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 in other professions like education and healthcare (Simon et al., 2003).
- Although it is anticipated that recent recession and Elgin’s positive reputation will attract large pool of candidates, we must not forget that a high proportion of employers are still facing recruitment difficulties despite dramatic decrease in the number of vacancies (CIPD 2009).
HR Personnel Planning
Until now, only the number of staff expected to be hired has been determined by Elgin keeping in view the legal obligation which are as follows:
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4 vacancies for Nursery or Creche: For 10 places of 0-1 year olds.
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7 vacancies for Pre-school or Child Development Centre: For 20 places of 2-4 year olds.
Total vacancies for C&CDC: 11
According to the plan, a nursery which will focus on providing care facilities like crèche and a pre-school which will focus on child education and development shall be established. In consistent with this plan, we can conclude that we require only nursery nurses for our nursery in order to focus on care and both pre-school teachers and nursery nurses for the child development centre in order to focus on care and education.
The next step after quantifying the number of vacancies is to figure-out the hierarchical or reporting system among them. Following options could be considered:
- Run the nursery without any head which would be impractical and create chaos.
- Without adding extra head-count, nominate one person as supervisor both for the nursery and pre-school from the staff we are going to recruit whose additional responsibilities shall include supervision of C&CDC and reporting to the management apart from her normal duties. The other staff of C&CDC shall report to her. This option will bring clarity in the reporting hierarchy and will work effectively if nursery & pre-school are at one place.
- In line with the above suggestion, one such person for nursery and one for pre-school could be nominated. This option will be more practical if the nursery & pre-school exist at different places. However both, option (ii) & option (iii), require revision in the remuneration package of the proposed supervisor.
- Make any existing operational head responsible for directly overseeing the C&CDC with the intention of developing one or two persons from within the C&CDC staff who would be able to run it independently in future.
- Finally, a C&CDC manager can be hired in addition to the planned staff right now or in future. Two such mangers could be hired, one for nursery and one for pre-school.
Job Analysis
Before initiating R&S process, job analysis is necessary as it helps in the development of job descriptions and personnel specifications for child care staff which in turn affect our choices for R&S techniques. Job analysis has been criticized in the past as being too job-focused and competency frameworks have emerged as an alternative which focus on the person and related characteristics needed for superior performance in a job. Whether we choose job analysis or competency framework, the fact is that child care jobs are novel for us and external help is necessary in their analysis (Taylor 2008).
Another point which needs to be established before moving further is the level of qualification and experience we require for the C&CDC staff. Following could be worked-out:
- We may desire for NVQ Level-3 or 2 qualified nurses and NVQ Level-3 qualified pre-school teachers with good experience as this would help in maintaining the highest standard of results and the employees would be satisfied that their children are with best professionals. The implication would be high cost.
- Oppositely, we may hire a mix of good-to-medium in terms of qualification and experience in line with the prevalent care industry standard. This would be cost-efficient with some compromise on quality.
Possible Recruitment Techniques
Elgin does not rely on any specific recruitment method; therefore, we have to consider few relevant recruitment options in order to assess their appropriateness.
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Advertisements: A number of decisions have to be made from the following preferences if we opt for advertisement:
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Advertisement place: We have to select whether we want to publish our ad in local or national newspapers or in related professional journal or magazines.
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Advertisement style: Selection have to made from want ads which seek for wide-trawl through advertising corporate image along with the job details, blind ads that are want ads without identifying employer and writing ads that are written too narrowly seeking wide-net (Werther & Davis 1996).
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Choice has to be made between positive ads which unashamedly create an exciting image of the job while keeping back any drawbacks and realistic ads which list all aspects of the job that might discourage excellent potential candidates from responding (Taylor 2008).
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Recruitment advertisements with precise information tend to generate large responses but might result in existing employees comparing their packages with the advert. On the other hand, advertisements with vague information are advisable only in extreme cases as they are known to result in lower response rates (De Witte 1989).
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Corporate Websites: Elgin’s corporate website can be used for recruitment as this would be operationally cheap and provide plenty of space for an advertisement tailored to our requirements. But the process might prove similar to factory gate advertisements or notices posted by retailers in their own stores as people have to be passing by in order to see them. However, corporate websites are considered viable for employers with strong reputation.
