Week 2 db 1

WK 2 DB 1 Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum,

· Review Chapter 3 from your textbook,  Applied Psychology in Talent Management.

· Review the article  A Better Way to Develop and Retain Top TalentLinks to an external site..

Keeping in mind the utility theory and optimizing staffing outcome strategies discussed in Chapter 3 in  Applied Psychology in Talent Management, discuss the pros and cons of using existing applicant pools (“making”) or investing in recruitment efforts (“buying”) to expand applicant pools.

Consider the following:

· Which strategies are most costly?

· Which might maximize staffing outcomes and why?

Finally, apply these concepts to the real world. Browse various recruiting websites (e.g., Monster.com, LinkedIn) and describe the ways organizations attempt to entice.

· What are the similarities?

· In what ways do they try to differentiate themselves?

Guided Response: Your initial response should be a minimum of 200 words. Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ or instructor posts in a substantive manner and provide information or concepts that they may not have considered. Each response should have a minimum of 100 words. Support your position by using information from the week’s resources. 

Peer Response 1

Benjamin Oakes

An organization can choose between selecting for open jobs from an existing talent pool, or through recruitment from outside of the organization.  When ‘making’ by selecting from current employees, pros include that the employee already knows the organization and has developed relationships they can leverage to assist them in their new role.  Morale is boosted when internal job candidates are chosen, as other employees believe they can grow in their career at the organization.  Cons would include missing out on new perspectives and experiences available outside of the organization.  When ‘buying’ employees by investing in recruiting, pros include the ability to introduce new ways of doing things different from what have been established within the organization.  Organizations can get stuck in their established ways of thinking and miss out on important industry trends and best practices.  Cons can include the risk inherent  in hiring a new employee only to have them underperform or leave the organization.  The training and cost involved in recruitment make ‘buying’ talent more expensive than ‘making’.  I suggest that organizations use a mix of ‘making’ and ‘buying’.  For example, in my current role at my job, my department needed a fresh perspective to address legacy issues.  Other staff were not interested in taking over the departments I support because my predecessor had made the processes so complex and fragile that only she could effectively manage them.  Many times, the open role is best filled with an employee who already knows ‘how things work’ at the company and can leverage their business relationships with customer departments and supporting departments.  Such relationships and organizational knowledge can be a force multiplier.

Looking at recruiting websites I have found that they all describe jobs in very positive terms, even short-term contract positions with little to no chance of permanent placement.  Organizations try to differentiate themselves by emphasizing their niche market focus or family style management.

Peer Response 2

Eliseo Capellino

There are pros and cons to using the existing applicant pools or investing in recruiting efforts to expand the applicant pools. A pro of investing in recruiting efforts is that it opens the talent pool, and the organization can attract top talent. The organization can be strategic of where they want to invest their efforts to attract the talent. A con would be the cost associated with recruiting. There is a lot of time, effort and fees that go into recruiting. The advantage of using the existing applicant pool would be a lower cost as you already have candidates. The disadvantage would be the potential in losing out on a higher candidate pool that might not have known about the organization.

According to Cascio and Aguinis (2019) “utility theory provides a framework for making decisions by forcing the decision maker to define clearly his or her goal, to enumerate the expected consequences or possible outcomes of the decision, and to attach differing utilities or values to each” (p.44). Utility theory helps the decision makers look at the cost and consequences of their decisions. As it pertains to optimizing staffing there are many factors in staffing that can be influenced. According to Cascio and Aguinis (2019) “System theory offers an opportunity to develop and apply an integrative framework whose objective is to optimize investments across the various elements of the staffing process, not simply to maximize payoffs within each element” (p.46). There are several phases in the staffing process and each one can be broken down into by cost and level of effort. There are different strategies and all sorts of ways to inject cost into the staffing process. It truly comes down to the leadership team choosing the best course of action that will help bring in top talent and retain them. They must make the decision about where to invest their money to maximize their ROI to attract and retain the talent.

In reviewing LinkedIn and Monster.com there are some similarities that organizations have. For instance, when promoting the open roles, they all define what the role of the job is and outline certain tasks that would be required from the candidate. Most have links to their company website as well as a list of benefits they offer the candidate if employed. There are a few different ways that the organizations try to differentiate themselves. Even though they all have “about the company”, some try to highlight what a great organization they are and define what sets them apart from other organizations. They try to highlight their culture and what makes them unique and a great place to work. 

Eliseo C.

Reference

Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2019).  Applied psychology in talent management.Links to an external site.  (8th ed.). SAGE Publications.