The Hiring Process and Managing a Diverse Workforce

Introduction 

Several laws govern recruitment as well as the terms of overall employment. Therefore, every employer is required to adhere to the laws of employment in their Jurisdiction. The organization’s process, as well as the procedure of recruitment, must be in line with existing legal and regulatory provisions in the area of jurisdiction. The laws that govern recruitment open up the process of recruitment to any eligible person and incriminate any action of bias or discrimination during the entire process of recruitment. The effect of such laws is that it creates a more diverse workforce for the organization. The followwing study considers the recruitment for the position of the quality assurance manager. 

Recruitment Methods 

The recruitment for the position of the quality assurance manager will be done through one of the three recruitment methods outlined below. The first recruitment methods that may be used in this recruitment will be internal sourcing. Under the internal sourcing recruitment, the human resource department will put out an advertisement for the job only to existing employees in the organization through the already existing channels of communication within the organization such as emails and noticeboards among others. The employees who qualify can then apply and go through the interview and the selection procedure. This recruitment process mitigates discrimination in recruitment in two different ways. First, it is open to all employees within the organization because the vacancy is communicated to everyone and everyone has an equal opportunity of knowledge about the vacancy. Secondly, all employees within the organizations know each other. They know the educational level and experience of each employee. Therefore, they can keep in check the entire process of recruitment and ensure that the choice of the best candidate is based on merit and not any other consideration. The openness of the candidates’ information helps to check the recruitment process and eliminate any possibility of bias or discrimination (Pergher, 2011). 

The second method that can be used in this recruitment is the external sourcing. Under the external sourcing method, members of the public and people outside the organization are invited to apply for the vacancy. The advertisement will be placed in newspapers or on the organizational website. This will aim at attracting a large number of applicants for the position. This recruitment method has the potential to eliminate discrimination in the recruitment process in two ways. First, the advertisement is done to the public, and hence regulatory bodies are aware of the existence of such a recruitment process. Moreover, the public is equally aware and closely monitors the recruitment process. This openness creates an environment that fosters equity in the recruitment process. Secondly, the advertisement contains minimum requirements for the job and the shortlisting criteria. This helps the regulatory bodies to point out indicators of discrimination in the requirement and take appropriate action before the actual process of recruitment (Pergher, 2011). 

The third method of recruitment will involve contracting a third party to carry out recruitment on behalf of the organization. In this case, the organization will subcontract the process of recruitment to a third party that is specialized in professional recruitment. The third-party company will conduct the recruitment in compliance with the existing laws and the requirements of the organization. The outsourcing of the third party in the recruitment procedure will eliminate bias and discrimination in two ways. First, the third party recruitment agency is specialized in the recruitment of personnel and are professional in applying all applicable laws on recruitment. Consequently, their recruitment will be void of bias. Secondly, the recruitment agency does not have any interests in the recruitment. Therefore, they provide a neutral approach to the process of the recruitment process (Pergher, 2011). 

Method of Accepting Applications 

After the advertisement has been made for the recruitment of this position, the applicants will send the application to the human resource department. The application will be received through either hard copy documents or electronic means. The applicants who apply through electronic means must upload their application through the organization’s website. The website shall provide for uploading of documents in electronic forms. Moreover, applicants may also deliver hard copy documents physically to the company premises or through the post and the application shall be received as such. 

The advertisement for the job shall outline all the minimum requirements for the job position. These requirements shall include the minimum academic qualifications required for the job as well as the relevant experience required. Moreover, the requirements shall include relevant personality, social, leadership as well as other relevant skills. Therefore, the criteria of shortlisting will be based on the attainment of the said skills and qualifications. Each candidate will be evaluated against these criteria and the people shortlisted will be the ones satisfying the minimum requirements of the job as advertised. 

The shortlisting process will also involve the scrutiny and verification of the documentation attached. The recruiting panel shall scrutinize the resume to ascertain if the candidate meets the minimum requirements for the job. Similarly, it shall scrutinize the attached document to ascertain not only their adequacy to the requirements of the Job but also their authenticity and reliability. Candidates who present documents that are not authentic will be disqualified from shortlisting. 

Procedure for Document Retention 

This procedure shall be available to the HR department during the process or recruitment. The Human resource manager is the document owner and custodian of this documented procedure. 

The advertisement of a job vacancy shall be done through the electronic media such as website and the print media such as newspapers. All the requirements of the job as outlined in the advertisements shall be retained in the electronic media in the case where the advertisement has been presented in the electronic media. In the case where the advertisement has been presented through the print media, a copy of that advertisement shall be retained and filled in a designated file. 

