HR Portfolio Project
Human Resource Portfolio Project -- Selection Process at Atea Software
The modern day business environment is extremely challenging and the mounting forces of globalization have further increased competition and made it fiercer than ever. Not only do economic agents compete against each in terms of customers and the adjacent market share, they also compete in terms of financial resources or human resource as a means of gaining a competitive advantage. This particular competition for the human resource, coupled with the numerous changes that have affected the field of HR, such as the fact that the staff members are no longer perceived as the force operating the machines, but as the most valuable asset of the organization, has materialized in the development of numerous HR strategies, policies and practices.
The selection of the employees is a process with its origins in the commencement of economic and business operations; yet, the contemporaneous selection is the result of numerous changes which have emerged along the years. Today, incremental emphasis is being placed on the linkage between the organizational needs and the skills and abilities of the candidates, in the meaning that a new employee is not only expected to complete his professional responsibilities, but is asked to do this in a way that adds more value to the employer.
The aim of this report is to develop the selection process within software producer Atea. In order to achieve this desiderate, it is first necessary to assess the needs of the organization in terms of staffing. Then, we will provide an analysis and description of the job to be filled, followed by the actual listing of the criteria to be met by the new occupant of the position. Finally, the overall selection process will come together and will be presented throughout the sixth section. The report will come to an end with a section on concluding remarks that will restate the most important findings.
2. Company Needs
Atea Software has a decade long existence and a total number of 100 employees, out of which 35 are administrative staff (managers, secretaries, sales force, human resource specialists and cleaning personnel) and the remaining 65 are programmers. The management at Atea has placed an increased emphasis on non-financial incentives as a means of increasing employee on-the-job satisfaction. This was achieved through training programs, the creation of a friendly working environment or the organization of outgoing events for socialization. The human resource strategies were mostly based on Herzberg's dual factor theory, which argues that wage and other financial stimulants are not able to create motivation and satisfaction, but only maintain it.
The theory adopted by Atea focused on offering non-financial incentives, such as recognition of efforts, prestige and professional advancement, as a means of motivating the staff members. While this approach is highly successful for young programmers (junior developers), who find Atea as a great means of learning how to do the job, senior developers argue that there is not much the company can offer them anymore, and, coupled with the fact that salaries are slightly lower the industry average, they commenced to leave the organization. Given this status quo then, the Human Resource Department is now in charge of selecting five senior developers to occupy key positions within the company's various projects. The primary need of the company is that these senior developers be skilled and capable to handle the workload, while in the meantime revealing an ability to become integrated within the working environment.
3. Job Analysis
The methodology used in constructing a job analysis has been a combination of observations and interviews. The observation part of the analysis materialized in two directions. First of all, the members of the Human Resource Department studied the behavior of senior developers, placing the greatest emphasis on how they interact within the working environment and how they relate to their colleagues and subalterns (the junior developers). Other matters of interest for the HR team were constituted by the commitment of the senior staff members and their relationship with the customers. This analysis was conducted directly within the working environment of the senior developers. The second stage of the observation process was conducted within the HR Department exclusively and it first saw the gathering of sufficient and relevant information to be studied by our team. We assessed both previously developed job analysis charts as well as the weekly charts sent in by the seniors, in which they detailed the tasks they had completed throughout the respective week and the time it tool to complete the respective chores.
Despite the intense efforts of the human resource team, fact remains that some technical details were difficult to understand, given the different nature of the HR and it fields. In order to reduce the chances of mistakes and clarify the features which were not entirely understood, as well as to gain insight into the actual professional life of a senior software developer, the members of the Human Resource Department organized interviews with several senior programmers at Atea. These senior programmers play the role of our technical subject matter experts (SME). The questions in the interview were organized as follows:
For how long have you been an employee within Atea and what is your general input regarding the organization?
From your standpoint, is Atea able to attract and retain senior developers, and if not, why is this so?
Please describe an average work day.
What are your main responsibilities? What is the proportion of each of these tasks within the overall workload?
From your standpoint, how much experience and education does a senior developer need in order to cope with the technical requirements of Atea?
