This paper represents the findings from a study on the Human Resources with comparison with the Human Resources Planning of Aramex with view on how we can benefit from best practices in improving the HR process.
The study also looks at organization strategy and how it should be linked to those of HR strategies in order to achieve those strategies.
Analysis was conducted by interviewing the head of HR in Aramex to cover the key recruitment and selection processes that is adopted by Aramex which highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of each process.
This assignment was conducted using a variety of methods, research, internet searching and on the top of all utilizing our knowledge in HR.
The findings suggest that, since Aramex would like to achieve a competitive advantage over other rivals in a very competitive market the company should focus on HR strategies.
A recommendation letter presented at the end of this report to be presented to the CEO of Aramex for further development of the HR process.
In recent times, the UAE HR policies have aimed towards increasing the amount of nationwide recruits in the private sector. UAE is the only country in the world with a private sector that employs a higher number of expatriates than local candidates. The UAE labor law is in constant change trying to reduce this drift by increasing the local labor force in the private sector. This as a result opened more doors for the local workforce in the UAE which is known as emiratisation.
About Aramex
Aramex began its journey in 1982 as an express operator quickly establishing itself into a worldwide brand acknowledged for its superiority service and exceptional multi-product offering. Aramex became the first Arab based worldwide company in 1997, that trades its shares on NASDAQ stock exchange. After having 5 years of successful trading, Aramex continued to excel and expand as a privately owned company as they returned to private ownership in 2002, also gaining brand acknowledgment and alliances from around the world. On the Dubai Financial market (DFM) In June 2005, Aramex went public as Arab International Logistics with its shares traded under ARMX.
In the present day Aramex and its international alliances outline a wide transportation network that covers the four corners of the world. With offices strategically positioned in major cities, Aramex offers consumers worldwide wide-ranging transportation solutions that range from domestic and international freight forwarding, express delivery, warehousing and logistics warehousing to publication distribution and specialized shopping services such as the Shop the World catalog shopping and Shop&Ship U.S. mailbox.
Strategic importance of Human Resource Management and Planning
The dramatic shift in the composition of the labour force require that managers become more involved in HRP, since such changes affect not only employee recruitment but methods of employee selection, training, compensation, and motivation. Although planning has always been an essential process of management, increased emphasis on HRP becomes especially critical when organizations consider mergers, relocation of plants, downsizing, or the closing of operating facilities.
An organization may incur several intangible costs as a result of inadequate HRP or, for that matter, the lack of HRP. For example, inadequate HRP can cause vacancies to remain unfilled. The resulting loss in efficiency can be costly, particularly when lead time is required to train replacements. Situations also may occur in which employees are laid off in one department while applicants are hired for similar jobs in another department. This may cause over hiring and result in the need to lay off those employees who were recently hired. Finally, lack of HRP makes it difficult for employees to make effective plans for career or personal development. As a result, some of the more competent and ambitious ones may seek other employment where they feel they will have better career opportunities".
Organization Polices & Procedures
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Organization Policy
Key Points / Purpose
Learning & Development
It provide all employees with opportunities for personal development that lead to enhance performance which in turn contributes to the achievement of the ultimate goals of the business
Performance Appraisal
The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the company driven by performance, through transmitting company's strategic objectives into departmental and individual objectives and goals
Rewards
The Reward Policy aims to implement reward structures which will consistently attract, motivate and retain employees of choice in support of the company's performance culture
Cod of Conduct
The code of conduct demonstrates the Company's intention to ensure that behaviour in the workplace supports the brand and core values.
Critical review of existing recruitment process:
Positions
Recruitment Method
Advantage
Disadvantage
Senior Management
"Internal"
Promoting Existing Staff
Cost effective
Increase staff satisfaction
Organizational knowledge
Investment of time and effort in training to close the skills gap required for the job
Middle Management
"external"
Head-Hunters
High quality recruits
Time effective
Very costly
No organizational knowledge
Couriers
"external"
Newspapers advertisement
Vast range of candidates
Cost of advertisement
Cost of time spent for screening & selection
Devising the Recruitment plan for the selected positions:
Activity
Action Plan
Conduct recruitment needs assessment
Identify recruitment requirements based on the manpower plan
Discuss needs and gaps of this recruitment to ensure appropriate action
Design of recruitment materials
Design / develop relative job description
Conduct job evaluation to arrive at the appropriate job grade
Sources of recruitment
Identify suitable recruitment channels
The suggested method are web-base advertisement & employee referrals
Post the position through all selected recruitment channels
Critical review of existing selection methods:
Positions
Selection Method
Advantage
Disadvantage
Senior Management
Psychometric Assessment
Objective judgment
Cost effective
Quick & easy
May some candidates be unease to take it
doesn't measure everything
Middle Management
Interviewing
Appraise candidate verbal fluency
Provide supplementary information
Subjective judgment
Low reliability level
Couriers
Occupation Testing
Highly reliable
Low adverse impact
Costly to administer
Doesn't measure attitudes.
