HR Practitioner

Serving the Candidate as a Customer

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As humans, it is natural to have certain reactions when we meet a new person. These reactions shape our perception of the other person. They also determine whether or not we want to continue to engage with that other person. If the experience with the other person is positive, we enjoy our mutual interactions and look forward to extending the time we spend with each other. If the experience of engagement is negative, most of us look forward to cutting off the time spent with that other person as quickly as we can.

With this in mind, the recruitment role taken on by the human resources practitioner can make or break a candidate’s job-seeking fortunes. As recruiters, we may find ourselves reacting to a particular candidate based on our own individual and personal perspectives. If the personal reaction is positive, the recruitment process with that candidate continues. If the reaction is negative, the process with that candidate stops. Either way, our responses as recruiters, in this type of approach, are based on our own self-interests and are not in support of the best interests of the organization that we must represent. The results from this type of approach are not good: the business interests of the organization are not met; the valid interests of the job-seeking candidate are not met; and the legitimate interests of meeting our human resources’ legal, ethical, and professional obligations are not met.

In order to meet the legitimate interests of the business and recruitment process, viewing the candidate as a customer can provide assistance in shaping the recruiter’s frame of reference. A customer service approach for the recruiter is explored in this article posted by HRD magazine.

As noted in the article, when the recruiter is able to use a customer service-based approach, the candidate and the recruiter both experience a better process. The result may be the same in that the candidate is not the successful choice for the organization; however, the credibility of the hiring process and its results are not put at risk when the recruiter has done their job by serving in the best interests of others.

Discussion Questions:

  1. If you experienced ‘ghosting’ by a recruiter during a job application process as a candidate, what impressions were you left with of the recruiter and the company you wanted to join? Would you re-apply as a candidate in the future?
  2. From an HR perspective, how can you monitor and adapt your personal reactions (positive or negative) during the recruitment process in order to maintain objectivity and reduce recruitment risks?
  3. In your opinion, what is the value of using a customer service-based approach for job candidates? Explain your rationale.

Party Planning

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There are three tasks that strike fear into the heart of every Human Resources practitioner.

  1. Responsibility for designating employee parking spots.
  2. Responsibility for employee seniority lists.
  3. Responsibility for planning the company office party.

Each of these is fraught with difficulties for various reasons. The only common thread for all three tasks is that, in the end, no matter how hard they try to get it ‘right’, someone will be angry with the designated HR practitioner.

The first two tasks require the categorization of individuals based on organizational hierarchy, length of service and other definition based processes. Nobody likes the processes or the end results, except for those who benefit from them with the good parking spot or the top notch on the seniority list.

The third task, the office party, comes with a host of challenges, which include trying to provide organized glee for people who may, or may not, want to socialize with each other after working hours. What is meant to be a positive event for employees, to thank them for their efforts, comes with rules, regulations, and stipulations as a result of unfortunate party outcomes from the past.

The office party is linked to Occupational Health and Safety for many reasons.  There are numerous risks that come with the gathering of individuals who are meant to get together to have a ‘good time’.  Celebratory food, drinks, games and dancing are all part of what most people expect when they have a party.  When one of these elements goes wrong (the food results in salmonella poisoning; the games and/or dancing cause physical injuries; the drinks lubricate individuals to the point of lewd behaviour), the employer is liable for the consequences. Rather than the event ending in a feel good result for everyone, when things go wrong, the employer is left with significant costs and potential penalties under the provisions of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Does this mean that employees can no longer have any fun?  No, not exactly.

Good party planning, which includes reasonable precautions, should result in successful party celebrations, as noted in HRMOnline.

Click here to read the article.

For a good time to be had by all, a good plan needs to be in place first.  Once the party is over, the only thing that people should remember is that they did have some fun, with no disastrous results for anyone.

If everybody ends up being happy, hopefully, the HR Practitioner can be happy too.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Interview a Health and Safety representative at your current workplace to ask them about the potential risks involved in an employee office party both on-site and off-site.
  2. What types of safety risks do you think are involved for an employee ‘gathering’ at a bar outside of working hours?
  3. If you had responsibility for planning an office social event, how would you proceed? Would you include alcohol, games, dancing?  Why or why not?
  4. Have you participated in an office social event? What was it like?  What would you change about the event?

