Alexis 3
Cindy Alexis
Professor Newton
Business 101, Chemeketa Community College
17 July 2008
The Pitfalls and Challenges of Mass Hiring
Firms face unique challenges when they must hire massive numbers of individuals. Some of these challenges include getting the word out to enough individuals so that companies have a large enough candidate pool, ensuring managers avoid hiring unqualified or unsuited individuals just to fill positions, and recruiting applicants that will help maintain the firm's identity. Other, equally important challenges are to establish trust in the community in which the firm is located, creating systematic yet courteous procedures for processing applicants, and ensuring those procedures do not over tax the HR personnel or create excessive processing and advertising costs.
Firms must look and advertise for potential employees in areas where candidates can be found and be made aware of vacancies. Firms should avoid opening large facilities requiring thousands of employees in places where there are low population rates.
English: Inside the Walmart (still branded as Wal-...
A protest in Utah against Wal-Mart
English: Walmart Home Office, the headquarters of ...Local unemployment rates can also play a key factor in the success of a firm's mass recruitment efforts. Human resource managers must make extra effort to recruit qualified applicants including word of mouth; hiring from within the organizations, particularly for key or higher level positions; and other more aggressive means of advertising.
Often, firms abandon selectivity and quality to fill vacant positions quickly. Managers focus on filling the holes swiftly rather than getting the right people in the right positions. To avoid this pitfall, managers must have clearly defined position descriptions and expected outcomes by which to measure performance. Having a clear picture of the needs of the firm relative to the positions it seeks to fill enables managers to make better recruiting choices.
Recruiting personnel and hiring managers must keep the image and identity of the firm in mind when recruiting on a massive scale. The more employees a company must add, the more likely it may not find the individuals it wants. Highly qualified or skilled individuals may not fit in with the culture of the company. Hiring managers must not feel too pressured to hire that they do not keep sight of the longer term goals or mission of the firm and hire unsuitable employees.
The firm must establish trust among community members so that individuals will be more enthusiastic to work for the organization. New companies can build community relations by becoming involved in a local philanthropical project or participating in community building events such as socials to help residents identify with and understand a firm's mission and goals. Community building also helps hiring managers understand how to gear recruiting efforts to the local residents in such away as to be more successful in getting the right people in the right positions.
The goal of a firm should be to hire the highest quality employees. However, in a mass hiring endeavor, this can be a challenge. Firms must be able to identify quickly the highest qualified candidates to avoid losing them to alternative employers. In addition, personalizing the application and interview process sets the tone for the experience the applicants will have with the company. According to Thomas Jones, ensure fair and efficient handling of each applicant , firms must implement a control system whereby employees are guided through the steps of application, prescreening, and, if qualified, reference to a department for interview. In Business Essentials, both the Bellagio and Wal-Mart were identified as needing to hire massive amounts of individuals. The difference between these two recruitment needs, however, is timing. The Bellagio had an urgent and immediate need to hire and train thousands of individuals within a relatively short period. Wal-Mart, on the other hand, is looking to recruit hundreds of thousands of individuals over several years. Another difference in the two firms is that the Bellagio had a need to hire in one location. Wal-Mart needs a very large amount of new employees spread out across the country in thousands of different locations.
Although Wal-Mart needs to hire large numbers of people over the next five years, the company should develop different recruiting processes from the one the Bellagio implemented. The Bellagio's process would work well with companies needing to hire in one location. Examples of other firms that could benefit from the same processes the Bellagio used are Disney and Toyota as listed in the text as well as other resorts or manufacturing firms looking to open new sites or factories in a short period of time.
The same automated system could also be used to reduce a firm's workforce by thousands within a short timeframe. By identifying each individual's strengths and experience, a company can determine who to keep and who to let go quickly and accurately.
Human resource management plays a very important and key role within any organization. The future of human resources should transition form a predominantly administrative function to one that develops and delivers programs geared toward improvement of worker efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. The goal of all HR managers should be to maximize workforce excellence in all aspects of the firm.
Bibliography
---. " Achieving Workforce Excellence via Human Capital Management" 28 Sep. 2006. 13 Jul 2008 <http://www.ameinfo.com/97647.html>
Drake, Mart Perez. "A Realistic Approach to Management: Refocusing Human Resources" Dec. 2007 <http://w ww.nacubo.org/x9815.xml?ss=pf>
---. "Hiring En Masse" 20 Mar. 2000. 13 Jul. 2008 <http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-california-metro-areas/1162608-1.html>
Jones, Thomas J. A. Professional Management of Housekeeping Operations . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 1992.
Roberston, Grant. " A Giant Puts a Human Face on its Hiring" 14 Jul. 2008 <www.communitech.ca\newsarticle\482>
Ruiz, Gina. "Mixing Up its Game: Wynn Resorts' Winning Hiring Strategy." Workforce Management 29 Aug. 2006: 1, 20-25. <http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/24/49/89/index.php?ht>
Van Vuren, Jamie. "Hiring in Bulk: Is your Company Ready?" 13 Jul 2008. <http://www.cleanlink.com/cp/article.asp?id=2334&keywords=hiring,%20employees>
English: Street sign for Wal*Mart Drive, south of ...
English: simulated Wal-Mart logo
US Navy 070614-N-3390M-001 Religious Program Speci...