Origins.
HRM-type themes, including 'human capital theory' and 'human asset accounting', can be found in the literature from the 1970s. However, the modern view of human resource management first gained prominence in 1981 with its introduction on the prestigious MBA course at Harvard Business School. Simultaneously, other interpretations were being developed in Michigan and New York.
: Sparrow and Hiltrop (1994) picked out four main approaches from this period:
The Michigan and New York Schools: strategic matching theories
The Harvard school: a multiple Stakeholder’s theory
The Warwick School: a political and change process theory
The Schuler School: a behavioural transformation theory
Different interpretations of HRM. - The Harvard interpretation sees employees as resources. However, they are viewed as being fundamentally different from other resources - they cannot be managed in the same way. The stress is on people as human resources.
A harder approach - people as human resources. - A different view is associated with the Michigan Business School. The Michigan model has a harder, less humanistic edge, holding that employees are resources in the same way as any other business resource. They must be:
- obtained as cheaply as possible
- used sparingly
- developed and exploited as much as possible
The Swimming Pool needs to decide which approach to use, or they could make their own strategy, however whatever way is used it must assist in achieving the business goals and objectives.
Adopting HRM.
Human resource management has been presented as a radical alternative to personnel management consisting of exciting, modern ideas which would replace the stale and ineffective prescriptions of personnel management. In fact, the process of transition has been slow.
It is important for the council to have and effective and efficient Human Resources department which will assist in the meeting of the overall aims and objectives of the council and the swimming pool.
THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS
Finding the right person for the job has always been important and ‘the decision to appoint an individual is one of the most crucial an employer will ever take. Mrs Dribble must sure she carries out all policies regarding recruitment and selection so to optimise the swimming pools chances of hiring someone who is best suited to the job. To have a successful and fruitful recruitment and selection process it is advisable Mrs Dribble follows a set of stages when determining who ultimately will get the job.
Before the Swimming Pool starts the process of Recruitment and Selection, Mrs Dribble must first concern herself with all the relevant pieces of legislation which govern the way in which she will be able to hire an employee.
First
The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, this act sets out the law regarding discriminating against someone because they are male or female; under this act this is unlawful.
Mrs Dribble must ensure that this vital piece of law is not contravened in any way during the recruitment and selection process. Although they ask for only males, they have a just reason and will be explained later.
Race Relations Act 1976 (R.R.A)
The R.R.A, which is modelled on the sex discrimination act, outlaws discrimination on racial grounds which it defines as meaning on the grounds of colour, race, nationality or ethic or national origins.
There are several types of discrimination that Mrs Dribble could fall foul of they include:
Direct Discrimination – When an employer treats a person less favourable than another on the grounds of sex, race or martial status
Indirect Discrimination – When an employer has applied requirements or conditions to a job but the ability of some persons to comply because of sex martial status or race is considerably smaller and cannot be justified.
Mrs Dribble must ensure that at all stages of the recruitment and selection process she adheres to all the relevant legislation so that she and the Swimming Pool are protected from any claim of discrimination or unfair treatment, as the consequences for being in breach of these laws are severe it is important Mrs Dribble does not fall foul of any of them.
Here Mrs Dribble must evaluate the job, all processes of the job. She needs to analysis the job, how it’s done and what tasks are involved in the job. She needs to sort out the knowledge, skills and aptitudes needed to do the job. E.g. the applicant needs to be an excellent swimmer and needs to be taught in fist aid, however she must not include something which is totally irrelevant to the job e.g. needs to be a driver. If this is done it leaves the swimming pool open for legal proceedings on discrimination grounds.
- Define the Vacancy ( Stage 2)
The traditional approach involves writing a comprehensive job description of the job to be filled. This enables Mrs Dribble to know exactly what the purpose, duties and the responsibilities of the vacant position will be and its location within the swimming pools organisation structure. It will also give Mrs Dribble a better understanding of the job and this knowledge will be well used later on in the selection process.
- Define the Person ( Stage 3)
Here Mrs Dribble must draw up a person specification based on the job description which identifies the personal characteristics required to perform the job effectively. The two examples most commonly referred to are the seven-point plan (Rodger, 1952) and the five-fold grading system (Muno Fraser,1954).
