Introduction
Most business people strive to engage in practices that facilitate improved performance; environmental scanning is an approach that helps those in business to realize this goal. It refers to the evaluation of external environment within a business process this will help in factors that have a positive impact to the business (Johns, 2014). There are various strategies employed in environmental scanning all with an aim of improving business performance. According to, Fahey & Naravanan (1986), they were on the view that scanning programs are vital in decision making since they enable the decision makers to be aware of any changes that might arise at the same time anticipating future changes. With this in mind, the paper aims to evaluate the internal and external environment of two recruitment companies, which are, Quest Scribes and Juniper Consultants. Additionally, analyze the competitive advantage of each company, evaluate strategies each of them using to create value and gain competitive advantage, measurement guidelines used to verify strategic effectiveness and finally the effectiveness of measurement guidelines used.
Evaluation of the internal and external environment using an environmental plan
Quest Scribes and Juniper Consultants are companies that specialize in offering consultancy services in recruitment to employers. In evaluating both companies, various strategies were in place to understand the companies. Internal environmental scanning involves examining aspects within the company that contributes towards its functioning and ranges from, employee interactions amongst themselves, with managers, and access to various resources, (MSG, 2014 par.1). The data collection tool used in this case is the survey method as it is more useful in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the two companies through statistical analysis.
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Analysis of the internal environment also involved the use of SWOT where the strengths and opportunities within both groups are available. Quest Scribes managed to score higher about strengths as opposed to Jupiter Consultants as they have a more productive workforce. Quest Scribes have a dynamic workforce made up of diverse individuals having different cultural and educational backgrounds. Jupiter on the contrary mainly has employees who have either Commerce or Human Resource backgrounds. Employee relations also differed with Quest Scribes taking into consideration the influence of workplace design on employee relations. For instance, Quest developed the environment in an open plan design as opposed to Juniper with a cubicle-inspired one.
About the external, environment analysis involved examination of the various forms of environment which include the economic environment, border environment and the national environment (MSG, 2014). With both companies, some of the weaknesses they have relate to competing at a national level including the development of psychometric testing as part of the recruitment process needs implementation for both companies.
Analysis of the competitive advantage of each company
Competitive advantage as explained by Lombarde (2014) refers to a set of unique features of companies, their products and how they operate in the market as significant and superior to the competition. In the case of both companies, Quest Scribes is an authority in recruitment following that they have a large client base, mechanisms, and systems of operation that make recruitment easier. Attributable to this is their investment in software that sifts candidates based on the job description, making the process automated in such a way that if an applicant is unqualified, recruiters save time in reviewing applications. Juniper Consultants on other hand, are yet to catch up as they mostly rely on web based systems and manual selection of candidates.
With such technology in place, Quest Scribes has a competitive advantage over Juniper Consultants. In analysis of their external environment, Juniper should consider implementing an upgrade of their technological systems to compete favorably with others. In this way, environmental scanning is two-way in that when a company is carrying out internal analysis, it is also trying to carry out external analysis at the same time.
Evaluative strategies each company uses to create value and gain competitive advantage
Strategies that help companies evaluate their progress helps guide them into understanding what is working, what is not and mechanisms to improve this. In the analysis of each of the companies, one of the methods used by Quest Scribes is research. It undertakes research on the effectiveness of its tools each year to encourage objectivity. Research is crucial in that it provides information geared towards changing industry structure and altering rules of competition as described by Porter (1985). By analyzing trends, carrying out Meta-analyses and discrepancies in the systems is easily identifiable and corrected.
Another strategy involves the use of technology. It improves the value chain as it makes it possible to divide the organization’s activities. Both companies have embraced the use of technology through the development of website portals where candidates can directly apply for jobs.
Training of staff is a strategy employed by Juniper Consultants that gives it an edge as opposed to Quest Scribes. The training works towards enabling the employees to become better at identifying potential candidates. Where training is involved, employees gain knowledge and skill sets that make them better at what they do. The effect of this is that productivity improves leading to business success
Measurement guidelines used by each company to verify strategic effectiveness
Operating on the idea that recruitment companies utilize tools to facilitate their objectives, some of the measurement guidelines entail the proper use of tools that are objective, for example, online-based aptitude tests and selection tools. Quest Scribes takes into account the use of technology and spends a fair amount of its revenue in building sophisticated software to ease recruitment processes. Juniper on other hand take into account goal setting as an important aspect of their measurement guidelines in that managers and employees designed decisions where they would formulate goals for example in the number of candidates each employee is required to recruit at a particular point in time. With such a system in place, accountability amongst employees is encouraged.
Effectiveness of measurement guidelines each company uses
Measurements guidelines help determine if companies are effective in their practice. The effectiveness of different recruiting methods is dependent on companies making sure that time and money are well spent, (Catano, 2009). Both companies rely on having mechanisms that ensure job advertisements pay off, employment of better-qualified candidates and costs relating to recruiting new employees.
With the use of technology as employed by Quest Scribes, in ensuring that they remain relevant and improve productivity, technology has to be consistent with the times as characterized by constant upgrades. On the downside, such upgrades may prove to be expensive following the changing nature of technology.
In the case of Juniper, goal setting is indeed effective as it encourages motivation (Catano, 2009) however since motivation is subjective it may vary from one individual to another therefore not count as a reliable effective measurement guideline.
Conclusion
Through environmental scanning, decision makers can recognize potential changes that require companies to prepare themselves for change. For any business to succeed, environmental scanning is necessary to identify any loopholes that hinder the business from getting where it needs to be. Through analysis of both companies, it is clear that different businesses employ different strategies in carrying out the scans. Through such practices, businesses can grow and develop consistent systems that encourage not just business growth but also career development of employees.
REFERENCES
Catano, M.V. (2009). Nelson Series in Human Resources Management: Recruitment and selection in Canada . Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd.
Fahey & Naravanan. (1986). Environmental Scanning and Forecasting in Strategic Planning: The state of the art . Long Range Planning, 14(1), 32-39.
Lombardo, J. (2014). Types of Competitive Advantage: Cost, product, niche and sustainable advantages. Chapter 2. Lesson 4. Transcript. Web. Retrieved 16 Apr 2016.
Morrison, L. James. (1992). Environmental Scanning: Association for Institutional Research. A Primer for new institutional researchers . (pp.86-99). Tallahassee: Florida.
MSG. (2014). Environmental Scanning: Internal and external analysis of environment . Web. Retrieved 16 Apr 2016.
Porter, M. (1985). Technology: How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage . Harvard Business Review. Web. Retrieved 16 Apr 2016.
