Will
Your Hiring Change With Changing Times?
Carla Joinson
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Change
is constant, and HR's ability to meet new challenges
has always been essential to their companies' success.
The better HR anticipates how evolving situations
affect them, the better they can support their business
units with well-developed strategies. HR may want
to consider the following issues as they create
future hiring programs:
Processing
Demands on HR
This
year many companies saw their hiring needs shrink
because of the recession. At the same time, rounds
of layoffs provided a larger pool of candidates
for the few positions that were open. Ron Webb,
PhD, manager, doctoral recruiting and university
relations at Procter
& Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio explains that
this situation doesn't necessarily cut his workload.
"The hiring process itself isn't any easier—I
still have to maintain a process to deliver the
candidates my hiring managers ask for." At
the same time, he says, he has to "have the
system poised in case we have to go faster."
Downsizing
and a poor economy contribute to the growing influx
of candidates, while technology has made it easier
for applicants to find out about open positions
and send in resumes. The resulting deluge of material
is just one facet of the overload HR faces.
As
Webb explains, "Though I have better odds in
terms of finding the right person, I have more people
to evaluate. If I hire 60 people this year, I'll
look at 6,000 resumes." Procter & Gamble
has kept pace by turning to a paperless system,
three years ago.
Many
other HR departments are looking for ways to stay
nimble.
Sam
Mirabito, manager of staffing at Groton Laboratories,
Pfizer
Global Research and Development Division in
Groton, Conn. says the company definitely looks
to technology solutions to help them speed up and
enhance HR's productivity. "We're no longer
paper driven," says Mirabito. "We have
a resume database that allows us to do queries and
screen potential candidates.
"We're
always looking for better screening software—we
want to pull up just the core resumes instead of
hundreds," Mirabito explains. "That greater
efficiency frees us up to do the hands–on work,
like telephone interviewing."
Celanese,
a global chemical company based in Kronberg, Germany,
has completely restructured its HR function over
the past year, says Paula Caya, head of the Organizational
Effectiveness Center of Excellence at Celanese's
Dallas office. "We have HR Business Partners
who serve client groups on the operational side,
and HR Shared Services, which provides resources
to the HR Business Partners." The restructuring
has centralized recruiting and staffing in the U.S.,
and makes for a more consistent process. Additionally,
"we present a clear face and value system to
candidates," says Caya.
The
country's post-September 11th environment makes
it imperative for HR to consider time-consuming
background checks for even low-level positions.
Lean business models also create pressure for HR
to find the right person the first time. Though
this strategy saves time and money over the long
run, it's an intensive effort upfront.
To
keep job opening-to-fill ratios from rising, HR
will need to develop processes and organizational
structures that get applicants assessed, interviewed
and investigated quickly.
Aging
Population
This
can mean two things for companies. Certain industries,
like pharmaceuticals, will have to scramble to find
enough employees to meet demand. Webb notes that
the one exception to the decline in hiring he's
seen has been in the pharmaceutical sector.
For
HR, the second implication of an aging population
is a shrinking labor pool, caused by the march of
baby-boomers toward retirement.
The
Department of Labor
(DOL) projects that by 2008, the oldest baby-boomers
will be aged 52 - 62. Though these figures cross
all occupations, a similar picture exists within
most sectors. According to the National Science
Foundation's Science
and Engineering Indicators 2002, the number
of retirements among science and engineering-degreed
workers will increase dramatically over the next
twenty years.
By
2010, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) projects total civilian
employment to be 167.8 million, but the total civilian
labor force to be only 158 million—with the
result that many jobs will go begging. This situation
won't be due entirely to the aging population; declining
birth rates will also be a factor. However, HR will
need to attract younger candidates to fill a surplus
of positions not many years from now.
The
increased job growth and declining labor pool will
present challenges for recruiting staff. "Companies
can't be passive," says Holly Butler, senior
recruiter for research at Genentech,
Inc. in South San Francisco, Calif. "We're
becoming proactive in reaching out, especially to
niche organizations like MAES
(Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists)
and AISES (American
Indian Science & Engineering Society). Genentech
has a strong commitment to diversity."