The Human resource shall retain documented information about all the applicants who apply for the position as electronic or hard copies. It will include their resume, academic certificates as well as other documents that they present as part of their application for this position. 

The recruiting panel shall retain all the information about the criteria that they have used in the shortlisting process. This will include all the information about the evaluation of every candidate and the basis of shortlisting of candidates. 

The recruitment panel shall retain all the interview notes of every candidate that attended the interview. This will include notes from each member of the interview panel. Moreover, the panel shall retain all the criteria of the interview that is used and the evaluation of each candidate’s performance on each criterion. 

The panel shall document all the evaluated information of the chosen candidate as well as their relevant documentation. It will further retain and document the basis on which the candidate was chosen during the interview 

Background Checks in Recruitment 

Background checks involve obtaining background information about the candidate for recruitment that the employer may not get directly from the applicant or which the authenticity of the information provided by the applicant requires verification. Background checks for all applicants are very critical in recruitment as it helps the employer to understand applicants better and find information that would help them make the best choices in recruitment. An employer can undertake several background checks. The major background checks include criminal checks, personality and competence checks and financial checks. 

Criminal background checks involve checking the criminal records of the specific applicant. Criminal checks are carried out in consultation with security agencies. The criminal background checks aim to ascertain whether the applicant in question has ever been engaged or convicted of criminal activity. The importance of criminal background checks is that it helps the employer to identify applicants with a criminal history and eliminate them from the process of employment. Ideally, it is a legal contract and the company stands to suffer critical legal consequences if its employees are engaged in criminal activities in the course of executing their duties. Therefore, it is imperative to employ people who do not have a criminal history and hence whose integrity cannot be put into disrepute. 

The second background check that employer can undertake is the competence and personality checks. In this check, the employer may contact the former employer to find out the competence as well as the personality of the person while he or she was in employment in the said company. The employer may equally undertake background checks from the institutions of learning that the applicant claims to have acquired academic credentials. This will authenticate the documents that they present for recruitment as well as their competence for the job. This background check is important because it is possible for the applicant to lie on their resume. Therefore, this background check authenticates the information presented to the employer by the applicant. 

The third background check that the employer can undertake is the financial check. This background check involves checking the financial status of the applicant. In undertaking this background check, the employer seeks to find out any financial debt that the person may have including any debts that the person may have defaulted. The importance of the financial background checks is to caution the company against any financial claims that may arise from the employee’s debts and financial status. 

Employment Test 

The employer can consider several employment tests in the process of recruitment. The choice of an employment check to be used will depend on the nature of the operations involved and the relevance of the employment check to the position for which the employer is recruiting. For the position of the Occupational Health and Safety Specialist, the company will consider taking the medical examination test, honesty test and the intelligence test (Pergher, 2011). 

The examination check involves taking a pre-employment medical examination on the candidate recruitment to ascertain his or her state of health before employment. The medical examination checks is a precaution the employer against any future claims that the employee may have developed an occupational disease by his or her employment. In case of such claims, the employee can refer the reemployment examination test (Pergher, 2011). 

Honesty and integrity tests are equally important in this recruitment. The employer must understand the honesty of the person being employed. The importance of honesty checks is to ensure that the employer can get a person of high integrity. The employee must be relied on of to undertake his or her Jobs with utmost honesty and give honest feedback (Pergher, 2011). 

Lastly, the employer must undertake the intelligence test. For the position to which this recruitment refers, the person chosen will be required to make several judgments and decisions. As such, high integrity is a prerequisite for the job. The intelligence test will assist in identifying the person with the highest intelligence for recruitment. 

Hiring and Promotion Policy 

The organization and its management are committed to ensuring that it complies with all existing legal and regulatory requirements in the process of hiring and promotion of its employees and shall offer equal employment opportunities. To achieve this, the organization shall: 

Maintain transparency in its recruitment and promotion processes and procedures. 

Eliminate any requirements in its recruitment and promotional process that may introduce bias and hence discrimination in both employment and promotion opportunities. 

Create many promotional opportunities within the organization to ensure career growth for its employees. 

Base its recruitment and promotions only on competence. 

Ensure that the process of recruitment and promotion is fair all interested candidates and does not introduce any bias that may lead to discrimination. 

