Introduction
Procter and Gamble (P&G) has evolved to become one of the world’s companies with market capitalization far greater than GDP of many countries of the world (Procter and Gamble, N.d). Today, the company serves consumers in more than 180 countries and this has presented the company with responsibility of being ethical corporate citizen.
In addition, its opportunity is embedded in the organization’s purpose that articulate that the company will be at forefront in providing branded products and services that are designed in superiority, quality, and value for providing sustainable best customer satisfaction. As a result, the company expects that “consumers will reward us with leadership sales, profit and value creation, allowing our people, our shareholders and the communities in which we live and work to prosper” (Procter and Gamble, N.d).
The report assessment will largely investigate P&G’s recruitment, selection, and induction management policy then make an evaluation of P&G policy before suggesting the necessary recommendations.
Identify the recruitment, selection and induction processes and policies for the organization
P&G utilizes a unique ‘Build from Within’ approach that has seen executive engagement in setting clear course for effective growing of leadership that has characterized P&G differently from other companies. The company values people, who form the vital asset and source of competitive advantage for the company.
As a result, the company interprets its success to strength of talent stream that it builds from within, and manages through a unique process led by the company’s CEO and other senor leadership team. Throughout the hiring process, a prospective candidate undergoes a thorough assessment aimed at deriving the competences of the candidate. Moreover, the hiring process at the company has been guided by the company’s philosophy that, “we hire the person not the position” (Procter and Gamble n.d, par.5).
P&G has favored a teamwork approach in their method of conducting their business. The company in an elaborative effort to receive applications from new hires has designed a free online interactive case-study game, which in most instances is carried out in classrooms, which in turn has evolved to become a centerpiece for the company’s recruitment efforts (Management, 2004).
Generally, before students can participate in the game, they are required to fill out an online application form, and thereafter, the students become eligible to play the game, with the eventual winner presented with an opportunity to attend a job interview.
The game is usually played in the classroom in an online chat room whereby P&G present a real product to the students and during the entire period of the game, the student and the company’s presenter in the chat room continue talking over marketing, pricing and production issues of the particular product (Management 2004).
As the game continues, P&G employee monitors the results in the chat room for around one hour. Therefore, the site provides a personalized way of interaction which is absent in other recruitment sites. In terms of assessment, the company uses these particular online assessments to measure the vital skills and other critical accomplishments, which may not come out from the usual interviews.
The assessments play a significant role in ensuring that the hiring process is successful and has value on the identified candidate. The assessment is usually of three types: Success Drivers Assessment; Reasoning Screen; and Reasoning Test (Procter and Gamble, N.d).
After the online selection of candidates has been done, an initial interview follows where the company normally uses employee behavioral-based interviews in order to get more information about the prospective employee, and in this process, the company greatly encourages two-way communication.
Apart from using the behavioral-based interviews, the company generally goes further to investigate the individual’s skills and other potential capabilities while at the same time presenting the prospective candidate with the opportunity to adequately understand the company’s unique culture, values and the available opportunities (Procter and Gamble, N.d). Nevertheless, the entire process has been viewed to be very rigorous, an opportunity the company believes gives it the best talents to develop and nurture.
This kind of online recruitment has presented some benefits to P&G whereby it has seen less recruitment paperwork, reduced time as far as recruitment exercise is concerned. In addition, recruited personnel generally are productive in executing their roles, while less people (human resource experts) are normally required in the recruitment process hence it becomes faster to recruit.
Lastly, salary costs have become less because of this procedure. In general, P&G hires people who normally have no clear vision of the position they intend to hold in the company where the company greatly appears to look for soft skills and persons who are ready for growth and nurturing (Management, 2004).
Recommendations
For a long time infrastructure requirements activities have been to attract, retain, and motivate employees (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984, p.2) and many practitioners have refereed to them as human resource management (HRM) practices.
Within this perspective, P&G needs to develop articulate and functional HRM practices that involve human resource planning, staffing which include recruitment, selection and socialization, appraising and compensation, training and development and union-management relationships (Schuler and MacMillan, 1984, p.2).
The result of managing human resources in an effective manner should be the priority of P&G while at the same time retain qualified personnel who are greatly motivated to carry out their roles as this will bring a lot of benefits to the company in terms of: greater profitability, low employee turnover, high product quality, lower production costs and more fast acceptance and implementation of the company’s strategy (Schuler and MacMillan 1984, p.2).
