Money as a motivator in social work?
The government has a new scheme to attract more high-flyers to the profession of social work - particularly needed as recent high-profile and tragic cases such as that of Baby P have made it hard to recruit social workers. The carrot they are offering is cash - the new ‘Step up to Social Work’ scheme offers graduates at least £15,000 to retrain as children’s social workers under a new government-funded scheme. Candidates must have at least a 2.1 degree and some experience already of working with children and families, and this report says that it will be “up to local authorities who are employing those trainees to decide how to use the money” - they will receive the money from the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC), which receives most of its funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. So the money is not exactly paid directly to the 200 new recruits - there is a complicated bureaucracy which gets involved first.
There are a number of issues relevant to recruitment, training and motivation that strike me here:
- this is an example of how poor reputation of the employer makes it hard to attract good candidates for vacancies
- Herzberg makes it very clear that hygiene factors (including money) are just as important as the motivators; is money the most appropriate form of motivation for this kind of job?
- what impact is this offer likely to have on morale amongst those already employed in the social work profession?
Managing a recruitment business through the recession
The recruitment sector has taken many hard knocks during the recent recession in the UK. As firms look to reduce their headcount (or at least minimise their payroll costs), their demand for recruitment agency services is bound to fall.
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Leadership sets the culture for a thriving retail brand
Wow - this article is just made for students who would appreciate an up-to-date, but definitely non-textbook example of how to use HRM effectively in a retail business…
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Can bluetooth replace recruitment agencies in the battle to find job applicants
Anyone who has received one of those annoying bluetooth messages on their mobiles might find this video clip a bit disturbing. British Gas is employing bluetooth technology to randomly reach potential job applicants - rather than the traditional method of employing recruitment agencies. The claim is that this method is working. What do you think? Will it catch on?
View video on British Gas Bluetooth Job Advertising
Revision presentation - recruitment & selection
The basics of the recruitment and selection process for a business are covered in this revision presentation. We look at the recruitment process; the methods of internal & external recruitment; the role of job and person specifications and descriptions; the role of outside agencies in recruitment.
Launch revision presentation on recruitment & selection
HR manager sentenced for lying about qualifications: useful recruitment and selection resource
Checking up on an individual’s past work experience and qualifications is an important part of the recruitment process for many organisations.
Failing to do so can sometimes mean that the organisation is saddled with a problem employee.
But this case which currently has many in the the HR profession reviewing their appointment processes shows what the dramatic consequences can be for an individual who is less than honest on their CV or application form
read more...»Revision Presentation - Recruitment for a New Business
Many new businesses or start-don’t recruit people until the enterprise has become reasonably well established. Others need to recruit people before trading can begin. This presentation looks at the basic employment options for a new business and some of the employment challenges facing an entrepreneur.
View revision presentation on recruitment for a new business
A Recruitment Classic - Job Interviewing the David Brent Way
A timeless six minute clip from The Office provides a rich source of business studies insights into how not to conduct a recruitment and selection process…
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The gentle touch in city finance
Far be it from me to criticise male dominance of the City of London but it seems that, ever since the start of the financial crisis that led to the recession, there has been a series of reports suggesting that if there were more women in positions of power in the city institutions that lost control of their lending, this would never have happened.
read more...»Picking from a growing pool of job hunters
Despite evidence that the worst of the current global recession may be behind us, unemployment will continue to ratchet up for some time to come. It remains a lagging indicator of the economic cycle. The economic and social costs of mass unemployment are impossible to deny although hard to measure accurately. For some employers looking to recruit new workers, the growing pool of unemployed workers does provide - on the surface - an opportunity to hire well-skilled and motivated people often desperate for a fresh chance in work. Chris Tighe focused on employers in the North East in this revealing article in the Financial Times.
“More than 9,000 people in the North East are seeking work as sales assistants, it said, but only 191 such jobs have been advertised. Morrisons, the supermarket operator, has just reported an “amazing response” at its new Wallsend store in north Tyneside: more than 900 people applied for 35 posts............At Manchester Airport, where an advertisement posted online for just two weeks in February for four places on its graduate training scheme produced almost 2,000 applications.”
The high and rising ratio of applicants to unfilled vacancies should give businesses the scope to find the right people and perhaps unearth some gems who might rise through the business in the years to come. But although the pool of workers is high, businesses must also face the challenge and considerable cost of screening each application. Few smaller businesses have the luxury of being able to employ human resources personnel. Hiring recruitment companies can be expensive. Often the best new employees fall into your lap because of their vigorous approach to job hunting and an ability to keep their nose to the ground to spot what might be the right job for them.
