This Guide Covers The SPHR® Exam Content From The Talent Planning And Acquisition Functional Area And Consists Of The Following Responsibilities And Required Knowledge.
RESPONSIBILITIES: 01 Evaluate and forecast organizational needs throughout the business cycle to create or develop workforce plans (for example: corporate restructuring, workforce expansion or reduction) 02 Develop, monitor, and assess recruitment strategies to attract desired talent (for example: labor market analysis, compensation strategies, selection process, onboarding, sourcing and branding strategy) 03 Develop and evaluate strategies for engaging new employees and managing cultural integrations (for example: new employee acculturation, downsizing, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, global expansion)
In Addition To The Preceding Responsibilities, An Individual Taking The PHR® Exam Should Have Working Knowledge Of The Following Areas, Usually Derived Through Practical Experience: - Planning techniques (for example: succession planning, forecasting) - Talent management practices and techniques (for example: selecting and assessing employees) - Recruitment sources and strategies - Staffing alternatives (for example: outsourcing, temporary employment) - Interviewing and selection techniques and strategies - Impact of total rewards on recruitment and retention - Termination approaches and strategies - Employee engagement strategies - Employer marketing and branding techniques - Negotiation skills and techniques - Due diligence processes (for example: mergers and acquisitions, divestitures) - Transition techniques for corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, offshoring, and divestitures - Methods to assess past and future staffing effectiveness (for example: cost per hire, selection ratios, adverse impact)
This guide reviews the critical functions of talent planning and acquisition. This functional area covers 16 percent of the SPHR® exam. Many of the responsibilities and tasks associated here are most closely related to the strategic duties of senior HR professionals in forecasting the talent needs of the organization and developing methods of attracting and engaging new talent. This guide reviews planning techniques, talent management practices, and employee engagement strategies. This functional area covers recruiting, selection, and retention strategies to attract desired employees and the processes, procedures, and rules that govern the associated tasks. It also reviews the process of successfully assimilating a new employee into the culture of the company. Required Knowledge In current HR practice, strategic talent management is still retained within the company. While the organization may outsource recruiting functions and have technology to support the acquisition process, it still requires an integrated strategic plan to maximize the human capital potential. This function is very much a core competency of a business model, though many organizations may, at least in part, overlook the responsibilities that are time-consuming and require specific knowledge. The required knowledge for a senior HR professional in the area of talent planning and acquisition will help an organization to forecast needs and strategically build a strong team of employees even if some of the tasks are conducted outside the company. Knowing how these functions work will develop depth within the HR team. Planning Senior HR professionals must know how to plan and forecast the talent needs for the future of the company. Knowledge of talent management practices and recruitment sources will support efforts to put the right individual in the right job and ensure that person is motivated to meet the goals and objectives of the organization. When practical, the use of staffing alternatives can benefit the company, and therefore senior HR professionals should understand the pros and cons of such alternatives that are available. Planning Techniques: Succession Planning and Forecasting Succession planning is not identifying a single person to take someone’s job in the future when the individual leaves or retires. It is a comprehensive career development model that determines the required knowledge, skills, and abilities for a position and then plans how employees within the organization can learn and develop them through education, training, and experience. Ideally, the goal is to have a bench of potential successors to key jobs in the organization. It also means, as a corollary, that the organization identifies the key jobs in the company that either are low density and hard to fill or perform tasks deemed critical to the organization’s core competencies. Through this technique there is a deliberate process to identify and groom quality employees with leadership potential. There is a risk, however, as there is no guarantee that these employees will remain in the organization or that anticipated openings will emerge when expected to allow timely promotions. Forecasting looks at the demographics of the organization and determines things such as years remaining before retirement eligibility and turnover rates to project losses to the company. It uses skill inventories and surveys to determine the available talent to meet company talent demands. It then compares the available talent pool, examining graduation rates, market salary studies, skills, and geographic limitations for jobs. A geographic limitation might be something like the availability of affordable housing in the area for the workforce. This would impact a company’s ability to hire employees, especially from outside the area needing to relocate. Selecting and Assessing Employees Techniques are available to conduct internal assessments of the current workforce in an organization and the available labor pool from which to draw talent. Some of the techniques are as follows: - Skills testing - Skills inventory - Workforce demographic analysis
The skills testing and inventory are the parts of career development modeling that look at job positions and requirements in an organization and then systematically identify where the gaps are. In this gap analysis, the HR team may conduct assessments to quantify the skill level and knowledge and abilities of the talent. The goal is to determine the proficiency of the individuals with the skills and whether the skill is readily available. Beyond testing, the HR team must take an inventory of the required and available skills to perform the tasks needed to accomplish the organizational mission. Sometimes these are technical skills; at other times they are soft skills.
