Problems of Human Resources Procedures - Paper Example

Based on the organizations current Human resources procedures regarding hiring and recruiting, there exists a bottleneck between the periods applications are received from potential recruits to the time responses are sent back to them. Even though the procedures have been in place for years and everyone at the company is okay with them, the truth is they are a problem that needs to be resolved. One main problem that the bottleneck creates for the company is that while different members of the Human resource department are taking their time to review applications, potential qualified employees get acquired by other companies whose procedures of recruitment are a faster. When an application is received, it has to through about five channels before it gets to the hiring manager for approval who then sends out a report on the candidates who qualified to the recruiting team to post invitation. The process takes up as much as two weeks or more by which time some of the qualified candidates have already been acquired by other firms. Since the process has been part of the organizations culture, the fact that some of the qualified candidates are lost to other firms does not bother the human resource department which is a problem by itself.

The other problem that the slow process of reviewing applications from potential candidates creates for the company is that most of the people involved in the review are doing repetitive work which has already been done by other people. In a situation where the organization is conducting massive recruitment, and there are hundreds of jobs applications to be reviewed hundreds of company hours are wasted doing things that have already been done by other people in the cycle. Such redundancy regarding work diverts company resources from areas that are most deserving which potentially affects the delivery of services and profitability. It is evident that doing work that has already been done by someone else in the pretense of thorough review is both times consuming and unnecessary but for years the process has not changed. The redundancy also creates the problem identified in the paragraph above since the more time human resource workers take with an application, the higher the possibility that qualified candidates will be snatched by firms where the process of recruiting is faster. The truth is out of the five channels that an application has to go through before a response is sent to applicants, only about two are necessary, a review by the recruiting team and the final approval by the hiring manager or the human resource manager.

Since an application has to go through different channels before a response can be sent out, delays are sometimes experienced for extensive periods of time especially when one of the human resource officers is not available, and he or she has to review applications which are the other problem. In a situation where all the staff members have not been informed on the recruitment process, and they are supposed to participate in the review, and they happen to have prior commitments, applications end up spending days or weeks in a single channel which in turn results in delayed responses. The organization had experienced such cases a couple of times more so during times when the recruitment calendar was not issued promptly. Delays to respond to applications that have extended to a month or more have resulted in the organization having to recruit the least qualified candidates. Hiring people with the least qualification results in diversion of resources from critical areas of the company to activities such as training which is a result of slow and ineffective recruiting procedures. Even though training is an important part of the recruitment process, there is statistical evidence that shows that companies that hire candidates with better qualification spend way less on training than those that hire the least qualified personnel. Over the years the Human resource department has done some tremendous work but based on the description above, there are some problems that need to address to streamline the recruitment process which could save the organization significant resources.

Internal Memo

To the Managing director

Cc: Chief Financial Officer

Cc: Human Resource Manager

Solutions to the problems identified above

The following memo provides some recommendations on how to resolve the problems related to the bottleneck that exists in the human resource department which is associated with the recruitment process. With the permission of the organization's top management, the following solutions can be implemented right away if the necessary resources needed to do are provided by the relevant departments.

The first problem associated with the bottleneck in the recruiting process which is qualified candidates being acquired by other firms while our organization is left with the least qualified ones can be resolved by reducing the amount of time it takes to send back responses to the applicants. With the existing procedures, it takes about two weeks for applications to be reviewed and responses sent back to the applicants. If people tasked with the reviewing process were asked to work faster to reduce the time to a week or so, then responses would be sent back before qualified candidates have been snatched by other companies. On this problem the time factor can also be solved by introducing an automated process where applications are received by hiring a team, subjected to automatic review and a report sent to the hiring manager for approval and responses sent to qualified candidates through messages or emails. The two solutions are viable for the problem, but the most economical one would be to have human resource workers conduct review faster than they do currently to reduce the amount of time it takes to respond to applications.

Repetition of work that has been already done by someone else being the other problem can be resolved by redefining the recruitment process to ensure that everyone's mandates have been defined. The existing procedures have been in place for years and have not be reviewed at any one time which has created some level of redundancy resulting in wastage of time and company resources. Every member of the review channels needs to have their work defined to avoid repeating something that has already been done with the pretense of being thorough. Reviews of the recruitment procedures will also help eliminate the unnecessary steps in the process which could also help save up some time. Cleary, some of the people involved in the review of applications, should not be involved in the process, but since the organization's culture dictates that they should participate, they have been conducting the reviews resulting in delays and wastage of resources.

For the third problem which involves some of the human resource members, having commitments while they are supposed to be engaged in recruitment, the best solution would be to ensure that recruitment memos are issued on time to provide the relevant department heads to reorganize their schedules. Alternatively, every individual involved in the recruitment process should have a substitute who is supposed to step in during situation where such an individual is engaged in prior commitment. These solutions guarantee that the recruitment process will proceed even if one officer is not available to conduct his or her tasks and responses are sent on time. As part of the final recommendation, automating some sections of the recruitment process would be the most suitable solution to the whole bottleneck problem regardless of the financial implications that the implementation would have on the company.