steps: (1) analyze the job and decide how to measure job performance,
(2) select personal traits like finger dexterity that you believe should
predict performance, (3) test candidates for these traits, (4) measure
these candidates’ subsequent job performance, and (5) statistically
analyze the relationship between the human trait (finger dexterity) and
job performance. Your aim is to determine whether the trait predicts
performance.

Job-requirements matrix (additional)
A more complete description of what the worker does and how and why he or she
does it; it clarifies each task’s purpose and each duty’s required knowledge, skills,
abilities, and other characteristics.
A job requirements matrix is a helpful team and project management tool that helps
managers obtain the best out of their employees and quickly and easily get an
overview of their needs. The job requirement matrix is a combination of the job
specification and job description.
A typical matrix lists the following information, in five columns:
Column 1: Each of the job’s four or five main job duties
Column 2: The task statements for the main tasks associated with each main job duty
Column 3: The relative importance of each main job duty
Column 4: The time spent on each main job duty
Column 5: The knowledge, skills, ability, and other human characteristics (KSAO)
related to each main job duty.
The main step in creating a job-requirements matrix involves writing the task
statements. Each task statement describes what the worker does on each of a main
job duty’s separate job tasks and how the worker does it.

Workforce (or employment or personnel) planning-
step 1
• Job analysis identifies the duties and human skills requirements of each of
the company’s jobs. The next step is to decide which of these jobs you
need to fill, and to recruit and select employees for them.
• Workforce (or employment or personnel) planning -The process of
deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.
• Its aim is to identify and to eliminate the gaps between the employer’s
projected workforce needs and the current employees who might be
suitable for filling those needs.
• The manager should engage in workforce planning before recruiting and
hiring employees.

• Example: consulting firm’s workforce planning methodology illustrates the basic
workforce planning process.
• First, Towers Watson reviews the client’s business plan and workforce data (for
instance, on how revenue influences staffing levels). This helps them understand
how projected business changes may influence the client’s headcount and skills
requirements.
• Second, they forecast and identify what positions the firm will have to fill and
potential workforce gaps; this helps them understand what new future positions
they’ll have to fill, and what current employees may be promotable into them.
• Third, they develop a workforce strategic plan; here they prioritize key workforce
gaps (such as, what positions will have to be filled, and who do we have who can
fill them?) and identify specific (recruitment, training, and other) plans for filling
any gaps.
• Finally, they implement the plans (for instance, new recruiting and training
programs), and use various metrics to monitor the process. Towers Watson clients
can use its special “MAPS” software to facilitate this workforce planning process.
MAPS contains dashboards.
• The manager uses these, for instance, to monitor key recruitment metrics and for
a detailed analysis of the current workforce and historical workforce trends.
Workforce planning embraces all future positions, from maintenance clerk to CEO.

• Workforce planning should be an integral part of the firm’s strategic planning
process. For example, plans to enter new businesses, to build new plants, or to
reduce activities will all influence the personnel skills the employer needs and the
positions to be filled. At the same time, decisions regarding how to fill these positions
will require other HR plans, such as training and recruiting plans.
• Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor Demand-Forecasting workforce demand
therefore starts with estimating what the demand will be for your products or
services.
• Short term, management should be concerned with daily, weekly, and seasonal
forecasts.
• Longer term, managers will try to get a sense for future demand by speaking with
customers and by following industry publications and economic forecasts. Such
future predictions won’t be precise, but should help you address the potential
changes in demand.
• The basic process for forecasting personnel needs is to forecast revenues first. Then
estimate the size of the staff required to support this sales volume. However,
managers must also consider other factors. These include projected turnover,
decisions to upgrade (or downgrade) products or services, productivity changes,
financial resources, and decisions to enter or leave businesses.

