Company Description
The company goes by the name of Verizon Wireless. According to an interview conducted with the store manager of the company, the budgeted number of employees is 24 and the company has met its staffing capacity. The mission of the business is to attain client satisfaction through supplying and distributing best quality products at affordable prices and to foster good relationships between staff and customers and the community at large based on integrity, respect and excellence. A review of the mission statement happens on a weekly basis as stated by the store manager during the interview. The company has several strategies for the next three years.
According to Jamie, one of the company’s strategies is to ensure that the stores have enough staff accordingly with the right talent and the trainings are effective and up to date. Another strategy is to encourage its employees to put more effort in their performance to achieve its mission and goals and secure more markets for its products both locally and internationally through identification of outlets through which its products can sell well. In addition, the company hires highly skilled workers whose knowledge will uplift the company to the next level. The human resource manager has his own strategies for the future of the company like aiming to reduce turnover and increase job satisfaction in order to cut cost, and increase customer satisfaction (J. Brown, personal communication, August 20, 2014). Similarly, he /she are aiming at ensuring that the working environment for employees is comfortable enough to increase their effectiveness in terms of performance (Stephens, 2001). More so, he ensures that customers gain satisfaction with their products and strategize on how to identify experts for employment in each department.
Position Requirements
- Store Manager: responsible for hiring qualified people to effectively operate her store and meet her monthly sales targets. Prior management experience and strong leadership abilities are required for this position and bachelor degree is strongly preferred.
- Assistant Manager: responsible to help run day-to-day store operations and coach their assigned sales team. Prior management and sales experiences is required for this position and bachelor degree is strongly preferred.
- Sales Reps: responsible for up selling and getting new sales. Prior sales and technology experiences is strongly desired.
- Customer Service Rep: answer questions and assist customers with product questions.
Hiring Philosophy of the Company
the results obtained from the interview conducted on the store manager of the company indicated that the company’s hiring philosophy is to try and hire diverse groups of people that are self motivated, has passion for selling, are result oriented, confident and possess strong communication skills and love for technology. Verizon Wireless, in its process of hiring for management positions, considers strong leadership qualities and abilities to coach and develop a strong sales staff (J. Brown, personal communications, August 20, 2014).
Determination of KSAQs
KSAQs stands for knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics expected of an employee. The human resources manager determines the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) of the employees. The human resources manager works in liaison with the district manager and the store manager on the job description and requirements outlined by the corporate level managers to ensure that the applicants’ qualifications match the job description and job requirements. After the determination of the KSAOs, the recruitment process begins through the Verizon Wireless websites, employee referrals, job fairs, colleges, and temp services to ensure that the company finds the required KSAOs.
Planning for Staffing
The district manager does the planning for staffing at Verizon and the store manager based on the need for new recruits in the business and the allowed budget for the process. The corporate level management spells out all job descriptions and job requirements for the entire company. Where a new member of staff is required, the district manager and the store manager liaise with the human resources manager who then organizes for the recruitment of a new member within the scope of the company’s hiring strategy.
Currently, Verizon Wireless Company has adopted the individual development staff-planning model whereby the company focuses more on the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics of individual members of staff. The planning process and KSAOs is highly dependent on the corporate level management. It implies this is subject to the biases of the corporate level managers who determine the job requirements and job description whenever necessary hence high labor turnover.
To improve this process, Verizon wireless company being a technology company and to keep up with the quickly advancing technology, it is recommended that the company ties the planning process and KSAOs to the corporate competitive strategy. The company should struggle to ensure that the hired employees could work together in the premises of the organization structure, ensure an optimal number of employees, and struggle to maintain and develop skilled workforce through training and development programs. This will reduce the labor turnover.
How does Verizon Wireless recruit?
Verizon Wireless uses variety of methods to find and attract qualified applicants.
- Posting jobs on company website
- Social networking site (LinkedIn, Facebook, and other online job boards)
- Employee referrals (incentive paid to employee who refer and hired)
- Place help wanted ads in newspapers (Usually used to find candidates in the rural areas – hard to hire places)
- Corporate recruiters actively seek qualified candidates for the organization
- Employment agencies (third party recruiting companies) to fill temp to hire positions or holiday workers
To improve this process, it is advisable for the company’s recruiting managers to be keen in describing the requirements for any given job position so as to ensure that all the requirements match the position. The management should also ensure that the requirements are not complex, as this will shut out applicants who have qualified for the job.
Use of Web Pages
Web pages are widely applicable in the company for recruiting. Currently, the company gets 5000 online applicants per week from the whole nation and the recruiting team regularly reviews them. The process can be better by ensuring that the company website is well designed and up to date so everyone (J. Brown, personal communications, August 18, 2014) can always access the right information. The use of web pages in carrying out the recruiting process can be bettter through adoption of the most recent technologies that enable more than just online application.
How they use application blanks, resumes, reference checks, and initial interviews?
Verizon uses online application process, which includes uploading your resume and filling out some personal background information. For most positions, reference names are not required (that is based on department request) but resume are reviewed very carefully by the HR representative and the hiring manager. After the phone screen, the chosen candidates get a chance for a face-to-face interview with the hiring manager. There could be as many as 3-4 levels of interview before the final job offer. They use STAR (situation/task, actions, and results) format interview questions. This stage of staffing can be better by throughout scheduling other interviews to be done online. This will reduce time wastage for both the recruiting team and the candidates. It is also important that the referees be consulted in order to ensure that the candidates are truly fit the job position.
How they evaluate their selection methods?
Verizon Wireless evaluation and selection criteria for service and sales department are based on:
- Education level
- Experiences
- KSAOs is used to screen the candidates
- HR phone screen interview
- Several levels of interviews (rating each interview)
- Background check
- Drug screen
- Other departments may use different selection methods that will accurately measure the needed qualifications.
The evaluation process can be better through conducting a SWOT analysis of each candidate. It will include the interview questions or the tests in order to determine the strengths that will be an advantage to the company.
Use of interviews
According to Jamie, the store manager at Verizon Wireless, interview questions are in STAR format and depending on the level of the position applied for; the candidate will undergo various interview stages. Evaluation of the interview procession mainly bases on how each candidate responds to the questions asked. A five point scale is used to rate each question. The interviewing process can be better through conducting written interviews. This will ensure that those candidates, who are poor at expressing themselves orally, get a chance to express themselves in paper.
Use of Test at Verizon Wireless
No tests are applicable in Verizon Wireless but for majority of the position, Verizon only conduct drug testing for employment. It uses behavior based interview questions to find out more in detail of what the candidate actually did in their previous workplace and how they will handle things if hired. For this process to be more effective, Verizon should conduct other testing methods for their more technical and high-risk positions.
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Selection Process
After successfully completing all required levels of interviewing process, the hiring manager and HR department will discuss who will be the best fit to fill the open position. (J. Brown, personal communications, August 20, 2014).This process can be better through incorporating experts in the selection process. For instance, use of outsourcing from other organizations. The human resource information system is not applicable in Verizon Wireless (J. Brown, personal communications, August 20, 2014).
