Note: This transcription document is a text version of the upGrad videos present in this session.

It is
not meant to be read independently, but can be used to complement your video watching
experience.

Video 1

Speaker: Richa Saxena

The success of any organisation is closely linked to the quality of its employees, whether it is a
small business or a Fortune 500 company. The quality of employees depends on the quality of
the processes employed for hiring talent. And acquiring the right talent is a challenging task.

Let’s look at the first step towards this, which is manpower planning.

As an area sales manager, Varun keeps getting higher targets every quarter from the Regional
Sales Manager. For instance, if he had a business goal of achieving Rupees 50 crores worth of
sales in the previous quarter, the management will revise current quarter's sales target to
Rupees 60 crores, which essentially is to achieve a 20% growth rate quarter on quarter from
his territory.

Now, in the light of the increased target, Varun needs to think through on certain aspects related
to manpower planning such as:

How many sales executives does he currently have?

Will he require more number of people to achieve better sales numbers?

The answer to all these questions can be found by doing manpower planning.

Manpower planning is the process of deciding what positions the firm has to fill and how to fill

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them. The main aim of manpower planning is to bridge the gap between the amount of
manpower employed today and the amount of manpower projected for future needs.
Organisations conduct this exercise seriously.

Let's understand the process of manpower planning. The first step of any method for
manpower planning is acknowledging your business goals and objectives.

In our case, Varun has a business objective of achieving a 20 percent higher sales as compared
to the previous quarter.

The second step for a manager is to audit the resources available to him and check whether
the current manpower is sufficient to deliver the desired business goal.

Here, Varun will check his existing sales infrastructure consisting of area sales managers, sales
executives, distributors and salesmen to determine whether the current infrastructure is sufficient
to achieve the 20 percent growth as desired.

As the third step, the manager forecasts the optimum number of people required to achieve the
business objective. At this stage, you may also decide that your current manpower will be
sufficient to achieve the business goal.

Varun will, at this stage, predict the manpower required at various levels, which will be needed to
achieve Rupees 60 crores of revenue this year. In order to determine the manpower required,
there are specific tools that Varun can use to arrive at the optimum number of sales
representatives. One of them is the organogram.

For managers, this could be a team chart of just his team. This chart will give managers
an understanding of the current structure.

Varun charts his business to identify areas where the business can grow.
By drawing this chart, it would be easier to locate whether the team is under-staffed or overstaffed.

So, in the organisation chart, it is evident that Varun is the area sales manager of Mumbai, and
he reports to the Regional Sales Manager of West India. Varun has three area managers each
from different regions of North, Central and South Mumbai. They further have area executives
for each region followed by a distributor network.

So, Varun now sees that Central Mumbai has the largest market size and growth potential.

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Additionally, he notes that North Mumbai has a low market size but higher growth potential.
Hence, he might need more people there to extract additional revenue for the new target.

Varun might want to now focus only on the team working across these two regions - North and
Central Mumbai. One area manager is currently managing the North region; however, the
Central Mumbai team has three area executives and five salesmen. By looking at the revenue
potential of each region, he might decide to increase his strength in North Mumbai. Hence, this
justifies the headcount addition to his workforce as well.

After applying the organogram which is a tool for manpower planning it is certain that Varun can
be confident of the fact that now his team is rightly sized to achieve the additional target.

Let’s discuss some of the other methods to predict workforce.

One of them is Trend Analysis. In trend analysis the manager studies the past requirement of
employees over a period of time and accordingly predicts the future needs. Trend analysis gives
a rough estimation of the requirement of the workforce.

Another method is Ratio Analysis. In ratio analysis, the manager forecasts the manpower
requirement based on some historical ratios. For example, for a revenue of Rs. 10 lakh, a
company employed two salespeople. So the ratio is sales revenue divided by the number of
employees. If the ratio of sales revenue to salespeople remains the same, the company can
predict the number of salespeople required if the revenue increases to 40 lakhs. The required
number of salespeople will be 8 in this case.

Now, planning is done either for adding more employees or replacing old employees with
new employees.

Manpower planning happens at two levels.