In some highly technical jobs in the United States, the skills inventory exists within an aging population. A workforce demographic analysis looks at the region and the available talent pool from which to draw the needed skills. This could include the number of people with college or technical education, years of experience, age of the workforce, and other statistics that can enable HR professionals to plan and understand how a talent pipeline is influenced by the available population. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a website at www.bls.gov that consolidates and presents workforce data that can be used in this kind of analysis.
This figure shows an overview of available wage data from the website. FIGURE: Bureau of Labor Statistics website Recruitment Sources and Strategy It is important that HR members responsible for talent planning know the available sources of talent and how to attract candidates. In many industries with highly skilled workers, there are limited pipelines, and companies will compete for a finite pool of applicants. Talent may come from the organization itself, which can be developed through formal and informal training development opportunities. These are known as internal candidates or sources.
External sources come from job fairs, college or campus recruiting, and online or web-based sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, or Monster.com. The company may also have a website that has a careers page to solicit and attract applications for available jobs. Social media sites are rapidly expanding to enter the job search market, allowing both employees and employers to match skills and needs. In some cases, where talent pools are limited, a company establishes cooperative training partnerships to develop a talent pipeline with the help of trade or technical schools to present apprentice or internship opportunities. Active candidates are those currently looking for work. They may be unemployed or underemployed currently or about to finish school, or they may be currently employed but dissatisfied with their current work opportunity and looking for something else. In each case, the employee has taken the initiative to seek a new job and become available for the recruiter. Passive candidates may not be totally dissatisfied with their current opportunities, but they are likely unaware of potential offers and what is available. They are not “looking,” but if the right opportunity presents itself, they now would consider a change in employment. As much as 70 percent of the available workforce is passively looking for employment. This number increases as the economy improves and the potential for finding a job increases; this phenomenon can be measured by looking at overall voluntary terminations or quit ratios, which increase with the perception that there are jobs and employers looking to hire. HR may use databases or other means of direct marketing to attract passive candidates to generate leads and turn those leads into applicants for positions. Companies can use total rewards and intangible qualities such as culture and work-life balance to persuade candidates to leave their current employment for opportunities in the new company. Conversely, this same approach is being taken by others to lure talent away from your organization, so senior HR professionals must be aware of which employees are potential passive candidates and seek to retain quality talent essential to success. Consider people with experience in the three- to five-year range, those not afforded opportunities for upward mobility, and those below market value in compensation.
Global Workforce Planning and Employment Senior HR professionals are responsible for knowing aspects of global workforce planning. For companies that operate overseas, hiring third-country nationals (those who are not U.S. citizens or are citizens of the host nation) and being aware of laws governing employment abroad are important. While the Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) certification is beyond the scope of this guide, those preparing for the SPHR® must have a general understanding of the requirements and planning priorities for a global workforce. Real World Situation: Cruise Line Industry Some of the challenges of having a diverse workforce among the crew representing multiple nations are: Coordinating payroll, taxes, emergency notifications, and other basic HR tasks were much more complex. One specific point she mentioned was that the cruise line would ensure that an Australian citizen could not be permitted to work aboard the ships that were registered to that country. They could work for the company but aboard a different ship’s registry because the citizen and the company would immediately be subject to the nation’s employment laws as citizens and not as foreign nationals, creating an undue administrative burden to both parties. Staffing Alternatives Staffing alternatives are means to employ a workforce that may not be organic to the company. There are various techniques and resources that an organization can use to manage these available sources of talent. HR must assess alternatives and determine viability. Companies can choose to hire a talent management firm to provide temporary workers or temp-to-permanent hires in which an outside source is completely responsible for the recruiting, selecting, hiring, and sometimes training before the employee works for the company. In the case of staffing firms, even the management of payroll and benefits is handled externally for a fee usually calculated as a premium on the salary wage. Outsourcing is where the entire function is performed by a separate company, eliminating the need for the talent or skills within the company. This is a good technique when the tasks are not the core competencies of the company. Job sharing is where two part-time employees can fill one full-time–equivalent position, reducing cost by reducing eligibility for full-time benefits. In some cases, this benefits employees that need more flexibility in their schedule or are not available for full-time work. Another staffing technique for longtime workers of the company is a phased retirement. In these circumstances, a senior worker transitions over a predetermined time (usually a year) and goes from a full-time worker to a part-time worker but maintains eligibility for benefits or is provided with an incentive. This allows upward movement in the company for highly qualified workers while providing business continuity, stability, and predictability for workers transitioning to retirement. Selection and Retention Planning for talent acquisition is the foundation, but senior HR professionals must be knowledgeable about selection techniques and good retention practices that keep employees engaged. In some sense, good selection practices are not just about hiring for the opening right in front of you but considering the growth, potential, and expansion for future opportunities within the company. The methods and best practices for motivating and keeping employees engaged are critical knowledge points. Interview Techniques One of the most important parts of the selection and hiring process is the interview. Ultimately, interacting with the candidate and understanding firsthand the qualities, knowledge, skills, abilities, and other attributes the individual is capable of bringing to the organization is a critical step. We too often bring our own lenses formed with the bias of experience into the process, so it is essential that senior HR professionals understand the limitations and restrictions that accompany this process and be able to train hiring managers and company executives to understand their own biases to improve the hiring quality and retention of applicants.
