Week 4 Discussion 2 (Chapter 6) Inventories Assignment

Week 4 Discussion 2 (Chapter 6) Inventories - Assignment Example It can be achieved by using radio frequency, bar coding and electronic product codes on item usually employed in the manufacturing of fast food like breads, meat, cheese, oil etc. All such items may be purchased from good suppliers who offer them in notified quantities with coded information (Warren, Reeve & Duchac, 2011). Being different natured businesses, the vending truck and the physician’s office involve only a few numbers of individuals while a shoe-retailer might involve a great number of workers and as the number of workers increase more control efforts are required to escape the loss of inventory by theft and damage. Hence the guidelines might be strict and comprehensive for the shoe- retailer but they may be less rigid for the physician’s office and the food vending truck. An internal control system is required in all sorts of businesses to ensure appropriate management of inventory can be done (Axsà ¤ter, 2006). In order to implement a proper inventory control mechanism, the following suggestions must be implemented. First of all a written procedure and policy guidelines for inventory management at department level is needed. Then in order to fully implement the framed policy, all the staff should be given proper training. Duties should be separated sufficiently among indivi duals having the responsibility for the physical inventory like placing an order, receiving, selling/ distributing and those having the responsibility for accounting the inventory records like sanctioning payments, appointing departments/customers, preserving the perpetual merchandise inventory balance within the Financial System and then reconciling it. However each can install an inventory system that keeps the record of all sorts of activities related to inventory including acquiring, sales, adjustments and returns and it should be secured in a way that any item of inventory may neither be removed

Early Childhood Curriculum Essay Example for Free

Early Childhood Curriculum Essay While being in this course I have learned about the different curriculums, philosophies and theories. In this paper I will be discussing how to develop an appropriate curriculum for preschool children. This paper will include the following topics: the theories and/or philosophies of Montessori; concepts learned throughout this course, how to apply them into an early childhood classroom focusing on the understanding components to design a curriculum for a preschool classroom based on ages 3 to 5 year old children. First let’s discuss the philosophies of  both Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget. Maria Montessori ideas and beliefs are embedded throughout every early childhood program and her influence on our thinking about curriculum has been profound. She was a tireless child advocate and believed that all children deserve a proper education. Montessori insisted that through proper early education, underprivileged and cognitively impaired children could be successful if they were given a chance to learn. She was one of the first to establish a preschool for poor and mentally retarded children in Rome; these preschools were called â€Å"Casa  dei Bambini†, which translated in English as â€Å"Children’s House. † Dr. Montessori proposed that children that are at risk and the notion that society had a moral responsibility to devote resources to early child intervention. Our textbook states that. â€Å"Montessori embraced and expanded Froebel’s kindergarten concept; she felt that children were natural learners and should drive much of their own learning. She asserted that children should be grouped in multiage (2 ? to 5 years) classes to allow flexibility and opportunities for peer mentoring. Montessori developed an  extensive set of â€Å"didactic† materials and lessons designed to be attractive to children and used by teachers to teach specific concepts and skills. She adapted furniture to child size as a gesture of respect for the unique needs of early learners† (Jaruszewicz, 2012). I agree with her philosophy and theory, because children do need the freedom to learn at their own pace and not to be pressured to do what they see other children do. It is also important the classroom learning environment to be attractive so that it will draw the children to be there and learn new and exciting things. In order to use the teaching method, the teachers must be trained to work with all children and understand that no one child develops the same as another. The other philosopher that I will discuss is Jean Piaget. A contemporary of both Montessori and Dewey, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget proposed a theory of cognitive development that initiated a constructivist view of curriculum (Jaruszewicz, 2012). Piaget conducted several experiments with young children that proved that their mental concepts are learned through trial and error experiences. Young children will continue to do  things that they have been told not to do, until the consequence of their actions has been reached. For example, when a parent tells their child not to stack the building blocks up too high or they will fall on them which could lead to them being hurt; the child continues to do that the same thing over and over again to see if what their parent said is true. Once the child has seen the building blocks fall over on them is when they have learned that they don’t need to do that. His work confirmed early learning as distinct from other developmental periods, implying, therefore,  that materials and activities for young children should reflect the idiosyncratic way in which they think and process stimuli (Jaruszewicz, 2012). Piaget proposed that cognitive development occurs in four different stages, three of which occur during early childhood. In the sensorimotor stage, infants and toddlers process experience and begin to coordinate movement through sensory exploration. Preoperational thinking of preschoolers emerges spontaneously, as they are internally motivated to make sense of their environment by testing ideas and theories in play and  exploration with materials (Jaruszewicz, 2012). Piaget and Montessori are the main philosophies that stood out to me in this course