1. It is an efficient way to keep costs down in areas where do not need full-time cover. One of the most recognized benefits of using part-time employees is lower costs. Companies typically pay part-time employees an hourly wage and can schedule them for whatever number of hours the company desires. Additionally, part-time employees often receive no benefits. Even those that work a lot may qualify only for retirement benefits. This lack of benefits saves companies significantly when compared to the total compensation packages paid to full-time or regular employees.

2. It helps to show potential clients and customers that the firm value having a diverse workforce and ethical employment practices

3. It allows to bring in highly skilled and experienced staff members even when firm has a fixed budget and cannot afford to bring someone in on a full-time basis

4. It helps to expand the pool of potential recruits - part-time work tends to attract parents with younger children who may not want to work full time but can bring a wealth of skills, experience and expertise

5. It helps to increase the ability of business to respond to change and peaks of demands - for example, firm can use more workers at peak times and extend operating hours by using part-time workers in the evening or at weekends

6. It helps to reduce the workloads of other workers, especially when firm do not have enough work for a new full-time position but are regularly using overtime to meet demands - this can reduce overtime costs and help prevent the negative effects of stress and fatigue of employees.

7. Flexibility is a key benefit of using part-time workers. The company has no obligation to schedule part-timers for 40 hours a week if the workload does not require it. Thus, managers only need to schedule when work is needed. Workers and the company often like the flexibility of part-time scheduling from the standpoint that it allows for work on varying days and times. Many businesses use part-time workers to fill evening and weekend hours not covered by full-time workers (NIBUSINESSINFO.CO.UK, 2015).

1.2 Disadvantages

1. Part time staff are sometimes perceived as not having the commitment shown by full time workers. It is important to maintain the training and attention paid to part timers as much as that shown towards full time staff.

2. A job share is a common way to split one job into two in order to cover particular hours or shifts, but the recruitment costs will be higher.

3. Staff benefits, such as pensions, will be doubled if two people are effectively working one job. However, if part time staff receive less benefits they are more likely to change jobs more often.

4. A manager has to spend twice as many hours supervising two workers that effectively do one job, ensuring that information and new procedures are relayed or passed on as necessary.

5. Part-time workers, especially those that work more temporarily or seasonally, usually have less knowledge and familiarity with the company because they work less. This can affect employee performance on both tasks and service. Customer-driven organizations may notice less successful sales and service with part-time employees that do not become as familiar with approaches to selling and servicing the needs of the company's customers. Training can help offset these issues, but part-timers take longer to gain experience than full-time workers.

6. Confidentiality and conflict of interest. The fact that part-time workers move around more and can contract with multiple employers may generate concerns about breach of confidentiality or conflict of interest. This is especially true of highly-skilled workers who may have specialized industry expertise that would be valued by a direct competitor.

7. Lack of inclusion: Temporary, part-time and contract workers can feel a sense of separateness from the permanent staff, almost like being “second-class citizens” within the organization. This feeling of isolation can be heightened if the contingent worker also works remotely. Because part-time workers are often perceived as separate or different from the permanent workforce, it can be difficult to meld them into teams (Reyes, 2015).

Despite the disadvantages, if part time workers suit for the business, the benefits far outweigh any potential issues with the slight increase in costs or time required to recruit, train and employ staff that work fewer hours. As long as firm has done research, firm can get great rewards with the help of part time employees.

2.0 Question - 2. A good attitude and commitment are two important attributes that Lui Wee Int. looks for in its job applicants.

2.1 Part - a) In your opinion, is a job interview an effective method to assess these two attributes? Justify your answer.

Interviews are a useful method to assess these two attributes because:

1. It helps to investigate issues in an in depth way and allow more detailed questions to be asked.

2. It helps to discover how individuals think and feel about a topic and why they hold certain opinions.

3. Interview is useful to obtain detailed information about personal feelings, perceptions and opinions.

4. Interviews usually achieve a high response rate.

5. Respondents' own words are recorded.

6. Ambiguities can be clarified and incomplete answers can be followed up.

7. Precise wording can be tailored to respondent and precise meaning of questions clarified.

8. Can yield data about cognitive and psychomotor processes difficult to observe.

9. Qualitative data can be examined.

10. Can ask sensitive questions that require confidentiality.

However:

1. Different interviewers may understand and transcribe interviews in different ways.

2. It requires experienced interviewer and well-designed questions.

3. It is difficult to combine data from disparate interviews.

4. The data gathered is subjective and should be verified.

5. May elicit extraneous data.

6. Interviewer can bias the responses.

Therefore interview is can be used to assess these two attributes but all the attributes cannot be assessed effectively (EValued, 2006).

2.2 Part - b) What else can Lui Wee Int. do to get reliable information on these two attributes?

The information about these two attributes can be also identified by reference check and other employee tests.

