Middlesex University 2011-2012 MA HRM 4050

A RESOURCING STRATEGY FOR SENIOR MANAGERS

Student M00385904 Loredana Rosie

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. THE ROLE OF HR PLANNING IN THE RESOURCING PROCEDURE 2. THE IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS AND HOW IT WOULD BE CONDUCTED FOR THE ROLE 3. THE CHOICE OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION TECHNIQUES APPROPRIATE FOR SENIOR MANAGERS 4. INDUCTION AND MOTIVATING THE SENIOR MANAGER 5. THE APPROPRIATE RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR A SENIOR MANAGER REFERENCES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In our days the external and internal environment are changing continuously. Organisations are applying different strategies in order to adapt and survive, on the field of a growing market that satisfies consumers needs, much more, much better and much rapidly. There are new issues like increase flexibility, equal opportunities, diversity management which interfere on a loose labour market. People are not any more classified in employers and employees. They are senior managers, line managers, supervisors, project coordinators, consultants etc. In any position they are they should be the right ones, at the right place with the right abilities at the right time. There is a pressure for performance and employees are aware of it. They need to maximize their efforts in order to get the position first and then to perform accordingly. It is Human Resources department role to recruit and select the best candidate. Organisations should be aware of how important is to have the best fit human resources in any position starting with management. The purpose of this report is to underline what a resourcing strategy involves and how it could influence the organization. It will take as example a senior manager position and it will explain all the important phases, which help finding the right candidate. To follow steps like planning, job analysis, applying proper techniques of recruitment and selection, induction makes the way through recruiting a good manager. And then in the end, but not the last thing this report will show, are some retention strategies, as todays high performers are like frogs in the wheelbarrow: they can jump out any time. (Williams, 2000:28)

Introduction A well establish resourcing strategy should respect some key stages like: planning in order to define the vacancy, attract applicants, asses them, take the final decision and then use a productive induction and retention scheme for the chosen candidate. The most appropriate strategy is that one that balances the requirements of organisation with the employees ones, having all the time in mind the external environment influences.

1. THE ROLE OF HR PLANNING IN THE RESOURCING PROCEDURE

HR planning is a process, which helps finding the gaps in order to reach the organisation goals. There are practical outcomes that could be useful if they are planned to fit an unpredictable environment. Plans can make a significant contribution to the achievement of the organisational performance if the HR strategies are horizontally and vertically integrated with business strategies. They can provide, even for short term, a certain degree of control. It is no easy to plan in an unpredictable environment, as we need to see them as adaptable as possible, with a variety of different responses. Julie Beardwell (2007) designed a model that shows how HR plans are a combination of scenario planning, demand/supply forecasting and labour turnover analysis, all coming from the resourcing strategy. They are divided in four broad areas: resourcing, flexibility, retention and downsizing plan. On the ground of a best fit scenario, estimating the number of people with skills and competences required also the ones that leave; using different techniques (expert judgment, trend analysis) we are actually making the HR plans. Resourcing plan regards internal resourcing, the recruitment plan and becoming the employer of choice. Flexibility plan includes operational and numerical flexibility. Retention plan involves most common steps taken to improve retention and downsizing plan refers to the process of reduction. (Armstrong 2005:384) In the process of selecting and recruiting a manager it is important to know the resourcing strategy that comes from the business strategy and to have in mind a best fit HR plan. When we know all this things in detail we know also what to ask from a manager who might be an external or internal applicant.

2. THE IMPORTANCE OF JOB ANALYSIS AND HOW IT WOULD BE CONDUCTED FOR THE ROLE

Job analysis is considered to be the foundation of any good practice approach to the recruitment and selection of staff. To analyse the job it helps minimize a subjective judgement, avoid discrimination and ensure that people are selected fairly. Job description and person specification derive from job analysis and they are tools that provide information like tasks, responsibilities, performance and personality criteria. Job analyse describes the job, not the person and there is one important thing people should know when analysing it, using methods that help gathering information. One of the best methods to be used to analyse the seniors manager role could be the application of a specific well-established questionnaire which summarizes the most important key tasks and competences needed in order to perform the job successfully. The recruiter should have all this information about what the job involves before start looking for managers. He needs to focus not only on the task but also on the skills that are deployed in the job, the equipment used and the environment where the activities are carried out. The Position Analysis Questionnaire, one of the job analysis tools, summarizes six classes of information: the source of information use to perform, the kind of mental processes used, output and methods, types and levels of relationships with others, the physical and social job context where the job is performed and other activities like hours, payment, responsibility level (Taylor, 2010:135).