Devising the selection method for the selected positions:
Position
Selection Method
Benefits
Senior Management
Competency Based Interviewing
Situational
Reflect the actual experience of the candidate
Middle Management
Group Exercises
Measure leadership ability
Time effective
Couriers
Aptitude Test
accurately measure the technical knowledge
cost effective
Competency-Based Interviews:
It is based on the idea that past behavior is the best predictor of future behaviour. Accordingly, the interviewer's goal is to get specific examples of when and how you have demonstrated particular behaviors and interview questions are carefully designed to probe specific skills, competencies and characteristics.
For example we may ask the following questions to test the competency of adaptability:
- Which change of job did you find the most difficult to make?
- Tell us about the biggest change that you have had to deal with. How did you cope with it?
Group Exercises:
Applicants are given a role or a topic exercise and are invited to discuss the topic or role-play in a group. During the discussion/role play, observers who are looking for specific attributes award marks to each candidate. This means that we may need four or more candidates to make this a meaningful exercise and enough people to mark the candidates properly.
Reliability and validity is difficult, as there are many parts and variation; however having well trained assessors this method proved to be very effective to identify certain skills especially for a middle and senior management level. There is a lower adverse effect on individuals than separate tests (eg. psychometrics).
Benefits unfolded from Job Analysis
In an organization, job analysis is a Major duty for establishing a baseline that allows human resources professionals to manage job-related activities effectively. There are two components that job analysis consists of: job specification and job description. Job specification gives details like qualities, qualification, training and experience that are essential by job holders. Whereas, job description indicates job related information such as facilities and working conditions, responsibilities and duties, incentives and salaries. A reliable way to collect useful information about a job and its cost effectiveness is through job analysis, which makes it affordable and inexpensive for any organization.
If HR resources and talent are to be embedded in Aramex, jobs will turn to be more efficient if they are evaluated in a vivid manner in terms of their ups-and-downs. A effective training program for a any job cannot be made unless clear details about the job is revealed such as details about the content, systems, standards and job demand. All these details are brought together to come up with an efficient training program that is tailored according to the employee needs .
Job analysis is extremely useful for various reasons. It helps in smoothing the progress of evaluating employee performance and promotions by recognizing how well employees perform at work and at which level do they get the job done and whether they are meeting job requirement.
Shaping Training Needs
Job Analysis can be used in "needs assessment" to shape:
Training procedures
Evaluate assessment tests to calculate the effectiveness of training
Training equipment needed during the training process
Training strategies
Rewards
Skill levels
Job Analysis can be used in Reward programs to identify or decide:
Work environment (hazards; attention; physical effort)
Responsibilities (e.g., fiscal; supervisory)
Level of education required
Selection
Job Analysis can be used in selection procedures to clarify
Requirements of the job that is posted in advertisements of the vacant position, whether it is in newspaper or any other form adopted.
Identifying salaries for each position to help settle on what salary should be offered to each employee.
Minimum level of requirements whether it is educational or experience to be able to screen applicants
Orientation materials for applicants/new hires
Selection tests/instruments (written tests; oral tests; job simulations);
Forming proper Interview questions;
Applicant appraisal/evaluation forms;
Performance Review
Job Analysis can be used in performance review to identify or develop:
Evaluation criteria
Goals and objectives
Length of probationary periods
Performance standards
Duties to be evaluated
Incentive Programs
A great way for businesses to reach out to their employees in an appreciated and appropriate approach is through incentive programs. It doesn't only improve the livelihood of the business, but it also helps to improve the livelihood of the individual employee as well. Everyone in the company will be able to take a role in the success and feel like they are an essential part of the company. Of course, improving morale is not the only advantage of implementing successful incentive programs in the workplace. However, it is very important that the programs are well planned and successful in order for them to work, and because of applying an unsuccessful program, that will probably be the opposite of improving morale and will lead to antipathy amongst the employees in the company. Due to this existing problem, it is really necessary to choose an incentive program that would be of an interest to the average employee and make them feel important, not convenient. The incentives need to be tailored to the particular needs and desires of the individual workplace. When the proper incentive program is put into place, the results will be noticed with ease and days will run much smoother.
