Master of Business Administration

Managing Workforce and Organizational Change

Value of Well Planned Recruitment and Selection

Performance Appraisal

ASSIGNMENT

BY

Dursun COSKUNCELEBI & Others

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CONTENTS

PART I - Value of Well Planned Recruitment and Selection

INTRODUCTION

AIM OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS

STEPS INVOLVED IN WELL-PLANNED RECRUITMENT PROCESS

a) Employment Planning and Forecasting

b) Building a Pool of Candidate

c) Developing and Filling an Application Form

ANTI DISCRIMINATION

WHY THE SELECTION PROCESS IS IMPORTANT

a) Performance

b) Cost

c) Legal Implication and Negligent Hiring

STEPS INVOLVED IN WELL PLANNED SELECTION PROCESS

a) Preliminary Selection

b) Employment Tests

c) Selection Interview

d) Avoiding Discrimination

e) Medical Evaluation

f) Supervisory Interview

g) Hiring Decision

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

PART II - Performance Appraisal

INTRODUCTION

MEASURING THE OUTCOMES

a) Accountabilities

b) Skills acquisition

c) Self appraisal

d) Paired comparisons

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e) Rating scale

f) Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)

g) Development plan approach

POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES TO PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES TO PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

CASE STUDIES

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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PART I

Value of Well Planned Recruitment and Selection

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INTRODUCTION

Without following a proper recruitment and selection procedure in any

organization it is impossible to achieve the company goals and objectives. It is the duty

of HR department in every organization either small or large they must have to follow

the procedures of recruitment and selection, which is defined, by HR department.

For example, if a company recruit such a person without following the proper

procedures and after few days they come to know that the person hasn’t the proper

knowledge of that work off course the company work is affected. On the other end if

the company recruit such a person who has proper knowledge of working the company

will remain satisfy with his work and the company doesn’t been suffer. So it is only

possible to recruit and select the right person for the job if organizations will follow the

procedures of recruitment and selection process that is still by HR department.

AIM OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS

The aim of recruitment and selection process is to select the best candidate for

the job. This process includes the following steps:

a) Doing the employment planning and forecasting to determine the duties of the

position to be filled.

b) Building the pool of candidate for the job by recruiting either internally or

externally.

c) Having candidate to fill out an application form.

d) Using various selection techniques like test, background investigation.

e) Sending to the supervisor one or more candidate who is responsible for job.

f) Having the candidate go through one or more selection interviews.

STEPS INVOLVED IN WELL-PLANNED RECRUITMENT PROCESS

If we want to get the right and best suitable employee for our organization then

we have to follow few steps, which are:

a) Employment Planning and Forecasting:

Employment planning is the process of formulating the plan for all future

openings, which are expected to open, and either internal or external candidate fills

them.

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So employment planning is therefore refers to fill any vacancy from clerical level

to CEO level. If we are planning the employment process then there are three types of

forecasting involves:

1) Personal Needs

2) Supply of inside candidate

3) Supply of outside candidate

There are several methods for forecasting.

Trend analysis

Ratio Analysis

Scatter plot analysis

Computerized analysis

b) Building a Pool of Candidate:

Now the next step is to putting the attention of outside environment into our new

job openings i.e. the advertisement.

1) Advertising as a Source of candidate:

In advertising we have to think about two things i) the media, ii) Ad’s

Construction.

The media should be local if we are looking for local candidate. If we have some

managerial level of job then we can advertise in weekly business magazine or in

monthly business magazines. But many times it is happen that the papers like that will

take several months.

The second thing is Ad’s Construction. The newspaper will use “AIDA”

technique

A “Attention” making the main heading wide bold

I “Interest” in job, by producing interest in job “You have Challenging job

ahead”

D “Desire” in job, like career development plan, travelling, paid holidays etc.

A “Action” like “call today” or “drop in CV” Latest by the end of week.

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2) Employment agencies as a source of Candidate:

There are three basic types of employment agencies

i) Those operated by government

ii) Those associated with Non profit organizations

iii) Those run privately

c) Developing and Filling an Application Form:

The aim of application form is to collect information about recruit in a uniform

manner. Make data on different recruits systematically comparable

Common components of application forms:

Personal data

Employment status

Education and Skills

Work history

Memberships, awards, and hobbies

References

Signature

ANTI DISCRIMINATION

Avoid questions related to:

Race

National origin

Religion

Height and weight

Discriminates against women, Hispanics, and Asians

Handicap

WHY THE SELECTION PROCESS IS IMPORTANT

The selection process is very important for the following three reasons.

a) Performance:

Your performance will directly affect by the working of your subordinate. If you

have chosen such a person who doesn’t have enough skills to do the job properly it

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will affect your performance directly. So before hiring the candidate the first thing to

keep in mind is the candidate skills for work.

b) Cost:

Second effective screening is cost. It is very costly to hire any candidate for a

specific job. Expects says that it will cost US$ 47,000 to hire a manger who earns US$

60,000 per annum.

