This report suggests recruitment and selection methods for hiring quality staff for the proposed crche & child development centre (C&CDC) at Elgin Pharmaceutical in consistent with the high road HRM practices it has been pursuing in the knowledge intens

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ELGIN PHARMACEUTICAL

Strategy for Hiring

Child Care Workers


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report suggests recruitment and selection methods for hiring quality staff for the proposed crèche & child development centre (C&CDC) at Elgin Pharmaceutical in consistent with the high road HRM practices it has been pursuing in the knowledge intensive Pharmaceutical industry.

In the first step, analysis of the situation is carried out with the help of practitioners and academic literature which illustrates tight child care labour market if the company opt for quality people, lack of company’s HR expertise in hiring child care staff and requirement of suitable recruitment and selection methods in order to deal with such type of hiring.

The conclusion drawn from the analysis emphasizes the use of those recruitment and selection techniques which would not only help in hiring the quality child care staff but also convert this opportunity in strengthening Elgin brand in the market.

Finally, it is recommended to hire external consultant to help throughout the R&S process, apply competency framework for job analysis, use local newspaper, company website and word of mouth for recruitment and personality testing and structured competency based interviews for the selection process.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. Introduction                                                                        Page: 4

  1. Analysis of R&S Techniques Along With Related Factors        Page: 4

  1. Conclusion                                                                        Page: 10

  1. Recommendations                                                        Page: 11

References                                                                        Page: 14

Appendix-I                                                                        Page: 16

Appendix-II                                                                        Page: 17

Appendix-III                                                                        Page: 20

Appendix-IV                                                                        Page: 21


  1. INTRODUCTION

In an era where organizations are facing severe difficulties in attracting and retaining best employees due to skilled-labour shortages (Lievens et al., 2002), Elgin Pharmaceutical (EP) has been rightly steering in the knowledge intensive Pharmaceutical industry through pursuing high road HRM practices and is considered as ‘an employer of choice’. The company’s latest move towards strengthening its reputation is its plan to establish a company crèche and child development centre (C&CDC) for the children of its female staff for which premises have already been acquire and equipped to a high standard.

As Elgin’s Senior Human Resource Manager, I have been asked by the CEO to propose suitable strategy for the recruitment and selection of exceptional C&CDC staff. As the reputation of the company is of prime importance rather than the cost, the staff hired should hold high standards in terms of caring qualities and passion for child development apart from being well qualified.

This report therefore goes for a holistic review of many factors related to this hiring. Before moving forward, one must bear in mind that the company is going to hire this kind of staff for the first time and lacks required expertise, therefore, industry practitioners, care recruitment agencies and academic literature has been consulted widely for the analysis and recommendations.

 

  1. ANALYSIS OF R&S technique ALONG WITH RELATED FACTORS

Pharmaceutical Industry & the Nature of its Labour Market

  • Pharmaceutical companies have been facing tough challenge from the employers of other industries for recruiting and retaining talented people which is expected to be severe during the next two decades (Delany 2001).
  • Although Pharmaceutical companies has remained successful to a great extent in attracting and retaining its people (Burrows 2004), encouraging women to join the labour force and developing creative rewards for them seems best ways to cope with this challenge.

Importance of Child Care in a Tight Labour Market

  • In recent years, child care has become a necessity for many millions of families as a result of growing participation of the mothers of young children in the labour force and employer-subsidized child care is being envisage as an effective tool in attracting mothers in a tight labour market (Blau & Robins 1988; Chambers 1992).
  • Chambers (1992) suggest that maternity leaves, high-quality and affordable child care facilities and flexibility in working hours are some ways in which companies can attract and retain career-and-family women.

Why Child Care for Elgin?

Around 70% of Elgin staff is comprised of women and a considerable number among them are working mothers who might leave their careers aspirations in order to raise their children. C&CDC program shall act as a magnet for them.

Strategic & Operational Benefits

  • Employer branding of Elgin shall be enhanced tremendously and the company will be able to clearly differentiate itself, both inside and outside of the company, in what makes it a distinguished and desirable employer. C&CDC will add ‘value proposition’ in the brand power of the company which in turn will affect positively on current employee’s engagement (Backhaus & Tikoo 2004).
  • It will help Elgin to move one step further from the mere provider of work-life balance opportunities to the leader in offering family friendly practices (FFPs) to help employees alleviate conflict between work and family roles. Organizations with FFPs are considered more attractive than the ones with no such practices (Bourhis & Mekkaoui 2010).
  • Recruitment and retention of the female employees are expected to affect positively (Kossek & Nichol 1992) which will secure Elgin’s investment in their development.
  • The company will be able to attract a wider pool of job applicants in future as child care benefit is known to influence the job choices of majority of women (Thompson & Aspinwall 2009).
  • The company’s total reward package would become more tailored with the needs of the employees strengthening further its best HRM practices and the benefits linked with them (Pfeffer 1994).
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Child Care Industry

  • UK’s child care industry poses challenge in terms of recruitment & retention because of feminised workforce, government regulations and public-private competition (Carroll et al., 2008).
  • Despite its rapid growth as a result of increasing working parents and Government’s National Childcare Strategy, it still faces a diminishing pool of labour from which to recruit (Rolfe et al., 2003) which is shaped by exclusion of men from available pool to recruit, low qualifications among child care workers which results in hopping into different career options, and growing academic achievements of women making them more demanding ...

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