Western Australia Police Force - Case Study Example

HRM CASE STUDY By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Table of Contents HRM CASE STUDY 1 Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Western Australia Police Force 4 3.0 Internal Factors 5 3.1 Recruitment Policy 5 3.2 Cost of Recruitment 6 4.0 External Factors 7 4.1 Political-Social- Legal Environment 7 4.2 Unemployment Rate 8 5.0 Recommendations and Conclusion 9 Bibliography 11 HRM Case Study 1.0 Introduction The significance of successful recruitment and selection practices as mentioned by Tabassum (2011, 56) cannot be exaggerated, irrespective of the level involved. Hapless recruitment and selection policies leads to promotion or hiring of persons who are poor in communication, in exercising discretion, or in carrying out various functions needed of the law enforcement. Recruitment is the procedure of recognizing that the organization has to hire a person until when the forms of application arrive at the organization (Kumar and Garg 2010, 328). Selection, on the other hand, entails the processes of choosing from applicants the most appropriate candidate. So, recruiting persons to fill certain posts in an organization can be performed either internally or externally. Prior to the recruitment process, George and Slabbert (2014, 15) posit that it is imperative to invest a lot of time in collecting information concerning the job nature as well as performing a job analysis of that role. In this case study, the internal and external factors that have an impact on the recruitment and selection issues within the Western Australia Police Force will be critically analyzed, and recommendations to manage the discussed challenges will be presented. 2.0 Western Australia Police Force At WAP, they have implement controls so as to make sure that the agency has the most appropriate individuals for low enforcement. The controls include selecting the top candidates during the process of recruitment, permitting only competent officers to graduate after Academy training, in addition to permitting only acceptable standard officers to finish probation. Still, WAP has failed to effectively utilize these controls in identifying individuals who are unable to meet the demands of being a police officer as well as to reduce the threat of poorly trained recruits graduating to full operational officers. Amongst the recruits, almost none have been eliminated during probation or Academy training, and this can be evidenced by the fact that in the last five years just one recruit has been sent home from the Academy (OAG-Western Australia 2012, 18). Without a doubt, this increases pressure on the WAP’s process of recruitment and selection, given that the present process is proving to be unreliable in selecting appropriate candidates. According to OAG-Western Australia (2012, 8) WAP recruitment and training is a response to erosion in its labor force as well as the set governmental requirements to increase police officers available in every state. For instance, the government needed WAP by 2013-14 to have increased the number of its police officers by 500. Hitherto, WAP has only achieved its interim targets and is yet to meet the government target, because of low application rates. For that reason, WAP is at the moment searching for an optional recruitment alternative, which involves restoring its abroad recruitment strategy in order to boost its application pool. Basically, WAP’s ability to deliver officers for general duties depends heavily on selection of the appropriate candidate considering that for the last three years; only a few recruits have been eliminated from WAP after being selected for Academy training. Specifically, more than 2000 recruits have been trained in the last five years and only 12 were removed. WAP as mentioned in OAG-Western Australia (2012, 14) report utilizes its 1987 ‘22 dimensions of a police officer’ as the selection basis for appropriate police recruits (OAG-Western Australia 2012, 14). The 22 dimensions consist of wider features like written communication, personal impact, adherence to authority, in addition to endurance. Since 1987 it is evident that the problems as well as the environment faced by police have revolutionized, and WAP has been reluctant to review the significance and utilisation of the 22 dimensions. 3.0 Internal Factors The two main internal factors that have an impact on the recruitment and selection issues within the Western Australia Police Force include; recruitment policy and cost of recruitment. 