Recruitment & Selection

1. Recruitment & Selection • focus on attracting & retaining right employees for the right job • job description & personnel specification • nature of job will dictate skills & knowledge required, temperament, empathy, physical requirements such as stamina etc. • selection methods: • application forms • job interview • tests - skills, intelligence/aptitude, psychological • references • medical examination

2. Empowerment • should service employees be closely controlled? - service quality issues? • or should they be empowered i.e. made responsible for controlling their own work • empowerment very useful in service recovery & service customisation • what is appropriate for the service i.e. low contact, standardised vs. high contact, highly divergent services • employees values = organisation’s values ?? • Kelley (1993) - 3 types of employee discretion: • routine discretion - prescribed list of possible alternatives • creative discretion - employee develops alternative methods him/her self • deviant discretion - negative - outside employees area of authority

3. Involvement of employees • importance of employees feeling involved in their jobs and in the organisation • communications in organisation very important to this • motivation - enrichment of jobs through autonomy, enlargement, variety, performance feedback • strategies to increase employees’ involvement: • ‘open door’ policies - grievances & suggestions - ‘employee friendly’ • team briefings - team leader passing information to groups • quality circles (QCs) - small groups - production quality & service delivery - linked to TQM • worker shareholdings & profit sharing schemes

4. Rewarding Staff • something of value in return for good performance • non-monetary - benefits such as sports facilities, recognition such as certificates/stars/employee of the month etc., other perks • monetary - different payment systems: • hourly rates - or payment by output - secondary or non-core employees - employees may neglect customer care aspects of job • fixed salary - core workers - quality of work as important as quantity • fixed salary plus commission - personnel actively involved in selling - may be conflicts in some jobs removed from delivery of service • performance related pay (PRP) • linked with employee appraisal - sometimes difficult (qualitative aspects, group work) • helps mgt. control - career development & training needs - staff involvement