Tools used… The basic tools for projecting personnel needs include trend
analysis, ratio analysis, and the scatter plot.
• TREND ANALYSIS Trend analysis means studying variations in the firm’s employment
levels over the past few years. For example, compute the number of employees at the
end of each of the last 5 years in each subgroup (like sales, production, secretarial, and
administrative) to identify trends. Trend analysis can provide an initial rough estimate
of future staffing needs. Other factors (like productivity and retirements, for instance),
and changing skill needs will influence impending workforce needs.
• RATIO ANALYSIS Another simple approach, ratio analysis, means making forecasts
based on the historical ratio between (1) some causal factor (like sales volume), and
(2) the number of employees required (such as number of salespeople). For example,
suppose a salesperson traditionally generates $500,000 in sales. If the sales revenue to
salespeople ratio remains the same, you would require six new salespeople next year
(each of whom produces an extra $500,000) to produce a hoped-for extra $3 million in
sales. Like trend analysis, ratio analysis assumes that things like productivity remain
about the same. If sales productivity were to rise or fall, the ratio of sales to
salespeople would change.
• THE SCATTER PLOT A scatter plot shows graphically how two variables—such as sales
and your firm’s staffing levels—are related. If they are, then if you can forecast the
business activity (like sales), you should also be able to estimate your personnel needs.

• For example, suppose a 500-bed hospital expects to expand to 1,200 beds over
the next 5 years. The human resource director wants to forecast how many
registered nurses the hospital will need. The human resource director realizes she
must determine the relationship between hospital size (in number of beds) and
number of nurses required. She calls eight hospitals of various sizes and finds this.
• Figure 5-2’s graph compares hospital size and number of nurses. If the two are
related, then the points you plot (from the data in the table above) will tend to fall
on a straight line, as here. If you carefully draw in a line to minimize the distances
between the line and each one of the plotted points, you will be able to estimate
the number of nurses needed for each hospital size. Thus, for a 1,200-bed
hospital, the human resource director would assume she needs about 1,210
nurses.

Forecasting the supply of inside candidates
• Most firms start with possible inside candidates. The main task here is
determining which current employees are qualified or trainable for the
projected openings.
• Department managers or owners of smaller firms can use manual devices
to track employee qualifications (or will simply know who can do what).
• For example, you can create your own personnel skills inventory and
development record form. For each current employee, list the person’s
skills, education, company-sponsored courses taken, career and
development interests, languages, desired assignments, and other
relevant experiences. Computerized versions of skills inventory systems
are also available.
• Personnel replacement charts (Figure 5-3) are another option, particularly
for the firm’s top positions.
• They show the present performance and promotability for each position’s
potential replacement.

Forecasting the supply of inside candidates…

Forecasting the supply of inside candidates…..
• Larger firms obviously can’t track the qualifications of hundreds or thousands of
employees manually. They therefore computerize this information, using various
packaged software systems such as Survey Analytics’s Skills Inventory Software.
• Skills inventory systems such as one from Perceptyx (www.perceptyx.com) enables
employers to collect and compile employee skills information in real time via
online employee surveys.
• Skills inventory programs help management anticipate staffing and skills
shortages, and also facilitate workforce planning, recruitment, and training.They
typically include items like
• work experience codes,
• product knowledge,
• employee’s level of familiarity with the employer’s product lines or services,
• the person’s industry experience, formal education,
• foreign language skills, relocation limitations, career interests, and performance
appraisals.
• The usual skills inventory process is for the employee, the supervisor, and human
resource manager to enter information about the employee’s background,
experience, and skills via the system.

Forecasting the supply of inside candidates….
MARKOV ANALYSIS
•Employers also use a mathematical process known as Markov
analysis (or “transition analysis”) to forecast availability of
internal job candidates.
•Markov analysis involves creating a matrix that shows the
probabilities that employees in the chain of feeder positions for
a key job such as from
•junior engineer--to engineer--to senior engineer-- to
engineering supervisor--to director of engineering
• will move from position to position and therefore be available
to fill the key position.

Forecasting the supply of outside candidates
• If there won’t be enough skilled inside candidates to fill the anticipated
openings , you will turn to outside candidates.
• Forecasting workforce availability depends first on the manager’s own
sense of what’s happening in his or her industry and locale.
• For example, unemployment rates above 7% a few years ago signaled to
HR managers that finding good candidates might be easier. The manager
then supplements such observations with formal labor market analyses.
• For example, look for economic projections online from the U.S.
Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov) and the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (www.bls.gov/emp/ep_pub_occ_projections.htm).
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes annual occupational
projections both online and in the Monthly Labor Review and in
Occupational Outlook Quarterly.
• Today’s emphasis on technology means many applicants may lack basic
skills such as math, communication, creativity, and teamwork. Such
needs, too, get factored into the employer’s workforce and training plans

