Chapter 7 Selective Hiring
In your opinion, what are of some necessary characteristics of a great potential employee for a hospitality business? For at least three of the characteristics you mentioned, explain why you feel they are necessary.
Employees in the hospitality business need to have certain characteristics that will guarantee services provided are adequate. The hospitality business relates to more of how clients are provided with what they need, therefore, employee’s ability to relate and address client’s concerns becomes critical. One of the necessary characteristics of hospitality employees is that they need to have enthusiasm. Enthusiastic employees are in a better position to provide the clients with the finest experience. Additionally, interpersonal skills are essential. Interpersonal skills relate closely with good communication skills. The employees are able to interact freely and respectfully with the clients. Hospitality employees also need to have sufficient knowledge of safety and hygiene issues. Hospitality industry deals with a lot of food and hotel issues, which entails the use water, and sanitary issues. As such, employees need to have sufficient training on how to observe hygiene and cleanliness to ensure that clients’ health are not compromised.
Describe some challenges of hiring employees with skills that match those in the firm’s job analysis/descriptions and job specifications
One of the challenges that emanates from hiring employees with skills that match a firm’s job specifications involve inflexibility of the worker. In certain cases, in the work environment, work volumes may become too much for the employees to handle and thus requires help from other employees with different skill sets. Using employees that have other additional skills can be of help in reducing workloads and increasing efficiency of the firm. Secondly, the employee may develop slackness in trying to expand his or her knowledge in the firm. Furthermore, boredom sets in because of repetition in doing the same thing repeatedly. As such, the employees’ level of enthusiasm may reduce and this may result to generation of mistakes in the process of offering the various services to clients.
What does the term, Warm Body Theory, refer to? Include in your response, why a company uses the Warm Body Theory of hiring, the problems it causes and how to avoid it.
Warm body theory refers to a situation where a company seeks to hire a higher number of individuals based mostly on desperation rather than following qualifications. Most companies still apply the warm body theories in situations where they require a higher number of individuals. In such situations, companies end up hiring interns and inexperienced college graduates. The warm body theory can be ineffective in situations where the individual hired through that process fails to maximize their potential through increasing productivity. A company has to let some of these individuals go and will have to seek other means to get individuals to complete projects. Organizations need to ensure that they have sufficient training budgets to ensure that less qualified individuals can be trained to match the qualifications of certain job descriptions in the organization.
Define Multiple Hurdle and Compensatory hiring strategies and describe their importance in the hiring process (i.e., when to use one or the other; is it even possible to use the multiple hurdle strategy for most hourly positions; for compensatory hiring strategies, can you place a quantifiable limit on what you will and will not accept?). Provide examples of firms that use each strategy.
According to Phillips and Gully (2013), a multiple hurdle hiring strategy involves a situation where potential employees are required to pass different assessment levels and it is required for one to pass an assessment level before proceeding to the next level. On the other hand, a compensatory strategy involves different assessments that a potential employee undergoes. The employee is allowed to complete the whole assessment procedure even if the employee scores low scores in some of the assessment levels (Phillips and Gully, 2013). A multiple hurdle strategy is normally used in situations where the cost of poor performance is high. For example, in selection of fire fighters, a strength test is very relevant as physical strength is a major requirement in the job description (Phillips and Gully, 2013). On the other hand, a compensatory strategy is effective in situations such as professional jobs like engineering or teaching where work experience may trample higher grades of education.
What is the Legal Retention Time for employment applications in the U.S.?
According to Muller (2013), the legal retention time for applications in the United States is approximately one year. This implies that an organization has the obligation to keeps records of applications by potential employees for a period of one year after the last personnel action is carried using the applications.
What HR policy that has already been covered in the course is important in creating questions that will be asked of applicants and in determining whom to hire (hint: from chapter 5)? Why are they important?
Human resource policies that touch on issues of discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion or disability need to be used as basis of developing questions for applicants. Any hint of discrimination in questions asked during an interview may be grounds enough for legal action to be taken against the organization and may result to serious legal consequences. Furthermore, policies that cover basic background checks are relevant in assessing the applicant’s history. In most cases, organizations tend to incur losses in situations where an employee’s past is not known in terms of honesty and trustworthiness. Furthermore, employees who do not have sufficient background checks may end up becoming problematic employees.
What are Pre-Qualifying Questions and why are they important?
Pre-qualifying questions are questions employers normally use when filtering job seekers. As such, certain questions developed by the employer may be used solely to eliminate candidates in situations where they answer wrongly. Prequalifying questions are helpful in job markets where the number of candidates exceeds the positions available in a company. Furthermore, having prequalifying questions helps to eliminate any incidences of favoritism or canvassing and all applicants are offered the same starting point. Additionally, prequalifying questions may act as a method of conducting background checks on the applicants in situations where questions about whether the applicant has any criminal violations or whether the client has certain skills such as driving skills in situations where the job requires an experienced driver.