1. Reference Checks

The purpose of a reference check is to obtain information about a candidate’s behavior and work performance from prior employers that could be critical for decision, regardless of their skills, knowledge, and abilities. As past performance is the best predictor of future success. References can be obtained from current and previous supervisors who can speak to the candidate’s on the job performance. Failure to check references can have serious consequences. If an employee engages in harmful behavior, which would have been revealed in a reference check. Hence it is useful to know the employees commitment and attitude (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

2. Psychometric tests - assessment of the candidate's personality, attitudes and character to predict whether he or she would fit into a team, respond to the pressures of the job and be prepared to accept or seek responsibility, e.g. is the candidate a team player or loner, extrovert or introvert, passive or assertive? These are more often applied to senior posts (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

3. Integrity Tests: Integrity tests assess attitudes and experiences related to a person’s honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and pro-social behavior. These tests typically ask direct questions about previous experiences related to ethics and integrity or ask questions about preferences and interests from which inferences are drawn about future behavior in these areas. Integrity tests are used to identify individuals who are likely to engage in inappropriate, dishonest, and antisocial behavior at work (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

4. Personality Tests: Some commonly measured personality traits in work settings are extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, optimism, agreeableness, service orientation, stress tolerance, emotional stability, and initiative or proactivity. Personality tests typically measure traits related to behavior at work, interpersonal interactions, and satisfaction with different aspects of work. Personality tests are often used to assess whether individuals have the potential to be successful in jobs where performance requires a great deal of interpersonal interaction or work in team settings (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

5. Performance Assessment tests

Performance-based assessment testing is a process to find out if applicants can do the job for which they are applying. It is done through tests, which are directly administered and judged by Hiring Managers who will be supervising the potential hire. Performance assessments can be used as a pre-screening tool to test applied knowledge, skills-job match and commitment of the applicant towards the job position (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

6. Situational judgment tests

Situational judgment tests are commonly used as employee-selection and employee-screening tools and have been developed to predict employment success. These tests present realistic hypothetical scenarios in a multiple-choice format. Applicants are asked to state what they would do in a difficult job-related situation. Situational judgment tests measure the suitability of job applicants by assessing attributes such as problem solving, service orientation, striving for achievement and commitment (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

7. Interest Test

Interest test is conducted to find out whether the candidate is interested in a particular job or not. It finds out the likes and dislikes or the commitment of a candidate about his occupation, hobbies, etc (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

8. Perception Test

Perception test is conducted to check the beliefs, attitudes, intelligence, mental sharpness, wisdom, etc. of the candidate (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

3.0 Question - 3. What are your other suggestions that would assist Lui Wee Int. to improve further its recruiting processes?

Current Challenges and Problems

Main challenge is finding employees with the right attitude because some applicants were not willing to work in shifts.

1. No job analysis is done.

2. No job evaluation is done.

3. No job description and specification are done.

4. Few media are used to advertise the jobs.

5. No personality tests are done.

6. No internal recruitment.

Below diagram shows the recommended recruitment and selection processes that Lui Wee Int. should follow in order to improve its current recruitment and selection processes.

1. Draw up a job analysis detailing the specific nature of the responsibilities, tasks, duties, accountability, competencies and training required for that post. This will provide the foundations for the recruitment process

2. Prepare a job evaluation which is an assessment of the value of the job in relation to other jobs, so that the rewards and remuneration can reflect its value and attract appropriate candidates.

3. Develop a job description, which is a broad description of the job, its title, purpose, tasks, authority and performance targets.

4. Prepare a personnel profile (or job/person specification), which defines the individual qualities of the individual needed e.g. qualifications, experience, personality, skills. These can be classified in a number of ways, such as 'essential' and 'desirable' and can be used to create a short list of applicants and as a checklist by the interviewers.

5. Decide on the best way of obtaining the right person. This might be by external recruitment, or internal by redeploying an existing employee, or by replacing the function with a machine or by outsourcing to another company.

6. Decide on the route for attracting qualified applicants by selecting the appropriate media for advertising the vacancy, such as local or national paper, radio, notice board, employment agency. This will vary according to the perceived importance of the vacancy.

7. Decide on any testing and review procedures. Use different tests like Achievement tests, Aptitude tests, Psychometric tests, Intelligence tests and Group situational tests.

8. Prepare a reduced list, or shortlist, of candidates for interview.

9. Call for references from previous employees, educational institutions or from personal connections (Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

(Compton, Morrissey, & Nankervis, 2009).

4.0 References

Compton, R., Morrissey, W & Nankervis, A. (2009). Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices (5th Edition). Australia: McPherson’s Printing Group.

EValued. (2006). An evaluation toolkit for e-library developments. Retrieved June 30, 2015, from http://www.evalued.bcu.ac.uk/tutorial/4c.htm

NIBUSINESSINFO.CO.UK. (2015). Employing part-time workers. Retrieved June 30, 2015, from https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/benefits-and-considerations-when-employing-part-time-workers

Reyes, S. (2015). Contingent Workers Pros and Cons - Part 2. Retrieved June 30, 2015, from http://tribehr.com/blog/contingent-workers-pros-and-cons-part-2

Adam Khaleel

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Module Name: Human Resource Management: Assignment - 2

1.1 Advantages

1.2 Disadvantages

4.0 References

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