This cost includes the cost of travelling, advertising a job in many journal, time,

reference checks, background checks etc.

c) Legal Implication and Negligent Hiring:

Good selection is also important because of legal implication. Your must take

consideration steps about equal employment laws. So we must be very careful about

selecting such person who doesn’t have criminal record.

Hiring such a person who has criminal record in the past has more opportunity

to commit crimes. So hiring such a person without having proper check is called

negligent hiring.

STEPS INVOLVED IN WELL PLANNED SELECTION PROCESS

Once we have a pool of completed applications forms then the next process is

selection of right candidate for organization. For the selection of candidate the

candidate has to pass through some stages of test like intelligence test, screening test,

background and reference test etc. The supervisors then interview the candidate and

then select the right person for organization.

Some steps are

a) Preliminary selection

b) Employment tests

c) Selection interviews

d) Verification of references

e) Medical evaluation

f) Supervisory interviews

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g) Hiring decision

a) Preliminary Selection:

Setting minimum standards for the job, and communicating these standards to

your employees often do preliminary selection of applicants, and agencies that help

you recruit. The fact that some potential applicants may not apply because of their

inability to meet the minimum requirements serves as an initial screening device.

b) Employment Tests:

Throughout the practice of Human Resource Management, firms should

endeavour to act on objective data. This is true for compensation management and for

performance appraisal, and it is certainly true for the selection process where firms

wish to assess the match between job applicants and job requirements.

c) Selection Interview:

Selecting the best candidate for the job is the #1 priority of the selection process.

The employment interview is conducted to learn more about the suitability of people

under consideration for a particular job and is one further obstacle for the applicant to

overcome. The interview is one further means of reducing the number of people who

might be eligible for the job.

Put simply, the interview is a formal, in-depth conversation conducted to

evaluate an applicant's acceptability for the job opening.

d) Avoiding Discrimination:

During the interview, it is important that discriminating questions not be asked.

At times, the information sought during interviews is not relevant to the job being filled

and, consequently, discriminatory elements may enter into the selection process.

e) Medical Evaluation:

Generally a health checklist

Health information

Accident information

Occasionally the checklist is supplemented by a physical examination

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f) Supervisory Interview:

Since the immediate supervisor is ultimately responsible for new workers, he or

she should have input into the hiring decision. The supervisor is better able to evaluate

the applicant's technical capabilities and is in a better position to answer the

interviewee's job-related questions. Further, the supervisor's personal commitment to

the success of the new employee is higher if the supervisor has played a role in the

hiring decision.

g) Hiring Decision:

The actual hiring of an applicant constitutes the end of the selection process. At

this stage, successful (as well as unsuccessful) applicants must be notified of the firm's

decision. Since money and effort has been spent on all applicants, the HR department

may wish to consider even the unsuccessful applicants for other openings in the

organization.

The applications of unsuccessful applicants are often kept on file and the

applications of successful applicants will be retained in the employees' personnel files.

No matter what the form of the job offer, the principle is generally the same: do

not make promises or statements that you cannot or do not intend to keep. Such

statements can lead to expensive litigation if it is later decided to terminate the

employee.

When a job offer is made, it should include the following information:

The position offered

Location of the job

Salary (although sometimes salary must be negotiated before the applicant will

accept)

Benefits

Starting date

Reviewing the Hiring Process:

After completing the hiring, the process ought to be evaluated. Here are some

considerations in the evaluation:

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What about the number of initial applicants? Were there too many applicants?

Too few? Does the firm need to think about changing its advertisement and recruiting

to get the result desired?

What was the nature of the applicants' qualifications? Were the applicants too

qualified? Not qualified enough? Perhaps the advertisement needs to be re-worded to

attract more appropriate candidates.

CONCLUSION

This study brings us to the conclusion that careful selection is important and

there are lots of reasons for this. Firs of all, employees with the right skills and attributes

will do a better job for a company. Employees without these skills or who are abrasive

or obstructionist will not perform effectively a company’s performance and it is therefore

the company will suffer. Secondly, it is important because it is costly to recruit and hire

employees. Finally, it is important because of the legal implications of incompetent

hiring.

REFERENCES

Albrecht, M.H., “International Hrm: Managing Diversity in the Workplace”

Armstrong M., “A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice”

Buchanan, D, and Huczynski, A. “Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory

Text”

Dessler, G. “Human Resource Management”, 7th Edition

Foot, M., and Hook, C. “Introducing Human Resource Management”, 3rd Edition

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PART II

Performance Appraisal

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INTRODUCTION

What Is A Performance Appraisal?

