LEGOs Employee Recruitment and Selection - Case Study Example

Human Resource Term Paper Prepared For: Prepared By: Date Introduction LEGO is a family-owned company which mainly deals with the manufacture of toys. Ole Kirk Christiansen founded the company in 1932 and has since been passed from father to son. Currently, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen manages the company; he is a grandson of the founder of LEGO group. Unlike many family-owned companies, LEGO group has managed to survive for eighty four years. A phone interview with Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, who is the deputy chairman of the board of LEGO and a majority shareholder indicates that throughout its history, the LEGO organization has not only remained relevant due to the perfect management that is in place, but also due to the company’s impressive recruitment and selection practices. LEGO’s Employee Recruitment and Selection The interview with Kirk Kristiansen revealed that talent selection, recruitment, and retaining are a major component that makes up the LEGO human resource management department. LEGO mainly focuses on attracting, selecting, recruiting, and developing talented individuals. This guarantees the success of the business as it is dependent on quality leadership and right talents (Ulrich, 2012).The Human resource department of the company mainly reflects on innovative and robust ways of strengthening their recruitment and selection strategies in an effort to drive the talent agenda of the organization. First, before the beginning of the recruitment and selection process, LEGO’s human resource department first plans on how the process will be carried out. Planning of the recruitment and selection process is a crucial as it helps the company to manage its cost, scope and time constrains. Additionally, planning enables the organization to analyze and design the positions that require to be filled in according to the organization’s current and future needs. Secondly, a job analysis is conducted to determine the appropriate knowledge, skills, talents and qualifications required for a particular job that. The company mainly focuses on the job attributes that are considered to be culturally fit and acceptable within the organization including factors such as creativity and innovation. After conducting the job analysis, the company then seeks to attract all the interested parties. LEGO mainly uses the internet and social media to leverage its recruitment and selection process. The company has a career site which is straightforward and has a friendly graphical user interface to advertise its open positions. Before interested parties begin to search and apply for vacant positions, LEGO’s career site provides them with a course on the organization’s culture and the recruitment process. This tactic ensures that the company’s expectations are made clear to the participants. The company also uses social media such as LinkedIn, twitter and Facebook to attract interested job applicants. After applications are made, a shortlisting of the applicants is made. This shortlisting is based on whether the applicants have reached the minimum qualifications such as; education, experience and personal skills. The shortlisted applicants are then called in for an interview, commonly known as the LEGO Serious Play (LSP). The interview mainly seeks to test the applicant’s abstract behaviors and skills such as creativity, innovation, problem-solving, personality, and openness. The company also conducts psychometric tests to determine the applicants’ personalities and capabilities. The Human resource department then selects the most suitable applicant. The company conducts the selection process while ensuring that there is no discrimination whatsoever. However, it was noted that the in a quest to strengthen the girl child, the organization puts female applicants into consideration compared to their male counterparts. Evaluation is then conducted on the selected applicants. During this period, the organization seeks to interpret the facts presented to them by the selected applicants to determine their credibility. After the evaluation process, an induction process is conducted. LEGO sends the new recruits to a brand school whose main aim is to train them on the company’s brand, brand essence and its difference from other companies. Additionally, the recruits are taught on the organization’s ethical, cultural and structural issues, a competency framework used by Lego to align its organizational values and goals with the employees. LEGO’s Employee Development Administration After acquiring employees with the right talent and skills, LEGO seeks to further develop them by the use of employee development administration. The Entrepreneurial Organizational Culture that the LEGO group has adopted makes it easy for the organization to develop their employees. This culture values creativity and the development and tolerance of creative people. In addition, the company mainly focuses on Innovations and integrations which are an expansion of talent management and organizational design competency domain. The organization has also designed perfect employee development administration agendas that drive the talent agenda of the organization. There exists a hierarchy of command in LEGO, a factor which makes employee development convenient. A hierarchy of command ensures that there is respect of authority thereby creating a functional line of communication. It also ensures that every employee understands their responsibilities, who to report to. The top management instructions are endorsed across the hierarchical structure of the organization. All employees in the organization follow a trajectory of responsibility for projects employees comprehend who they report to and how the management structure