Introduction
Since when the Resource-Based View (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984) started gaining grounds, which focused on firm resources that can be sources of competitive advantage (Barney, 1995), the organizations too started valuing human resources and skills for their newfound effectiveness. (Bharadwaj, 1993), thus accommodating regular HR practices, which involved Strategy & Decisions, Dimensions and Value-additions (Rennie, 2003). Even at the last lap of the 20th century HR practices are found highly effective when they were implemented as the part of the system, as Wright & Snell (1991) argued that Strategic Human Resource Management required coordinated HR activities across the various sub-functions.
In the same line, Wright and McMahan’s (1992) stressed on “horizontal integration” of the various HR practices while defining SHRM, or Lado and Wilson (1994) hypothesized that the more complex the HR system, the more likely it would be to serve as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. MacDuffie (1995) in his study of automobile manufacturing firms observed that performance was maximized when “bundles” of HR practices were linked with participative work systems and flexible production systems. Wright, McCormick, Sherman, and McMahan (1996) found that HR practices such as selection, appraisal and compensation, were strongly related to performance among refineries that had highly participative work systems.
Thus, the belief that individual employee performance has implications for firm-level outcomes has been prevalent among academics and practitioners for many years” (Huselid, 1995). Because of its proven track of effectiveness, HRM now holds significant influence on the organizational proceedings (Dolan et al, 2001) with its various functional modules to suit specific needs of the companies. Out of them, “High Performance Work Systems”, commonly known as HPWS, which is an “effective combination of HR practices, work structures and processes that maximizes employee knowledge, skill, commitment and flexibility” (Bohlander, 2004). Therefore, this paper applies “High-Performance Work System” (HPWS), a specific branch of HRM, along with theories of human behaviour to XYZ Company’s Publication Division (PD), where I work as a public relations manager. Thus, in accordance with the objective of XYZ the proposed HRP applies the strategies of HPWS, covering both the external and internal structures of the PD segment of XYZ, with the help of PEST and SWOT analyses.
Significance of SHRM
To communicate the importance of investing in human resources and HR management practices to business leaders, it may help to demonstrate the relationship of human resources and organizational financial performance. (Barney and Wright, 1998) and HRD should implement SHRM to work synergistically to help implement the firm’s strategy (Choo and Bontis, 2002)
Many researchers have examined the link between specific individual human resource contributions, employee relations, and human resource management practices such as staff planning, job analysis, job design, recruitment selection, use of an internal labor market, training and development, performance appraisals, compensation, communication, employee involvement, and grievance procedures (Delaney & Huselid, 1996) on firm performance. Choo and Bontis (2002) suggested that in addition to the way an organization competes and where the organization competes, that the assets and skills of the business are the basis of competition and provide the foundation for sustainable competitive advantage. They theorized that organizations increased levels of human resource management practices will (a) increase motivation; (b) improve knowledge, skills, and abilities; (c) reduce shirking; (d) enhance retention; and (e) encourage non-performers to leave.
There is a positive link between organizations that have good employee relations and firm level performance (Hatch and Dyer 2004). HRP impacts company performance Huselid (1995) and there are positive associations between HRP and company (Karami, et al., 2004; Huselid, Jackson, and Schuler 1997), such as training and staffing selectivity, and the perception of firm performance in for profit and not for profit organizations. Lawson and Hepp (2001) reported that PACA (People as a Competitive Advantage) tools had a positive and significant impact on employee commitment, return on expenses (ROE), return on assets (ROA), and on the bank’s efficiency ratio (ER). These findings are consistent with other HR practice effects, but also offer a direct and independent relationship between human resource practices and organizational outcomes suggesting that effective human resource decisions that drive leadership and management practices can help ensure a unique and sustainable competitive advantage.
Earlier the role of HRM was considered as something related only to ‘firm-positioning’ – i.e., achieving an advantageous position of the firm with whatever resource it has, human and physical. It didn’t carry the job of collecting, maintaining and developing the capital of the organization – which was, money, or physical assets.
An example from they past would explain the situation better – Adam Smith, the thinker of the 18th century and one of the earlier management theoretician, wrote sometime in 1776, “In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of those who exercise it is always in proportion to the necessity they are under in making the exertion”
Clearly that was aimed toward emphasizing on cohesive human effort – which reflects also the need for the time – hard, untiring effort. Things were somewhat same even after hundred years, when Henry George in 1898, stated this disposition of man “to seek the satisfaction of their desires with the minimum of exertion is so universal and unfailing that it constitutes one of those invariable sequences that we denominate the laws of nature” (Ali, 2007).
