Staff Planning and Recruitment – Business Research Paper (300 Level Course)
Every company evolves from where it once started. Change is an inevitable aspect of all organizations. Well-structured corporations anticipate and include changes in their forecast. Companies must prepare themselves for industry trends, increase in demands and turnover. SMC is a company that manufactures ergonomic office equipment in need of organizational
restructuring in order to meet an increase in demand. Our main areas of concern will be the manufacturing, operations and customer service areas that will receiving restructuring. Due to the fact that the demografic around SMC is 90% caucasion, the company will address affirmative action issues and set goals within the company to fulfill requirements. In addition, SMC will use new recruitment methods such as cross-training, job shadowing and electronic recruitment in the company’s local intranet. These changes in leadership and recruitment should position SMC to be able to handle and maintain high levels of demand.
Due to a 100% increase on production demand, SMC will implement a staffing plan to accommodate the increase in supply and demand and successfully deliver products to its client base. The main departments affected in the staffing plan are Manufacturing, Operations, and Customer Service. Analysis of labor supply and demand found corporate changes will be needed, which include, but not limited to, creating new positions, upsizing production staff and offering internal promotions to the current staff. These changes are necessary for SMC to meet the current demand and prepare for future growth.
Upon evaluating the workforce utilization of the exiting labor force, SMC HR found the company does not comply with affirmative action requirements. SMC HR will set goals and timelines for meeting compliance and bring the company out from underutilization. HR will use employment agencies that provide a diverse employee pool in which to choice their talent. The current need for upsizing will be an opportunity to hire from a broader labor pool and bring in more diversity; this will assist in growing a healthy company. SMC HR determined in order to make the current demand successful the Manufacturing Department will require two full time supervisors, one for the day shift and one for the evening shift, along with six Team Leaders. Customer Service will require an additional two employees to help field calls due to the increase in customer base. With new leadership and approximately 30 new line employees, the company’s employee appearance will change dramatically. The Manufacturing Department will require the creation of further Team Leader positions. The Team Leaders will handle training the temporary production workers, setting schedules to assure production goals and deliverables are on schedule. The ratio of Team Leader to line worker will be 15 to 1. Two Supervisors will now lead manufacturing to support the increase in employees. These changes will position the company for future expansion over the next year, which the HR forecast predicts.
Another change the HR department is initating is for the first time in company history, employees will be cross trained in multiple work centers in the plant. The changes will increase the company’s recourses and make SMC prepared for unexpected situations which may arise that affect deadlines. In addition, these changes give the existing SMC staff an opportunity for advancement and job growth. Promoting from within makes the company a more desirable place to work and the company will most likely retain its experienced employees. Offering job advancement saves the company time and money; both commodities the company cannot afford to lose with the current expansion. This overhaul in organizational structure also builds morale with the current staff and makes them more willing to train and work with the new employees.
Hiring temporary staff will be an important piece in the HR plan. Since hiring new employees is timely and expensive, it will benefit the company to pull from a temporary pool. After an evaluation of the temporary staff’s job performance, the top performers will position themselves for permanent positions with SMC. The temporary pool will be a good resource to pull skillful talent into the company after they have worked for 90 days as contract employees. The plan will evaluate trends that will continue in the future and accordingly hire permanent employees in the short term.
Upon forecasting the demand for labor through trend analysis, the company can meet the increase in production goals by offering overtime to current employees. Overtime will reduce the number of new hires and training time. Historically the current staff has shown great interest in overtime pay and performed exceptionally well. Leading indicators also predict the company will need to increase current staff by 50% in all departments over the next year to accommodate future growth. Determining labor supply reflects the current labor force. Since the company has minimal turnover and does not anticipate downsizing. With the necessary leadership in place, the company will reach the goals and not lose quality or customer service.
At SMC, the increase in demand for our ergonomic office equipment requires management to come up with an employee recruitment strategy that focuses on quickly providing qualified staffing solutions. The SMC’s human resources (HR) consultant, who collaborates with the management staff, will follow a formal employment process that provides procedures for posting, advertising, interviewing, selecting, hiring and orienting the new employee. The HR consultant’s role in recruitment is crucial because the individual serves as a strategic business partner to senior management. HR also provides guidance in determining the most effective and efficient recruitment and retention strategies, as well as other facets of personnel-related matters.
Because of SMC’s diversity challenges, HR will focus on attracting a more diverse work force for the upcoming staffing build up. The types of positions for which SMC will focus for this recruitment are in the areas of customer service, operations, and manufacturing. Although the minimum education requirement for each position is a high school diploma or a graduation equivalency diploma, HR will attempt to target applicants who have minimal technology experience for the customer service and operations positions. Customer service and operation will make up a small percentage of new employees while the manufacturing department demands a higher number of employees because its primary function is a direct correlation of product output. SMC’s HR department will consider all pertinent facts while staffing for this increase in demand.
SMC’s employment advertising sources and budget will rely on several variables. Position level, work requirements, and current job market issues such as the employment rate for the identified positions, and local or regional industry standards for pay and compensations for comparable positions are examples of these variables. SMC’s HR department will consider these and many other issues while determining salary and wages for each new position. When recruiting externally, SMC will rely mostly on traditional means of advertising job opportunities by utilizing the local newspapers classified ads section and temporary staffing solutions to fill the manufacturing positions. SMC will also target the staffing agencies that have a high minority population as it seeks to diversify its staff. For customer service and operations, SMC will use a technological approach by recruiting on job posting web sites to attract employees who are a bit more technology focused. Electronic recruiting is a method identified by Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright (2004). SMC will also conduct a series of job fairs to get a quick start on recruiting. Local television and radio stations will serve as the source for notifying the public about the job fair’s dates and times. Using radio stations that cater to minority communities is another way SMC focuses on improving its workforce diversity.
For internal recruiting, employees are encouraged to utilize the internal job posting procedure to pursue further career advancement and career change opportunities within SMC. SMC’s HR will post new job openings daily on the company’s intranet site and on the job posting board located just outside the HR office. The postings on the intranet site are a cost effective tool to help with the increase in demand for staffing. Qualified applicants are subject to internal review of employee records before conducting formal interviews. Internal applicants that receive poor performance evaluations and have a negative employee history do not qualify for interview status.
In conclusion, SMC will increase the demand of output needs by 100%. SMC will implement an organizational restructuring in order to meet the increase in customer demand. The following departments manufacturing, operations, and customer service will be restructured to benefit SMC’s employee efficiency and effectiveness. SMC will increase staff by 50% in all departments over the next year to accommodate future growth. SMC staffing plan will accommodate the necessary staff for the needed departments by implementing an organization chart for each department. The Staffing plan will consist of cross-training, hiring second shift manager, and reorganizing employees to team leads for leadership. The Staffing plan will create opportunities for consciousness employees to grow within the organization. SMC will announce the need for new hires through the company’s Intranet, Temp Agency, Radio Station, Newspaper and Job Fairs as recruiting strategies. SMC recruitment strategies will focus on diverse work-force group and applicants that have technical background for the manufacturing department.