Hiring new employees for a new office can be a tedious and challenging process for any Human Resource Manager. The need for new employees is an indicator of growth and expansion of the organization which was the case in our organization. The first thing was to ensure that one understands laws pertaining recruitment and employee rights. A lot of deliberation and time was required to come up with the employees best suited for specific tasks. It was important to clearly define the gap that the new employee(s) is expected to fill at the organization with the current and future needs of the employee being clearly outlined. It was also determined whether the position could be filled by existing personnel after further training and in case new recruitment was required, come up with a job description as well as the qualifications needed for the new employee. This was through advertising of the position and shortlisting of these who will be interviewed after applications had been tendered. Interviews were then carried out in a fair and uniform manner after which the successful candidates were contacted and notified of the offer of employment (Fair work, 2016). Upon reporting, the new employees were then oriented into the organization followed by intensive employee-employer connections to ensure that they were as productive as possible.
Understanding the Law
The first step in employing new staff is to understand the laws and statues pertaining employee rights and the correct employment procedures. The law prohibits discrimination of any kind during the hiring process. Discrimination can be based on one’s age, race, gender, religion or nationality. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents discrimination based on one’s gender while Age Discrimination in Employment Act (DEA) prevents discrimination of potential employees based on their age (Find Law, 2016). An interviewer may ask questions during the interview which may provoke a lawsuit against the organization hence making it important to understand all laws concerning employment.
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The Fair Work Act, 2009 outlines various standards of employment which includes the rights of workers to negotiate for their work schedule, their right to maternal, paternal and annual leaves as well as compassionate leave. The law also supports running background checks on potential employees to avoid hiring people who may later bring about problems to the organization. This can be done through Universal Background Screening and also through the use of FBI Criminal History Checks. The law also allows for drug use screening through use of drug use tests before hiring an individual.
This is due to the fact that drug use impairs an individual’s performance and may be a hindrance to efficient workplace productivity. It is also important to avoid making pledges and promises that cannot be kept as this will make the organization liable to lawsuits from the recruit (Find Law, 2016). When dealing with immigrants, it is important to ensure that they have all the required immigration papers and also ensure that their rights are upheld in terms of remunerations. During the selection process, the privacy of applicants should be upheld. A lot of information is gathered during this process and lawsuits may ensue if it is found in possession or knowledge of unauthorized personnel.
Define the Employment Opportunities .
Based on the needs of the organization, it was imperative to define the roles to be filled by the new employees. This involved specifying the positions that needed to be filled and the qualifications required from the applicants (UCR, 2016). The fact that the organization is expanding meant that there was need to have some of the positions filled by existing staff. The new office required 7 new employees including a human resource officer, a marketing manager, a financial controller/ officer in charge of the new office or a book keeper, a purchasing manager, receptionist, a computer consultant and a messenger. Cleaners, messengers and catering staff were also needed in order to run the new office effectively. Coming up with a job description was done by considering the tasks at hand that the new employee was expected to perform. This then helped with determining the qualifications of the potential employee. Requirements for the human resource officer included; A master’s degree in human resource management from a recognized American or any other well established International University, a 10 year experience in the top management position of an established organization, and awards for participation in different events that are relevant or not to the area of study. The marketing manager positional requirements included a degree in business marketing from a well-established business collage in America or other to International collages, at least five years’ experience in the marketing field, two years’ experience in business management position, and other achievement in the relevant or outside the marketing sector. The financial office positional requirements included a master’s degree in accounting from a well-recognized American business college or other recognized international business colleges, a minimum of five years’ experience in the book keeping and accounting sector in a well-established, profit oriented organization, and at least one year experience in other financial sectors besides book keeping. Purchasing managerial requirements included a college degree from a well-known business college, three four years’ experience in stock management of an established organization, at least one year experience in the any sector of financial management, and a driver’s license. The receptionist requirements include a diploma in linguistics from an established American or International college, two years’ experience as a receptionist in a reasonably large organization, good communication skills, and knowledge and fluency in basic international languages. Computer consultant requirements include a degree in Information Technology from an established American college or well established international college, a minimum of three years’ experience in IT operations of a medium to large organization, and advanced knowledge in software operations. The messenger requirements include a college certificate in hospitality from a known college, a driver’s license, two years’ experience as a messenger of a medium to large organization, and good communication skills. Any other technical achievements in relevant or irrelevant fields are additional advantages to the applicant.