One, it happens at organisational chart level wherein the HR comes up with an organisation chart
for the next one year, looks at all the critical roles which are required for business success based
on one-year goals, identifies the key personnel within the organisation who could perform that
role and look for new requirements that need to be filled in.

Second, planning happens at the "replacement" level. When employees leave the
organisation, most of the time, the vacant role either falls into the next immediately qualified
person within the organisation or flows into the recruitment team. If it is filled internally, then
the role of a junior person who moved up the ladder goes to the recruitment team. The talent
acquisition team is provided with a budget range of min-mid-max for every role and are
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advised to stay within the budget line.

Moving ahead, let’s discuss some of the recruitment strategies adopted by managers to
hire candidates. Recruitment means finding or attracting applicants for the employer's
open positions. The line manager's cooperation in recruitment is essential since the HR
manager responsible for recruitment will not be very familiar with the job itself.

Recruitment word in our mind typically brings Linkedin, Naukri.com, and other job portals. But,
there are other sources as well. Let us discuss some of the sources of recruitment:

First is internal source. Filling positions from within the organisation are sometimes the best
source. The employee will require less orientation, and the manager will be fully aware of the
employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Indian PSUs generally fill senior management positions
internally. But, internal hiring can backfire sometimes as well if new perspectives are needed.

The next is exploring external sources. Some managers cannot find the right skill required inside
the company and have to look for it outside. Employee referral is an excellent source to recruit
new employees. Companies like Infosys and IBM in the past recruited outsiders even at the top
level and did exceptionally well.

In India, many companies recruit through recruitment consultants, Executive search companies
and head-hunters. Apart from that online Job portals like Linkedin, naukri.com, timesjob.com, etc.
are also commonly used. Online recruitment is getting popular day by day.

Video 1

Speaker: Tim Ringo

A lot of visitors come into the office of a particular MNC asking to meet with some of the senior
executives. Unfortunately, nobody was at the front office to manage these visitors except a security
guard.

Some of the executives decided they would like to hire a receptionist or a secretary to manage
visitors and everybody who enters the office.

But to do so, they had to conduct a job analysis first before they could even list down the key
competencies required for filling up that position. In organisations, several positions are to be
staffed.

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The process of describing and recording aspects or elements of a job is called job analysis. It is the
process of collecting information on the duties of the position and the characteristics of the people
who are to be hired for the job.

Along with describing duties and tasks, it is also the basis for determining the relative worth of a
job. Most importantly, it identifies redundancy or whether the job is really required or not? What
tasks should the receptionist or secretary be expected to perform?

What duties and responsibilities are involved? Eventually, what are the characteristics of the person
that we would like to hire for this particular role? After finalising each of these elements, a job
description was put together.

Let me give you one more example. The finance department may decide to hire certain people
conducting an audit. However, certain existing executives in the finance department are also
doubling up as auditors when required, but are unable to deliver as expected. Hence, it's decided
to hire new executives.

If new executives need to be hired, a detailed job analysis must be performed to describe how this
individual's job is any different from the tasks being performed by existing executives.

In that case, a detailed description of the tasks, the roles, responsibilities, duties and the span of
control and even identifying how this particular role of an auditor will fit in with the rest of the
organisation or the rest of the department needs to be prepared.

But how do we even go about conducting job analysis? There are a few methods to conduct job
analysis. One of the most popular ones for job analysis is called a task inventory. It lists all the tasks
that are involved in the job.

It's similar to a laundry list how, why and when does the work perform what they perform? For
example, what are the tasks an auditor is supposed to do on the job? The second method used for
job analysis is called observation, which involves a recording of the activities and tasks that are
performed.

It is often said that the power of observation is one of the largest powers that exists. For instance, a
production assembly line is a great example, where observation is a useful method to discern the
different job roles involved in the process.

Who is doing what and at what interval? What is the sequence of the tasks but most importantly,
what is the input? What is the output? The third method of job analysis is called the interview
method.

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In this method, employees with similar types of jobs are interviewed along with the supervisors of
the team, in which an individual needs to be hired. Suppose the sales executive is to be hired for a
new product line.

The job analysis for this can be deducted by interviewing a sales executive handling an existing
product line or even the supervisor of a particular product line, to understand exactly what the
details of a job might be for a new sales executive who will be handling a new product model.

