Hiring and Human Resources

Introduction
The topic of this discussion is Human Resources and their ability to effectively recruit talent for a
company. This topic was chosen due to personal encounters with Human Resources and their
recruitment processes. The problems with Human Resources when talking about recruitment, is their
inability to locate qualified employees due to lack of communication with the department hiring, their
lack of technical knowledge of the company that they are hiring for, and the process in which screening
is done. There are three solutions available to this problem: Dissolve Human Resources Department,
Remove the Role of Recruitment from the Human Resources Department, or change Human Resources
recruiting process.

Roles of the Human Resources Department

Before discussing the role of Human Resources Departments in recruiting potential employees, it is
important to understand all duties that are being performed. There are six areas of responsibility in a
Human Resources Department: Safety, Employee Relations, Compensation and Benefits, Compliance,
Training and Development, and the area of focus, Recruitment.
Safety in The Workplace
The topic of workers safety was not always on the foreground of company policy. Since the beginning
of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's, the rate of worker deaths and accidents increased
substantially, with most victims being children until child labor was prohibited in 1938. The Mine
Safety and Health Administrations was developed in 1977, which reduced the average annual coal
miners deaths from 450 in the late 1950's, to only 19 in 2012. The Occupational Safety and Health
administration was established in the 1970's. During that time period, there were 38 work related deaths

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a day. That number has dropped more than 65 percent since 1970. Under this policy, employers are
obligated to provide a safe work environment. In an effort to do so, Human Resources Departments
supply employees with workplace safety training, and track any injuries/deaths that occur at the job site
as mandated by the federal government. Human Resources Departments also play an important role in
workers compensation.

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Compensations and Benefits
Human Resources Departments can play an active role in compensation for employees by setting up
structures for compensation, and evaluating the payroll practices of other companies as a means to offer
more competitive salaries. HR departments also handle group health coverage, and retirement funds.
Training and Development
Human Resources Departments provide new employees with orientation training to provide the basic
skills necessary to perform their jobs. They also provide leadership training and professional
development.
Employee Relations
In order to better unify the employee/employee union with the employer, the Human Resources
Department tends to be the mediator between the two to ensure employee happiness by resolving
workplace conflict usually caused by concerns raised in employee contracts.
Compliance
It is mandatory for Human Resources Departments to follow laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act
and the National Labor Relations Act. In doing so, the HR department can avoid unfair employment
practices, and unsafe working conditions which can greatly retard productivity.
Recruitment
Recruitment is self explanatory in that when a company decides to recruit more employees, the HR
departments posts the positions where they can be readily accessed by potential employers.
Applications are screened, interviews are held, and the applicants that make it past this initial interview
are refereed to company managers for the final decision to be made.

Problems With Recruitment

On April 2,2013 Nick Corcodilos, a Human Resources professional since 1979, published an article

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titled Ask the Headhunter: The Talent Shortage Myth and Why HR Should Get Out of the Hiring
Business. In this article, an individual who has been unemployed was having a difficult time finding a
new job due to the regulatory screening process of Human Resources. As a job seeker with related
work experience, he states:
Honestly, I just don't see the reason for silly online application forms or for screeners
who don't understand the work I do, when companies complain they cannot find the right
talent. I really don't get it.
Corcodilos responds to this statement by stating that Human Resources has no business in the process
of recruiting. The biggest reason being that Human Resources departments don't understand the work
of those that they are hiring. It is impossible to judge a persons candidacy for a position if there is no
basic understanding of that line of work. Kyle Smith, author of It's Time For Companies To Fire Their
Human Resources Department, stated his concern on Human Resources ability to hire qualified
employees in this paragraph:
HR places a disturbingly high premium on what it calls communication skills and what
you and I call talking. A survey found that 83 percent of HR professionals cited training in
communication skills (they spent their college years in Watercooler 101?) as important to
getting a job in the field, while only two percent cited the importance of classes in finance.
Actually knowing how the business runs doesnt much register with HR. Using HR as talent
spotters makes about as much sense as asking the florist for help filling out the roster on your
basketball team.
Due to this gap in knowledge, Corcodilos believes that Human Resources is only qualified to recruit
other Human Resources employees. Recruitment for other professions should be done by departmental
managers in order to find qualified employees.
The Talent Shortage Myth

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Based upon statistics gathered from NewsHour and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in
2012, there are 27 million unemployed (actively seeking work) people in the United States, and 12
million citizens are underemployed. On the other hand, there are 3.7 million vacant jobs. This huge gap
between the number of job seekers and available jobs is known as The Great Talent Shortage due to
Human Resources inability to find a qualified workforce. The biggest reason for such a shortage is
the disconnect between what Human Resources and departmental managers view as qualifications.
Since technological advances have allowed more applications to be screened, being selected or
denied an interview is completely dependent on keywords selected by Human Resources. If Human
Resources does not have a good understanding of the business, roper talent can be pushed aside.
The More the Merrier?
Another fault of Human Resources in the hiring process is their focus on gathering a large volume of
applicants for a position rather than the quality of applicants. This type of recruitment requires
companies to spend large sums of money on unnecessary advertisement on websites and in
newspapers. Higher volumes of applicants can also put more stress on the recruiters part, resulting in a
larger margin of error when assessing applications. The inefficiency of this recruitment is rarely
scrutinized by the departments that they are hiring for due to lack of communication.

Solutions and Feasibility

Based upon my research, there are three solutions to this problem, getting rid of Human Resources,
removing their role in talent selection, or improve the way in which they select talent.
Dissolving Human Resources
Option one seems to be the most radical, and the most unnecessary. Depending on the organization,
Human Resources Departments can be very useful in employee-employer relations, compensation, and
training for current and future employees. Removal of a Human Resources Department would cause a

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significant amount of damage to the economy by drastically increasing the number of unemployed in
the United States. It would also put strain on organizations when dealing with subject matters beyond
their qualifications such as compensation, 401k's and the implementations of training on a massive
scale.
Limiting Their Role
Removing the role of recruitment from Human Resources seems like a very feasible alternative. All
efforts that have been placed on recruitment can be allocated elsewhere with little to no financial loss.
Thus the process of recruitment would rely on department managers who clearly understand what their
criteria is for a talented worker. The recruitment process would be slowed, but the quality of the
applicants would dramatically increase.
Innovating Talent Seeking Process
If managers would like to allocate recruitment to Human Resources, there a several things that must be
done. Clear communication must be in place. Before and during the hiring process, Human Resources
and the manager of the hiring department should meet to discuss what they are looking for in a
potential employee. Managers and HR should also use this collaboration to define keywords and
phrases that are specific to the field. Human Resources should also remove themselves from their
offices to recruit. This could greatly reduce the money spent on advertisement as well as the volume of
applicants. As a result, HR will have more time to review applications while focusing on the criteria
that have been set by the department manager. And finally, the positions available should only be
posted on company websites as well. If a company has a competitive edge, the workers will come to
that company.
Communication
Whether a company decides to remove Human Resources from the role of recruitment, or change the
way they recruit, increase in communication through meetings, letters, and memos between HR and its

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company should always be in place. It is not just important for the process of hiring, but for employee
relations and satisfaction.

Article on workplace safety history:

http://charlieclaywell.hubpages.com/hub/History-of-workplace-safety-in-the-United-States