Predictive Workforce Monitoring-
•Most employers review their workforce plans every year or so, but this isn’t always
sufficient Some employers therefore plan continuously: they do predictive workforce
monitoring.
•For example, Intel conducts semiannual “Organization Capability Assessments.” The
staffing department works with the firm’s business heads twice a year to assess
workforce needs—both immediate and up to 2 years off.
• Boeing considers various factors when predicting talent gaps as part of its periodic
“workforce modeling” process.
•These include workforce characteristics such as age, retirement eligibility for job
groups, economic trends, anticipated increases or decreases in staffing levels, and
internal transfers/promotions.
Succession planning- involves developing workforce plans for the company’s top
positions. Succession planning is the ongoing process of systematically identifying,
assessing, and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance.
It entails three main steps:
• identify key position needs,
•develop inside candidates, and
•assess and choose inside (or outside) candidates who will fill the key positions.

Step 2
• Employee recruiting means finding and/or attracting applicants for the employer’s
open positions.
• Recruiting is important. If only two candidates apply for two openings, you may
have little choice but to hire them. But if 10 or 20 applicants appear, you can use
tests to screen out all but the best.
• Filling a handful of positions might require recruiting dozens or hundreds of
candidates. Managers therefore use a staffing or recruiting yield pyramid, as
shown in Figure 5-5
• Recruiting Yield Pyramid-the historical arithmetic relationships between
recruitment leads and invitees, invitees and interviews, interviews and offers
made, and offers made and offers accepted.

From experience, the firm also knows the following:
● The ratio of offers made to actual new hires is 2 to 1.
● The ratio of candidates interviewed to offers made is 3 to 2.
● The ratio of candidates invited for interviews to candidates interviewed is
about 4 to 3.
● Finally, the firm knows that of six leads that come in from all its recruiting
sources, it typically invites only one applicant for an interview—a 6-to-1 ratio.
Therefore, the firm must generate about 1,200 leads to be able to invite in
200 viable candidates of which it interviews about 150, and so on.

Nature of recruitment
• In simple terms, recruitment is understood as the process of searching for
and obtaining applicants for jobs, from among whom the right people can
be selected.
• Theoretically, recruitment process is said to end with the receipt of
applications, in practice the activity extends to the screening of
applications so as to eliminate those who are not qualified for the job.
• Recruitment refers to the process of receipt of applications from job
seekers. In reality, the term is used to describe the entire process of
employee hiring.

PURPOSES AND IMPORTANCE
1. Determine the present and future requirements of the firm in conjunction
with its personnel-planning and job-analysis activities.
2. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
3. Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the
number of visibly underqualified or overqualified job applicants.
4. Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and
selected, will leave the organisation only after a short period of time.
5. Meet the organisation’s legal and social obligations regarding the
composition of its workforce.
6. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be
appropriate candidates.
7. Increase organisational and individual effectiveness in the short term and
long term.
8. Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources

Internal sources of candidates
• Recruiting - current employees or “hiring from within”—are often the best
sources of candidates.
Filling open positions with inside candidates has advantages.
• There is really no substitute for knowing a candidate’s strengths and
weaknesses.
• Current employees may also be more committed to the company.
• Morale and engagement may rise if employees see promotions as rewards
for loyalty and competence.
• And inside candidates should require less orientation and (perhaps)
training than outsiders.
Hiring from within can also backfire.
• Inbreeding is a potential drawback, if new perspectives are required.

Internal sources of candidates
• Finding Internal Candidates -These typically rely heavily on job posting
and on the firm’s skills inventories. Job posting means publicizing the
open job to employees (usually by literally posting it on company
intranets or bulletin boards).
• These postings list the job’s attributes, like qualifications, supervisor, work
schedule, and pay rate. Qualifications skills inventories may reveal to the
company’s recruiters those employees who have the right background for
the open job.
• Ideally, the employer’s internal-recruitment system therefore matches
the best inside candidate with the job.
• For better or worse, internal politics and having the right connections may
well lead to placements that seem (and indeed may be) unfair.
• Rehiring someone who left your employ has pros and cons.