Students
are obviously a good source for new employees, and
Butler says that recruiters and HR departments should
reach into their scientific staffs to network. "Our
scientists and chemists are going to universities
themselves, to meet with professors and students,"
says Butler. "They share what it's like to
work in industry, and educate students in a way
that the academic side can't."
Mirabito
says that Pfizer still looks for the same things
from students: a high GPA, a good progression in
their chemistry courses, and independent research
experience. What has changed is Pfizer's focus on
internships, which have grown from just under 90
a couple of years ago to 165 today.
"We
use our internship as a recruiting tool, and it
has become an important way to judge talent,"
says Mirabito. "We can evaluate the students'
skills and how they work. It goes so much deeper
than reviewing paperwork and interviewing."
He adds that Pfizer likes to see a potential full-time
employee working within the company's environment,
but "it's also a way for the student to look
at the company and form an opinion about working
here."
Alternative
Staffing
In
May 2002, nearly three million people worked at
temporary jobs, according to the BLS. This figure
represents about 2.5 percent of the employed workforce-not
a huge share, but more than double the percentage
ten years ago. All indicators point toward an increasing
shift in this direction as businesses take advantage
of the flexibility temp arrangements offer.
"Businesses
like temps as a way of trying out workers,"
says Jeanette Figueroa, senior staffing consultant
with Lab
Support in Princeton, New Jersey, which specializes
in assignments specific to scientific professionals.
"They use them for short term projects, and
when their budget for permanent workers won't allow
them to hire another employee."
On
the flip side, Figueroa says that temp workers have
reasons for wanting this arrangement. "Some
want to try different industries, or get their foot
in the door with a company," she says. "Others
enjoy the flexibility-perhaps they're moving soon
and still need work."
Temp
agencies typically pre-screen and match their workers
with appropriate jobs, which can be time savers
for HR staff who need to fill positions in a hurry.
However, this new kind of worker may confuse company
employees, who need to know how to interact with
temps. HR will need to create clear policies in
order to protect the company from any legal exposure
that could occur if temps are treated as ordinary
employees.
Candidate
Skills
Solid
academic backgrounds and technical skills will always
be required, but companies are looking beyond academics.
"We need a global mindset," says Caya.
"We have initiated expatriate assignments in
which we bring in people to the U.S. or send them
from the U.S. to other countries, to fill that need
for cultural integration."
Caya
says her company has started focusing on "soft
skills", too. "We need employees with
good communications skills, as well as employees
who are open to change and understand change management."
Along
with solid academic skills, Pfizer also looks for
three particular "soft skills" which Mirabito
says can be deal killers if they're not present.
"We
look for communications-the ability to explain what
you've done. We may ask students to give a seminar
and explain their research during the on site interview
day."
Teamwork
is also important, since Pfizer works in "a
matrixed environment". Employees need to work
and get along with a team from several disciplines
and departments," says Mirabito. "And
we also need what sounds like the opposite trait-independent
thinking. We don't want the "me-too" kind
of worker; we need an initiator with scientific
inquisitiveness."
Challenges
Remain
Different
sectors of the chemical industry have differing
needs, both now and in the future. However, recruiters
and hiring managers can expect jobs to grow as fast
as average (10 - 20 percent) in all occupations
through 2010, with greater opportunities in pharmaceutical
and biotech firms, according to the Occupational
Outlook Handbook (BLS).
Surveys
by the American
Chemical Society (Women
Chemists 2000 and ChemCensus 2000) discuss the
growing number of females entering chemical careers.
Though men have more doctorate degrees than women,
women in 2000 reported having more bachelors and
master's degrees combined than did men. Data outside
ACS also indicates growing numbers of female scientists:
NSF figures show that the number of bachelor's degrees
in science awarded to women has grown from 34 percent
in 1975 to 49 percent by 1998.
An
increasingly diverse, global workforce and market
will require new skills from candidates, as an aging
population requires more products and offers fewer
workers. HR's challenge will be to reach deeply
into the available candidate pool, using every tool
at their disposal.
Carla
Joinson is a Stafford, Va.-based writer specializing
in human resources and management topics.
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