However in defining the person, the question which was raised in the case study regarding only asking for a male to apply for the job or the specific request for a male worker, needs to be addressed first.
By doing this the swimming pool leaves itself open to unnecessary critism and the possibility of finding itself in contradiction to some of the legislation protecting people in the workplace i.e. the Sex Discrimination Act and the Employment Act of 1989. These pieces of law are in place to help protect people from unjust policies of organisations regarding recruitment and selection etc.
So when the swimming pool decides that only a male can be hired to fill the vacancy they need to have strong evidence to support its claim that only a man can do this job, this is what is known as a Genuine Occupational Qualification (GOQ), where an employer may recruit a particular sex over the other to a job where male sex is a GOQ.
The swimming pool may give reasons of decency or privacy to only hire a man to work in a male changing area, however as part of the job is to be a lifeguard also it is here were the swimming pool may lose its claim, this is illustrate in the case below.
Etam plc v Rowan [1989] EAT, IRLR 150
Mr Rowan applied for a job as sales assistant at the employers' shop in Glasgow selling women's and girl's clothing. He was not considered for the post because of his sex. He complained that he had been unlawfully discriminated against. The employers claimed the GOQ under s7(2)(b) (privacy and decency) because personal contact with customers when they were in a state of undress was an essential part of the job. They claimed that a major part of the job was to work in the fitting rooms and to measure customers uncertain about their size. The IT upheld the complaint.
It noted that there were some 16 employees normally in the shop - all of whom were women - and that they carried out various duties on a rota basis. The tribunal took the view that the case fell within s7(4) and a man would have been able to carry out the bulk of the job of sales assistant and the parts he could not carry out could easily have been done by other sales assistants without causing any inconvenience or difficulty for the employers. The employers' appealed to the Glasgow EAT.
The EAT agreed with the IT that a GOQ did not apply. The IT was entitled to conclude on the evidence that the situation fell within the circumstances envisaged by s7(4) in that a man would have been able adequately to carry out the bulk of the job and such parts as he could not carry out could easily have been done by one of the female assistants without causing any inconvenience or difficulty for the employers. The employers were not being asked to carry out a considerable reorganisation nor were the IT telling the employers how to manage their business. The appeal was dismissed.
However it is important to note that it could be argued that the swimming pool can ask for a particular sex to ensure the privacy and decency of its customers, and to have two people doing one job could be financially hard on the business, the best thing Mrs Dribble could do is to contact the Equal Opportunities Commission and ask there advice on how to handle the situation, they could use the defence that being male is a GOQ for the job, as half the job entailed entering into male changing areas where privacy and decency had to be upheld, this was a necessary part of the job.
So as can be seen it is important not to discriminate on the grounds of sex or to contravene any piece of legislation which governs the policies and practices of the swimming pool.
When recruiting a person Mrs Dribble must ensure she does it fairly and to the benefit of the business. She can do this by following the chart below
Source: Recruitment and Selection, Gareth Roberts
When Mrs Dribble advertises for the post, she will advertise in the local press etc, this is to capture a wide range of the population. Within the advert she will need to explain she only requires males for the job, she must quote the relevant piece of law that justifies her doing this Sec 7(4) of the Sex Discrimination Act (privacy and decency)
Advertising is a very effective ay of recruiting people to the job and can be very rewarding if done right.
- Application Form (Stage 5)
An application form is the preferred way to attracted people to a job, it is preferred over c.v’s, as the same form is used for everyone and standardisation can be an excellent way of protecting the business form claims of unfairness etc.
It can be designed to capture exactly what the business is looking for regarding information about the applicant, as they are standardised they are easily compared.
It is increasing the ‘norm’ for businesses to receive more applicants than they can reasonably interview. So the first thing to do is to shorten the list by various means i.e. a pre determine selection criteria will be drawn up by Mrs Dribble and her management team. This will help to select the best suited for the job, the criteria is used to judge information on the application form or on the C.V. Potentially suitable candidates will proceed with the selection process. Best practice recommends that unsuccessful candidates should be informed as soon as possible, written notification of rejection is less common and several application forms warn candidates that if they have not had a response within a certain time frame they can assume they have been unsuccessful.
Mrs Dribble must ensure she does not discriminate between candidates through their criteria, the same criteria must be used to judge all applicants so that the swimming pool is protect from claims of discrimination.
