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6 RECRUITMENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, you should be able to: | Understand the nature, objectives and importance of recruitment | Identify and describe the factors that affect recruitment | Identify the recruitment process, delineate different stages in the process and describe each of them | Identify distinct philosophies of recruiting and understand implications of each on employee hiring

Case Studies In order to understand the real world issues in HR, case studies have been provided at the beginning and end of each chapter. These cases (48 in number) center on live examples observed by the author personally or have been narrated to him by HR practitioners.

OPENING CASE

PROBLEM OF BOOMING B SCHOOLS The city of Bangalore is agog, not with scorching sun, not with frequent power cuts, not with twoand four-wheelers jostling for space on the overcrowded roads, but with headhunters scouting around for MBAs. The 1990s witnessed an alarming rise in the number of institutes, schools and colleges offering management education both at the undergraduate as well as post graduate levels. There are about 90 of them offering BBM courses and 50 running MBA programmes. All these need atleast 200 MBAs to be appointed as teaching faculty. Mere MBA is not enough. The candidates must have cleared NET (National Eligibility Test) or should be doctorates. All the students who join B Schools are not locals. They come from the northern parts of India and some from Dhaka. Teaching in English to

these boys and girls is like talking to the wall. They need to be instructed in Hindi or Urdu. MBAs who are also linguists are highly preferable. Managements are worried. They realise that only good faculty will attract good students. Where to find qualified and eligible MBAs? Most join industries after graduation. Only a few come for teaching and those that venture into it are in great demand. They do not want the demand to slip by. They are in one college today and are found teaching in some other institute tomorrow. Suddenly, retired executives, ex-servicemen and not-so-successful consultants have found themselves in great demand. With briefcases in hands, these old men shuffle from college to college and are laughing all the way to banks. One retired bank manager confessed that he is able to gross every month Rs 18,000 by teaching at half a dozen colleges.

Recruitment

3. 4. 5. 6.

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Bring out the internal sources of recruitment. Explain the external sources of recruitment. Explain the recruitment process. What are the philosophies of recruitment?

Discussion Questions 1. Why is it important for organisations to do an effective job of recruiting? 2. Why is it important for recruiters to have a thorough understanding of labour markets and how they work? 3. How can a company determine if its recruitment processes are working effectively? 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various external recruitment sources? How do they compare with the internal sources? 5. Suppose a key employee has just resigned and you are the department manager. After you have sent your request for replacement, how could you help the recruiter to find the best replacement? 6. Write a recruitment ad for a job you have held. 7. Where would you run this ad? Explain. CLOSING CASE

MORALE GONE BUST Dinesh, the young executive in Softeck, has become irritable, unpopular with colleagues and subordinates, and a problem for the boss. His performance has started to slacken and mistakes plague his every action and recommendation. What is surprising is just three months back Dinesh was quite opposite to all these. He also has a brilliant track record. With a gold medal from a prestigious B school, Dinesh entered his vocational area of finance and proved instant success. He has revamped the cost and budgetary control systems, set up a management accounting procedure and created a reliable and efficient management information system. Dinesh received awards and rewards and was slated to climb up the organisational hierarchy further. Yet, such a man has begun to go pieces all of a sudden. Several things transpired against

Dinesh. His only son has turned out to be a spastic child; he has been overlooked for a promotion, with a less flamboyant outsider being preferred for the number one slot by a management which suddenly exhibited its preference to a traditional accountant; and he has fallen foul of a powerful line executive. To compound the problem further, what has been a mild flirtation with an office colleague has assumed the proportion of a major sex scandal. With his emotional relationships in a mess, and worried over his son’s health and his own future in Softeck, Dinesh’s morale has gone bust. His self-confidence has been rudely shaken.

Question 1. What should Dinesh do?

References 1. William B. Werther and Keith Davis, Human Resources and Personnel Management, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993, p. 195. 2. Randall S. Schuler, et al., Effective Personnel Management, Third Edition, West Publishing, New York, 1989, p. 106.