3. THE CHOICE OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION TECHNIQUES APPROPRIATE FOR SENIOR MANAGERS

Recruitment involves actively soliciting applications from potential employees (Taylor 2010:159) while selection is the activity used to decide the suited applicant for the vacancy in question. These days the state of recruitment and selection process is complex because of the influence of external and internal factors. Internally there are changes like new technologies, bio data and new methods interacting with business strategy. Externally, the labour market conditions after 2009 recession are still loose and jobs are in relatively short supply. There is no more a shortage of qualified applicants, so there is less attention for recruitment and more for selection, making it more sophisticated.

Having all this influences in mind, there is not a case of preference in choosing the right recruitment methods for a senior manager. It might be what the organisation affords to invest, the importance of vacancy or the perceived target groups. Recruiting internally will save time, money and will provide greater knowledge of the individuals. Recruiting externally fresh blood might be more efficient for senior levels as it could bring originality and talent. There are formal and informal methods used for the external recruitment. In this case, for a senior manager position a considerable number of candidates are needed to enable the organisation to choose the very best one. So the best formal methods to use are media (newspapers, professional journals), external agencies (head hunters, recruitment consultants) or informal ones like professional contacts and words of mouth. There is also the option of online media, own website/e-mail. CIPD 2009 survey was showing that internet is used in addition to traditional methods, 80% of employers were advertising via their own corporate website, 70% in the local press, 55% in trade journals and 31% in the national newspapers. In UK, the newspapers that have the leading position on the market in recruiting senior managers are Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph. (Taylor 2010:172) Head hunters method is suitable for recruiting senior managers through direct or personal contact by a specialist consultancy acting as an intermediary between employer and candidates. The individuals targeted by consultants are generally in a current senior position and they are a good potential, often in a tight labour market. This service could be quite costly and because of the variation in quality and the need of confidentiality a number of large corporations are employing their own researchers rather than using head hunters (Hirschkorn, 2004). Next step of the process is comparing the information provided in job applications/CVs. Selection could be considered like a negative process, picking up the best and turning down the rest and some organisations prepare for that a set of documents like: job description, person specification, information about the organization, reward package while others discuss the position on an informal basis. Then, various selection techniques are available and a selection procedure for seniors manager will frequently involve the use of more than one. Interviewing is a universally popular selection tool described as a controlled conversation with a purpose (Torrington 2002:242). His format can be biographical or based on the key competencies required for the job. When is conducted by more than one interviewer there is less possibility of unfair bias. The best option is to choose a mixt of structured and unstructured one in selecting a senior manager. A structured interview use behavioural and situational questioning, planned carefully before, and establishes if there are attributes or competencies required for the job. Behavioural questions focus on the past experience
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while situational ones focus on a hypothetical situation. To help the candidate relax, unstructured spontaneous questions could be asked. (Taylor, 2010:240) Because of the seniority nature of the post sometimes more than one interview is necessary. Other techniques like using different types of tests: ability, aptitude, intelligence and personality questionnaires, references, assessment centre are also good to use. Tests have the benefit of providing an objective measurement of individuals characteristics but they should not be used exclusively. All this techniques are good to use if they have the ability to produce consistent results and are able to measure what is intended to measure. The aim of the recruitment and selection process is to provide enough information as the recruiters could find the candidate who can do the job. Quite often there are two or three final candidates and we have to come to a balanced view of which one is more likely to fit the job and the organisation. The process should be fair and honest offering equal opportunities to any gender, ethnicity or social status.