The fourth method is called diaries. This involves employees, maintaining log books to record daily
tasks and events. For example, the roles and responsibilities of factory workers can be identified
using their diaries maintained by them, consisting of daily operations based information.

For example, the number of units to be produced in a day, the number of goods to be packaged
and also then sent to the warehouse. A combination these methods can be used to conduct job
analysis.

If more information is gathered on a particular role, you can examine it in detail and assess the roles
and responsibilities of the individuals better.

Video 1

Speaker: Tim Ringo

How can you make sure that you hire and deploy the right people for the right job? To do so, you
need to understand the skills and competencies required to perform a role. Mapping individual
skills and competencies to available or forecasted jobs is becoming an increasingly important
activity in high performing companies.

This is an important input to manpower planning, getting the right people in the right place at the
right time with the right skills. Competency modelling is typically defined as the identification,
definition and measurement of the knowledge, skills and attitude otherwise known as KSAOs.

That are needed to be successful in a role. These are typically mapped to a matrix of different
competencies, based on the characteristics required for the type of business. A competency is a
knowledge, skill, ability or other characteristic.

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For example, a trait, a mindset or an attitude is commonly referred to as a KSAO or a group of
characteristics that, when applied in appropriate roles help achieve desired results. The
competency matrix communicates the skills that are required for each of the roles.

For instance, a sales manager may require low, no organisational leadership skills, whereas a Vice
President of sales will need organisational leadership skills as a prerequisite for the job. Hence the
matrix gives the manager an idea of what to look for while recruiting people for each role.

This also helps in setting the right expectations in the mind of the candidates who are applying for
the job. Let's consider an example of assessing a candidate for an account executive sales role.
According to the competency matrix, a sales manager looking to hire a new account executive
would be looking for proven skills in the following.

First of all, prospecting proficiency. Demonstrated skills and the capability in finding new sales
opportunities and developing them into possible new business.

Second, selling proficiency, demonstrated skills and capabilities and taking newly identified
prospects and developing a customer proposition and presenting this to the customer to gain
interest.

Third sales performance and execution. Once customer interest is established, taking the
opportunity through to sale and completed contracts, the candidate would not need the following
skills. First, sales strategy. Second leadership.

By referencing and utilising the competency matrix, the sales manager can recruit the right person
for the right job. They can look for these competencies by screening the candidate profile or
interviewing them.

As a result, a competency matrix is multifaceted and therefore critical in hiring the right people
deploying them to the right role and developing them for the future. But how can you conduct
competency modelling?

The previous example on hiring sales candidates is a very basic example of how competency
matrices can be used in practice. To understand the work involved in defining a competency model,
I'll explain how these are developed for the entire organisation in more detail.

First, there is no standard list of competencies for any given job. The type of competency that feeds
into a competency model depends on the specific needs of that job. For example, the
competencies listed for an account executive will differ drastically from those of an accountant.

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First to find the highest level of competencies that are standard for most jobs and then can be
broken down into helpful categories. To better understand the type of information that might be
included, such as the following.

Number one core competencies. Core competencies include the baseline skills that all employees
must have in an organisation. Employees must fulfil these basic requirements. This will vary from
company to company, as it depends on the values, philosophy and goals of each organisation, but
can include basic requirements such as communication skills or teamwork.

Most jobs require a basic element of being able to work with other people to some degree. The
goals of an organisation are reflected in broad competencies that reflect its strength and
uniqueness.

For example, a sales manager's core competency would be communication and listening skills.
Functional competencies. Functional competencies are job specific skills and behaviours that are
unique for each role. For example, a sales manager's functional competency would be having a
customer-centric approach.

Functional competencies should describe the behaviour or skills that employees need to have them
to be a top performer in that position. Third, leadership competencies. Leadership competencies
are often used for supervisory and management related roles.

Although can be applied to any job position that requires an employee to lead others. They include
leadership skills and behaviours like decision making capabilities. For instance, one of the
leadership competencies for a sales manager would be team management.

From this, a structure of detailed competencies can be developed for each job, based on these
high level categories and the level of proficiency required to meet the criteria for that particular job.
The proficiency level can be categorised into basic, competent and then advanced and the last
category as a trainer.

