Staffing Organizations

Chapter 9:
Final Match

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 Learning Objectives for Chapter 9
• Learn about the requirements for an enforceable contract
• Recognize issues that might arise in the employment contract
process
• Understand how to make strategic job offers
• Plan for the steps of formulating and presenting a job offer
• Know how to establish a formal employment relationship
• Develop effective plans for new employee orientation and
socialization
• Recognize potential legal issues involving final matches

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 Final Match
Employment Contracts

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 Requirements for an Enforceable Contract
• Offer
– Terms and conditions of employment proposed by the employer.
– Must be clear and specific enough to be acted on by the offer receiver.

• Acceptance
– Offer must be accepted on the terms as offered and within guidelines
in the offer.
• Consideration
– Employer offers to provide compensation to the offer receiver in
exchange for labor
– Offer receiver promises to provide labor to the employer in exchange
for compensation.

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 Parties to the Contract
• Employee or Independent Contractor
– Be clear whether the relationship being sought is that of employer–
employee or employer–independent contractor.
– Department of Labor has been working to identify organizations that
are misclassifying employees, resulting in large fines.
• Third Parties
– Examples:
• Employment agencies
• Executive recruiters
• Professional agent for an athlete or an executive.
– Employers have to be careful because virtually any employee could
suggest and agree to contract terms.

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 Form of the Contract
• Written Contracts
– A letter of offer and acceptance, a statement on a job application blank,
internal job posting notices, e-mail messages, and statements in employee
handbooks or on websites.
– May be interpreted as enforceable contracts even though that was not their
intent.
– Before putting anything in writing, ask, “Does the company mean to be held
to this?”
• Oral Contracts
– Possibly enforceable: Supervisor (person in authority) says to a potential
employee during a job interview (formal circumstance), “Your work schedule
will only cover weekdays” (certain and specific terms)
– Probably not enforceable: Coworker (not in authority) says to a potential
employee during a meet and greet event at a college recruiting fair (informal
circumstance), “People don’t usually work weekends, but it can vary”
(uncertain and vague terms).
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 Additional Contract Issues
• Disclaimers
– A statement (oral or written) that explicitly limits an employee’s right
and reserves that right for the employer.
– Employer explicitly makes no promise of any job security and reserves
the right to terminate the employment relationship at its own will.
– Disclaimers should be clearly stated and conspicuously placed in
appropriate documents; employee should acknowledge receipt and
review of the document and the disclaimer.
• Contingencies
– Examples include (1) passage of a particular test, (2) passage of a
medical exam, including alcohol/drug screening tests, (3) satisfactory
background and reference checks, and (4) proof of employability.
– Contingencies to an employment contract may be made only within
defined limits.
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 Final Match
Job Offers

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 Strategic Approach to Job Offers

Jump to Strategic Approach to Job Offers, Appendix

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 Strategic Approach to Job Offers
• Employee Value Proposition
– The total package of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that the offered job
will provide to the finalist if the job offer is accepted
– Must present a package of rewards with the right combination of
magnitude, mix, and distinctiveness to be compelling to the offer
receiver.
• Considerations in shaping job offer
– Labor market: offers more generous is KSAOs are rare or labor market
is tight
– Timeline: short term versus long term relationship sought?
– Unique preferences of applicant pool

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 Elements of Job Offers
• Starting Date
• Duration of Contract
– Fixed term (i.e., have a definite ending date) vs. indeterminate term
(i.e., have no definite ending date).
• Compensation
– Flat versus differential starting rates
– Short-term and long-term variable pay

• Benefits
• Hiring Bonuses

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 Idiosyncratic Deals
Category Examples
Tasks and work responsibilities that are  An engineer in a technology firm
specially tailored to the employee's with an interest and background in
unique KSAOs marketing will participate in
marketing meetings
 A salesperson who is especially
familiar with a certain product line
will be given paid time to share
expertise with other workers
 A customer service provider
interested in management will be
paid to attend skill development
workshops

