HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

At the end of this chapter, you would have learnt :

• Recruitment
To be able to describe the recruitment stages.
• Training
To understand the needs for training, who requires training and
methods of training.
• Development
To be able to describe career path and career path planning, and
the personnel performance evaluation process.
 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

• In the highly competitive environment of information

technology, having effective human resource policies is vital to
the well being of an organisation. Only the most capable staff
should be hired. However, that is only the beginning as it is just
as important to retain the staff after induction into the
organisation. After extensive amounts of time, money and other
resources are invested in training the staff, it would be
distinctly disadvantageous if he leaves for a competitor.
3.1 RECRUITEMENT
3.1 RECRUITEMENT

Introduction
• Before recruiting for a vacant data processing position can
take place, the DP manager must have a thorough knowledge
of the position’s duties and requirements so that staff
specifications can be determined.
• In most companies, recruitment is actually performed by
personnel specialists in the human resource department
• It is very important that the DP manager work very closely
with the personnel department to ensure that the most
suitable person is selected to fill the position.
The recruitment process can be broken into five
stages
.
STEP 1: STAFF SPECIFICATIONS

JOB DESCRIPTION AND JOB SPECIFICATION

ARE TWO TOOLS THAT CAN BE USED.
•Job Description

This is the first step to determine accurate and

realistic staff needs. The purpose of the job
description is to specify what an employee would do
in the prospective position.
Some of the information that is found in a job description
includes:
• Duties to be performed
• Level of complexity of the job
• Level of responsibility given
• The physical conditions and working environment
• The equipment, machinery or tools used in the job
• The extent of supervision and direction given
• The extent in independent judgement and initiative required
• The terms of employment
•Job Specifications

The purpose of the job specification is to outline the

specific qualifications that an applicant must have to
be able to perform the job duties successfully.
Some of the information that is found in a job description
includes:

• The level of education

• The types of specialised skills required
• Essential personality characteristics
• Prior work experience
• The level of intelligence
• Staff specifications must be realistic.
 STEP 2: RECRUITMENT

• The objective of effective recruiting is to attract a

large number of well-qualified job applicants to the
company. How well this objective can be met
depends on looking into appropriate sources for
recruits.
Some sources of recruits are:
• Advertisements
• Job Agencies
• Recommendations and referrals
• Colleges, universities and vocational schools
The above list is not exhaustive and determining which
sources are most appropriate may not be easy. Despite that,
this step is important so that only appropriate candidates
apply thereby reducing the tedious, time consuming and
probably costly process of weeding out unsuitable applicants.
STEP 3: ASSESSMENT

At this stage, the list of applicants would be assessed to screen

out unsuitable candidates.
It is important that every applicant be treated fairly and
courteously.
The applicant assessment stage typically comprise of three
main steps, initial applicant screening, checking applicant’s
employment references and structured selection interview
• Initial applicant screening

Initial screening is best accomplished through the use

of a screening (mini) interview, which usually lasts
only for a few minutes. Two purposes of the screening
interviews are to determine if the applicant possess
the critical specifications for the position, and, to
tactfully expedite the departure of unqualified
applicants.
Some techniques that can be used for screening are:

• Visual screening
• Using critical or knockout questions
• Review application form
• Briefly describe the job to the applicant
• Aptitude test
• Step 4: Evaluation

When arriving at a decision, it is advisable to have

some concept of the ‘ideal’ applicant to establish a
rating scale. The candidate’s profile is compared to the
attributes of the scale and rated accordingly. This
allows an objective and accurate final evaluation of the
candidate.
• Step 5: Selection
After the choice of finalist is decided, another meeting
is arranged and a firm offer of employment is
extended to him.

One important point to note is that in many cases,

applicants who resign for the new job receives
counter offers from the former employer.
3.2 TRAINING
3.2 Training

3.2.1 The Need for Training

• Computer technology changes very quickly.
• Computers are used in most industries.
• User-computer interaction.
• People that need training include:
-Computer professionals
-Developers
-End users
3.2.2 Methods of Training
In this section, we will be looking into some common
approaches to training of DP staff.
Each have their own specific characteristics and suits different
training needs.
• On the job training
• Learner-paced, vendor supplied courses
• In-house seminars run by external trainers
• Internally developed in-house seminars
• Off-site vendor seminars
3.3 DEVELOPMENT
3.3 DEVELOPMENT

3.3.1 Career Path

• No one likes to remain in the same job and salary scales for long
periods of time. Therefore, there should be formal mechanisms that
will allow a staff member to progress from his current position, along
with the appropriate adjustments in the pay scales.

• Movement can be vertical or lateral.

• A career ladder can be a great help to both management and staff.

It is a chart showing all computing positions with arrows pointing from
a job position to another show possible paths of career progression

• Promotion of computer professionals by moving them up to

managerial levels may not appropriate.
THANK YOU!