A performance appraisal is a measuring tool that evaluate a person on the job

performance for the given time period (within his job description or beyond).

Many organizations today use various types of performance appraisal methods

to evaluate their employees. And often out come of these appraisals lead to rewards,

benefits and promotions.

Key Question?

Yet we know that not every job out come can be measured and performance

appraisal is a very subjective process, so what’s the point of wasting time in conducting

performance appraisal? Remainder of this document gives out the critical analysis of

the above statement.

MEASURING THE OUTCOMES

On the basis of seven case studies, IDS produced the following list of factors,

which were typically appraised: (Source: IDS 1992)

Job knowledge and abilities (ability to perform all aspects of the job)

Adaptability/Flexibility (ability to cope with change; multi-skilling for craft

workers)

Productivity (individual work output)

Quality of work (attention to detail; consistent quality)

Attitude to work (commitment, motivation, enthusiasm)

Interaction with others (communication skills, team working ability)

Originality of thought/initiative (problem solving)

Perception (ability to correctly interpret job requirements)

Judgement, use of resources (setting priorities; ability plan and organise work)

Attendance and time keeping (number of and reasons for absence: punctuality)

Safety awareness (awareness of health and safety standards)

Need for supervision (leadership: ability to develop others)

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By analyzing these factors, we can suggest that assessment of factors achieved

by mixture of subjective and objective measures and almost always carried out by the

employee’s immediate superior. In terms of rating or scoring individual employees, a

number of target areas can be identified for assessment.

a) Accountabilities:

Define the job responsibilities of a certain job and the results that jobholders are

expected to achieve. Specific goals and objectives would be given to achieve.

b) Skills acquisition:

Employees may be assessed on their acquisition of new skills required to further

improve their performance in the job or the continued development of essential skills.

c) Self appraisal:

The actual employee mainly concerns this approach with the identification of

self-development needs.

d) Paired comparisons

In this method the superior asses the performance of pairs of individuals, until

each employee is judged relative to each other employee.

e) Rating scale

The employees are rated on number of factors such as job-related qualities or

behaviours etc. Rated to the extent to which they possesses these factors. Rating scale

is done numerically, alphabetically or graphically.

f) Behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS)

This scale assesses the actual performance and behaviour. Ex-Rather than

concerned with initiative this method actually seeks whether the employee

demonstrates initiative.

g) Development plan approach

A link between personal development and business strategy. Effective

developmental plans for future skills.

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POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES TO PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

Performance appraisal is defined as “the process through which the companies

ensure that employees are working towards organizational goals“ and “a broad term

that has come to stand for the set of practices through which work is defined and

reviewed, capabilities are developed, and rewards are distributed in organizations”(

Source- Peter M.Glendining ).

Companies that manage with performance appraisal programs for their people

have outperformed companies without such programs.( Mcdonald.d, & Smith.

A proven connection: performance management and business results,

compensation and business review,27,1 (1995):59-62)

Companies who have trailed in their industries show significant improvements

in their business results after implementing a program .

Failure by organizations to implement performance appraisal programs are

costly, in terms of lost opportunities , unfocused activity, loss motivation and

morale.(Management ,43,1 1996)

Performance appraisals can be good way for organizations to boost employees

motivation and hone their competitive edge.(Longnecker.c, & Fink.L.” creating

effective performance appraisals” Industrial management ,41,5(1999):18-25)

To abandon or abuse the performance appraisal process is a breach of

business ethics.

(Axline. L, “view points the ethics of performance appraisal”, Advanced management Journal, 1996, p 44-46) The following is list of asserted benefits of an effectively implemented performance appraisal program.

Improved employee work performance

Employees with potential for advancement

Planning for future HR needs is augmented

Business objectives are realized

Improved morale

Improved customer satisfaction

A clear linkage between pay and performance is achieved

A competitive advantage is obtained

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Improved quality of supervision

Job design errors could be identified

Equal employment opportunities

Feedback to human resources

Informational inaccuracies will be minimized

NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES TO PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS

As the question suggest, not every job outcome can be measured and

performance appraisal is a very subjective process. This statement is true to a greater

extent when we analyze the issues and concerns which had appeared in performance

appraisal system as a whole.

To assess an employee there is already a pre determined set of standards and

behaviors.In both of these elements human decision will arise in the process. Human

judgement suffers from reliability, validity, and bias. Kinne and Lowe (1990: 47) state,

“appraisers may find it difficult to identify and measure, the distinct contribution of each

individual”; this can be because the appraiser doesn’t really know the appraise or

because, as suggested by Howell and Cameron (1996: 28), employees are constantly

moving from one project another.

