Unit 14 Working With Leading People Merit Copy

Introduction

Recruitment is an important part of the organisations expansion plan because missing the right talent or rejecting the wrong talent can keep the organisation without talented workforce. This affects in the results of the organisations and the profitability and reducing losses. Besides, after recruiting it is also important to retain the staff that has been recruited with offerings of a career development opportunity and faster growth prospects. Recruitment is a process which requires careful attention which includes preparation of the list of skills, list of pre-requisites required for the position by the employee, the number of positions available and working in coordination with the finance department to see the budgeting and keep the spending under control.

This paper goes deeper into the concept of recruitment and how it is to be done in different contexts and uses a case study to explain the entire process.

Task 1 

a) As part of the expansion plans City Link intends to recruit 3 HR staff, 10 drivers and 2 admin staff. Prepare documentation to select and recruit a new member of staff for one of these areas

City Link is planning to recruit 3 HR staff, 10 drivers and 2 administration staff which are required for the expansion of the business. The area selected is the driver category which is an important part of the business recruitment. The requirement for hiring drivers needs extensive documentation as it is an important recruitment. First of all the foremost pre-requisite for a driver to be hired is a qualified drivers licence which is required for being considered for the job. The second requirement will be a test that will be conducted by the company executives to see the driver’s performance under different contexts like hurried delivery, timely delivery, and rush hour delivery along with rash or clean driving, etc. The skills required or the driver will be put down on the requirements list like knowledge of the roads if the city where he is to operate, the knowledge of the vehicle and ability to solve small issues in the vehicle, etc. The knowledge test for the vehicle will be planned, the physical driving test will be planned and supposedly a real delivery may be included to see and test the driver. The language spoken, the knowledge about the traffic rules, violations of traffic rules must be known and a written test is necessary for the driver (Cihon and Castagnera, 2008).

b) What regulatory, ethical and legal implications will City Link need to be aware of when recruiting the employees, please provide details of current legislation?

The regulatory, ethical, and legal implications of the hiring of staff will have impacts on City Link’s programs to recruitment. The legal rules of the hiring process will have to be followed without fail, because the rules of hiring applies to the employer as well as the employee. The process of declaration of the employee’s details and using them for some other purpose may not be allowed and could be legally challenged by the employee. In interviews, proper questions must be used and the candidates must be treated well without nay discrimination to avoid any legal challenge (Simplifiedrecruitment.com, 2015). Any remark which is against a race or discriminative may be challenged legally. Ethics is concerned with the rightful conduct of the employer while recruiting the employee, like if a certain age group is rejected to be employed, the employer must give a valid reason for such an act or else it is unethical in its conduct. The current regulations of the UK government recruitment and workplace are many which are The Equal Pay Act 1970, The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, The Race Relations Act 1976, The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, and others (Sheffield.ac.uk, 2015) which are to be followed by the company, failing which there could be legal, ethical, or regulatory hurdles.

c) Send out and receive applications for your new member of staff, and take part in the selection process

The applications are being sent in many ways depending on the source of the candidate. If the candidate is through internal sourcing, then a personal email along with the colleague’s invitation for the interview is being given. If the candidate is through external sourcing like a recruitment agency or direct contact through newspaper or online website advertisement then the invitation for application is being send by post and by email with a telephone intimation (Clarke, 1996). If the candidate is through the management’s referral, then the candidate is personal invited by the recruitment head and the interview details are being given to him. Once the applications are being sent out, the company will receive applications from many candidates. The applications received will be scrutinized to see of the criteria set out for the job position is being contained in the candidate’s application with substantial proof of the same (Molnar, 2013). This is important because sometimes candidates fill in proxy information for getting the job even though they might in actual not possess the degree or the requirement. After scrutinizing the applications, the right ones are selected and the rejected ones are being cordially informed about the inability of being considered with a valid reason. The selection process will depend on the candidates display and knowledge in the field of the position being hired for and they must display adequate information about the company and the position being considered. The candidate will be interviewed by asking right questions and giving them scenario based incidents to solve the situation and how it applies in their scope of work (Jenkins, 1986). These and other tests will be conducted to check their presence of mind, aptitude, attitude, capacity to learn and teach, and to be able to work in teams.

d) Evaluate your own contribution to the selection process

My own contribution of the selection process can be studied by the evaluation of the same. The contribution of designing the skills set, the personality traits required, the knowledge required, the attitude and aptitude required, the learning capacity and the willingness to learn more about the process plays an important role in reducing the task of the recruitment head to select the right candidate according to the pre-requisites prepared by me. I will personally call and invite all applicants to the interview, fix their time and the recruitment head’s time, scrutinize their resume which will inform whether the candidate matches the requirements of the job, etc. The scrutiny will shortlist the candidate list to a minimum and the best ones selected which will be handed over to the head to further inform them about the interviews. During the selection process, I will prompt the head to see certain qualities in the candidates and the knowledge about certain aspects to be able to fit in the position being hired for.

