Custom «“How P&G Finds and Keeps a Prized Workforce”» Essay Paper Sample

Recruitment and selection is one of the staffing exercises of management. Recruitment entails informing potential candidates about the availability of vacant/new positions in an organization, and then using different methods to attract them to apply for the vacant/new (Recruitment and Selection). On the other hand, selection involves identifying the best suitable candidate(s) from a pool of applicants to fill vacant/new position(s). The general importance of the recruitment and selection process is to provide an organization with the most competent and skilled workforce (Recruitment and Selection). Different organizations employ different strategies/methods when recruiting and selecting new employees depending on their organizational needs and culture.

At P&G, recruitment and selection of new employees is done in a different way. The recruitment process starts at colleges, where the organization, makes use of line managers from the Cincinnati Company as opposed to human resources staffers. The line managers are sent to different colleges whose earlier graduates have moved up at P&G to identify potential candidates. The interviewers (the line managers), look for what they call ‘a candidate’s power,’ which include the ability to lead and comprehend different situations with ease. Once the recruiters have identified the most suitable candidates from the colleges, they further test their innovation abilities and values through online assessments. According to William Reina, director for global talent, over the years, the line managers have successfully managed to select the right candidates during the recruitment and selection process. He further states that all candidates selected during the selection process always score well on the assessment. All successful candidates undergo intensive training: both on-job-training and off-job-training.

The reason as to why P&G does its recruitment and selection process in this manner is first because it recognizes the importance of having competent and highly skilled human resources. According to Robert McDonald, the Chief Operating Officer, P&G recruits for value. This provides evidence that P&G undertakes its recruitment and selection process in the manner described above to ensure it hires the most suitable employees. Suitability of an employee depends with his/her leadership, innovation, empathy capabilities. High scores in the aforementioned abilities mean placement of high valued employees in a given organization.

Another reason as to why P&G conducts the recruitment and selection manner in the way described above is to help it increase organizational effectiveness both in the short run and in the long-term (Ahmad & Roger 543). From the case study, it is clear that P&G strives to achieve effectiveness in all its endeavors. For instance, the Chief Operating Officer states that if an individual is not inspired to improve lives, then he/she should not consider working in P&G. P&G is a customer-centric firm because from the case study, it is indicated that employees visit customers in their homes to observe how they cook, clean, and generally live. Besides, P&G managers occasionally visit retail stores in order to learn more about customers. This indicates how P&G values its customers and how it strives to ensure effectiveness of its products and services to its customers. Since human resources are involved in production of consumer goods, and interaction with customers in different ways, it is then important for an organization to put in place human resources with a capability of meeting these requirements (Ahmad & Roger 544). It is therefore clear that P&G employs the aforementioned recruitment and selection process to ensure it maintains its effectiveness in meeting its customers’ needs.

Training and development is also an important staffing exercise of management just like recruitment and selection. The process entails equipping the employees with skills and knowledge to enable them to meet an organization’s needs both in the short-term and in the long-term (McNamara). At P&G, training and development is a career-long development process. At every level, P&G has specific colleges to train individuals. Furthermore, every department has its own ‘university,’ where it trains and develops its members. For instance, the general managers’ college trains and develops newly promoted managers in all departments. One of the training and development programs that general managers undergo at P&G is a weeklong school term once in every year. Here, managers learn more about management. Moreover, there are almost fifty courses, which help managers to learn more about financial analysis and technical writing. Career education for all employees takes place outside the classroom (on-the-job) and inside the classroom as well.

P&G also requires its managers to undertake at least one international (foreign) assignment for three to five years. This can be one of the ways of developing its management team. Through foreign assignments, managers acquire international exposure, which help them to understand customers’ needs from a broad context. This is important in ensuring that P&G meets the needs of all its customers in unbiased manner. It is clear that P&G understands that different customers have different needs and that they use different means to satisfy their needs. Moreover, P&G recognizes that customer have different tastes and preferences for similar products. Therefore, it can be concluded that P&G managers undertake international assignments to enable them understand the needs of different markets, as well as acquire relevant skills for marketing to a broad range of customers.

According to McNamara, training and development assist organizational employees to increase their capacity to adapt new technologies and invent new strategies and products. For an organization to achieve international presence, it has to stay ahead in technology as well as continuously invent new products and new methods of doing things. If an organization fails to meet these requirements, then it may not achieve international presence due to competition by other similar firms (McNamara). This can be yet another reason as to why P&G requires its managers to undertake at least one international assignment. Through the assignment, the managers always keep P&G updated on new technologies, new products, services, and strategies from the competitors, as well as changes in the international market. This way, P&G is able to meet the needs of the international market with more ease and effectiveness.

From the case study, it has been indicated that all high-ranking employees of P&G visit the homes of consumers to watch how they cook, clean, and generally live, in a practice dubbed “live it, work it.” This practice can be seen as one of the ways in which P&G strives to meet its customer-centric goal. Customer-centricity is marketing strategy, which entails aligning a company’s products and services with the needs and behaviors of its customers, as opposed to internal drivers such as quest for short-term profit (Hamilton 1). One of the building blocks of a customer-centric marketing firm is adoption of customer life-cycle view (Hamilton 3). Customer life-cycle view entails developing products and services, which meet the needs of the customers as customers evolve through the various stages of life such as marriage, parenthood, and home ownership. By visiting the customers in their homes, P&G is able to identify the needs of their customers as they evolve through these life stages. This enables the organization to meet the needs of its customers holistically and continuously.

Furthermore, advice bundling is yet another building block for achievement of customer-centricity. It entails offering relevant advice to consumers through engaging in continuous dialogue before product purchase and after product purchase (Hamilton 3). This enables an organization to identify the changing needs of its customers, and consequently provide products and services to satisfy the changing needs on prompt basis before its competitors. This is also another reason as to why P&G employees visit and observe consumers in their homes.