hrm599capstone assignment 2

Running head: BUSINESS AND RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES 1

BUSINESS AND RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES 9

Business and Recruitment Strategies

Phyllis Spears Jones

Strayer University

HRM599 Capstone

July 23, 2020

Dr. Wash

Business and Recruitment Strategies

Introduction

Enterprises are required to select a strategy of operating the business that enables the business to achieve its goals and also gain a competitive advantage. Businesses select strategies based on the products it offers and the customer base that it targets. More often, enterprises add competitive advantage by delivering value, such as selling commodities at lower prices or products that justify a higher price. This manuscript presents various strategies and the most appropriate strategy that ensures the continuous expansion of an enterprise. It also presents approaches used in job design and/or redesign. Besides, the challenges experienced during recruitment stages are discussed and also present ideas that could be adopted to ensure the effectiveness of recruitment processes.

Business strategies

Three common business strategies include cost focus, differentiation, and cost leadership. Cost leadership is appropriate for firms that have the capability of producing products at minimized cost through the economics of scale. The strategy is common in markets that offer standardized products with identical products that are universally accepted and frequently purchased in a broadened market. Companies that create cost leadership achieve that by producing products at the lowest cost and using the shortest supply chain such that it can achieve cost-cutting in the marketplace. The cost leaders attract significant buyers and create market dominance by pushing competitors out of the marketplace using cost-cutting. Successful cost leaders necessitate optimization of processes. It studies any processes that increase efficiency and productivity by optimizing time, human resources, financial resources, and raw materials.

A firm also improves its bargaining power by lowering the production cost and exploiting the opportunities presented by economies of scale. Higher volumes allow a firm to negotiate prices with supplies and distributors. Besides, companies invest in technology and innovative practices to remain dominant. Businesses that become successful through cost leadership have various advantages in that they can invest hugely using the capital obtained from huge sales volumes, which also enable them to obtain facilities that produce at a lower cost. Efficient producers also obtain highly-skilled production staff who are capable of continually improving manufacturing processes. Aggressive enterprises also find ways to vertically integrate processes by acquiring distributors, supplies, and component manufacturers, who bring strong financial strength to the business. An example of an enterprise that has succeeded through cost leadership is Walmart Stores.

Differentiation strategy is another common strategy in which companies offer products with distinct characteristics that add value to consumers and make the ready and willing to pay an additional cost for these products. When consumers determine the uniqueness of these products, the company can begin to charge high for these products. Ideally, these premium prices are capable of offsetting the higher production cost and enable companies to obtain reasonable profits. However, a company has to hire creative and skilled staff who engage in developing premium products. This staff is capable of executing a market survey and influencing potential buyers to propose features that would attract them and make them willing to buy products at higher charges. Unique products are also marketed by an efficient and creative sales team that convinces consumers to understand the value of products that make them worthy of the premium prices. Their marketing campaigns promote the enterprise and present it as a reputable brand that is popular for innovative and high-quality products. However, differentiation presents various risks in that competitors will often imitate products or launch differentiation campaigns to retain their market segment. The unique products may also fail to attract consumer taste, of which they may become interested in products offered by other competitors.

Cost focus centers operations on a constrained market segment that facilitates an enterprise to understand different traits of a niche and the specific needs of consumers in that particular niche. Enterprises that pursue niche strategy takes the risk of overlooking a wide market. Although focusing on specific locations or demographics establishes loyalty amongst the target consumers, the company depends on a limited population of buyers. The features of products that attract this niche may not necessarily appeal to buyers in a broader market. The pool of loyal consumers ensures the prolonged success of the company in specific areas, demographics, and location. The company relies on spending habits of these consumers, and any change in consumer taste means that the enterprise would face the challenges of transitioning to a wider market. Thus, a successful niche strategy relies on constantly investing in unique features and establishing loyalty to push competitors out of that particular segment.

Picking an appropriate strategy

For an efficiency-minded retail enterprise, the most appropriate strategy would consider the power of suppliers, consumers’ power, internal competition, threat resulting from new entrants, and substitute products. Thus, the differentiation strategy would be most appropriate when considering an efficiency focus. This would mean that HR should frequently conduct market research, SWOT analysis, Five Force assessments, and obtain a real-time change in consumer taste. The HR should engage in creative skills of improving production, sales, and consumer satisfaction to retain the confidence that would make consumers ready to pay for highly charged products.