A number of researchers have investigated the relationships of specific organizational variables and firm level performance. Carmeli and Tishler (2004) have examined “intangible” sources of competitive advantage including management capabilities, human and organizational resources and skills, and the firm’s external reputation.
With the shift of capital from finance to human, in walked the issues like knowledge and intellectual property management, and this phase can rightly be termed as ‘coming of age’ of HRM. Armed with digital revolution, HRM started transforming the business world from around the last phase of 20th century – when the economy itself started evolving into a new avatar with microchip as its central dynamo. This state of affairs started converting all the previous concepts of business mechanism, save the lifestyle of humans – because the advent of Information Age wiped out the roadblocks of physical distance and made the world a global village. Thus new economy appeared with absolutely new features, which were earlier unknown, such as:
i) Global workforces with growing state of skills all around;
ii) Tremendous speed of transmission of data and plethora of options in dealing any subject;
iii) Abundant business opportunities through the scope of endless networking;
iv) Knowledge-based economy, where intellectual capital can drive the value of products;
v) Democratized state of power, were an individual is empowered by the virtual Information Bank and one’s own network;
vi) A new kind of openness that advocates the recognition of free minds, free markets and free trade. In short, an open door for anyone to enter from anywhere.
vii) Success is no more dependent on financial capital.
viii) Boundless scope for an individual to create and sell any product all by one’s own, and to a high degree. This feature was a radical shift from the core concept of pre-Information Age, where the economy would revolve around “mass production, mass marketing and mass media” (Isaacson, 1997).
Challenge of HRM’s New Paradigm
The state of affairs described above is much like a sudden congregation of millions of horses rearing to go to any direction at any moment; and there is but little doubt that all the horses need guidance and direction. Right here HRM of modern stepped in, for all and sundry. This perhaps helps in imagining the enormity of the role of HRM in modern world, as well as its significance. Managing intellectual capital with ‘living strategy’ is actually tougher than managing the horses!
It was not that the intellectuals did not anticipate this situation. It was in the last lap of 20th century, they opined “Companies will set themselves apart in 21st century by how well they optimize the human-centeredness of their technology. The slogan ‘Our people are our most important asset’ will take on a deeper meaning, for it is the alertness and performance of an organization’s people that determines how effectively the organization uses all its other resources” (Moore-Ede, 1993, p.191).
It would be pertinent here to touch down the key elements of living strategy, which would help in understanding the current role and significance of HRM. The key elements of a living strategy (Gratton, 2000) are
a) Vision of business: Experience + Knowledge + Imagination;
b) Clear understanding of current capability: Who + What + When + Where + Why + How;
c) Cluster of people process levers: Recruitment/Selection + Performance objectives + Performance metrics + Reward/Recognition + Training.
Here it would be appropriate to mention that HRM’s new role has added two new components besides human resources, and they are intellectual assets and intellectual property, where intellectual asset means knowledge in any form that belongs to they company and intellectual property means legally protected intellectual asset (say, a patent). Together these duo forms the ‘intellectual capital’, of which the guardian angel is HRM. But that’s just one side on the coin, because the other side is occupied by ‘Human Capital’, considered as the supreme asset among all in modern times, of which the recruiter, retainer, developer and manager is HRM.
The above said package of responsibilities of HRM is not limited by regional boundaries, and mentioning this would be enough to imagine the volume of it. Now, with these, HRM goes on to add another important job in its list – Knowledge Management.
According Jack Welch, Chairman, General Electric, “an organization’s ability to learn, and to translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage”. This statement alone highlights the significance of this job of HRM, whose objective today stands at increasing institutional intelligence, or ‘Corporate IQ’ (Rennie, 2003).
Present Day SHRM at a Glance
According to Gates (2000:xxii,l) business is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last 50 years. These changes will occur because of the flow of digital information. The successful companies of the next decade will be the ones that use digital tools to reinvent the way they work. The rise of IT industry in the US alone in the tune of $866 billion (Rennie, 2003) even ten years back from now (1997) corroborates Bill Gate’s words.
