Employee Induction Manual for HR Department

Purpose and Functions of HRM

LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing an organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business functions.

LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organisation.

LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-making, including employment legislation.

Appirio is a global services company that helps customers create next-generation Workday and Customer Experience using the latest cloud technologies. Our free-thinking consultants deliver unmatched customer value by creating actionable strategies, delivering results quickly, and helping organizations adapt to a new experience-driven era. We do this by harnessing the power of one of the world’s largest crowdsourcing communities and thousands of pre-built solution accelerators. Appirio is a trusted partner to some of the world’s largest brands, including YP, Cardinal Health, Coca-Cola, eBay, Facebook, Home Depot, Sony PlayStation, Moen, and IBM.

This past year, Appirio transformed our interview process to make it more effective and efficient, to ensure we are making the right hiring decisions as well as providing an excellent candidate experience. We did this by providing standardization, a job competency library of behavioural based interview questions, evaluation scoring aligned to an area of the business/role, interview training, and a strong focus on transparency and communication.

As Appirio evolved from a start-up to a mid-size company, our interview process had not changed to adapt to our growth and transformation. In May of 2014, we implemented a candidate experience survey, which captured our NPS (net promoter score) as well as feedback around areas we could improve on in our hiring process. In analysing the data, we identified communication and responsiveness as two areas our recruitment team could make an immediate impact in. Our team worked diligently to improve these two areas but realized we could have a more profound impact on the business by analysing the candidate experience and interview process from end-to-end. 

Recruiting is truly a team effort at Appirio, so we could only go so far as a recruiting team to improve our candidate experience. We really needed to partner and provide the rest of our interview teams with the education and information necessary to move the needle.  

In 2015, we put together a project task force that consisted of 5 core global team members and identified a project leader who was responsible for creating the project plan, leading the team, and keeping to the project timeline. The project plan was built in a Google spreadsheet and meetings were held once `to twice a week. We started by documenting the current state of our interview process and identifying areas of improvement based on both candidate and hiring manager input. 

Evaluation of Different Approaches to Recruitment and Selection

We looked at each step of the process and identified what interviews were crucial to execute a successful hire for Appirio. Cultural alignment is just as important to Appirio as competency, so we identified up front that we needed both a cultural and competency assessments. We also feel it’s important for our hiring managers to be involved and the candidate to meet a team in-person.

We streamlined the process from on average of 10-14 interviews to 8; which consists of a recruiter screen, cultural interview, competency interview, hiring manager, and then in-person interviews (4 interviews are held during the in-person). In order to provide consistency, we clearly defined what makes a thriving “Appirian” (cultural alignment). Additionally, we worked with each team to create competency interview guides to go with their area(s) of the business. As a result, interviewers now have a guide to leverage when conducting cultural and competency interviews versus just asking whatever questions they feel is best.

Additionally, we also streamlined our interviewer feedback evaluations in our ATS to match the specific interview and area of business. Prior to this change, we had one evaluation in our ATS that asked our interviewers to evaluate on trust, professionalism, and grey matter for every interview. The implementation of the Thriving Appirian and competency guides also aided in our efforts to reduce unconscious bias as our interviewers are no longer relying on “gut instincts.” 

1. Do we have the right tools?
2. Is there anything that would help provide a better experience to our candidates as well as help us make better hiring decisions?

We looked at a wide variety of video platforms that would provide both one-way and two-way video interviews, but due to the inability to integrate with our ATS, and the experience level of candidates we are interviewing, we determined that one-way interview interviewing was not a current fit, but something we will continue to evaluate. At the time, two-way video interviews were part of our process using Google Hangouts, however, we would run into a significant amount of technical issues as there was not one direct link for both the candidate and interviewer to click on and bring them into the interview.

This was causing an array of issues often resulting in rescheduling the interview. After much research and working with our IT team, we were able to implement a new Google Hangout process, which allows anyone to join by directly clicking on the link. This resolution saves time and resolves the technical issues.

While we were finishing up the core project, we put together an additional team to focus on the training to ensure adoption and that all team members understood the process from beginning to end. This team developed and rolled out a variety of training sessions to over 500 employees (41% of our employee base) consisting of in-person, virtual, with supplemental user guides.

The training sessions were all conducted by our recruiting team members across our global locations. The training is ongoing and now we are working with our academy team to see how we can create drip campaigns and continuous training for those who first join Appirio as their career may evolve to a hiring manager. The training includes an overview of our process changes, how to use the new tools, and also a section on unconscious bias.

As a newly appointed assistant human resource officer for Appirio or organisation of your choice, and you have been tasked to write a report on employee induction manual for new staff being recruited into the Human Resources (HR) department.

The manual will provide details on the purpose of HR and the main HR functions within the organisation with an overview of different HR practices.

(1) Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing in Appirio (or any other organisation of your choice), and assess how the functions of HRM can provide talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives.

(2) Explain and critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection, supported by specific examples.

(3) Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both the employer and employee. Moreover, explore the different methods used in HRM practices, providing specific examples to support evaluation within an organisational context.

(4) Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity for Appirio (or any other organisation of your choice).

Critically evaluate HRM practices and application within Appirio (or any other organisation of your choice), using a range of specific examples.

(5) Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making.

(6) Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making.

Critically evaluate key aspects of employee relations, employment legislation and the application of HRM practices that inform and influence decision-making in an organisational context.