Change is inevitable in the contemporary business world. Anderson and Anderson claim, “Any business in today’s fast-moving environment that is looking for the pace of change to slow is likely to be sorely disappointed” (123). Change helps a business to enhance its competitive advantage. It enables an organization to meet the needs of various customers. Our organization requires changing its recruitment process to hire candidates with the ever-changing job skills.
Presently, the organization uses a hiring procedure that recognizes exceptional candidates instead of those that have the potential to become great employees. The Organization should establish recruitment procedures that focus on talent and attitude rather than experience, skills or personality.
For a company to hire the right employees, the human resource personnel must understand internal and external forces that drive recruitment. Human resource professionals must monitor changes that arise in the market and their effects on a company’s talent pool (Breaugh 106). Moreover, human resource personnel must assess internal functions to determine what facilitates and impedes successful recruitment.
Internal Factors that Influence Change in Recruitment Process
Personnel utilization is one of the forces that drive change in the hiring process. A company does not require hiring staff if existing employees have the requisite skills to handle new responsibilities (Lin 47). For instance, a company that establishes a novel sales division that specializes in a collection of new products may rely on its existing sales personnel. The performance of the sales division is what can determine if the company requires hiring more sales staff. Human resource experts cite outsourcing as another internal factor that influences changes in recruitment processes (Breaugh 109).
Outsourcing diminishes the requirement for a corporation to employ new staff. Moreover, it helps to reduce recruitment costs and redirect finances to other critical expenses. The size of the enterprise impacts recruitment. A company that has the potential to grow or intends to introduce different operations requires establishing a hiring procedure that will cater for the changes. Employee recruitment is an expensive undertaking. Thus, a company opts for a hiring process that is cheap. It underlines the reason why some companies prefer the services of hiring agencies.
External Factors that Drive Change in Recruitment Process
One of the external factors that drive changes in the recruitment process is the demand and supply of manpower (Lin 49). If a company is in need of a big number of skilled employees and the supply is low, the organization may be compelled to recruit from within. A company may train its employees to equip them with the required skills (Allen, Bryant and Vardaman 51). The labor market is another external factor that impacts recruitment.
Allen, Bryant, and Vardaman posit, “Employment conditions in the region where the organization is located will influence the recruiting efforts of business” (55). A company does not need to use sophisticated job advertisement channels in a situation where there is a high number of potential candidates. Informal notice can enable the company to reach a large number of applicants.
Effects of Change on Organization’s Activities
Changes in the recruitment process impact organization’s activities in different ways. As the organization switched from external to internal recruitment, it was forced to adjust some of its operations and practice job rotation. The recruited employees had to either relinquish their previous positions or strike a balance between the existing duties and the new responsibilities. The organization had to alter the working schedule of the employees. Moreover, it changed some operational procedures to enable the employees to switch from one duty to another with limited challenges.
Planning for the Process of Change
The success of a change process depends on planning. An organization requires planning in advance before implementing changes. Planning for the process of change entails analyzing organizational needs (Watson 72).
Before initiating changes in the recruitment process, the corporate leadership had to determine if the human resource personnel had the capacity to cope with the transformations. The human resource manager had to organize for a workshop to equip the human resource staff with skills to conduct internal recruitment and identify the employees with the required talents. The manager evaluated the organization to determine future changes regarding manpower. Research shows that it is imperative to identify if the existing workers have the capacity to handle potential changes (Hughes and Rog 749). It would allow an organization to plan for external recruitment or train the existing employees in preparation for the changes.
Approaches to Changes
There are three main approaches to change. They are developmental, transitional and transformational approaches (Lunenburg 4). The objective of the developmental approach is to enhance existing business procedures. The developmental approach to change management may entail upgrading reporting and billing procedures or implementing novel advertising and marketing plans. Developmental change helps an organization meet the market demands. Transitional change entails the transformations that an organization initiates to substitute the available procedures. Transitional changes are hard to realize.
They include changes in organizational structures, the introduction of new products, mergers, and the implementation of new technology. Most staff is opposed to transitional change as it interferes with job specifications (Lunenburg 5). Transformational changes are intended to reshape organizational procedures and plans. They mostly result in a change in organizational culture. Organizations implement transformational changes due to severe and unforeseen market changes (Lunenburg 8). In this case, our organization adopted the developmental approach to change management. It did not purge the existing recruitment procedures. Instead, it enhanced the procedures by introducing new employee requirements.
Works Cited
Allen, David, Phillip Bryant, and James Vardaman. “Retaining Talent: Replacing Misconceptions with Evidence-Based Strategies.” Academy of Management Perspectives 24.2 (2010): 48-64. Print.
Anderson, Dean, and L. Anderson. Beyond Change Management: How to Achieve Breakthrough Results Through Conscious Change Leadership, San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2010. Print.
Breaugh, James. “Employee Recruitment: Current Knowledge and Important Areas for Future Research.” Human Resource Management Review 18.3 (2008): 103-118. Print.
Hughes, Julia, and Evelina Rog. “Talent Management: A Strategy for Improving Employee Recruitment and Engagement within Hospitality Organizations.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 20.7 (2008): 743-757. Print.
Lin, Hsiu-Fen. “Effects of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation on Employee Knowledge Sharing Intentions.” Journal of Information Science 17.2 (2009): 41-52. Print.
Lunenburg, Fred. “Approaches to Managing Organizational Change.” International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity 12.1 (2010): 1-9. Print.
Watson, Tony. Management, Organisation and Employment Strategy: New Directions in Theory and Practice, New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.