the most. Next I will discuss the Core knowledge preschool sequence curriculum and the areas inside it. With strong focus on challenging, but appropriate content, the Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence and Teacher Handbook is unique among early childhood programs. It outlines a cumulative and coherent progression of knowledge and skills in all developmental areas and integrates developmentally appropriate practices for both content and instruction. Using the core knowledge curriculum helps with creating appropriate activities that prepare the preschool age children to learn. Children are always ready to learn; as long as the teacher understands that, each child will be eager to learn in new and exciting ways. It is important for teachers to make sure that the information that they wish to teach the children in the classroom is appropriate and fun. The Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence Curriculum focuses on five different areas: Social Skills, Early Literacy skills in reading and writing, Mathematics, Science and Visual Arts. It is important for children to learn how to interact with other children their age early in their lives to develop their social skills. One of the many things I love about Montessori is that Montessori teachers see the whole child-developmentally, academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. There is a myth out there that says simply placing children in the same room and having them do activities helps them develop social skills. I disagree. Developing social skills needs to be a value in the classroom as well as modeled by the teachers/adults who are around  the children. Using manners, demonstrating what Montessori called Grace and Courtesy and always being respectful of the child are key ingredients to helping a child develop social skills. There are several ways to help expand children’s social skills. The activity that would be used to develop social skills would be to have the children sit in a circle on the floor, pass an object around each child to take turns telling the class something about them. Whether it is there name, favorite color, parents name, how many sibling they may have, etc. When are playing together in  the classroom they learn to take turns, shared things and playing with others in general helps them develop social skills. The development of language in early childhood classrooms is an umbrella for the Montessori curriculum. The teachers and parents consider activities on the shelves of the Language area as the heart of actual language learning. The techniques used in a Montessori classroom are different when it comes to teaching language and literacy. Teachers, parents, and administrators need to recognize communication as the foundation for the meaningful  development of language concepts and skills. Effective communication depends on authentic relationships between communicative partners. Teachers have the responsibility (actually, the opportunity) to develop and expand learning relationships with young children. This is truly the ultimate opportunity to make a difference. Seen in this light, conversations with young children on the playground, during field trips, on the way to the bathroom, in the midst of conflict resolution, during lessons, and countless other times create the context for the development of language skills. Relationships of trust are built between children and teachers and among peers. Classroom work further contributes to language concept and skill development within this context of meaningful communication. It is important to talk children especially infants constantly, so they can develop a strong sense of vocabulary. Children catch on to everything that they may hear. So it is definitely important to be cautious what language you use around children. Printed materials and images are strongly important in an early childhood classroom. These materials make the classroom attractive to  children as well as make them want to learn about what those images and books mean. Phonemic awareness is part of a balanced literacy program, and can be developed in several ways during shared reading and shared writing. Shared reading and shared writing typically occur during the language arts time block, but may also occur during content-area learning. On to my favorite subject any grade level or age is mathematics. In an early childhood classroom, teaching young children mathematics somewhat easy and in some cases not so much. Getting children ages three to four year olds to learn their numbers and one to one  correspondence can be a challenge, but it requires patience to teach the children the meaning of number awareness. Provide children with authentic, hands-on learning experiences-DO NOT USE WORKSHEETS. In preschool you should play to the childrens natural curiosities and look to your students interest to guide lesson planning. You are setting up children for a lifetime of learning and you should create excitement around what you. Also, the more hands on the activity is, the more learning styles you are engaging, and the more the child enjoys it the more they will  learn and retain! Create activities that children are actively involved in learning something new, such as how to count and recognize numbers. Numbers are not the only thing that children can learn that is related to mathematics. Shapes are how to perceive and recognize them are important as well. Teaching children about shapes and how many sides each one has involves numbers as well. Mathematics and Language go together because you are using vocabulary words to decide the shapes, numbers, etc. In conclusion, this paper touched on some important factors to help develop a  developmentally appropriate curriculum for preschool/pre-K age children. It is important to provide activities for young children and make sure the environment is a positive, warm and inviting one that children will want to come to school and learn new things. In this paper I discussed the standards for each core knowledge area to develop an appropriate curriculum for young children. References Jaruszewicz, C. (2012). Curriculum and Methods for Early Childhood Educators. In C. Jaruszewicz, Curriculum and Methods for Early Childhood Educators. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education.