Walkthrough Employee Remuneration

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Minimum Wage Minimum wage is the one which provides not merely for bare sustenance of life, Minimum wage but also for the preservation of the efficiency of the worker. For this purpose, the Providing for minimum wage must also provide for some measure of education, medical sustenance of life plus requirements and amenities. Minimum wage may be tied by an agreement between for preservation of the efficiency of worker. the management and the workers, but is usually determined through legislation. This is more so in the unorganised sector where labour is unionised. In the fixation of minimum wages, besides the needs of workers, other factors like ability of the concern to pay, nature of the jobs, and so on, are also considered.

Fair Wage Fair wage is understood in two ways. In a narrow sense, wage is fair if it is equal to the rate prevailing in the same trade and in the neighbourhood for similar work. In a wider sense, it will be fair if it is equal to the predominant rate for similar work throughout the country and for trades in general. Irrespective of the way in which fair wage is understood, it can be fixed only by comparison with an accepted standard wage. Such a standard can be determined with reference to those industries where labour is well organised and has been able to bargain well with the employers.

Fair wage Equal to the rate prevailing in the same trade and in the neighbourhood. or Equal to the predominant rate for similar work throughout the country.

Living Wage Living wage is a step higher than fair wage. Living wage may be described as one Living wage which should enable the wage earner to provide for himself/herself and his/ her Higher than fair wage. family not only the bare essentials of life like food, clothing and shelter, but a Provides for bare measure of frugal comfort including education for children; protection against ill essentials plus frugal health; requirements of essential social needs; and/or measure of insurance against comforts. the more important misfortunes including old age. A living wage must be fixed considering the general economic conditions of the country. The concept of living wage, therefore, varies from country to country. In the more advanced countries, living wage itself forms the basis for the minimum wage. In India, minimum wage is determined mainly for sweated industries under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Fair wage is fixed for other industries considering prevailing rates of wages, productivity of labour, capacity of the employer to pay, level of national income and other related factors. Tribunals, awards and wage boards play major role in fair wage fixation. Many people are of the opinion that living wage is a luxury for a developing country like India and can therefore be deferred.

Marginal Notes These notes on the text margins are brief summaries or definitions of important concepts and key terms. These would enable the reader to reinforce their learning.

SUMMARY Employee remuneration has different connotations for different people. For an employee, it means status and standard of living; for the employer it adds to the cost; and to the HRM administration of remuneration is an important activity. Remuneration comprises both financial as well as non-financial benefits. Only financial benefits are considered in this chapter.

34 Human Resource and Personnel Management

the learning curve is that much shorter. For instance, in marketing, if the target audience is women, it is an advantage if a woman is in charge of the brand,” says Prem Kawath, HR Manager, HLL.6 The fact that mismanaging diversity shall result in dysfunctional consequences should not be ignored. When not managed effectively, diversity tends to lead to higher turnover, heightened interpersonal conflict and more difficult communication. Exhibit 2.1

Exhibits Exhibits and Examples reflecting HR practices in the Indian corporate sector have been provided within the chapters.

