Introduction
The level of competition in different industries in which organizations operate today is high and calls for increased competitiveness. In order to improve the competitiveness, firms could engage in different firm activities that may include process improvement. This may call for analysis of the problem and seeking different ways of solving the issues. In order to improve business processes, an organization needs to have the necessary knowledge and expertise.
The business process could be attained through establishment of change such as business process reengineering. In spite of the good intentions of the changes, there is always a resistance to change that could lead to project failure as examined in this paper. In addition, this paper examines reengineering as an example of process improvement in organizations.
Manual Business process: Hiring New Employees for Tawazun Holding
Human resources are important resources in Tawazun Holding and the recruitment of any new employee in the firm is undertaken with the required seriousness. A good recruitment program is important for an organization to fill the existing gap of the required resources in the company.
An organization needs to determine the right skill that it looks for from the applicants. Moreover, as Tawazun Holding recruits the employees, it ensures that it adheres to the legal regulations of employment such as tax remissions. A manual recruitment process of Tawazun Holding begins by problem identification.
Problem Identification
Organizations face many issues some of which are complex while others are simple. The identification of problems of Tawazun Holdings is followed by prioritizing the issues so that the company can make decision on which issues to be solved first.
Symptoms: the establishing of the issues affecting the organization is followed by diagnosing the features or symptoms of the problem. The symptoms of the problems of the firm are distinguished from the causes of the problem. Business analysts usually hear many issues affecting, the firm and they give many solutions.
It is important that the firm does not ignore any solution given as every aspect may be helpful in this or that situation. However, the solutions provided are usually argued out with the management of the firm in order to establish its effectiveness.
Alternatives: after serious analysis of a given situation existing in Tawazun Holding and hearing possible solutions from a business analyst, the organization develops alternatives for its HR problems. The approaches that could solve the problem of an organization could come with different consequences and costs that make it necessary for the management to discuss each alternative exclusively.
After discussion of each alternative, it is important that the management make a decision regarding the best solution to fix its HR issues. The decision is usually based on the best approach that solves HR problem affecting the firm while leaving it with the least negative effects. The decision made is followed by implementation and follow up of the effectiveness of the approach.
Follow up is important for the firm to ensure that the approach follows the set guidelines and that it has no side effects. In the process of solving an HR issue affecting the firm and its change process, Tawazun Holding does use various methods. Some approaches include cause effect approach and business process reengineering that involves other process including hiring of new employees.
Problem identification in summary involves various steps as explained in the next section.
- Gap Identification: this is the initial process in which the human resource manager of the organization identifies the existing gap in terms of the necessary skills that the firm needs. Under this step, the firm identifies the job descriptions in which it needs to hire new employees with focus being on the required skills. Moreover, the position should be matched with the relevant responsibilities and daily deliverables.
- Advertisement: this step involves the firm advertising the vacant positions in the organization in various media channels such as the print, audio, broadcast and the electronic media. The adverts describe the position, the skills required and the responsibilities.
- Interview and hiring process: this process involves an organization conducting interviews of various positions that are vacant in the firm. In the interview process, an organization could ask the applicants various questions regarding their eligibility of the various jobs. This step is crucial in determining the right candidates for the vacant position in the organization, as it is possible to determine the expertise and experience of the recruits. Moreover, an organization needs to adhere with legal regulations regarding discrimination of employees. Employee should not be discriminated against in either manner such as by race, disability, gender or religion among many others.
- Legal regulations adherence: this step is vital, as any organization conducting a recruitment of employees needs to observe various legal regulations as listed below.
- Employer identification number: it is the duty of the hiring organization to secure the employer identification number for its new employees and ensure that the firm complies with legal regulation on tax.
- Employee eligibility: it is mandatory that all employers determine the eligibility of their employees in working in the U.S. Consequently, all employees are required to fill the employee eligibility form within three days of employment.
- Orientation and training: after hiring successful candidates, it is necessary that they are oriented on the specific duties within the firm, a process that could take a week to various months depending on the organization.
