Introduction
The building of an inclusive and adaptable workforce that satisfies the needs of a diverse economy and promotes the organization as a good place to work has been the vision of most development companies. The department of Human Resource and Management of a company usually is the department with the mandate of developing employee recruitment and retention strategies to employ staff that would be of quality addition to the company. Recruitment is the process of enticing, short listing and picking out the best personnel for a vacancy within a firm, company or business. Recruitment is a significant undertaking in acquisition of an efficient labor force; it entails selection of the best-suited person for a job and usually affects the organization’s performance and image. This paper focuses on the employee recruitment strategies of Blue Limited, a textile processing company, highlights some of the alternative recruitment strategies and recommends the most effective strategy for the company and its implementation plan.
Problem Identification
Blue Limited is currently facing a scarcity of employees working in its various departments including some managerial positions. Most of the company’s departments have fewer workers and in some cases some of the workers are unskilled. Some departments have witnessed an exodus of employees due to heavy workloads facing them in the light of the company’s expansion.
Origin of the problem
The increasing customer demands and customer base has led the company to increase its productivity without considering the size of the work force.
High numbers of employees leaving the company due to work overload since the company has increased its production and kept the number of employees fixed.
Large numbers of unskilled labor force and low numbers of skilled employees.
The decision by the management to expand the companies processing abilities to include processing of new products such as synthetic leather and increasing its operation area has led to an increase in the demand of more employees.
The call for to replacement of unskilled employees with skilled employees has made it necessary to recruit a new workforce.
Consequences of not dealing with the problem
Failure to address the current labor shortage in the company would result to devastating implications for the company. These effects would include;
The company will continue losing employees due to poor working conditions occasioned by increased workloads per employee.
The company’s productivity levels will decline due to inadequate numbers of employees to work in its various departments.
An increase in the amount of work per employee will lead to overworking of employees resulting in fatigue and poor health for employees; this would consequently contribute further in lowering the company’s productivity.
Employees working under fatigue and poor health coupled with the inefficient skills of some employees may lead to production of low quality products thereby lowering the company’s competitive advantage in the market.
The shortage of labor will lead the company to miss out on some opportunities due to the inability of its workforce to carry out all the tasks that would be possible with a large workforce.
Current employee recruitment strategies
The company has in the past struggled to deal with the problem of shortage of employees through a number of internal recruitment strategies. These strategies are addressed below.
Employment of Immediate Family Members
Managers have been hiring their immediate family members to fill up the vacant positions in the company; this has also included the hiring of the immediate family members of the company’s employees. Despite aiding in increasing the labor force, the technique has the following risks:
Increased probability of conflict of interests and high chances of collusion.
The methods of instilling discipline are compromised and most of the time is prejudiced.
The process negatively affects the self esteem of other workers.
There are high chances favoritism and unfair advantage for family members.
It leads to pessimistic perceptions concerning promotions.
It affects personal relationships among employees.
Job postings
This involves internally advertising vacant positions for the company’s current employees to apply for without considering external applications.
Recruitment of former employees
This involves calling up retired and resigned company employees back to work for the company. This method is advantageous since it is less costly (Maxwell 159-60). However the method has proved inadequate in areas where new methods of operation have been set up.
These internal methods of employee recruitment by the company have contributed little in solving the company’s employee shortages. The company as a result ought to reflect on other techniques of employee recruitment as alternatives to work out its challenges.
Alternative Methods of Employee Recruitment
Employee Referral Programs
The company could ask employees to refer potential candidates to the company and reward them for each successful referral hired (Maxwell 159-60).
Advantages
It is cost effective since it does not involve advertisement costs.
Good employees are hired because the referrers want to maintain good reputations.
It is effective in filling of highly specialized positions that would be difficult to fill using other techniques.
Helps the company to reach out to passive employees and therefore increase a company’s pool of employees.
Disadvantages
Employee referral programs could lead to an inbred workforce that falls short of ideas
Employee referral programs could lead to the formation of gangs in the company resulting to hatred and friction among employees.
Advertising
The company could post vacancy advertisements for positions to be filled with local newspapers, magazines and over the internet.
Advantages
It is cheaper when one wants to recruit a large number of employees as it reaches out to a wider audience.
Helps in making the company popular, creation of a good image and enhancing its profile.
Advertisements reach out to people of diverse cultures who could bring new ideas to the company.
Newspaper advertisements help the company to target a specific geographical area especially in the event when the job requires knowledge of a certain area.
Newspaper adverts allow for flexibility depending on the amount of available funds. It allows placing small advertisements when the budget is small and larger adverts when there are sufficient funds and multiple positions to fill.
The internet could save the company recruitment expenses as this is done online.
Disadvantages
Newspaper advertisements could be expensive especially when there are only a few positions to be filled.
Advertisements could draw even those who are not qualified and therefore lead to time wasting in screening them.
Elder potential employees who are not well versed with the internet usage could miss out on the advertisement.
Newspaper advertisements and internet advertisements could help the company reach out to potential qualified and skilled candidates from diverse cultures; these would bring in fresh ideas to the company and therefore boost its productivity
Employment Agencies
The company could opt to use employment agencies to recruit more employees. These are private professional organizations that specialize in recruiting and supplying the required manpower to other companies and business organizations.
Advantages
Cuts down the costs that would otherwise be used for advertisement.
Gives the company a wide range of employees for the same job to choose from.
Reduces the time that would be spent on the recruitment process.
Disadvantages
It is expensive to hire the services of employment agencies.
Precious time may be lost if suitable candidates are not found.
May lead to a wastage of resources if the suitable candidates are not found.
Employment agencies could help solve the company’s employment shortage by providing skilled personnel in a very short time.
Recommendation
This paper recommends Blue Limited Company to embrace advertisement as the alternative to recruit employees to cater for the current employee shortage problem. Going by the fact that the company will have multiple positions to be filled and consequently recruitment of a large work force, newspapers and the internet advertisement is the best alternative. It will provide the company with a variety of candidates to choose from, who would also bring in new ideas.
Implementation plan
This will involve setting aside $2000 for advertising vacancies in the local newspaper, magazines and posting adverts on the job search engines and social websites on the internet. The company will then invite applications to be addressed to its human resource management department for short listing of successful candidates. Shortlisted candidates will be published in the local newspapers, magazines and on social sites and official communication will be sent to them via email for an invitation to interview. The company should set aside two weeks of conducting interviews and short listing of successful candidates be done via the media two weeks after the interview process. One week should be set aside for training the successful candidates for their specific jobs. The whole process of recruitment should take a maximum of two months and cost a maximum of $2000.
Performance measurement
The impact of this strategy can be measured on the scale of improved company productivity and reduced numbers of employees leaving the company.
Works Cited
Maxwell, Mary. “The Long and Short of Recruitment Strategies” Nursing Economics 22.3 (2004): 159-60. ProQuest. Web.