Outside source of candidates
Informal Recruiting
one survey found that 28% of those surveyed found their most recent job through
word of mouth. 19% used online job boards, 16% direct approaches from employers
and employment services, 7% print ads, and only 1% social media sites (although 22%
used sites like LinkedIn to search for jobs- *** % approx.. changes).
Recruiting via the Internet
Most employers post ads on their own Web sites, as well as on job boards such as
Indeed.com, Monster, and CareerBuilder.
Using Recruitment Software and Artificial Intelligence
Internet overload means that most employers use applicant tracking software to
screen applications. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are online systems that help
employers attract, gather, screen, compile, and manage applicants.
They also provide other services, including
•requisitions management (for monitoring the firm’s open jobs),
• applicant data collection (for scanning applicants’ data into the system), and
• reporting (to create various reports such as cost per hire and hire by source).

Advertising
• While Web-based recruiting is replacing traditional help wanted ads, print ads
are still popular. To use such help wanted ads successfully, employers should
address two issues: the advertising medium and the ad’s construction.
Employment Agencies
•There are three main types of employment agencies:
(1) public agencies operated by federal, state, or local governments;
(2) agencies associated with nonprofit organizations; and
(3) privately owned agencies.
Recruitment process outsourcers (RPOs) are special vendors that handle all or
most of an employer’s recruiting needs. They usually sign short-term contracts
with the employer, and receive a monthly fee that varies with the amount of
actual recruiting the employer needs done.
On-demand recruiting services (ODRS) are recruiters who are paid by the hour
or project, instead of a percentage fee, to support a specific project.

Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs
• Rather than bringing people in to do the company’s jobs, outsourcing and
offshoring send the jobs out.
•Outsourcing means having outside vendors supply services (such as benefits
management, market research, or manufacturing) that the company’s own
employees previously did in-house. (independent contractors-delegating
business process)
• Offshoring means having outside vendors or employees abroad supply services
that the company’s own employees previously did in-house(running portion of
buisness operation in another country)
Executive Recruiters
Executive recruiters (also known as headhunters) are special employment
agencies employers retain to seek out top-management talent for their clients.
The percentage of your firm’s positions filled by these services might be small.

Referrals and Walk-Ins
• Employee referral campaigns are a very important recruiting option.
•Here the employer posts announcements of openings and requests for
referrals on its Web site, bulletin boards, and/or wallboards. It often offers
prizes or cash awards for referrals that lead to hiring.
College Recruiting
College recruiting—sending an employer’s representatives to college
campuses to prescreen applicants and create an applicant pool from the
graduating class—is important.
Military Personnel
Returning and discharged U.S. military personnel provide an excellent source
of trained and disciplined recruits.

Developing and Using Application Forms-step 3
Purpose of Application Forms
•With a pool of applicants, the prescreening process can begin.
• The application form is usually the first step in this process
•The form that provides information on education, prior work record, and
skills.
•A filled-in application provides four types of information. First, you can make
judgments on substantive matters, such as whether the applicant has the
education and experience to do the job.
•Second, you can draw conclusions about the applicant’s previous progress
and growth, especially important for management candidates.
•Third, you can draw tentative conclusions about the applicant’s stability
based on previous work record (although years of downsizing suggest the
need for caution here).
•Fourth, you may be able to use the data in the application to predict which
candidates will succeed on the job.

Why Employee Selection Is Important-step 4
• After reviewing the applicants’ résumés, the manager turns to selecting
the best candidate for the job.
• This usually means using the screening tools-tests, assessment centers,
interviews, and background and reference checks.
• The aim of employee selection is to achieve person–job fit.
• This means matching the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
competencies (KSACs) that are required for performing the job (based on
job analysis) with the applicant’s KSACs.
• Of course, a candidate might be “right” for a job, but wrong for the
organization.
• while person–job fit is usually the main consideration, person–
organization fit is important too.
• negligent hiring-Hiring workers with questionable backgrounds without
proper safeguards.

Selection Tests-step 4
• Selection Tests- Job seekers who pass the screening and the preliminary
interview are called for tests.
• Different types of tests may be administered, depending on the job and the
company.
• Generally, tests are used to determine the applicant’s ability, aptitude and
personality.
• Ability tests (also called achievement tests) assist in determining how well
an individual can perform tasks related to the job. An excellent illustration
of this is the data entry test given to a prospective employee for a
secretarial job.
• An aptitude test helps determine a person’s potential to learn in a given
area. An example of such a test is the General Management Aptitude Test
(GMAT) which many business students take prior to gaining admission to a
graduate business school programme.
• Personality tests are given to measure a prospective employee’s
motivation to function in a particular working environment.