Management Diversity at Pacific Bell

Pacific Bell, a telecommunications company operating in California, realised for two basic reasons that it had to change the way it traditionally recruited employees and managers. For one, the population of Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans was increasing rapidly in California, but only a small percentage of these minorities attended college. If Pacific Bell continued to hire only through college and university campuses, its minority employees as a percentage of its total employees would most likely shrink. This would be especially true for Hispanics, because their population was growing at the fastest rate. Hence, while the percentage of Hispanics in California was growing, the percentage of Hispanics on the payroll of Pacific Bell was decreasing. The other reason, Pacific Bell decided to change its recruitment, was based on forecasts by the company’s planners that its largest growth in management jobs would be in the high-technology areas of engineering, marketing, and data systems. The work in these management jobs requires advanced technical skills and formal education, and they had traditionally been filled via promotion from lower levels. But the company recognised that promotions could not produce the number of skilled managers needed in the near future. So Pacific Bell developed a new recruitment strategy comprising four components: 1. Internal networking by a group called the Management Recruitment District designed to generate employee referrals; to establish networks of employees who had contacts in the minority communities; to identify employees who could serve as guest speakers for external presentations; and to make presentations at regularly-scheduled department staff meetings. 2. Advertising directed towards specific ethnic groups. The advertisements showed a diverse group of people employed in marketing, engineering, and management positions. These advertisements were placed in local and national publications serving the targeted minority communities on a regular basis to demonstrate the company’s interest in minority hiring and the fact that it valued employee diversity. The same advertisements were placed in campus publications to announce appointment for employment interviews. 3. Establishment of contact with small institutions in the California State University system, which tended to enroll a higher proportion of minority students, as well as with Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico, both of which have large Hispanic enrollments. The company established relationships with minority student organisations and faculty (particularly those identified with business or technical fields) to identify issues and to offer support. For example, Pacific Bell developed a video, Engineering Your Management Future, to tell engineering majors about career paths in management. 4. At the local or national level of professional minority organisations, such as the National Hispanic Council for High Technology Careers, Pacific Bell sought advisors to help develop management candidates. The company even hosted a 2-day conference to address the alarming under-representation of Hispanics in the teaching and practice of science and engineering. Pacific Bell also established an internship programme (the Summer Management Programme) for thirdyear college students, making them student ambassadors representing Pacific Bell’s career opportunities. For managers from minority groups who were already employed, Pacific Bell offered 6-day, off-site training programmes conducted by external consultants and designed to help further develop their skills. The programmes also provided a safe place for participants to talk about sensitive issues such as covert racism and prejudice, topics not likely to be discussed in the work setting.

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Online Supplement The book has a web supplement (http:// highered.mcgraw-hill.com\sites\ 007059930-0). Among the features listed in this supplement include power point presentations, answers to review and discussion questions, objective type questions with answers, tips to chapter end case questions, group exercises, HR newsroom, and hot updates.

Key Terms Key terms represent important concepts culled out from a chapter. These terms help reader recollect contents of the chapter.

Review Questions The Review Questions given at the end of each chapter would help in gauging the depth of understanding of the subject. The answers for review questions could be found in the text itself.

Discussion Questions Discussion questions take the reader beyond the book. They make the reader think, reason out and apply. Answering these questions will be a rewarding experience.

Human Resource Planning

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6. Non-involvement of operating managers renders HRP ineffective. HRP is not strictly an HR department function. Successful planning needs a co-ordinated effort on the part of operating managers and HR personnel.

SUMMARY   Human Resource Planning (HRP) refers to the estimation of the number and the type of people needed during the ensuing period. HRP is significant as it helps determine future personnel needs; ensures protection to weaker sections; acts as a basis for other personnel functions; helps overcome resistance to change; and so on. HRP is influenced by several factors, such as the type and strategy of organisation; environmental uncertainties; time horizons; type and quality of information; and type of jobs being filled. The HRP is a five-step process. The steps are: 1. Defining organisational objectives and policies, 2. Forecast of personnel needs and supplies, 3. HR programming, 4. HRP implementation, and 5. Control and evaluation of programmes.

Key Terms Delphi technique Downsizing plan Flow models HRIS HRP ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○Review

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Management inventories Skills inventories ‘Top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches Turnover rate ○ ○ Questions  

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

What do you understand by HRP? What is its importance? Explain the various steps in the HRP process. How are personnel needs and personnel supplies estimated? Define HRP. Bring out the factors influencing such a plan. Explain the techniques of employee demand forecasting. Explain the barriers to HRP. Bring out the requisites for effective planning.

Discussion Questions 1. 2. 3. 4.

Comment on Fig. 4.3. How can redundancies of labour in public sector units be removed? Discuss. “As organisations become more global, HRP becomes more important and complex.” Elucidate. Suppose HR planners estimate that because of several technological innovations your company will need 25 per cent fewer employees in three years. What actions would you take today? 5. How is organisation-wide planning different from HRP? How are they similar? 6. How can organisations develop accurate HR plans when there are so many rapidly changing environmental factors over which managers have little or no control?

