Hiring Competent people leads to Organizational Effectiveness

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Hiring Competent people leads to Organizational Effectiveness

Human resource management is responsible for the people dimension of an organization. It is responsible for getting competent people, training them, getting them to perform at high levels, and providing mechanisms to ensure that its employees maintain their productive affiliation with an organization.’

Human resource management involves the productive use of people in achieving organizational strategic objectives and the satisfaction of individual employee needs. Human resource managements execute diverse functions as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation management, Managing diversity, industrial relation, labor laws, International human resource management, HRIS, career planning, employee health and safety, HR audit and managing human resources in changing world. Every one of these functions has their own importance in the organization.

Nevertheless getting competent people is the most important HR responsibility in my point of view. There is perhaps no more vital topic in HRM than employee selection, as right selection pushes the organization towards the right direction and trains them for competitive advantage over other competitors.

An organization fails to achieve its strategic business objectives without competent people and right training. The success of an organization depends on having the right people in the right job at the right time, the organization strategic business objectives and culture should determine the people selected. In others words, the selection criteria should be consistent with the organization's strategic business objectives. Companies today are facing revolutionary changes, complex technologies and global competition. Organizations that fail to have right person at right place at the right time are at risk.

A proper match between work and the employee capabilities are now an economic necessity. The pressures of competition, cost saving, downsizing and global skill shortages have made recruitment a top priority. The competition for talent means that skilled workers are today’s prized trophies. For many companies, talented people are the prime source of competitive advantage.Charles Goode, chairman of ANZ, says ‘Attracting and retaining the most talented staff and building a successful culture are critical to our future. It is true that organizations succeed or fail on the basis of talents of employees, then mangers directly influence that success by the people they hire. Regardless of whether the company is large or small, hiring the best and the brightest employees lay a strong foundation for excellence.

Alternatively, it is common to hear managers who don’t recognize this point lament the inordinate amount of time they spend trying to fix bad selection decisions. In addition, equal employment opportunity legislation, court decisions, and the Uniform Guidelines have also provided and impetus for making sure that the selection process is done well. The bottom line is good selection decisions make difference. So do bad ones.


The first step towards getting competent people starts with Strategic recruitment (the linking of recruitment activities with organization strategic business objectives and culture) and followed bystrategic selection (the linking of selection activities with organization strategic business objectives and culture) to accomplish organization business objectives. Strategic selection aligns employment activities with the organization strategic business to produce contribution to organizational performance.


Jaguar UK for example uses psychometric tests to measure independence of thoughts, team working and cooperativeness. Mazda (USA) uses aptitude test, written form, personal interviews, and stimulated work exercise to weed out druggies, rowdies and unionists. The success of strategic selection processes depends on the process of analyzing job and develops job descriptions and specifications. job specifications, in particular, help identify the individual competencies employees need for success – the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other factors (KSAOs) that lead to superior performance. This is often referred to as person-job fit. The process of graduate recruitment and selection in the UK has become more person-related than job-oriented because many employers are more interested in the attitudes, personality and transferable skills of applicants than the type or level of qualification acquired.


Research has demonstrated that complete and unambiguous specification of required competencies (via job analysis) reduce the influence of racial and gender stereotypes and helps the interviewer differentiate between qualified and unqualified applicants Research also shows that applicants whose KSAOs are well matched to the jobs they are hired for perform better and are more satisfied. The threshold competencies are the essential characteristics that everyone required in a job but the differentiating competencies are the characteristics that distinguish superior performers from average performers as superior performer utilize their skills and knowledge at their maximum level. Emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies predict effectiveness in professional, management and leadership roles in many sectors of society.



In addition, these competencies can be developed in adults. The use of selection methods such as interviews, references, psychological tests (interest test, aptitude test, and personality test) helps in identifying the required competencies for the job and in accomplishing the organizations strategic selection.


The execution of HR practices in relation to HRM activities helps the organization to function smoothly. The implementation of the systematic process of strategic recruitment, strategic selection, accurate job analysis, matching of competencies, using competency based selection procedures indeed helps the organization to get competent people which in return helps in accomplishing its strategic business objectives (mission).


In the rapid changing economy, organization restructuring, international competition, global outsourcing, deregulation, social attitude, legal requirement and industrial relations, training becomes the need of the hour as to take competitive advantage over other competitors and develop them for the better future. Therefore getting competent people and training are backbone of HR as strong foundation (competent people) and (training) builds up a strong organization and prepare to sustain the organization in changing economy.

Contributing Writer:  Dr Jaideep kaur, I am working as a faculty in Amity Business School in HR department. jaideep.god@gmail.com