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Care Recruitment Agencies: Our unfamiliarity with the child care labour market makes care agencies a good option as outsourcing will minimize the recruitment time and the resulting administrative burden. However this approach might prove expensive in terms of hourly fee or the lump-sum payment normally charged by such agencies.
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Media: Although advertisements on television and radio are very fascinating in terms of company’s corporate image, they seldom justify the cost incur on them. In addition, we are not anticipating difficulties in generating a considerable pool of applicants so the cost might not worth.
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Staff Referrals: Can be considered because the employees are stakeholders in our C&CDC program and they would definitely recommend best child care workers they have known personally. On the contrary, quality of referrals cannot be guaranteed in child care area because of the use of emotions over realistic judgement. Moreover, we need to establish a formal employee referral scheme before its implementation.
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Word of Mouth: It is probably the cheapest option and in our case might work well if used internally as the employees would love to spread the job to the best potential candidates in order to secure their own interest. Quality again might be the issue.
Possible Selection Techniques
Let’s first look at the selection tools currently being used by Elgin:
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Semi-structured Interviews: Our interview process is somewhat structured and allows the interviewer to concentrate on listening, recording and assess the response of the candidate while making him feel comfortable. Although this technique relies too much on the expertise of the interviewer but this is a bit natural bearing in mind our business model and the type of people we have to recruit. For child care workers, this might not work as we lack functional expertise.
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Mental Ability Tests: Mental ability or intelligence tests supplement the interviews at Elgin and have remained successful for the reason that Elgin operates in a knowledge industry and majority of the workers are knowledge workers for whom mental ability tests suit best. Further, the organization has developed expertise in conducting them after years of experience. If we look at the hiring in question, it is related to the service sector in contrary with our current business model. Mental ability tests alone might not work here and need to be supplemented.
Now let’s look at some other available selection options:
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Structured Interviews: Although structured interviews, especially behavioural or competency based interviews, are a more effective predictor of performance (Appendix-I) and are perceived as relevant, thorough and meaningful by the candidates, however they cannot be implement without proper training and experience.
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Assessment Centres: They are methodical avoiding over reliance on a single technique and are considered as highest predictors of performance (Roberts 2005) (Appendix-I). They are also time consuming and too costly.
- CONCLUSION
Following could be inferred from the above discussion:
- Elgin operates in knowledge intensive Pharmaceutical industry and developing C&CDC is consistent with the high road HRM practices relevant to this industry.
- C&CDC is linked naturally with the retention of working mothers and will bring several other strategic & operational benefits to Elgin therefore R&S process should be careful and thorough in order to achieve these objectives.
- UK’s child care industry represent tough labour market if we go for hiring qualified and experienced people.
- The jobs are novel for Elgin therefore external support is necessary for job analysis, recruitment and selection.
- Reporting system and level of qualification and experience needs to be established before actually going for recruitment.
- A number of relevant recruitment options are available to choose from but whatever option of recruitment the company is going to select, it should boost and market its reputation as a strong employer brand.
- Although certain selection methods are being used by Elgin, they probably suit more for filling routine positions rather than hiring from service sector.
- RECOMMENDATIONS
The C&CDC benefit can be viewed as internal marketing of Elgin’s brand that would help in the creation of a workforce hard for other companies to imitate. Our below recommendations are based on this guiding principle. Appendix-II details an action plan for incorporating these recommendations.
External Consultancy
- As the hiring is novel for us and require industry-specific expertise, an expert from the care industry should be hired to help us in the hiring process. Outsourcing hiring to a care agency will definitely make us at ease but would eliminate our chances of understanding care industry. The consultant will provide excellent learning opportunities and Elgin’s HR shall be able to handle similar future hiring independently saving cost in the long run.
C&CDC Staff Reporting Structure
- For C&CDC reporting structure, it is recommended that Head of Compensation & Benefits should be given extra charge for taking care of C&CDC project at least for 6 months allowing it ample time in consolidate
- It is not advisable to start with a big head-count at the inception stage both in terms of cost and operational efficiency. It is therefore suggested that two persons should be nominated, one from nursery and other from pre-school within the existing approved head-count, to act as Nursery Officer and Pre-school Leader with their packages revised after probation period. The reason for two persons is based on contrasting characteristics of nursery and pre-school. These persons could be identified during the selection process.
- Later on, when we will be sure about the actual number of children in our C&CDC, additional staff could be hired accordingly.