Task 2

a) As overseas deliveries are a new operation the Board of directors have decided to employ a manager to run the new division, should this person have the traits of a manager or of a leader?

As an overseas delivery manager, the traits most favourable to the position in that of a leader because being a leader, he can easily maintain and guide the team for overseas deliveries which will be far away from the management and may not have regular chance to go through extensive training. The leadership qualities of forming a goal and having the team focus on that goal and accordingly forming an action plan is the job of a leader which is most useful in an overseas delivery manager position (Armstrong, 2005). Being possessing management traits will simply enable the person to manage the business but not take any decisive steps in the company when required. For example, when a parcel is required to be delivered in another country and there is a strike of all transport providers, the manager having management traits may inform the client that the delivery will not happen and they may have to wait until the strike ends, but being possessing leadership qualities, the manager will take a decision to employ a personal vehicle of the company and fulfil the requirement of the delivery which will increase the company’s goodwill and also attract the client to come back for additional service (Armstrong, 2012)

b) What leadership or management style should a new person adopt?

Leadership has a lot of styles which needs to be adapted depending on the task given at hand to the new person. The new person must have the leadership style of servant leadership, which is focussed on learning as much as he can and then having a service attitude for the entire organisation (Maxwell, 1999). The primary benefit for this is that the new person will immediately become humble in his attitude and understand what goes into making an organisation work. The new person must be open minded, be receptive of new ideas and strategies, and must be able to communicate effectively with confidence to his seniors as well as his entire team. This will enable him to be friendlier in nature and reduce the chances of any team member to avoid him or dislike him, because when people are likeable then the opposite people also like what they bring to the table. Hence, one must make themselves light and friendly with every colleague and build solid rapport to bond well with them (Rothstein and Burke, 2010). Another quality that the new person must have is that of gratitude and be able to accept his mistake willingly and be teachable to correct it on the advice of his seniors.

c) Compare the leadership stance in (b) above with another form of leadership

The above leadership style is servant leadership which is more receptive to new ideas and is willing to serve the organisation by whatever means he can. Another leadership style is the dominating leadership style, in which the leader dominates most activities and controls the movement of his team members (Silzer and Dowell, 2009). This is more towards planning the entire strategy and then allowing his team to follow the same. In such a style, the leader communicates less but spends a lot of time on the thinking, strategizing, and formulation of implementation of new ideas into the market. This is a unique style in which some employee may like the approach while some may not according to their ability and attitude about leadership. The servant leader is a listener while the dominant leader is a talker and expects all his team members to mostly listen and follow his ideas. The servant leader is more pro-active and digs deeper in solving problems of his team members and his seniors, while the dominant leader is mostly focussed on the ideas and strategy and leaves the team problems to the team except it is going to create a hurdle in the implementation of his ideas. Thus, the servant leader and dominant leader are two different styles of leadership, but both are acceptable because the circumstances in which they operate is completely different and every situation may demand a specific leadership style to sustain the progressive growth.

d) What motivational techniques could be used to boost morale within the organisation?

Motivation is a necessary ingredient in the overall process of creating enthusiasm in a team and to achieve a specific goal. To motivate employees, a number of rewards can be used to increase motivation which enables the team to increase their productivity leading to acquisition of enhanced results. Primary motivation techniques is monetary reward which is the most common and most acceptable as well, because it is the fundamental requirement of an individual (Miner, 2008). When a person is being shown and conveyed the reward which is available if a certain number of goals is achieved, then the person may put in more efforts and go beyond his comfort zone to make it happen. The other rewards includes recognition, a new position, promotion, cash cards, gift vouchers, travel vouchers, etc. Some people may not want a reward and simply put in more work if asked by the senior management, because they believe in selfless service and they could be happy and content with their present status. Motivation can improve productivity of the employees, can improve customer service, can increase attendance level of the staff, and continuous motivation through rewards can increase the organizational value and can increase the overall employee outlook towards the organisation.

Task 3

a) How can group culture/team working contribute to the success of City Link?