Define Situational and Behavioral questions. What are the benefits of each type of question?
Situational questions are questions employers ask applicants during interviews on how they would respond to a supposed work situation (Balser, 2014). Behavioral questions deal with how the applicant dealt with a certain actual job situation. Situational questions helps employers’ assess the applicant’s grasp of certain processes and their ability to work in collaboration with other individuals in the work environment. Behavioral questions, on the other hand, help the employer know how an applicant will be able to handle things in the future based on previous experiences of the applicant in handling different situations.
What are Multi-Tasking Questions and what are some advantages of using them
Multitasking questions are questions aimed at assessing the applicant’s ability to manage time and plan effectively. These questions are important, as they are able to give a picture of how an applicant would handle himself in situations where deadlines of projects have changed. Additionally, the employer also is able to know if the applicant can operate and work under high pressure. Furthermore, the employer can be able to know if an applicant can think quickly and apply different strategies in times of crisis.
Why are Background Checks important? Give at least four examples of potential problems that can be avoided by an effective background check.
Background checks are important as they provide the employer with additional information regarding the activities and behavior of an applicant and in the process are able to get a guarantee that the individuals they hire are what they allege to be. Background checks can avoid problems of fraud in situations where an organization is looking to hire individuals in the finance department. Secondly, background checks can help an organization establish cause of termination of contracts of applicants in previous jobs, which may help ascertaining whether an individual has the ability to handle the current job specifications hence save the company from incurring additional cost through training and development. Thirdly, background checks help to reduce employee turnover by ensuring the right people are hired. Fourthly, background checks may save organization financial obligations that may emanate from future lawsuits.
In general, what types of questions should you not ask in an interview? Provide at least two reasons why should you not ask them.
Questions about the applicant’s age, race, religion and disabilities should not be asked during an interview. Questions touching on the above issues are governed under certain sections of the law. Acting contrary to laws governing these issues may result to serious legal consequences.
One common form of interview bias is the cultural noise bias. According to Reed and Bogardus (2009), applicants will tend to answer interview questions based on information they think may help them to get the job. Secondly, another form interview bias may be contrast bias where the interviewer may compare applicants to each other. Thirdly, average bias is a form of interview bias where the interviewer finds it difficult to select the best candidate.
What is your opinion of using personality tests as a hiring tool?
Personality tests provide information that employers or interviewers may miss when conducting normal interviews. Most of the jobs may require a certain personality hence having sufficient knowledge on the personality of an applicant help to match the applicant’s skill to that of the job description. Personality test should be used in conjunction with other conventional interview method to ensure that best applicants are chosen for a specific job.
Do you feel that a Work Sample or Trial Shift are feasible testing tools that can be used for all or most hospitality positions?
Hospitality positions normally involve the use of personal skills and communications skills, as such, work sample or trial shifts provides an employer an opportunity to assess whether the potential employee has the right personal skills to handle the position. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to assess whether the applicant gets along with other employees.
Chapter 8: Orientation
Why is an orientation important?
Orientation is important as it helps new employees understand what is expected of them in the organization. Additionally, it also helps new employees settle easily in the work environment.
What is the difference between Orientation and Training?
Through orientation, a new employee is able to learn how an organization works. Training is the process through which new skills or specific skills are imparted to employees.
What are the two main types of orientation and what is covered in each? Why is each type important?
The two types of orientation are the general company orientation and job specific orientation. General company orientation allows the new employee to learn about the company’s visions, mission and goals while job specific orientations provides the new employee the required information of what his or her task will be in the company.
Explain why the Orientation Checklist is important
An orientation checklist allows the supervisor to ensure that all important items that the new employee is required to know are covered during the orientation process.
Discuss the concept of, “What the business has to offer the employee.”
This relates to benefits that the employee will enjoy while working for the company. For instance, health benefits, paid vacation days, sick leave, insurance plans and retirement plans.
What are the five responsibilities of employees?
Employees are required to perform their assigned duties as per their job specifications. Secondly, employees are required that they do not participate in unethical business practices. Additionally employees need to comply with the set out rules and regulations of the workplace. Fourthly, employees need to use company resources appropriately without wastage and finally employees are supposed to treat clients and colleagues with respect.
References
Balser Group, (2015). Mandated benefits: 2015 compliance guide.
Muller, M. (2013). The manager's guide to HR: Hiring, firing, performance evaluations, documentation, benefits, and everything else you need to know. New York: AMACOM.
Phillips, J. M., & Gully, S. M. (2013). Human resource management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Centage Learning.
Reed, S. M., & Bogardus, A. M. (2015). PHR/SPHR Professional in Human Resources Certification deluxe study guide.
