3. USA
◦ Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection
Procedures (by the
Equal Employment
Opportunity
Commission)
◦ Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA)
◦ Fair Labor Standards
Act (FLSA)
◦ Equal Pay Act
Canada
◦ Canadian Human
Rights Act
◦ Employment Standards
Act (ESA)
◦ Employment Equity Act
◦ Privacy Act
◦ Occupational Health
and Safety
◦ Unions
◦ Accessibility for
Ontarians with
Disabilities Act (OADA)
4.
5. Williams, Kondra, and Vibert (2008).
Human resource management (HRM)
◦ Find, develop, keep the right people to form a qualified
workforce
Human resource planning (HRP)
◦ Forecast the organization’s employee needs to do HRM
Workforce forecasting
◦ Predict number and type of workers and skills to be needed
Bona fide occupational requirements (BFORs)
◦ Knowledge and competencies required to perform the job
6. The process
Needs
Assessment
• bona fide
occupational
requirement
• Job analysis
• Forecasting
Job Description Hiring
How, when, why
Equipment, tools
Context
Knowledge, skills
10. “A well-researched and well-developed job description is the foundation
stone of smart recruiting, interviewing, and hiring, as well as staff retention.”
(Muller, 2009, pp. 1)
Job Descriptions
• Verify the parameters
of the work
• Do you really need to
replace someone?
• Should you merge the
job duties with another?
•Do you need to
consider a Union
reaction to changing a
job description?
12. Advertising
◦ Trade journals, list
serves,
◦ employee referrals,
◦ area newspapers,
radio, associations
◦ internet
◦ Decide if electronic
or paper resumes
accepted
“employees do not leave jobs; they leave
their managers.” (Fernandez-Araoz, pp. 83)
13. Audition (often used in show
business)
Behavioural (use previous
reactions to predict future ones)
Informational (pre-employment;
job-seeking)
Group (multiple applicants per
interviewer; used to show personality
traits and interaction skills)
Panel (multiple interviewers per
applicant, often formal, structured,
and intimidating)
Serial (only one chance to
impress each interviewer)
Sequential (multiple interviews
over a period of time)
Situational (role-playing)
Stress (applicant is deliberately
antagonized to provoke a reaction
which is evaluated)
Structured (pre-prepared
questions; can have a rigid format)
14. The goal of a resume is to get
an interview or a job offer. It
is the candidates personal
marketing tool and should be
concise and applicable to the
position.
15. Offer of Employment Negotiable
Verbal offer
Written offer
◦ start date, time, location,
◦ Unionized position or not,
◦ hours of work,
◦ rate of pay,
◦ pay type (bi-weekly),
◦ job title,
◦ duration of trial period,
◦ Benefits,
Relevant documents
◦ Confidentiality agreement
◦ Others
Deadline
16. (2007). A guide to screening and selection in employment.
Canadian Human Rights Commission. Toronto, ON:
Minister of Public Works and Government Services.
Retrieved from http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/pdf/screen.pdf
Muller, M. (2009). The manager’s guide to HR. New York
[Alexandria, VA]: AMACOM Books. Retrieved from
http://netlibrary.com/Reader
Sivak, A. & De Long, K. (2009, Fall). The blind man describes
the elephant: the scope and development of the 8Rs
Canadian library human resource study. In Library Trends,
58(2) pp. 167-178. Retrieved from
http://muse.jhu.edu.libaccess.sjlibrary.org
Williams, C., Kondra, A., & Vibert, C. (2008). Managing
human resource systems. In Management (2nd Canadian
ed., pp. 364-406). Toronto, ON: Nelson.
17. Sumiye Sugawara
SumiyeS@gmail.com
Related:
Library (USA) job links: www.libraryjobpostings.org
Library Trends [journal]
Whitmell, V., (Ed). (2005). Staff planning in a time
of demographic change. Toronto, ON:
Scarecrow Press.
18. Evans, G., & Ward, P. (2007). Managing people. In
Management basics for information professionals
(pp. 359-382). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman.
Fernandez-Araoz, C, Groysberg, B, & Nohria, N.