Here, an example of IT workers is given. Using this example, a number of the roles are defined in
the vertical column of the matrix and then a set of competencies are defined across the horizontal
role of the matrix.

If we take the example of the cloud architect role and the project management competency, you
can further define a set of key competencies for project management specific to the cloud architect
role.

For example, first fluency in key programming languages and networking security, which be the
functional competencies of this role. Second, communication and collaboration would be a part of
the core competencies and team management will fall under leadership competencies. 

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From there a ranking of proficiency will be created to allow a candidate or an existing employee to
be rated and to define the required competency training level.

This creates a detailed competency matrix that can be used for multiple purposes inside an
organisation from recruiting to learning plans to succession planning and even to promotions.

Video 2

Speaker: Tim Ringo

How can we use the process of collecting information on the duties of the position and the
competencies required to perform those duties to hire the right person for the right job? The
information acquired through these steps gets converted to what's known as a job posting.

A job posting as a formal communication made by a company on its career site or job portals, to
inform potential candidates about an open position. Candidates interested in the position apply for
it and share their experience on the site with respect to their experience and skills gained through
their CV.

The HR department takes a look at the various profiles received for the role, shortlists them based
on the requirements of the role and shares the shortlisted candidate and the profiles with the line
manager. But who creates a job posting?

A job posting can be broadly divided into two parts. First of all, the job description and the job
specification. It is line manager's responsibility to share the job description and the specification
with the HR manager, so they can publish the job postings and then share the relevant profiles with
them.

A job description is a list of what the job entails. It's a basic list of all the tasks and activities on the
job, such as needs to maintain an accounts register three times a day, should be able to create a 
account independently or even needs to ensure that customers are managed satisfactorily and
updates are fed Into a CRM system.

In this, the company's mission, vision and value statements span and control range of the job
hierarchy and other factors that describe the nature of the job should also be specified.

Job specification on the other hand talks about the qualities and traits of the person to be hired
such as we want to hire a PhD, minimum experience of seven years, needs to have a degree in Six
Sigma or needs to be a creative and innovative person, should be able to manage stress under
pressure.

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The job description and the job specification details can be availed from job analysis and
competency modelling. Let me give you an example. Suppose a sales manager is looking to hire an
account executive.

He conducted job analysis by asking his colleagues and answering these questions of himself. First
of all, what are the major duties of this position? Secondly, what are the job responsibilities and who
are the members of your work group?

After getting an understanding of the responsibilities of an account executive, the sales manager
then began to list the skills required to perform various tasks in this particular role. Based on his
findings, he found out the education, experience, skills, training and certification requirements for
that particular role.

Even though one can follow a process to create job descriptions and specifications, many business
managers do not follow a systematic process, as they find it too time consuming. I made this
mistake myself and I learned from it.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to hire an account manager and failed to align the job
description to the company's competency matrix before releasing the role for publication. So what
happened? What were the results of this mistake?

Well, first of all, I received more applications for the role than what was feasible to process. Two, the
applications and the candidates were too generic for what I was looking for. Three, I spent an
inordinate amount of time interviewing and finding the right candidate.

Fourth, once I placed this person, they lasted less than one year as he ended up not being right for
the role or right for the company. Five since then, I worked much more closely with HR managers to
align the job descriptions to the competency matrix to get a job specification and then a job posting
that was fit for purpose.

I learned my lesson. Another aspect of best practice to be followed for job analysis and effective
competency modelling is that these can be used for job forecasting.

Combining these two activities and placing them on a timeline from present to near future provides
a forecast of which candidates you may need in the next six to eighteen months.

In my experience, this is one of the most important exercises that an organisation can undertake.
Without forecasting roles, strategic workforce planning as it's known, it is easy to get into a hire fire
binge when times are good or bad. It can also lead to poor recruitment decisions.

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Video 1

Speaker: Shibani Belwalkar

Employee selection is an extremely critical element. There are many methods in ensuring we
select the right candidate. Tests, assessments, interviews, all of these methods are utilized for
screening of candidates. There are two primary methods of screening candidates. The first
method is called the binary resume screening and the second method is called the subjective
resume screening.

