Good Example Of Human Resource Management: Hiring And Selection Research Paper

Introduction and Discussion of the Organization

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a most important and critical function in an organization that helps in the attainment of its business goals (Azevedo, 2013). HRM department of an organization performs all the functions and activities related to the hiring of employees and retaining them through the use of proper and effective human resource planning. The major objective of human resource planning is optimum utilization of human resources and to ensure that the organization has most competent and expertise employees for performing the different business functions. Human Resource Managers hold the responsibility of implementation of all the policies and procedures under which employees are bound to function. Proper management of the employees is necessary for enhancing their organizational commitment that significantly leads in increasing organizational productivity and profitability (Azevedo, 2013). In this context, the present report aims to present a detailed description of the job analysis for the job position of operational manager at Toyota.
Toyota Motor Corporation is a world renowned famous Japanese automotive manufacturer that is headquartered in Japan (Cudney, Furterer and Dietrich, 2013). The company operates its business activities worldwide and relatively employs about 338,875 people across the world. It is known to be the 12th largest company in the world in terms of profitability. The company is known to produce about 10 million vehicles annually. The company is famous for producing high quality vehicles through the use of innovative technologies. Toyota has manufacturing facilities in about 28 countries across the world that mainly includes Japan, UK and USA. Toyota emphasizes specially on implementing quality management principles in all of its business functions in order to deliver high-quality products and services to the target customers (Cudney, Furterer and Dietrich, 2013).
Employees are provided special training so that they learn the use of innovative technologies and are able to produce high-quality products to the customers in accordance with their specific needs and requirements (Azevedo, 2013). HRM department in the organization plays most significant role as it holds the responsibility of hiring skilled and expertise people that are able to perform all their business activities efficiently. The HRM system of the company has developed a healthy workplace environment that provides proper respect to the employees and this helps in enhancing the organizational commitment of employees. Team work and integrity are the basic elements of the organizational culture of Toyota that drives it to achieve excellence (Azevedo, 2013).
The company emphasizes on developing good and trustworthy relations with the employees so that they are motivated to give to the best of their abilities for achieving organizational aims and objectives (Fletcher and Crawford, 2013). The quality products produced by the company are due to expertise and skilled employees working in the company that are able to produce such high quality products. These high quality products are the ultimate means of achieving customer satisfaction. Toyota integrates the application of a specific approach in managing its employees and thus increasing its profitability to a wider extent. In this context, the present report provides a detailed discussion for the job position of operations manager in Toyota and illustrates the overall selection procedure required for selecting the operational manager of the organization (Fletcher and Crawford, 2013).

