The labor market is paradoxical. On one hand, the number of people looking for jobs is high. On the other, there is a shortage of talented people available for hire.
This situation is very rampant in many industries. Talented individuals are difficult to find and retain. This is very pronounced in the engineering sector. The approach many companies use in the hiring of engineers is that they employ engineering graduates fresh from college. They then find ways of training and retaining them to ensure that they remain in the company for as long as possible.
This is because engineering jobs tend to carry a lot of influence on the production processes of an organization and can determine its profitability and long-term sustainability. In order to find engineers to fill in job openings, there is need to develop a recruitment, selection, and onboarding plan. This paper presents a comprehensive plan needed to hire twenty bilingual engineers to increase the capacity of the company to service a federal government contract.
Recruitment Plan
The recruitment plan needed to hire these engineers should start with the development of a clear statement of the human resource needs for the project. These needs relate to the actual tasks that the engineers will need to perform, the strategic needs of the company, and the responsibility of the company towards the community. This means that the company needs to hire engineers who will be able to meet the needs of the organization.
The company will need to find ways of bringing the vacancies to the attention of all the qualified engineers to ensure that they capture the best talent available in the market. This will call for the development of a strong campaign to reach all the potential engineers. In part, this will require the organization to study the current employment climate for engineers. Based on this, the company will be able to develop an attractive package that will ensure it attracts the best talent.
After the completion of the preliminary issues, the company should invite applications from the available engineers. This should include the use of the social media to find the best talent for the job. Social media is becoming more important for HR because of its capacity to take information to a wide array of people (Mitchell 193).
In addition, the company can consider using the social media as a means of narrowing down on the best candidates for the jobs. There is growing evidence that the analysis of a person’s social media profile can help to determine their fit into an organization (Mitchell 193).
The company can also use other tests such as psychometric tests, cultural fit tests, and competency tests to find the best engineers for the positions (Yamamura, Birk and Cossitt 59). All these tests have some value in determining whether a person is ideal to fill a position. The interesting test in this context will be the cultural fit test.
This test will enable the company to know whether the potential hires have what it takes to fit within the culture of the organization (Overman 1). The culture of each organization is unique. This calls for the review of each applicant’s attitudes and values to ensure that the applicant will fit in the organization.
Selection Plan
The selection plan for the company covers the issues the company needs to consider when selecting the candidates to join the organization. The difference between the selection plan and the recruitment plan is that recruitment covers all activities done to attract the potential candidates who can fill in the role. However, the selection plan covers the specific decisions needed to make the choice of the actual candidates who join the organization.
It is prudent to find ways of reducing the pool of candidates in order to remain with those who have a realistic chance of joining the organization. During the recruitment process, a good job can attract a very large number of candidates. Many potential employees can tell when a good job is on offer.
The company will have a big task of sifting through hundreds, and maybe thousands of applicants before finding the best ones. The first step in the selection plan is usually to eliminate the candidates who lack the basic criteria needed for the job. In this case, the basic criterion is having an engineering degree, and proficiency in both English and Spanish.
The second step can include the steps proposed in the recruitment plan such as psychometric testing and culture testing (Overman 1). These steps can help eliminate candidates who do not meet a certain criteria. A good application of testing is to use it at the screening level.
For instance, a psychometric test can help weed out applicants after the initial short listing. A culture test can be used in the final stages of the selection process when the number of candidates is smaller (Overman 2). It is good practice to have a target number of applicants in each stage. The number should be a range, because a fixed number may lead to loss of promising talent, or retention of poor talent.
One-on-one interviews should be reserved for later recruitment stages. It is important to have at least one interview per candidate conducted by senior employees, preferably the managers. This helps to instill a sense of importance to the process. It also serves as an important way of introducing the potential employees to potential mentors.
Onboarding Plan
Onboarding is extremely important in the process of talent management. This comes from the need to ensure that an employee achieves optimum performance as quickly as possible after they join the organization. The onboarding plan for engineers is even more complex because of the technical nature of their work. The three main proposals for onboarding of new engineers are as follows.
First, it will be prudent to conduct a review of their interviews because the company will be in possession of a large amount of information regarding each applicant (Byham 15). The review should aim at identifying their strengths. I should also show them how the company expects to benefit from those strengths.
Secondly, it should aim at communicating the weaknesses the interviewers observed in order to find ways of dealing with these weaknesses. Thirdly, the review should aim at developing a mentorship relationship between the new employee and the person leading the review session.
The second proposal on onboarding of new engineers is helping them to develop working relationships with existing employees (Byham 16). The best way to do this is by including the new recruits in ongoing projects either in observer capacity, or as members of the project teams. The company may also provide the new employees with opportunities to shadow experienced staff in the company.
The third means of onboarding is the development of mentorship roles in the organization to ensure that each new engineer has a mentor. This will serve to reduce mistakes and to increase a sense of support for the new engineers.
Works Cited
Byham, William C. “Strong Start to Job Success: What Leaders Can Do to Shorten Time to Proficiency, Increase Job Engagement, and Reduce Early Turnover.” Development Dimensions International (2008): 1-22. Print.
Mitchell, Stephen G. “Supplemental Recruiting Services: A Viable Solution in Challenging Times.” Nursing Economics (2009): 192-196. Print.
Overman, Stephenie. “A Perfect Match: Personality Assessments Can Help Reveal Whether an Applicant is a Good Fit For the Job and the Organization.” Staffing Management 2 April 2010: 1-2. Print.
Yamamura, Jeanne H, Cynthia A Birk and Betty J Cossitt. “Attracting and Retaing Talent: The Importance of First Impressions.” The CPA Journal (2010): 58-63. Print.