There are various tests designed to assess a candidate’s personality.
• The Bernsenter Personality Inventory, for example, measures one’s
selfsufficiency, neurotic tendency, sociability, introversion and extroversion, locus
of control, and self-confidence.
•The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) assesses an individual’s achievement and
motivational levels.
•Other personality tests, such as the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), the
Thurstone Temperament Survey (TTS), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality (MMPI),
and Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, have been designed to assess
specific personality traits.
•Graphology test is designed to analyse the handwriting of an individual.
•For example, big letters and emphasis on capital letters indicate a tendency
towards domination and competitiveness. A slant to the right, moderate pressure
and good legibility show leadership potential.
•Polygraph tests (polygraph is a lie detector) are designed to ensure accuracy of the
information given in the applications. Department stores, banks, treasury offices
and jewellery shops—
•Choosing Tests- Tests must be chosen based on the criteria of reliability, validity,
objectivity and standardisation.

Selection Tests-step 4….
The Basics of Testing and Selecting Employees
•A test is basically a sample of a person’s behavior. Any test or screening tool
has two important characteristics, reliability and validity.
•Reliability is a selection tool’s first requirement and refers to its consistency:
“A reliable test is one that yields consistent scores when a person takes two
alternate forms of the test or when he or she takes the same test on two or
more different occasions.” If a person scores 90 on an intelligence test on a
Monday and 130 when retested on Tuesday, you probably wouldn’t have
much faith in the test.
•Validity tells you whether the test is measuring what you think it’s supposed
to be measuring. Test validity answers the question “Does this test measure
what it’s supposed to measure?”

Selection Tests-step 4….Types of Tests
Tests of Cognitive Abilities
•Cognitive tests include tests of general reasoning ability (intelligence) and
tests of specific mental abilities like memory and inductive reasoning.
•INTELLIGENCE TESTS Intelligence (IQ) tests are tests of general intellectual
abilities. They measure not a single trait but rather a range of abilities,
including memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and numerical ability.
Tests of Motor and Physical Abilities
•You might also want to measure motor abilities, such as finger dexterity,
manual dexterity, and (if hiring pilots) reaction time. Thus, the Crawford
Small Parts Dexterity Test measures the speed and accuracy of simple
judgment as well as the speed of finger, hand, and arm movements.
•Tests of physical abilities may also be required. These include static strength
(such as lifting weights), dynamic strength (pull-ups), body coordination
(jumping rope), and stamina. Applicants for the U.S. Marines must pass its
Initial Strength Test (2 pull- ups, 35 sit-ups, and a 1.5-mile run).

Measuring Personality and Interests
•A person’s cognitive and physical abilities alone seldom explain his or her
job performance. As one consultant put it, most people are hired based on
qualifications, but are fired because of attitude, motivation, and
temperament.
•Personality tests measure basic aspects of an applicant’s personality.
Industrial psychologists often focus on the “big five” personality
dimensions: extraversion, emotional stability/neuroticism, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
•Some personality tests are projective. The psychologist presents an
ambiguous stimulus (like an inkblot or clouded picture), and the person
reacts. The person supposedly projects into the ambiguous picture his or
her attitudes, such as insecurity.
•Other projective techniques include Make a Picture Story (MAPS) and the
Forer Structured Sentence Completion Test.
• Other personality tests are self-reported: applicants fill them out. Thus,
available online, the Myers-Briggs test provides a personality type
classification useful for decisions such as career selection and planning.

• Achievement tests -measure what someone has learned.
• Most of the tests you take in school are achievement tests. They measure
your “job knowledge” in areas like economics, marketing, or human
resources.
• Achievement tests are also popular at work. For example, the Purdue Test
for Machinists and Machine Operators tests the job knowledge of
experienced machinists with questions like “What is meant by
‘tolerance’?”
• Some achievement tests measure the applicant’s abilities; a swimming
test is one example.
• Work Samples-With work samples, you present examinees with situations
representative of the job for which they’re applying, and evaluate their
responses. The work sampling technique tries to predict job performance
by requiring job candidates to perform one or more samples of the job’s
tasks. For example, work samples for a cashier may include counting
money.
• Situational judgment tests are personnel tests “designed to assess an
applicant’s judgment regarding a situation encountered in the workplace.”