Just as a name sounds binary resume screening means yes or no. Example, I'm looking for a
PhD. So, a non-PhD is a strict no or a reject. Sometimes, maybe you want to look for a
candidate with a minimum number of years of experience, just 10 years of experience. So,
anybody, with the 7 to 8 years of experience is a no order reject.

The second form of resume screening is called the subjective resume screening. Often the
screening criteria includes skills, relevant experience, working background and can be done
with the match of keywords. With the advancement in technology, such as AI, machine learning
recruitment technology is also undergoing a big change, and it learns the kind of candidates
you want to shortlist or interview or hire and can do this matchmaking based on the words that
you've selected.

What happens when you have a large-scale selection that needs to be done? You know, as a
line manager, you may be required to go on campus to select the right kind of candidates for
your job. These are often referred to as summer placements of final placements on campus.
With a large pool of candidates, the method that is applaud cannot be a one-to-one method,
particularly when you're looking at screening candidates at the first level.

Let me walk you through what one needs to do as a line manager for master recruitment or
selecting through a large pool of candidates. The first method I'd like to talk to you about it's
called the assessment center. An assessment center involves candidates coming together to
undergo a series of tests and assessments while being watched and interviewed by observers
who are qualified for the role.

In fact, these observers make notes at every level of performance and the way they interact with
each other as well. The methods of assessment center include the following in-basket reports,

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memos, notes of phone calls, emails, etc., upon which candidate has to take appropriate action.
Group discussions, management games to resolve realistic problems, case study discussions are
all part of the process of assessment centers.

In large-scale recruitment drives, candidates are put through miniature job training sessions for
weeks and then their eligibility to apply for the job is determined. Let me give you a very seminal
example here. When Honda built a plant in Lincoln, they needed thousands of new workers for
the job. They set out add and invited applications. Initial binary screening eliminated those who
lacked the experience or qualifications.

About 340 applicants received a 6-week training including classroom training, videos, actual
on-the-job practice. Some candida just simply dropped off because they felt that they were not
suited for the job. However, special assessors scrutinize the trainee's work and invited the best
of the lot to come forward and apply for jobs at the Honda plant. Of course, the final screening
late with senior executives and the HR team of the plant.

There are four kinds of pre employment tests. I'm sure as an employee, you would have been
through one of them at some point of time in your life. The first and the most popular test is called
the intelligence test, IQ test, which meant just basic intellect or intelligence. These kinds of tests
are often utilized for base level jobs, such as clerical jobs in banks.

The second kind of pre-employment test is called the cognitive abilities test. For example, you
wish to hire someone as a mechanical engineer.

Well, then the aptitude for engineering, mathematical ability, maybe even reasoning,
comprehension abilities, all of these can be measured as part of the cognitive abilities test. The
third kind is called the physical abilities test. These kinds of tests measure the dexterity or the
physical strength of an employee or the candidate looking for a particular job, such as when
hiring for the police force or the armed forces.

The fourth kind of pre-employment test is called the judgment test, behaviour judgment test,
situation judgment test, alternatively. Essentially, how a candidate reacts to a certain situation is
measured by giving a particular context or a hypothetical situation and asking for how the
candidate would react to that.

These kinds of tests are often utilized for customer service positions. What we looked at earlier
were pre-employment tests for skills. Let's take a look at pre employment tests for personalities.
A personality test basically measures the attributes or the personality type of a candidate.
Personality is a big determinant of job success.

So, what are the kinds of personality tests that are available? In fact, the one more popular type
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that is utilized in most organisations is called the projective type test. The projective type
personality tests involve as an assessor, showing a particular image, either a hazy image, or for
example, an ink dot and asking for the candidate, what he or she sees in that particular image.

It is assumed that this kind of a test will allow for the candidate to project his or her belief
systems, motives, aspirations, thoughts, and even personality type onto that particular image.
Projective type tests are often utilized for roles that involve creativity, roles that involve a lot of
innovation, and sometimes even the ability to translate the ambiguous into concrete.

The second kind of test is called the self-assessment, which essentially involves a candidate
giving scores to himself or herself based on a predetermined questionnaire.