Leadership Case Study: Oticon

Leadership Case Study: Oticon A range of materials have detailed the various approaches to leadership, development of leadership and its management competency structure in a number of organizations. The information provided here is intended to communicate to the readers and markers whether or not actions, activities, and behaviors of Oticon and its President meet entrepreneurial texts. This paper also shows the different kinds of strategies adopted by a leader to help maximize the success of a business. Leadership as a complex process that concerns the extent to which a set of standards, qualities and or competencies can capture the nature that makes some leaders and organizations thrive and others unproductive (Burns, 1978). In Oticon, the political, structural, and cultural obstacles that are present in many organizations have not been a problem or hindrance to the company in obtaining its set objectives. Oticon has been able to meet its objectives because the leaders are aware of these hindrances and have come up with appropriate solutions to overcome them completely (Hofstede, 1977). Leadership style is the manner of directing, implementation of plans, and motivation of individuals in an organization. There are a number of theories that have been discussed to show their effectiveness in the organization. Power in Oticons leadership style has been streamlined to all managers. They have shown that change is good, but one should take note of the power source which greatly impacts the growth of the business and attainment of organizational goals and objectives. Power in this case leads us to understanding the importance of leadership roles in the organization. In the conclusion, we see the appropriateness of the leadership style used in Oticon Company (Yukl, 1989). Managing versus leading Leadership ensures that the organization and all the stakeholders do the right thing. It has the authority to set direction, make decisions, and create different policies. They also have the responsibility of ensuring that the organization is well managed, resources available are associated with expectations, and that they are operating within the legal and ethical boundaries stipulated. Management on the other hand, assures that the staff and volunteers of that organization follow to the latter the direction that has been set by the boards of directors and do things right. This is achieved through the use of strategic plans that relate to the operational plans which are later presented to the board to explain to them how well the operational plans have been implemented. The management ensures that the board understands the presented data (Vroom and Yetton, 1973). Lars Kolind displays to his managers and staff certain emotions which have enabled most of them understand and fully accommodate the feelings of others. His high emotional intelligence (EI) has vastly contributed to his role of instilling change in others working in his organization. For those with anger, enjoyment, love, and sadness while working, he has motivated them which have seen to the growth of the business. In the case study, we see that before using the disorganized organization strategy the profits obtained were very low. However, when Oticon started using it, more profits were obtained in a very short period of time. This was achieved by considering the emotional intelligence of its workers who were not sure of how effective the leadership style would help the organization obtain its objectives effectively. These attributes do transfer to leaders outside the business sphere for example, if one is always angry and sad, no one will be able to freely socialize with him/her f or fear of being assaulted. Those filled with fear cannot be able to do anything for their own not even engaging in any business. Leadership functions Effective leadership of change means that, when the leader uses new methods of administration to achieve the desired goals, the staff and managers should accept and implement them fully. The contingency or situational school of thought indicates that the style to be used is dependent on factors such as the situation, the people, the task, the organization, and other variables of the environment (Fiedler, 1967). Fielders contingency model is a theory under the situational school of thought that clearly postulates that managers do not have a single way that can be described as best for leading the organization. Situations will be the ones creating the different style requirements for managers. The best solution accorded for a managerial situation is conditional on the factors that encroach on the situation. For example, in Oticon, repetitive mechanical tasks have become a norm to the workers (dynamic environment), thus a more flexible, participative leadership style has been used. The leader-member relation is good because both the managers and employees relate with each other on a regular basis. The task is unstructured, but the power position is still maintained (Sims and Lorenzi, 1992) Variables of the environment can be measured by using favorable or unfavorable terms depending on the task oriented style. Managers do reshape their environmental variables to suit their leadership styles. Leader-member relations are the amount of devotion, reliability, and employee support received by the leaders. In an unfavorable relationship, the task is unstructured and the leader has possession