- The manual hiring process for Tawazun Holding followed the above steps. After the advertisements of the job, interested candidates used to drop their physical CV to the main recipient in the company. Others used to send their CVs through mails or by fax. After their application, applicants used to follow up on the position applied by contacting the HR manager in the organization through calls or physically meeting him/her in the firm.
- After receiving the CVs, the firm would be collected and sorted manually based on various factors such as the position applied, the education levels and experience among others. In addition, the candidates’ personal details such as candidates’ names, courses, experiences, majors and contacts among others were entered manually in an excel spreadsheet. A request by the management would see that the candidates’ report sheet would be produced and filtered. Qualified candidates would then be called for a test and an interview with the recruitment team that includes the HR manager of the firm.
- After the interview, the good candidates would be sorted based on test results and interview outcome. Respective departmental managers in the organization would then interview successful candidates. The satisfaction and agreement of all parties would see the successful candidates sign an employment contract with Tawazun Holdings that was prepared by the company’s HR manager. The company’s HR manager, line managers, and the employee signed the employment contract.
Issues with the Manual Recruitment Process for Tawazun Holdings
The manual recruitment process of Tawazun Holdings had various issues that were not helpful to the company. The first issue with the company was that the entire process was time consuming since the company had to begin with the identification of the required vacancies, followed by advertising and reception of CVs for candidates.
This was followed by the manual recruitment exercise that involved manual sorting of the CVs. The company wasted valuable time that could be used for other productive activities. The other issue was that Tawazun Holdings was a new organization that was not popular.
Therefore, not many candidates could apply for a vacancy in the firm, as they did not know whether there exists such a firm. Lastly, the reported data in the recruitment process was not accurate. False information could be reported as the entire process was manual and was prone to human errors. Due to these issues, it was necessary to establish another automated recruitment process for Tawazun Holding Corporation.
Automated Business process: Hiring New Employees from an Online Hiring Company
The failure of manual recruitment of employees to Tawazun Holding led the firm to seek other measures that included the use of online recruitment for its employees. The recruitment agencies that Tawazun Holding is dealing in recruiting its employees are Kawader, First choice international and Trust Conso. The recruitment of employees online involved various measures that the firm undertook. To begin with, Tawazun holding established its own website on which a section for candidates was created.
In the section, the employees of the company could register online by providing their personal details such as their names, majors, experience, education levels and contacts among many other details. Moreover, the candidates could attach their CVs in a section on the website in order to provide the organization with their further details.
Upon receiving the CVs, they would initially be dumped in a database pool for all candidates. The human resource manager then sorts the CVs using a filter icon with certain key words that include the job candidates have applied for (e.g. secretary, accountant, cashier etc) and the education levels among others.
Upon filtering, 15 best candidates are chosen by the system. They are called for further tests and interviews from the organization. A further analysis of the performance of the tests and interviews ensures that the firm reduces the applicants to the best five who are subjected to another final interview with departmental managers.
The satisfaction of all parties in the organization with the candidates leads to their employment as employees of Tawazun Holdings. Upon employment, the successful recruits sign an employment contract that is prepared by the HR manager of Tawazun Holding. The candidates, the HR manager and the line managers sign the contract. This marks the beginning of work with the organization as an employee for successful candidates.
In summary, the recruitment process in such an arrangement could include only a few steps as explained below:
- Identify the vacant positions: under this step, an organization needs to identify the vacant positions, the description of the job and the required skills and knowledge.
- Vendor identification: the company needs to identify a recruitment vendor to conduct the recruitment and hiring of new employees to fill the vacant positions. It therefore hands the list of required employees and their requirements to the vendor.
Orientation and training: the organization receives vetted employees with the required skills to fill the vacant positions and therefore orients and trains the employees on their new roles in the organization.
Benefits of Reengineering to Tawazun Holding
The hiring and recruitment process as described above is different for different organizations. Tawazun Holding that undertakes a manual approach to recruitment of new employees manually is most likely to use more time and incur more costs as compared to using an updated and reengineers employee recruitment process using an online vendor such as Monster.
Not only do benefits of recruitment process reengineering occur in costs but also in other factors. Tawazun Corporation could save time as the period taken for recruitment and hiring of new employees is reduced. In order for a business process to work, it must produce benefit rather than internal activity.