3.1 Recruitment Policy A recruitment policy according to Tanova and Nadiri (2005, 694) gives directions to the way through which the organization should fill its vacant positions. Nearly all organization, have implemented recruitment policy that adheres to employment laws, and as well offers the organization a gainful technique for promptly replacing outgoing workers or hiring new workers. Most firms have implemented recruitment policies that every HR staff and all managers tasked with hiring have to comply with. A practical recruitment policy according to Akinwale (2014, 14) should be able to incessantly identify appropriate job candidates for the existing positions, irrespective of whether these positions are presently not vacant. Organizations that proactively recruit such as police agencies regularly employ additional recruits and train them in order that they can fill in the vacant positions at once. This allows such organizations to steer clear of challenges brought about by the vacant positions. Relying on the intricacy of the occupation, it can take even months to employ a new worker; therefore recruitment policy helps organizations to avoid lengthened periods of working with employees shortages. WAP’s perfect recruitment procedure was identified in 1987, which led to the 22 dimensions of a police officer. These dimensions have been used by WAP for almost now three decades to select the suitable candidates. As mentioned above, however, the environment and problems that police officers faced in 1987 are different those they are facing now considering that WAP has failed to review these 22 dimensions to make certain they remain suitable (OAG-Western Australia 2012, 14). The ineffectiveness of these dimensions is evidenced by WAP’s inability to meet the set diversity targets, especially for aboriginal people. From 2007, WAP has been unable to meet average representation of indigenous staff in the public sector average. 3.2 Cost of Recruitment Whereas the costs of hiring new staff like are perceptible, Mendez-Luck et al. (2011, S94) posit that normally the hidden costs are less considered during recruitment. Recruiting a new worker is not a resolution that can be taken lightly, given that it does not fall lightly on the budget of the company. However, with no employees, work cannot be done, and that is the businesses’ bottom line; although the investment can make the business accountant cower, the ability to recruit the needed skilled workers makes the investment meaningful (Soisson 2012, 54). This can be evidenced in WAP, whereby they have invested a considerable amount of wherewithal into recruitment and selection process, as compared to the other jurisdictions. For instance, WAP used more than $240 000 in two years to train a constable for general duties (OAG-Western Australia 2012, 29). However, WAP’s incapability to effectively utilize the existing information so as to make sure that this investment is useful, has resulted in challenges. Between 2009 and 2010, 146 recruits were trained by WAP at a cost of $154 000 per recruit, but in 2011 the cost per recruit reduced to $80 500. But still, WAP spends more than $240 000 to completely train the general duties constable, not including the supervision cots as well as the Probationary and Cadet Development Unit (PCDU) costs (OAG-Western Australia 2012, 29). This provides evidence that WAP spends a lot of money to recruit, select and train one police officer, and with the current economic situation the costs are likely to increase. 4.0 External Factors The external factors are the forces that cannot be controlled by WAP, and they include; political-social- legal environment, and unemployment rate. 4.1 Political-Social- Legal Environment A range of government regulations disallowing inequity in recruitment and selection have direct consequence on the firm’s recruitment and selection practices. For example, electing a new government can result in direct consequence on the company’s recruitment policy because the new government can change/amend the existing rules and regulations. Besides that, the culture created by an organization as mentioned by Strömblad and Myrberg (2013, 1050) and the manner through which the organization associates with the surrounding community are the social factors’ framework that affects recruitment and selection process. Social factors either good or bad can heavily impact the organization ability to ability to recruit quality staff. So WAP inability to comprehend the need for a balance between the police officers’ work life and personal life has tainted its status amongst job seekers. This is attributed mostly by lack of flexible working program for WAP’s staff that has made it impossible for them to balance between work and home life, and still remain prolific (Galea, Houkes and De Rijk 2013, 1091). Besides that, WAP has failed to increase the numbers of minority groups, such as indigenous Australians in their workforce considering that achieving diversity is exceedingly crucial. This connotes that WAP’s initiatives for diversity has failed, given that the applications from minority groups have always been lower as compared to other groups. 4.2 Unemployment Rate Currently there are few job seekers on the market, so as indicated by Lee and Parasni (2014), recruiting skilled applicants ha turned out to be more complex. This has compelled a number of companies to consider relocates and apply tactics of employee engagement into their recruitment strategy. At present, Western Australia has an unemployment rate of 5.9% with Australia experiencing the highest rate of unemployment in ten years at 6.05% (Mason 2014). With regard to present rates of application, WAP is not likely to meet its interim and government target by the end of 2014. This has been attributed by the inadequate annual applications needed to fill the vacant positions in addition to managing the increasing attrition rate. According to OAG-Western Australia (2012, 13), WAP receives almost half of the applications required per month, and for that reason it must increase the rates of application so as to meet the set target. As a result, WAP is looking for optional recruitment alternatives, which includes restoration of its abroad recruitment strategy. In spite of having implement strategies, WAP is experiencing more challenges in recruiting from indigenous and minority groups. This is evidenced by the fact that only 1.7% of the WA police force is indigenous background, which is considerably below its set target of 3%. Regrettably, the percentage has been declining since 2007. 