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 Idiosyncratic Deals
Category
Flexible schedules to accommodate
individual employee needs
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Examples
 An employee will be allowed to
come in later in the day and leave
later to accommodate childcare
needs
 An employee whose spouse works
a non-standard workweek will be
given a Tuesday to Saturday
schedule
 A non-exempt employee will have
variable hours per week
 Idiosyncratic Deals
Category Examples
The ability to work outside of the  A virtual private network or cloud-
main office based servers will be used to allow
  employees to access work data
remotely
 Provide mobile devices like tablet
computers or smartphones and pay
for connectivity fees for an
employee who travels frequently
with her family

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 Idiosyncratic Deals
Category Examples
Financial incentives that are particular  Compensate an especially
to the employee and match his or her productive research developer
unique contribution to the based on patent applications
organization  Designate an employee with well-
developed social networks a
“rainmaker” and pay for each new
client he brings in to other
salespeople
 Pay a bonus to a manager with
strong developmental skills for each
person she successfully mentors

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 Final Match
Job Offer Process

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 Formulation of Job Offer: Knowledge of Competitors
• Labor demand issues
– Who are the competitors?
– What terms and conditions are they offering for
the job for which the hiring organization is staffing?
• Labor supply issues
– Offers need to attract number of staff required
– Offers need to consider KSAOs of each offer receiver and the worth of
the KSAOs

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 Formulation of Job Offer: Offer Receivers
• Likely reactions of offer receivers
– Gather information about various preferences from offer receiver
during recruitment/selection process
– Conduct research on why offer receivers accept or decline job offers

• Policies on negotiations and initial offers

– Job offers occur for both external / internal staffing
– Consider costs of job offer being rejected by candidate
– Candidates may be receiving counteroffers from current
employer
– Currently employed candidates incur costs for leaving and
expect a “make whole” offer
– Candidates are sophisticated in presenting their demands
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 Formulation of Job Offer: Strategies
• Lowball
– offering the lower bounds of terms and conditions
to the receiver
• Market matching
– an offer that is “on the market,” neither too high
nor too low
• Best shot
– gives a high offer, one right at the upper bounds of
feasible terms and conditions

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 Presentation of Job Offer
• Mechanical Approach
– Little or no input about the content of the offer received from the
person, and after the offer has been made, there is no further
communication
– Highly efficient and inexpensive; ensures that all applicants are treated
in exactly the same manner
• Sales Approach
– Active interaction between the organization and the receiver as terms
and conditions are developed
– Organization continues to have active communication with the
receiver.
– Higher chance of the receiver accepting the offer; more likely to be
employed for high-value employees who likely have more varied KSAO
sets than entry-level employees.
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 Job Offer Acceptance and Rejection
• Acceptance
• Rejection
– By organization
– By offer receiver
• Reneging

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 Final Match
New Employee Orientation and Socialization

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 Key Elements in Socialization and Orientation
• People: meeting and learning about coworkers; becoming
accepted and respected
• Performance proficiency: becoming very familiar with job
requirements; acquiring necessary KSAOs
• Organization goals and values—learning of the organization’s
goals; learning about values and norms
• Politics—becoming familiar with key players; networking
• Language—special terms, buzzwords, acronyms, and jargon
• History—origins and growth of the organization; customs,
rituals, and special events

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 Effective Socialization and Orientation
• Providing realistic recruitment information about job
requirements and rewards
• Clarifying job requirements, knowledge, and skills to be
acquired
• Encouraging the newcomer to actively seek out information
and build relationships
• Ensuring that managers and coworkers provide assistance to
the newcomer
• Conducting active mentoring for the newcomer

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 Final Match
Legal Issues

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 Legal Issues
• Employment Eligibility Verification
– Under IRCA, company is prohibited from
hiring or continuing to employ
an alien not authorized to work in U.S.
• Negligent hiring
– Workplace torts issue involving claims by an injured plaintiff that
plaintiff was harmed by an unfit employee who was negligently hired
by company
• Employment-at-will
– Involves right of either employer or employee to unilaterally terminate
employment relationship

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