- Selection Method ( Stage 7)
To ensure the best possible person is selected to do the job it is important to choose how you select that person very carefully. Mrs dribble is unsure of the effectiveness of interviews, below are ways to improve interviewing and also there are other techniques that she can use to help back up the interviewing process.
Interview
This is by far the most popular selection method ( as shown in fig 1 in appendix 1) and is described as a ‘controlled conversation with a purpose’ ( Torrington and Hall 1995). This is a process which happens face to face, so Mrs Dribble can see and speak to the candidate in person and assess them herself, although some organisations use telephone interviews as part of their selection process.
However, the use of the interview is a very problematic method as it has many faults:
- Interviewers tend to be bias towards one person because they don’t like the way they look or what school they went too etc. This can cause a whole host of problems, firstly it leaves the swimming pool open for legal action, secondly a manager’s personal opinion about a candidate should never cloud their judgement on whether or not that person can do the job, as this happens most of the time and as everybody has opinion’s and bias’s etc, it would be hard to overcome this.
- In an interview situation the interviewer has 30 – 60 minutes to decide whether or not that person is suitable for the job. They will be forced into making a snap decision which will normally occur 5 minutes into the interview and will be based on their biases and how they stereotype that person.
- If the interviewer is unprepared or not adequately trained to do interviews, this can lead to the wrong information being taken, discrimination taking place and the wrong person being selected
Interviewers must be prepared, so the best advice for Mrs Dribble is to practice them and to use the same questions for every applicant so to ensure consistency and fairness. Under law the business must keep records for 12 months, they can be used in the future if anyone makes a claim for discrimination in an interview.
The main thing for Mrs Dribble to do to overcome these problems and to eradicate them is to practice interviews and maybe to go on a course to show effective interviewing etc.
The take up of HRM has done little to affect the popularity of the interview as a selection technique; the last 15 years have witnessed and increasing use of more sophisticated methods such as psychometric tests and assessment centre techniques, but these have been in addition to, rather than instead of, interviews.
There are many other techniques Mrs Dribble could use to help with the selection of the best person for the job, they include:
Tests – The main type of tests used for selection are attainment tests, aptitude tests, intelligence tests and personality questionnaires.
Armstrong (1991) lists 4 characteristics of a good test:
- It is a sensitive measuring instrument which discriminates well between subjects
- It has been standardised.
- It is reliable in the sense that it always measures the same thing.
- It is valid in the sense that it measures the characteristics which the test is intended to measure.
An IRS survey (1991) found that 58% of employers used personality tests for at least some type of vacancy and 48% used ability and aptitude tests.
Assessment Centres – This is a process which consists of a small group of candidates who undertake a series of tests and exercises under observation, with a view to the assessment of their skills and competencies, their suitability for particular roles and their potential for development. Mrs Dribble could ask to see how the applicants perform as lifeguards, a sort of work sampling to see how good they are.
References – These are used to obtain additional information about the candidates from previous employers, academic tutors or someone who knows them. Mrs Dribble can use references to find out about the candidates work ethic e.g. were they ever late, how often were they off sick and what was there attitude like to their job. All this information will assist her when she selects the person for the job.
Other Methods – Some of the more unconventional methods of selection can include physiognomy ( the idea that personal characteristics are reflected in facial features or body shape), phrenology(‘reading bumps on the head), etc, their use in the UK are limited and there is no evidence of a link to HRM style initiatives.
The new employee is introduced to the organisation via a induction day were they are able to meet the staff and settle in. This ensures he/she will start with an enthusiastic attitude and will hopefully settle down quickly into there new job.
Mrs Dribble will do will well to adhere to some of these techniques such as interviews and also others like tests, assessment centres and references. All of them combined will help her in the arduous task of selecting the correct person for the job and anything which can help make that process easier must be listen to and if relevant used to the best of the managements ability to achieve the best suited person for that job.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Ian Beardwell et al 1997
Human Resource Management
Prentice Hall, London
Heinemann 1994
Business Studies
Torrington + Hall 1998
Human Resource Management
Paul Sparrow 1998
HRM
Pitman Publishing, London
Smith and Keenan 1994
Business Law
Pitman Publishing, London
Gareth Roberts 2000
Recruitment and Selection
Internet Sites