Managing People

1.Introduction

We have described FramBox case study in this report regarding their recruitment, hiring, and onboarding concerns. It is a container farming company to change the global perspective about farming by connecting people to found sustainably, locally fullgrown foodstuff throughout the year (Anon., n.d.). In the next part of the report, we will describe the recruitment and hiring model theories. In the end, we will discuss the Farmbox human resource models appropriateness and share recommendations for improvement in the recruitment and selection process of the company. The recommendation model provides considerable improvement to the erecruitment process (DA Ovalle, 2015 )

2.1 Identifying the issues

Recruitment is the procedure of evaluating and finding suitable candidates for available positions and motivating them to apply for the vacancy. Selection is selecting the best candidate from the applicants’ pool and then offer them a job. Recruitment and selection are among the traditional areas of applied psychology and are the most significant domains of talent management and HR (N Ufoma, 2015). The Farmbox company was facing many concerns about employee productivity, directly linked to the recruitment, selection, and onboarding process. We have identified the following issues in the Farmbox case study with regards to its recruitment and selection criteria:

The recruitment process identifies the job position, evaluates the job requirements, reviews applications, initial screening, and chooses and selecting the correct applicant. The holistic recruitment process helps in establishing the correct recruitment process (V Vincent , 2019). It is the primary step towards developing a solid resource base. FarmBox was lacking in following the correct recruitment procedure. The recruitment procedure has the following accurate steps which each company needs to be followed for recruitment.

The companies need to develop specific recruitment policies that communicate better for what companies are looking for ( SM Kochanowski , 2015). Complete position title and job description along with hiring strategy need to be built. For specific position perks, salary and other incentives will be prepared by the recruitment team. After that, advertising and position recruitment started, followed by the first screening stage till the final Interviews.

From the above discussion, it has been clarified that FarmBox did not follow the correct procedure of hiring.

1. The poor planning team failed to identify the hiring need
2. The primary job description and hierarchy were missing.
3. They did not make it person or job specified.
4. Suppose we talk to an advertisement, then FarmBox wrongly advertised the position. It needs to be posted in Farm magazines to attract the right audience with relevant experience.
5. HR planning was missing internal and external factors, which is dependent upon FarmBoxs business growth.
6. The flawed online interview methodology ended up in choosing poor candidates.
7. The selection was made through practical tests.

2.2 Defining HRM Recruitment & Selection Models and Theories

The Human resource framework stands for an organisations strategic system design. The HR management system, including all defined activities, is an effective HRM system (T Bondarouk, 2017). It will help to manage the human capital of administrators and business coordination. Following are the five models and theories of HRM Recruitment, which are considered to be the best ones.

FramBox Case Study & HRM Framework

In 2020, during the COVID19 pandemic, the business grew rapidly, and the online orders were increased up to almost three times overnight (L Chase, 2020). The new equipment was required since the product was available to meet customer demand. The most important factor in maintaining the effective productivity of the employees was the need to immediately hire more staff. The online advertisement was posted by the company owner, and candidates have to apply along with an online resume to the Farmbox email address. After collecting resume, the twenty minutes online interview of the candidates were conducted. In the interview process, the gauging criteria were employee suitability and the skill set to work in this organisation. The hiring was done within two weeks after confirmation that the selected candidates are free from COVID19 disease. The new employees were given a trip to the farm, and they just worked for a day with existing staff. Further responsibilities were assigned individually to the employees from the next day. The existing employees were forced to work longer than duty hours which was the main demotivation factor in them.

The Farmbox approach was the Michigan framework approach. This framework can be explained as Hard because underlines are handling employees just to achieve organisational strategy as they consider the employee as a medium for achieving business targets in a successful manner. It is also known as the matching model or sometimes as the bestfit Model in Human Resource Management. Farmbox was also in the view to use employees as a tight fit to the business strategies. Farmbox Hard HRM assumed that increasing productivity would help in achieving continuous business goals.

The 5P Model of HRM:

5P’s framework by Schuler was developed in 1992; it explains the HR management under five Ps strategy (H Neloy, 2020). These 5 Ps Model can actually help FarmBox to revise their HR management strategy during the situation of COVID19. It has the following components:

HR Philosophy

This Model helps in giving regard to their employees against their contribution towards the companys success. It has provided complete guidelines for the implementation of HR philosophy. FarmBox was in a view to just add employees and fulfill customer demands for its products. With this approach, Farmbox added employees despite considering their sustainability and job capabilities. The hiring of the right people for the right job is the main recruitments strategy, but Farmbox lacked the same.

