Master of Business Administration Programme – Weekend

2017/2019

“Employee Nurturing Vs. Employee Hiring Practices”

By

Group 4

January 2019

MBAFI 5110 – Human Resource Management

Dr. D.T.D Kodagoda, Dr. G.R.P Silva & Ms. Ruwaiha Razik

Postgraduate & Mid – Career Development Unit

Faculty of Management & Finance

University of Colombo
 Group Members

I. P.K.G. Fernando 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/08

II. N.A. Jawfar 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/14

III. A.I.T. Naotunna 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/24

IV. T.N.D. Peiris 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/26

V. A.B.D. Sulakkana 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/39

VI. K.P. Vidanapathirana 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/42

VII. R.W.A.A.U.Wickramasinghe 2017/MBA/WE/FIN/45

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Acknowledgement

We express our sincere gratitude to our course facilitators Dr. D.T.D Kodagoda, Dr. G.R.P
Silva & Ms. Ruwaiha Razik for providing all the required instructions and facilities to initiate
this work with visionary advices.

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Hiring Process and Employee Development...............................................................1
1.1.1 Hiring Process......................................................................................................1
1.1.2 Employee Development.......................................................................................1
2 Review of Literature...........................................................................................................2
2.1 Employee Nurturing....................................................................................................2
2.1.1 Importance of Technical Skills, Soft Skills and Attitude.....................................2
2.2 Employee Attitude.......................................................................................................3
2.2.1 Honesty and Integrity Testing..............................................................................3
3 Development of Argument.................................................................................................4
3.1 Why Attitude matters in hiring the potential Employees?..........................................4
3.2 Why does Cultural fit matter?.....................................................................................5
3.3 Why it is important of ensuring the flexibility and commitment of employees at the
hiring?.....................................................................................................................................7
4 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................8
5 List of References...............................................................................................................9

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Executive Summary
Purpose of this report is to evaluate the hiring process and the employee nurturing/
development process. Since, the success of the organization is depending on filling the
position with right personnel.

Both hiring process and employee development process will bring advantages and
disadvantages to the organization. When an organization need to fill a position, Human
Resource management should consider following factors.

 Attitude, integrity and ethics of the employee; since, the negative attitudes of the
employees can damage reputation of the work place. During the hiring process,
interviewers can select the person with positive attitudes. But the attitudes cannot be
improved, just through the development.
 The employee should fit for the job by the level of competency and fit for the
organization and team by the culture. If an employee does not fit for the organization
refers, that they do not feel comfortable and it will lead to the burden of staff turnover
to the organization. Cultural values of the candidates can be evaluated by the effective
hiring process and recruit the right personnel to the position, but, cultural values
cannot be changed through a nurturing process.
 The employee should be flexible to cater the changing customer needs. This behavior
of the candidates can consider in the recruitment process and cannot change its
entirety through a nurturing process.
Based on the above arguments, we can recommend that the effective hiring process is vital
over employee development/ nurturing and it will reduce the employee related issues.

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1 Introduction

1.1 Hiring Process and Employee Development

1.1.1 Hiring Process
When an organization is hiring, they need to ensure that they hire the right employees. The
hiring process is the process of reviewing the job application, select the right candidates to
interview, testing candidates, choosing between candidates to make the hiring decision and
performing various pre-employment test and check. This will create a platform to attract top
talents. The type of talent that will help to build the company culture, contribute positively to
customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Further, by hiring process, organization can
define, create and identify the role to be filled. Professionally developed, well-validated pre-
employment test can successfully predict performance a potential employee because they can
objectively determine the extent to which a candidate has the knowledge, skills, and ability to
perform well at any given job.

1.1.2 Employee Development

Employee development is one of the most important function of Human Resource
Management. Employee development is a process where employees undergoes various
training programs to enhance their skills and acquire new knowledge with the support of the
organization. Employee development refers the development of the abilities of an individual
employee and organization (Elena P. 2000). Therefore, there is a direct relationship between
employee development and employee performance. Many organizations are investing in
employee development due to the followings,

 To attract and keep best employees. Employee development process will build loyalty
and increase the reputation of the organization. Accordingly, organization can reduce the
burden of staff turnover.
 To create promotable employees. A proper employee development program will create
pool of capable workers and create workers ready for promotion. Therefore, organization
can promote more familiar employees for top positions.
 To keep employee engaged in work.
 To look future. Employee development is a continuing process, and that means that,
organizations must have an eye on the future.

