Introduction
In this report we analyze a case for HCL Technologies company. At first part, there was a question raised by one of the representatives that whether the talent acquisition function at HCL and its task is adding any contribution for being a strategic business partner and adding value towards achievement of the business goals at the organization. In second part, there is an evaluation and assessment of the TAG as to whether they are actually selecting the best talent and helping the organization in fulfilling its objectives and aims.
Answers to Questions of the Case Provided
Question 1
TAG improve its fulfillment through the post-offer follow-up (POFU) gamification in regard of recruitment professionals and discussion of the consultancy process supported by examples.
Initially at HCL was a case where in recruitment used to happen wherein left hand did not know about what is right hand doing. A candidate interviewed once was again interviewed by various other functions too (Dutta, etal.,2015). There were 3 teams for talent acquisition function at HCL: Software, BPO and Infrastructure with a total 250 recruiters doing end-to-end recruitment. When Shergill joined the organization, he made the recruitment function centralized with the head being Narayana (Dutta, etal.,2015). This single and centralized function was responsible for the talent acquisition in regard to workforce optimization and increasing the profitability for the company. It was noticed that earlier the decentralized function was not resulting in the quality recruitment process. The recruitment head had highlighted the issues that were happening due to lack of the standardization of the processes, systems and practices that were being followed in the recruitment process. The change management process was named as PEP – C (Dutta, etal.,2015). This process was aiming at creating the functional efficiency at structural levels in order to define the roles and responsibilities of the various individuals. There would be standardization of the processes and practices under TAG. The major objective of this change management was creating the best available database for the prospective candidates, central payment office and providing training to the pool of the interviewers imparting them skills to select the best candidate (Dutta, etal.,2015). This would help in creating the standardization in the process of recruitment and selection. In addition to 268 recruiters, 170 additional contract staffs were aligned with them (Dutta, etal.,2015). These staffs were supported by the recruitment tools and techniques that were implemented. These people supported the recruiters in order to carry out the activities like: taking confirmation from the candidates, collecting the various documents and even post offer follow up. This also helps in signing off the timelines agreed for the various processes and even signing of the service level agreements. TAG was given an efficiency in terms of the structurally and differentiated roles and responsibilities. The process of recruitment had improved in terms of its maturity levels for not following up with several candidates for many times and maintaining a centralized database for the quality candidates. There were 20 parameters (Exhibit 8) that were defining the talent acquisition function at HCL and these were: cost per joining, gender mix, lateral tier mix, channel mix, economic and demand fulfillment, etc (Dutta, etal.,2015). These processes of standardized approach to recruitment also resulted in saving average revenue of $300 (Singh & Sharma, 2014).
Just in time was also used as a quality approach to reduce the errors and hiring with a qualitative approach for the efficient candidates (Dutta, etal.,2015). At this point of time minimizing and tracking the offer renege became very critical. It became necessary to reduce the renege and mitigating the risks. It was then decided that offer would be given to the candidate once he is on-boarded if the interval is long. It was during this time that game link was sent to the candidate once he accepts the offer. The candidates used to get the flexibility in order to continue and pause as the game was never deactivated. The intend of the game was to familiarize the candidates with the philosophy, culture and the practices that were being followed at HCL (Dutta, etal.,2015). This gamification process actually helped in increasing the engagement process at HCL. This approach has also maximized the hiring of the quality driven manpower that can be utilized for the best quality services and processes. It has implemented the standardized approach towards recruitment process.
Due to timely and periodic follow up over the gamification process of HCL with the candidates the probability of the joining of the candidate and probability of the renege was almost made as 90% accurate (Dutta, etal.,2015). This means following up result in actual analysis of the position worked out and knowing the exact status of the candidates who have to join the company. These processes actually reduced the overall renege levels from 30% to 25% (Dutta, etal.,2015). This process was not only for external candidates rather provided a platform for the internal employees and checking on their needs for the growth and development. It was named as Hunter Premier League which intended at improving and bringing business efficiencies from good to great (Dutta, etal.,2015). As per the data available, from 2012 with an employee base of 83,076 got increased to 88, 332 in December 2013. The actual improvement and utilization of the processes resulted in the effective implementation up-to 21%. It was hiring 550 employees every week and releasing 770 offers. The lead time in the hiring process was increased by 4% (Dutta, etal.,2015). For example, an average renege ratio of 30%, recruiters would release 4 offers to hire three individuals. However, the negatives of this approach is that if there is no renege, the additionally hired employee increases the bench strength as well as the costs for the company. Additionally, improving the resource utilization and minimizing the bench strength were among the key goals of the Resource Management Group at HCL. As shown in the value calculation earlier, significant contribution to profitability comes from developing the utilization and getting a better understanding of this phenomenon became critical. To support this, TAG team needed to accurately identify which individual skill, the experience level, at which location, and which project team, was likely to renege. To get a better understanding of this, TAG used analytics from the POFU gamification. It was important to design the POFU game in such a way that it chose high engagement levels from the potential hires. As shown in Exhibit 11, the first indication of the expected renege behavior would increase if the potential hire did not engage in the game (Dutta, etal.,2015). Moreover, we need to know how the organization plans for its resourcing needs and for diversity and what are the different sourcing options that it has (Xue, 2014). These plans would also support hiring in the future and ensure that people with the right talent, skills and competencies are hired or recruited within the company. This would make sure that each position is hired as per the required set of skills which are proven to result in the development and growth of the personnel.
