An Innovative approach to recruitment and selection Report

Report’s aim and purpose

This report is developed to provide the management of Folly wood Entertainment Park with an insight on how they can reduce the cost of human resource since most of their employees are on contract.

This will aim at creating a cost effective and suitable recruitment and selection procedure in order to maintain staff who exhibit customer satisfaction behavior. The need to recruit new staff every year has proven expensive due to the high cost of recruiting, training and giving these people sufficient exposure to the work environment¹.

The main points that will be highlighted in this report are first, the challenges of recruiting every peak season, the high cost of training new staff every year, the rate of employee adaptation to the company’s policies and culture and the indirect cost of providing work experience².

From this proposal, these problems will be addressed to ensure that the management is able to streamline the activities at the park and as a result avoid making huge losses as has been the case in the recent past.

The propositions are based on the current trends observed in other similar companies in the industry as well as from research conducted by various scholars with an interest of intensifying operations in the entertainment parks business.

Operating such businesses has been a challenge owing to the seasonal nature of their customer base while the level of customer service highly determines the customer turn around the following season³.

The tricky part is where previous season’s customer satisfaction can only be determined in the next season by which time the business might be experiencing a loss in profits. Customer satisfaction is an important factor in ensuring business sustainability as well as creating a competitive advantage within the industry⁴.

A thrive in entertainment business to be specific is highly dependent on customer satisfaction owing to the free market nature of the industry.

Follywood’s mission statement

The company’s mission statement is to exceed visitor’s expectations by ensuring they have the best experience at pocket friendly rates. This requires a high level of human resource planning to ensure employees understand this mission and are working towards its attainment⁵.

Background

Folly wood was established 10 years ago as an entertainment park, before which it was a family farm where many people visited to see animal farms and get an insight on how they were being taken care of. It was later on purchased by Leisure Inc., a large entertainment company which opened up its operations by developing the entertainment machinery on the park.

Before the acquisition, the business was growing at a very slow pace such that employee turnover rate was not a very detrimental issue⁶. However with growth, it was realized that high level of customer care skills would be required to maintain and even increase the rate of growth and this would only be offered by dedicated employees.

Currently, this facility receives around 400,000 guests annually and the numbers are deemed to grow if high customer service standards are maintained by having on board disciplined staff especially during the peak season⁷.

Industry trends

Amusement park industry includes businesses dealing with leisure attractions such as mechanical and water rides, shows such as clown performances, exhibitions, games and refreshments⁸.

The main sources of revenue in these places include admission fees, sale from refreshments, merchandise and raffles. This industry is naturally dynamic and is affected by the changes in technology and standards of living. This means the owners and managers of amusement parks have to be at par with these trends in order to remain profitable⁹.

Despite this, businesses in this industry continue to make high profits over the years and are the biggest employers compared to other industries. A report in the international journal for human resource management indicates that this kind of business has been on the upward move due to increased knowledge among consumers¹⁰.

Most people are willing to spend a lot of money to have a break from their daily hustles together with their family and friends. The rate of growth for the past five years has been estimated to be at around 4 per cent and this is expected to go even higher.

Recommendations

In relation to other players in the industries, there are a number of strategies that can be used to ensure the people recruited are qualified, disciplined and consistent in a way that they can remain with the company despite the seasonal nature of business¹¹.

These recommendations will provide the management with a range of solutions to the problem of recruitment and selection of employees during the peak season as well as retaining them in the off peak seasons.

Basing their findings on the success of other companies which deal with contract employees occasionally, University of Michigan developed strategies to ensure that competent employees are retained over the seasons.

This is however not a guarantee that the employees will be available when needed since they stand a chance of getting permanent jobs elsewhere¹².

But in case they are available then these strategies give the company an assurance that they will win back their treasured employees.

Provide contract employees with high level training

Employees being recruited will need to be provided with rigorous training to ensure that they become productive in the shortest time possible. This kind of training is preferable to on the job training since it gives them an overview of what to expect when handling the main job.

