Internal and External Market Factors Paper Example

Introduction

The business environment has become very competitive to the extent that the human resource departments have developed ways of making sure that employees they get are the best and that they have the most conducive working environment for offering the highest quality service. When workers feel comfortable and appreciated within the workplace, they will also put in their best and stop having thoughts of looking for some other place to get employment. However, for that to happen, the human resource experts need to identify the most suitable candidates to employ, and at the same time making plans to manage them in such a way that they would bring out their best for the company.

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Factors influencing Labor Demand

For this case, there is high demand for police officers, and one of the factors that influence this demand is that there is a high demand for security within some parts of the city where the rates of crime are very high. The mayor of the city promised that he would make these areas safe by increasing the number of officers, but since finding them is proved to be difficult; he did not fulfill the same. In this scenario, the product that has a high demand is security, as there are areas within the city which require constant patrols by officers, yet at the moment they are not sufficient in number (Lim, 2018). Secondly, the high cost of living within the city has made it hard to attract the best officers, as in most case those that get employed stay for a short while and then leave for other areas that have greener pastures. Besides that, from a general outlook, the city's police department is poor and does not have enough finances. The best officers are those who demand high pay, and that is what the department cannot handle at the moment. At the same time, considering that the cost of living within the city is high, any officer would still demand a high pay so as to cater for their daily needs (Lim, 2018). Thirdly, the nature of the climate in the northeastern region implies that many young people are seeking to get employed in other places, thereby leaving the city demanding for more people to employ. It is also for that reason the referral program failed, as those who come in from other cities only stay for a while and then leave to go elsewhere as they cannot withstand the harsh climatic conditions.

Factors Affecting Supply

The supply of labor is all about the number of people within a given population that voluntarily want to take part in the labor market based on various determinants. In this case, the first one is the fact that there are fewer people who are willing to be part of the labor market. The police department is short of entry-level officers mainly because most young people migrate into other regions to study, thereby leaving very few available to get into police college and graduate into police officers. Secondly, the supply of labor is affected by the amount of time that people are willing to spend while working. In most scenarios, the supply will be high when less time is spent, but low when the time taken to work is longer (Lim, 2018). The department had fewer officers mainly because the previous head of human resources instructed that the available officers work for more time. It is from the same directive that the situation became worse and subsequently led to his firing. However, it is also worth noting that at the time of introducing the directive, it was cheaper to have them working for more hours than hiring new recruits since the department was underfunded. Thirdly, the entry requirements of the job determine the supply of workers for that particular task. Within the city, one of the requirements is that the department hires entry-level officers who must have gone through training lasting for twelve weeks, and that may be a discouragement for many youths who feel that it may be costly. That is one of the primary reasons as to why the department only attracts older people who last for a few years before they retire (Lim, 2018).

Recruitment Plan

As the human resource head, one of the main tasks that need to be done is coming up with a recruitment plan that would be used in attracting and selecting the best police officers for the open positions that are available in the department. The main intention is to have a plan that would make it possible to get officers who would last within the department for a long time than the time taken by the previous officers.

Recruitment Objectives

• Considering that the average age of the available officers is 45 years, it is necessary to get a group of police personnel that is between the ages of 25 to 35, as that would guarantee to have them for a longer time before they retire.
• To diversify the sources of recruitment in a strategic manner and as such there would be no shortages in the number of people required for recruitment.
• To increase the pool of potential recruits by putting in more effort in networking using social media platforms and the mainstream media

Size of Applicant Pool

One of the most crucial ways of meeting the goals of the recruitment process is by getting the required size of pool applicants for the vacant positions. From the recruitment data, the applicant pool from the various officers of the target group is 45, yet only 13 of them made it to the last stage of hiring and getting the job offer. In that case, the yield ratio is calculated by taking the number of candidates who made it to the final stage of hiring divided by the number of candidates who submitted their applications initially, then multiplied by 100 percent. In that case, it is 13/43*100 which is 29 percent (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2014). The number of required candidates is 25, and to get that means increasing the applicant pool. Considering that the 13 applicants are represented by 29 percent, then get the percentage for 25 of them would be done by 25/13*29 which is 55 percent. This figure indicates that there is a need of increasing the applicant pool by 26 percent (55-29) to get a pool of 82 applicants.