While the seeds of HR coming into prominence had been germinating for quite sometime, the last two decades accelerated the process with a substantial increase in awareness concerning the value of human resources in business (Luoma, 2000). It was around this time the companies started realizing the fact that they must continuously improve the way they organize and manage themselves to become successful and to remain competitive, as Kontoghiorghes (2003) stated, “competitiveness will ultimately depend on their capability to configure people and design a system for optimal execution of strategy” (p.28).
Such realization was inevitable amid the weather of change, where issues like quantum leap in information and other technologies, globalization, skills gaps, new market demand and worker shortage etc. all gathered together to make the companies rethink about their ways and means to maintain their competitiveness, as adages like “without a well trained and well prepared labor force, businesses lose the ability to compete” (Laprade, 2005) started haunting them. It seemed like facing a revolutionary change where there several powerful change agents working in tandem to take the society in a completely new zone with new rules of sustenance and for that it demanded a whole new set of strategies to recruit, acquire, and develop employees that will ultimately add to the value of the organization (Luoma, 2000).
Therefore, it is the enormity of demand that finally elevated the traditional human resource management from mere staffing assignment to a new world of activities, where the companies started considering it as the pivot of company’s success and prosperity. Under the changing atmosphere, the Human Resource Development (HRD) stemmed out as a ramified, vital branch of HRM, where it took charge of new major operations like individual asset identification, assessment of individual need towards formulating individual development plan for the employees.
Figure 1: Evolved state of HRM
Brief Introduction of HPWS
Settling between Work Flow and Support Technology, HPWS incorporates various principles of high involvement, besides linking various strategies to the system design. After that proper implementation of its strategies brings positive outcomes for both the company and its employees. The basic placement of HPWS looks like below:
Figure 2
In short, this package of strategy aims “create an environment within an organization where the employee has greater involvement and responsibility” (Brown, 2006). According to the researchers, this new avatar of HRM stemmed out of the “difficult period US manufacturing environment in late 20s” (Barnes, 2001).
Underlying Principles of HPWS
HPWS started with three pillars at the outset, like involvement, training and incentives¸ before adding the fourth, support technology; to take off as a full fledged system.
Besides these, HPWS takes essences from motivation theories, like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 2008), ERG Theory (ERG, 2007), Acquire Needs Theory (McClellands, 2007) or Two-Factor Theory (Two Factor, 2008). It also adds newer ideas like ‘direct benefit’, which includes issues like reducing work-related stress (O’Connell & Russell, 2005), or ‘family-friendly’ working arrangements (Dex and Smith, 2002) to garner more employee commitment.
Elements of HPWS
The first important element of HPWS, “Involvement”, aims to provide the employees an “increased opportunity to participate in decisions” (Barnes, 2001). For that matter it emphasizes on sharing information among the members of the company.
Second element, “Training”, aims to generate a thrust towards developing the knowledge and skill on the subjects employees deal with.
The third element of HPWS is “Rewards” or “Incentives”. This element aims to align the goals of the employees with the goal of the company by utilizing the reward system. It prescribes to connect the rewards to performance to make both the company and the employee mutually benefited.
The combination of the three in a free flowing manner creates an egalitarian work environment that eliminates the status and power differences, which in turn enhances collaboration and teamwork.
The fourth element is “Technology”, where HPWS wants exploit the advantage of modern technology to make the system further effective.
The basic arrangement of HPWS, therefore, looks like below:
Figure 3
In another diagram, application of HPWS at this stage can be defined like below:
Figure 4
How HPWS would be Applied in XYZ
Towards achieving its goal, this paper uses different tools to collect data, the nature of which is placed as below:
Nature of Data
Sources
Company information
Company’s website
Company’s internal reports
Interview with employees and departmental heads
Internal and External business situations
Legal documents, Web documents, News articles and company’s future target reports
Module of HRM
Books and literature on HPWS on Web
Organisational Background of XYZ
Starting from 1988, XYZ has gradually established it position in the print and electronic media with its newspaper, magazines and news related television programs. It is owned by a British national and with higher holdings of stock and later with its women’s and trade magazines. and today it is operating in most of the parts of England with a total number of 610 employees, out of which 210 are engaged in the Publication Division, the organization in discussion. It has a vast market comprising of all English-speaking communities across the globe, though its print media circulation is limited in England, France and Belgium. It has already secured an impressive client list and currently holds the third and fourth slots in the print and electronic media among the same players in the respective groups. With this information, HPWS learns about companies strategic plans and objectives.