Here, the employees are trained on the company’s culture and values, customer service charter, goals of the organization and product knowledge¹³. They are able to gain insight on all the activities going on in the park despite the fact that they will eventually be posted in different departments.

As a result of this, the employees are able to handle customer complaints and perform their tasks to the satisfaction of the management. This also ensures that all employees get an equal chance of learning such that it becomes easy for the management to evaluate performance on a fair scale hence getting rid of the non performing employees at an early stage¹⁴.

After receiving such in depth training the incoming employees will develop sufficient confidence to make major decisions hence allowing the managers time and space to handle other serious issues. Training is an investment and it gives the employees a sense of belonging to the company, thus the feel of responsibility to the goals of the organization¹⁵.

Team building activities

This is one of the activities that can be used to make contract employees develop a sense of belonging to the company. The main challenge faced by contract employees and which is what makes them unreliable is the feeling that they are not being treated equally with the permanent workers¹⁶.

Team building does not necessarily mean that they have to engage in competitions and such like activities. It can be achieved by ensuring that eating places are common to all employees, involving the contract staff in parties and enforcing the idea that all employees are equal and they have to work as a team to achieve the organization’s goals¹⁷.

Give incentives

This is a good measure to ensure that competent contract employees are willing to come back in the next peak season. Once the contracts are over employees with notable performance can be given cash gifts over and above their normal salaries.

This can also be implemented by giving frequent employees a good pay rise every time they come back¹⁸. This will ensure that quality of service is maintained since these employees have experience on the values and operations of the company.

Paying these incentives cannot be an extra burden to the company considering the amount of time and money it has saved as opposed to recruiting and training new employees, as well as the amount of profits they make during the peak season with the help of these people¹⁹.

Keep contact with competent employees

The management needs to find ways of ensuring that they maintain contact with the employees they would wish to retain in the next season. This can be done by creating a database of the competent contract workers and sending them constant reminders that they will be needed at a given time in the year²⁰.

This database will also ensure that incase a position falls vacant these employees are given first priority. This strategy is cost effective in the sense that it saves the cost of advertising vacancies and carrying out the whole recruitment process including training while at the same time it aims at retaining the experience gained from the company²¹.

Outsourcing

The final recommendation in the recruitment and selection of contingent employees is outsourcing. The number of companies offering business process outsourcing services is on the rise to cater for the needs of companies such as Folly wood which deal with contract employees.

When this is employed, Folly wood will get into a contract with an outsourcing company whose main mandate is to recruit and train employees who are then dispatched to the company for the required time period²².

This saves the company the hustles of handling employee related issues including their remuneration and welfare. Their only mandate is to provide a working environment and pay the lump sum amount to the BPO offering the services²³.

The main challenge with this arrangement is that the BPO’s will also be faced with the same seasonal challenges especially if they are operating within the same industry. However, they may be in a better position to maintain the employees by engaging them in other businesses during the off peak seasons²⁴.

It should however be noted that this might not be a very viable solution but it can come in handy in case all other options have been considered and found not to be viable.

Evaluation

In assessing the viability of the above proposals, there are a number of methods that can be applied to determine the best proposal that can be used to solve the problem of recruitment and selection in this company.

The first evaluation strategy is carrying out model studies by obtaining a small number of contract employees and using them as a sample²⁵. This is important in identifying the loopholes in the process which can then be sealed before a large number of people are involved.

It will also enable the management to determine the amount of resources that they will need to implement the proposals as well as a rough estimate of the savings expected²⁶. Second is by analyzing past experiences of employees who have been coming back over the seasons.

In as much as this proposal has not been applied as a strategy per se, there are those employees who keep coming back by default. Their performances can be evaluated to determine the viability of the proposal before employing it as a recruitment strategy²⁷.

This will include analyzing their product knowledge, customer service skills and the pace at which they catch up with work at the beginning of the season. Finally is analyzing the cost versus revenue of carrying out the recruitment process from within the company against outsourcing human resource services²⁸.

