As you
start your business adventure, you start to wonder how you will do all the
needed tasks. Thankfully you don’t need to do it all by yourself. Get some
help! There are people who are especially skilled in specific aspects of business
like marketing, accounting, human resources, etc. This is because different people
choose to invest time and effort in those aspects (e.g. going to university and
studying a accounting). None of us can be extremely skilled in everything so by
hiring people who are proficient in a particular job, the business efficiently execute its tasks. J W Marriott, owner of the world-renowned
Marriott hotel chain, once said, “Take care of your associates and they’ll take
care of your customers”. This quote essentially exemplifies that your
employees are your most valuable assets as they are the biggest part of your business and sometimes the face of your business since they are the ones who deals directly with the customers. That is why I’m going to present you
ways to hire an employee to help you develop your business.
During
high school, I have been taught the traditional methods of employee recruiting.
However, after further research for this blog, I have found that modern advances
have affected the way businesses operate. I would categorize current recruiting
methods into two types: traditional and modern. Both these methods have the
same methodology which proceeds from human resource planning, recruitment phase
and then employee selection. It starts with identifying the number of vacant
job positions, and the skill sets and traits required for the jobs. The next
step is then to advertise the job vacancy. The advertisement itself must enumerate the job requirements, application method, and result notice method. A business with existing employees could first
identify if such employees already exist in the company as they could advertise
internally which is also cheaper to execute. However, in the case of new businesses, there are no existing
employees so they must advertise externally and this is where the traditional
and modern recruiting methods are different.
The
traditional recruiting method usually includes advertising through
non-technological related methods such as newspaper advertisements, flyers, and
posts on the retail store entrance. People who are interested are then usually informed
to mail their resume and cover letter to an assigned address (usually human
resource department). They are then informed back either through e-mail or mail
in form of rejection or acceptance. In the case for accepted applicants, they
are usually informed to hold an interview selection process in which they are
further filtered among interview selectees.
However, with
technology advancing exponentially, employee recruitment process has started to
rely on technological platforms. For example, job vacancies can be advertised
through the company website, online job websites and LinkedIn, resumes
and cover letters could be sent in using email and interviews could be held
using video calls. In MSU, we have an app called handshake which caters to students in MSU who are looking for jobs, internships and co-ops. Unfortunately, such methods require heavy reliance on stable
internet connection which may not be available everywhere.
The last
step after interviewing would be to hire the employee and training them if
required. Training methods includes internal and external forms. Internal
methods include job shadowing and training by existing managers while external
methods include joining a conference or training center for certain skills.
Finding
the most appropriate employee is difficult, especially if its an external
candidate as we do not know their performances and traits. What we observe from
interviews, resumes and cover letters are usually exaggerated hence, are not
completely reliable but is one of the only least troublesome ways of evaluating
a candidate. This is why companies have a problem of retaining employees as
they might not be appropriate for the job which generates more cost. Therefore,
these reasons are why I respect the human resource department as they have the
ability to go through this trouble and have the skills to recruit the most
appropriate employees.
-by William Tjen
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