Administrative Staff Recruitment in the Face of a Global Business Environment - Case Study Example

Administrative staff recruitment in the face of a global business environment and changing technology (Name) (Institution) (Grade/course) (Instructor’s Name) March 23, 2009 Introduction In an increasingly complex technological and global business environment, the role of administrative staff has changed dramatically and it has become increasingly difficult to recruit and retain good administrative staff. The global business environment has created more business opportunities and challenges simultaneously. The ability by a firm to be flexible and upgrade into a multinational level and also manage the risk involved in exploiting the new opportunities arising from the diversity, volatility and competitiveness of a global business environment sets the criteria for success (Armstrong, 2006). On the other hand, technological changes are revolutionalising human resource management and the individual roles of employees in a company. Administrative staff in a company plays an integral role as they are the core drivers of the branches and activities of the whole business. As such, firms tend to relatively sensitive and keen in the recruitment of such staff. As such, the process of recruitment goes beyond the candidates’ profiles to assessing business perspective, expertise, ability to find and match the best potential candidate for the organization, diplomacy, marketability of the company and wisdom to align the recruitment processes for the benefit of the organization. This paper will thus analyze administrative staff recruitment in the face of a global business environment and changing technology. Technological and global business environment changes One of the biggest challenges facing employers and companies is the change in technology. Introduction of high technology such as networked information systems, online services and video conferencing means that employees with such skills will be in higher demand that the conventionally skilled ones. Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle (2006) note that small and mid sized companies are the ones mostly faced by this challenge as they seek to take up a share of the global market dominated by big players. They have had to invest in high technology to increase their competitiveness which in the process increases their cost of operation in the short run. In the wake of a global business environment, firms have had to contend with Change in contemporary entrepreneurial setting Liberalization of markets International and regional trade bodies to reinforce liberalization trends (e.g. WTO, EU, bilateral agreements) Change in policies affecting innovation (e.g. Intellectual property rights, clinical trials, etc The global business environment has increased competition and opened up new opportunities. Only large corporations with the needed resources are capable of utilizing the opportunities presented and minimizing the new challenges posed. As such they have been able to employ and integrate the top end technology into their processes and thereby eliminating employees especially in their administration. Technology thus remains the most influential factor in changing the roles of administrative staff in the workplace and even presenting difficulties to employers in recruiting such. Other societies have no The global business environment has added more weight to workplace diversity. In this regard, diversities in the work place may include culture, sexual orientations, income, marital status and physical qualities that heavily influence on the future of the employees in the organization whether administrative or not.. Diversity in this case forms some basis of possible discrimination on employers based on cultural understanding of some roles in the work place. In most modern societies, men have been conditioned to understand that the position of a secretary for instance is for females only. In most hospitality industry there are employees from different cultures, ethnicity and lifestyle. HR is faced with challenges that they will employ in ensuring that the workers can work together without any discrimination or discomfort caused by other workers. Additionally, the guests in the hotel may be racial and may affect the ethnicity of the employees. The remarks that are directed to the employees depending on their cultures, disability and orientation means a lot to employees and forms an important role in the stability of the employ Change in role of administrative staff Armstrong, (2006) makes informs us that the classification of employees to different categories is best customized to fit the operations of a company. He says that in an academic setting such as a university, the non teaching staff may fall into the administrative but not all. In most instances, he says among the non teaching staff some will fall under the auxiliary and others in the conventional description of administrative staff. According to Armstrong, (2006) administrative staff is work is to facilitate the work of other employees. However, this does not mean that they fall under a lower job rank than others but maybe in fact higher than them. In large multinational, administrative duties are most apparent in the headquarters where all the paperwork is handled (Carroll et al 2009). Recruiting and retaining good employees is one of the biggest challenges that face businesses today. Liberalization of labor markets and change in lifestyle are among the fundamental factors that have revolutionalized the labor market. Administrative staffs as an important component in the running of a business are increasingly becoming more and more informed about their place in business and are thus more than ever determined to gain the best compensation for their services. As such, they have inmost cases been on the move from one employer to the other. Change in technology and invention of better information management system have greatly impacted on how administrative staff performs its role. Before the invention of computers, a conventional company that would employ around 700 employees, Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle (2006) note that a third of them would be performing administrative duties. With the invention of the computer, better and more efficient business processes have replaced a number of administrative employees. Newer business models and the growing of small entrepreneurial firms is limiting and in fact shrinking the workload of administrative staff. Carroll et al (2009) note that modern entrepreneurs have employed all possible cost cutting means that include cutting on the number of administrative employees in order to increase their competitiveness. He says that such entrepreneurs use hands-on tactics in running their business preferring to handle all their paperwork. This has in the long run alleviated the role of administrative staff in such a setting. Technology and more so information technology has simplified taken up most of the work done by administrative staff about 20 years ago. In adopting new technology and keeping up with workplace requirements, administrative employees have resulted into taking additional courses to enable them cope with the new technology. For instance conventional clerks have enrolled in computer classes in order to fit into the job requirements. These changes in the role of administrative staff have triggered a number of issues. In the UK for instance, there is reportedly what the BBC calls “death of handwriting”. Keypads have instead taken the place of the old trusted pen and paper. In short, technologic is taking over conventional