HR Policies

The basic guidelines for humanrelated business concerns and also the development of HR programs, including practices, is known as HR Policy. It can be based on various strategic needs. FarmBox employee hiring process ignores the suitability factor and employee skillset for the job. The good HR Strategy demands employee tests instead of verbal interviews, as FarmBox did while hiring. The production of fresh food jobs needs proper training, but FarmBox trained new employees for a day which was insufficient for an inexperienced person to learn the production of fresh food.

HR Programmes

With the intention to manage change management efforts of the company, HR Programmes are made up of HR Coordinated efforts. FarmBox forced its employees to work longer than their usual duty hours just because of the fact that they did not follow the right hiring process. The employees with excessive workload decided to leave the company, and the demotivation factor was all around.

HR Practices

The HR Policy implementation activities are known as HR Practices. It usually includes resourcing, Performance and incentive management. It also includes employee relationships, administration and its learning and development. FarmBox did not devise an HR Policy for hiring, and later its implantation was also missing. The employee working for extra duty hours must be incentivized as per their Performance.

HR Processes

The HR process includes the usual process and methods that are used to build human resource strategic plans. The FarmBox did not follow the correct recruitment stages and did not add any job description or the specific person they are looking for. As a result, the advertisement does not attract the feasible pool for the position.

FarmBox adopted the Michigan framework, which actually affects employee behaviour.

2.3 Assessing the Appropriateness of Models

The Michigan framework adopted by Human Resource Management of Farmbox affected staff behaviour.  The primary known University food pantry was started in Michigan State (K Thomas?Brown, 2018). They were overwhelmed with excessive workload and the forced implementation of working for more than usual duty hours actually raised a demotivation factor, and most employees were searching for new jobs and already decided to quit. It has been clarified from the above discussion that a hard approach always leads toward employee demotivation (BS Giri, 2018). At the same time, Herzbergs two factors theory can help Farmbox to increase employee productivity and motivation level. This theory has two major factors:

1. Employee satisfaction can be decreased by poor hygiene factors.
2. Motivation factors always increased employee satisfaction.

Farmbox can adapt the theory to add motivation and hygiene factors in the existing and new employees to meet its business targets. The Michigan Model adopted by FarmBox has advantages.

1. It increases Market Performance and helps in meeting customer needs.
2. It is directly concerned with Organisational Growth
3. The costEffective method by using the hard approach.
4. Faster Decision Making can be done in this approach.
5. Staff Monitoring is more controlled.
6. Greater centralization, management control is more in this structure.

The Michigan Model has the following disadvantages

7. It leads towards Market failure due to ignorance of the environment
8. The Poor organisational human resource performance due to group diversity and intragroup conflicts were developed with this Model.
9. Employees are controlled but demotivated due to the hard approach.
10. Employee treatment as a resource decreases their productivity and increases employee demoralization.
11. It does not promote a close employeeemployer relationship.

FarmBox Hard Approach of Michigan:

The main target of developing HRM models is to guide organisations and help them to manage their human resources effectively and efficiently, which will ultimately help them to achieve company established goals.

HRM is usually divided into two possible approaches, e.g. hard approach and soft approach. In Hard approach has a distinct focus on employee performance management, and it emphasizes on instrumental employee management approach same was adopted by FarmBox.

However, in the soft approach, employee motivation, trust, and empowerment were the focused points for the employees. Even if the rhetoric of Human Resource Management includes soft factor, its results are always Hard (L Doherty, 2015)

The best Human Resource Management is usually the combination of soft and hard approaches. Following models and approaches are considered to be best now a day in HRM.

The Harvard Model

The Harvard Model is the best and most significant influential Model of Human Resource Management. It has been developed by different experts which leads by several experts by

Michael Beer in 1984 at Harvard University (S Shirasaka, 2020). It has five significant components which help in the accomplishment of the company i.e.

1. Situational factors
2. Stakeholder benefits
3. Human Resource Management Policies
4. Human Resource Management
5. Outcomes longterm consequences

This Model supports the following which is known as 4C’s:

1. Commitment
2. Competence
3. Congruence
4. Costeffectiveness

The Warwick Model

The researchers Chris Hendry and Andrew M. Pettigrew initiated this Model in the 1990s at the University of Warwick. It has been focused on five different elements, and in conceptual developments, this Model is the major setback (F Fugar, 2010).

