Recruitment Plan

Recruitment Plan

Susan Martinez

Human Resource Management 565

H. Glyn Jordan

March 26, 2007

Executive Summary

HR personnel in the aerospace and defense industry are faced with a higher demand for aerospace and defense employees that can adequately be met with existing resources, which creates human capital issues related to the strategic goals of his or her organization. A sound recruitment and retention plan can mitigate the issues and challenges that might have negative implications to the organization. A division (sectors) of the aerospace and defense industry provides the HRM with insight to the number of who, what, and where human capital is required.

According to the Aerospace and Defense Industry survey results for 2005, the industry believes that there is a 66% current labor shortage, 87.6% believe that the industry will suffer a labor shortage over the next five-years, and 93.7% of the industry perceive a labor shortage within ten-years. In addition, the aerospace and defense industry disciplines, which are perceived to be in the greatest shortage over the next five-years includes aero/mechanical engineers (29.9%), software engineers (28.8%), and skilled trades (21.4%).

A sound recruitment and retention strategy will mitigate the HR issues and challenges faced by the aerospace and defense industry, as well as keep the company productive and profitable.

Recruitment Plan

The aerospace and defense industry is expected to continue growing, thus a "successful recruitment program is increasingly vital and will require the tenacious preparation of two components: a strategic recruitment plan and an annual recruitment and retention plan" (Hart, 2006, Pp. 1).

Major aerospace and defense companies maintains a recruitment plan, which forecasts a minimum of three to five years into the future, and provides copious amounts of facts and data to substantiate the projections. A recruitment and retention plan consists of current as well as future requirements, which is based on past and present issues, trends, and data.

At Boeing, upper management, in conjunction with respective human resource personnel, take a proactive position to collect, assess, and report industry issues, trends, and challenges as each relates to current as well as future human resource needs.

HR Challenges

As technology and globalization continue to infiltrate businesses at lightening speed, the aerospace and defense industry faces human resource challenges much like other industries. The importance of a proactive recruitment and retention strategy to attract highly skilled workers is essential to the continued successes in leading-edge technology and product development in the aerospace and defense industry.

If HR personnel are to understand the current as well as future human resource requirements, there has to be a clear understanding of how the aerospace and defense industry is divided. Figure 1 shows a breakdown by industry sector, which is one tool HR uses to determine future human resource requirements.

Figure 1: Organizations and A&D segments

Source: 2005 Aerospace & Defense Industry Survey

Other HR challenges companies in the aerospace and defense industry face is the ability to maintain a highly skilled workforce, while keeping current with the changing state demographics, which shows an increase in limited and non-English speaking population. In addition, the ability of the industry to transfer the knowledge from the experienced workers to the next generation of workers, in conjunction with the rapidly changing technology trends, creates challenges to both the industry and academic institutions.

HR personnel can collaborate between the aerospace and defense industry and specific academic institutions to improve processes, commercialization, and research. HR could target lower grade levels by identifying specific career opportunities and promoting the benefits for students to follow those careers. In addition, HR can work together with upper management to increase the number of trade schools, internships, and apprenticeship programs.

Dynamics of HR Operations

The how, what, when, where, and why of human capital in an organization, as well as the methods used by the HR personnel address each might be considered the dynamics of the HR operation.

The identification and development of leadership talent is one process for an organization reach and sustain positive governance. HR plays an active role to ensure that an organization operates with a stable, productive workforce by establishing and using leading practices in the acquisition, development, and retention of top people. HR personnel are proactive in the optimization of a company's intellectual capital and developing empowered employees' talent with the use of high impact learning, and knowledge management programs.

Recruitment Planning Processes

The goals behind developing a recruitment planning process is to identify and attract the best qualified applicants for the position, and to support affirmative action efforts by targeting underrepresented groups. The HR representative has an obligation to make sure that the position responsibilities match the needs of the job being requested, the appropriate knowledge, skills, and behavioral competencies have been determined, and all upper level management approvals have been obtained.

The HR personnel should target his or her recruitment efforts with respect to the type and level of the available position, the current labor market conditions (supply and demand of qualified candidates, current unemployment rates, etc.), and the budgeted funds allocated for recruiting new employees.

HR also needs to be cognizant of how the recruitment process will directly affect the quality and diversity of the applicants, the effectiveness of the interviews, how quickly the position is filled, and criterion used to determine the ability to hire the best person for the job.

Issues, Trends, and Data

Issues

As companies and organizations continue to consolidate, "major defense contractors