Week 1 Blog Post MGMT 448

1. Describe your experiences from the perspective of an applicant for the last job you for which you applied.

The job that I applied for was one that was posted on an online source, but the company did not have a large social media presence. One of the main reasons for that is because of how small small the company is, they do not have a lot of extra resources to spend on developing an extravagant human resources department. We have one lady named Kim who does all of the traditional human resources work, new hire paperwork, benefits packages, paid time off, etc. and then we have Rick McMurray who was just appointed head safety director of the company. His role is to train all of the new hires for the field to make sure they are properly trained and certified in the certain roles that they have. From the perspective of the applicant for the job that I was hired for, it was a very quick onboarding process with very little training. I applied for the position in an informal way by bringing in my resume when I went to speak with the owner about the field and if I could pursue it with a business degree. I was offered a job after our meeting, but in other instances, applicants were approached at job fairs by our other project managers who would go to share their story, making it an easy way to connect to the company.

1. Explain how your experiences during the job application process shaped your impression of the job you were applying for and your desire to work there (or in some cases to not work there).

Well in my case, I did not really have to submit a formal application because I went in to meet with the intention of learning more about the industry, not to get a job. But that meeting served as an interview, as the owner later pivoted to more interview based questions for me to where I was prepared for. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a professional development class sophomore year where we practiced typical interview questions and I was able to take that and apply it to the situation I was in. He was impressed by how prepared I was for something that I did not even know was coming, which was one of the reasons I was offered a job. My desire to work at there grew after the “interview” because of the way they talked about their company culture and how everyone knew each other from top to bottom. You were not some small drop in the bucket, like I was as Resers the summer before, and people knowing you made them value your work even more. The culture and the benefits really made impressed by the company and was even more thankful for the opportunity to be able to work for them.

1. Why might organizations decide to allocate more resources toward marketing or product design rather than using those same resources to do a really good job in employee recruitment and selection?

Organizations may decide to allocate more resources to marketing or things like research development and product design because they see these things impacting consumer demand more. If you give more resources to marketing, more consumers will be informed about the value your product could provide to them. Changing the general design of the product could attract new consumers to your company and could give your existing base incentive to buy your product again because of the new features you might have added on. A lot of the time, older management teams look over things like recruitment and selection because they see that this is just a cost to the company that does not really help its profits. It is also one of the first things to be cut and last to be funded because of just that. There has been many studies and data that shows the exact opposite, that investing in your Human Resources department can lead to much better gains in the future and overall long term growth, more than just dumping money in places that would find temporary profits.

1. What are the potential strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s decision to not prioritize recruitment and selection in favor of a focus on other aspects of the business?

One of the weaknesses of not prioritizing recruitment and selection is that it could potentially put your company behind. Because of the ever changing world of technology with social media and other internet presences, companies, now more than ever, need to have good company cultures and extensive benefits. This is one of the things that almost everyone looks up to see if the company that they are looking to work for has, and not allocating resources to this could make a company miss out on a lot of great employees. One of the strengths of prioritizing this is that it attracts a lot more higher level of talented individuals to your company or organization that could make your company much more successful in the future with bigger projects and more active in day to day operations.