affects their jobs. This clear outlining of responsibilities encourages employee development as each individual becomes acquainted to their jobs. Due to the centralized structure, welfare decisions regarding the company are handled by the top management (Brooks, 2009, p. 191). The centralization in LEGO makes sure that disagreement are limited and also ensures consistency within the organization as mainly because decision making is exercised by the top management. The centralized structure gives a chance to employees to specialize in their areas which results to simplified jobs. Moreover, LEGO has adopted a strategic partnership approach to develop their employees. The LEGO human resource department seeks to improve the skills of the employees by conducting quality training that meets the business and organizational demands. This is achieved by offering their employees with the opportunity to further the levels of their education. Additionally, the organization also organizes team-building forums to help in the development and improvement of team spirit within the organization. The other core principle that ensures employee development administration in LEGO is performance evaluation. Performance evaluation is a core principle that ensures that all employees and departments in a company are productive (Robbins & Judge, 2007). In LEGO, performance evaluation is accompanied by incentives and rewards. By virtue of being human, most human beings enjoy being appreciated. Incentives and rewards are important since they assist in the motivation of employees’ thereby increasing productivity. LEGO ensures the development of employees and good performance by offering both material and non-material incentives and rewards to their employees. LEGO’s employee benefits and Pay Structure The modern world is experiencing the globalization of business and change in employee benefits. The laws enacted concerning incomes have provided employees access to financial security in cases of disability, retirement, unemployment or death (Wayne, 2010). The benefits program includes hospitalization, maternity coverage, surgical, pension, and disability insurance. In order to achieve the organizational goals, LEGO has developed extensive dispassionate compensation programs which are assimilated into one package inclusive of salaries and benefits. LEGO offers a wide range of employee benefits to its employees. First, the company offers a fully paid parental leave for both male and female employees. The company offers a thirteen weeks fully paid for mothers. On the other hand, the company offers an average of a two weeks fully paid leave for fathers. In the parental leave employee benefit program, LEGO has also considered an employee benefit package for adoptive parents who are given an average of a six weeks fully paid leave. The company also offers a family support employee benefit program to its employees. Under this program, all LEGO’s employees are entitled to a backup child care benefit. Under this package, the company caters for the healthcare bills of their employees’ children in the cases of emergency. Additionally, all LEGO employees are entitled to health insurance as part of the employee benefits package. LEGO caters for the medical bills of its employees if and only if the damage done is as a result of the risks associated with the workplace due to the company’s negligence rather than the employees’ negligence. The organization also compensates its employees in cases where a permanent physical damage is caused mainly as a result of the company’s negligence. In addition, all LEGO employees are entitled to financial stability in cases of unprecedented unemployment. Under special cases, the company may undergo major financial crises like those that were experienced in the early 2000’s. Such crises might call for a substantial layoff of a large number of people. Under such conditions, LEGO has the responsibility to ensure that such people get financial stability either by recommending them to other organizations or by finding employment for them. Moreover, the organization also offers pensions as part of its employee benefit program. Under this program, employees are expected to pay a fixed amount of money every month depending on the ability. This money is invested on by the company and later made available to the employee after their retirement. Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be concluded that LEGO group has successfully leveraged on human resources by mainly concentrating on talent and skills to help in the achievement of its organizational goals. This can be proved by the fact that LEGO has simultaneously been able to successfully implement effective recruitment and selection strategies, one of the factors that has greatly contributed to the company’s existence and success over the last eighty four years. LEGO’s employee development administration techniques such as performance evaluation and hierarchy of command help in mentoring and improving the recruited talents. The maintenance of the recruited employees is of essence as it reduces the company’s recruitment expenses. In LEGO, incentives and employee benefits play a big part in ensuring retain of talents. References Wayne M Cascio (2010) “Managing Human Resources eight ed” McGraw-Hill Dave Ulrich, Mike Ulrich, Jon Younger (2012) “HR from the outside in: six competencies for the future of human resources.” McGraw-Hill Jacobides, M. G., (2007), “The inherent limits of organizational structure and the unfulfilled role of hierarchy: Lessons from a near-war.” Organization Science, 18, 3, 455-47 Robbins, S.F. & Judge, T.A., (2007), “Organizational Behavior.” 12th edition. Pearson Education Inc., p. 551-557 http://www.thelegocasestudy.com/uploads/1/9/9/5/19956653/lego_case_study_2014.pdf last accessed 7th April 2017 Read More