Evaluating Soft Skills 

Soft skills are skills that are not technical about the job under recruitment but are necessary for the performance of the job. Such skills include communication skills, interpersonal skills, and critical thinking skills among others. The method of evaluating soft skills has been a point of controversy in most recruitment processes. 

The challenge of using a subjective method in evaluating soft skills is that is that such skills cannot be quantified. For instance, one cannot determine to what extent one person has developed interpersonal skills over the other. Therefore, subjective methods cannot be justified in picking an individual over the other. In mitigating this effect, the employer must provide a framework for the objective evaluation of such skills outline the basic requirements for the recruitment concerning such skills. 

Reasonable Accommodation For Disabled Applicants And Religious Considerations 

Reasonable accommodation refers to the measures that the employer puts in place to help people with disabilities to perform their duties (Drach, 2010). For example, can provide sign language interpreters to help applicants with hearing impairment not only go through the recruitment process but also communicate within their roles in the event they are recruited. Another example of reasonable accommodation is the building of staircases that help people with physical disabilities to move within the building. Reasonable accommodation eliminates any bias that could lead to discrimination against people with disabilities. 

Religious considerations are special conditions given to people by their religion. For instance, an employee may be exempted from working on a given day due to his or her religious conviction to worship on that day. 

The employer may fail to provide reasonable accommodation under different conditions. First, if the nature of the disability in question does not qualify for accommodation as determined the Equal Employment Opportunity Policy guidelines, then the employer may not provide for such accommodation (Drach, 2010). Secondly, the American disability act provides that an employer may fail to provide for a reasonable accommodation if such a compromise gives the employer an undue disadvantage (Drach, 2010). 

Court Cases on Affirmative Actions And Harassment Issues 

In the case of Philips v. Martin Marietta Corp , the Supreme Court determined that the company have violated the employment discrimination act based on gender. The court found out that the company had indeed discriminated against people about their gender (Fasang, 2016). As a corrective action, the Phillips Company should institute actions that enable minority groups such as women to have equal access to employment within the company. It includes giving application guideline that makes it possible for the minority groups such as women to apply for such vacancies. 

In the case of Vance V. Ball State University , the Supreme Court determined that an employer should take responsibility for the harassment actions an employee if that employer has empowered the said employee to the extent that he can change or terminate the employment status of the employee (Fasang, 2016). As a mitigation measure, every employer must ensure that they only appoint responsible people to positions of employment influence. Moreover, the employer must carry out extensive awareness to all the employees on the consequences of harassment. Therefore, it will ensure that the people appointed to leadership positions are not only reliable not to execute harassment but are equally aware of the consequences of such harassment. 

Work-Life Conflicts 

Several work-life conflicts are likely to occur in the context of employment. To begin with, the responsibilities of an employee at work may affect his private or family life. For instance, where the responsibilities are so much, the employee may be overwhelmed by work and hence lack time for family. In the formulation of the work policy, the employer must ensure that he abides by the legal provisions of work. It includes laws regarding breaks from work that allows the employee time to rest (Barker, 2014). The affordable care act equally requires employers to allow breastfeeding mothers time off from work to allow them to undertake their maternal responsibilities. 

Another case of work-life conflict occurs where an individual’s personal life interferes with his or her ability to deliver at work. For instance, in case an employee is underpaid, he is likely to suffer frustrations in his or her personal life. This frustration is likely to affect his ability to perform his working responsibility. As a solution to this, the employer must ensure that he complies with the Wage and Hour Bill that outlines guidelines for payment including minimum wages and overtime payment among other employee benefits. 

Conclusion 

Diversity is an important aspect of organizational success. For this reason, company managers should adopt succinct policies to promote the concept right from when they are recruiting their employees to the way they manage them in the workplace. Several laws govern the recruitment process. A company should consider compliance with such laws not only because of the legal implications of in compliance but also because such compliance helps to create a level ground for employers to offer employment. They equally provide a framework for organizations to recruit the most competent applicants. 

References 

Barker, E. (2014). States Offer a Smorgasbord of Meal and Rest Break Laws. Employment Relations Today, 41 (2), 63-67. 

Drach, R. L. (2010). Making reasonable accommodations under the ADA. Employment Relations Today, 19 (2), 167-175. 

Fasang, A. (2016). Recruitment in symphony orchestras: testing a gender-neutral recruitment process. Work, employment, and society, 20 (4), 801-809. 

Pergher, D. (2011). Recruitment and placement by private employment agencies. Effective Protection for Domestic Workers: A guide to designing labor laws, 2 (2), 95-96.