XYZ’s Strategic Plans and Objectives
1. Achieving the second slot in print media by 2012 by expanding its base and extending the services by adding two more magazines for the teenagers and kids, besides increasing the sales of its current products, “Good Morning” newspaper, “Womanly” magazine and “Market Trend” trade magazine.
2. The newspaper has a circulation around 300,000, while the Womanly and Market Trend have circulations around 85,000 and 1,25000 respectively. The company wants to increase it 25% by the next four years.
3. It has its other aim of achieving the second slot in the electronic media by 2014, by adding entertainment programmes in its news channel.
Next it checks the various segments of the company. XYZ has altogether seven segments like below:
1. Policy makers: Board of Directors and a panel of Advisors.
2. Divisional Heads: There are two separate divisions like Print division and Electronic division in the company and they have their separate heads who are responsible for all operational activities.
3. Administrative Departments: There is a three-tier structure in the administrative segment, where the separate administrative departments of Print and Electronic divisions work under a central administration. They deal with office administration and accounts, besides recruitment, though there is a system of acquiring a final approval of the Divisional Heads.
4. Creative Departments: Both Print and Electronic divisions have their own creative wings, though they work together as and when needed. Their job ranges from writing to editing besides ideating and planning the contents.
5. Marketing Department: Marketing department is a broad platform and the staff here work under specific assignment according to the strategy set from time to time. Their job is to procure various advertisements and to maintain a steady relation with clients.
6. Advertising Department: This department also functions like Marketing Department, where the staffs are utilized for both the divisions. The staffs here create all the promotional and other advertisements for the company and its clients.
7. Stringers: This department manages the activities of the freelancers who serve under contract.
This company has no separate HR department, but a section of the central administration performs the jobs of HRM and the other managers are encouraged to help them in this regard. This is an irregular arrangement and thus this project would encourage the company to create a separate HR department in order to apply High Performance Work System (HPWS) in it. However, they have a written guideline approved by the management and the unions that looks like below:
Human Resource Policy of XYZ
Manpower
Position, Duties, Responsibilities, Personal information, Job specification, Wage scale, Promotional Avenue, Police history,
Recruiting Process
Advertisement, Test, Interview, Agreement to Terms & Conditions.
Employee Compensation
Annual increments, Promotions on fulfilment of criterion, Medical and other benefits, facilities of Employee Cooperative, other permissible benefits from time to time.
Termination
Gratuity and other permissible benefits, Notice of three months in advance from either side in appropriate cases, No Objection certificate under satisfactory circumstance.
Employee Training
At the discretion of Administration
Integrity Development
Annual Sports, Annual Cultural Meet, Seminars/Symposia
HR Policies and Procedures of XYZ
The company earlier stressed on developing the human behavioral process as it believed in utilizing human abilities by shaping their behavior. This was a broad based HR polity of the company, where it valued its creative faculty (Editorial, Advertising and Art department) over others, since it believed that the company is dealing more with temporal products.
Critical analysis of HR Policies and Procedures
The HR policies and procedures of the company primarily evolved out of the needs of those three departments though such measures were supposed to cover the needs of all other vital organs of the company, such as Publication Division, where the maximum number of employees work and whose contributions to the sustenance and development of the company are no less than the coveted creative department. Consequently, the HR Policies formulated for creative department failed to impress the publication department. Thus, the basic idea of segregating creative department as the coveted segment and to mould the other departments in its shaped could not help HR policies in this company.
Accordingly this paper applies HPWS to Publication Division where it fits its components into the system of PD. Here HPWS works on two layers, viz., internal and external – where it ensures ‘Internal fit’ and ‘External fit’. Internal fit refers to the situation where all the internal elements of the work system complement and reinforce one another. In the case of External fit, it refers to the situation where the work system supports the organization’s goals and strategies.
Figure 5
Next it uses SWOT and PEST analysis.