It should be noted that both options have pros and cons and the most viable one is what will be employed. The main advantage of outsourcing is that the company has no attachment with the employees and any grievances are addressed through the BPO’s management²⁹.

This is however a disadvantage too since they do not have a sense of belonging to the company and cannot be included in extracurricular activities such as parties and team building activities.

There is also a lack of entitlement to the company’s goals and Follywood’s management can find it hard to enforce their work place rules and ethics³⁰.

Reference List

Anderson, T. L., & James, A. 2001. The politics and economics of park management. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield publishers.

Armstrong, M. 2007. A handbook of employee reward management and practice. London, Kogan page.

Boxall, P. F., Purcell, J., & Wright, P. M. 2007. The oxford handbook of human resource management. Oxford, oxford university press.

Brewster, C. 2008. Contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. Cape Town, Oxford University presses southern Africa.

Click, R. L., & Dueling, T. N. 2005. Business process outsourcing the competitive advantage. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & sons.

Cook, M. F. 2000. Outsourcing human resources functions: strategies for providing enhanced hr services at lower cost. New York, amacom.

Cook, M. F., & Gildner, S. R. 2006. Outsourcing human resources functions: how, why, when, and when not to contract for hr services. Alexandria, VA, society for human resource management.

Delcampo, R. G. 2011. Human resource management demystified. New York, NY, McGraw-hill.

Elearn. 2005. Recruitment and selection management extra. Burlington, Elsevier.

Evans, J. R., J.Llindsay, W. M. 2002. The management and control of quality. Australia, south-western.

Garcaoea-Chas, R., Neira-Fontela, e., & Castro-Casal, C. 2014. High-performance work system and intention to leave: a mediation model. The international journal of human resource management. 25, 367-389.

Gilmore, S., & Williams, S. 2012. Human resource management. Oxford, oxford

Halvey, J. K., & Melby, B. M. 2007. Business process outsourcing process, strategies, and contracts. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons.

Holden, l., & Beardwell, I. 2001. Human resource management: a contemporary approach. Harlow, financial times prentice hall.

Koch, M. J. 2002. Recruitment and selection strategies in the firm: their determinants and labor productivity effects. [New York], Columbia university.

Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. 2000. Personnel: human resource management. St. Paul, MN, West pub. Co.

Mesner-Andolsek, D & Stebe, J. 2007. Knowledge management through a human resource management perspective. Changes in society, changes in organizations, and the changing role of hrm.

Millmore, M. 2007. Strategic human resource management: contemporary issues. Harlow, financial times prentice hall.

Mondy, R. W., Noe, R. M., & Gowan, M. 2005. Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson prentice hall.

Pinnington, A., Macklin, R., & Campbell, T. 2007. Human resource management ethics and employment. Oxford, Oxford university press.

Redman, T., & Wilkinson, A. 2006. Contemporary human resource management: text and cases. Harlow, England, ft/prentice hall.

Sears, V. L. 2005. Staffing in an adversary environment: creating defensible staffing strategies. Western city. 61.

Sims, R. 2007. Human resource management: contemporary issues, challenges, and opportunities. Charlotte, N.C., Information age pub.

Torrington, D., Hall, l., & Torrington, D. 2000. Human resource management. London, prentice hall Europe.

Torrington, D., Hall, l., & Taylor, S. 2002. Human resource management. New York, financial times prentice hall.

University of Michigan. 2001. Human resource management. Ann arbor, Mich, Graduate school of business administration.

Windolf, P. 2000. Recruitment, selection and internal labour markets in Britain and Germany. Organization studies. 7, 235-354.

Winstanley, D., & Woodall, J. 2000. Ethical issues in contemporary human resource management. New York, St. Martin’s press.

Zhang B., & Morris J.l. 2014. High-performance work systems and organizational performance: testing the mediation role of employee outcomes using evidence from pr china. International journal of human resource management. 25, 68-90.

Zupan, N., & Ograjensek, J. 2004. The link between human resource management and company performance. Journal of east-west business. 10, 105-119.