I-TAP and PEP_C results were quite visible through the process improvements for TAG. The process of centralization also helped in making sure that quality employee base is obtained and achieved. There were various other innovative and new approaches that were being followed at HCL in the TAG. These were creation of the job applications and job impressions that will help in creating a competent environment for recruitment and selection at HCL. HCL also created an employee matrix group at LinkedIn. It started using social networking sites to improve the efficiency and productivity of the Talent acquisition group at HCL (Dutta, etal.,2015). Other processes and activities like Razor fish and even the Talent Guru also help HCL maximize the exposure through pay-per-click and resulted in effective job search on the website of HCL and its social networking job search portal. For example, i-TAP was used to enter the mass upload of the information about the candidate. It was observed that gamification, i-TAP and various other tools utilized helped in improving the productivity of the recruitment and selection processes at HCL Technologies. These tools would really increase the way in which recruitments were done and make them more productive and efficient. TAG used the approach of “Make a Difference, Lead the Difference” (Dutta, etal.,2015). Few of the functional responsibilities to the team members in the TAG were reduced and even made clear by the introduction of the new software and ERP tools. They used to get the authentication on the roles and responsibilities that were assigned to them. Therefore, the process of recruitment and selection resulted in the fulfilling of the quality candidates for HCL technologies, development and implementation of the effective database and even creation of the situation wherein the recruitment process was made efficient and effective. It has been observed that there has been development at recruitment and selection process at HCL technologies. POFU would be helping the TAG of HCL in order to get the exact details and information on the hiring of the candidate and accordingly ensure the arrangements on the joining that should be followed up and done. This follow up on the regular intervals will surely inform in terms of the non-acceptance of the offer letter and then they can easily within the timelines starts the recruitment and hiring processes again. This will support the company in terms of increasing its efficiency and productivity for the hiring, recruitment and selection processes within the HCL Technologies. This process would maintain the transparency and the updated information outlook, so that decisions are taken as per the required standards and practices.
Question 2:
Discussion for what constitutes a true “Quality of Hire” and explanation of how should organizations including what TAG did to measure “Quality of Hire”.
Quality of Hire refers to a terminology wherein the hired person is qualitative in terms of certain defined parameters by the TAG team members. These qualitative hires have to be tested and mapped on these parameters through conducting various psychometric testing tools, technical tests and review papers checking and assessing the knowledge and skills that are possessed by various individuals (Dutta, etal.,2015). All of us should know that the term of “Quality of Hire” continues to be elusive for many HR and Talent Acquisition Functions. This conventional wisdom suggests that the success of recruiting is a way of relentless process efficiency, and many HR processes focus on these parameters to demonstrate their effectiveness (Acharya & Shah, 2014). Hiring strategy should definitely focus on the hiring of the quality candidature. These help in the recruiting candidates as per the required criteria or set tools as per the market standards. However, the distinction between efficiency and effectiveness is increasingly being known, with the quality of the talent emerging as an area of concern. It has been observed that many companies have different tools and qualitative and quantitative parameters on the basis of which the various candidates are assessed. It becomes imperative that job specifications are assessed in terms of the skills and competencies that are looked forward from an individual. Similarly, the job description is also developed and designed which reveals the kind of responsibilities and role that would be defined for the various individuals (Dutta, etal.,2015). The managers of the various departments are defining the skills and required competencies that have to be mapped and assessed. A study of Aberdeen group (2008) found that managers define the number one skill that they would like to have in their talent acquisition teams is their ability to bring in high quality talent, which would be reflected in the quality of hire metrics (Martin& Bourke, 2008).
Although, there is consensus in stating that this is the top concern of organizations, practitioners find it difficult to define the parameters that would build this construct. There is now an increased constraint on quality of hire as a deliverable by the recruitment functions. The recruitment process will define the areas that have to be assessed within an individual so that these are checked and evaluated. These areas and parameters would be checked and evaluated as per standardized approach.
Pre-Hire Person Measures (Brody,2010):
• Application to offer-conversion ratio: This means that the number of applications to that of the offer given would actually define the success of the recruitment and selection process within the TAG that is followed. Before the TAG was made a centralized function. There was a lot of issue as the number of people interviewed to the offer given were very less as there was no focus and specialized tools and its application. Later when this approach was being implemented, it resulted in the increasing the number of hires, retention of the people as right people were selected for the right position and at right levels. This resulted in bringing quality in the recruitment process at HCL Technologies (Dutta, etal.,2015). This ratio has to be increased so that the quality in recruitment strategy has to be obtained and analyzed.
