Managerial Implications Vodafone Australia Essay Writing

Managerial Implications Vodafone Australia Essay Writing

Introduction

With the ever changing global business environment, companies are also recognising the need for change in their basic process of human resource management such as recruitment, selection, performance appraisal and so on. The size and scope of organisation are redefined in the global environment (Cocu?ová, 2011). Companies are no longer limited to using the age old method of recruiting new employees through newspaper advertisements or campus hiring process. The entire process has undergone significance changes with the nature and demand of business requirements. Hiring employees from multiple areas is a need. Although the recruitment process consumer time, effort and cost, but simultaneously it also benefits the organisation with the best of talent that contribute in the success of organisation (Heneman, Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Thus as the organisation grows in nature and size, it requires that managers must also change their outlook and dedicate much attention towards problem solving.

Vodafone HRM

I was fortunate to work with the HRM department of Vodafone, Australia for a period of time. The British multinational telecommunications organisation has an employee count of over 92000 in worldwide offices. The second largest mobile network brand operates in 21 countries and has partnership networks in 40 other countries (Jago and et. al., 2013).

Recruitment at Vodafone

From my personal experience in HRM unit, I identified few defects in the existing system of employee recruitment. Like other companies, Vodafone also uses multiple hiring approaches and target all suitable areas for potential recruits. The major issue as per my research lies in the back stage and front stage system. It is in the sense that without taking into consideration the job description and person specification, all targets are approached at once (Lakes and et. al., 2011).

Flow chart of recruitment process

Chart provided below show existing back and front stage process of Vodafone. As soon as a new vacancy is identified, the assistant manager at the back stage in the recruiting process devote all time in advertising and search for new candidates. Both the sources of employee’s recruitment internal and external are considered to hire the best and suitable as per the demand (Jago and et. al., 2013). For the internal process, employee referral is given much attention as the company believes that it has the best team and any reference by these will also contribute best to the brand’s success (Lewis, 2012). There are two other sources than internal which are external and Job rotation. Existing employee relation are also considered for the new position to save on cost and time in recruitment and new employment. The last sources external is approached to hire employees from outside. At the front stage print and online newspaper adverts are published to attract potential candidates. Once a suitable employee is selected through the core back stage interview process and appointed for the designation (Stafsudd, 2003). Followed by this in the front stage, goals and performance expectations are laid down and training is providing to help the employees get an idea about the new profile. At the front stage, performance evaluation took place on regular basis by direct and indirect supervision and based on that rewards and recognitions are bestowed. 

Issues in the recruitment process

While working for the organisation, I identified that there are few gaps in the entire process. I prepare a flow chart which for the existing recruitment process of the organisation followed at all geographical locations. The major gap identified is in the back stage i.e. core hiring and training process (Lakes and et. al., 2011). At present, the recruitment unit of the functional area is missing on talent warehousing and contractual employment. In the present environment, many companies do not force employees to enter into long term employment contract (Cocu?ová, 2011). Rather they prefer to hire contractual employee if higher performance is achieved through it (Winfield, Bishop and Porter, 2004). The other potential area of talent warehousing is quite a complex task as it consumes time in data storage and search. Despite this, recruiters are also using this approach to create own talent warehouses at the back stages and providing key personnel as required per the organisational behaviour needs. The most important advantage of this approach is that it saves on time, effort and money (Teigen, 2002). Recruiters met with many people at many odd times like a candidate has approached the company but there was not suitable vacancy at the time. There are also some other incidences like mismatch in the profile and person specification. If recruitment manager of Vodafone had kept details of these employees and stored at some location, significant amount of time, cost and effort could have been saved when a new and urgent vacancy has arrived. The candidate would have also felt valuable when he/she finds the some global company has been approaching him/her (Stafsudd, 2003).

The contractual recruitment process may not suit all kind of designations but can be considered if the employee has the potential to handle the job responsibilities. Contractual employees are usually considered as risky as they might reveal the company secret to competitors. Considering from the employee’s point of view, they also do not dare such things due to fear of blacklisting. In my opinion, contractual employees help to save on training and performance appraisal (Badger, Kaminsky and Behrend, 2014). Moreover, they least have any issues with the company as they are hired for fixed term on pre defined and agreed conditions.

Other than these things, I also identified defects with the training process. In the existing process, every new employee is entitled to basic training and induction regardless of the way he/she has been hired. Followed by the final interview, ever employee has to undergo induction process. With the new designation, the goals and performance expectations are set, defined and explained to the new employee (Lyons and Marler, 2011). This was followed by the training process for the job and then evaluation and monitoring.

Managerial Implications

In my opinion, significance of managerial implications lies in the fact that not every employee requires the induction and training program. Experienced employee from outside the organisation or employees who are hired from the internal process are already of the company policies, so there is no need to waste essential resources (Winfield, Bishop and Porter, 2004). Moreover, in the present environment, many students during their graduation and post graduation academic courses provide part time services to organisations just to gain experience and funds for their studies. So there arises no need to conduct day long induction and training program which only idea basic about what the company is and how does it works (Lyons and Marler, 2011). In fact, the induction should be over within few hours. The training program at the core back stage should only cover profile and job related knowledge management and learning. If only job related training is provided to employees hired through job rotation, much of the time could have saved which could be utilised somewhere else to produce improved performance for the company (Cocu?ová, 2011). Below is provided an improved flow chart of the back and front stage process of recruitment.

In my opinion, the managerial implications in the organisation should be to simplify the entire core process so that they can find new and creative ways to achieved better a higher productivity for the company (Heneman, Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The recruitment process as part of my review is implemented; it will lead to changes in the system and helps HRM department to function properly. It is important that such large and global corporation must indentify changes with time and adopt a continuous improvement approach (Teigen, 2002). Small managerial implications may result in better results and improved functioning.

References

Badger, J. M., Kaminsky, S. E. and Behrend, T. S., 2014. Media richness and information security acquisition in internet recruitment. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 29(7). pp.866-883.
Cocu?ová, J., 2011. Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Acta Technologica Dubnicae. 1(2).
Heneman, H., Judge, T. and Kammeyer-Mueller, J., 2012. Staffing organizations. Middleton, WI: Mendota House.
Jago, R. and et. al., 2013. Process evaluation of the Teamplay parenting intervention pilot: implications for recruitment, retention and course refinement. BMC Public Health. 13(1). pp.1102.
Lakes, K. and et. al., 2011. Diverse Perceptions of the Informed Consent Process: Implications for the Recruitment and Participation of Diverse Communities in the National Children’s Study. American Journal of Community Psychology. 49(1-2). pp.215-232.
Lewis, J., 2012. Management of human service programs. Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Lyons, B. and Marler, J., 2011. Got image? Examining organizational image in web recruitment.Journal of Managerial Psychology. 26(1). pp.58-76.
Stafsudd, A., 2003. Recruitment Policy Vs. Recruitment Process: Espoused Theory And Theory-In-Use. Academy Of Management Proceedings, 2003(1). Pp.G1-G6.
Teigen, M., 2002. The suitable few: managerial recruitment practices in the Norwegian state bureaucracy. Scandinavian Journal of Management. 18(2). pp.197-215.