Personnel Selection Process for Management Positions

Acme Manufacturing is a company that has been performing really well since the last six months, especially when it comes to the management of its human resources. So much so, that not even a single article has been printed in any newspaper about any discrepancies in its human resource management strategies. The CEO of the company has recently realised that the company lacks a proper compensation structure for its non-represented management employees and has decided to come up with ideas that could improve its human resource management practices in related to the management employees. Therefore, this report contains ideas and strategies that can be used improve the human resource management practices of the company in relation to its management employees.

In simple words, management job positions are the ones in which the main responsibility of a person is to achieve goals are targets through the work done by the other people (Reh, 2017). Management positions are the most important job positions in a company, which makes it important for the human resource managers of a company to ensure efficient selection process for management position personnel. The requirements that can be used in the personnel selection process for management positions are:

A position description is one of the most important parts of a successful recruitment process, especially for managerial positions. It can be used to prepare interview questions, evaluate interviews, etc. Once human resource managers are able to develop a good description of a management position, they will be able to offer an insight into the job position and the workplace to the candidates, qualifications required for the job position and value proposition of the position. Well-developed position description will help the company in attracting qualified and experienced candidates.

Job description is another important part of a recruitment process. A job description is a document in which human resource managers prepare a list of all those duties and responsibilities that a person working in a particular job position is required to perform. It provides clarity to the selectors about the qualities that they should be looking for in a candidate and it also enables them to make better recruitment and selection decisions.

As discussed above, job analysis, job design, position description and specification are some of the most important requirements for the selection of management personnel, it is important to talk about the methods that can be used to prepare them effectively and accurately. Some of the methods to prepare them are discussed below:

One of the easiest and highly accurate method for preparing job descriptions and position descriptions is to conduct interviews with employees already working at managerial positions to gather data about their duties and responsibilities (Studiousguy). Interviews can be structured as well as unstructured. Interviewing more than one employee, working in the same job position, can be used to compare and evaluate their answers, which increases the reliability and validity of the method.

Another method for preparing job descriptions and position descriptions is to use questionnaires and get them filled up by the employees working at managerial positions. Because of the method being inexpensive and quick, it is extensively used by human resource managers to prepare job descriptions and position descriptions (Brannick, Levine, & Morgeson, 2007). In these questionnaires, the employees are asked questions which focus on the following areas:

• Knowledge, skills, experience & qualifications required to perform their job
• Time spent in different activities
• Duties performed daily
• Daily schedule
• Salary, incentives, compensation, etc.
• Work conditions (Landau & Rohmert, 2017)

Methods to Prepare Job Analysis, Job Design, Position Description and Specification

Observation method is another method that is widely used by human resource managers to observe the daily routines of their employees and write them down to prepare job descriptions and position descriptions. The information collected through observation method is highly useful and reliable because it is first-hand information that is directly recorded by professional human resource personnel (Markovska, 2018). Further, the information is also more reliable because it is collected by observing employees without them being aware of the fact that they are being observed, which also prevents distortion of information. A major disadvantage of this method is that it can sometimes become difficult to observe higher managerial and executive roles fully.

Management positions are the most important positions in a company as managers are the people who are responsible for achieving organisational goals and objectives by getting things done by others. They are responsible for creating synergies by directing individual efforts in a single direction and by assessing their performance levels. Without managerial positions, it would become impossible for the board of directors of a company to maintain control over their employees and in maintaining disciple and order in the workplace (Kraut, Pedigo, McKenna, & Dunnette). Therefore, management jobs are extremely important in a business. So much so, that a business cannot run without having efficient and experienced people performing management jobs.

Compensation management is one of the most important core functions in human resource management that aims at providing justifiable salary and incentives to all the employees that are working in a company.  As discussed above, management jobs are the most important jobs in a business, which makes it imperative that they are compensated properly for their work so that they can be engaged in their jobs and retained in the long run for the betterment of the company (LOTICH, 2017). The strategies for formulating an effective compensation structure are discussed below:

Firstly, it is important to conduct market research and see what the competitive firms are offering to their employees who are working at managerial positions. Based on the findings of the research, an average pay scale for different managerial positions can be calculated and Acme Manufacturing can offer a pay that is slightly higher than the market average salary, which will help the company in attracting a larger pool of competitive and experienced candidates while recruitment and selection and in retaining those employees that are already working at managerial positions in the company (Bika, 2018).

Secondly, it is important for the human resource managers at Acme Manufacturing to understand that managers are people who have been in the business world since a long time and have reached high levels in their careers. Such employees have needs that are placed higher in the Maslow’s need hierarchy as compared to the needs of those employees who have just started their careers.  Therefore, managerial position employees should be offered certain incentives and bonuses that can keep them motivated and engaged in their jobs (McQuerrey, 2018). Employees working as managers can be offered monetary benefits, such as performance bonuses, salary hikes at regular intervals, etc. as well as non-monetary benefits, such as extra holidays, complimentary tour in a year, training and development opportunities, etc.

Such a compensation structure would greatly help Acme Manufacturing in attracting talented employees, keeping them motivated and engaged in their jobs and in retaining them in the organisation.

Conclusion

From the above information, the importance of management positions can be clearly observed, which makes it important for human resource managers to take recruitment, selection and compensation structure of management jobs seriously so that it can become easier for the company to attract, motivate and retain talented managers.

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Brannick, M. T., Levine, E. L., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Job and work analysis: Methods, research, and applications for human resource management. Sage.

Kraut, A. I., Pedigo, P. R., McKenna, D. D., & Dunnette, M. D. (n.d.). The Role of the Manager: What’s Really Important in Different Management Jobs. The Academy of Management Executive, 3(4), 286-293.

Landau, K., & Rohmert, W. (2017). Recent developments in job analysis (Vol. 24). Taylor & Francis.

LOTICH, P. (2017, May 29). 7 Keys To An Effective Compensation Strategy. Retrieved December 2, 2018, from thethrivingsmallbusiness.com: https://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/compensation-strategy/

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