Behavioral Interviews These types of interviews are common in the workforce today and are intended to give insight into how an applicant might handle a hypothetical situation that may occur by linking past actions or results to the future job. These questions may be structured in the manner “Give me an example of a time when . . . ,” and the fill-in-the-blank would be related to the context of the new job, such as “had to deal with a difficult decision” or “made a mistake on the job” or “implemented a new program that employees needed help to understand.” While behavioral questions are popular, they have some challenges. First, most prepared applicants will have studied the types of behavior questions that will be asked and have prepared answers. These answers may or may not provide any more insight into the candidate’s abilities. And because the questions are derived from a previous experience or hypothetical situation, they may not have relevance to the future position, and the employee may end up acting differently in that context. Situational Interview A situational interview is similar to the behavioral interview but does not look at past experience or actions; instead, it places the applicant in a scenario and asks them to describe the actions they might take if such an event were to occur. This allows the interviewer to perhaps set the stage for the conditions that the applicant might face in the job and how that individual might go about responding to the situation. The shortcoming of this process is that the answer may be dependent on how well the scenario is described, and what facts are provided may affect the outcome of a decision. For example, if the situation called for handling a difficult employee who is being aggressive with co-workers, the applicant might respond with an answer to verbally reprimand the worker or choose some other disciplinary action. However, the situation changes if, in the situational example of handling this employee, other facts come to light, such as a lack of training, development, or involvement by the supervisor, that have contributed to such employee actions. Group Interview A group interview takes advantage of the multiple perspectives of different individuals evaluating the candidate at the same time. There are two types, panel and team interviews. In a team approach, all the members of the group are from the same work team and could be peers, subordinates, and supervisors. This is necessary because the team so heavily relies on cooperation among the group that input is needed from all levels. At the panel interview, there may be a representative group that comes from different departments in the organization. Each panel member may represent the areas that the position works with or may provide the subject-matter expert who can assess different competencies. While group interviews allow everyone to get an understanding of the applicant, depending on the group size, the amount of time allotted might be split among the group members, limiting the amount of information that can be determined by any one individual in depth. The larger the panel, the more uncomfortable an applicant may be in answering questions. Finally, it is important to have a diverse panel if the intent is to gain more perspectives. Panels that are composed of all one gender, race, or ethnic group might inadvertently have bias toward some candidates. Real World Situation:Using a Personality Assessment with a New Executive Hire The Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey When interviewing for an executive position, a company chose to conduct an assessment using this survey, first developed in 1948, to measure personality across 10 scales. The purpose of this test was developmental in nature and to gauge how compatible the candidates might be with the other executives who had taken the test and were aware of their results currently employed by the company. The results were shared with the candidates by an individual trained in the interpretation of the results and used as part of a larger series of personal interviews and reference checks to get a broad interpretation of the qualifications from both a technical and cultural fit. The Impact of Total Rewards on Recruitment and Retention Hiring and maintaining a quality workforce requires an effective pay strategy that considers the total rewards for the employee. While pay is often the strongest motivator, it is not the only reason employees seek employment nor is it the only reason employees stay with an organization. A diverse workforce will have diverse motivations for working in a job. Negotiation Skills and Techniques HR professionals must be proficient in negotiation strategy and techniques to find a balance between the needs of the company in terms of costs of human capital and the need of the employee to feel they are treated fairly and respected for the talent they bring to the organization. When discussing salary and other negotiable elements of compensation, HR must know how to communicate effectively to determine the needs of the future hire and make an acceptable offer that meets the needs. As part of the interview process, HR should establish a range and may through the process ask if an applicant would be willing to accept an offer in that range. The salary range helps applicants know whether the organization can meet their needs early in the interview stages so the company does not waste time trying to hire an individual whose needs are above what the company can pay. Termination Approaches and Strategies At some point an active employee/employer relationship ends. The manner in which that relationship ends is dependent on the two parties involved and the circumstance. The term commonly used is termination, which denotes the official end of the employment relationship, but it may also be referred to as a separation from employment as well. The circumstances can be divided into two general categories, voluntary and involuntary. Senior HR professionals must understand the organizational impact of terminations, including how they affect morale, impact hiring, and relate to company culture. Wrongful Termination The term wrongful termination refers to certain terminations that are not permitted under the law or where courts have determined that such actions taken by the employer resulting in the loss of employment by the employee were improper. The “at-will” doctrine in the United States does allow an employer or employee to terminate their arrangement at any time for any reason. However, such reasons are subject to review if they violate any laws governing the protected classes of people previously discussed. Constructive Discharge This is a situation where the employee quits but only because the employer has made the working conditions so bad that the employee has no other choice. Radically altering the conditions of employment such that an employee feels compelled to resign can be considered constructive discharge. Retaliatory Discharge This situation occurs when the employer terminates an employee when the employee has engaged in some action that is lawful, even if it negatively affects the company. Examples include filing an equal opportunity complaint, participating in a legal investigation of the company as a witness, and taking an approved leave of absence under lawful conditions (such as under the Family and Medical Leave Act).