SWOT Analysis of PD of XYZ Company:
STRENGTHS
1. The brand name of XYZ is well established in its country and in Europe.
2. It has a background of 20 years experience in the Print Media.
3. Print Media is well supported by its Electronic Media wing.
4. It has recorded steady growth over the years.
5. Employee retention rate is also good.
6. The company uses high-tech mechanism and in favour of regular upgrading.
7. Company is eager to improve the overall benefit of the employees.
WEAKNESSES
1. The communication gap between creative department and publication division creating erroneous productions.
2. There is irregularity in resource management, selection and training.
3. Publication Division is somewhat alienated with the creative department.
4. Interpersonal communication is not up to the mark due to lack of systematic process.
5. Number of managers is less than it needs.
6. Motivation is stagnated due to routine promotion and no performance related incentive
7. No regular Team Meetings held to evaluate performance and formulate the strategy for the future.
8. No individual performance evaluation system.
9. Information sharing and idea exchange do not take place at all levels.
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Its multicultural base has a definite advantage over its competitors in the environment of globalization.
2. It has a very good rapport with decision makers through its women’s magazine.
3. It has more scope with its electronic version.
4. XYZ company holds a common fund for its two wings.
THREATS
1. Competition is getting stiffer as the other players in the league are coming up with quality production at lower consumer prices.
2. Unionism is taking advantage of the distance between main office and the Publication Division, which has fewer managers.
3. The process of Publication is fast changing.
4. Its knowledge bank is inadequate and there is no systematic learning process for the employees.
Analysis of Internal Situation:
While it is seen that the brand name of XYZ carries the possibility of a tremendous growth, the overall communication gap and lack of resource management poses as major roadblocks to it, besides low level of motivation. Altogether this analysis highlight that there is lack of coordination in the internal situation where it needs the planning for the areas like
Data sharing
Enhanced communication
Regular training
Enhanced level of motivation through fresh reward system and
Enhanced uses of technology.
Now if HPWS can meet all of these needs of PD, then there will be considerable development internally and PD will be able to contribute more effectively to the success of XYZ Company. However, before weighing HPWS, the external situation needs to be analysed and thus PEST analysis is applied to the external situation of XYZ.
PEST Analysis
POLITICAL / LEGAL FACTOR
1. Political situation is stable and the company has never violated the Labour Law of alike.
2. Locally, the company has three registered unions who have not yet involved in serious differences with management.
3. There were instances of libel and defamations suits from both the government and the individual for publishing faulty news.
ECONOMIC FACTORS
1. The regional economy is stable and rate of inflation is low.
2. Though the company is earning good and steady profits but the margin between expenditure and profit has narrowed down considerably in the last three years.
3. Liberalization of the global trade has brought in more opportunities than the company can handle at present with its present manpower and skill level.
4. Unless skill wise developed, the expenditure would rise, specially in the customer expenditure sector.
SOCIAL FACTORS
1. The Magazine segment of the company is facing stiff challenge from the spurt of sleazy magazines.
2. There is a gap of culture between the creative department and publication division due to lack of interaction and less scope of attending cultural functions
3.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
1. The days of Quark Express are over; far more sophisticated programs are being used by the rival companies.
2. There is no instance of regular workshops on knowledge improvement.
3. There is no record of individual analysis of the employees engaged in publication division.
Analysis of External Situation
PEST analysis clearly shows that though the external situation of XYZ enjoying the economic stability of the region or volumes of business due to demand in the market, it is suffering from recurrent legal constraints and high expenditure, tough local competition and lack of advanced technological infrastructure, which altogether needs planning in the areas like
Data sharing
Enhanced communication
Regular training
Enhanced level of motivation through fresh reward system and
Enhanced uses of technology.
Proposed HR Plan for the Organisation/Department
The primary need was to create a chart containing detailed scope of application of HPWS in Publication Division both internally and externally, thus the same has been created and produced as below:
All Components
of
Publication Division of XYZ Company
Parameters of HPWS
Shared Information
Knowledge Development
Performance-Reward Linkage
Egalitarianism
Work Flow
Self-managed teams
Supervised Teams
«
«
«
«
«
Staffing
Selective recruiting
Team decision making
«
«
«
Training
Broad skills
Cross-training
Problem Solving
Team training
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
Compensation
Incentive
Gainsharing
Profit Sharing
Skill-based Pay
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
«
Leadership
Few layers
Coaching/facilitators
«
«
«
«
«
«
Technologies
HRS
Communications
«
«
«
«
The above module is specifically prepared for PD of XYZ, where it emphasizes on Sharing Information, Knowledge Development, Performance-Reward Linkage and Egalitarianism (which seems very vital in this case, as there are serious differences between Creative department and the rest).
