Recruiting and managing employees Essay

Job descriptions are a vital part of recruiting and managing employees. These written summaries of jobs ensure that applicants and current employees have clear understanding of their roles and what is expected of them in order to be held accountable. Despite the various job descriptions and posts for new hire, it is imperative that job descriptions be thoroughly written because it will help employees understand the major areas of their job or position and also help attract the right candidates for the job. In this essay, I will be writing on the components of job description with emphasis on the role of Operations Manager with careful analysis of the important facts about the job with respect to the tasks, tools and technology, knowledge, skills and abilities, and the educational requirements for the position. Emphasis will also be placed on job advertisement and the assessment methods used when recruiting and why the methods are most appropriate especially in recruiting an Operations Manager. In today’s labor market, business environment is constantly changing and for this reason the tasks of an Operations Manager in a company is ever increasing so the job description of this position should clearly state the expectation of the job. A job description identifies characteristics of the job to be performed in terms of the tasks, duties and responsibilities to be fulfilled (Youssef, 2012). The tasks of the position must clearly and concisely communicate in the job description. For instance, the main tasks of an Operations Manager will be to oversee, direct, and coordinate all activities of the business with respect to products and services being offered by the company. In addition, the Operations Manager will be responsible for reviewing financial statements, activity report and also m anaging, training and developing employees. Once the tasks of a job is clearly written on a job description it is important to state the tools and technology requirement of the position to ensure that employees or candidates for the job understand and know the tools and technology involved to carry out the expected tasks of the job. For the position of Operations Manager in my company, the person must be proficient in the use of cell phones, laptop computers, security systems, barcode printer, and barcode scanner. In additional to these tools, the person must also be comfortable with using various software to execute tasks some of which includes accounting, electronic mail, enterprises resources planning, office suite, spreadsheet and word processing. Having  enumerated the tools and technology required for the job, the knowledge needed to be effective in the position must also be clearly stated to ensure employees and prospective candidates for the positions understand the minimum knowledge required to be successful at the job. For the operations Manager, he or she is required to have substantial knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources (http://www.onetonline.org/link/details/11-1021.00). Also should be included in job descriptions is the skills and abilities needed for the job. As an Operations Manager, he or she must be a good listener giving attention to customers and employees taking the time to understand points being made and also must have the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through written and spoken words and sentences. The skills and abilities will ensure that the operations manager can communicate with his or her customers and also employees either in resolving problems with customers or employees or business transactions (http://www.onetonline.org/link/details/11-1021.00). Lastly, a job description must include the educational requirement for the position. In most management position, a minimum of Bachelor’s degree is needed and preferably in Business or equivalent. In some instances, some company requires five years of experience in the field as an equivalent to Bachelor’s degree. Once the analysis and job description for a job is complete, the next step would be to identify recruiting method to use in selecting candidates. Since recruiting is the first stage in the hiring process, it is important to attract qualified people who have the skills and experience the job demands. To do this, I will suggest that recruitment be done through job fairs and advertising. To properly advertise a job, it is important to start by selecting the most effective job advertising medium where suitable candidate can be attracted. To recruit an Operations Manager, it will be best to place the ad on a premium job website. Once an advertising medium has been identified then the job is posted using the written job description for the position with some background information about the company. Once candidates  are identified, the next step would be to gain some valuable information about them. There are different selection methods that should be used and according to Youssef (2012) , selection methods can narrow down potential candidates. The approach and selection that I would employ in hiring an Operations Manager would be through tests and interview. The idea of using tests as selection method is to assess the personality and abilities of each candidate for the jobs. The personality test is to focus on the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of candidates as they relates to the type of enthusiasm and motivation employer is looking for in a candidate while the aptitude and ability test is to assess the intellectual performance of candidates. Interview method on the other hand, is a crucial preliminary part of recruiting process because it afford face-to-face meeting with candidates because it combines a detailed understanding of organizational requirements with a distinctive understanding of the responses, talents, qualifications, personality and character of prospective employee’s in order to make a final decision. Using interview and tests in the selection of candidate for the Operations Manager position will be most appropriate because it will afford the recruiter to be able to observe candidates attributes that will affect the job performance which include the abilities to communicate, reason and understand. This will also give the interviewer an opportunity to compare the strengths and weaknesses of each applicant. It is clear that to hire the best individual to fill a position it is important the analysis of the position be done and a written job description should be made to include the tasks, tools and knowledge, educational requirements, and the skills and abilities required to be successful at the job is needed in order to attract the best candidate. The recruiting method employed also is very vital in the process of hiring would also ensure that the best of the best candidates that applied for the job is eventually selected for the position. It is only by having a structured hiring process that an organization can compete and attract great minds in the labor market. References O*NET OnLine. (n.d.). O*NET OnLine. Retrieved from http://www.onetonline.org/ (http://www.onetonline.org/) Youssef, C. (2012). Human resource management. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.