Essay Example on Maximizing Human Resource Potential: Keys to Achieving Business Goals

Introduction

Over the years, business planning has increasingly become a key determining factor for the success of any business entity. One key element of business planning is human resource planning and development, which entails searching, hiring and maintaining a motivated and competent workforce that can propel businesses and organizations towards achieving their goals. This workforce comprises of persons who introduce their values and perspectives to organizations. Effective management and development of these persons, thus, ensure the enhancement of organizational values and culture.

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However, the workforce can also underachieve due to workplace failures or shortcomings in recruitment and selection. Djabatey (2012) described recruitment and selection as a process of attracting competent and sufficient persons on a well-timed basis. When considered separately, recruitment entails identifying and inviting potential individuals both from inside and outside a company to initiate the evaluation of their suitability for employment. On the other hand, selection involves the making of decisions about the individuals who will be hired or rejected.

Recruiting and selecting the wrong people or failure to plan for fluctuations for recruitment needs can be devastating for businesses and organizations. One of the consequences is that the productivity rate will decrease since the companies will have to spend more resources in training and retraining wrong people, which would have otherwise been reinvested in growing the business. Besides, recruitment failures will also lead to the incurring of additional financial costs as companies have to pay for another recruitment exercise to replace the wrong individuals. Therefore, in light of these negative effects, organizations need to put in more efforts in planning the recruitment and selection process as well as human resource development.

Purpose of the Study

This study aims at assessing a current challenge that companies in Canada face in recruitment and selection. The challenge to be assessed is the difficulty in attracting and retaining the right individuals that companies face especially in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Through a qualitative method that entails a literature review and a theoretical analysis of this issue, this study sees to establish the gap in the recruitment and selection processes that causes this issue and proposes recommendations on how companies can remedy the issue.

Statement of the Problem

In the past, corporations tended to recruit their employees by preparing a comprehensive job analysis aimed at establishing the duties that specific jobs required and the character and qualifications that a good candidate ought to possess. Since candidates were aware of this protocol, they ensured that they met the specific requirements captured in this analysis. As such, corporations attracted and selected the right candidates for various jobs (Cappelli, 2019). Considering the case of Canada, however, in present times, attracting the right individuals has been challenging for Canadian corporations. Trying to pinpoint the right candidates from a group of talents or applicants proves to be difficult owing to the limited options available. Cappelli (2019) argued that census results indicate that in 2018, most of the people who secured job positions were not looking for them as companies announced inexistent jobs hoping to attract individuals that would be beneficial later or in a different situation. Such a strategy meant that these companies only select the best candidates that are available at a certain time but not the most suitable for the job. With that in mind, companies in Canada continue struggling to attract the right and qualified individuals to meet their demand for employees.

Background of the Problem

The process of recruitment and selection is increasingly facing major impediments in the current job market conditions. Unlike a decade ago, Le Phan (2018) purported that companies are operating in a candidate-driven market, where the expectations of job-seekers influence significantly the selection criteria used by companies. The low unemployment rates make it more challenging to engage competent and brilliant persons for new job positions. In the technology sector, for instance, both start-ups and well-established corporations have to compete to attract and retain top talents. This competition is heightened by the tendency of highly skilled entrants to opt to work remotely, thereby lowering considerably the availability of specialized individuals. Besides, these individuals require far-reaching technologies to perform their tasks exemplary.

Keating (2017) projected that by 2019, companies in the Canadian technology sector would experience a high demand for 182000 skillful personnel. The city of Vancouver in British Columbia is among the leading economic hubs in Canada. Technology firms in Vancouver have witnessed increased employment rates over the years, with the number of employed people increasing from 28000 in 1990 to 58200 in 2014. Additionally, these firms have created about 8000 jobs since 2010 (Keating, 2017). Nonetheless, irrespective of this progress, these firms are encountering difficulties in attracting skilled candidates, especially in managerial positions, who would propel the firms' rise to local and global dominance.

Keating (2017) continued to state that companies in Vancouver need to attract and hire the right candidates to occupy 2000 positions currently and 15500 positions in the next five years created by the growth of these companies. However, the number of available top talents cannot meet the rising demand for specialized professionals in the technology industry and other sectors. There will be an estimated deficit of about 30000 trained candidates to occupy vacancies in companies in British Columbia by 2021. For this reason, unless these companies, the government and other stakeholders devise direct solutions to this problem, the shortage of right candidates to take available jobs will worsen, thereby derailing business growth significantly.