The role of the superior or the line manager who conducts the performance

appraisal has a greater role to play for the success in this process. In the current

corporation structure lack of time and resources have hindered the line managers from

providing comprehensive and effective performance reviews and objective setting. In

addition, some managers treat this process as bureaucratic nuisance and form filling

exercise.

Conclusion in some of this appraisals rate the employee as simply average or

determines as low level performers, which may lead to demodulation of the

concerned employee.

Some line managers who simply manipulate the outcome of these performance

appraisals to external or internal pressures. In addition, the result could be either

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favourable or unfavourable to the employee depending on the verdict without

considering their true performance.

Newton and Findlay (2000: 129) refer to the writings of McGregor who draws

attention to the issues of conflicting roles of the appraiser as both the disciplinary

judge and the helpful counsellor. There are going to be obvious tensions

between the two roles.

Timing in a very busy organization is often difficult – ( too many things going on

at once ) In cases where managers do not put appropriate time and effort into

managing and documenting performance, in this case lower employee morale.

Improper use will cause inconsistency of measurement standards among line

managers. Subjective feedback will lead and will often create employee relation

issues.

Fear of failure: Some appraisers think that a poor appraisal result tends to reflect

badly upon them also, since they are usually the employee’s supervisor. Many

appraisers have a stake in making their subordinates “look good “on paper..

CASE STUDIES

1) One study focused on how personality influenced the evaluations students

gave their peers. Raters who scored higher on “ conscientious “ tended to give their

peers lower ratings-they were stricter, in other words; those scoring higher on “

agreeableness “ gave higher ratings- they more were lenient.

Two researchers reviewed 22 studies of performance appraisal leniency. They

concluded that “performance appraisal ratings obtained for administrative purposes

{such as pay raises or promotions} were nearly one third of standard deviation larger

than those obtained for research or employee development.

2) One study illustrates how bias can influence the way one person appraises

another. In this, study researchers sought to determine the extent to which pregnancy

is a source of bias in performance appraisal. The subjects were 220 undergraduates

between the ages of 17 and 43 attending a Midwestern university.

In each case, the performance level of the employee was the same in both video

tapes, and the video tapes were identical-except for one difference. Researchers shot

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the first videotape in the employees ninth month of pregnancy, the second about five

months later. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the employee’s

pregnancy influenced the performance appraisal ratings she received in the various

situations.

The results suggested that pregnant women may face more workplace

discrimination than do women in general. Despite seeing otherwise the identical

behaviour by the same woman, the student raters “with remarkably high degree of

consistency assigned lower performance ratings to the pregnant woman as opposed

to a non-pregnant one. (Dessler, G. 2003. Human resource management, prentice hall

(9th edition p.329).

CONCLUSIONS

As this report indicates performance appraisal system has its pros and cons.

When its has been used constructively both employees and organizations benefit. As

this document suggests neither extreme is correct. The data has shown that a more

centrist position should be taken on this appraisal system. There are three main

reasons for having an appraisal system: Monitor the overall progress of the business,

develop the business to meet changing circumstances, encourage and motivate

employees.

REFERENCES

Allan P.,”Designing and implementing an effective performance appraisal

system “ Review of business, 16,2.(1994) :p.3-9

Beardwell, I. Holden.l, and Claydon, T., “Human resource management: A

contempory approach”, 4th Edition. Prentice hall

Chartered Institute Of Personnel and Development, (2005), “Performance

Management Survey Report”, London:cipd

Dessler, G. (2003), “Human resource management”, 9th Edition, Prentice Hall

Flynn, G. “Training is the key to successful performance management“,

Personal Journal

Ghopade, j., and Chen, M. “Creating quality-Driven performance appraisal

systems.” Academy of Management executive, 9,1 (1995):23-41

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Kumar, R. “Lecture Notes”

Mcdonald, D., and Smith, A. “A proven connection: Performance management

and Business results“, Compensation and benefits review, 27,1 (1995) : 59-62

Wolff, C. (2005), “Appraisals (1): not living up to expectations, IRS Employment

review”, N0 828, 29 July, p.9-15

www.cipd.co.uk

www.hrmguide.co.uk

www.performance-appraisal.com

www.performancefeedback.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, M. (2003), “A handbook of human resource management practice”,

9th Edition, Kogan page limited, England

Beardwell, I., Holden I, and Claydon, T., (2004), “Human resource

management: A contemporary approach”, 4th Edition, Prentice hall.

Fletcher, C. (2004) “Appraisal and feedback: making performance review work”,

3rd Edition, London: Chartered institute of personnel development.