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PART III Staffing

CHAPTER 5 Recruiting and Selecting Employees

CHALLENGES

After reading this chapter, you should be able to deal more effectively with the following challenges:

1 Understand human resource supply and demand.
2 Have familiarity with the hiring process.
3 Recognize challenges in the hiring process.
4 Learn practices for meeting the challenge of effective staffing.
5 Know the tools of selection.
6 Develop awareness of legal issues in staffing.

The Espresso Hut had quickly found success as a coffee shop. The shop catered to coffee lovers and offered fresh-press coffee. The Hut had been able to attract baristas who not only had great knowledge of their coffee products but also provided customers outstanding service. Many customers became regulars, and the Espresso Hut was positioned to expand the business. An assistant store manager was a new position for the Hut, but the additional help was clearly needed.

The store manager, Emily, posted an online ad for an assistant manager. She also put an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper. Emily was contacted by a number of interested candidates. One candidate, Anthony, had never been a barista but had worked in the industry as a repair person for espresso and other equipment commonly found in coffee shops. Anthony clearly had understanding of the industry, and his repair skills could be a useful benefit to have in the store. Anthony had also taken some business courses at a community college. He didn’t complete a degree, but the business courses were a plus. Although Anthony didn’t have the experience of being a barista, Emily was confident that Anthony could quickly learn the ropes and be an effective store manager. His knowledge of the industry and his exposure to business concepts could be the assets that would lift the performance of the Espresso Hut to a new level.

Source:iofoto/Shutterstock.

Emily’s hopes for Anthony as an assistant store manager proved to be overly optimistic. A number of baristas were making complaints to Emily about Anthony’s lack of understanding of how the coffee shop worked. Anthony had expressed frustration with how the baristas prepared drinks and processed customers, but the baristas felt that his questioning was annoying and misplaced, particularly because he had never done their jobs. Anthony had also missed ordering needed supplies, and many customers had to be told that they couldn’t have their favorite drink for a couple of days. Perhaps the worst for Emily was having a long-term customer share with her that she didn’t feel that Anthony treated her well as a customer and just didn’t seem to have a customer orientation.

The workers, and apparently even the customers, were wondering why Anthony had been brought in to help manage the shop. Anthony was also unhappy with the situation and was questioning why he had taken on the challenge of managing a group of baristas who would rather manage themselves. For her part, Emily was confronting the reality that her new hire wasn’t working out and was wondering how she hadn’t seen the misfit before she made the job offer.

The Managerial Perspective

Although HR managers may be responsible for designing employee recruitment and selection systems in many firms, all managers need to understand and use these systems. After all, attracting and hiring the right kind and level of talent are critical elements of business effectiveness. Stocking a company with top talent has been described as the single most important job of management.1 The ability to attract and hire effective employees is also a key element of a successful management career. As the Espresso Hut example demonstrates, managers may be in charge of recruiting or have a key role in the process. If they do not attract and hire the right people, managers can hurt the organization.

The focus of this chapter is on understanding and conducting effective recruitment and selection. As you think back to the situation at Espresso Hut, consider these important questions:

▪ Who should make the hiring decision?
▪ What characteristics should a firm look at when deciding whom to hire, and how should those characteristics be measured?
▪ Should managers consider how a potential employee “fits” with the firm’s culture in addition to that employee’s skill level?

▪ In this chapter, we explore how managers plan recruitment efforts effectively by assessing the supply of and demand for human resources. Then we examine the hiring process in detail, the challenges managers face in hiring and promoting, and recommendations for dealing with those challenges. Finally, we evaluate specific methods for making hiring decisions and the legal issues that affect hiring decisions.

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Table of Contents for PART III Staffing

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Table of Contents for
PART III Staffing