Detailed Discussion of the Job

Toyota is presently seeking to fill the job position of operational manager. Operational manger job responsibility is to monitor and control the production of goods and services. It is the duty of operational manager to ensure that all the business activities are involved in the productions of goods are running smoothly (Goldin and Reinert, 2012). Operational manager is concerned with regulating the functioning of the operational systems and processes in order to achieve the organizational aims and objectives. Toyota mainly emphasizes on producing high quality products through the integration of quality management principles. Thus, the role of operational manager is very significant in Toyota as it is the duty of operational manager to ensure that all manufacturing operations of the company works according to the principle of total quality management (Goldin and Reinert, 2012).
Operational manager has to supervise the overall manufacturing operations of the company right from sourcing of raw materials till the production of final goods and services. The company hires the operational managers who possess a bachelor’s degree and master degree in business administration, management or accounting (Gupta and Starr, 2014). Toyota mainly manufactures automobile vehicles and thus the operational manager has the main responsibility for direction and control of all the operations involved in manufacturing of automobile vehicles. Operational manager has to develop a proper strategy and framework for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational activities of the company. The operational manager at Toyota has to also devise proper strategies for the integration of quality management principles in different operational functions for the production of high-quality products. This is done for optimizing the sales and reduce the cost involved in the production of goods and services (Gupta and Starr, 2014).
Operational manager has to also propose recommendations to the management of the company for the changes that can be made for improving the efficiency of business operations and achieve a competitive advantage in the global market place (Kamauff, 2009). Operations manager has to also work with the managers of other departments in the organization such as financial manager or human resource manager for resolving the complex and critical business problems. Project management is the main responsibility of the operational manager of Toyota. Operational manager have to monitor and coordinate the different project activities for efficient running of a specific project (Kamauff, 2009).
Operational manager should posses all the required set of skills and competencies for managing all the diverse operational activities of the organization efficiently. An individual should possess good leadership qualities in order to succeed in the job position of operational manager (Gupta and Starr, 2014). Operational manager has to lead and direct large number of employees working in various departments for the production of company’s products. He holds the responsibility of motivating them and providing them a proper direction so that they are encouraged to perform to the very best of their abilities for achieving the organizational aims and objectives. In addition to this, proper communication skills are also essential for the operations manager as they have to interact with both the lower level and upper level of managers for coordination and integration of the different business activities (Kamauff, 2009).
Operations manager of Toyota also needs to have good technical skills in order to resolve the problems of the employees working at different hierarchical levels. Technical skills are necessary for gaining an in-depth understanding of the manufacturing process used by the company to produce different component parts of a vehicle (Goldin and Reinert, 2012). Operational manager should also have good knowledge of the accounting and finance as operations manager is also concerned with managing the financial information and analysing the expenditure and profits related to managing their specific projects. Operations manager has to also develop business plans for the long term growth and development of the organization. Daily scheduling and dispatching are the most important and critical function of the operations manager at Toyota (Goldin and Reinert, 2012).
The operations manager is also concerned with reporting daily activities of the production department to the top most level of the management so that they are able to take appropriate decision regarding enhancing the efficiency of the operational process of the company (Fletcher and Crawford, 2013). Operations manager oversees the daily sales of the company and record the daily revenue generated for the company. An operations manager is also concerned with developing the business strategies for enhancing the sales of the company. Operations manager maintains a safe working environment for employees who manufacture products in the plant and develops small teams in the organization for completing a respective task. He/ she is also concerned with developing and implementing productivity and quality standards under which employees have to perform their assigned job responsibilities (Kamauff, 2009).
Operations Manager in Toyota holds the responsibility of distributing daily workloads to the plant managers and co-ordinating and integrating the operational functions of different manufacturing plants of the company (Azevedo, 2013). Operations manager has to also develop good and trustworthy relations with the suppliers and vendors in order to gain the best quality raw materials from the suppliers and vendors. Operations manager has to also conduct business meetings at various points of time regarding the maintenance of operational facilities and to discuss various issues regarding the operational activities of the organization (Kamauff, 2009).
Operations manager holds a great level of responsibility to lead and direct the operations of the manufacturing plant efficiently and to produce high quality products for the customers (Goldin and Reinert, 2012). Thus, operations manager at Toyota has the main responsibility of driving the plant to success by working with all the departments in the company. Operations manager has to monitor all types of resources required for the production of automobile products in the company, i.e., machines, raw materials and human capabilities. The overall production cycle of the company, that is, starting from the procuring of raw materials, managing inventory levels, forecasting, tracking of the component parts, work in progress, finished goods production, packaging materials are all maintained and monitored by the operations manager of the company (Kamauff, 2009).

Steps for the Selection Procedure for the Position of Operations Manager

There is a requirement to follow the six steps which facilitates in the selection of the candidates for operations manager these are detailed as follows:
1. Collection of the Information about the Job: It is requisite for the human resource professional to gather information related to the position for which there is a requirement of selecting candidates as the tools and techniques adopted for assessing the knowledge of the prospective candidate consists of the questions related to it. In context to the preparation of the interview questions for assessing the knowledge of the candidates by the human resource department of the Toyota company needs to have the information related to the duties and responsibilities an operations manager handles in the organization. This information facilitates the assessment of the strengths and qualities of the prospective candidates by involving the questions related to it in direct or indirect manner in the interview. This facilitates in achievement of the consistency between the goals and objectives of the job position, i.e. operations manager and the candidate for the attainment of the selection of the right person for the right job (Jackson, Schuler and Werner 2008).
2. Preparation of the List of the Tasks: After the collection of the information about the job position of the Operations Manager, it is requisite to record the points related to different tasks which has to be performed by the manager in order to attain the objectives of the organization. The preparation of the list related to the tasks that needs to be performed in order to achieve the goal of the department as well as the organization facilitates in preparation of the questions in a logical manner so as to assess the qualities and capabilities of the candidates for performing the tasks in an effective and efficient manner (Heron 2005).
3. Identification of the Critical Tasks: After the preparation of the list of tasks, there is a necessity of the identification of the major or critical tasks that an Operations Manager has to perform for attainment of the common goal of the organization. It is necessary to identify the critical tasks as the fulfillment of such tasks requires special skills and competencies due to which other professionals cannot fulfill such tasks. In addition to this, this information also facilitates in the formation of the questions that needs to be asked by the human resource professional in the interview so as to make the judgement regarding the capabilities and skills that are required by the candidate to possess for the purpose of the fulfillment of these tasks. Along with this, there is also a requirement of provide a rate to each tasks on the basis of its significance of completion. In the context of the job position of the Operations Manager of Toyota, the critical tasks include supervision of the activities directly related to the production of automobiles, management of the movement of different required resources in and out of the production facility and planning and directing of the activities related to sales promotions by establishing coordination with other department heads (Prien, Goodstein, Goodstein and Gamble 2009).
4. Identification of the Core Competencies: In order to perform different critical tasks, there is a necessity to identify the competencies required to perform the selected critical tasks. In addition to this, it is also necessary that knowledge regarding core competencies of human resource department also facilitates in the creation of a better structure of the questions that needs to be asked by the interview for the assessment of the competencies an individual possess or not for the purpose of short listing of the candidates that might be desirable to be selected for the position of the Operations Manager of Toyota. For the purpose of the identification of the core competencies, there is a requirement to identify all the competencies required and possessed by the Operations Manager for the effective and efficient completion of the required tasks. After, this on a rating scale, the human resource department should rate the competencies from least important to most important for the purpose of attainment of the objectives (Jackson, Schuler and Werner 2008).
5. Relate Critical Tasks with Core Competencies: After the identification of the critical tasks to be performed and core competencies required by the Operations Manager, human resource department needs to relate the core competencies with critical tasks for the purpose of aligning both of them. In context to the establishment of the relation between critical tasks and core competencies, different core competencies possessed by an Operations Manager include knowledge regarding the skills which facilitates in controlling the quality of the products in the form of quality control systems such as Kaizen, Total Quality Management and Just in time. In addition to this, it is also requisite to have a competency of a leadership for the purpose of directing the activities of different personnel in the production department. Along with this, a candidate should also possess the quality of increasing the motivation level of the subordinates by maintaining proper working conditions of the organization so as to improve their efficiency and loyalty towards the organization. The consistency between the core competencies and critical tasks facilitates in improving the efficiency of the Operations Manager in order to fulfil its responsibilities towards the organization (Prien, Goodstein, Goodstein and Gamble 2009).
6. Choose Selective and Quality Rating Factors: At last, human resource department is held responsible for identification of the factors by analysing the whole information collected from the corresponding department of the job position for the purpose of inclusion of the questions in the interview to be conducted for selecting the desired candidate for the required job position. This in turn facilitates the selection of the right candidate for the job position for the purpose of attaining of the common goal of the organization effectively and efficiently. In addition to this, making choice of the selection and quality rating factors saves time of the human resource department for the purpose of selection of the candidate for the position of Operations Manager in Toyota (Franklin 2005).

