Literature review
Hiring personnel at times is not an easy task. The hiring team or the human resource specialists undergo many challenges while identifying the right individual to fill a certain post. One of the reasons that make such process overwhelming is the fact that there are many job seekers and once the position is advertised, the slot receives many applications requests. However, not all of the applicants perform the same if given the tasks. Some might experience a challenge, while others lack the right attitudes for the job. Another factor that causes challenges is the organizational need to hire the best suitor (Harter, and Blacksmith, 2010). Every firm would want to hire those individuals who will give the best outcome for the company. Since it is not easily apparent to point out such individual, firms choose to undertake a process of scrutiny, which is tedious but ultimately gives good results. This is the challenge at hand with the Johnson Care Company.
Johnson Care Company needs to hire personnel to fill the post of Public Relations and Marketing Assistant. It is one of the most critical posts in an organization and requires an individual with great proficiency in several areas. What the company now seeks is advice from a professional on how to go about the issue. Now, I would wish to give advice in the form of a report with some recommended steps to follow while hiring such an individual. Of most importance, in this case, is to do a thorough job analysis. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon the knowledge, Skills, Attitudes and Other characteristics in the assessment methods (Ashkanasy, and Dorris, 2017). Therefore, in this assignments, I will be designing a selection process that will help Johnsons care Company select the best graduate to fill the advertised post.
Companies and organizations normally invest a lot of time, effort, and resources in selecting, developing and maintaining the efficient workforce. The process at times is costly and wastes the company or the organization valuable time that could have been used for other beneficial activities (Green, 2010). Other companies are even known to spend millions in training initiatives for their personnel. In most occasions, the job market hardly provides the right personnel to fit perfectly into a certain post in an organization. It thus becomes the companies’ responsibility to ensure that they provide relevant training for their newly hired workforce (Morris, and Venkatesh, 2010). It becomes necessary to come up with techniques to identify the requirements of such job position such that while selecting personnel to fill a post, the responsibilities are well outlined. In other words performing the job, the analysis is unavoidable. Job analysis in the organization is very critical in two aspects. One is that it allows the hiring team to determine what tasks incumbents perform (Carnevale et al. 2010). Learning from those who are already experienced in the field is essential. They provide the right directions and necessary attributes to seek for in those applying for such post. Secondly is that it gives clear glimpses in what knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs) do workers need for them to perform tasks in the said post effectively. Moreover, the process may also involve a description of the necessary qualifications for aspiring employees. These qualifications include educational, experiences and even mental requirements.
Selection process
According to Breaugh (2017), the importance of job analysis is that it tends to promote the development of individual careers. In addition, it assists the organization in maximizing the talents and skills. The outcomes of performing such analysis are designing learning, developing performance interventions as well as improving the processes. It is crucial to understand the performance of the current job as it exists so that once the new employee takes over; they are briefed on the expectations and the tasks they are supposed to perform (Christensen, and Wright, 2011). Job description and specifications allow the management of the organization to select the right personnel into the workforce. Describing the specifications of the job allows for improvements later on in the process. For this case, public relations job description involves the tasks of upholding the reputations of the company. An individual who has to fill such post must have great qualities in handling the company’s clients. PR involves gaining understanding and offering the necessary support to the clients. It involves effective communication in an attempt to influence opinion and behaviors.
KSAO are necessary for good performance in a given job. While hiring workers, recruitment officers and human resource managers of most organization base their selection process under KSAO (Ployhart et al. 2017). Knowledge refers to what a person knows which has some relevance to a certain job. For instance, Public Relation officers have good knowledge of dealing with clients and influencing their opinions. It is critical for the performances of the job. Skills, on the other hand, are what an individual can do the job (Woods et al. 2017). Performances of the task largely depend on the skills of the personnel. Communication Skills for Public Relations officers are an essential aspect. Abilities refer to the ability to learn a certain skill. It involves mental and physical abilities. The first three letters of KSAO does not cover other characteristics like attitudes temperaments, personality traits, and beliefs. The letter O captures these important characteristics depending on the hiring company specifications. Some non-critical jobs relax the requirements and specifications of the other characteristics.
