Strategic Staffing can focus on improving the quality of the

Strategic Staffing can focus on improving the quality of the individuals who apply for work, as well as those individuals who are actually hired into the organization. It can also focus on improving the selection process itself by streamlining the various activities involved in proper hiring.

Hallmark Cards recently developed a recruiting metric called a “staffing index.” This enables management to track how well newly hired employees are performing on the job. Evaluations are conducted over time, and scores are compared to learn more about the quality of past hiring decisions – and plan for future ones.

United Health Group decided to modify hiring procedures within the organization by splitting job candidates into two groups. One group is high-level professionals who are recruited by internal staffing specialists, while the second group is staff and line employees who are acquired through outsourced recruitment. This “two-pronged” strategy enables the company to save money through increased control and efficiency.

Respond to the following:

Provide an example of how you think Hallmark might use their staffing index to evaluate hiring quality or to help hire better employees in the future. How does understanding employee performance enhance the selection process?

What do you think of United Health’s decision to outsource recruiting for staff and line level employees? What are the pros and cons of this decision?

Solution

An example of how Hallmark might use their staffing index to evaluate hiring quality or hire better employees in future is that it can use the staffing index to define and address staffing implications by taking actions like rating the recruiters or by developing and defining clear criteria’s for the recruiters. By doing this Hallmark will be able to focus on critical issues and increase the efficiency with regards to recruitment, hiring, promotion, re-skilling, up-skilling and redeployment of its employees. All this will help Hallmark improve its hiring quality and hire better employees. Understanding employee performance can improve selection process as the company will be able to develop a selection process that is in sync with the operational plans of the company. Understanding of employee performance will enable the company to calculate and determine the current gaps and surpluses and how can the gaps be filled and surplus be utilized to maximize the performance of the employees in the future.

United Health’s decision to outsource recruiting staff and line level employees is that the company will be able to focus its attention on hiring high-level professionals for the company. High-level professionals require a specific set of skills and business and management acumen and it is extremely important that internal staffing specialists are used to hire them as external recruiters will not be able to understand the actual needs and requirements of the organization. The internal specialists are well aware of the company’s values, ethos, and operational and business requirements and hence will be able to identify and hire professionals that are most suited for the company. The pros of outsourcing recruitment for staff and line level employees are that the process is cost effective and also helps in saving the time of the company’s managers. Secondly outsourcing the recruitment f staff and line level employees can improve the quality of hire as experienced staffing agency will bring its valuable expertise to the hiring process. In terms of cons there is a clear wastage of resources. If the external recruiter is not able to find the right staff (in terms of aptitude, qualifications, skills etc) then United Health’s time as well as money will go wasted.