The Impact of HRP
Gowen and Tallon (2002) found that management and employee support were found to be critical for the implementation of all four levels of employee training: (a) problem solving skills, (b) leadership skills, (c) team-building skills, and (d) job skills. Additionally, Gowen and Tallon (2002) suggested that training plays an important role in firm success.
The implication of HPWS on PD of XYZ would definitely bring changes in the following areas of operation:
1. Work Flow: Here the two categories of staff carry the workflow of the department, where both the categories would be helped to reach the egalitarian stage through unbroken flow of information-sharing.
2. Staffing: HPWS would incorporate knowledge development by recruiting experts in modern technology and management, besides inducing the policy on team decision making among staff.
3. Training: Here HPWS identifies four areas of training with special emphases on knowledge development and team training, Keeping in mind the issues like differences between departments and recurrence of legal disputes due to lack of knowledge of handling debatable contents.
4. Compensation: Since there was no clear policy of compensation due to the lack of individual assessment or thrust in the required areas, HPWS would incorporate clear cut system of Incentive, Gain-sharing, Profit Sharing and Skill-based Pay.
5. Leadership: Since motivation rolls from the apex of a body, the top rung of the company has to be kept motivated. Thus HPWS would include them in all of its parameters to make them aligned with the underlying principles of HPWS and HRM as a whole.
6. Technologies: In the case of technology, HPWS intents to utilize both human skill and creativity to enhance the knowledge base and fasten the production process besides enhancing communication among staff-members of the organization, keeping in mind that Publication Division is away from the head office of XYZ and needs to be in constant touch with the latest developments there.
Recruitment and Selection Plan
Existing Recruitment Process and Review
Current recruitment plan of XYZ looks like below:
Phase 1 – Section heads seek manpower with justification to the departmental head/s.
Phase 2 – Departmental heads examine the requisition and recommend for its approval if they are satisfied with justification.
Phase 3 – The issue occupies place in Board Meeting Agenda for discussion, where the members of the board re-examines the justification and if satisfied, sends note for recruitment to the administration where recruiting personnel serve the role of HR manager.
Phase 4 – Administration executives get back to the section heads to get the details of requirement.
Phase 5 – Costs and other issues are examined and that report is sent to the board for approval.
Phase 6 – Upon the approval of the board, advertisements are issued, and tests/interviews are taken on departmental and administrative level.
Phase 7 – results determine the selection, which is then gets the approval of the board members after necessary investigation and the appointment letter is issued with the signed approval by the Chairman of the board.
Gaps Analysis
The above process shows that there is no scope for applying a cohesive format of HRM, because the higher management is basically dependent on the observation and reference of the section, and there is no scope of reversing this process where the wisdom of the higher management can be exploited in identifying the right place for a suitable man. Also, there is no scope to imbibe the strategies of HRM in the recruitment policies or in its tests/interviews. In short, there is little scope for the recruited person or the company to firmly align their viewpoint with company strategy or objective right from the beginning. In all, the lack of proper HRM practice in current recruitment policy blocks recruitment practice to rise up to the deserving level. Thus HPWS creates a new plan.
New Recruitment and Selection Plan
At the outset, HPWS creates a demand forecast plan for Publication Division like below:
Rank
Present Staff
Resigned/Sacked
Required
Deficit
Divisional Managers
1
0
0
0
Administrative Heads
1
0
2
2
Sr. Creative Personnel
1
0
4
3
Creative Personnel
3
1
2
3
Marketing Senior Grade
15
2
2
4
Marketing Grade 2
35
1
0
0
Copy-setter
95
0
0
0
Production Controller
15
0
2
2
Office Admin level 1
5
1
2
3
Office Admin level 2
10
0
0
0
Other support staff grade 1
15
2
3
5
Other support staff Grade 2
14
0
1
1
Total
210
7
18
23
Keeping this chart in mind, HPWS takes off by
i) Making a compelling case for change linked to the company’s business strategy.
ii) Making it certain that senior and line managers own the change.
iii) Allocating sufficient resources and support for the change effort.
iv) Ensuring early and broad communication.
v) Incorporating a systematic analysis of the positions on the basis of the company requirement and would create a detailed job description for each post.