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2 Review of Literature
Society is changing, and people’s and companies’ values, practices and expectations. The
business world is moving and so is the job market. Hiring practices should be prepared for
the future by responding to or even anticipating changes and trends (Vlerick reflect,2013).

Thus, at present the focus on hiring has shifted away from technical proficiency and mainly
focuses onto attitude, honesty and integrity. Schawbel (2012) states technical proficiency,
once a guarantee of lifetime employment, is a commodity in today’s job market. Attitude is
what today’s companies are hiring for. And not just any attitude; companies want attitudes
that perfectly match their unique culture. Accordingly, as per literature, scholars elaborate
their views regarding employee hiring practices and employee nurturing as follows,

2.1 Employee Nurturing

Pajo et al (2010) describes employee Nurturing as a process of any planned, structured and
delimited activity designed to increase employee growth and effectiveness. It is believed that
businesses that provide employees with opportunities to learn will flourish (Sarvadi, 2005;
Whitener, 2001), as organizational effectiveness and overall job performance increase when
employees maintain a competitive advantage over others (Twenge, 2010). Moreover, its
opportunities can reduce the likelihood of employees engaging in neglectful behaviors, help
decrease turnover and possibly attract job candidates (Ainsworth, 2009; Maurer, 2001; Pajo
et al., 2010).

2.1.1 Importance of Technical Skills, Soft Skills and Attitude

According to Schawbel (2012), it is not that technical skills aren’t important, but they are
much easier to assess. Virtually every job (e.g. from neurosurgeon to cashier) has tests to
assess technical proficiency. However, generally those tests do not assess attitude of
candidate’s motivation to learn new skills, think innovatively, cope with failure, feedback and
coaching, collaborate with teammates, and so forth.

Soft skills are the capabilities that attitude can enhance or undermine. For example, a newly
hired executive may have the intelligence, business experience and financial acumen to fit
well in a new role. But if that same executive has an authoritarian, hard-driving style, and
they are being hired into a social culture where happiness and camaraderie are paramount,
that combination is unlikely to work. Additionally, many training programs have

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demonstrated success with increasing and improving skills - especially on the technical side.
But these same programs are notoriously weak when it comes to creating attitudinal change.
As Herb Kelleher, former Southwest Airlines CEO used to say, “We can change skill levels
through training, but we cannot change attitude.”

2.2 Employee Attitude

Test publishers assert that job applicants who have a more tolerable attitude about dishonesty
are more likely to be dishonest than those who are less tolerant (Shepard and Duston,1998).
Every year, US organizations administer nearly three million paper and pencil tests in pre-
employment screening to find out applicant’s attitudes about rule compliance, impulse
control and counter-productive behavior (Pawlowski and Hollwitz, 2000). Advocates for such
tests argue that the validity of the tests is high and unless new research shows otherwise,
these tests are something companies should continue to conduct and invest in to protect assets
(Steiner, 1990).

2.2.1 Honesty and Integrity Testing

Honesty tests are written psychological tests designed to identify job applicants who have
high propensities to steal money or property on the job or who are likely to engage in
behavior of a “counter-productive” nature, including tardiness, sick leave abuse and
absenteeism (Wiley and Rudley,1991). These tests, also known as integrity tests, are
purported to measure a person’s attitude about integrity and predict the likelihood of theft
(Guastello and Rieke, 2006).

Reviewing the literature leads back to the question: Do organizations need to consider more
of employee development than employee hiring practices?

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3 Development of Arguments

3.1 Why Attitude matters in hiring the potential Employees?

When hiring an employee, interviewers always thoroughly review each of the résumé to
recruit the exact match that will most align with the duties of the vacant position. Even before
the actual dialogue begins, interviewer can gain a sense of who the candidate is, basically
their personality, reactions to difficult questions, their attitude on the work etc. If an
interviewer detects even the slightest negativity in their behavior, mood, body language or
overall attitude, it is more likely they move in to the next candidate. Meaning the attitudes,
integrity and ethics of the candidates are important factors when it comes to a profession. A
well-known and often used phrase found in business suggests that effective leaders “hire for
attitude” and “train for skill”. Always when hiring people, experienced hiring manager
recognizes genuine talents of the candidate. The candidate selected must be completely aware
of their talent and must respond properly and positively to it, starting with the initial
interview in order to shortlisted for the vacant position.