In general, KSAO measure performances in two major categories. The first category involves technical performances (Baczy?ska, and Thornton, 2017). These characteristics include acquired knowledge. One has to struggle and put more effort before they earn these hard and technical requirements. Behavioral aspects measure the soft skills of an applicant. These skills are not necessarily learned in a special institution. It mostly involves such individual’s traits and characters, an example ability to work with teamwork. A worker may be having good technical skills, but when it comes to working with other individuals under a project that requires teamwork, they experience challenges (Sanchez, and Levine, 2012). For the case of Public Relations, behavioral aspects involve the ability for an individual to communicate effectively with diverse kinds of people and situations.
To get more applicants where the company can choose from, Johnson Care Company need to make an advertisement of the job vacancy. The advertisement can make use of the company’s official website, social media platforms and event print media. This will ensure that it will reach a good number of people. The advertisement should include the description of the position and the qualifications. Interested applicants will then send their resumes plus KSAO response. The job announcement is then allowed some time to ensure that it reaches several people. The time allowed before it is closed ranges from two weeks to one month. After that, the advertisement is closed.
When the announcement closes, the panel of experts or human resources specialists then takes up the task of selection. Selection method begins with the in-depth scrutiny of the applications received. The panel reviews the resumes and the applications in line with the criteria for rating the applicants. Qualifications are the best factors to be considered before indulging further in other aspects of the applicants (Woods, and Hinton, 2017). The applicant has to meet the minimum qualification required. That is a bachelor’s degree in public relations or marketing. It is required for the post since such qualifications indicate that the applicant has background knowledge concerning the post. Those that do not meet this first criterion are discarded while those that have higher qualifications receive high rates as per the criteria. The rates start with Qualified, Highly Qualified and lastly best qualified.
Experience is the second thing to be considered while selecting the most appropriate individual to fill the post. Considering individuals with more than one-year experiences is important. The person should have worked in a reputable company as a marketing personnel or public relations related post. It should be well understood that such individuals should have good knowledge of enabling good relations with clients (Daouk-Öyry et al. 2017). Besides, their experiences should add into having knowledge in influencing client’s opinions and behaviors. Individuals with the most experiences have to receive higher ratings than the rest in agreement with the stipulated criteria.
Last and the most important aspect for the panel to review the applications is the skills and attitudes. Personnel to fit such a post need to have excellent skills in communication, innovation, presentation, IT, and even interpersonal skills (Liu et al. 2010). Although not all of these skills may be apparent through the application letters and resumes, conducting an interview for the shortlisted individuals will enable the panel to select the most suited individual. However, skills like communication can be portrayed by the way the individual describe him or herself in the application letters. Public relations officers and Marketing Assistants need to be effective in both written and oral communication skills since most, of the time they will be giving directions and interacting with different kind of people. In addition, the image of the company is in their hands. They are the ones to guard the reputation and ensure the clients and other visitors’ leaves with the good impression of the company due to their communication skills (Stone, and Harahan, 2010). After the panel reviews, those individuals that receive high ratings based on the criteria are sent to the hiring manager for further considerations before they are called upon for an interview. The reviews help in reducing the number of applicants and narrowing down to the most suitable. In other instances, this step is sufficient to select personnel without taking the applicants through interviews.
The hiring manager then produces a list of those applicants believed to have met almost all the requirements for the job. A date is then set for interviews where the individuals will appear before the panel one by one and display their skills, abilities, and knowledge (Carnevale, 2013). This will help the hiring team to gauge the abilities of each applicant since most of them would be having almost equal ratings. The applicants that will show exemplary skills in various aspects together with proficiency in most levels will win themselves a chance to fill the post.
Concerning the selection process, the method is reliable, valid and fair. It follows all the necessary procedures that are legally accepted for hiring. Furthermore announcing the vacancy publicly gives a chance to anyone wishing to apply. Therefore, the process is fair and reliable.it is only that the most qualified individual gets the chance to assume the post. The selection process is also valid because the basis is purely performance based and no considerations based on nepotism or any other dubious methods.
Therefore, I firmly recommend Johns Care Company to adopt the proposed selection method for their hiring process. It will help them to select the most suited individual for the post and ensure that their workforce team is made up of high-achieving professionals. The process only requires the mandated panel to advertise the vacancy and then review the job applications letters, emails and resumes while attaching them to given ratings. The best qualified few individuals are then sent to the hiring manager for further consideration before shortlisting them for an interview. The interview will give a chance to examine oral communication skills, presentation skills and the interpersonal skills of the applicants. The best qualified at this point gets the job.
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