Voluntary Terminations Voluntary terminations are initiated usually by the employee and are resignations or retirements. A resignation in lieu of being fired may not be considered voluntary under those circumstances. As previously stated, an employee can terminate an employment relationship at any time without cause.
There may be some impact of such a decision, including the following: - Ability to return to employment with the same company (rehire) - Ability to seek employment with a rival company or a company that is in the same field (noncompete) - Ability to obtain unemployment compensation - Forfeiture of certain bonuses or incentives as part of an employment contract clause or separate written agreement
With retirement the employee leaves active service to the company usually to receive some pension or benefit tied to eligibility based on age and/or years of service to the organization. In some cases, the company offers early retirement that has incentives to induce employees to separate from employment if the company is restructuring or needs to reduce its workforce. The individuals have a choice to leave or remain with the company.
Note: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act has provisions that do not classify retirement incentives as discriminatory based on age, provided that such retirements are voluntary and with the full knowledge of the rights of the individuals who are offered the retirement option.
Involuntary Terminations Involuntary terminations are made by the company and usually are for three general reasons: performance, misconduct, or the result of a business necessity. In all cases, it is important to ensure that proper documentation regarding the decision to separate an employee is maintained by the company. This information may provide evidence in lawsuits alleging wrongful termination to be able to justify the decisions and actions taken. In the case of poor performance, management should determine whether the employee was properly trained and aware of the tasks to be performed in the job. This can be demonstrated in providing the qualifications for the job and essential job duties discussed elsewhere in this guide. Supervisors should document the specific deficiencies and corrective actions that the company has taken, such as in a performance improvement plan prior to termination.
Misconduct is another general category that encompasses willful or negligent violations of policy or law. Misconduct does not necessarily mean criminal. There are numerous administrative reasons that an employee can be terminated for such as misconduct including insubordination to management and ethical violations. As with poor performance, documentation is essential to limit a company’s liability exposure. However, some companies have a progressive disciplinary policy where there is a proportionate corrective disciplinary action taken based on the severity of the infraction and the impact on the organization. Generally speaking, involuntary termination for misconduct is for egregious or repeated violations. The third category of involuntary terminations is that of business necessity. Downsizing, organizational restructuring, and the outplacement of services are examples where the company makes a business decision that causes a decrease in the number of workers. A company that downsizes may be in decline or losing revenue and can no longer afford to maintain its current workforce size. As a result, some employees may be laid off to reduce payroll costs. In organizational restructuring, parts of a company may be eliminated or modified, requiring a change to the workforce. Workers who no longer have the necessary skills are separated from employment. Finally, some companies choose to outsource certain functions, as mentioned earlier. That decision means that the employees performing those functions are not required.
In all cases related to involuntary separations, the HR professional must ensure that the company handles the notification to the employee in a consistent and professional manner. The loss of a job is a significant emotional event to an employee, and there are a variety of reactions to this news.
HR professionals must know how to handle outcomes and train managers to be sensitive to the employees who are departing the organization. - Provide sufficient notice in a timely manner, such as in the case of layoffs. - Discuss the circumstances with the employee directly. - Focus on the specific reasons and provide them in writing. - Complete the process quickly. - Review with legal representation the circumstances if a wrongful termination claim is suspected or likely. - Be consistent and follow a checklist. Employee Engagement Strategies A boss once told me that some employees quit and leave the company; some, however, quit and stay. Employee engagement influences retention and also the company culture. Engagement is the key to employees remaining with the organization. Over time, complacency or failure to motivate an employee will drive them to find new opportunities that meet their needs for growth and development. Companies must have comprehensive strategies to invest in their human capital or risk losing them to the market. At the strategic level, senior HR professionals must be familiar with the various ways management can engage their employees. They review policies and practices that are designed to attract talent, motivate and inspire them while employed, and retain them as they grow and develop.
