In hiring new employees for an organization like Cisco, management must be careful to emphasize not just hiring workers, but hiring the right workers. For Cisco, appropriate human resources are those people who will make valuable contributions to the attainment of the company’s organizational objectives. In hiring engineers, managers, salespeople, and administrative assistants, for example, management should hire only those people who will best help the organization become successful. In finding the appropriate human resources, management at Cisco has to follow four basic steps: (1) recruitment, (2) selection, (3) training, and (4) performance appraisal.

Basically, recruitment would entail the initial screening of individuals available to fill open positions at Cisco. For recruitment efforts to be successful, recruiters have to know the jobs they are trying to fill, where potential human resources can be located, and how the law influences recruiting efforts.

Recruiters could acquire an understanding of open positions at a company such as Cisco by performing a job analysis. This job analysis would force them to determine the job description of each open position—the activities of an engineer, programmer, or salesperson, for example—and the job specification of the position, including the type of individual who should be hired to fill that position. A successful recruitment effort at Cisco would also require recruiters to know where to find the available human resources to fill open positions at Cisco. These sources may be found both within Cisco and outside it.

To ensure that Cisco maintains its position as one of the best technology companies in the world, management must plan for obtaining the needed appropriate human resources along with the other needed resources such as equipment and real estate. To do this, management must keep current on the possibilities of filling positions from within by maintaining some type of human resource inventory. This inventory can help management coordinate information about the organizational histories and potentials of various Cisco employees as well as the relative abilities of various Cisco employees to fill the necessary openings. Some of the sources of potential human resources outside Cisco that management should be aware of are competitors’ current employees, public and private employment agencies, the readership of industry-related publications, and various types of educational institutions. As mentioned in the case, Cisco went to great lengths to attract employees from 3Com, one of its main competitors.

Cisco management must also be aware of how the law influences its recruitment efforts. Basically, the law says that Cisco’s recruitment practices cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. If recruitment practices at Cisco were found to be discriminatory, the company would be subject to prosecution by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

After the initial screenings of potential human resources, Cisco will be faced with the task of selecting the individuals from those who have been screened to be hired. Two tools that Cisco could use to help in this selection process are testing and assessment centers.

For example, after screening potential employees for positions at Cisco, management could use aptitude tests, achievement tests, vocational interest tests, or personality tests to see whether any of the screened individuals have the qualities necessary to fill a specific job opening. In using these tests, however, management must make sure that the tests are both valid and reliable, that they are not the sole basis on which a selection decision is made, and that they are nondiscriminatory.

Cisco can also use assessment centers to simulate the tasks necessary to succeed at the jobs that need to be done. Individuals who perform well on these tasks will probably be more appropriate for the positions than those who perform poorly. The use of assessment centers might be particularly appropriate for evaluating applicants for sales positions. Simulating this job would probably give management an excellent idea of how prospective salespeople would actually interact with customers during sales presentations.

After hiring, Cisco must train the new employees—including those who simply transferred to new positions within the company—to be productive organization members. To conduct effective training, Cisco must determine training needs, design a corresponding training program, and administer and evaluate the training program.

Designing a training program requires Cisco to assemble facts and activities that address specific company training needs. These needs include information or skill areas that must be developed in Cisco employees to make them productive. After training needs at Cisco have been determined and programs have been designed to meet those needs, the programs must be administered. Administering training programs at Cisco might involve the lecture technique as well as the programmed learning technique to transmit the necessary information to trainees. To actually develop skills in trainees, Cisco could use on-the-job training methods such as coaching, position rotation, or special project committees. To develop skills in a classroom setting, Cisco could use instructional techniques such as role-playing activities. For example, salespeople could be asked to deal with customers who have various needs and budgets. These situations then could be analyzed from the viewpoint of how to improve salespeople–customer relationships.

Once a Cisco training program has been completed, it must be evaluated to determine whether it met the training need for which it was designed. Training programs aimed at teaching specific skills such as computer programming would be much easier to evaluate than training programs aimed at teaching interpersonal skills such as developing customer relations. Of course, the evaluation of any training program at Cisco should emphasize how to improve the program the next time it is implemented.

As mentioned in the case, Cisco historically has used acquisitions to gain new employees. In these situations, management should try to learn as much as possible about the training programs employees went through at the acquired companies. Knowing the strengths and weakness of training programs at the other companies would help management at Cisco understand what further training, if any, these employees need to work effectively.

The last step of acquiring appropriate human resources at Cisco is performance appraisal, in which the contributions that Cisco employees make toward the attainment of management system objectives are evaluated. Because of Cisco’s rapid expansion, employees will have various levels of experience at Cisco. As such, the performance appraisal process at Cisco should focus on new as well as established employees.

It would be difficult to imagine a Cisco employee who would not benefit from a properly conducted performance appraisal. Such an appraisal would focus on activities on the job and the employee’s effectiveness in accomplishing job objectives. Objective appraisals would provide Cisco employees with tactful, constructive criticism that should help them increase their productivity. Handled properly, Cisco’s appraisals would not be rewards or punishments in themselves but rather opportunities to increase employees’ value to the company. Objective analysis of performance in a company such as Cisco should help employees become more productive over time rather than function without guidance and perhaps proceed to the inevitable outcome of being fired. Overall, if these performance appraisal issues, as well as issues related to recruitment, selection, and training, are addressed at Cisco, management should be successful in providing appropriate human resources for the company.