I. Identify and analyze the symptoms and problems that the ‘Carers’ face and offer recommendations for their solution. II. Based on the information given in this case study, conduct a speculative job analysis and prepare a job specification on what being an effective volunteer telephone counselor entails and which attributes you feel as necessary prerequisite. III. Based on the job specification you have prepared for question II, prepare a job advertisement for the recruitment of telephone counselors. I.
Identify and analyze the symptoms and problems that the ‘Carers’ face and offer recommendations for their solution by using the medical approach. The Carers is a free 24-hour counseling service that offers advice to people seeking help in the UK. It is a non-profit organization financed by public donations, thus it is very important to minimize overhead costs and use their capital efficiently. The organization is made up of volunteer counselors who offer their time and services to help the clients in need. However, The Carers is currently experiencing some Human Resource issues.
Management has identified that there is 27% wastage through training, more than 50% turnover of qualified counselors in two years, and only 6. 25% of calls are being answered. The Carers has invested ? 186,000 on training over a two-year period, from which ? 105,000 has been a squandered expenditure due to the amount of recruits who do not complete the 10-week training program. In the same way, many of these volunteers quit within the same timeframe, consequently complicating the telephone service availability. Inadequate workforce planning, recruitment, and selection process have caused these issues.
The Term Paper on Recruiting, Selection, and Training
The company that I researched is WellPoint (aka Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield). I would love to have a position as a Human Resource Director within the company. As a Human Resources professional at WellPoint, the goal is to lead their workforce and workplace talent strategies into achieving the purpose statement to convert health care with trusted and caring solutions. WellPoint also develop ...
Carole Jones is the Director for Human Resources at The Carers. She failed to develop a clear job definition that entailed the necessary skills and time specifications for the counseling volunteers, resulting in poor workforce planning. Carole did not conduct a proper job analysis before posting the publicity campaign to recruit volunteers for the organization; hence, the advertisement engaged a very wide range of people. Counseling requires a specific set of behavioral skills. Counselors have to be empathetic, tolerant, good-listeners, respectful, and non-judgmental.
These weren’t identified in the advertisement, which failed to convey the minimum requirements and ultimately attracted unqualified candidates. Carole believed that ultimately any poor candidates could improve through training and development. The Carers didn’t calculate the monthly counseling shifts correctly, at first they only asked for 8 hours per counselor, however, if you considered briefing periods, it summed up to 15 hours per month. The organization wasn’t forecasting the needed candidates to keep the telephone service available on a 24-hour basis.
Regarding recruitment and selection elements, Carole was biased in her selection for interviews; she preferably chose candidates based on “caring” professions, such as teaching, nursing, and social workers. She also prioritized based on their time availability, and failed to focus on the qualifications of the candidates. When recruits were interviewed, the interviews were unstructured and made up of casual conversations and they failed to include key questions, which could provide further insight to the recruiter about the candidate’s personality.
The Term Paper on Structured Interviews and Situational Interviews
Experts in this field may not have the same definition of a structured interview, whilst most of them would consider that an interview is structured in that the content of questions and acceptable answers were predetermined and candidate’s responses will be rated for the appropriateness of their content (McDaniel et al. , 1994). According to Dessler (2011), a structured (or directive) interview ...
After interviews were conducted, no evaluation for interview results took place, Carole usually made up her decision based on her previous experience and intuition. Since no validation period was necessary, candidates were called quickly after the interview. These circumstances were obviously not certifying the best personality-job fit, once volunteers were hired and found out they had to work almost twice as much as previously asked, they were likely to abandon their duties, causing the 50% turnover rate and the low call answering rates. There are several necessary adjustments to The Carers recruitment and selection process.
The changes can be categorized into solutions, the first solution would be to do nothing and continue with the current recruitment process. The job advertisement would continue to be vague and rather generic, which does not clearly state what type of volunteer that would satisfy the organization’s needs. Therefore resulting in a surplus of applications that would take months to process, while filtering out the ideal volunteers. This solution is not an option in this case due to the time sensitivity, dire needs to cut cost in training individuals not suitable for the job, and retain those already trained and suitable.
Modifying the job advertisement would be the first necessary solution in this case. The initial job advertisement was inaccurate, for example, the hour requirements. Initially, volunteers were asked for 8 hours per month but in reality 15 hours were required of them. The needs for “Good Listeners” was very vague and should be adjusted to more specific traits such as patience, empathy, tolerance, and the ability to listen to heart breaking or depressing stories.
This way the applications received are candidates fully aware of the job at hand and are willing to work the extended hours, resulting in a slightly smaller and more suitable pool of potential volunteers. An online application would be another solution, where volunteers submit everything through an online forum. This method allows for more organization and filtration of the selection process. In addition to a standard application form, where candidates are asked biographical information and past experiences in counseling, a personality questionnaire could be implemented.