• A management assessment center is a 2- to 3-day simulation in
which 10 to 12 candidates perform realistic management tasks (like
making presentations) under the observation of experts who appraise
each candidate’s leadership potential.
• For example, The Cheesecake Factory created its Professional
Assessment and Development Center to help select promotable
managers. Candidates undergo 2 days of exercises, simulations, and
classroom learning to see if they have the skills for key management
positions.
Typical simulated tasks include
• The in-basket. The candidate gets reports, memos, notes of incoming
phone calls, e-mails, and other materials collected in the actual or
computerized in- basket of the simulated job he or she is about to start.
The candidate must take appropriate action on each item. Trained
evaluators review the candidate’s efforts.
• Leaderless group discussion. Trainers give a leaderless group a
discussion question and tell members to arrive at a group decision.
They then evaluate each group member’s interpersonal skills,
acceptance by the group, leadership ability, and individual influence.

•Management games. Participants solve realistic problems as members of
simulated companies competing in a marketplace.
• Individual oral presentations. Here trainers evaluate each participant’
communication skills and persuasiveness.
•The video-based simulation presents the candidate with several online or
computer video situations, each followed by one or more multiple-choice
questions. For example, the scenario might depict an employee handling a
situation on the job. At a critical moment, the scenario ends, and the video
asks the candidate to choose from several courses of action.
•Miniature job training and evaluation involves training candidates to
perform several of the job’s tasks, and then evaluating their performance
prior to hire.

Basic Types of Interviews-step 5
Managers use several interviews at work, such as performance appraisal
interviews and exit interviews.
A selection interview is a selection procedure designed to predict future job
performance based on applicants’ oral responses to oral inquiries.
There are several ways to conduct selection interviews. For example, we can
classify selection interviews according to
1. How structured they are
2. Their “content”—the types of questions they contain
3. How the firm administers the interviews (for instance, one-on-one or via a
committee)

1. How structured they are
unstructured (or nondirective) interview
•An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion after
asking different questions. In an unstructured sequential interview, each
interviewer generally just asks questions as they come to mind
•Typical questions here might include, for instance, “Tell me about yourself,”
“Why do you think you’d do a good job here?” and “What would you say are
your main strengths and weaknesses?” Some describe this as little more than a
general conversation.
structured (or directive) interview
•An interview following a set sequence of questions. each interviewer rates
the candidates on a standard evaluation form, using standardized questions.
•How was the person’s present job obtained?” Comments printed beneath the
questions (such as “Has he/she shown self-reliance in getting his/her jobs?”)
then guide the interviewer in evaluating the answers.
•Some experts still restrict the term “structured interview” to interviews like
these, which are based on carefully selected job-related questions with
predetermined answers.

2. Their “content”—the types of questions they contain
1.situational interview- A series of job-related questions that
focus on how the candidate would behave in a given situation.
2.behavioral interview- A series of job-related questions that
focus on how the candidate reacted to actual situations in the past.
3.job-related interview-A series of job-related questions that
focus on relevant past job-related behaviors.
4.stress interview
An interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by a
series of often rude questions. This technique helps identify
hypersensitive applicants and those with low or high stress
tolerance.

3. How the firm administers the interviews
Most selection interviews are probably still one-on-one and sequential. In a one-
on-one interview, two people meet alone, and one interviews the other by
seeking oral responses to oral inquiries. Employers tend to schedule these
interviews sequentially.
In a sequential (or serial) interview, several persons interview the applicant, in
sequence, one-on-one, and then make their hiring decision.

• Panel interview- An interview in which a group of interviewers questions
the applicant. A panel interview, also known as a board interview, is an
interview conducted by a team of interviewers (usually two to three), who
together question each candidate and then combine their ratings of each
candidate’s answers into a final panel score.
• Mass interview- A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.
Others….
• PHONE INTERVIEWS- Employers also conduct interviews via phone. these
can actually be more useful than face-to-face interviews for judging one’s
conscientiousness, intelligence, and interpersonal skills.
• COMPUTER-BASED JOB INTERVIEWS- A computerized selection interview
is one in which a job candidate’s oral and/or keyed replies are obtained in
response to computerized oral, visual, or written questions and/or
situations. Most such interviews present a series of multiple-choice
questions regarding background, experience, education, skills, knowledge,
and work attitudes.
• ONLINE VIDEO INTERVIEWS- With phone and tablet video functionalities
like FaceTime™ and Skype™, Web-based “in-person” interview use is
widespread