Employment Interview Questions

The interview questions for selecting the operations manager of Toyota can consist of the following questions:
Tell me about some of the tasks that you have handled as operations manager in your previous job?
What skills and competencies do you think are essential for performing the role of operations manager in automobile companies?
What, in your opinion, are the basic functions of the operations manager in an organization?
Do you think that you will be able to lead and direct large number of employees working under you to perform to the very best of their abilities?

Why do you think that you are appropriate for the job position of the operations manager?

Do you possess knowledge about managing and monitoring the financial budgets?
How you will coordinate and integrate the different operational activities of the organization?
Do you have any situation where you had to fire an employee? How will you handle such situation?
How you can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the operational activities of our company?
The above questions can be asked to an employee by the HR manager of Toyota for hiring and selecting the operations manager for the company. These questions are selected as they will help in testing the relevant skills and expertise of the candidate to assess whether he will be able to perform the job responsibilities of the operations manager. The interview questions will help in checking the confidence level of the candidate to ascertain that he will be to manage the varied operational business operations of the Toyota. Toyota operational activities are the core competencies of the organization through which company is able to achieve the customer satisfaction. Thus, it is essential in this context, to ensure that the operations manager of the company is able to manage properly the operational activities and can lead a large number of employees involved in the production process of the company. The above questions can help in selecting the best possible candidate for the job position of the operations manager at Toyota.

References

Azevedo, A. (2013). Advances in Sustainable and Competitive Manufacturing Systems: 23rd International Conference on Flexible Automation & Intelligent Manufacturing. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media.
Cudney, E.A., Furterer, S., & Dietrich, D. (2013). Lean Systems: Applications and Case Studies in Manufacturing, Service, and Healthcare. Florida: CRC Press.
Fletcher, R. & Crawford, H. (2013). International Marketing: An Asia-Pacific Perspective. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Franklin, M. (2005). A Guide to Job Analysis. American Society for Training and Development.
Goldin, I., & Reinert, K. (2012). Globalization for Development: Meeting New Challenges. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gupta, S. & Starr, M. (2014). Production and Operations Management Systems. CRC Press.
Heron, R. (2005). Job and work analysis: guidelines on identifying jobs for persons with disabilities. International Labour Organization
Jackson, S., Schuler, R. and Werner, S. (2008). Managing Human Resources. Cengage Learning.
Kamauff, J. (2009). Manager's Guide to Operations Management. New York: McGraw Hill Professional.
Prien, E.P., Goodstein, L.D., Goodstein, J. and Gamble, L.G. (2009). A Practical Guide to Job Analysis. John Wiley & Sons.