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Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 321 Human Resource Management > CONSCIENTIOUSNESS Conscientiousness is the degree to which an individual is achievementoriented, careful, hard-working, organized, persevering, responsible, and thorough. People low on conscientiousness tend to be laid back, less goal-oriented, less driven by success, and less self-disciplined. They are often procrastinators. Conscientiousness is linked with successful academic and work performance. It’s a personality characteristic that is positively related to work performance across a wide range of jobs. Conscientiousness improves job performance directly because conscientious individuals simply pay more attention to the details of their jobs. It also 13 Insight improves success in training programs, which in turn improves job knowledge and future performance. Many employers tend to hire for attitude and train for skill.2 They try to identify future top performers by focusing on key personHow to Show Recruiters You ality characteristics that are Are Conscientious likely to predict job success. • Professional Résumé—Carefully Conscientiousness is often proofed, well-designed, and organized, at the top of recruiters’ “mustit shows you value a high-quality product and attend to details. have” lists. Their search for • Interview Preparation—Doing research clues about an individual job beforehand and being well informed candidate covers things like shows conscientiousness. • Self-Presentation—First impressions those shown in the box. How count; conscientiousness shows up in about you? Can your credendressing appropriately and acting protials meet a recruiter’s fessionally in manners and engagement. • Career Plans—Being able to thoughtconscientiousness test? BUILD SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES AT END OF CHAPTER ■ Engage in Further Reflection on Conscientiousness ■ Take the Self-Assessment on Performance Appraisal Assumptions ■ Complete the Team Exercise—Upward Appraisal ■ Solve the Career Situations for Human Resource Management ■ Analyze the Case Study—Two-Tier Wages: Same Job, Different Pay Learning About Yourself fully discuss career and personal plans shows you are goal-oriented and conscientious. SINCE WHEN IS SOMEONE’S FACEBOOK PROFILE MEANT TO BE AN ONLINE RÉSUMÉ? Personality Test? Drug Test? Facebook Test? Arda Guildogan/iStockphoto I t used to be that preparing for a job interview meant being ready to answer questions about your education, work experience, interests, and activities. Now there’s another question to prepare for: What’s your Facebook user name and password? It’s true. Many interviewers are now asking for access to an applicant’s Facebook page. They don’t want just a quick glance at the public stuff; they want access to the private profile too. And by the way, the recruiter’s request for access may be an indirect “Please friend me.” “It’s akin to requiring someone’s house keys,” says a law professor. “I needed the job to feed my family. I had to,” said one job candidate. Another turned down the request and withdrew her application. She didn’t want to work for an employer that would even ask to view her private web pages. While a Facebook profile can be a treasure chest of information for recruiters and employers, it is less clear whether it is ethical for a firm to tap into this resource to measure a candidate’s character and make employment decisions. Since when is one’s Facebook profile meant to be an online résumé? According to a survey by Microsoft Research, 70% of recruiters said that they had rejected applicants based on information they found online. Warren Ashton, group marketing manager at Microsoft, says: “For the first time ever, you suddenly have very public information about almost any candidate.” Sometimes negative decisions are made based on information involving relatively mild forms of questionable behavior such as using poor grammar, posting negative comments about prior employees, or uploading drinking pictures. Other decisions may be based on information or pictures that the individual has little control over. What happens if a “friend” posts a picture of someone from a party that occurred years ago, or if untrue information is posted as a joke among friends? ETHICS QUESTIONS What are the ethical issues involved with regard to recruiters asking for access to personal Facebook pages? Should it be held against an applicant to refuse? Is it okay for a manager to search online sites to check up on what employees are doing outside of work? And, should what one does outside of work cost someone their job? On the other hand, shouldn’t individuals who knowingly post online information understand that it may end up in the hands of their employers? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that men and women in the same organization be paid equally for doing work that is equivalent in terms of skills, responsibilities, and working conditions. But a lingering issue over gender disparities in pay involves comparable worth, the notion that persons performing jobs of similar importance should be paid at comparable levels. Why should a long-distance truck driver, for example, be paid more than an elementary teacher in a public school? Does it make any difference that truck driving is a traditionally male occupation and teaching is a traditionally female occupation? Advocates of comparable worth argue that historical disparities in pay across occupations can result from gender bias. They would like to have the issue legally resolved. The legal status and employee entitlements of part-time workers and independent contractors are also being debated. As organizations seek to reduce costs Comparable worth holds that persons performing jobs of similar importance should be paid at comparable levels. Independent contractors are hired as needed and are not part of the organization’s permanent workforce. Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 328 HUM AN RESOURCE MANAG E MENT Workplace privacy is the right to privacy while at work. and increase staffing flexibility, more and more persons are being hired as temporary workers who do not become part of an organization’s permanent workforce. Even though they work only “as needed,” however, many are engaged regularly by the same organization and become what some call “permatemps.” Because these employees often work without benefits such as health insurance and pensions, legal cases are now being brought before the courts seeking to make independent contractors eligible for benefits. Workplace privacy is the right of individuals to privacy on the job.20 It is legal for employers to monitor the work performance and behavior of their employees. But employer practices can become invasive and cross legal and ethical lines, especially with the capabilities that information technology now provides. Computers can easily monitor e-mails and track Internet searches for unauthorized usage; they can identify who is called by telephone and how long conversations last; they can document work performance moment to moment; and they can check online profiles for key words. All of this information, furthermore, can be stored in vast databases, even without the individual’s permission. Until the legal status of electronic surveillance is cleared up, one consultant says the best approach is to “assume you have no privacy at work.”21 LEARNING CHECK 1 TAKEAWAY QUESTION 1 What is human resource management? Be sure you can • explain the human resource management process • define discrimination, equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, and bona fide occupational qualification • identify major laws that protect against discrimination in employment • discuss legal issues of sexual harassment, comparable