Designing a Structured Situational Interview
Step 1. Analyze the job. -- Write a job description including: a list of job
duties; required knowledge, skills, and abilities; and other worker
qualifications.
Step 2. Rate the job’s main duties. --Rate each job duty, say from 1 to 5,
based on how important it is to the job.
Step 3. Create interview questions.-- Create situational, behavioral, and job
knowledge interview questions for each job duty, with more questions for
the important duties. The people who create the questions usually write
them as critical incidents.
For example, to probe for conscientiousness, the interviewer might ask this
situational question: Your spouse and two teenage children are sick in bed
with colds. There are no relatives or friends available to look in on them. Your
shift starts in 3 hours. What would you do?

• Step 4. Create benchmark answers. Next, for each question, develop ideal
(benchmark) answers for good (a 5 rating), marginal (a 3 rating), and poor
(a 1 rating) answers.
• The structured interview presents an example. Three benchmark answers
(from low to high) for the example question in step 3 might be, “I’d stay
home—my spouse and family come first” (1); “I’d phone my supervisor
and explain my situation” (3); and “Because they only have colds, I’d come
to work” (5)
• Step 5. Appoint the interview panel and conduct interviews. Employers
generally conduct structured situational interviews using a panel, rather
than one-on-one.
• Panels usually consist of two or three members, preferably those who
wrote the questions and answers. They may also include the job’s
supervisor and/or incumbent, and an HR representative. The same panel
interviews all candidates for the job

• Step 6: Take brief, unobtrusive notes during the interview. This helps
avoid making a snap decision early in the interview, and may help jog your
memory once the interview is over.
• Step 7: Close the interview. Leave time to answer any questions the
candidate may have and, if appropriate, to advocate your firm to the
candidate.
• Step 8: Review the interview. Once the candidate leaves, review your
interview notes, score the interview answers (if you used a guide), and
make a decision.

Reference checks cover the following: step 5
• Criminal record checks
• Previous employment check
• Educational record checks
• Credit record checks
• Civil record checks
• Union affiliation checks
• Character reference check
• Neighbourhood reference check

Background Investigations and Other Selection Methods
• Testing is only part of an employer’s selection process. Other tools may
include background investigations and reference checks, preemployment
information services, honesty testing, and substance abuse screening.
• Polygraph-A device that measures physiological changes like increased
perspiration, on the assumption that such changes reflect lying.
• WRITTEN HONESTY TESTS Paper-and-pencil (or computerized or online)
honesty tests are special types of personality tests designed to predict job
applicants’ proneness to dishonesty and other forms of
counterproductivity. Most measure attitudes regarding things like
tolerance of others who steal and admission of theft-related activities.
• Graphology is the use of handwriting analysis to determine the writer’s
personality characteristics and moods, and even illnesses, such as
depression. The handwriting analyst studies an applicant’s handwriting
and signature to discover the person’s needs, desires, and psychological
makeup.

• “HUMAN LIE DETECTORS” Some employers use so-called human lie
detectors, experts who may (or may not) be able to identify lying just by
watching candidates. He sits in on interviews and watches for signs of
candidate deceptiveness. Signs include pupils changing size (fear),
irregular breathing (nervousness), crossing legs (“liars distance themselves
from an untruth”), and quick verbal responses (scripted statements).
• Physical Exams-Once the employer extends the person a job offer, a
medical exam is often the next step in selection (although it may also
occur after the new employee starts work). There are several reasons for
preemployment medical exams: to verify that the applicant meets the
job’s physical requirements, to discover any medical limitations you
should consider in placement, and to establish a baseline for future
workers’ compensation claims. Exams can also reduce absenteeism and
accidents and detect communicable diseases.

Substance Abuse Screening
•Most employers conduct drug screenings, and many applicants are flunking
the tests. The most common practice is to test candidates just before they’re
formally hired. Many also test current employees when there is reason to
believe they’ve been using drugs—after a work accident, or with obvious
behavioral symptoms such as chronic lateness.
•Some firms routinely administer drug tests on a random or periodic basis,
while others require drug tests when they transfer or promote employees to
new positions. Most employers that conduct such tests use urine sampling.
•Employers may use urine testing to test for illicit drugs, breath alcohol tests
to determine amount of alcohol in the blood, blood tests to measure alcohol
or drugs in the blood at the time of the test, hair analyses to reveal drug
history, saliva tests for substances such as marijuana and cocaine, and skin
patches to determine drug use.