Walkthrough

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AND

WEB RESOURCES

Agarwal, R.D., Dynamics of Personnel Management in India, New Delhi, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 1977. . Dynamics of Industrial Relations in India, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., New Delhi, 1977. Alvin Toffler, Power Shift, Bautom Books, 1992. Arthur A. Thomson and A.J. Strickland, Strategic Management, TMH, 2003. Aswathappa, K., Essentials of Business Environment, Himalaya Publishing House, Bombay, 1995. . Organisational Behaviour, Himalaya Publishing House, Bombay, 1997. Baer, W.E., Grievance Handling: 101 Guidelines for Supervisors, American Management Association, 1970. , Popplewell, Barry and Alan Wildsmith, Becoming the Best, Gower, London, 1988. Bass, Barnard M. and Barret, Gerald V. Man, Work and Organisations: An Introduction to Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1972. Bass, Barnard M, and Vaughan, J.A., Training in Industries: The Management of Learning, Wordsworth Publishing Co., California Belmont, 1966. Barnard, Chester, I., The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1938. Baron, Robert, Psychology, Prentice-Hall of India, 1996. Basu, K.S., New Dimensions in Personnel Management, Macmillan & Co., New Delhi, 1979. Belcher, D.W., Wage and Salary Administration, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, 1962. Berliner, W. and M.C. Larney, Management Practice and Training, Homewood, 1974. Berlo, D.K., The Process of Communication, Holt Rinchart & Winston, New York, 1989. Black, James, M., Positive Discipline, American Management Association, 1970. Bolar, Malati, Performance Appraisal, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1979. Bolley, J.W., A Guide to Effective Industrial Safety, Gulf Publishing House, 1977. Bowley, A.M. (Ed), Handbook of Salary and Wage Systems, Grover Press, New York, 1975. British Institute of Management, Job Evaluation: A Practical Guide for Managers, 1970. Brown, J.A.C., The Social Psychology of Industry: Human Relations in Factory, New York, Penguin Books, 1954. Calhoon, R., Managing Personnel, New York, Harper & Row., 1964. Carroll, J., and H.L. Josi, Management by Objectives, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1973. Carvel, Fred J., Human Relations in Business, Macmillan & Co., New York, 1970.

Bibliography and Web Resources A comprehensive Bibliography has been provided at the end of the book. This section would also give details on web addresses that could give more information on various topics discussed in the book.

SUBJECT INDEX

Index Two comprehensive indices (i) Subject, and (ii) Name and Organisation would aid the readers in locating the entries in the right context in an accurate manner.

A Ability tests 160 Absenteeism 616 Accelerated premiums (see incentive payments) Accidents 616 types of 465-466 rates of 473-474 Achievement motivation theory (see motivation) Acquisitions 145 Adjudication 563, 577 Agency theory of remuneration (see remuneration) AIDA 141 AIDS 497-500, 594, 595 Air Act 471 Alcoholissm 500 Amorality, theory of 584 Annual confidential reports 248 Apitude test 160 Arbitration 562, 575 (see also industrial disputes) Arthasastra, 17 Assessment centres 253 (see also performance appraisal) Attitude surveys 616 Autonomy 117 B Babylonian Code of Hammurabi 17 Balance sheet approach to expat compensation 657 Bandh 542 BARS 246 Barriers to communication (see communication) overcoming barriers (see communication) Barth variable sharing scheme (see incentives) Beadaux Scheme (see incentives) Benefits and services 655 meaning 319 why benefits and services 320-321 types of 321-322 principles of 322-323

administration of 325-328 guidelines to make effective 328 Bernsentor Personality Interview 160 Bidi and Cigar Workers Act 451 Blind ads 1409 Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction 5 Boilers Act 470 Bombay Social Service League 451 BPO 623-625 BPRE 84,633 Broadbanding 287-288 Burnout 492 (see also workstress) C Call Centres 625-627 California Management Review 197 California Psychological Inventory 160 Campus recruitment 142 (see also recruitment) Case study 210 Central tendency 237 Checklists 108, 243-244 Child Labour Act 134 Code of Discipline 562, 569 Code of ethics 41 Collective bargaining 399-400, 562-570 Communication meaning of 414 significance of 415-416 interpersonal 416-418 types of 418-419 barriers to 420-423 overcoming barriers 423-427 organizational 427-432 networks of 432 roles of 432-434 policies and audit 434-435 informal 435-437 technology 437-438