 

Promises Made, Promises Broken

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Simply put, the collective agreement is an employment contract.  As you will remember from your employment law studies, any employment contract that is formed between two parties, must have an offer, acceptance, and consideration in order for that contract to be enforceable.   In a unionized environment, each time the collective agreement is renewed through the legitimate process of collective bargaining, these principles of offer, acceptance, and consideration remain in play.  Once the parties have agreed to the terms of renewal, they have a contract between them.  Signed, sealed, and delivered.

Source: ALEXSTAND/Shutterstock
Source: ALEXSTAND/Shutterstock

The collective agreement is not a one sided ‘union’ contract that the employer can ignore.  It is a contract between two parties.  Nothing will harden and sour the relationship between an employer and a union more than the perception that the employer is ignoring the terms of a negotiated, settled, and accepted collective agreement.

Let’s look at this from a personal perspective.  If I agree to sell my house to a buyer, we negotiate the sale of the house and everything that is agreed and committed through a signed contract.  If that contract includes the agreement on my part to leave all of the window dressings in place, then I leave them in place!   I don’t take them with me or destroy them – That is not what I agreed to do.  If I do take them with me, I should expect a very unfavourable reaction from the other party because I have deliberately broken the contract between us. Actions are similar with collective agreement administration.  If the employer agrees to something during the life of the agreed upon contract, and then breaks that agreement, the union is going to react in a negative way.  This result should not be a surprise to anybody with the responsibility for administering a collective agreement.

Yet, it happens, as is discussed in the article, below.

Click here to read the article. 

It is easy to be an armchair critic and wonder why the employer, in this case, would have agreed to a commitment of no layoffs during the life of a collective agreement if they knew they could not afford it. We must remember that any contract negotiation is never straightforward and we have to live with the results.

What are the Human Resources lessons to take from all of this?  Effective HR planning and preparation for realistic implementation of a collective agreement is critical!  And, do not make promises you can not keep.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What types of terms could have been negotiated into this collective agreement?
  2. What could the employer have done differently in order to lessen the impact on unionized employees?
  3. Identify three specific pieces of information that an HR practitioner could have included as part of collective bargaining preparation?
  4. What steps would you advise the union to follow in this case?

 

Getting a Pulse on Employee Engagement

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From the HR Practitioner’s perspective, it is very important to be able to assess and measure a range of employee activities.  The most common method of employee related data collection is through an annual employee engagement survey.

Hand drawing heart
Source: Jacek Dudzinski/Shutterstock

Many of us spend a lot of time sending out the surveys; waiting for employee responses; sending out prompts to remind employees to respond; collecting the data; analyzing the data; writing reports about what we think the data means; and then, finally, coming up with recommendations that we hope will address the issues.  The process and the methodology for all of this is usually electronic and should be efficient; however, the reality and timing is not always on the mark.  When all of the data collection and report writing is complete, it is usually time for another annual survey and the process starts all over again.

Maybe it is time to pitch the long and drawn out annual employee engagement survey. If your organization is not doing annual employee surveys at all or if the annual surveys are stopped, how else can the HR practitioner assess and evaluate what employees are thinking about their workplace?

 

The Director of Customer Happiness at OfficeVibe was interviewed recently on the CBC radio network. He offers a short and sweet approach to employee engagement activities.

Click Here to Listen to the Interview.

It seems that sending out annual surveys could be a thing of the past if the future relies on constant and meaningful employee engagement strategies.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are metrics?
  2. What are the specific metrics that provide good indicators for employee engagement?
  3. What are privacy concerns related to the collection of data from employees?
  4. Do you agree that a weekly ‘pulse’ survey would be an effective way to gauge employee engagement?
  5. Would you recommend a product like ‘OfficeVibe’ to your employer? Why or why not?
  6. What are some of the risks involved in employee engagement surveys?