(2009, May). The definitive guide to recruiting in
good times and bad. Harvard Business Review,
87(5), 74-84.
Gordon, S. (2010). Once you get them, how do
you keep them? Millennial librarians at work. In
New Library World, 111 (9/10), pp. 391-398.
Available through SJSU Library.
Editor's Notes
My name is Sumiye and on behalf of team Primus Inter Pares, I would like to welcome you to a session on Pre-Employment. Pre-planning is your most important step.
The presentation today is Canadian based and a brief introduction to the steps involved in hiring. I will be briefly touching upon some of the legalities to be aware of, terminology and a few advertising options. The focus of the presentation is upon needs – upon how you decide what jobs need doing and the skill set to full-fill them. Interviewing methods and resumes will also be mentioned. Assigned or not, , managers perform these duties to some degree, regardless of having a human resources department.
There are many laws that govern having employees and you should regularly look for changes in legislation and enforcement. They can be on the provincial, federal and international level. Ignorance is not excusable and can be an expensive lesson if your hiring process is challenged, such as on grounds of discrimination. The paraphrased Canadian Human Rights Act statement: entitles all individuals to equal employment opportunities without regard to race or colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, family or marital status, sex, pardoned conviction, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation.” (pp. 4)
Look for laws around minimum wage, hours of work, age restrictions, vacations, leaves, health and safety, unions, and human rights.
Williams, Kondra and Vibert report that sexual harassment complaints can take place anytime while conducting company business and can be made by and involve anyone -- the victim and assailant, customers, employees, and contractors (Williams, Kondra, Vibert: pp. 375). This is important - it means a complaint can be made by a customer observing an interaction they perceive to be sexual harassment or because of an interaction between a contractor and customer.
Without a human resources department, a quick internet search is a good starting point.
Entering the terms “Ontario Employment law” brings up a link to the Ontario Ministry of Labour – a provincial government website. This contains a downloadable pdf entitled “Complying with the Employment Standards Act (ESA): a workbook for employers” which was reviewed in September 2010. It also contains links to other applicable employment laws, forms, and resources. The website has an option to sign up for e-mail alerts to ensure that you stay current and aware of changes.
It is very important that you or someone in your service organization takes responsibility for meeting the legal requirements of having employees and customers.
Human Resource Management is the process of finding, developing, and keeping the right people to form a qualified work force.
Human Resource Planning is the process of using an organization’s goals and strategy to forecast the organization’s human resource needs in attracting, developing, and keeping a qualified work force. Ignoring this process leads to either too many or too few employees and stress in your work place as people are either worried about layoffs or overworked and unable to meet demand.
Work-force forecasting is the process of predicting the number and kind of workers with specific skills and abilities that an organization will need in the future.
Bona fide occupational requirements are the technical skills and knowledge (competencies) required to perform the job. They can identify skills or knowledge that would otherwise qualify as discrimination. For example, requiring a Baptist minister for a Baptist church is a bona fide occupational requirement. Requiring that your public librarian be a Baptist is not.
The needs assessment is very important step in establishing the Bona fide occupational requirements (BFOR’s) of the job.
You can analyze the job systematically in four areas through observation and interviews or by asking the employee and manager to detail the job and rate the duties in order of importance.
work activities: what is the employee doing when, why, and how
what tools and equipment are required to do the job
what is the job context? Schedule? Working conditions?
employee attributes: what knowledge, skills, abilities does the job require?
Consider financial implications. Do a cost benefit analysis.
Can the business afford the new employee?
Are you considering contract workers instead of full-time to save benefits costs and are there union implications?
Will the work performed advance the strategic goals and fit the company vision?
Why are you looking for an employee?
Forecasting can be used to predict the number and type of workers and skills and abilities they need to possess to full fill your future needs.
Think back and integrate knowledge gleamed from previous presentations: strategic planning, self-awareness and interpersonal skills, teamwork,...
Internal factors should include personnel replacement due to firing, retirement, and transfers; the organizations mission; new technology; new positions; and the overall strategic plan.
