Research Proposal on "HR Portfolio Project"

Research Proposal 13 pages (3313 words) Sources: 0 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

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… READ MORE

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