5.0 Recommendations and Conclusion Procedures and policies must be clearly defined and abided by for the process of recruiting and selection, and so WAP must make certain that every person in the agency complies with the federal, state, and local regulations. WAP policies must offer a register of guiding principles that must be followed by the hiring personnel, and its procedures must offer the needed steps for recruitment and selection. The heightening challenges facing WAP in attracting skilled applicants for careers in policing, offer distinctive opportunities for drawing locals as assets in the processes of recruitment and selection. Involving locals must be approached as a technique of bettering WAP performance. So engaging the community can result in respect and trust for the agency by the locals, while still reinforcing the agency ability to recognize and draw persons capable of serving as skilled police officers. WAP must as well analyze its hiring processes and its 22 dimensions so as to establish why they are not getting enough candidates, and also to involve the community the whole process of recruitment and selection. Besides that, WAP must review the significance of its conventional disqualifying factors, in order to determine if there are barriers to hiring skilled police officers. Importantly, WAP must review its recruitment dimensions so as to eliminate the burden facing its police departments that discourage potential applicants. WAP is currently struggling to achieve diversity in its workforce that reflects the society to which they declared to protect and serve. In order to achieve diversity, WAP must bring about a positive perception of the agency in the community. This can be achieved by making certain that every person hired by WAP, irrespective of ethnicity, sex orientation, gender, age, and race is being treated without prejudice. Considering that a competent and diverse labor force is crucial to the successful operation of a police agency. In conclusion, WAP successful recruitment relies on hiring people with the needed qualifications, expertise and skills to deliver objectives of the agency and the capability of making a constructive contribution to the aims as well as values of the agency. Some of the external affecting WAP recruitment and selection as discussed in the case study include; unemployment rates and political-social-legal environment, while the internal factors include recruitment policy and cost of recruitment. Bibliography Akinwale, Emmanuel Jude Abiodun. "Civil Service Recruitment: Problems Connected With Federal Character Policy in Nigeria." Journal of Public Administration and Governance 4, no. 2 (2014): 12-25. Galea, Christopher, Inge Houkes, and Angelique De Rijk. "An insider's point of view: how a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life." The International Journal of Human Resource Management 25, no. 8 (2013): 1090 - 1122. George, R, and A Slabbert. "A Focused Analysis of Recruitment and Performance Management in the Import and Export Industry." Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies 1, no. 1 (2014): 8-16. Kumar, Navdeep, and Pankaj Garg. "Impact of Online Recruitment On Recruitment Performance." Asian Journal of Management Research, 2010: 327-336. Lee, Grace H.Y., and Jaai Parasni. "Discouraged workers in developed countries and added workers in developing countries? Unemployment rate and labour force participation." Economic Modelling 41 (2014): 90–98. Mason, Max. Unemployment jumps to more than 10-year high. August 7, 2014. http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/unemployment-jumps-to-more-than-10year-high-20140807-101a9n.html (accessed December 16, 2014). Mendez-Luck, Carolyn A., Laura Trejo, Jeanne Miranda, Elizabeth Jimenez, Elaine S. Quiter, and Carol M. Mangione. "Recruitment Strategies and Costs Associated With Community-Based Research in a Mexican-Origin Population." The Gerontologist 51, no. 1 (2011): S94-S105. OAG-Western Australia. New Recruits in the Western Australia Police. Auditor General’s Report, Perth: Office of the Auditor General Western Australia, 2012. Soisson, Mike. "5 ways to decrease recruitment costs." Journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association 66, no. 6 (2012): 54. Strömblad, Per, and Gunnar Myrberg. "Urban Inequality and Political Recruitment." Urban Studies 50, no. 5 (2013): 1049 - 1065 . Tabassum, Ayesha. "The Process of Recruitment and Selection in a Developing Country: Case Study of a Bank in Bangladesh." ABAC Journal 31, no. 1 (2011): 55-67. Tanova, Cem, and Halil Nadiri. "Recruitment and training policies and practices: The case of Turkey as an EU candidate." Journal of European Industrial Training, 2005: 694 - 711. Read More