worth, independent contractors, and workplace privacy. Attracting a Quality Workforce The first responsibility of human resource management is to attract to the organization a high-quality workforce whose talents fit the jobs to be done. An advertisement once run by the Motorola Corporation clearly states the goal: “Productivity is learning how to hire the person who is right for the job.” To attract the right people, an organization must first know exactly what it is looking for; it must have a clear understanding of the jobs to be done and the talents required to do them well. Then it must have the systems in place to excel at employee recruitment and selection. Human Resource Planning Human resource planning analyzes staffing needs and identifies actions to fill those needs. Human resource planning is the process of analyzing an organization’s staffing needs and determining how to best fill them. As shown in Figure 13.2, human resource planning identifies staffing needs, assesses the existing workforce, and decides what additions or replacements are required for the future. The process becomes strategic when all this is done in specific reference to organizational mission, objectives, and strategies. Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com Attracting a Quality Workforce 329 FIGURE 13.2 Steps in strategic human resource planning. Step 1: Review organization mission, objectives, strategies Step 2: Review human resource objectives and strategies Make comparison Step 3: Assess current human resources How many people are available now, and with what qualifications? Step 5: Develop and implement human resource plans to match people and job openings • Recruiting & selection • Training & development • Compensation & benefits • Labor–management relations Step 4: Forecast human resource needs How many people will be required, when, and of what types? Legal environment and government regulations The foundations for human resource planning begin with job analysis—the orderly study of job facets to determine what is done when, where, how, why, and by whom.22 This information is then used to write or update job descriptions that describe specific job duties and responsibilities. The information in a job analysis is used to create job specifications. These are lists of the qualifications—such as education, prior experience, and skills—needed by someone hired for a given job. These specifications become important inputs to the recruiting process. A job analysis studies exactly what is done in a job, and why. A job description details the duties and responsibilities of a job holder. Job specifications list the qualifications required of a job holder. Recruiting Process Recruitment is a set of activities designed to attract a talented pool of job applicants to an organization. Three steps in a typical recruitment process are: (1) advertisement of a job vacancy, (2) preliminary contact with potential job candidates, and (3) initial screening to create a pool of applicants potentially meeting the organization’s staffing needs. Recruitment is a set of activities designed to attract a talented pool of job applicants. External and Internal Recruitment The recruiting that takes place on college campuses is one example of external recruitment, in which job candidates are sought from outside the hiring organization. External recruits are found through company websites and social media sites, virtual job fairs, specialized recruiting websites such as Monster and CareerBuilder, employment agencies and headhunters, university placement centers, personal contacts, and employee referrals. Internal recruitment, by contrast, seeks applicants from inside the organization. Most organizations have a procedure for announcing vacancies through newsletters, electronic postings, and the like. They also rely on managers and team leaders to recommend internal candidates for advancement. Both recruitment methods have potential advantages and disadvantages. External recruitment brings outside applicants with fresh perspectives, expertise, and work experience. But extra effort is needed to get reliable information on External recruitment seeks job applicants from outside the organization. Internal recruitment seeks job applicants from inside the organization. Find more at http://www.downloadslide.com 330 HUM AN RESOURCE MANAG E MENT Make the Most of Your Online Image Recruiters who check job candidates’ social media sites are not just looking for bad or inappropriate things. They’re also looking for positive indicators. A survey on recruiters’ use of social media sites showed that 39% hired a candidate because their profiles gave a good impression of the way their personality would fit with the organizational culture. Also, 36% hired a candidate because their profile supported their professional qualifications, and 34% hired a candidate because of the good references posted by others. The impression you create online may well determine whether or not you get hired. Vicky Kasala/Alamy them. A major downside of recruiting externally is that a hiring decision might turn out bad because either not enough information was gathered about the applicant, or what was discovered turned out to be inaccurate. Internal recruitment is usually quicker and focuses on persons whose performance records are well known. A history of internal recruitment builds loyalty and motivation in a workforce by showing that opportunities exist to advance within the organization. It also helps to reduce turnover rates and aids in the retention of high-quality employees. But internal recruiting has downsides as well. Limiting job searches to only internal talent pools raises the risks that the best candidate may not be chosen for a position. A valuable opportunity to bring in outside expertise and viewpoints might be lost at the very time when new insights, skills, and creativity are most needed by the organization. Realistic Job Previews Traditional recruitment focuses on selling the job and organization to applicants. Realistic job previews provide job candidates with all pertinent information about a job and an organization, both positive and negative. In what may be called traditional recruitment, the emphasis is on selling the job and organization to applicants. The focus is on communicating the most positive features of the position, perhaps to the point where negatives are downplayed or concealed. This may create unrealistic expectations that cause costly turnover when new hires become disillusioned and quit. The individual suffers a career disruption; the employer suffers lost productivity and the added costs of having to recruit again. The alternative to traditional recruitment is a realistic job preview that gives the candidate all pertinent information about the job and organization without distortion, and before the job is accepted.23 Instead of “selling” the applicant on the positive features of the job or organization, realistic job previews try to be open and balanced. Both favorable and unfavorable aspects are covered. The interviewer in a realistic job preview might use phrases such as “Of course, there are some downsides . . .”; “Something that you will want to be prepared for is . . .”; and “We have found that some new hires have difficulty with. . .;” And, such conversations may lead some applicants to decide that the job is not for them. But this avoids a mismatch that could prove troublesome later. For those who do take the job, knowing both the positive and negative features ahead of time builds realistic expectations and better prepares them for the inevitable ups and downs of a new position. The expected benefits of realistic recruiting practices include higher levels of early job satisfaction, greater trust in the organization, and less inclination to quit prematurely.