Page 636 - Business Principles and Management

Chapter 23 • Managing Human Resources

23.2 The Employment Process

Goals Terms
• Describe the steps a business should • job description • discharge
follow to hire an employee. • job specification • layoff
• Discuss effective procedures for • promotion • employee turnover
promoting, transferring, and dis- • transfer • exit interview
charging employees.

Selecting Personnel

Hiring new employees is an expensive but very important activity for every busi-
ness. Effective selection means hiring people with the right skills for each job.
Hiring people who do not meet specific job qualifications results in high training
costs, dissatisfied employees and customers, and poor performance. This section
discusses some essential procedures for selecting personnel in a company with a
human resources department.

ESTABLISHING A NEED
As a first step in the process of hiring a new employee, managers must estab-
lish that they actually need a new employee. Normally, the need develops to
replace an employee who has left the company, been promoted, or retired. If
the company or department is growing, new employees are needed to handle
the extra work. Changes in the operations of a department or the use of new
procedures or equipment may require that employees be hired to perform
those duties.
After identifying a need, the department manager typically works with hu-
man resources specialists to complete the hiring process. The human resources
department must have detailed and accurate information about the position in
order to screen applicants and choose only the most qualified people to inter-
view. To compile the needed information, companies prepare a job description
and job specification for each position in the company. A job description is a
list of the basic tasks that make up a job. A job specification is a list of the
qualifications a worker needs to do that job. The two documents are impor-
tant in helping to identify the qualifications and skills of the new employee.
They also help applicants understand what will be required of them in their
new jobs.
Human resources employees work with managers and employees who are cur-
rently doing each job to prepare job descriptions and specifications. This informa-
tion is maintained in the human resources department and is updated regularly as
job requirements and activities change. The data are used in a variety of ways, but
in the selection process, the information is used to recruit a pool of qualified
applicants and to help determine the best candidate for the job.

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