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF INDUCTION IN MOTIVATING THE SENIOR MANAGER

Induction is one of the final stages of the recruitment and selection process. New starters are welcomed with basic information in order to settle down and happily start working. A new job, especially in a new environment, new procedures and colleagues is quite a stressful experience. People need guidance and attention in order to minimise low morale and an effective induction to encourage them to stay. Many employers dont seem to realize why taking care about induction is so important. Armstrong (2005:471) defines a full list of reasons. First of all it will reduce costs of early leavers and replacements. Then it will increase commitment if employees have conditions to reach their potential as soon as possible. Another point is that induction should clarify the psychological contract, what are the expectations in terms of behaviours, values, and organizational culture. For a senior manager, because he has the decisions power, is quite important that his understanding about the organization is clear, as he needs to maximize individual contributions quicker than others. Also socially they have to be made comfortable; relationships with the people they work with could influence the retention. More detailed introduction should be made by the people he will work directly, his team of managers and line managers. If he gets proper guidance and coaching, more exactly on the job induction training he will be more motivated to start working. Formal induction issues like health and safety, conditions and services, policies and values in details could be organized on a collective basis. Also appropriate for a senior manager would be a formal welcome in front
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of the team or a general tour of the organizations departments when he is introduced to people. It is always true that first impressions are important and the way induction is done could motivate a senior manager to start working or leave.

5. THE APPROPRIATE RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR A SENIOR MANAGER

After induction if managers decide to stay and they prove to be talented and efficient for the organization they have to be valued accordingly. One of the risk employers are taking is the alternative employment. There might be the temptation of a higher rate of pay or benefit package, long term career-opportunities, less pressure, a higher profile employer, better working hours etc. One of the retention strategies to avoid this happening is to find out from the beginning during the selection process if the organisation has the ability to provide what they are looking for. Another reason could be the fact that they no longer enjoy their work so they will accept any other similar position unconditionally. In this case it is important to identify the roots of their dissatisfaction before it generates resignation and try to change what is possible using the mentoring strategy. In CIPD (2005) opinion there are some common steps taken to improve retention which applied to managers could be: increased pay, improved communication/involvement, changes to improve work- life balance, revised rewards, offer support and improved selection and induction. It is well known that most of the time people leave their managers rather than the organisation and the managerial style they use could have a boomerang effect. That is one of the reasons why they should get proper training and support when they join the organisation. Taylor (2010:360) identifies six golden rules recognised as being effective in management: Give praise where praise is due Avoid the perception of favouritism Talk to every team member regularly Act when you suspect there are problems Give people as much autonomy as you possibly can Involve people in decision making

Some of these actions are strategies which have to be applied to encourage retention during the each stage of employment, starting with job analysis, selection, training, pay

systems, reward, work-life balance, involvement, feed-back. Retention strategy for a managing position deals with all this issues. If a manager will enjoy his work this is not necessary a result of payment. It has to be a match between his capabilities and job demands; he has to identify with what he is doing.

Conclusion The aim of this resourcing strategy plan for senior managers was to make the organisation realise how important is the HR role in selecting the best candidate as he can make a positive contribution to the achievement of business objectives. Everything depends on the way he is going to manage the organisation. That is why Dyer and Ericksen (2007) said that being in a turbulent external environment the organisation should aim for workforce alignment and fluidity. Alignment refers to having the right number of the right types of people in the right places at the right times doing the right things right while fluidity involves a combination of flexible employees mind-sets and clear, inspirational direction from the top about the organisations vision and strategy. If all the right steps described here are followed accordingly, starting with planning and ending with a retention strategy in motivating the senior manager, the organisation could start working to achieve their goals, being managed by the best selected candidate.

REFRENCES Beardwell, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: a contemporary approach, 5 th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Taylor, S. (2010), Resourcing and talent management, 5th ed. CIPD Armstrong, M. (2005) A handbook of human resource management in practice, 10th ed. London, Kogan Page Fowler, P. (1996) Employee induction: A good start, 3rd ed., London, CIPD Williams, M. (2000) Transfixed assets, People Management, 3 August Hirschkorn, J. (2004) Research and employ, People Management, 15 January Dyer, L., Erickson, J., (2007) Human resource management: A critical text, 3rd ed., London: Thompson

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