Engagement strategies include the following: - Rewards and recognitions programs for achievement, longevity, continuous improvement, industry success, customer service, and safety - Engagement surveys that are in person (such as interviews) or online (on platforms such as SurveyMonkey or similar vendors) to assess the general climate of the organization or get answers to specific concerns - Pay philosophy, best practices, and management’s treatment of employees to make a lasting impact on the morale and the level of workforce engagement Branding and Marketing A goal of employers should be to differentiate themselves from their competitors as a preferred place to work for employees. As with the products that a company sells or manufactures or the services it provides, the company’s brand should be consistent in the values it represents to employees. This means working conditions, total compensation, benefits, and management reflect how employees are treated by the company and should mirror how the customer is treated. Employees reflect the values of the organization to the customers, so part of the brand is how the employees’ needs are met. The HR team will work with marketing to share the brand identity in all recruiting products and services to ensure that prospective applicants know the benefits of being an employee of the company and will highlight some of the perks that appeal to the talent the company seeks to hire. This joint effort to demonstrate the company’s values through the respect and caring of its workers will bring team members with the right fit from both a technical and cultural aspect. Due Diligence and Assessments At the senior HR level, knowledge of due diligence measures that protect the company from unforeseen risks in talent acquisition or divestiture processes is essential. The strategic understanding evaluates the human capital potential and costs when the company undergoes a transformation in the talent acquisition lifecycle. As a company is created and then expands to meet market demands, there are steps senior HR professionals must know for mergers and acquisitions. As the company changes or wanes, the same is true for divestitures. Due Diligence Processes Each major action in corporate reorganization has items to consider as the process relates to talent planning. Understanding these processes of due diligence will mitigate hazards in these complex corporate deals. TABLE: Due diligence processes
Transition Techniques Senior HR professionals must know transition techniques for corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, offshoring, and divestitures. Each type of corporate transition has a slightly different focus at the strategic level, and senior HR professionals must understand how to plan these changes and the impact to talent.
Corporate Restructuring A company may restructure to meet changes in the market, such as the evolution of technology, environmental factors, or consumer changes. At the senior level, communicating the change to current employees, developing retraining programs, and handling any separations based on changes in job requirements are key knowledge points. Senior HR professionals must be capable of anticipating talent demands and plan to hire individuals where there is a skills gap in the company while also transitioning those individuals who are no longer meeting the needs of the organization.
Mergers and Acquisitions When companies join or one purchases another, there is a series of transitions to integrate the company cultures and assimilate the employees that are retained. HR professionals should know how to rapidly assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities of all the available talent in the merger or acquisition process. They must also know how to identify any overlap or gaps in the talent pool.
Offshoring In large companies, it may be necessary to shed some of the functions of the organization that are not core to the company’s mission. Some of these functions will be performed externally from the company so the organization can focus on its core competencies. Senior HR professionals should already be familiar with the core competencies and plan to move nonvital functions and positions to external resources. At the global level, the HR team evaluates any issues with third-country nationals or geographically driven local support that are created when the company decides to offshore any function of the business. Because offshoring inherently causes a company to give up some control of the function, the HR team should evaluate the impact to the organization.
Divestitures When a company decides to divest itself of elements of the organization that are no longer meeting its needs, senior HR professionals are responsible for the separation of the employees. The HR team must work with any organization that is acquiring the divested element to place affected employees or assist in establishing the organizational structure of a newly formed, independent business element. There are statutory and regulatory requirements for notifications to employees, and strict adherence must be followed to maintain compliance. Methods to Assess Staffing Effectiveness Figure below shows how to calculate a basic cost per hire. By determining how much a company commits in resources to hiring each employee and examining the turnover ratios, HR professionals can determine how effective their recruiting efforts are. The goal should be to bring on board the best talent in the shortest time possible for the lowest cost, while keeping new hires in the company productive beyond the time to recoup the initial investment. FIGURE: Cost-per-hire calculations Another important metric is selection ratios. A quality hire comes from having a good pool of qualified candidates and finding the best fit from among those best qualified. HR should know how to track using a manual process or an automated applicant tracking system (ATS) the number of applicants, the number of minimum qualified applicants, and how many are interviewed to obtain a candidate to present an offer to. This process should also determine the numbers of minority applicants and women to ensure equal opportunity hiring practices and how this correlates to an affirmative action plan. Companies must be aware to prevent adverse impact in hiring because of internal practices that may have biases. Exam Tips: Know selection, retention, and termination strategies. Be familiar with the methods and purposes of selecting, retaining, and terminating talent and the reasons that each is employed based on the life-cycle position of the company. Be aware of the biases that can be present with management based on historical practices or company policies and how to adjust them to meet changing talent demands. Understand how to measure the effectiveness of talent management strategies. Human capital is expensive and should never be wasted. You should understand the direct correlation between employee turnover and lost opportunity or productivity costs. By analyzing the effectiveness of talent management strategies of the company, you will be able to reduce turnover costs and keep a company performing at optimal levels. Responsibilities The SPHR® exam reviews a senior HR professional’s understanding of the basic practices surrounding developing and executing strategies to attract and engage new talent. The key responsibilities cover forecasting organizational needs, developing recruitment strategies, and engaging new employees while overseeing cultural assimilation. The major tasks that senior HR professionals must accomplish are at the strategic and operational levels. Evaluate and Forecast Organizational Needs An important function for senior HR professionals is to evaluate and forecast the talent needs of the organization. Throughout the business cycle, they create or develop workforce plans to meet those needs. At the various stages the needs change, and the HR team must be responsive.