C&CDC Staff Level of Qualification & Experience
- No compromise suggested here as the quality of care staff would be extremely crucial in providing excellent care service. Nursery nurses should have NVQ Level-3 or 2 qualifications with at least 2 years of relevant experience while pre-school teachers should have NVQ Level-3 qualification with at least 3 years of relevant experience.
Job Analysis
- Competency frameworks are recommended as the competency profiles (see Appendix-III for sample) developed through this process can be used to measure the innate passion and caring qualities of the candidates during the interview which is vital along with the qualifications. The consultant will help us in developing competency frameworks for nursery nurses and pre-school teachers.
Recruitment Strategy
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Careful recruitment & selection is necessary for the C&CDC benefit as turnover can raise concern about its continuity giving a bad impression to the employees using this service. Therefore, we suggest an advanced ‘classic trio’ (Cook 1993) supplement with technology.
- Advertisement in a daily local newspaper is recommended for two reasons; to attract applicants and to consolidate Elgin’s brand (Taylor 2008). As the company is leading its industry in providing child care benefit, it should not miss any opportunity of external marketing which would help in establishing itself further as an employer of choice. Advertisement in a newspaper is a cost effective way of doing that along with attracting suitable candidates.
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Attractive advertisement is also necessary in attracting potential candidates because of tight labour market therefore want ad style is suggested that boosts corporate image which is known to have most powerful direct effects on applicant pool quantity and quality (Collins & Hans 2004). In consistent with our objective, the advertisement should be positive and to some extent precise. The resulting wide-trawl shall be converted into wide-net through providing a link in the ad for Elgin’s corporate website where realistic and precise information shall be provided about the job. The candidates have to fill structured online application forms and provide detailed references along with their consent for enhanced disclosure through CRB. The resultant data we get will be structured and help in online sifting.
- Word of mouth through employees is also recommended because it’s a free source of publicity and employees will spread the vacancies because of their own interest.
Selection Strategy
- Keeping in mind the suitability, resource & cost constraints, effectiveness and acceptability (Roberts 2005), online personality testing and competency based structured interviews are recommended for the selection process. Both methods hold high predictive power after the assessment centres.
- An online personality test of 15-20 minutes (Appendix-IV) is recommended as it provides unique predictive power beyond what ability tests can supply (Wood & Payne 1998). The candidate shall go through the test immediately after filling the application form while applying online. Personality testing is essential for two reasons; to measure candidates’ personality-job conflicts and to avoid issues related to child abuse.
- It is recommended to adopt competency based structured interviews as they explores the competencies of the candidates in carrying out the job in order to ensure required performance level. The presence of consultant shall eliminate the requirement of training. HR shall conduct the interviews jointly with the consultant after a quick training.
- References and enhanced disclosure through CRB should be considered mandatory and are recommended to be carried out before the process of short-listing candidates to ensure protection of employees’ children.
REFERENCES
Backhaus, K. & Tikoo, S. (2004), Conceptualizing and Researching Employer Brand, Career Development International, volume: 9, no:5, pp: 501-517.
Blau, D. M. & Robins, P. K. (1988), Child Care Costs & Family Labour Supply, Review of Economics & Statistics, volume: 70, no: 3, pp: 374-381.
Bourhis, A. & Mekkaoui, R. (2010), Beyond Work-Family Balance: Are Family-Friendly Organizations More Attractive?, Industrial Relations, volume: 65, issue: 1, pp: 98-117.
Burrows, C. (2004), Enriching the Talent Pool: Injecting New Blood from Outside the Industry, International Journal of Medical Marketing, volume: 4, no: 4, pp: 390-392.
Carroll, M., Smith, M., Oliver, G. & Sung, S. (2008), Recruitment & Retention in Front-line Services: The Case of Childcare, Human Resource Management Journal, volume: 19, no: 1, pp: 59-74.
Chambers, D. D. (1992), Employer Assisted Child-Care as an Economic Development Tool, Economic Development Review, volume: 10, issue: 1, pp: 41-42.
CIPD (2009), Annual Survey Report 2009: Recruitment, Retention & Turnover.
Collins, C. J. & Hans, J. (2004), Exploring Applicant Pool Quantity And Quality: The Effects of Early Recruitment Practice Strategies, Corporate Advertising, and Firm Reputation, Personnel Psychology, volume: 57, pp: 685-717.