Team working is a great phenomenon in an organisation because when people come together to achieve a common task, then it is possible to achieve any kind of tasks, even though it seems to be unachievable. The team work must be built from the beginning by introducing many programs which forces every employee to participate in the program and also engage with other employees to make them known to them and share their thoughts (Jelencic, 2011). This way they can come together and become more willing to work together. The team leader must give certain tasks as a group task to have a team come together and work towards it, like the training providers to new drivers, teaching how to have deliveries being delivered right on time and what are the means for that, etc. The working team can soon become an organizational culture and it may become common to have team working together on a given task and every one enjoying a healthy competition from within. City Link must get into building an organizational culture of team workshop wherever necessary and applicable, so that there is maximum bonding among employees. The team can share multiple strengths and reduce their weaknesses to achieve a common interest. This is because, when a person is lacking the quality of effective communication with a client to solve his problem, the team can have the best communicator speak to the client and solve the problem, and the one who is good at sourcing clients must stick to what they do best. Hence, a team can build an effective client base for City Link and the service department must back it up with excellent service to them so that the entire procedure with the client is a memorable one and it creates a repeat customer for the company. Thus, a team can do more and provide much faster results than an individual in many cases and this could be a competitive advantage of City Link.

b) Demonstrate working in a team as a leader and member towards specific goals, dealing with any conflict or difficult situations, using an application of Belbin’s team roles, to City

Working in a team as a leader is an important indicator of being more responsible than other and the team members. This doesn’t necessarily reduce the responsibility of the members, but the leader is responsible for the performance of the team and how they perform in the given task. A team is given a specific goal to achieve which has to be made aware to the entire team for capturing their attention. The team must be made self-aware about the situations and be made more effective in their personal approach as designed by Belbin’s team role (Belbin.com, 2015). The team is not a group of individuals but they are a bunch of fighters who have individual responsibilities and they must interrelate to each other and understand each other’s activities and responsibilities. The goal must be completely visible and each member must be made to digest it completely to understand it better and keep it in sight. This will keep them alert in reminding themselves that they have an important responsibility. The goal achievement may have its own share of issues and conflicts during the progression of the action plan. Some employee may not be suitable with working extra hours because of a family problem and they being given liberty to leave early during important periods of work, the other employees may also feel that it is injustice being done to them. This can be solved by conveying the importance of being committed to the organisation and not to be a complainant in small matters, and try and divert their attention to the reward program designed for them (Cloke and Goldsmith, 2011). This way the conflict can be resolved, and other ways of resolving the conflict is to be absolutely transparent in the beginning that there may be hurdles in the progression, but in order to achieve the goal, it is important to focus on the reward and the action plan rather than the hurdles and get distracted.

c) How effective are the team at City Link in achieving organisational Goals?

The team at City Link are indeed effective in achieving organisational goals, and this can be seen by the group culture work system that is developed. The team is effective in its action plan more than an individual when it is acting as a team and using each other’s strengths as a building block for forming a large inventory of skill pool and talent pool. The team because it is being trained properly with a methodical approach and is recruited in the right manner, it has a very high chance of being able to achieve organisational goals and strategy. This is because all employees are coming from different industries or a different organisation who then needs exclusive training in getting accustomed to the activities and culture of City Link. This makes them stand a chance of achieving their organisational goals. The company has an aggressive plan of recruiting a large number of people and starting international deliveries which may require a specialized and talented workforce which needs accurate evaluation while being interviewed and considered for the job. The company has a strong organisational culture which makes it more attractive to new employees to join the company and contribute their strengths to it. The career development opportunity, the conflict resolution methods, the pay packages, the training being provided to the new employees, and the minimum amount of attrition rates have all helped in and will keep helping the teams of the company to achieve organisational goals.

Conclusion

Recruitment and selection is a skill that is required to gauge and judge the right candidate who will be the best talent or the trump card for the business. Recruitment and selection includes the decisions of the position to be made available and then the number of candidates for the positions, listing out the prerequisites enabling the head to go through the list fast before the interview which will help in getting a better judgement of selecting a candidate. The selection of the right candidate and rejection of the wrong candidate are important indicators of the effectiveness of the recruitment process which is reflected in the quality of the workforce recruited. City Link with its ambitious expansion drive can succeed in achieving its organisational goal by forming team and giving them collective task to maximise on the collective strengths and minimise the occurrence of conflicts. Soon when team work becomes a culture in the organisation, it can flourish very well and can achieve its organisational goal in a progressive manner and enhance the goodwill and organisational value.

References

Armstrong Michael (2005) A handbook of management and leadership: a guide to managing for results, London and Sterling, VA: Kogan Page.
Armstrong Michael (2012) Armstrong's handbook of management and leadership: developing effective people skills for better leadership and management, London: Kogan Page.
Maxwell John C. (1999) The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader: becoming the person others will want to follow, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Miner John B. (2008) Role Motivation Theories: Routledge.
Molnar William (2013) Human Resources Management and Recruitment Procedures: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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