[1] Personnel Planning & Recruiting

Human Resource Management 16th Edition - Gary Dessler

Workforce (or employment or personnel) planning

The process of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.

Basic workforce planning process

• Reviews the client’s business plan and workforce data

• Forecast and identify what positions the firm will have to fill and potential workforce gaps

• Develop a workforce strategic plan

Reviews the client’s business plan and workforce data

BASIC WORKFORCE PLANNING PROCESS

This helps them understand how projected business changes may influence the client’s headcount and skills requirements.

Forecast and identify what positions the firm will have to fill and potential workforce gaps

BASIC WORKFORCE PLANNING PROCESS

This helps them understand what new future positions they’ll have to fill, and what current employees may be promotable into them.

Develop a workforce strategic plan

BASIC WORKFORCE PLANNING PROCESS

They prioritize key workforce gaps (such as, what positions will have to be filled, and who do we have who can fill them?) and identify specific (recruitment, training, and other) plans for filling any gaps.

Employment forecasts

• Personnel needs (demand)

• Supply of inside candidates

• Supply of outside candidates

Revenues

The basic process for forecasting personnel needs is to forecast __________ first.

Trend analysis

Study of a firm’s past employment needs over a period of years to predict future needs.

Ratio analysis

A forecasting technique for determining future staff needs by using ratios between, for example, sales volume and number of employees needed.

Scatter plot

A graphical method used to help identify the relationship between two variables.

All of the above

Which of the following are drawbacks of using scatter plots in HR forecasting?

1. Historical sales/personnel relationships assume that the firm’s existing activities and skill needs will continue as is.

2. They tend to reward managers for adding employees, irrespective of the company’s needs.

3. They tend to institutionalize existing ways of doing things, even in the face of change.

They tend to reward managers for adding employees, irrespective of the company’s needs.

DRAWBACKS OF SCATTER PLOTS IN HR FORECASTING

A manager insists on hiring five new employees because sales increased slightly, even though the workload hasn’t changed. Which drawback of scatter plots does this illustrate?

Historical sales/personnel relationships assume that the firm’s existing activities and skill needs will continue as is.

DRAWBACKS OF SCATTER PLOTS IN HR FORECASTING

An HR forecast predicts the same staffing levels for next year because it assumes the company’s activities will remain constant. Which drawback of scatter plots is shown here?

They tend to institutionalize existing ways of doing things, even in the face of change.

DRAWBACKS OF SCATTER PLOTS IN HR FORECASTING

A company struggles to adapt its workforce plan after introducing new technology because its HR forecasting relies heavily on scatter plots. Which drawback is being demonstrated?

Managerial judgement

Few historical trends, ratios, or relationships will continue unchanged into the future. __________ is thus needed to adjust the forecast.

Personnel replacement charts

Company records showing present performance and promotability of inside candidates for the most important positions.

Position replacement card

A card prepared for each position in a company to show possible replacement candidates and their qualifications.

Skills inventory programs

This help management anticipate staffing and skills shortages, and also facilitate workforce planning, recruitment, and training.

Skills inventory

Typically includes the following:

• Work experience codes

• Product knowledge

• The employee’s level of familiarity with the employer’s product lines or services

• The person’s industry experience

• Formal education

• Industry experiences

• Foreign language skills

• Relocation limitations

• Career interests

• Performance appraisals

Markov analysis

__________ involves creating a matrix that shows the probabilities that employees in the chain of feeder positions for a key job (such as from junior engineer, to engineer, to senior engineer, to engineering supervisor, to director of engineering) will move from position to position and therefore be available to fill the key position.

Transition analysis

Employers also use a mathematical process known as Markov analysis or __________ to forecast availability of internal job candidates.

Succession planning

The ongoing process of systematically identifying, assessing, and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance.

Employee recruiting

Finding and/or attracting applicants for the employer’s open positions.

Recruitment sourcing

Involves determining what your recruitment options (referrals, online ads, and so on) are, and then assessing which are best for the job in question.

Recruiting yield pyramid

The historical arithmetic relationships between recruitment leads and invitees, invitees and interviews, interviews and offers made, and offers made and offers accepted.

Job posting

Publicizing an open job to employees (often by literally posting it on bulletin boards) and listing its attributes, like qualifications, supervisor, working schedule, and pay rate.

Qualifications skills inventories

This may reveal to the company’s recruiters those employees who have the right background for the open job.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Online systems that help employers attract, gather, screen, compile, and manage applicants.

On-demand Recruiting Services (ODRS)

Services that provide short-term specialized recruiting to support specific projects without the expense of retaining traditional search firms.

Alternative staffing

The use of nontraditional recruitment sources.

Poaching

What practice in recruitment can produce good recruits but is problematic due to fiduciary responsibility, proprietary information, and potential litigation?

Outsourcing

__________ means having outside vendors supply services (such as benefits management, market research, or manufacturing) that the company’s own employees previously did in-house.

Offshoring

__________ means having outside vendors or employees abroad supply services that the company’s own employees previously did in-house.

Headhunters

__________ are special employment agencies employers retain to seek out top-management talent for their clients.

Employee referrals

Which recruiting option involves employers posting announcements of openings and requesting employees to recommend candidates, often with prizes or cash awards for successful hires?

College recruiting

Sending an employer’s representatives to college campuses to prescreen applicants and create an applicant pool from the graduating class.

Application form

The form that provides information on education, prior work record, and skills.