1. The outer context includes political, competitive and other factors are included.
2. The inner context comprised of leadership, technology of task and culture etc.
3. Business Strategy, which represents company aims and general strategy etc.
4. The role, HR outputs and definition are added in the HR Context.
5. HR Content, including workflows, employee relations and awards, are included.

The 5P’s Model

The 5Ps Model was already discussed above in detail, is also an effective model when it comes to Farmbox.

The ASTD Competency Model

It was developed in 2004 by the American Society of Training and Development. It was developed after a conference and proper research process of associates, ASTD, DDI and Rothwell. Training competencies were redefined in these modes (T and D, 2013)

It includes:

1. Essential components, e.g. interpersonal, individual and managerial level foundations.
2. The focus level on the area of expertise, e.g. training, coaching, employee career planning, performance improvement etc.
3. Its executive level is focused on professional roles, their learning plans, project managers, specialists and business partners.

The Ulrich Model

It was introduced in 1995 by Dave Ulrich in his book Human Resource Champions, which was later published in 1997. This Model explores involvement in HRM (G Eweje, 2019)

It is focused on creative Human Resource Management and has a core focus on organizing HR functions, i.e. strategic partner, expert administration and staff advocate. It is focused on the people of the organisation instead of the process.

2.4 Recommendations:

From the above assessment of models, we can easily recommend some changes to the FarmBox in its Human Resource Management since the adopted hard Model simply resulted in poor results.

Correct Recruitment Process

The Farmbox is recommended to adopt the correct recruitment process and follow all steps from the need of hiring an employee to the selection of the correct employee for the right job.

Increasing Employee Productivity:

The accurate guidance, incentive plan and other motivational activities can help FarmBox employees to work more effectively and efficiently. It will automatically increase employee productivity which will be helpful in achieving organisational goals.

Improve Communication within the organisation

Farmbox needs to enhance Communication within the organisation and guide them in understanding the current challenge and solution so that all are on the same page and help the organisation effectively instead of working in isolation with several assumptions.

Effective Employee Training Program

The effective employee training program for new and existing employees will help them to learn better and clear their concepts towards fresh food production and market needs.

Regular feedback on Performance

Regular feedback must be provided to FarmBox employees on their Performance is important to keep them posted on company expectations and the way to meet those expectations.

ERecruitment & Training Process

FarmBox is recommended to adopt the latest online recruitment process; the webbased technology for attracting, evaluating, hiring and recruiting employees will be the best solution. This process will help FarmBox to attract a large number of potential employees.

Data Advantage

The available data in terms of employee productivity, numbers of customers product needs etc. analysis will be a great advantage in increasing the overall companys Performance of FramBox.

Employee Retention & Motivation

Employee retention is the key to success through motivation and a proper incentive plan FarmBox can help in retaining employees who were deciding to leave.

Employee Incentive & Overtime Policy

In difficult times when FarmBox was in need to engage its employees for late working hours instead of forcing them to work, they should announce a performance incentive, bonus or overtime policy for the employees to perform better and as per their desire for monetary benefits.

Close EmployerEmployee Relationship

It was the need of an hour for FarmBox to keep employer and employee relationship closer than ever since direct Communication from employer will automatically arise employee loyalty towards more productivity. The same strategy needs to be adopted by FarmBox.

Recommended Models for FarmBox – The Harvard Model

The most suitable and recommended Model for FarmBox from all above stated discussion and Model was the Harvard Model. It is an effective model for fresh food producers (P Prosperi, 2016). Its important factors and components include all Situational factors, Stakeholder benefits management, sound Human Resource Management Policies

Its outcomes have longterm consequences for its employees, which has 4Cs support model. This 4Cs Model includes employee Commitment, Competence, Congruence, and Costeffectiveness, which was all the FarmBox was in need.

Conclusion:

To conclude, we must state that the FarmBox had adopted a totally incorrect recruitment and selection process when the company was in dire need of employees and equipment to fulfill consumer demands and gain more profits. The forceful and hard approach towards an employee by FarmBox was another disaster for the company, and the demotivation factor of employees forced them to reach the worst decision of leaving the organisation. By adopting Harvard Model, the FramBox will be able to achieve 4Cs outcome, which includes employee Commitment, Competence, Congruence, and Costeffectiveness, which will help them to achieve organisational goals and strategic targets.

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