The importance of preserving a positive attitude cannot be overstated in any workplace. In

most of the cases, the amount of time employees spends working with each other more than
the time spent even with one’s own family. So, it is imperative not only the employees learn
to adapt to each other but also that they enter the workplace each day with a positive attitude
that can be adopted throughout the entire workplace environment. If the opposite occurs,
meaning where negativity rules the day, confusion can easily follow and spread like a virus,
not only leading to poor results for individuals but also negative results and a potentially
damaging reputation for the workplace. Therefore, it is very much important to hire a person
with positive attitudes in order to gain ore advantages to the organization.

According to Murphy (2011) “When our research tracked 20,000 new hires, 46 per cent of
them failed within 18 months. But even more surprising than the failure rate, was that when
new hires failed, 89 per cent of the time it was for attitudinal reasons and only 11 per cent of
the time for a lack of skill. The attitudinal deficits that doomed these failed hires included a
lack of coachability, low levels of emotional intelligence, motivation and temperament”.

Employee nurturing process comes after hiring of an employee. Through employee nurturing
process, organizations develop the knowledge, skills and competencies of employees through
training or development interventions by ensuring that the organization has the talented,

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engaged and committed workforce it needs. However, the ultimate outcome of the
development process largely impacted by the traits of an employee such as attitudes,
integrity, ethics etc which cannot be changed or improve just through a nurturing process. If
an interviewer does not select the correct person with positive attitudes, it will impact on the
performance of the organization as well the well-being of the other employees as the
attitudes, integrity, ethics are attached to a person and thus has become his or her
characteristics.

3.2 Why does Cultural fit matter?

Hiring choice is one of the most challenging decision making faced by most of the
companies. Selection is everything. Development has its place, but leaders must take personal
responsibility for hiring the right people. By the time of interviewing candidates, the central
issue is rarely one of competence or professional credentials. What matters is trying to look at
the person behind the resume and determine the extent to which there is a real match or fit.
Fit is often used as shorthand for interpersonal chemistry. But it entails much more, including
fit with the job, fit with the team and fit the organization – and not just with the current needs
of the organization, but also with its emerging needs. Job fit refers to the degree to which the
activities and responsibilities of a particular job are consistent with the activities and
responsibilities that an individual find personally satisfying. In short will somebody want to
do the job? Organization fit is defined as an individual’s compatibility with an organization’s
values and mode of operation. While organizational fit covers a range of organizational
attributes the most common and frequently cited element centers on the congruence between
individual and organizational values. This is often referred to as culture fit.

Researches increasingly show that hiring people for “cultural fit,” or seeking out individuals
who align with your company’s unique culture and values, is an essential part of effective,
strategic human resource function. When a new recruiter is brought onto the team,
organization want that person to be a long-lasting, valuable employee within the organization.
Organizations can always provide the resources, tools and training and development
opportunities to help employees get better at their jobs, but it is difficult to teach someone to
align with the cultural values.

Cultural fit is the most important aspect of retaining great employees. Hiring employees that
do not mesh well with the existing or desired company culture leads to poor work quality,
decreased job satisfaction and a potentially toxic environment. According to Nancy Rothbard,

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when people do not fit the organization, they do not feel comfortable. They often do not get
selected, and if they do, they do not enjoy their experience and they leave. This results in
turnover which has high costs - both hard and soft. Hiring is expensive, but it only gets more
expensive when the process is not properly executed. It means going through the hiring steps,
from job listings to interviews and paperwork, all over again, while also providing another
round of onboarding. And the consequences of a wrong hire go beyond turnover costs; there
are also costs associated with a disrupted company culture, decreased work production, and
potential loss of customers and revenue.

On the other hand, hiring employees that fit well with the culture and share a strong belief in
the values will most likely flourish. Employees who fit well with their organization,
coworkers, and supervisor had greater job satisfaction, were more likely to remain with their
organization, and showed superior job performance.

Does Employee nurturing can fix all issues in employee hiring?

According to Aaron W. Hughey and Kenneth J. Mussnug, the objective of employee

nurturing programs is to improve the employee efficiency. However, the success depends on
the extent to which employee effectively learn through involvement. Often employees view
training programs as means of wasting time which is rarely contribute to the improvement of
their skills. Thus, employee engagement is critical factor in this scenario. If the employees do
not have right attitudes to understand why the training programs is conducted, the ultimate
objective of employee nurturing is not met.