This figure shows the business life cycle and the key responsibilities at each phase. FIGURE: Business life cycle Identify Needs throughout the Business Cycle As with strategic planning, recruiting should have short- and long-term goals that align with the company’s mission, vision, and values. Senior HR professionals must identify the needs of the company and establish requirements for hiring based on where the company is in its business cycle. This might be skills or knowledge needed to develop a product or provide a service in an emerging market, or it might be talent to help the company divest some of its holdings that are no longer profitable as the market changes. Once the company knows what it needs to hire, HR sets goals such as the number of applicants for a position and establishes objectives to help reach the goal—for example, increasing the number of job posting views and hits to the company website careers page and generating the interest that leads to applicants. Recruitment Strategies It is the role of senior HR professionals to develop, monitor, and assess recruitment strategies to attract desired talent. You must conduct labor market analysis to evaluate the availability of talent in the market and then develop compensation strategies to draw the talent to the organization. This should be done as part of an overall branding strategy to align company values with the recruitment process. Once an applicant pool is available, the sourcing, selection process, and eventual onboarding process are all areas that fall in the realm of responsibilities at the senior HR level. Real World Situation: Increasing Social Media Use in Recruiting A company was attempting to increase the talent pool from which applicants for jobs were coming. The HR team began to redesign job postings and place them on social media websites. This reached a different audience that may not have accessed the more traditional venues previously used for posting jobs and might not otherwise have known about hiring opportunities. This also included more applicants from out of the region willing to relocate for jobs with the company. As a result, a more diverse, skilled workforce could be recruited and hired. The company increased the total number of applicants and improved the overall quality of the applicants. Analysis The analysis required for employment planning consists of looking at labor market trends, assessing the skills of the existing workforce, and examining duty descriptions and job functions to determine the criteria for hiring, retaining, and promoting qualified individuals. Labor Market Trends In the United States today there continue to be shortages of highly skilled workers with advanced training in technical fields. At the same time, with an education system focused on higher education as a goal, trade schools and craftspeople are at a premium. This imbalance in the labor market can make finding the right person with the right skills challenging. Senior HR professionals can create reports and extract data from state and federal websites that show how many jobs were in various sectors, the salaries reported, and other demographics. The purpose of these reports is to present a clear understanding of the available talent to fill jobs within the organization. These reports can be used with knowledge about compensation and benefits to establish salary bands and ranges that are competitive and attractive to talent by being at parity or even leading the market in total compensation.
Assess the Skills of the Workforce Talent demands are the needed knowledge, skills, and abilities of an organization to successfully meet its goals and objectives. Talent demands are determined first by examining the required tasks and then by deciding how to best accomplish those tasks. HR might complete a skills inventory through analysis of job requirements. When preparing and reviewing job postings, senior HR professionals must identify the minimum required skills for the position and any preferred skills to distinguish top-tier candidates who are best qualified. In the case of internal talent pools, HR may use performance evaluations and recommendations of supervisors and senior managers in the organization to assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the workforce. Workplace assessments such as department exams or field tests are also possible methods. Personnel records or databases may also contain information on training courses, education, or additional skills such as language abilities that can be compiled and analyzed. Third-party vendors such as recruiting firms or web services can be a repository for hundreds or thousands of prospective applicants’ résumés. Usually for a fee for services or other agreement, companies may access these vast databases and search engines to find qualified matches that can then be targeted for recruitment through messaging directly or contacted through the vendor. In the case of recruiting agencies, their purpose is to conduct the initial search and assess the available talent pools with dedicated assets, saving time and resources for the hiring organization. HR serves as the point of contact for the external sources and communicates the needs of the company as determined by the hiring authority. Compensation Strategies Senior HR professionals have an important part at the executive level in developing compensation strategies. While many will look to a pay scale or dollar amount as the defining characteristic of a compensation strategy, it really begins with a pay philosophy.