Process chart for the Plan
Information Sharing
Knowledge Development
Reward-Link
Egalitarian
Internal Recruitment Plan
Evaluation of ability
Evaluation of attitude
Responsiveness to reward
Attitude/behaviour
External Recruitment Plan
Background of employee;
Evidence of alignment with this idea
Past Evidence
Present Performance
Responsiveness to reward
Attitude /behaviour
HPWS would ensure a reflection of its idea in the advertisement.
Implementation Schedule
Sq.
Process
Duration (Weeks)
Remarks
1.
Initial research by HRD
2
Requires meetings with Company’s policy makers besides study and research.
2
Advertisement
2
Web/Print/Electronic media
3
Screening, Shortlisting and Interview by HRD
2
Screening – 3 days
Shortlisting – 3 days
Applicant’s time – 5 days
Final Process – 3
4
Process of employment
2-6
This is a grey area because the applicant might need time to complete the formalities with her/his earlier workplace
5
Employee Orientation by HRD
2
This is important to imbibe the company philosophy in the newly recruited employee.
Choice of Selection Methods and Rationale
The possible benefits of HPWS can be all-round, touching every nook and corner of the organization.
a) Employee Benefits: They will have more involvement in the organization, besides experiencing growth and satisfaction. More informed and empowered, they are likely to feel that they have a fuller role to play in the organization and that their opinions and expertise are valued more. This conditioning in them would bring greater commitment and greater potential in them. and eventually they will become more valuable as contributors.
b) Organizational Benefits: The organization would gain high productivity, lower costs, more quality, flexibility and customer satisfaction. Job performance has long been of interest to organizations, business leaders, and managers. A number of studies have identified above factors that affect job performance. Carmeli and Tischler (2004) reported a positive relationship between job autonomy, cognitive ability, job-related skill, role breadth and individual job performance.
However, to achieve such benefits, the organization should navigate the transition by building a Transition structure on its way to implement HPWS through incorporating HR function as a valuable partner. All said and done, the process of continuous evaluation is another prime job that has to be maintained.
Monitoring the Effectiveness of the Recruitment and Selection Process
Evaluation includes two major categories, viz., ‘Process audit’ and HPWS evaluation. While Process deals with the research on employees, the HPWS evaluation deals with the efficacy of it at various layers of operation.
A. Process Audit: The general questionnaire of it looks like below:
1. Are employees truly working together?
2. Are employees getting the information they need to make empowered decisions?
3. Are training programs developing the knowledge and skills employees’ need?
4. Are employees being rewarded for good performance and useful suggestions?
5. Are employees treated fairly so that power differences are minimal?
B. HPWS Evaluation: Its questionnaire evolves out of its own operational framework like below:
1. Are desired behaviors being exhibited on the job?
2. Are quality, productivity, flexibility, and customer service objectives being met?
3. Are quality-of-life goals being achieved for employees?
4. Is the organization more competitive than in the past?
An Employee from HPWS’s Perspective
The characteristics of employees’ competencies from the HPW’S viewpoint stand as below:
1) He is Valuable
2) He is Rare
3) He is Organized
4) He is unparallel.
Therefore it is understood that HPWS incorporates Qualification + other components at all levels of operation, all aligning with company objective.
The Changed State of Plan
The Changed state of recruitment plan looks like below:
Phase 1 – HRD does research on the validity of the proposed requirement with the help of SWOT, PEST AND GAPS processes.
Phase 2 – If it is all right, then it blends its philosophy with the basic job requirement, emphasizing on a thorough alignment with company objective.
Phase 3 – HRD presents entire layout with logistics before the Divisional Heads for approval.
Phase 4 – If it gets approval from Divisional Heads and the Board of Directors, HRD then conducts the entire process of recruitment, from providing job-advertising concepts, expertise in tests/interviews.
Phase 5 – It takes the new employees into confidence and helps them to adapt in the new environment.
For internal recruitment it takes help of Process Audit and own evaluation of HPWS.
Conclusion/Recommendation
Weighing the pros and cons of the current recruitment and training process of Publication Division of XYZ under the methodical light of various analyses like SWOT, PEST and GAPS, the findings were as below:
Data sharing
Enhanced communication
Regular training
Enhanced level of motivation through fresh reward system and
Enhanced uses of technology.
Accordingly HPWS, which have tailor-made solutions for the above, besides the elements required to analyze the internal and external situations of the company, provides a systematic plan. Which looks logical and plausible.
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