Based on the answers gathered from seven senior developers currently leading seven individual projects, as well as our direct observation of the working environment and the responsibilities attached to the senior developers, we have concluded that the job analysis contains the following elements:
Functions: a senior developer at Atea generally handles five specific functions, as revealed in the table below. With the assistance of the SMEs, we have also assigned points from 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest) in terms of importance of the respective task (IMP) and the difficulty of learning how to best handle the given task (DIFF). The final column in the table reveals the criticality of each function (CRIT), which is obtained through the multiplication of the importance of the job by the difficulty of learning it. The criticality column is important as it links the previous two criteria in a means that simplifies the selection process. To better explain, a certain function is more desirable as it has a higher value of the criticality component, meaning that it is both important as well as difficult to learn. If on the other hand, a function is pivotal, but easy to learn, it can be easily overlooked in the selection process.
Function
IMP
DIFF
CRIT
1.
Research and document the software projects
5
3
15
2.
Write code on the current software projects
5
5
25
3.
Ensure maintenance for older projects
4
5
20
4.
Offer support to junior developers
4
4
16
5.
Communicate with customers
5
5
25
4. Job Description
The description of the senior developer position is based on the functions identified throughout the previous section, with the specification that new and more complex features and information are introduced.
Job Title: Senior Developer (this entitling is to be used in reference to the position and will also be contained in organizational documents, including business cards)
Job Summary: The senior developer is mainly expected to contribute to the writing of software applications and in doing this, he/she is expected to meet the in-place standards. Additional requirements may include assisting junior developers, communicating with the owners of the software applications or ensuring maintenance of older projects.
Functions
The table below restates the five most important functions in the job of a senior developer and adds new information relative to the amount of time they are supposed to spend on each category of chores -- in percentage -- the expected accomplishments and the standards to be met.
Function
Time (%)
Expected accomplishments
Standards to be met
1.
Research and document the software projects
20
Conduct four researches per year and coordinate the juniors with their research
In-place quality standards
2.
Write code on the current software projects
40
Write technical specifications, follow and implement them and coordinate juniors with their tasks
In-place quality standards
3.
Ensure maintenance for older projects
10
Ensure small numbers of bugs and that the unit tests are in place and not violated; keep consistence with the overall application design
In-place quality standards
4.
Offer support to junior developers
20
Assist them with understanding their tasks; training and knowledge transfer
In-place quality standards
5.
Communicate with customers
10
Ensure the functional requirements are correctly understood; clarify all issues and notify them when problems occur or tasks are completed; keep in touch during development to see if specifications change
In-place quality standards
Essential KSAs: there are ten crucial skills, knowledge and abilities which must be possessed by the future senior developers at Atea: degree in high education from an accredited university, with a specialty in computer science; previous expertise of at least 5 years within a similar position; ability to analytically approach and resolve tasks; good communication skills; team spirit and emphasis on the team successfully attaining its goals; emphasis on the needs and satisfaction of the company clients; abilities for strategic planning; instrumental coping; ability to control the team and finally, ability to manage oneself in terms of prioritization, delegation and other work related activities.
Essential Mental Functions: the new senior developers are expected to reveal fair behavior towards their colleagues, subalterns, supervisors and clients. Among the most important mental functions that need to be possessed are: the ability to discern between what is right and what is wrong and what is ethical and what is unethical; empathy and kindness; the ability to make and enforce decisions; a good and reliable memory; originality, creativity and a sense for innovation (extremely important within the it community); the ability and desire to engage in cognitive efforts; the ability to be reasonable and communicative; the ability to rely on his/her own power and skills to resolve a task or a problem (such as a conflict in the workplace); the function of being temperate
Essential Physical Functions: considering that the candidate possesses the necessary mental functions, the necessities regarding physical functions are less comprehensive. Given the rather sedentary nature of the programming business, the sole physical requirement is for the candidate to be able to reveal palm and finger mobility. For the future, we consider the introduction of software that will allow writing code through dictation, rather than typing. Until we achieve this however, it is necessary that our developers show the ability to type.
Working Conditions: improving the working conditions has represented a primary target in the activity of Atea's Human Resource Department and we succeeded in this endeavor by increasing the operational space, upgrading the equipments used by our employees, implementing flexible working schedules (an employee is required to put in 40 hours per week and to complete his tasks; the organization of his schedule is however entirely up to him, with the exception of the situations when meetings are organized or when the senior is on delegation at the customers' firm and needs to adjust to their schedule); we offer a working environment which values individuality and diversity and where employees are encouraged to socialize, learn one from the other and collaborate. Telecommuting is currently being considered.