Self-assessment also includes the types of MBTI, DISC or even the ocean, which is a big
five framework. These tests are often used on campuses for campus placements.

Video 2

Speaker: Tim Ringo

Significant changes in technology over the past decade have had a profound impact on recruiting
strategies. With staffing professionals increasingly using social networking sites to source, contact
and screen both active and passive job candidates.

For example, screening of candidates is one area where social networks, AI and machine learning
technology is working very well for organisations. Social networks can be set up to create situations
where the right people self-select to be in your candidate pool.

Additionally, AI and machine learning can be used for the initial screening of candidates based on
job specifications. AI is very good at matching people with the right job, whereas machine learning
is very good at honing this capability by learning how your organisation interacts with your
candidate pool.

In recent years, in my role as a senior executive, I have found that once you have done the work
with an HR manager to create accurate job postings, it opens the way to using technology, to do
more of the screening, freeing up the manager to focus on only a small pool of candidates who are
in an excellent match.

Let's consider an example. Not long ago, I was looking to hire a senior HR consultant for a role
wherein they would need to advise customers in Europe who were buying HR software systems.
For this role, many qualified candidates at major consultancy firms such as Accenture, IBM, Deloitte
and KPMG were ideal for this role.

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The HR managers I worked with while recruiting were very good at using social networks such as
LinkedIn to keep in touch with candidates and creating communities with HR consultants in these
organisations.

Effectively, they were developing a pool of self-selecting candidates at the ready should we need
them. Once we worked to develop the job description, job specification, we posted on these social
network communities and onto our internal AI and machine learning recruitment tools that
candidates would use to find and apply for those roles. These tools were interfaced with LinkedIn
and other social networks.

Once the candidates applied on the platform, the AI would screen and evaluate the requisite
applications, come up with a short list that the HR department would review and then send to me
for comment.

In most cases, the shortlists were accurate and are very high quality. Sometimes they needed
tweaking. However, a lot of time was saved both for the HR manager and for myself. From there,
candidates would be notified of the short listing and they could schedule the first round interviews
with the HR department and then myself, if HR recommended them to me.

Before these tools were available, the processes were the same. However, HR did most of the initial
screening to give me a short list to screen myself. This took some time, but also produced high
quality short lists of candidates, but only if job analysis and competency modelling were conducted
properly and the job descriptions were created accurately.

The screening process requires practice to get better and better, but most people develop their
own techniques and methods and also take the help of HR managers. The processes that you can
follow to screen and select the best possible talent for an open position include the following.

First, coordinating with HR to create job postings for open positions to solicit resumes and
employee applications. Second, conducting binary screening to eliminate candidates who do not
meet the basic requirements of this particular position.

Third, using a preliminary assessment to screen out those who lack the desired level of skills and
competencies required for this job. Next performing an in-depth assessment through job interviews,
job simulations to select candidates with the highest potential for job success.

Next, verifying candidates stated employment record and qualifications.

Video 3

Speaker: Dr. Shibani Belwalkar

Interviews can be classified bases, three types. The first classification is structure, second one is
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content and the third one is administering. When we look at the structure of an interview, an
interview could be either unstructured or structured.

An unstructured interview could be questions that pop up or are discussed on the spur of the
moment, depending on which way the conversation is flowing between the interviewer and
the interview, such as tell me about a particular time when you achieved success, tell me
about a particular time when you think you felt under pressure.

A structured interview will have predetermined questions that are listed down before the
interview. In this manner, certain critical questions will not be missed out between the discussion
in the interviewer and the interviewee.

The second format of distinction of interviews is called basis the content, is the focus of the
question on behaviour on job or on qualifications or even attitude. Content kind of
classification could be situational, behavioural job related. In a situation interview, you ask the
candidate to describe how their behaviour would be in a given situation.

For example, how would you react to a subordinate coming in late three days in a row? A
behavioural event question could ask the candidate to describe how they behaved or reacted in
the past to certain events. Example, tell me about a time you were talking to an irate client and
how did you pacify him or her. In job related questions, specific questions about past job relevant
experiences are asked.