Four approaches to job design and redesign

The four fundamental job approaches include rotation, engineering, enrichment, and enlargement. Job rotation entails interchanging the roles of employees over specific periods. The technique increases the worker’s skills in duties, eliminate boredom, provide flexibility, and reduce monotony. An example is a medical system where nurses are rotated from critical care units to psychiatric units to reduce job stress and improve their experiences with different units. Job enlargement involves increasing duties for employees to increase diversity. The point is to engage workers in simpler tasks, and as they achieve mastery, they are accorded more complex tasks. An example is a customer service company in which a worker starts with handling customer care calls and then expanding farther to include business negotiation. Under job enrichment, duties are diversified in a vertical orientation to add more depth, meaning, responsibility, and control. This approach increases the performance quality. A worker may start by selling products and then expand responsibility to include servicing of accounts and ultimately be held responsible for budgeting and controlling roles under his/her schedule. In job engineering, the design emphasizes on task, time to execute the task, and efficiency of processes. The design establishes a mechanized environment with no focus on job satisfaction. For instance, a mechanic working in an auto company that assembles a vehicle by observing a particular order and priorities. The worker is also allowed to use short cycles to reduce mental effort and supervision.

The significance of effective job design applications

Employees perform their roles efficiently to benefit the organization in levels of output per employee and lower cost. However, the selected job design must consider the elements of job satisfaction. Employees should be given roles that make them less fatigue, especially in industrial engineering. An appropriate design also structures the work to maximize job efficiency. Usually, integrating job engineering ensures that the organization efficiently execute the goals using lower cost while the output for every worker increases. The selected design also reduces work complexity and makes it simpler for every employee to perform roles easily. In this category, job enrichment and job orientation are appropriate if an organization deals with repetitive tasks. In practice, HR panels should find the appropriate design by conducting time and productivity studies as a means of determining the suitable movement that workers are to observe. Once the research identifies the appropriate move, the HR should hire workers by identifying the ability of candidates to perform particular roles and recruit them on how to apply the most efficient methods to perform specific jobs. A pay structure should also be offered to motivate the hired workers. Despite the rational advantages associated with one design method, HR must avoid repetitive designs and integrate other design methods whenever appropriate.

Challenges and constraints associated with recruiting worker

Sometimes, enterprises are unable to freely recruit candidates even in circumstances where it offers good salaries, benign conditions, and enhanced amenities. The reputation that a company has in the community influences recruitment because highly-skilled persons may refute from applying for an enterprise having a poor reputation. A bad reputation may result from undesirable practices of the management, environmental pollution driven by the enterprise, and poor history of relationships with employees. Another challenge presents in terms of unattractive job conditions such as tension-ridden, inadequate progressive opportunities, and lower wages. The turnout rate of candidates may be down, leading to a few choices for the recruiting team. Besides, trade unions may constrain a company from hiring from outside. The union agreements may stipulate the percentage of candidates who may be hired for management positions. This may leave recruiters with restricted choices in some positions. Furthermore, government legislations often regulate how employees are hired as a means of protecting the security of jobs for the existing employees. The government may also provide a specific list from which the business may recruit new members.

How to ensure the effectiveness of recruiting processes

HR should establish workforce planning to determine and analyze the future needs of the enterprise. This implies that highly-skilled employees should be hired and trained to perform their roles effectively. The recruiters should also understand the job before the recruitment exercise to understand the critical traits that define job performance. Also, the HR team must design a process that would be used consistently to assess the critical traits, selection tools, candidate perception, and ascertain fairness. Valid tools should be selected and used to produce successful job validation.

Mistakes that recruiters should avoid

Recruiters should avoid losing sight of business strategy when looking to fill positions. It is vital to consider the strategic plan to understand how workers will fit the plan and how they would provide the skills that are missing. Employees should also avoid ignoring the promotion of existing employees. More often, recruiters look for new employees and ignore the existing workers who have better skills and empath with the culture of their organization. This makes them demotivated and also affects the possibility of hiring the best candidate.

Conclusion

In this manuscript, different strategies for operating an enterprise were explored. The most appropriate strategy would consider the power of suppliers, consumers’ power, internal competition, threat resulting from new entrants, and substitute products. The four fundamental approaches discussed include job rotation, job engineering, job enrichment, and job enlargement. The suitable design reduces work complexity and makes it simpler for every employee to perform roles easily. In this category, job enrichment and job orientation are appropriate if an organization deals with repetitive tasks. The HR team must design a process that can be used consistently to assess the critical traits, selection tools, candidate perception, and ascertain fairness.

References

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Ali, M. M. (2019). The Strategic Role of Human Resources Planning To Achieve Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Електронно Списание» Диалог «, (02), 1-13.

O'Meara, B., & Petzall, S. (2013). Handbook of strategic recruitment and selection: a systems approach. Emerald Group Publishing.

Tavana, M. (Ed.). (2013). Developing business strategies and identifying risk factors in modern organizations. IGI Global.