Footnotes

¹ M. Cook (2000). Outsourcing human resources functions: strategies for providing enhanced hr services at lower cost. New York, amacom. P.30/

² R. Garcaoea-Chas, E. Neira-Fontela,& C. Castro-Casal (2014). High-performance work system and intention to leave: a mediation model. The international journal of human resource management. P.370

³ P. Windolf (2000). Recruitment, selection and internal labour markets in Britain and Germany. Organization studies. P. 252.

⁴ M. Armstrong (2007). A handbook of employee reward management and practice. London, Kogan page. P. 72.

⁵ D.Winstanley & J. Woodall (2000). Ethical issues in contemporary human resource management. New York, St. Martin’s press. P.122.

⁶ R. Mathis & J. Jackson (2000). Personnel: human resource management. St. Paul, MN, West pub. Co.p.46.

⁷ N. Zupan & J. Ograjensek (2004). The link between human resource management and company performance. Journal of east-west business. P. 110.

⁸ D. Torrington, I. Hall & S. Taylor (2002). Human resource management. New York, financial times prentice hall. p. 88.

⁹ R. Delcampo (2011). Human resource management demystified. New York, NY, McGraw-hill. P. 100.

¹⁰B. Zhang & J. Morris (2014). High-performance work systems and organizational performance: testing the mediation role of employee outcomes using evidence from pr china. International journal of human resource management. p. 90.

¹¹ T. Redman & A. Wilkinson (2006). Contemporary human resource management: text and cases. Harlow, England, ft/prentice Hall.P. 94.

¹² University of Michigan. (2001). Human resource management. Ann arbor, Mich, Graduate school of business administration. P.32.

¹³ P. Boxall, J. Purcell & P. Wright (2007). The oxford handbook of human resource management. Oxford, oxford university press.p.86.

¹⁴T. Anderson & A. James (2001). The politics and economics of park management. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield publishers. p.44.

¹⁵ M. Millmore (2007). Strategic human resource management: contemporary issues. Harlow, financial times prentice hall. p.20.

¹⁶ J. Evans & W. Llindsay (2002). The management and control of quality. Australia, south-western. P.66.

¹⁷ J. Halvey & B. Melby (2007). Business process outsourcing process, strategies, and contracts. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons. p.39.

¹⁸ S. Gilmore & S. Williams (2012). Human resource management. Oxford, Oxford. p.122.

¹⁹ Elearn (2005). Recruitment and selection management extra. Burlington, Elsevier.p.90.

²⁰ M. Cook & S. Gildner (2006). Outsourcing human resources functions: how, why, when, and when not to contract for hr services. Alexandria, VA, society for human resource management. p.10.

²¹ V. Sears (2005). Staffing in an adversary environment: creating defensible staffing strategies. Western city. p.61.

²²M. Koch (2002). Recruitment and selection strategies in the firm: their determinants and labor productivity effects. [New York], Columbia university.p.110.

²³ C. Brewster (2008). Contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. Cape Town, Oxford University presses southern Africa. p. 55.

²⁴ I. Holden & I. Beardwell (2001). Human resource management: a contemporary approach. Harlow, financial times prentice hall. p.68.

²⁵ D. Mesner-Andolsek & J. Stebe (2007). Knowledge management through a human resource management perspective. Changes in society, changes in organizations, and the changing role of hrm. p.80.

²⁶ R. Mondy,R. Noe & M. Gowan (2005). Human resource management. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Pearson prentice hall. p.62.

²⁷ A. Pinnington, R.Macklin & T. Campbell. Human resource management ethics and employment. Oxford, Oxford university press. p. 74.

²⁸ R. Sims (2007). Human resource management: contemporary issues, challenges, and opportunities. Charlotte, N.C., Information age pub. p.48.

²⁹ R. Click & T. Dueling (2005). Business process outsourcing the competitive advantage. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & sons. p.57.

³⁰ D. Torrington, I. Hall & D. Torrington (2000). Human resource management. London, prentice hall Europe. p.38.