Staffing has become the most crucial element for the success and sustainability of any given company. For instance, Marivic Butod observes that, “to proactively respond to the replacements of recent turnovers as well as upsizing the caliber of talent and therefore increasing the capability of the company by means of adding new competencies set, strategic recruitment and selection is the key” (Butod, 2010). Recruitment and selection are vital to the function of any organization (Nelson 1997 cited in Butod, 2010).
Identify and analyze it’s linkage to the organization strategic and operation plans
This particular recruitment policy is in accordance with the company’s strategic and operation plans. The company’s strategic plans centers on providing the market with sustainable innovative products and key to realization of this will be through engaging and equipping all the company employees to build sustainability thinking and practices in their daily lives.
For a company to realize its strategic objectives, the staffing policy should be designed within perspectives of competitive advantages. For instance, it is always advisable to hire a person who has a knack and ambition to learn as well as competent enough to work in a dynamic environment. At the same time there should be the promotion of cross-training and multi-disciplinary approach to the new employees.
Recommendations
The company needs to develop a human resource plan that reflects the decision to recruit which should be in line with short, medium and long-term requirements of the company and that considers in-depth skills, competencies and diversity mix. There should be periodic evaluation of the recruitment strategy to ascertain the usefulness and benefits of the strategy. For instance the company should carry out evaluation on its sources of recruitment.
A cost-benefit analysis can be of great help in such case whereby analysis should be done in terms of the number of applicants referred, interviewed, selected and hired. Such an opportunity will enable the organization to make a comparison of the effectiveness of applicants hired from various sources in terms of job performance. The evaluation strategy can also examine the retention rates of employees hired from the different sources.
Are advertising of vacant positions compliant with organizational policy and legal requirements?
In compliance to the advertisement of position, P&G through its online application has the place for Job Title which upon clicking allows an individual to read about job descriptions and the necessary skills. At the same time the company has Career Advice Center that contains a list of career functions. In terms of compensation, each job description spells out the possible terms of compensation and benefits.
Recommendations
For any recruitment process to be regarded as effective, it must go through the following steps: job definition, person specification, designing of recruitment and selection process, job marketing, job application designs, receiving and documenting applications, running the selection process, carrying-out final checks, offer employment agreeing on employment terms and conditions that include contract and induction (Peel and Dale, 2001 cited in Butod, 2010).
Further, Dale suggests that the recruitment process should encourage the prospective people where it should aim to attract the right people at the right time while work towards interesting them on what is offered, thereby tempting them to submit their application (cited in Butod, 2010). Further, recruitment effectiveness should be influenced by the content and medium of the recruitment and these should be followed by process of information collecting, prediction, decision-making, and information supply (Dale, 2003 cited in Butod 2010).
On the other hand, Cooper, Robertson and Tinline (2003) see selection of employees to be largely concerned with identifying training needs, determining health and safety issues, providing a rational and acceptable salary structure and creating performance appraisals while at the same time reorganizing the company’s workforce (cited in Butod 2010).
In any selection process, the basic question to answer is ‘what is required by the job?’ (Butod, 2010). As a result, people involved in recruitment need to consider the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) or the necessary job related criteria to avoid cases of illegalities arising (Montana and Charnov, 2000 cited in Butod, 2010).
Furthermore, any selection process needs to be based on elaborative “legal and competency-based interviews, effective documentation of each interview, relevant tests and comprehensive background and reference checks and the whole process should put into account both job-specific tangible and intangible qualities” (Butod, 2010).
On the same measure, the specific company should strictly adhere to the company’s affirmative action goals and assessment of the organization-wide and departmental levels of diversity (Arthur 2005 cited in Butod, 2010).
Review and assess the training provisions and other forms of support provided to all persons involved in the recruitment and selection process
P&Gonline recruitment process involves the company’s employee interacting with a prospecting applicant in the chat room. The applicant is asked question regarding marketing, pricing and production and the results of his or her responses are monitored for about one hour. No details are available on the training and skills of the company’s online recruiters.
Recommendations
The online recruitment team should be trained on how to identify and redesign the recruitment process so that it is able to move fast with an exchange of standardized data.
Also most qualified candidates are usually passive job seekers who are currently employed but may be interested in new job opportunities, therefore the company’s online recruiters should have skills of developing a strategy to identify qualified passive job seekers and encourage them to apply. Lastly there should be a comprehensive training program for the company’s online recruitment personnel.
