hr discussion
Talent Management and Online Recruitment
Part A (Chapter 9)
1. After reading Chapter 9, read the two articles listed below:
“Integrating talent management and core HR systems valuable but tricky”
Article 1
More and more, companies are beginning to realize the importance of integrating all of their disparate HR systems -- including their talent management applications -- so that executives can have a more real-time, comprehensive view of the business and its employees. According to Katherine Jones, human capital management (HCM) technology lead analyst at Oakland-Calif.-based consultancy Bersin by Deloitte, the ideal today is to have one employee system of record -- in other words, one point of truth about each employee.Historically, an employee would only have a statement of record within the core human resources information system (HRIS), containing information such as his start date and assigned manager. "It didn't tell a lot, but it gave a record of the person," Jones said.But the idea of a talent profile, containing new hire information as well as performance data and other related information is fairly new, she said.So why not combine the two? From an HR as well as a business point of view, it's a good thing to have a single place to look for talent information, Jones said. But this data integration isn't always easy to achieve.Jones used an example to illustrate the benefits of integration. If the head of a company wants to open an office in Romania and he needs somebody to run it, he can find an employee with the specific skills necessary and learn what his or her salary history is -- information that usually isn't stored in the same place, she said.Core HR and talent management systems do have to interface at some level, and Millard explained that any talent management system is probably pulling something from an employee statement of record. So the question is at what level should these systems interface, and to what degree?"The degree at which companies have been doing it determines the value," Millard said. "If you have a performance management system where once a week it does a batch file transfer between [it] and the payroll system, and it just sort of synchronizes the first name, last name, social security number and the employee's address. …you end up with a basic communication back and forth, which provides a fundamentally transactional level of information."But the value proposition of true real-time or near real-time integration is more significant. As a company evolves and enters into the new world of Web services, interesting things start to happen with talent management and social talent management, where the value proposition has started to shift, he said."You start to do much more real-time communication and the value is that now you have a real profile inside of your environment -- that is your talent management system," Millard said.And that environment can help a company quickly find internal "experts" in its talent management system, as Jones pointed out. In addition, a company that has a real-time, or close to real-time, interface to its entire payroll and employee system of record has a much larger repository of information from which it can draw, Millard saidHowever, it's not easy to get to that point."The challenge is the complexity because [very large enterprises] don't have one HR system, they have five or six or eight," Millard said. "And setting up that interface or interfaces, and getting all the payroll systems to integrate and [gathering] all the data is a long and arduous process. So it has to come in pieces."But the necessity and the willingness to do it is starting to [increase] as companies realize that they can have a system that can help them find experts all over the world," he added. Jones said the reason these systems are not typically integrated is because the HRIS system of record is also used in departments other than HR, such as in the finance department for payroll, but the talent profile is not used outside of HR.
· Applicant Tracking for High Turnover Environments”
Article 2
iToday’s labor economy faces new challenges entirely unlike those of the past. With increased international outsourcing of both skilled and unskilled labor, in addition to aggressive downsizing, seemingly neverending RIF programs (reductions in force), cuts in health benefits, and cuts in retirement benefits, levels of employee commitment have dropped dramatically. The resulting effect is a high rate of turnover in the workforce across a broad range of industries. Employers everywhere face a growing need to work around the c issue of high employee turnover, and many are finding answers in effective human resources management solutions.
That’s because managing a workforce made up of short-term employees requires a revolutionized approach to directing this changing field in the industry. Specialists in the management of human resources consistently advise that it is highly important to recognize the key features for an ideal staff. Indeed, not only must employers who are staffing a high turnover work environment look for staff that is well qualified and productive, but they must also be easily replaceable. It is under this paradoxical model that the right applicant tracking system must utilize the best practices for developing a committed and productive workforce when recruiting, staffing and tracking its employee applicants across the entire cycle of the recruiting, hiring, and training process.
Placing a high level of importance on recruitment and staffing coupled to a strongly structured training process is fundamental to the success of this system, and to the uninterrupted operation of the organization. To begin with, effective staffing and employee recruitment depends on seeking a combination of demonstrated behavior and performance. This is mostly determined through the interview process. Here, a well-structured series of interviews will effectively assess the applicant’s level of commitment as well as his or her past job performance. In addition, it will be able to provide an informed prediction of how well equipped the employee will be when entering the workforce.
In addition to the interview, effective recruitment and staffing involves attracting the right people to apply for positions in the workforce. The first step to this process involves knowing where to search. In certain situations the best candidate for the job may come from within the company itself. Regardless, it should be recognized that creating concise and targeted job descriptions help to effectively gather up the right talent. For instance, a job description that is brief as well as precise (i.e. lists the necessary requirements without rambling on about a series of ideal features desired) is the best way to pool a high number of recruits while weeding out those who are not qualified.
While a well-planned interview should be effective in determining the value of the applicant, it should also help the employer develop a clear understanding of his or her past performance metrics. Asking detailed questions about the performance as well as how it was carried out is an effective way of formulating a clear projection of the applicant’s future contribution to a company.
Indeed, there is no better way to determine the projected success of an applicant than by looking at his or her past. If the applicant helped to increase sales, productivity or growth in his or her job function, then it is likely the same performance can be expected.
In addition, successful applicant tracking is essential to maintaining a qualified and on-demand workforce in a high-turnover environment. Keeping track of an active database of applicants is necessary in order to quickly fill up jobs once openings for them are created (which is obviously a continually occurring phenomenon in high-turnover work environments). Indeed, this is absolutely essential to successful human resources management.