Recruitment & selection gets scary
Hundreds of applicants are expected for a job where the main criteria for the job will be the ability of the job applicant to scare the living-daylights out of the interviewer…
read more...»Job applications please - but no more than 160 letters long…
Here’s an interesting twist on the recruitment and selection process. The standard business studies textbook waxes lyrical about the traditional job application form + advantages / disadvantages compared with a traditional CV. But the business featured in this news story is using the job application process to find out in a very practical way whether applicants can demonstrate they have the required attributes...Read on here
Planning for a winning team
The Times ‘Ideas at Work’ section has a feature today about how to build a winning team in business. The first point questions whether you actually need a team, or simply a group of individuals working on separate tasks but reporting to the same supervisor. On the assumption that the business needs something a bit more than that, much of the advice centres on long term strategic planning, which should be a central part of human resource management – allowing time for team dynamics and bonding to evolve, having a team which is small enough to be co-ordinated and setting clearly defined roles with a decisive leader. There are two vital aspects of recruitment that reflect points made by Mike Southon, the Beermat Entrepreneur, at last week’s Business Studies National Teacher Conference; getting a mix of people and talents rather than several matching talents, and bringing in a ‘deviant’ – someone who is prepared to take a different view and question the normal status quo, but without acting as a ‘team destroyer’. To quote Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, “You want people to challenge each other, but you don’t want winners and losers — people stop talking to each other.”
Situations Vacant - Apprentice Supervisor
Margaret Mountford’s announcement that she will not be part of the next series of The Apprentice is getting a far higher profile than Siralan’s choice of Yasmina rather than Katie on Sunday night. Some of Margaret’s memorable lines from this series:
“Never before in the history of car washing have so few cars been washed by so many people in such a long time”
“Alex, you stepped so far back from it you were practically out of the room”
“One’s enough, thank you” on tasting one team’s chocolates
What would be the main features of a person specification and job description for her successor?
read more...»Motivation in Action - Is this the Worlds Best Job?
A classic piece of public relations from the tourist authorities in Queensland provides us with some rich material with which to teach motivation at work.
It is described as “the world’s best job” - looking after a beautiful island on the Great Barrier Reef, being paid well, with a wonderful house and a host of other non-financial benefits. So what is it about that job that attracts over 34,000 applicants? Could it also have been the reality TV show that accompanied the recruitment and selection process?
Take a look at this BBC vide which tells us about the “Pom” who won the competition.
Students might also want to compare and contrast the Australian “Best job in the world” with this job...described in the same glowing way. Which would you choose - given the chance?
Q&A - Why are job descriptions and specifications important?
The job description and specification are important parts of planning the workforce needs of any business. So what are they?
read more...»Q&A - What is the recruitment process?
Recruitment and selection is the process of identifying the need for a job, defining the requirements of the position and the job holder, advertising the position and choosing the most appropriate person for the job.
read more...»Wanna job? Get down to McDonalds
Two contrasting stories about the employment market recently illustrate really well how different businesses are coping in the economic downturn…
read more...»Print advertising takes the hit as advertisers cut back
As the economy slows and businesses look to make cost savings, its interesting to see where they look to cut back. The amount spent on advertising looks particularly vulnerable to some cuts…
read more...»Porkie Pies Don’t Cut It in the Real Job Market
A few white lies about his educational history didn’t prevent Lee McQueen from being named The Apprentice. However, the latest annual employment survey from the CIPD suggests “Sir Allun” may have let his protege off lightly…
read more...»New rights for temporary staff
The ultimate example of flexible, short term labour is hiring staff through agencies. Instead of the hassle, time and expense of recruitment, training and pension costs, firms have been able to buy in labour to meet temporary staff shortages. In some cases businesses have gone further. Their use of agency staff extends beyond filling gaps through to using agency workers for key roles such as cleaning and maintenance. I still remember my surprise when I took a group of students on a field trip to a well known supermarket and found that they had no cleaners. Their wonderful claims to be a supportive, caring and loyal employer didn’t actually extend to the people with a mop in their hand.
read more...»The Challenge of Recruiting for the Best Job in the World (OCR Applied Unit 9)
The case study for OCR Applied Unit 9 (Erica’s Eco Tours Ltd) focuses on the strategy of a specialist tour operator that runs small-group escorted tours to long-haul destinations. One of the strategic challenges is how to recruit and retain high quality people to act as Expedition Leaders. Here are some links to resources that help students learn more about the role and the ways in which a successful tour operator manages the recruitment process.
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