Chapter 13 - Staffing System Management

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Chapter 13: Staffing System Management_____________________________________________________________

Sample Answers for Ethical Issues

Issue 1It has been suggested that the use of staffing technology and software is wrong because it dehumanizes the staffing experience, making it nothing but a mechanical process that treats applicants like digital widgets. Evaluate this assertion.

There is certainly a mechanical aspect to the increasingly use of technology in human resources activities. Although the proper use of technology is ultimately directed towards ensuring that all applicants and employees are treated fairly, there is the potential for treating all employees the same to mean ignoring individual circumstances or special needs. To limit the extent to which applicants and employees are treated as if they were nameless and faceless pieces of data, organizations should take steps to ensure that there is a human aspect to the staffing process. Small interpersonal touches, such as taking time to let applicants know the status of their application or having HR staff accessible to answer employee questions, can go a long way towards preventing an assembly-line approach to human resources. Technology can actually be a positive component of the staffing process because computers and other forms of digital communication can make it easier for an organization to contact applicants or employees.

Issue 2Since there are no standard ways of creating staffing process results and cost metrics, is there a need for some sort of oversight of how these data are calculated, reported, and used within an organization? Explain.

Fields like accounting and the law have evolved very specialized techniques for recordkeeping and reporting that guide all practitioners in the way that they should do their work. Generally, staffing systems do not have similar guidelines yet, although there is a growing recognition of the importance of standardized staffing measurement procedures. The use of standardized procedures monitored by a central overseer within the organizations provides several important outcomes. First, multiple methods of selection can be evaluated fairly against one another such that the organization can determine which hiring strategies will be optimally effective for both the organization and its employees. Second, standardized reporting allows the organization to detect deviations from policies and procedures. Third, required reporting of performance often has the effect of encouraging individuals to increase their efforts towards meeting the goals which are being assessed.

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Sample Answers to Discussion Questions

1. What are the advantages of having a centralized staffing function, as opposed to letting each manager be totally responsible for all staffing activities in his or her unit?

The main advantage of centralizing the staffing function is greater control, coordination, and standardization of the staffing process. That is, centralized control will help to ensure that staffing policies and procedures are carried out consistently throughout the organization. This would not be likely to happen, if managers were free to conduct their own staffing activities. The consistency of staffing processes is absolutely critical given the magnitude of the legal consequences which may result for failure to comply with laws and regulations.

2. What are examples of staffing tasks and activities that cannot or should not be simply delegated to a staffing information system for their conduct?

The text discussed a software program from the Resumix Corporation which automates many staffing activities from scanning resumes and identifying KSAOs to matching applicants with job openings and posting job openings. Most of the staffing activities which a program such as this can perform will be highly beneficial to organizations in terms of efficiency. However, there are some staffing activities which may not be appropriate for this type of program to perform. One example might be the person/job matching process which identifies a rank-ordered list of candidates. There may be other factors which the person doing the hiring wants to consider other than simply the KSAO match between the person and job. Second, sending out job offer letters may not be an appropriate task for an automated system to handle. When a job offer is being made, it is critical for the organization to do everything possible to make the job offer letter as attractive as possible to the applicant so he/she will accept the job offer. Also, if a company is going through downsizing, it would not be appropriate to inform people that they are losing their jobs with a “form letter.”

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Chapter 13 - Staffing System Management

3. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing the entire staffing system to a vendor?

The most important advantage of outsourcing the entire staffing system to a vendor is that a well-selected, experienced vendor will be able to apply years of practice in implementing staffing systems to your organization’s situation. External vendors are likely to have more knowledge of the legal and statistical principles regarding staffing because that is probably all they do. On the other hand, external vendors may have little knowledge of the particular circumstances faced by your organization. They may be tempted to use a “one size fits all” approach to staffing that emphasizes predictors that work well in general, but which do not apply to specific populations of employees or organizations with very unique cultures.

4. In developing a report on the effectiveness of the staffing process being conducted for entry-level jobs, what factors would you address in such a report and why?

The most appropriate indicators of the effectiveness of a staffing process involve examining quantitative measures and ratios. These measures are particularly useful because they are quantitative, thereby making it possible to track effectiveness over time. Moreover, these measures are useful in that they examine process and outcome variables in relation to the staffing process.

Specifically, the measures of staffing process effectiveness are:

1. Applicants/vacancy - this indicates the effectiveness of recruitment activities in attracting people to the organization.

2. Yield ratio - this indicates the percentage of people who moved on to one or more next steps in the staffing process.

3. Time lapse - shows the average amount of time lapsed between each step in the staffing process.

4. Retention rate - the percentage of hirees who are still with the organization after various periods of time.

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5. How would you try to get individual managers to be more aware of the legal requirements of staffing systems and to take steps to ensure that they themselves engage in legal staffing actions?