After ascertaining that these positions need to be filled, the next step would be to consider if any of the current employees are qualified to take up the new roles. Those who would need a little training would be trained and re-assigned. This was also a good opportunity to reward hardworking employees with promotions and pay rises as they would be assigned to the new office in more senior positions. It was important to assign the senior managerial position to employees within the organization as they were well versed with the way things are done which ensures efficiency and increased productivity at the new branch (UCR, 2016). In some instances, however, this was not possible making it necessary to recruit from outside the company.
This is the stage where the type of employee needed, that is, whether full time, part time, casual or fixed term was determined. Full time employees are those whose working contract are ongoing and work for 38 hours a week. They have specific and regular working hours (from morning to evening) but can sometimes work for extra hours on their request or on the management’s request at an extra cost. Casual employees have the same working conditions as full time employees except for their working hours which are less than 38 hours a week. Workers in both categories are entitled to paid leaves. Casual workers do not have a fixed work pattern and usually report to work when it is available. They are also not entitled to leaves and ‘over-time’ payments. Fixed term employees are only required for a specific amount of time or to perform a specific task. A fixed-term employee may be called in to replace a full time employee who is on leave meaning that the fixed term employee will leave work when the full term employee comes back to work after the leave (Fair Work, 2016). All of these types of workers are needed at the new office. After profiling the roles to be filled at the new office as well as the qualifications needed, the next step is to put in measures to attract the desired candidates.
Attracting the Desired Candidates
The desired candidates are attracted by means of advertising for the positions through the available media outlets. The adverts should make the positions desirable to the potential and qualified employees. To ensure that the adverts were as visible as possible, it was important to explain more about the company with emphasis on its achievements and the fact that it is expanding. The information given was, however, not too much to ensure that interested candidates took it upon themselves to learn more about the organization (UCC, 2016). The advert also indicated the salary and other remuneration packages on offer for the successful candidate. More emphasis was put on the job than on the organization in order to keep the reader interested to the end. The responsibilities and roles of the positions were also clearly outlined and this helped the interested individual to be able to relate to the role and establish if he/she would be able to fit in and perform the required duties effectively.
In the advertisement, the location of the job was also clearly stated as well as the fact that it is a new office. The job was advertised on the organization’s website and online sites that advertise jobs, on social media platforms such as the organization’s Facebook page, through the use of recruitment agencies and national newspapers and magazines.
Selection of the Right Candidates
After advertising for the positions, numerous applications were expected leading to the tiresome and cumbersome process of selecting the right candidates to be interviewed, a process known as shortlisting. The easiest method of ensuring that only the most qualified candidates are shortlisted was first through elimination of those that did not meet the specified qualifications. This was then followed by identifying the applicants whose profiles best suited the ones needed for the specific positions (Fair Work, 2016). These two processes were devoid of any discrimination and were only based on merit. Qualified personnel carried out the interview process which was the final process in the selection of a qualified candidate. During the interview, the panelists asked the interviewee various questions pertaining their personality, qualifications and skills in a bid to confirm that the information on their resume was indeed true. The interview was devoid of personal questions or derogatory statements or opinions. The questions were also relevant to the position that the applicant was interested in. It was also important to keep the interview as formal as possible. During this process, the attitude of the candidate was ascertained as appropriate or not and whether or not the candidate was suitable for the position.
The process should be fair in that the candidates should be asked the same questions and rated depending on how well or badly they answered the questions. The candidates who passed the interviews were those who had at least graduated from the university and had the ability to relate well with others as well as possess evident leadership and teamwork skills (Fair Work, 2016). Although this is the best mode of selecting the most qualified candidate, fairness may be hindered if the panelists are biased. There are also instances of panelist bribery by job seekers and to counter this, it was ensured that panelists would not access the questionnaire till the date of the interview. It was also emphasized that any form of canvassing would lead to immediate disqualification of the candidate.