Developing a Pay Philosophy The executive leaders of the organization must establish a pay philosophy for the company. How does the compensation and benefits offered by the organization support the mission and vision of the company by attracting and keeping the right talent? Are the values of the company reflected in this philosophy? When there are deliberate actions taken to develop the organizational compensation structure, it is a much more cohesive strategy. However, the intent is not to be restrictive or remove all flexibility or the company loses its ability to respond to market changes. For example, some positions may have a range of salary but more is offered to a new hire in an emerging market because of the limited availability of talent in that area. This is not a departure from the pay structure but a response to the market reality.
Lead, Match, and Lag Senior HR professionals may recommend setting pay rates that lead, match, or lag the prevailing market to complement the company’s pay philosophy. While some may think that it is imperative that a company always lead the market on pay. This Table shows that there may be more to examine depending on the situation. TABLE: Compensation strategies
Sourcing, Selection, and Onboarding Senior HR professionals are responsible for sourcing the talent of the organization. Sometimes this may be developing raw talent that may come from schools as entry-level hires, while other choices involve using external staffing agencies that use their resources to match candidates to requirements developed by the company. The HR team provides minimum and preferred qualifications for these job openings. Maintaining a steady talent pipeline is a required duty. The successful integration of recruiting sources, marketing, and the development of job requirements highlights a primary responsibility in this functional area. The selection of qualified candidates is usually at the discretion of the hiring manager or supervisor. However, senior HR professionals establish selection procedures that should be followed to be compliant with laws and regulations governing hiring. They establish policies for the company to qualify and validate candidates. Senior HR professionals may be required to contract for background and screening services as part of the interview and selection process as well. Onboarding is not just the first-day activities that are associated with HR. A successful onboarding includes integrating the employee into the culture of the company and ensuring that they are fully capable to perform their assigned duties. Senior-level HR practitioners usually do not conduct the day-to-day hiring processes but must be proficient enough in the details to monitor and synchronize. If there are multiple areas of a company each with HR support, at the senior level the HR director or manager will supervise the processes and ensure consistency among HR business partners or generalists who are performing the onboarding tasks. They may also provide status updates to organizational leadership about recruiting metrics and recommend any necessary changes to procedures. Onboarding may include initial training and assessment that the employee is trained and qualified to perform all assigned duties with the job. They must fully embrace the culture and values of the company. The more focus a company places on making an employee feel like a valued member of the team in the early stages of employment, the more likely the employee is to remain in the organization. Branding Strategy A company branding strategy includes determining how potential recruits and applicants view the brand and how that may support talent acquisition efforts for the company. A digital presence and the ability for applicants to apply to the company online can impact recruiting efforts as well. Senior HR professionals may work with the marketing team to have gift items and displays for hiring or job fairs and other community engagement opportunities. Company uniforms or attire for both on- and off-duty wear by employees “sell” the brand through awareness and visibility. Company sponsorships may also be part of the branding strategy. Senior HR professionals must work with the finance department to develop budgets for items specific to the branding of the organization. Of course, one of the strongest brand representations is the employees themselves and the word of mouth on their job satisfaction. The company’s reputation will be a strong indicator of the brand’s value and how it can support talent management. The company needs to invest in its human capital to get a return in terms of engagement and long-term branding strategy. Strategies for Engagement and Cultural Integration Senior HR professionals are responsible for developing and evaluating strategies for engaging new employees and for managing their cultural integration into the company and throughout the various phases of a company’s life cycle. Among the areas that this covers are new employee acculturation and periods of downsizing, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and global expansions. New Employee Acculturation The faster an employee is accepted and integrated into the organization, the more their loyalty will be engendered, and the more likely they will remain committed to the company. Senior HR professionals are responsible for building programs and procedures around new employee acculturation. The Disney Company has a strong process in this regard. Its “Disney University” is designed to acclimate new employees to Disney’s vision, values, and culture. The first “course” in this school is “Traditions” and is for every employee to learn the history of the Disney brand and why they do what they do. The United States military, which prides itself as being a professional and competent military force, has a basic training process that is as much about the acculturation of the service member and learning the ethos and value system as about military combat training. Even after the training phase, units receiving new members have a dedicated process to integrate them into the team and esprit de corps.