One way to raise the awareness levels of managers in terms of understanding legal staffing requirements would be to send out a memo to communicate the need for greater manager accountability in staffing activities. This would be followed by a training program which all managers would be required to attend. The focus of the training program would be to: 1. educate managers regarding relevant staffing laws and regulations, and 2. to educate managers regarding the negative consequences which could occur, if a staffing law or regulation is violated. The first part of the training program (understanding staffing laws and regulations) would have to be pretty factual and straightforward. However, the second part (understanding the impact of failure to comply with laws and regulations) could involve case studies, role plays, and other “hands on” training techniques.

Application #1: Learning About Jobs In Staffing

The organization’s products and services, size, and staffing function.

This hotel/resort is a 600 room hotel/resort located in a northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It offers premium quality hotel accommodations and a wide range of services and amenities including an 18 hole golf course, theater, swimming pool, four restaurants, and retail stores.

The staffing function for entry-level jobs is based mostly on job postings and walk-ins. Interested applicants complete application blanks and then they are interviewed by an HR staffing specialist. If the applicant performs adequately up to this point, he/she is scheduled for an interview with the relevant supervisor manager. Final selection decisions are made at this point.

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The job-holder’s job title, and why you chose that person’s job to study.

Job Title: HR Staffing Specialist

A summary of tasks performed by the job holder, and the KSAOs necessary for the job.

Tasks KSAOs1. Coordinating interviews with

managers.Interpersonal skills

Organizational skills

2. Developing interview structure and content.

HR staffing knowledge

Analytical skillsHR laws and regulations knowledge

3. Conducts interviews. Interpersonal skillsAnalytical skills

4. Works with managers to make final selection decisions.

Analytical skills Consultative skillsProblem-solving skills

A summary of the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards received by the job holder.

Extrinsic Rewards Intrinsic RewardsAnnual Salary: $27,000 Job autonomyMerit Increases of 2-5% per year Skill varietyBenefits Task significance 401K Health Insurance

E. Unique characteristics of the job that you did not expect to be part of the job.

1. The public relations function of the job. Each contact with an applicant was actually a PR opportunity for the company.

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Application #2: Evaluating Staffing Process Results

1. Determine the yield ratios (offer receivers/applicants, new hires/applicants), time lapse or cycle times (days-to-offer, days-to-start), and retention rates associated with each recruitment source.

Newspaper Ads Employee Referrals Employment AgencyOffer Rec./App.

= 23.3% Offer Rec./App.

= 50% Offer Rec./App.

= 5%

New Hire/App. = 16.7% New Hire/App. = 50% New Hire/App. = 5%Day to Offer= 60 Day to Offer = 30 Day to Offer = 60Day to Start = 70 Day to Start = 40 Day to Start = 70Retention = 70% Retention = 90% Retention = 40%

2. What is the relative effectiveness of the three sources in terms of yield ratios, cycle times, and retention rates?

The days-to-offer measure refers to the average number of days it takes for the staffing process to make job offers to candidates. The days-to-start measure indicates the average number of days it takes from the beginning of the staffing process to the time the new hires start their jobs.

In terms of yield ratios (offers/applications, new hires/applications), the ordering of the recruitment methods is (from highest to lowest effectiveness): 1. employee referrals, 2. newspaper ads, and 3. employment agency. That is, employee referrals possessed the highest ratios in terms of offers/applications and new hires/applications.

In terms of cycle times (days-to-offer, days-to-start), the ordering of the recruitment methods is (from highest to lowest effectiveness): 1. employee referrals, and 2. employment agency and newspaper advertisements (tied). Specifically, employee referrals had the smallest days-to-offer and days-to-start figures.

In terms of retention, the ordering of the recruitment methods is (from highest to lowest): 1. employee referrals, 2. newspaper advertisements, and 3. employment agency.

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3. What are possible reasons for the fact that the three sources differ in their relative effectiveness?

It is not surprising that employee referrals were the most effective recruitment method based on yield ratios, time lapse, and retention rates. One explanation for this is that current employees understand the organization, its culture, and the basic job requirements. Because of this, they are in a particularly good position to recommend people they know who might fit well with the job and the organization. Thus, even though this method generated by far the fewest number of applicants, it was the most effective recruitment method. This occurred because current employees did a good job prescreening individuals before they became candidates.

The newspaper ads and employment agency recruitment methods did not fare nearly as well as the employee referral method. This may have been the case because these methods can generate very large numbers of applicants because of their broad exposure and extensive databases, but many of these individuals can simply apply for the job and become candidates without any real screening taking place.

4. What would you recommend that Dexter do differently in the future to improve his evaluation of the staffing process?

First, it is recommended that Dexter continue to evaluate its staffing process on a regular basis in the future. This will permit the identification of important trends. Second, if Dexter has another work unit which is hiring people for similar jobs, the results above could be compared against this internal standard. Third, Dexter can benchmark its staffing data against external standards more thoroughly in terms of other data provided by the Saratoga Institute and the Employment Management Association. Finally, Dexter could also calculate other yield ratios and examine retention rates beyond six months.

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