Provide feedback obtained from participants and relevant managers on the extent to which the induction process is meeting objectives
A successful selection procedure gives way to vital aspect in the organization that of employee socialization. An effective induction process generally leads to employee loyalty for the company; although sometime the induction process may be rigorous it should be done in an environment that promotes humility and openness especially to the new employees.
In its function, induction process enhances the integration of the new employees to the system and in order for this to be successful; the HR policy related to hiring should ensure that there is proper planning and orientation as well as ensuring that in the induction process is continuous.
Recommendations
P&G need to develop an induction program that is standard and addresses the professional knowledge, skills, dispositions and performance for the new employees. Further the company needs to adopt a culture of training formal mentors who can be given responsibility of mentoring and inducting new employees than just relying on fellow employees.
Identify whether they have implemented strategies addressing the policy legal compliance to relevant legislations and its impact on diversity
As evident in many organizations recruitment and selection procedures needs to comply with relevant legislation and guidance on equal opportunities. Each post should have a written job description and person specification. Many of the legal requirements have been fulfilled by P&G on its policy of online recruitment.
Recommendations
P&G should create and have an Equal Opportunities Policy which should be based on the codes of practice in relation to equal pay and sex discrimination. At the same time the company should fulfill all legal obligations under the relevant legislation and associated codes of practice. The policy should greatly redress any imbalances including taking positive or affirmative action.
Identify the role of psychometric testing
Psychometric tests are a standardized sample of behavior that can be described by a numerical scale or category system (Coates 2001). In most cases psychometric tests are multiple choice or short answer tests normally used to measure intelligence and ability of a job applicant. The tests usually are used to diagnose an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.
Recommendation
P&G should design psychometric tests that do not reflect or result into discriminatory admission practices especially due to cultural bias. In this perspective a well-designed, reliable and valid psychometric test should be developed that has the ability to provide objectivity by removing bias and unfairness from admission, selection and training decisions.
Identify the selection methods used and their impact on finding the best talents
P&G in its online recruitment uses employee behavioral-based interviews. This technique has been favored by the company due to its ability of being more accurate at predicting individual’s potential than what tradition techniques do. By getting a real life view of how a job candidate will actually perform the company has been able to increase in productivity, experienced lower turnover, higher morale and better customer service due to selection of right candidates. At the same time the technique is seen to be more cost effective.
Recommendations
The company should create a selection program that is organizational wide in nature and that is systematic in interviewing process supporting the company’s vision, mission, values and strategic objectives.
Identify the induction process and its impact on the new employees
P&G has an induction program known as ‘Go, Give and Grow which provides new recruited graduates with an opportunity to work for 12 months in any developing country in collaboration with WHO or UNICEF. The induction programs intend to help the new recruits to undergo transition in the developing country. During the stay the new graduate recruits are provided with a conducive environment to ensure the develop both personally and professionally.
Recommendations
P&G should enhance its induction program to incorporate the complexities and the unique needs of its new graduates in a totally new environment. Also the induction program should be evaluated periodically to ascertain its viability in regard to changing environmental context.
Conclusion
The process of recruiting and selecting employees has resulted into the stability of an organization since new and talented personnel are able to join the company. The process should be viewed as a value-adding and success-contributing activity for the company.
Recruitment in many cases is likely to succeed when it is based on a comprehensive and accurate job description; recruiters are familiar with the requirements of the position; and realistic job previews have been provided. At the same time it is paramount to ensure that selection techniques used in screening applicants are largely linked to an accurate job description procedure.
Since employee selection is an intuitive process that a company initiates and accomplishes it is prudent always for the selection techniques to be carefully designed and the whole process of recruiting new employees should be cost-efficient for the organization while remaining purely legal hence the selection process that the company adopts needs to be technically sound and legal at the same time.
Reference List
Butod, M., 2010. How effective is recruitment and selection in enabling organizations to achieve their strategic objectives. Web.
Coates, M., 2001. Psychology and organizations. UK, Heinemann. Web.
Management. 2004. P&G’s Innovative Student Recruiting. Web.
Procter and Gamble. The Power of Purpose. Web.
Schuler, R. S. and MacMillan, I. C., 1984. Gaining Competitive Advantage through Human Resource Management Practices. Web.