Recruitment Process in Nordens Confectionaries - Case Study Example

Introduction Nordens is company that has made tremendous achievements so far. It employs over 500 people hence improving their livelihood. These people in turn promote the business by giving their output. This symbiotic relationship is mutually beneficial to both the firm and the employees. Though the company has a reputation among its workers, there are a few problems hindering it from achieving equity and equality among its members. This is in reference to the number of complaints from the staff about discrimination. Some of these problems include: 1. Discrimination Discrimination is the act of favoring one party over another using a certain criteria. Often, members of minority groups are the ones that fall victim to such prejudice due to their perceived “little say” in society. Such members include persons with albinism, disabilities and often in some less developed areas, women may fall into this category. Racism is also another form of discrimination where immigrants from a different race are discriminated on the basis of, origin, language and color. Discrimination of any sort usually serves to demoralize the affected parties thus bringing down their output per unit at less than optimum. In the company, gender discrimination is seen to be a major factor. The women in the organization feel like they are being left out of top management. Whenever a promotion comes, it is their feeling that their male counterparts get undue advantage over them on gender grounds. As much as this may not be the case, this is what the employees feel. Men are given what is described as technical or “manly” jobs while most women are given the more perceived feminine jobs like production and packaging. Out of the supervisors in the company, only two are women. This gives them the sense that management favors men over women regardless of individual output, thus, a lady that has ambitions of one day rising up the ranks does not feel sufficiently motivated to work hard at her work. 2. Recruitment Staffing of new employees also poses a significant challenge for most companies. This is because the recruitment manager or HR, depending on who is in charge of the exercise, has the challenge of picking out the best candidates from a very large batch of applicants. After advertising for a vacant slot, one often has to sift through the resumes of every individually and find the most qualified people to shortlist. These people are then given interviews to see which of them is most suitable to work in line with the cultures and traditions of the company. In doing all these, one has to consider gender balance and diversity. Persons with disabilities should also be given an equal chance to compete with able-bodied men. Minority groups in the society e.g. the Indian and Pakistan residents should be given equal representation in the company. This serves to give the company an outlook of fairness and diversity-making it a representative of the society as a whole. These individuals have to be assimilated in-house and well trained so that they don’t leave prematurely. Another complication that arises from this exercise is that of employing overqualified staff. Some people say that they tend to leave the firm quicker than the rest as they are often dissatisfied. Others say they are too expensive. All in all this should be left to the discretion of the recruiter on whether or not to engage such people. Technology is rapidly changing; therefore, one has to consider IT literacy among the applicants. The firm is diversifying its product. It will therefore need to buy new machinery that will require high computer literacy and skill to operate. Henceforth, the manager has to choose between employing people that already have the skill and experience to operate them or to higher cheaper non-skilled workers and train them in-house. A cost benefit analysis will have to be taken and the appropriate action taken. 3. Human resource development For a company to forge forward, it requires employees that are up-to-date with current technological and overall advancement in the industry that the company is in. This often necessitates a training program for the employees. The other option is staffing new skilled labor. The former is the better option due to the relatively high cost implications that come with staffing skilled employees who might also be very expensive to maintain. 4. Staff Turnover Staff turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and losses employees. It can also be described as the average time that an employee takes in a given company/firm. This may pose a variety of adverse effects to the company. There are many causes of staff turnover in a company e.g. Poor working conditions, remuneration that is not commensurate to the job done, clashes with administrators and supervisors and general dissatisfaction. Greater opportunities outside could also cause an employee to leave a firm. Less skilled workers often have a higher turnover as opposed to their more skilled counterparts. Their replacement is often inexpensive and relatively easy thus the company needs not agonize over them. However, the loss of production caused by the leave of highly skilled workers can’t be over-emphasized. The cost implications on the recruitment are also substantial. Minority groups also tend to leave prematurely. This is usually because of discrimination and lack of acceptance in their place of work. No individual can work where he is not wanted thus the high case of employee turnover. 5. Personnel Policies and procedures Nordens does not have appropriate personnel procedures on holiday cover or if a child falls ill. This left to the discretion of the supervisors in charge. This puts the company at a disadvantage since it encourages absenteeism from lazy workers. This results to net decrease in performance. Others may not go for holidays leading to exhaustion. Their individual productivity goes down as a result. Either way, the company loses. This highlights the need for adequate and conclusive policies and procedures on the same. These are the main problems that hinder the company from archiving a state of equity and diversification. Recommendations To combat discrimination in the company, the company will need to all be inclusive. That is, it must contain a good number of the perceived minorities. Managers should be educated on how to deal and communicate with employees so as not to come out as either rude or condescending. This is especially when referring to these minorities. Whenever appointive positions are made, the main determining factor should be merit. The person who deserves the raise the most should be awarded. In this regard also, gender parity must be observed. Often, men may be better qualified but there still has to be gender equality especially in positions of leadership. A solution here may be to create managerial job descriptions that are set aside for women. This will solve the gender question. A downside to this is that it doesn’t encourage a great deal of competition in the firm between men and women. At worst, it may lead to complacency and thus must be applied with caution. Staffing should be done in a well-organized manner. The job description of each company should be put down clearly. The HR, in choosing the successful candidates should focus more on talent rather than skill. “Talent it natural, whereas skill can be acquired” thus talented individuals make better employees in the long-run. Personal intuition and experience should be the main guiding factor. How an interviewee answers the question should be more important than what he says. The former goes towards the individual’s character. The short-listing should also be done in such a way as it includes minority individuals. The disadvantage of such actions would be: less skilled and more outgoing employees may be favored; it also discourages the spirit of competition if slots are tailor-made for a specific group of people. The company should invest in training programs for their employees. High performing individuals may be offered opportunities to further their education by being offered scholarships. This increases the employees’ morale and motivates others to work hard. Better trained employees also lead to the improved performance of the company as a whole. Whenever new machinery is bought, the firm should make arrangements to have their staff adequately trained on handling and the safety measures associated with it. Though this is beneficial, it may prove to be a costly venture for the firm. Thus cost-benefit analysis has to be made before it is applied Employee turnover may be reduced through improved working conditions and competitive remuneration. Nordens pays its workers well so low remuneration shouldn’t cause any problems. Areas that may be improved are: employee-management relations and social interaction among employees. Hard working employees should be rewarded to motivate them to work even harder. The workers should also be given new challenges to keep their jobs interesting and give them a chance to make use of their individual creativity. Employing all these measures may be costly in the short-run. In the long-run, they are seen to be cost effective as costs of employee turnover, both indirect and direct affect the company negatively. Direct costs include: severance costs, hiring and training costs of new employees among others. Indirect costs include loss of production, loss of morale and the opportunity cost of the time and money that is spent on staffing. Adequate employee procedures and policies should be put in place to ensure that the company is running in a way that is beneficial to both it and its employees. Conclusion If the above recommendations are implemented, the company should succeed in being both diversified and maintaining a state of equity. There should be adequate education and consultation between the employees and management so as to bring every stakeholder on board. Appropriate follow-up mechanisms are also necessary to ensure that the desired output is recognized References Beardwell, J., & Claydon, T. (2007). Human resource management: a contemporary approach (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2000). Human resource management theory and practice (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. Camen, M. (2008). Human resource management: a case study approach. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Currie, D. (2006). Introduction to human resource management: a guide to personnel in practice. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., & Sargeant, M. (2005). Human resource management at work: people management and development (3rd ed.). London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Redman, T., & Wilkinson, A. (2009). Contemporary human resource management: text and cases (3rd ed.). Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Torrington, D. (2009). Fundamentals of human resource management: managing people at work. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. 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