These best practices feature proven success. To demonstrate this, one case study that was recently produced by the Peter Manchester Associates found that a busy call center in Kentucky was able to increase its labor productivity metrics by 44% when human resources managers applied these advanced recruitment, staffing and management practices. The actual cost of running the call center went down by a stunning 16% simply from filling more seats with employees rather than short term contract workers, as well as employing a more effective training component that weeded out quitters before they reached the call center floor. That is the essence of human resource management in action.
2. Why is it important to establish the meaning of talent and talent management in a particular organizational setting? How does the strategic direction of the organization influence human resource planning activities? What are some potential disadvantages of using a packaged application to help automate the employee goal-setting process? Why is it important to have an adaptable workforce in a global economy?
Part B (Chapter 10)
Chapter 10 NOTES
One important recruitment objective that organizations constantly strive for is to minimize the cost of filling job openings (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). Research has consistently shown that online recruitment does reduce costs (Buckley, Minette, Joy, & Michaels, 2004; Cappelli, 2001; Chapman & Webster, 2003; Galanaki, 2002; Lee, 2005). For example, one study shows that organizations saved 95% of recruitment costs when they used online recruitment as opposed to more traditional methods (e.g., newspaper ads). Other estimates reveal that the cost of traditional systems of recruitment was $8,000 to $10,000 per position compared with $900 for online recruitment (Cober, Brown, Blumental, Doverspike, & Levy, 2000). This cost difference has prompted many organizations to replace or supplement more traditional systems with online recruitment systems. So it appears that online recruitment can save companies money when compared with traditional methods, but do these cost savings apply to all organizations? The answer is, not necessarily.
The evidence just presented is quite enticing and would probably persuade most organizations to jump into the online recruitment arena; however, before doing so, decision makers should examine the specifics of their recruitment situation and not just assume that online recruitment saves money for all organizations. First, HR professionals need to consider whether or not online recruitment is appropriate for their company. More specifically, organizations need to plan how to process resumes and screen out those applicants who do not possess the qualifications needed. Failure to think through the entire process may generate greater administrative burdens for the HR department or department managers (Chapman & Webster, 2003; Russell 2007). These burdens would definitely cut into any cost savings produced by online recruiting. A good example is found in an article written by Seminerio (2001), which profiles the online recruiting efforts of Sutter Health, a nonprofit health care network. Sutter Health decided to post jobs online to facilitate its recruitment process. The use of online recruitment generated an enormous number of resumes—more than 300,000—for fewer than 10,000 open positions. In most situations, this is something an organization would desire; however, Sutter Health failed to think past the generation of applicants. Managers had not planned how they would accommodate such a large volume of resumes in terms of processing and screening of applicants. Although, in this case, resumes were received quickly, they often sat for weeks on end before processing and selection occurred. Sutter Health quickly realized its error in planning and that the organization needed to revamp the use of online recruitment to serve its needs better.
In addition, organizations also need to track the effectiveness of the online recruitment method through the assessment of yield ratios and placements made. When dealing with a website for recruiting, you may find it useful to monitor the numbers of hits your company’s websites are receiving on career pages. However, the number of hits on a website is only one small component in measuring effectiveness (Cober et al., 2000). For example, a recent study examined the sources job seekers were currently using for new opportunities and how they actually found their present positions (Stevens, 2007). The results showed that over 90% would use or were actively using online sources to find work. The study further reported that only 30% found their present positions through online means. In an additional study, conducted in the United Kingdom, large organizations with 5,000 employees or more were surveyed about the effectiveness of online recruitment (Reed Company, 2003). The results of the study show that about 40% of the organizations consider online recruitment to be a more effective means than any other traditional method of recruitment. These results imply that organizations need to track the outcomes (e.g., successful placements) of using online recruitment and compare these outcomes with those achieved by other recruiting methods.
Thus, although some research shows that online recruiting may result in cost savings, other research shows that the use of online recruiting may generate a large number of applications, which may result in quite an administrative burden for organizations. As a result, organizations need to consider the overall costs associated with the entire recruitment process before implementing these new systems.Another recruitment objective for assessing the effectiveness of recruitment is the speed of filling the job vacancy (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). Research has shown that online recruitment can decrease cycle time and increase the efficiency of the process by allowing organizations to spend less time gathering and sorting data (Cardy & Miller, 2003; Chapman & Webster, 2003; Cober, Brown, Levy, Keeping, & Cober, 2003; Lee, 2005; Web Recruiting Advantages, 2001, as cited in Braddy, Thompson, Wuensch, & Grossnickle, 2003). One estimate indicated that online recruitment can decrease hiring cycle time by 25% (Cober et al., 2000). Another study using data from 50 Fortune 500 companies showed that the use of online recruitment reduced their average hiring cycle time of 43 days by six days and allowed them to cut four days off the application process (Recruitsoft/iLogos, cited in Cappelli, 2001). Another study at Cisco Systems found that online recruitment allowed the company to fill job openings quickly. When Cisco Systems adopted online recruitment, the company attracted more than 500,000 individuals in one month, which enabled them to hire 1,200 people in just three months (Cober et al., 2000).
It is evident from this brief review that online recruiting can decrease the cycle time and enhance the speed with which vacancies are filled, but this leads to other questions that need to be answered. Does this speediness enable organizations to hire the most qualified employees? Do these hires remain with the organizations? What is the diversity of these new hires? These questions and others need to be examined further to determine whether certain disadvantages of online recruiting may offset the benefits of the shortened hiring cycle.
3. What are the pros and cons of recruitment and selection in an Internet context? Provide examples of your personal experiences with online recruitment and selection. Do you agree or disagree with online assessments during the recruitment and selection process? Why or why not? Be sure to include your personal experiences with online assessments.