• Role-based/skill: These are the competencies and skills are essentially to be present and available within an individual. These skills would help an individual in implementing and doing their work as per the required standards and processes. Each and every position and function would have different skills and competencies. These have to be defined as per the roles and responsibilities that are defined for the role. Each role would differ in terms of the skills and the qualifications that are required for carrying out the tasks accordingly (Brody,2010).
• Competency based assessment frameworks: These are the tools and techniques that would support us in selection of the required skills and competencies that are looked forward from a profile (Prasad,2015).
• Structured interviewing: This is the interviewing process that would follow a defined structure. This structure would include first HR round, then psychometric testing, technical round and even the technical tests that would be conducted for the profile (Brody,2010).
• Panel Interviewing: This is the process in which the panel of the interviewer sit together to assess the individuals. This panel would include the technically skilled person, HR representative and even the senior manager for that particular department. They will be asking various kinds of questions to the candidates. This panel differs in terms of its members in various companies (Rajkumar, etal, 2015).
• Interview certification programs (for recruiters and panels): There are specified and defined courses that are developed by the specialists in this field for the recruiters as well as the panels to select the specific kind of people. These are not 2-3 days courses rather would be full courses ranging from 3 months to 6 months which will guide on the processes and practices that should be followed while doing the recruitment and selection process (Brody,2010).
• Background Verification: It becomes quite essential that background verification of the candidate is done in terms of his employment, qualification and family. Few companies would outsource these activities to the various consultants or the agencies that specialize in these activities. They will do a detailed check on the qualification certificates and even the employment checks to assess whether the proofs submitted by the candidates are correct and ethical. These are essential as many candidates also sometimes furnish the fake proofs in order to get the required offer or the employment services (Phatai & Mittal,2013).
• Reference checks: Sometimes the candidates may be having the required qualification and experience but at the same time may not be fit for the organization in terms of the attributes, qualities and characteristics. Reference checks from the previous employers help in checking on the kind of candidates and working styles so that if they are actually fit for the employment could easily be checked (Brody,2010).
These are the pre-hire outcomes that are done so that before hiring or giving the offer to the candidate the person is evaluated and assessed. These processes for the hiring would help HCL in completing its recruitment and selection processes as per specified parameters and defined approaches. HCL has been quite stringent in terms of the approach followed for checking the pre-hiring processes (Dutta, etal.,2015). This is due to the reason that instead of hiring the wrong individual, it is essential to check the candidature prior rather than later. This would definitely result in non-productivity.
Post-Hire Outcome-Measures
These are the measures and processes that are followed once the hiring processes are done. The post hiring processes include (Brody,2010):
• Job performance assessed by Performance ratings: The performance at the job would be assessed on the basis of the performance ratings that are obtained on the various parameters. It would actually assess the actual ratings on the performance for the various individuals who are hired. This would help in mapping the required potential with that of the person who is hired for a specific profile. This would help in analyzing and checking on the skills and the developmental areas that are to be developed for that particular individual (Bhattacharyya, 2015).
• Employee turnover (voluntary and involuntary): This process would check on the attrition and retention rates for the employees. This turnover would check on the reasons why the employee leaves the organizations. The reasons could be voluntary in case employee would like to start up their own businesses or involuntary in case there is disciplinary or termination on the basis of integrity (Brody,2010).
• Early aborts: There may be candidates who would leave the organizations early due to certain dissatisfaction on various parameters. The aborts could be challenge for the company and would result in the vacancy created again. This wastes the time and results in restarting the same processes again. This reduces the productivity as well. The people who would like the processes or who are unable to match and map with that of the profiles (Brody,2010).
• P-O (Person-Organization): It becomes imperative that person skills and objectives would match with that of the organizational goals and objectives. This enables the growth and success in the right direction and approach (Brody,2010).
• P-J (Person-Job) Fit assessment: It becomes essential that person and its job is checked and mapped with that of the fitment analysis. This helps in placing the right individual at right place and at the right time (Phatia & Mittal,2013).
These post hiring processes would result in checking on the candidature and resulting in the mapping and checking of the processes and right fitment of the candidate. HCL has been consulting the various agencies so that non-core activities are outsourced so that they could easily concentrate on the core tasks and activities that have to be performed (Lyons, 2015).
Quality of the hires must be mapped with that of the required standards. This could be developed as a standard which would help in future hiring. HCL has been quite successful in terms of improving the way in which the Talent Acquisition Group performs.
Conclusion:
At the end, we found that POFU gamification supports the company in terms of increasing its efficiency and productivity for the hiring, recruitment and selection processes within the HCL. Moreover, HCL has been successful in terms of improving the way in which the Talent Acquisition Group performs.
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