Example, how did you plan the department's budget? The third classification is based on
administering of the interview. The administering could be either one-on-one or maybe at a
panel format. In a one-on-one administering of the interview, there is an interviewer and there
is an interviewee. The discussion is between the two. In a panel format, there might be a host
of interviewers interviewing a single interviewee.

The intention is to have multiple perspectives and multiple questions that are asked to the
individual interviewee to get a broad perspective on how that interviewee is going to function
in that particular role or job. It’s about many opinions for one candidate. The panel kind of
selection, interview type, is often utilized on campuses as well.

Let me take you through some of the do's and don'ts as a line manager, particularly in the
context of interviewing. The first and the foremost responsibility of a line manager is to
understand the job that the interviewer is interviewing for. As a line manager is imperative that
you understand what the job entails, so as to be able to ask for the right questions and
understand the qualities and the qualifications of the candidate for the job, right person for the
right job begins here.

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The second important responsibility of the line manager is to ensure that there is a
pre-interview process that is followed. Ensure that you're well aware of the technicalities of the
job and ensure that certain questions are not missed out when you're preparing. It's a good
idea, for example, to sit with the supervisor or the HR team to understand some of the greater
nuances of interviewing.

A prepared interviewer will be able to do a better job at interviewing the candidate. The third
responsibility of a line manager is to ensure that you're selling the job. You're not the only one,
making a decision here right and the more you're able to describe the mission, vision and values
of the organisation, the culture, the practices, the processes, some of the rituals, the more you
will be able to create a brand in the mind of the interviewee.

4. Avoid biases, a very popular and unfortunately, common mistake that happens with
line managers is to have selective processing when it comes to interviewees.

Let's try to avoid such biases by having a very intense rubric that measures the qualities and
the qualifications we're hiring for.

5. Establish rapport. It's important that you've established a great rapport with that interviewee. A
candidate is a window to the world, and the opinions that they form about your intervening
process will go a long way in helping them determine whether this is a place they would like to
work for or not. Effective questioning technique.

Interestingly, earlier days had a lot of pressure techniques that were utilized while
questioning. Stress interviews as they were referred to. Times are changing, and it is often
discussed that the more you're able to put a candidate at ease, the more he or she will be
able to respond better. Adopt some good questioning techniques, nothing excessively
personal, but also extremely inquisitive as far as the job is concerned and the qualities
required to perform that job.

Taking notes, we advise line managers to make notes, it's a little difficult to rely on memory,
especially when you're looking at multiple candidates for the same job. Effective note-taking
will also allow you to ensure there are no biases at the end of the day when you're looking at
judging which candidate is right and which is not. If there is a particular plan of action that
needs to be followed as a follow-up process after the interview, make a mention of that.

Leaving very ambiguous statements in the mind of the interviewee may not really work well as a
brand building image for the company as well and last but not least, review the interviewee and
the notes before you arrive at a decision about which candidate is accurate for the job, take
some time to process all the details and take some time to process these details along with some
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colleagues, so that you can get a multitude of opinions and ensure that you're taking the right
call.

When you have a number of interviewees for a particular job, it's important to use the tool type
called matrix to collect all the information pertaining to that candidate in one place and make a
very conscious call about the right candidate for the job.

Essentially, what a matrix does, it puts together all the qualities, all the qualifications, all the
specific attributes, competencies, skills that are measured in that particular candidate or
interviewee, and the information is collated together across the board for a number of candidates
for you to be able to make a very conscious call on which one, you think is the most capable, the
most competent and the most adequate candidate for that job.

If you can see on screen, here is a matrix. The columns indicate the number of candidates that
have applied for that job and the rows indicate the skills that you're assessing that candidate for.
At each level, there is a number that is awarded based on the rating scale, that you have, for
example, five for best fit and one for not that great of it. A total of the score at the end of each
column will indicate which candidate seems to be the best fit for the job you're hiring for you.

Video 1

Speaker: Richa Saxena

After a candidate is selected and he or she agrees to join the organisation, the onboarding
journey begins.

Carefully selecting an employee does not guarantee that the employee will perform effectively
and efficiently. Some familiarity with the organisation and initial training related to work is
needed.

