Question:

The purpose of the assignment is designed to familiarize you with current issues in Human Resources Management and to develop your research and analytical skill.

Answer:

Article 1: This current article is mainly concerned with the cost and process of hiring done in an organization. Cost of recruitment can be defined as the total costs including induction training that are incurred by an organization. The article is mainly based on a discussion held by an organization regarding its recruitment issues to find solutions to the problem. The article mainly highlights the huge cost of recruitment incurred by the organization. Also, the article seeks answer regarding whether recruiting from local area is better or hiring mainly based on competency irrespective of location is better. However, the article could not give a proper answer to the identified issues though concluded that lack of proper communication was the main problem in case of the concerned organization. This is a main limitation of the article. Recruiting a candidate from local area has obviously certain benefits over a candidate coming from a long distanced area. Candidates from local areas are usually familiar with the local language, culture, lifestyle, communication system and environment. This gives an added advantage to both the newly hired employee and the organization in question. The candidate is able to learn the job faster and adjust to the work environment more easily than his counterparts coming from distant areas. On the other hand, organization is also benefitted as it is able to get output from the candidate faster. Thus, workforce productivity is improved which is a main objective of Human Resource Management (HRM) function of any organization. Hence, from this perspective recruiting people from local areas might seem justified though there are arguments against this policy as well. An HR manager is required to determine if residential aspect of the candidates are to be given more priority than academic qualifications, skills, competency and experience of the candidates. For example, a candidate coming from a non-local region might possess greater competency compared to a local candidate. Here, the HR manager needs to determine which candidate to be hired. (Blatter 20-35) stated that an effective recruitment process needs to focus mainly on job analysis and job design to hire the right candidate for the right position. Compromising on quality of candidates over short-term recruitment costs or initial low performance level might lead to long-term liabilities for the organization. Also, recruitment can be made from internal sources or external sources or both. Internal recruitment sources are mainly focused on hiring candidates from local areas as candidates from this source are usually hired through employee referrals. On the contrary, external recruitment can attract candidates from both local and distant places. Thus, focus on recruiting only the most competent and desired candidate can have a positive impact on the organization. Workforce diversity can get increased and workforce competency can also be enhanced due to hiring of only competent candidates (Engstrom). This can also lead to high turnover, profitability and competitive advantage of the organization. In fact, better returns on recruitment costs can be achieved in the long-term. Article 2: Performance appraisal refers to the official procedure to evaluate the performance of an employee conducted by the management usually. Performance appraisal is usually conducted by many organizations however the frequency of conducting performance appraisal might differ. In general, performance appraisal is conducted yearly or half-yearly basis. The main objective of performance appraisal is to improve the performance of an employee (Van Dooren). However, the main problem identified by the current article is the focus of performance appraisal on identifying and highlighting shortcoming & weaknesses of the employees. This can be viewed as a negative approach. Use of such negative approach might affect the motivation level of the employees as no one likes to hear negative feedback about themselves. The article presents 5 conversations which seem to be helpful in improving the outputs from the current or traditional performance review conducted by organizations.

The “climate review conversation” suggests conducting an evaluation of existing atmosphere at the workplace in which the staffs are working. Examining the morale, job satisfaction and communication process are the key focus of performance appraisal at this stage. Job satisfaction refers to the extent to which the expectations of employees are fulfilled by an organization in a way that makes the employees enthusiastic towards achieving organizational goals. In other words, employees feel that the organization cares for them. “Strength and Talent conversation” are useful in identifying the strengths and key competencies of employees instead of highlighting the negative aspects only. Here, the concept of “Job design” comes into picture as output from such analysis can help in better designing of jobs in future by identifying the key traits required for performing a particular job. Workforce development is yet another key area of Human Resource Management (HRM). “Opportunities for growth conversation” as mentioned by the article can be really useful  in identifying ways in which competency level of the staffs in an organization can be improved. This can further improve the overall performance level of the organization. Learning is considered as a continuous by modern management experts. Training & development is a major area of HRM. Hence, identifying the learning needs of staffs and developing suitable training programs through “learning and development conversation” can help in improving the competency level of the staffs. The “innovation and continuous improvement conversation” can help in generating various ideas that can help in continuously improving performance efficiency at both individual and organizational level. The 5 conversations’ framework presented by the article can impact both financial and nonfinancial aspects of business. Firstly, the strategies and conversation ideas proposed by the article can enhance operational efficiency of the organization which can increase competitive advantage of the firm over the rivals. Secondly, the conversation strategies can also help in improving job satisfaction level of employees thereby reducing the employee attrition rate.

Thirdly, focus on development, improvement and positive capabilities of the staffs can help an organization in getting better returns on the cost incurred towards performance appraisal. Thus, implementation of the ideas proposed by the article can have positive impact on the HRM of an organization. However, specific measures need to be taken for measuring the improvement in employee performance post completion of performance appraisal at every time (De Waal 63-67).