Internal forecasts are affected by many factors. Dr. Sheldon discussed behavioural theories such as McGregor’s Theories X and Y and Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs model and others. If your employees are not satisfied and motivated there will be higher rates of turn over and less interest in internal promotion.
External forecasts consider general and specific issues. Libraries provide information services. Do you know the economic, demographic and general trends specific to your business? Does your needs assessment consider who your major competitors for employees are?
One example is how increased fuel prices - an economic trend, affects library budgets in many ways – higher travel costs for training and conferences, higher transportation costs for branch to branch delivery of goods; and municipal transfer payments (called the levy in Ontario) that do not increase. In a small community without a full-time library position any full-time employer is a major competitor so training part-time staff should have a higher priority. Another trend is the rising usage rates of portable technology with global access. Consumers are growing up to expect 24/7 access to information. How will libraries and staff fit this new perception and are staff rising to the challenge or overwhelmed and needing training?
Yet more external factors....
According to Sivak and De Long in their take on the 8R’s Canadian Library Human Resources Study, “Leadership skills were more difficult to replace than general skills and knowledge when senior librarians retired.” This study raised concern in the Canadian library community and prompted the formation of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) President’s Council on 8R’s. Sivak and De Long talk of the CLA meeting to continue the “goal of a national strategy and action agenda for human resource planning for Canada’s libraries.” Are you aware of HR staffing studies relevant to your field?
As a NAFTA approved profession, libraries also have to be aware of the cross-border implications for filling staffing needs.
The crucial part to remember is that human resources is more than just finding a warm body to replace someone who leaves or to fill a grant position. It is an ongoing process.
Forecasting methods can be used to predict the number and type of workers and skills and abilities they need to possess to full fill your future needs.
Direct managerial input is based on financial data – cash flow projections, return on investment, expenses, etcetera. This is okay for determining quantity of workers but not quality – what skills are needed.
Consider your current workforce numbers and guess at how they will be affected by internal and external factors to come up with your “Best Guess” forecast.
Predict how many and what type of workers to hire by combining historical data and statistical methods such as comparing the previous years’ workforce to production to come up with a ratio. This comparison works well in a stable internal and external environment.
Human resource information systems software is available to gather, analyze, store and disseminate information related to attracting, developing, and keeping a qualified workforce and may be integrated with current payroll software depending on the programs chosen. A quick internet search pulled up several software names such as Halogen, Sage, PDS and HRA Employee Solutions to name a few. With some of these software programs you start by scanning in and OCR (optical character recognition) or uploading resumes which are then compared to the job description for keyword matching and pre-selection. No recommendations are made in this presentation regarding any Human Resource Information Systems software programs you may consider using.
The Job description is a list of the basic tasks, duties, and responsibilities required to do the job. It is based upon the needs assessment and combined with the job specifications which summarize the qualifications needed to successfully perform the job.
Use these to form the basis of the your hiring and training process.
In addition to book resources links to samples and assistance are frequently available through professional organizations such as the Southern and Northern Ontario Library Services in Ontario.
Consider this excerpt form a humorous job description taken from the internet and whether you would be interested.
“Long term, team players needed, for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organizational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel required, including trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless sports tournaments in far away cities. “
Like Snoopy, people sometimes apply for jobs just because they are there. In your organization, have you had job applicants applying that are unsuited to the job posted?
Have you guessed the job that was just described? It is for the position of mom, taken from SuperKids.com
Your job description should be concise, accurate and not misleading.
Read things that don’t matter, then write papers saying they do matter, for points that don’t matter, in order to get a job doing something totally unrelated: Student Read more at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/funniest-short-job-descriptions-ever/#ixzz1406ttRB8
Recruitment: You can motivate staff to refer people by offering bonuses for successful referrals (people that you subsequently hire that remain on the job past the trial period)
Internal recruiting is also known as promotion. Remember that successful internal recruiting means that another job becomes vacant within the organization and starts the process anew.
External recruiting methods often vary depending on the position you are hiring for. Part-time positions are usually advertised locally through newspapers, radio, internet, and employee referrals.