Maintain a highly skillful workforce
Problems regarding retention may not have been the main problem in Aramex. Still though, organizations need to lose the key staff to comprehend that an understanding of the pattern of resignation is needed. Therefore, Aramex must:
Supervise the amount of resignation.
Find out the reason for it.
Verify how much it's costing the Organization.
Evaluate the loss rates with other similar organizations.
If the management of an organization didn't have such an understanding, they may perhaps be unaware of the amount of quality staff they are losing. Moreover, This will not only cost Aramex directly through recruitment, education and the bill for separation, but also through a loss of long term capability.
By understanding the extent and nature of resignation steps, they can be used to fix the situation.
These can be rather simple and cheap solutions once the reasons for the departure of workers have been recognized. Although, it will also depend on whether the problem is odd to Aramex themselves, and whether it is focused in particular groups (eg by skill, grade, age or gender).
Where will the next generation of managers come from?
This issue has been a problem for many senior managers, since they have seen many traditional career paths disappear, which they were troubled by this issue. By that, they have had to bring in senior staff from elsewhere, which they also realized that this is dealing with the short term skills shortage and is not solving the long term questions of managerial supply. Such as, How many, what sort, and where will they come from?
To address these questions they need to understand:
The current career system (including patterns of promotion and movement, of recruitment and wastage)
The characteristics of those who currently occupy senior positions.
Aramex's future supply of talent.
This then can be compared with future requirements, in type and number. These will of course be affected by internal structural changes and external business or political changes. Comparing your current supply to this revised demand will show surpluses and shortages which will allow you to take corrective action such as:
Recruiting to meet a shortage of those with senior management potential.
Allowing faster promotion to fill immediate gaps .
Developing cross functional transfers for high fliers .
Hiring on fixed-term contracts to meet short-term skills/experience deficits .
Reducing staff numbers to remove blockages or forthcoming surpluses. .
As a result, suitable severance policies, deployment and recruitment can be pursued to meet the company requirements. Otherwise, the process is likely to be inconsistent and haphazard. The wrong sort of staff is engaged at the wrong time on the wrong contract. It is embarrassing and expensive to put such matters right.
Benefits of having an HR Plan
It offsets uncertainly and changes to the maximum possible and enables the organization to have right employees at right time and in the right place.
It provides scope for advancement and development of employees through training, development etc.
It helps to satisfy the individual needs of the employees for the promotions transfers, salary enhancement, better benefits etc.
It helps in anticipating the cost of salary, benefits and all the cost of human resources facilitating the formulation of budgets.
It helps to take steps to improve human resource contributions in the form of increased productivity, sales, turnover etc.
It facilitates the control of all functions, operations, contribution and cost of human resources.
Recommendation
Based on my research and in order for Aramex to achieve a competitive advantage over other rivals in our competitive market; I would suggest the following to be implements with immediate effect:
Job analysis to be conducted methodically to ensure appropriate job descriptions in place reflecting actual roles & responsibilities.
Constant development is required for the recruitment & selection methods to ensure we are up to the labour market standards and regulations.
Performance appraisal should be enforced and fully implement to ensure achievement of individual objectives and consequently achieve the organization objectives.
Introduce and develop incentive and reward schemes that encourage employee to improve their performance.
Following these, Aramex will definitely lead rivals in the market.
Bibliography:
Managing Human Resources; Author: "Sherman Bohlander Snell"; Chapter 4; Page 124/125
Aramex International, About Aramex Article, 2010
http://www.aramex.com/aboutus/default.aspx
Human Resource News, Recruiting An SEO Professional In A Worsening Economy; Auther: "Navneen kaushal", 2009
http://archive.humanresourcenews.com/2009/0119.html
Seo Gadget, How to recruit an SEO, richard baxterseo, 2009
http://seogadget.co.uk/how-to-recruit-an-seo/
Transport Scotland, Competency Based Interviews
http://transportscotland.gov.uk/careers/competency-based-interviews
Graduate Recruitment bureau, Selection Methods, Chmiel, N., Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2000
http://www.grb.uk.com/selection-methods.0.html
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http://www.barclaysimpson.com/candidates-competency-based-interviews/
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