Tawazun Holding does not need to undergo all hiring processes such as advertising for vacancies, conducting interviews and ensuring that the new employees are eligible to work in the U.S. all these processes are undertaken by the online recruitment firm. Therefore, the organization will save the time and resources used in such processes.
The utilization of online hiring companies is very economical for companies that require many employees to fill in many positions, as the process will be accompanied by economies of large-scale production. However, the process may not be favourable for an organization that only needs a few employees. It may turn out to be costly.
The internet as a source of Business Process Management
Technology has advanced over time to change business management even as the business environment becomes dynamic and competitive. Globalization and the use of the internet have made many firms to operate at a global level. Many firms are seeking improvement of their processes from online companies that provide various services. One of such companies is Appian (www.appian.com).
This online organization provides various services and products to its clients such as cloud computing, social and mobile business management suite. Many organizations use the products and services provided by the Appian. One of beneficiaries of the services offered by the Appian is the federal government that use the IT skills of the firm to manage its business processes. The government used cloud-computing services offered by the Appian to manage its processes.
Through such processes, the federal government has reduced its costs of operation drastically as the government does not need to have all the required IT personnel but only a few. In addition, the government has to do with reduced number of data centres compared to situations that it had to deal with many data centres especially when it used to manage its own business processes.
The Amazon is another large organization that utilizes the services offered by the Appian. The company uses the Appian BPM product that automates activities of the company to execute its financial processes. The purchase to pay activity in the organization has been reengineered by the BPM offered by Appian, the accounts payable group that has improved the business activity and by enabling processing of thousands of invoices in a given business day.
The U.S Marine Corps is responsible for procuring products and services to be consumed by the U.S forces from private vendors. An expensive process that consumed a lot of time and could not meet the company’s demand faced the company. Given the issues facing the organization, the management approached was offered the best BPM solution.
The company uses a web based BPM with a portal for procuring the products and services electronically. The Appian helped the firm secure a centralized point of managing its procurement activities.
The benefits of these BPM processes are that they have helped the company improve its procurement process through reduced periods and costs. Apart from these two companies, many other companies are using the BPM software provided by the company. They include Clayton Holdings, psHEALTH and Benenden Healthcare among many other companies.
Important Functionalities of BPM products offered by the Appian Corporation
The Appian Corporation offers a range of BPM processes for many organizations. The products offered vary basing on many factors. One of the main determinants of the BPM product used by the firm is its size and type of process that an organization wants to improve. The company offers custom products that are tailored for specific needs of an organization.
For instance, the portal in electronic form was offered to the U.S Marine Corps to reengineer its procurement processes. The Appian Corporation provides cloud-computing services to its clients. These services include software solutions to subscribers in form of services rather than software.
In addition, the company provides a single central location for an organization’s business processes as the company’s data and information is stored is a centralised location. Subscribers could access their confidential data and information online 24 hours for seven days. Other BPM services offered by the company include software solutions for managing credit risks, claims management solutions for insurance firms such as Territory insurance office and Crawford.
Comparison of Appian BPM and Metastorm for AmerisourceBergen
AmerisourceBergen is a multinational corporation that deals with pharmaceutical products. The company was faced with the challenges of managing the organization including difficulties in conducting businesses in terms of contracts and establishing a good relationship with its clients. Following extensive search for service vendors, the firm settled on Metastorm Corporation that offered it a software solution.
The solution involve an online program that automates, implements, establishes collaborative contracts and chargeback process that aims at establishing a good pricing system for the firm. Using the services, the firm was able to establish a real time system that manufactures, distributes and collaborates and established communication between the company and its clients including both suppliers and consumers.
The BPM system offered by Metastorm to AmerisourceBergen is similar to the services provided to Appian as both firms provide a variety of BPM process their clients. The only difference is that the services offered to AmerisourceBergen are many and are provided on a large scale given that the firm is a multinational corporation operating on a large scale and in different locations.
On the contrary, Appian provides services to many medium sized companies, though in different locations. In summary, both firms are competitors within the same industry with the Appian operating in a smaller scale that Metastorm.