Review of Related Information

Hiring and retaining the right individuals in the workforce contributes immensely to the development of a productive team that can steer an organization towards achieving its planned objectives. A company's ability to develop a competent workforce begins with recognizing and choosing the right candidates for specific jobs. These candidates can develop their capabilities as they work, acclimatize with the specific environment of each job and even help or motivate their workmates to improve their workplace performance. With that in mind, hiring managers should understand what recruiting and selecting the right people entails.

The Vital Steps Taken when Making Successful Recruitment Choices

Essentially, there are three key steps that hiring managers should consider when recruiting personnel in their companies. The first step is to describe the talent and expertise required by their specific companies. Here, the hiring managers design a talent profile that gives details about the company and job, and can be used when advertising the jobs and as criteria for selecting the most suitable candidates ("Recruiting the Right People", n.d.). This profile also defines what qualifications, attributes and competencies a company expects from potential candidates. As such, the hiring managers specify their company objectives that are in line with the jobs positions to be filled, the fundamental roles and responsibilities of each job position, the attributes and skills needed, previous experience requirements, and the training or education requirements.

The second step involves attracting the right individuals. In the present corporate world, is intense competition for highly skilled people and dedicated personnel among organizations ("Recruiting the Right People", n.d.). Mostly, potential candidates look for employers who can keep them motivated, show a high level of accountability, engagement, provide flexible work schedules and opportunities to learn and develop professionally. Nonetheless, despite companies desiring to attract and recruit the most suitable candidates, finding them may be time-consuming and costly. The main concern for organizations is determining where to search for these candidates depending on the number and quality of available applicants. All in all, the hiring managers have to communicate using the talent profile what their organizations are looking for in applicants to deem them to be most suitable for the available jobs.

The third step entails the selection of the best applicants. Selecting the most suitable people is the hardest step for companies in their efforts to attract top talent ("Recruiting the Right People", n.d.). Sometimes, though, employees recommend the best talents to their managers, which make the selection process easier. All in all, the managers have to assess applicants against the designed talent profile. This assessment enables the managers to identify the applicants having job experience, skills and training required for a certain position, applicants who were successful in their previous work commitments, and whether these applicants are still committed to their previous jobs. It is after this assessment that the hiring managers can make their final decisions on who to select by inviting the top candidates for interviews. These interviews can test the candidates' characters, values and communication skills, which managers use to decide who to either eliminate or hire.

The Factors that Lead to the Difficulty in Attracting the Right People

Shortage of Labor

In recent times, Canada has experienced robust economic growth, with the GDP growing by 2% in 2018 and expected to maintain this growth rate in 2020 (Cocolakis, 2018). However, this economic growth has created an unprecedented shortage of labor due to the increasing demand for workers by Canadian businesses. Cocolakis (2018) continued to argue that the availability of workers has been decreasing since 2000. This decline is projected to continue, despite a recent boost, due to the high number of workers in the baby boomers generation retiring. Consequently, about 40% of the medium and small-sized firms in Canada are likely to experience difficulties in finding and attracting the right workers to hire (Cocolakis, 2018).

Canada's workforce growth rate has been falling from 1.2% in 2000 to 0.2% in 2018 and is estimated to remain below 0.2% between 2020 and 2030 (Cocolakis, 2018). The provinces of Ontario, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada have the most severe labor shortages compared to the other provinces. The impact that this shortage has on attracting and selecting suitable people is such that 39% of the respondents surveyed by Cocolakis (2018) stated that it is hard to hire new workers while 25% did not find any difficulty. The construction, retail and manufacturing sectors are the most likely to experience difficulties in attracting employees. Statistically, Cocolakis (2018) revealed that 56% of the respondents in the manufacturing sector indicated facing challenges in attracting suitable personnel, while 54% and 48% of the respondents in the retail and construction sectors also indicated to have faced challenges. When considered in terms of regions, Atlantic Canada has the highest percentage of entrepreneurs (50%) who reported to have found it hard to attract and hire new workers. It was followed closely by British Columbia (45%), Ontario (40%), Quebec (37%) and Prairies (32%) (Cocolakis, 2018)....