Here are some key points for successful acculturation: - Develop a history of the company that is communicated to each new employee. - Discuss the mission, vision, and values of the company. - Assign veteran employees to work with new hires to exemplify the work ethic and behaviors desired of employees. - Include the employee’s family as part of the welcome process when possible as part of the work-life balance. - Design the process to be completed over time with specific events that reinforce the culture instead of a onetime event early in the onboarding. Engagement Strategies and Practices Senior HR professionals are responsible for the development and implementation of engagement strategies and practices that motivate and drive the talent of the organization to perform tasks and exhibit behaviors that facilitate the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the company. These practices must align with the company’s values, and senior HR professionals are responsible for communicating these practices to managers and employees throughout the organization. Rewards and recognition programs, engagement surveys, and basic company practices are some of the strategies senior HR professionals may explore.
Rewards and Recognition Programs Senior HR professionals help design and implement rewards and recognition programs to positively reinforce employee behaviors that emulate the company’s values. When implemented correctly, they will encourage employees to stay in the organization. The rewards can be large or small but should demonstrate how the employer values the contribution made by the employee. For example, if an employee’s action saves the company thousands of dollars, providing a $5 gift card to a coffee shop doesn’t say that the employee’s actions are highly valued. Training and opportunities to grow and develop skills are also a means of recognizing the achievement and potential of employees. The employer should dedicate resources to helping manage the talent so that there is a pool of available individuals who can be moved into leadership or supervisory roles and who are capable of performing those tasks and responsibilities successfully.
Engagement Surveys Another effective retention tool is the stay interview. This technique allows supervisors or the HR team to engage employees and determine what needs are being met and which ones are not and helps understand the motivations of employees. Surveys, needs assessments, and one-on-one interviews will help senior HR professionals and supervisors understand clearly why employees want to stay in an organization. While not all employee needs can be met by an organization, the idea is to see where the company can invest resources to improve the chances that an employee will choose to remain loyal to the organization instead of deciding to transition.
Note: Websites such as Glassdoor.com allow employees to anonymously rate their companies in a variety of areas including salary, climate, benefits, and the effectiveness of company leadership. Companies can effectively use this tool as feedback for the engagement of the employees, and senior HR professionals can make recommendations to adjust policies or practices that may have the effect of disengaging employees at work.
Basic Company Practices Employees stay with organizations where values align. An employee has a reasonable expectation that they will be treated fairly, provided a fair wage, have effective leadership with clear goals and vision, be trained sufficiently to perform their job duties well, and have the time, equipment, money, and people required to complete the expected tasks. If these basic needs are met, the employee has no need to seek elsewhere. It is only when there is a large enough imbalance that retention becomes an issue because the fear of the unknown and seeking other employment options is outweighed by the perceived lack of support within the organization.
Engagement during Transitions In organizations that are experiencing changes, a large responsibility of senior HR professionals is to develop communication practices that are as transparent as possible and engage employees who are affected by transitions. When a company downsizes or restructures, there may be anxiety and fear among employees about layoffs or other changes that would be significant to morale. There are often questions, unfamiliar processes, and decisions that are made that must be communicated.
When a company is involved in a merger or acquisition, the same concerns exist with employees who might now have to compete for positions with new workers added or learn new competencies; this could be difficult for some employees who have not kept pace with skills development in an emerging market. In general, employees will lose stability, and senior HR professionals must examine the expected changes and identify key employees and managers who can help with the transition or may need support. Managing the impact on employees requires a high degree of emotional intelligence. Communicating and being honest assures the employees of the intent of the organization and respects the concerns they may have. While ultimately a business decision must be reached on the merits of the business needs, being attuned to the attitudes of the workers will help keep them engaged in the process of change. Exam Tips: Know the various engagement strategies available to HR. An organization can use several methods to engage people to achieve the company’s mission. You should understand the different means and the pros and cons they present. Especially important is to review the organizational culture and choose options that have a direct impact on business decisions using methods that are available to the organization. Also important is to know the timelines associated with each choice because some engagement strategies can take time to mature and develop. Understand data and statistical analysis. Know how to extract information from tables on demographics, pay, numbers of jobs available, and how that information is relevant to where and how to recruit talent. Using data helps evaluate and forecast organizational needs. Summary Finding the right people at the right time and with the right knowledge, skills, and attributes is an ongoing challenge for any organization looking to maximize its human capital potential. Talent planning is an essential skill that senior HR professionals must possess. The added complexity of understanding the business life cycle and the demands on talent at each phase mandates the need to hire a diverse workgroup capable of meeting the needs of the company. Companies must select and retain the desired talent through a variety of strategies and successfully integrate new hires into the company culture. By using effective tools and resources, along with external partners, HR teams can become effective in delivering the necessary talent that meets the needs of the company to perform its mission. Tip: Look at a company’s website and their careers or employment page. Review the job application process and recall the steps to hire that you went through to get your current position. Review any checklists or onboarding packets that new employees are required to complete during the hiring process. Pay close attention to the mandatory disclosure statements about equal opportunity or other antidiscrimination hiring practices and policies.
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