job opportunities. Difficulty in recruiting and retaining good administrative staff In the last few two decades, the labor market has undergone some fundamental changes in terms of types of employment, increased flexibility in labor mobility, better technologies, processes of recruitment, competition in the market etc. According to Carrol et al (2009), recruitment has two basic definitions. He says that it can be identified as the process of mobilizing potential employees into a pool of qualified applicants for the present and future human resources needs. Alternatively, it can be defined as a process of finding, attracting and selecting capable applicants for employment. In a world of fast changing technology, knowledge and skills, Human Resource managers are facing ever increasing challenges. Terms such as poaching, raiding and head hunting are becoming more and more common as competition increases. Competition here means that employees are competing to get the best compensation for their services while employers are competing to obtain the best skills from the job market by offering the most competitive compensation. As companies keep on shifting their long term and short term objectives such as expansion, more and more employees are on the move. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a survey in the Elkhart-Goshen area in Indianapolis shows that on average office and administrative support employees in that area (total of 16, 750) earn $28, 950 annually as of 2007 translating to $13.92 hourly. The same group of employees (totaling 14 700) was earning an average annual wage of $26, 520 back in 2003 translating to $12.75 per hour. From single case, one can see what economists say of prices being sticky downwards. By this it means the price of labor will always tend to go up remain or increase but never go down. While this case only highlights administrative staffs, it applies to all other staff (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Administrative roles have often been considered minor in a company according to Helen et al (2005). They say that modern employees constituting the young and hip are more concerned about job titles. They are more interested in taking titles that carry power and command respect whether real or imagined. Globalization has presented many conventional administrative staffs with opportunities to explore seemingly better positions in other companies. As such, the social connotation of administrative staff is impacting negatively on the labor market as potential employees shy away from a seemingly lowly job level. Bache (2007) informs us that there are three general categories of recruitments which are also applicable to administrative staff. These are planned, anticipated and unexpected. Planned recruitments may arise from changes in an organization such as expansion or change in business processes that may require more staffing. Anticipated recruitment is carried out as a result of speculating on the ongoing developments in the labor market or even company policy. For instance, some companies introduce unwelcome policies such as the wearing of special uniforms in the workplace. In that case, some employees maybe unwilling to do and as such the company anticipates some resignations and hence preempts the problem by recruiting new staff. Unexpected deaths and accidents force employers to hire employees to fill in vacant positions. Human resource managers are faced with the tack of recruiting and at times hunting for the right people to do the job. In a market place where practices like poaching and raiding have taken root, it remains within their obligation to ensure that existing staff remains. This is because some job positions require additional training of staff which the company pays for if need be. As such, retaining recruited staff is even more important that recruiting one. Bache, (2007) views an existing employee as an asset while a potential employee yet to recruited as an opportunity. If care is not taken, employers spend time wasting their assets as they try to reach out for other opportunities. Some of the common problems facing HR professionals in recruiting new staff are summarized as: Adaptability to globalization – As said earlier, globalization presents firms with new challenges and opportunities that HR professionals are expected and required adjust to in hiring, recruiting and managing of personnel. HR professionals are responsible for a firm’s manpower whose performance should be directly linked to the HR as an appreciation of their work. Unfortunately, many business management strategies give little recognition to this fact. Again companies rarely attribute HR contribution in recruiting good employees in a quantities manner. Process analysis – The immediacy and speed of the recruitment process are the main concerns of the HR in recruitment. The process should be flexible, adaptive and responsive to the immediate requirements. The recruitment process should also be cost effective. Strategic prioritization – The emerging new systems are both an opportunity as well as a challenge for the HR professionals. Therefore, reviewing staffing needs and prioritizing the tasks to meet the changes in the market has become a challenge for the recruitment professionals. A survey reported by Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle (2006) shows that other factors that pose recruitment difficulties are lack of necessary specialist skills (65%), followed by higher pay expectations (46%) and insufficient experience (37%). 73% of organizations still engage consultancy agencies services to help fill job vacancies, although 76% indicated this increases the cost of recruitment considerably. Conclusion Change in technology has not only influenced culture and lifestyle but also the way we live. This has not spared the workplace either where technology has and continues to phase out employees and more so the administrative staff. Computer software programs are able to perform some tasks that could otherwise be performed with the human hands, with more accuracy and higher speed. As a result, companies and businesses have been able to increase their efficiency and expand their operations into the global market. The global environment as a workplace has in its own way influenced the way employees view administrative staff. Konrad, Prasad, and Pringle (2006) say that global operations call for a lot of employee empowerment. They explain this as a form of decentralization of power theory that offers employees more opportunities to exercise their freedom and develop the habit of making judgments in the workplace other than wait for orders form higher authority. References Armstrong M. (2006) A handbook of human resource management practice (New York: Kogan Publishers) Carroll, M., Smith, M., Oliver, G. and Sung, S. (2009) “Recruitment and retention in front-line services” Human resources management journal Vol 19 No 1, 2009, 59-74 Problems for employers in recruiting and retaining staff, Retrieved on 30/032009 from, http://www.trainingjournal.com/news/818.html Konrad, A., Prasad, P., and Pringle, J. (2006) Handbook of Workplace Diversity, (New York Sage Publications) Bache, Alex. (2007) “Human Resource Management in Hospitality Industry.” Journal of Sociology 15.2 16 – 20. Helen, S., Doris, F., Michael, W., Malcolm, P., and Kamal, B. (2005) Managing People to Promote Innovation Creativity and Innovation Management, Human resources management journal Vol 14, No. 2, p 118-128 Bureau of Labor Statistics “Occupational employment statistics” Retrieved on 30/032009 from,http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_21140.htm Read More