Onboarding activities and interactions typically start from day one and continue until the person
settles down in the new role. The primary purpose of employee orientation or onboarding is to
provide new employees with the basic background information they need to do their job. Here,
the new employee is made to feel welcome, integrated into the team culturally and then
equipped with the necessary know-how in the assigned role.

Generally, the human resources department designs the orientation program, but the line
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manager does most of the orientations. Therefore, every manager should know how to orient the
employees.
The manager wants to accomplish three things through employee orientation: First, the
employees should feel welcome and start looking at themselves as part of the team.
Second, the employees should have access to basic information to do their job like e-mail
access, policies etc. Third, the employees understand the organisation’s vision, mission,
culture and future strategies. Let’s discuss the orientation process.

The length of the orientation process can vary depending on the amount of information to be
covered. Generally, the orientation process is started by the human resource manager
explaining things like working hours, benefits etc. Then the line manager continues by
introducing the new joinee to the department and to the employees working in that department
etc. Thus, helping the employee to get comfortable in the new environment.

Now let's see how some of the companies excel in their approach of employee orientation.

Twitter has an onboarding process named 'Yes-to-Desk'. This is the time between when the
new employee accepts the offer and until he or she finally sits on the desk and starts working.
During the process, there are a series of steps, more than 75 steps to be exact!

At first, all new hires receive an email address, a t-shirt, a bottle of wine, a desk placed according
to the team they are working with.

Then also receive a file in their mail, explaining what is going to happen on the first day. They
have breakfast with the CEO, followed by a tour of the office and lunch with the entire team.
Seating is pre-arranged so there's no anxiety about where to sit.

In the afternoon, the company updates new joinees on current projects, company history and
teaches them about tools and systems. After this, the new joinees start working almost
immediately following the day's activities.

But the onboarding process continues for another month. The new hirees enjoy happy hour
with the senior team combined with an alternating 5-week program of 30 min presentations
every Friday.

Let’s look at another example of Zappos

The Zappos onboarding process occurs over four weeks. The process places a strong emphasis
on communicating the company culture and creating bonds.

All employees receive training on the best practices for customer service as Zappos considers
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this as an important part of his cultural identity. For the first two weeks, employees learn to
deliver exceptional customer service. All new hires are presented with ten core values and the
history thereof.

After one month, the new arrivals graduate but they also have an option to quit, and the
company offers them $2000 for quitting. The reason for this is that they strongly believe in the
company culture and want to protect it. They want the right employees working for them from
the start.

Video 2

Speaker: Tim Ringo

For a long time, the employee onboarding experience was seen as administrative. It was delegated
to the facility services and the HR team. This has caused employees to sometimes feel lost and
unvalued.

Onboarding is being seen more and more as a very important part of the integrated talent
management lifecycle and is becoming the responsibility of the manager. Luckily, HR systems are
coming with better functionality that links the manager and the employee from before day one on
the job.

A good example of this is L'Oréal a global cosmetics company based in Paris. It has completely
revised their employer brand proposition, most notably, the company created a thorough and
recognisable employee value proposition, that is, the values and cultures that they embody and
provide for their employees.

This resulted in the employee value proposition tagline, a thrilling experience, a culture of
excellence. And these employee value proposition pillars include the following. First of all, a thrilling
experience.

Secondly, an inspiring company. Third, a school of excellence. This resulted in creating a common
understanding of L'Oréal's values and culture, removing employee perceptions that either resulted
from word or mouth or through their experience at the organisation.

Then they revamped their onboarding experience to match their employee value proposition.
Putting the candidates managers in charge of the entire process from recruitment to onboarding.
The managers were supported by HR advisors and the HRIS system and their executive assistants
helped as well.

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The new employee and the manager were given a recruitment and onboarding portal once the
candidate had accepted the offer. All the aspects of facilities, technology, learning were managed
before and after the candidate came on board.

The technology made it easier for the manager to get the employees set up on the internal system,
order equipment, set up orientation and any training sessions they might need and help them to
internally network with new employees as well for collaboration during those early days of joining.

Additionally, the manager is immediately notified of any issues in the process. Many managers have
their executive assistants, support them in this to help with any administrative situations.

This also gave the new employees a sense of belongingness in the organisation and helped in
building relations with different team members from different cultures and backgrounds.

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