Individuals to Target

From the recruitment data, there are different types of security personnel who applied to fill the vacant positions. It is clear that there are two groups that produced the highest number of candidates who got to the final stage of getting the job offer. The first one is that of the criminal justice graduates, where out of the 10 who applied, 5 of them managed to get the job offer, translating to 50 percent. The second group is that of officers from other police departments, where only one of them did not get the job offer out of the five that submitted their applications. That translated to 80 percent success rate, meaning that it was the group which produced the highest number of people to get the job offer. Besides that, they are the best to offer jobs as they can directly start working without the training program, as opposed to most of the others who must go through an intensive 12-week program before being confirmed as police officers.

Effective ways of Getting to the Target Group

For the sake of increasing the recruitment efforts of the police officers, it is essential that the nest methods of getting to the target group are put to great use. From the earlier section, it is clear that the people who qualify most for the positions are officers from other police departments and those who graduate from the criminal justice class. Considering that the latter are students, the best way of reaching out to them is by having an internship program which only targets students learning courses on criminal justice. The department can have career fairs in the colleges which offer the course and talk to these students, where they can be promised internship positions, after which they are guaranteed to get employed, for as long as they depict exemplary performance at the end of the period. That would give them a chance of experiencing the day-to-day activities within the police section, and at the same time, the employer would have a chance of evaluating them directly while on the job (Park, 2013).

To target candidates from other police departments, the best way of getting them is through the referral program where police officers who are currently hired can refer to the hiring department so that they can be recruited. In fact, the new policy in place would go a long way into motivating them to make referrals, as for each officer they refer one would be eligible to get $1500 at different stages depending on how successfully the recruit integrates into the department. The other way of getting to them is by the use of inter-departmental memos that inform about vacant positions so that the interested candidates can send their applications (Park, 2013).

Selection Plan

Selection Methods

Getting people to apply for the positions is one of the easiest things to do, but the difficult task is always in the selection process. In that case, the first selection method is the use of tests that could be in the form of writing, or exercises meant to judge the physical and mental ability. Written exams are of great essence as they could be to test whether the person is aware of various rules of law enforcement, or what they would have to do when in certain situations (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2014). The second method of selection could be through having background checks for all the applicants. The checks are crucial considering that give the head of the hiring process a view of whom they want to bring in the department. It is of great importance to get officers who have a clean background with regards to having no criminal record. The third method is through the use of oral interviews where each candidate is interviewed with a number of senior managers. The exercise gives the management an opportunity of getting to know the applicants from a deeper perspective when compared to the information received from application letters and curricula vitae (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2014).

Selection Tests

The selection process involves the use of tests as they depict the best candidates to be picked as police officers. In that case, the first one that needs to be administered is the physical test which is a combination of various other examinations that include agility testing, medical exams, height and weight proportional exam, and the vision test. The work of police officers involves a lot of physical confrontations like fighting and running, hence the crucial need of having these tests (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2014). One is also expected to be medically fit as the working conditions may be adverse, and excellent vision is suitable as one is also expected to work at night. The second test would be the mental test which is also a combination of measuring the psychological agility of someone, and the measure of intelligence or level of knowledge. Psychologically, the candidates need to be fit as the job involves encountering various traumatic situations, besides the use of guns. Police officers need to be disciplined in such a way that they do not use the guns unnecessarily. The intelligence tests are crucial as the officers need to have criminal justice and police work knowledge as it is crucial for their daily tasks (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2014).

Background Verification Tests

Background checks are essential as they help the management know the honesty levels of the applicants with regards to what they submitted in their documents as they were applying for the position. In this case, the first type is the criminal record check which will involve finding out whether the candidate may have been involved in any criminal activity in the past. It is of essence that those who get employed are free of any criminal activity within a given recent period. The best time of condu...