Cook, M. (1993), Personnel Selection and Productivity, 2nd ed., Chichester, John Wiley.
De Witte, K. (1989), Assessment & Selection in Organization, Chichester: Wiley.
Delany, K. (2001), Crisis on the Hiring Line, Pharmaceutical Executive, November 2001.
Kossek, E. E. & Nichol, V. (1992), The Effects of On-site Child Care on Employee Attitudes And Performance, Personnel Psychology, volume: 45, issue: 3, pp: 485-509.
Lievens, F., Van Dam, K. & Anderson, N. (2002), Recent Trends and Challenges in Personnel Selection, Personnel Review, volume: 5, no: 6, pp: 580-601.
Pfeffer, J. (1994), Competitive Advantage through People, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Roberts, G. (2005), Recruitment & Selection, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, London.
Rolfe, H., Metcalfe, H., Anderson, T. & Meadows, P. (2003), Recruitment & Retention of Childcare Early Years and Play Workers: Research Study, Research Report No. 409, London: National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Simon, A., Owen, C., Moss, P. & Cameron, C. (2003), Mapping the Care Workforce: Supporting Joined-Up Thinking: Secondary Analysis of the Labour Force Survey for Childcare and Social Care Work, London: Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London.
Taylor, S. (2008), People Resourcing, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel Development
Thompson, L. F. & Aspinwall, K. R. (2009), The Recruitment Value of Work/Life Benefits, Personnel Review, volume: 38, no: 2, pp: 195-210.
Werther, W. B. Jr. & Davis, K. (1996), Human Resources and Personnel Management, USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Wood, R. & Payne, T. (1998), Competency Based Recruitment & Selection: A Practical Guide, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
APPENDIX-I
PREDICTIVE POWER OF SOME SELECTION METHODS
Source: Taylor, S. (1998), Employee Resourcing, London: Institute of Personnel and Development
APPENDIX-II
ACTION PLAN - COSTING
* In the absence of finding actual cost, the salary bracket of a recruitment consultant has been taken from which came to £30,000 - £36,000. The upper range of the bracket is then divided by 3 (because short-term assignments are expensive as we require consultant for 3 months of the actual 4.5 months time scale).
+ Cost is estimated because of the unavailability of actual sources.
ACTION PLAN – TIME SCHEDULE
APPENDIX-III
COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK – CHILD CARE WORKER
Active Listening -- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Learning Strategies -- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Social Perceptiveness -- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Instructing -- Teaching others how to do something.
Speaking -- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Monitoring -- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Critical Thinking -- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Active Learning -- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Negotiation -- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
Time Management -- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Problem Sensitivity -- The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Oral Expression -- The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Oral Comprehension -- The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Speech Clarity -- The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Inductive Reasoning -- The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Speech Recognition -- The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Fluency of Ideas -- The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Deductive Reasoning -- The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Time Sharing -- The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
APPENDIX-IV
Giotto
“A personality measure of the "fit" to role, derailers and integrity of potential and current employees”
Author/s: John Rust, 1997
Administration: 15-20 minutes, Paper & Pencil or On Screen
DESCRIPTION
Giotto represents one of the first measures of personal integrity to be entirely developed in the UK. The measure is particularly suited for use pre-interview, indicating particular aspects of a candidate's work-based behaviour and attitudes which may benefit from further probing during the selection process.
Giotto recognises the potential difficulties inherent in the accurate measurement of integrity and is therefore presented as an ipsative questionnaire. This helps to avoid the contaminating effects of a candidate lying or faking.
Giotto also makes use of state-of-the-art neural network techniques to unravel the complex nature of personal integrity, as it relates to the workplace. Taken together, these factors help to provide a more accurate and reliable measure of a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, across a total of 7 dimensions. Scores on these 7 dimensions can then be matched to the requirements of a particular job. Although all 7 dimensions have general applicability, each post will have particular requirements which identify certain patterns of scores as being salient to effective job performance.
Giotto starter kit: Price: £334.50 (£380.63 inc VAT)
Giotto Combined Question/Answer Booklets, pack of 20 Price: £54.00 (£63.45 inc VAT)
Giotto Manual Price: £105.00 (£105.00 inclusive VAT)
Total cost: Approximately £550 (inclusive VAT)
Source: http://www.talentlens.co.uk/select/giotto.aspx