Recruiting, Motivating, and Keeping Quality Employees

 Week 8 - a few thoughts about this week's studies - How do organizations attract, develop, and retain their employees? 

Human Resources (HR) is all about taking care of your employees and creating a good work environment.

Notes from our readings - 

Human Resource Planning: the process of developing a plan for satisfying an organization's human resources (HR) needs. A strategic plan lays out the steps that an organization will take to ensure that it has the right number of employees with the right skills in the right places at the right times. Analyzations of the company's mission, objectives, and strategies are some of the tasks that an HR manager needs to perform. In developing an HR plan, HR managers must be knowledgeable about the jobs that the organization needs to perform. A job analysis identifies the task. responsibilities and skills that it entails. 

Recruiting = the process of identifying suitable candidates and encouraging them to apply for openings in the organization. A qualified person must be able to perform the duties listed in the job description and must possess the skills, knowledge, and abilities detailed in the job specification.

Developing Employees - Training and Development - Diversity in the Workplace 

Motivating Employees - Motivation is an internally generated drive to achieve a goal or follow a particular course of action. Highly motivated employees focus their efforts on achieving specific goals. 

4 Influential Theories of Motivation:

Hierarchy-of-Needs - proposed by Psychologist Abraham Maslow, we are motivated by the five unmet needs, arranged in the hierarchy order: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. Two things to remember about Maslow's model - We must satisfy lower-level needs before we seek to satisfy higher-level needs, once we've satisfied a need, it no longer motivates us, and the next higher need takes its place.

Two-Factor Theory - psychologist, Frederick Herzberg set out to determine which work work factors made people feel good about their jobs, and which factors made them feel bad about their jobs. Employee satisfaction into work factors = Motivation factors: strong contributors to job satisfaction. Hygiene Factors: not strong contributors to satisfaction but they must be present to meet a worker's expectations and prevent job dissatisfaction. 

Expectancy Theory - proposes that employees will work hard to earn rewards that they value and that they consider obtainable. Effort --> Performance --> Reward 

Equity Theory - focuses on our perceptions of how fairly we're treated relative to others. The theory proposes that employees analyze their contributions or job inputs and their rewards or job outcomes. 

Reflection Questions:

• Identify at least three questions you would ask in a job interview. Explain what you would learn from each question.

What benefits are available to me?

What opportunities are available? Advancements?

What can the position provide for the long run?

I decided to ask these questions to understand what the company expects of me as an employee as well as what they would provide for me. Although I will pay for the benefits that help me personally. I would like to know the relationship I will build with the next company to hire me. Growth is very important to me and I can hope to know what is available and apply myself accordingly. 

• What characteristics would you want in a potential employer? Why are these characteristics important to you?

As an employee, I would like to work with people I can trust, and rely upon to fulfill my duties at work as well as provide support for my family and I. As much as they want me to be responsible and trustworthy, I would like it to be reciprocated. A company that can provide support and reliability, I can grow and develop my skills in the mean time.