Human Resources Discussion

Q1: What human resources tools can be used to identify potential internal candidates for an available job and evaluate the promotion of employees in the organization? Explain your answer.

Companies can get employees from internal or external sources. There are drawbacks and advantages to adopting either of these approaches. However, it depends on what a company wants to accomplish and other crucial factors. Internal recruitment uses existing employees. Internal sources of candidates include job postings, succession planning, qualification skill inventories, personal records and knowledge, skills and abilities database.

Employers can use job postings to encourage employees to identify internal promotional opportunities and respond to those they believe they are qualified. Nominations are another source of internal candidates as managers can nominate high-performing individuals as candidates for internal roles. Some companies have human resource information systems (HRIS) to track personnel-related issues and enable talent analytics (Lina, 2019). New employees can have their profiles with detailed background, experiences, and career goals and update them periodically per the performance review. Some companies use succession planning to identify potential talent within their workforce and develop plans to prepare individuals for promotional roles in the future.

A company can get internal candidates from job postings and rank the candidates that send their applications. In other instances, the company can nominate existing employees for vacant positions. Sometimes individual data is required to make the right decisions on those that deserve the nomination or a promotion. Thus, the human resource information system becomes a crucial component of internal recruitment.

2: Briefly discuss and provide examples of the most common errors in the interview process. What recommendations would you give to an interviewer to avoid such mistakes? Explain.

The interview process is a vital part of talent management because it determines the kind of employees a company gets. If the interview process is effective and well-planned, the candidates selected are more likely to align with the job responsibilities and duties. Otherwise, it could result in a mismatch if potential errors are not corrected whenever necessary. These errors include but are not limited to lack of adequate job information, snap judgments, and negative emphasis.

A potential error in the interview process is a lack of updated job descriptions or knowledge of job duties. If the interviewer is unsure what the job entails and what kind of candidate is best suited, they could make decisions based on incorrect stereotypes. To avoid it, the interviewer should have accurate job information and a clear, defined, and updated job description for the vacant positions. Another error is snap judgments. For example, if the interviewer jumps to conclusions about candidates in the first few minutes of the interview or even before it begins based on the candidate’s resume. It is necessary to know the candidate ahead of time and use structured interviews (Raymark et al., 2008).

Negative emphasis is another error. It entails the interviewer focusing only on the information that automatically disqualifies the candidate, overlooking their strengths. The interviewer can avoid this by assigning the reference to a different person and not accessing that information afterward. Another error is the influence of nonverbal behavior, such as eye contact, smiling, and other similar nonverbal behaviors. It is possible to minimize this error through interviewer training and structured interviews. Finally, there is contrast error whereby an adequate candidate is preceded by either an outstanding or a poor candidate, making them look much or less good. Interview training, allowing time between interviews, and structured interviews with structured rating forms can prevent this error.

The interviewer must have adequate knowledge about the vacant position or have a complete job description. They should engage in a process that eliminates potential snap judgments as this could disqualify top talents. These and other errors, such as negative emphasis, contrast error, and influence of nonverbal behavior, should get corrected for the interview to be useful.

3: Compare and contrast a job offer letter and an employment contract. Discuss the basic components of each.

Employment is a process that should follow labor laws for the employer and employee to have necessary legal protection. Employees must show that they are willing to devote the required time for the job through a contract, whether part-time or full-time. Therefore, most employment processes begin with a job offer letter and proceed to an employment contract in some instances. The job offer letter has several differences from the employment contract.

A job offer letter is a communication employers use to extend the job offer to a new candidate. The candidate has to accept it to get considered part of the workforce where they start the onboarding process. An employment contract is a legally binding document that describes the employment terms. Unlike the job offer letter, it creates a binding promise between the employee and the employer. A job offer letter contains an ‘at-will’ statement whereby the employer can terminate an employee at any time, for any reason (except for an illegal one). An employer cannot break the employment contract without consequences. Elements of employment contracts include the term of employment, termination, arbitration, duties and title, compensation and benefits, and confidentiality. The elements of a job offer letter include the position, start date, compensation, and at-will employment statement.

The job offer letter often gives the candidate a chance to accept or deny the offer. If they accept it, they are considered part of the company’s workforce and given an employment contract that stipulates terms and conditions. Thus, the employment contract requires the employee and employer to adhere to their terms. Lack of adherence to the employment terms has consequences. For their significance in modern workplaces, an employer must understand these differences.

4: Build a graphic organizer (could be a conceptual map or fishbone diagram) where you mention the factors and problems that can undermine the usefulness of an interview. An example is provided, but you may create your concept map.

Several factors can render an interview useless. They include first impressions during the interview, misunderstanding of the job, nonverbal and impression management, and personal characteristics of the interviewee. Other problems arise from these factors. Using a concept map, the concept is explained further in the section below.

An interview is a critical process because it determines the sort of candidates that get hired. Without a carefully executed interview process, an organization could end up getting the wrong employees. Interviewed must avoid common mistakes that render an interview process less useful. Whether the interview is for internal or external recruitment, its significance remains the same; it can be a competitive advantage in an industry by identifying top talents.

References

Lina, M. A. (2019). Human resource information system (HRIS): An important element of modern organization. Global Disclosure of Economics and Business, 8(2), 61-66. https://doi.org/10.18034/gdeb.v8i2.98

Raymark, P., Keith, M., Odle-Dusseau, H., Giumetti, G., Brown, B., & Van Iddekinge, C. (2008). Snap decisions in the employment interview. PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e518442013-681