Meanwhile the employee nurturing programs are usually designed to number of employees of
a designation. According to Aaron W. Hughey and Kenneth J. Mussnug, the perceived
benefits of such training is only an illusion as those may not be able to cater the behavioral
characteristics and knowledge levels of the diverse employees. Therefore, through it says all
employees can be developed after the hire, it does not bring the desired results.

Meanwhile in nurturing the millennials, the companies face number of challenges. Because
though this generation is technologically proficient, they are lacking skills of communication,
relationship building and diplomacy. Hence traditional training programs do not bring the
desired results. Hence at the time of recruitment, the focus to be devoted in recruitment of
people with right attitudes and right skills. If the organization recruit the people with right
attitude and skills, they can be trained and developed further to achieve organizational goals.

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3.3 Why it is important of ensuring the flexibility and commitment of
employees at the hiring?
Burack and Singh (1995, in Heraty & Morley, 1998, p.663) emphasize that, the organizations
are constantly seeking employees with flexibility who can adopt easily to change in customer
needs. Accordingly, at the time of recruitment, this attribute requires to be taken into
consideration by the management, because if the potential employee is rigid in attitudes and
does not welcome change, irrespective of the number and quality of the training and
development programs are not capable to change the behavior of the person.

Meanwhile, according to Meyer and Allen (1997), Organization Commitment (OC) refers to
overall psychological connection an employee experiences with his or her organization, can
be characterized by three types as affective OC, normative OC and Continuance OC. Among
those, affective OC refers to an employee’s strong emotional attachment to, identification
with and involvement in an organization and relates to one’s desire to stay with the
organization. So, this desire is inherent attribute of the employee. It cannot be created from
the scratch within the employees given the challenges faced by the organizations. Thus, at the
time of screening the employees, this aspect must be looked at.

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4 Conclusion
The debate over the employee nurturing versus new hiring is an everlasting clash among the
Human Resources practitioners.

It is an obvious fact that at some point all the organizations will required to recruit new
employees. Without any doubt human resource is the most important factor for any
organization which determines the future success. Hence it is an important thing to select and
hire the right employees with correct attitudes and mindset which will align with the
organizational culture and political environment. With time and through continuous training
and development programs organizations can developed the level of Skills and Knowledge of
the employee required for a task. But, changing an attitude of a person is a very difficult task.
Therefore, hiring the correct person with the right attitude at the first place is an important
factor because these wrong attitudes will have long term adverse effect on the organizational
performance.

On the other hand, organizations do appreciate the new fresh ideas, new way of thinking and
the new technologies bring in by the new recruits to the organizations mainly because the
looking from the same point of view with traditional set of ideas might prevent organizations
responsiveness to the contemporary environmental influences.

In a nutshell, in deciding the answer for this dilemma it is a clear fact that the answer is the
selection of right personnel with right attitudes.

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5 List of References
1. Glazer, S., Mahoney, A., & Randall, Y. (2018). Employee development’s role in
organizational commitment: a preliminary investigation comparing generation X and
millennial employees. Industrial and Commercial Training, 51(1), 1-12. doi:
10.1108/ict-07-2018-0061
2. Hire for Attitude, Dan Schawbel, Jan 23, 2012,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2012/01/23/89-of-new-hires-fail-because-
of-their-attitude/#5421ffdc137a 1/4 (Retrieved on 31st December 2018)
3. Hughey, A., & Mussnug, K. (1997). Designing effective employee training
programmes. Training for Quality, 5(2), 52-57. doi: 10.1108/09684879710167638
4. Massis, B., (2018). Hiring for attitude and training for skill in the library, New
Library World, Vol. 116 Issue: 7/8, pp.467-470, https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-12-
2014-0145.
5. The Top 10 Challenges Faced by Learning & Development Professionals. Retrieved
from https://cmoe.com/blog/learning-development-challenges/
6. Preston. Bottger, Jean-Louis B., (2011), Masters of fit: how leaders enhance hiring,
Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 40 Issue: 1, pp.33-39
7. Bruce W., M. Busine, Emma. W., (2005), Recruiting for culture fit, DDI Australia
Research Report
8. Elena P. Antonacopoulou, (2000). ‘Employee development through self-development
in three retail banks’ Journal of Personnel Review, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 491-508.

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