Equipment Used: the senior developer will be assigned to his own desk, which will host his own personal computer, equipped with a 21-inch display, wireless mouse and keyboard, and headsets, so as not to disturb his colleagues; internet access will be restricted in order to avoid procrastination and viruses from the world wide web; upon delegation and when an impending necessity to telecommute exists, the senior developer is entitled to laptop, which will be returned to the organization at the completion of the chore; for work-related purposes, the seniors also have access to the fax machines, scanners and printers within Atea.
Minimum Education and Experience: the future senior developers are expected to be graduates of a nationally accredited university, with a specialty in computers science; a master's degree is not compulsory but may offer a plus; in terms of previous experience, it is required of the candidate to have worked at least five years in a similar position.
Additional Comments: due to the fact that we serve the software needs of customers in various global regions, it is possible that the seniors be asked to make delegations to the headquarters of the customers. Whilst this attribution falls under the category of compulsory duties for the employees without any motion impediments, people with handicaps (generally related to movement) will only be selected for delegation upon their individual consent.
5. Assessment and Selection Criteria
Directly linked to the analysis and description of the senior developer position are the criteria which have to be possessed by a candidate who wants to occupy this position. Otherwise put, the assessment and selection criteria are directly pegged to the functions which have to be completed by the senior programmer. The table below reveals the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) required in completing the five functions described throughout the previous sections.
KSA
Functions
IMP
DIFF
CRIT
ENTRY
1.
High degree education
2, 3, 4
5
5
25
5
2.
Previous expertise (at least 5 years in a similar position)
1, 2, 5
4
5
20
4
3.
Analytical approach to completing tasks
1, 2, 3, 4
5
4
20
4
4.
Good communication skills
4, 5
4
4
16
5
5.
Team spirit and focus on team accomplishments
2, 3, 4
5
4
20
5
6.
Focus on customer needs and satisfaction
3, 5
5
3
15
5
7.
Strategic planning capabilities
3, 4
4
4
16
4
8.
Instrumental coping
2, 3, 4, 5
5
4
20
4
9.
Control of the team
3, 4
5
5
25
4
10.
Self-management
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
5
5
25
5
The first column lists the KSAs necessary; the second column states for which of the stated functions this KSA is necessary (the functions are numbered from 1 to 5, based on the table in the Job Analysis section); the third column reveals the importance of the criteria; the fourth deals with the difficulty of acquiring the respective skill, knowledge or ability; the fifth column represents the criticality of possessing the respective KTA and finally, the sixth column, ENTRY, reveals the importance of possessing the respective KTA at the time when being first hired with Atea.
The conclusions drawn indicate that the pivotal skills, knowledge and abilities that must be possessed by the future senior developers at Atea are a degree in higher education, with an it specialization, good communication skills, team spirit, focus on customer satisfaction and self-management. The rest KSAs of expertise, analytical approach, strategic planning, instrumental coping and control of the team are also important, but less so as they can be developed throughout the employment period.
6. The Selection Process
The selection process at Atea is organized onto six consecutive steps, as follows:
(1) Resume review - once the curriculum vitae-s have been received, the specialists within the Human Resource Department commence to analyze them and select those of them which forward the desired qualifications necessary for the job (the selection criteria). Particularly, they look for the candidates who have a high education degree in computers science, previous expertise in a senior position and describe themselves as having good communication skills, team spirit and an inclination towards management and control. The candidates which do not reveal these capabilities are no longer considered part of the selection process.
(2) Background check -- once the HR specialists have selected those candidates which meet the technical requirements to occupying the senior developer position, we run a background check on them in order to ensure that the information in the CV is accurate; we for instance contact the university, to ensure that they have in fact graduated, or their former employees; also, we conduct verifications to see if the candidate has a criminal record. The candidates which are proven to have forwarded false accusations are removed from the selection process.
(3) Interview with a HR specialist -- the next step sees that a member of the Human Resource Department meets face-to-face with the so far selected candidates in order to present the employment opportunity as well as test the characteristics of the individual in terms of sincerity, communication skills or personality. We will also strive to identify if the candidate would be able to become integrated within the Atea culture and working environment and whether or not he/she has the potential to increase organizational value. Since most of our team members possess degrees in higher education psychology, we are able to identify the nature and potential of a candidate, but in order to give everybody a fair chance and rule out the possibility of judging someone based on a first impression, the interview with the HR specialist does not make for a decision point in the meaning that most employees move forward to the next stage of the selection process -- the technical interview
You’re 84% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.