Induction
Orientation, Induction or Indoctrination
• It is welcoming a new employee to the organization
•Billimoria defines induction as “a technique by which a new employee is
rehabilitated into the changed surroundings and introduced to the practices,
policies and purposes of the organization”
•Induction is the process of introducing new employees to a company or
organization, including providing information about the company's policies,
procedures, and culture.

Objectives of Induction
•To put the new employee at ease.
•To provide basic information about working arrangements.
•To indicate the standards of performance and behaviour expected from the
employee.
•To reduce the initial anxiety all new entrants feel when they join a new job
in a new organization
• To familiarize the new employees with the job, people, work place, work
environment in the organization
•To facilitate outsider-insider transition in an integrated manner
•To reduce exploitation by the unscrupulous co-workers
•To reduce the cultural shock faced in new organizations

• Contents of Induction
• Information about the organization-products/services, structure, mission,
corevalues
• Learning arrangements and opportunites-formal training, self managed learning,
personal developmental plans
• Health and safety-occupational health, prevention of injuires and
accidents,protective clothing, basic safety rules.
• Conditions of services-hours, holidays,leave, sick pay arrangements,
maternity/paternity leave
• Pay and benefits-pay salaries /wages, pay structure,details of profit sharing,
pensions, medical insurance scheme
• Policies, procedures, working arrangements-equal opportunity rules, grievance
procedures,no-smoking arrangements
• Trade unions and employee involvement-

Induction procedure
The procedure should basically follow these steps:
•First, the new person needs time and a place to report to work
•Second, it is very important that the supervisor or the immediate boss meet
and welcome the employee to the organization
•Third, administrative work should be completed
•Fourth, departmental orientation to be conducted
• Fifth, verbal explanations are to be supplemented by a wide variety of
printed material

Informal induction
•This is an unplanned induction programme.
•This may be simply an introduction to the new entrant about the job and
organization
• It may last for one hour or so and there can be two versions:
•Supervisory system
•Immediate supervisor conducts the induction
•sponsor system
•Immediate supervisor assigns the responsibility of induction to an old
employee

Formal induction
• It is a planned programme carried out to integrate the new entrant into the
organization
•This is usually carried out by large organizations
•It includes the following contents: • Brief history of the organization •
Organizational mission, vision, objectives and philosophies • Policies and
procedures • Rules and regulations • Organizational structure and authority
relationships • Terms and conditions • Welfare and safety measures

Phases of induction programme
General induction
This is the first phase of induction carried out by the HR dept.
Focus is to expose the new entrant to the organization
Employee is briefed about his service conditions, pay and perks, promotion
procedure, etc.
This period of induction may vary from few days to few weeks
Specific induction
This is given by the employee’s supervisor
The focus is on the overall exposition of the new employee to his job
This training helps the new employee adjust to his work environment
This may last for a few weeks or even months

Follow-up induction
• The main objective is to verify whether the new employee is getting himself
adjusted with the work or not
• This is either given the employee’s immediate supervisor or a specialist on
industrial psychology
•Feedback from this follow-up induction can be used to assess the
requirements of guidance and counseling for the new entrants

Socialization
• It is a process of adaptation that takes place as individuals attempt to
learn the values and norms of work roles
• In fact, induction is only a part of socialization
• Induction is confined to the new recruits only ; whereas socialization
covers transfer and promotion as well.
Socialization can be understood as a process consisting of three stages:
• The prearrival stage
• The encounter stage
• The metamorphosis stage
• The process impacts the new employee’s efficiency, commitment to the
organization’s objectives, and her/his decision to stay with the
organization.

The encounter stage
•This stage starts when the new employee
enters into the job. In the encounter stage, the
individuals confront the possible dichotomy
between their expectations about their job and
reality. Where expectations and reality differ,
the employees must undergo socialization that
will detach them from their previous
assumptions and replace those with the
organization’s pivotal standards.

The metamorphosis stage
•Finally, the new employee must work out any
problem discovered during the encounter stage.
This may mean going through changes—hence,
we call this the metamorphosis stage.
•The metamorphosis stage is complete when
new members have become comfortable with
the organization and their job.

UNIT 2 Human rsource management enhancing hr policy

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UNIT 2 Human rsource management enhancing hr policy