Other Recruitment Methods Used
Apart from interviews, other recruitment tools that were used to select the new employees include contacting the references and enquiring more about the candidates. Some of the candidates may not have fared well in the interviews due to a lack of confidence but their former employers and other referees assured us that they were indeed hard working and trustworthy people which formed a basis of their selection (UCR, 2016). There was, however, the disadvantage of relying on false information as there was no way we could ascertain that what the referee said about the applicant was true. We also trained some of our current employees who were capable of taking up positions in the new office. Due to their experience and knowledge of the organization’s set-up, it was easier for them to be promoted and take up the senior position at the new branch. Recruitment agencies were also used to obtain some of the workers especially the technical staff members who are to work on a part-time basis.
During the recruitment process, we carried out background checks on the shortlisted candidates to ensure that we do not employ individuals with a criminal record. Ideally, this was our test of the candidate’s integrity. This is in line with our policy that the best way to avoid ‘problem employees’ is not to employ them in the first place. The background checks were carried out with the help and authority of the FBI which proved helpful since some of the job applicants had been arrested before on charges of break-ins and resisting arrests among others. The main advantage of using the FBI to help check out if the applicants had a criminal record was the accuracy of the information. These candidates were automatically disqualified even if they had the desired academic credentials.
This was followed by running drug tests on the shortlisted candidates (Legal Aid, 2016). Although this move has in the past been termed as too cautious, it was found necessary due to the possible negative effects of drug abuse in the work place. Applicants who complied signed an agreement form and then had their blood samples sent to the government laboratory. The results were negative for drug abuse for all the applicants and thus none was disqualified on the basis of drug abuse. In the past, people aware of the fact that they will undergo drug tests have been known to avoid taking drugs after applying for a job up to the point where they take the test thus giving a false negative result. Others may not be users at the time of employment but may start abusing drugs afterwards. These challenges however do not pre-empt the need to screen for drug use during recruitment as prevention is always better than cure.
Employment Offer
Once the right candidates were selected, they were contacted and notified on their employment offer through phone calls. This was then followed up with official emails detailing their terms of employment. This was to help the new employees orient themselves with their new jobs as well as work stations before the actual commencement of the jobs (Fair Work). They were also sent official employment offer letters as well as Fair Work Information Statement which must be given to every new worker as per the laws of the country. The new employees were also furnished with copies of the organization’s code of conduct and policies pertaining social media and use of the internet. We also sent them copies of tax declaration files so that they are able to pay taxes without failure.
Orientation
Once the new employees join the organization, they were oriented into the organization by the human resources department and those in charge of the departments they were going to work in. During orientation, they were given an idea of the organization’s activities, had their roles and responsibilities explained to them, taught about the organization’s policies and work timelines, the mode of dressing and their remuneration. They were also taught about the safety and health rules of the organization.
The last step in hiring new personnel involved creation of a work place environment that was conducive for productivity (Fair Work, 2016). This was through frequently meeting with the new staff and finding out how they are progressing with their new roles. This has enabled me to discover what they need in order to work more effectively. Goals are also set in these meetings as well as expectations.
Conclusion
With expansion of an organization, more employees are required in order to cope with the increased work load. Hiring of new staff requires considerable selection of the same while upholding the legal requirements of this process. The process involves identifying and profiling the positions required, advertising for the positions, shortlisting and finally recruiting. After recruiting, the new employees are then oriented into the organization and work closely with the management to ensure maximum productivity.
References
Fair work (2016). A Guide to Hiring New Employees. www.fairwork.gov.au
Find Law (2016). Legal Rights during the Hiring Process.
www.employment.findlaw.com/hiring-process/legal-rights-during-the-hiring-process.html/
University of California, Riverside (UCR) (2016). Recruitment Tools and Resources. https://hr.ucr.edu/recruitement/tools.html
Legal Aid (2016). Your job: Back ground checks, medical and drug tests and more. www.lawhelpmn.org/background-checks-medical-and -drug-tests-and-more/
UCC (2016) Shortlisting Process. www.ucc.ie/en/hr/recruitement/guidelines/shortlisting .
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