The Essay on Recruitment and Selection Process definition
Definition: The process of sourcing and screening potential candidates that shares similar values and beliefs aligned with the organisation along with the desired knowledge, skills and experience to competently fulfil the defined job descriptions and specifications. Note: Brief overview of the function Objective: “Recruitment is the process of attracting, screening, and selecting employees for an ...
The Myer’s Briggs would be an ideal test because it focuses on personality traits such as extroversion, introversion, feeling, perception, and judgment. With this solution recruiters can easily filter through candidates based on their preferred availability, experience, careers, and personality traits, leaving only the candidates that fulfill the organization’s needs. Afterwards, when the recruiter decides whom to bring in for an interview they can also propose a scenario, the recruiter explains a past call received by someone deeply troubled and unsure of what to do, then ask the candidate to tell them how they would address the situation.
Then recruiters will have some idea of how candidates will react, primarily using the scenario as a kind of audition. These solutions have the potential to benefit the organization in many ways, yet the presence of flaws is inevitable. The modification of the job advertisement and job description could result in a significant loss of applications, but at the same time candidates will have been aware of what the job lowering the turn over rate therefore saving money in training. Online applications can always be a cause for concern; there is always the possibility of technical errors.
Yet the negatives of these solutions are outweighed by the benefits, from a more suitable pool of informed applicants to better overall organization of the selection process. The next move for The Carers is to implement these solutions. The ideal recruiting and selection process would include a combination of these solutions. Initially the modification of the Job advertisement would better inform interested individuals, thus, those who apply and are selected are not surprised by the conditions of the work place.
Then with the online application process, the reception of information will be more organized making it easier for the recruiter to select candidates for interviews based on the organization’s required specifications. The online personality test will also play a very important role in the selection process, because it will indicate what characteristic each candidate possesses. Then utilizing the “scenario” concept within the interview will allow recruiters to recognize how candidates will react to an every day situation on the job.
The Essay on Commie Dearest Communism And Momism In The Manchurian Candidate part 1
Commie Dearest: Communism and Momism in the Manchurian Candidate Introduction The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a movie, which we can clearly define as psychological thriller. But at the same time, unlike most of the movies that belong to this genre, Manchurian Candidate promotes a certain philosophical worldview, which can hardly be considered as politically correct in our time. It shows the ...
The implementation of these solutions will ease the recruiting and selection process and reduce costs of training, potentially reducing turnover as well. II. Based on the information given in this case study, conduct a speculative job analysis and prepare a job specification on what being an effective volunteer telephone counselor entails and which attributes you feel as necessary prerequisite. Volunteer Telephone Counselor Company: The Carers Location: London, United Kingdom Job Title: Volunteer Telephone Counselor
Purpose of the Job: This position offers the opportunity for volunteers to lend a hand to those troubled and in need of someone to talk to. Our volunteers help fellow Londoners by listening and giving them support through a telephone counseling service. The Carers are only a phone call away to help citizens, whether it is related to stress at home, work, adolescence, or depression. This is not work for the faint-hearted, many calls can be rather difficult to hear and unbiased perspective is required.
Job Description: Counsel callers help in a variety of ways from being able to simply listen, to rationalizing their life choices and help steer them in a positive direction. All accepted volunteers are trained by professional counselors so as to be able to interpret and reason situations. Duties and Responsibilities: Volunteer counselors will receive hundreds of calls in a matter of a couple hours, thus this position requires patience and efficiency. Always take note of the caller’s gender, age, working status, and the situation.
The most important element of this job criterion is to allow the individual to be in control of the conversation. Desirable requirements: Volunteers must be at least 25 years of age with any College Associate Degree. Behavioral Skills: Must have counseling, listening, and verbal skills. Being able to maintain a good conversation while being tolerant, respectful, and non-judgemental is fundamental. Experience: Previous experience would be desirable, however, training program will prepare all new counselors. III.
Based on the job specification you have prepared for question II, prepare a job advertisement for the recruitment of telephone counselors. The Carers- There to Care Company: The Carers Job Title: Volunteer Telephone Counselor Location: London, United Kingdom Job Description: Counsel callers help in a variety of ways from being able to simply listen, to rationalizing their life choices and help steer them in a positive direction. Volunteers need to be able to provide 15 hours of counseling per month. All accepted volunteers are trained by professional counselors so as to be able to interpret and reason with a troubled caller.
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Since its inception, the telephone has become one of the most important inventions of all time. Although some were skeptical about its replacement over telegrams, in the end the advent of this fine communication equipment has won the hearts of many. As a matter of fact, the telephone system had come to numerous facelifts that it literally connected the world before the internet was born. Because ...