Employment tests must be job related and a valid predictor of performance. A keyboarding test for a data entry clerk or secretary is a competency, where-as mechanical design is not.
Hiring is the process of selecting the perceived best person for the job. Comparing the job description to resumes is a first step in weeding out unqualified applications. Some companies do screening interviews and testing – these are done to short-list people and might take place at recruitment fairs, by third parties, or the human resources personnel. They can be done by phone, internet or in-person. Screening looks for possible fits with company culture and qualifications.
Hiring interviews do not have to be preceded by screening interviews.
Lessen opportunities for discrimination claims by using uniform interview and evaluation techniques based on the job analysis.
Your organizations reputation can also play a part. Be known as being on the cutting edge of library technology and innovation, and you will attract people interested in those areas while others might refrain from applying. This is a form of pre-selection.
Look at the position and wage being hired for when you consider your advertising and recruitment campaign. There are pro’s and con’s to all advertising methods so cross-posting is advisable. The internet reaches many people who can easily forward it to their connections but can exclude anyone without ready internet access. Cross-post your job ad in as many places as you can afford. Include list-serves and networks that you or your staff are belong to. Your ideal candidate might be interested in moving to your area so the more critical the position and the better the wage offered the wider your range for job posting should be.
The job description will help to decide the advertising scope and budget and time spent on the process. A senior management or library chief position might take months compared to weeks for a part-time position.
There are many types of Interviews. A few types are mentioned that were found with a quick internet search.
Which type of interview is used will often depend on the job being filled.
An entry level part time position will not have the same structure and type of interview as one for upper management.
Informational interviews are requested by the applicant prior to any job being announced.
These are an opportunity for the potential employer and employee to evaluate each other – it is a form of networking.
It gives job seekers a chance to ask about the culture, upcoming positions that might be suitable, and what skills the employer is looking for.
Although this interview is instigated by the applicant, it should be treated as a formal interview would – as an opportunity to leave a great impression.
Structured Interviews ask a series of questions based on job competencies, culture and situations.
These lessen opportunities for discrimination because the questions are prepared ahead of time.
Interviewers should allow an opportunity for the applicant to ask questions.
Try to avoid starting an interview with “Tell me about yourself....” . It gives the applicant an opportunity to direct the interview and can lead to inconstancies when comparing applicants.
To obtain consistency, avoid unstructured interview questions.
As a job applicant
Ensure that the information you submit on your resume is accurate – not embellished, as it is legally binding and inaccuracies can be used as grounds for dismissal.
As an employer
Review your application form to ensure that it does not contravene any laws – check that it does not include questions about marital status, dates of high school education, name changes, etcetera. Ensure that you are prepared to receive resumes in the requested format. If you ask for them by fax or email make sure it is working and that the contact details are correct.
Document and perform all steps in the hiring process in a fair and consistent fashion. If you do a reference check on one do it for all. Do not forget that your hiring process notes need to follow legalities. You can not note that one applicant is female, another older or that one has body piercings.
Some organizations use specific ability tests, biographical data, personality tests.
Before you make an offer of employment, consider what is and isn’t negotiable for you.
How much leeway is there to the start date?
If you make a verbal offer of employment ensure that you document it and include all promises in the written offer.
Other required documentation such as confidentiality agreements should be listed and attached if they must be signed with the job offer.
Include a deadline for job offer acceptance and state where and when all materials must be returned and how and if this also applies to a declined job offer.
The crucial part to remember is that human resources is more than just finding a warm body to replace someone who leaves or to fill a grant position. It is an ongoing process that should fit the overall strategy of your library. A process.....
If you are a visual person, and do not have access to HR software, create a chart documenting all of the internal human resources in your library by job title and date that the job (not the employee) was last reviewed. Be aware of privacy laws if you include personal information such as names and expected retirement dates on it. This is a living document – the rate of review will depend on the rate of internal and external change on your library.
Thank you for your time and interest.
Colleague Kyle Cox will continue this theme with a presentation on post-employment next week.