of limited authority. Position power is measured with the amount of authority the manager sees that has been given to him or her by the organization for the sole purpose of directing, rewarding, and punishing those subordinates who fail to adhere to the rules and regulations stipulated. Positioning of power of managers depends on decreasing the favorable and increasing the unfavorable power of decision making of the employees of the organization (Clegg, 1975). Relationship-motivated style builds interpersonal relations and extends extra help for team work development in the organization. The task- motivated style leader has delight and fulfillment in accomplishment of the task at hand. Oticon Company sees to it that the satisfaction of the customer has been achieved; the company has established a good image which has seen to the increase of the sales record, and has outperformed its competitors. Leadership theories have developed from Great Man and Trait theories to Transformational leadership. These early theories focused mainly on the characteristics and behaviors of leaders who have achieved success, while the modern theories put into consideration the role of followers and the contextual nature of those leading an organization (Hersey and Blanchard, 1977). Transformational leaders have displayed behaviors that are linked to five basic styles of transformation: Idealized behaviors (living on ones ideals), Inspirational motivation where leaders inspire others, Intellectual stimulation where others are being stimulated, Individualized considerations that deals with coaching and development of individuals, Idealized attributes which include respecting, trusting, and having faith in others. These leaders are proactive in many unique ways. They optimize on development which includes the maturation of ability, motivation, attitudes, and values of the organization (Likert, 1961). Transformational leadership is the approach taken by most leaders in creating a shared vision, develop and coach employees who will become future leaders, encourage innovation in others in the organization, and act with high ethical standards and integrity (Bass Avolio 1994). Dispersed leadership is an informal, emergent, or dispersed leadership where the leaders role has been dissociated from the organizational hierarchy. At all levels of the organizations, individuals have been given the power to exert leadership influence over their workmates hence influence the leadership of the organization. Oticon is a good example. The tasks of the managers have been restructured. A charismatic leader is based on self-belief where people follow others whom they admire (Gordon, 1998). This method of leadership is not a good way of conceptualizing leaders since there are those who dont have the charisma of attracting individuals but are admired. Leaders do not perform their roles. Their concent ration drifts to pleasing individuals at the expense of attaining the organizational goals. Leaders functions from the above with regard to change addresses the need for the leaders to inspire employees rather than direct them, involve them in decision making rather than divide, encourage diversity and challenging methods rather than accept the old routine that was being used, encouraging employees to think widely, trust in the projects they come up with and support them, and commitment of the leaders in ensuring that their projects are carried out effectively by the organization by providing them with the resources they require are just a few of the functions (Bass, 1985). Leadership Roles Oticon Company is different from other existing companies since they instilled change in the workplace for the better by using a different kind of leadership style in leading and managing the organization. In creating a vision for the organization, I will bear in mind the objectives of the organization which are of importance when stipulating the vision. If one does not put it into consideration, the goals and objectives of the organization may not be attained in time. Teams have managed to access shared information that has helped in lifting the performance of the organization, but in places like banks and hospitals, such freedom has been minimized to the leaders only since this will bring about confusion in the organization as it deals with very sensitive matters (Daft, 2002). Substantive actions and results of management concerning changing the decision making patterns are the decisions that largely result from external constraints and power-dependence. Symbolic action (expressive) is where management uses symbols and political language in legitimizing and rationalizing the policies and decisions of the organization. The effect of symbolic action is participatory decision-making that reflects the occurrence taking place in the current world (Bennis and Goldsmith, 1997). Oticon Company workers should be given training and education programs that relate to substantial change that is bound to come their way in the next financial year if need arises. Many organizations that try to impose change on the organization end up failing to meet the targets they intend to achieve since the workers are against the form of change being imposed on them. The structure of the organization was changed and needed to be communicated to the workers so that they can be aware of how activities are being conducted in the new organization (Byrd, 1987). By communicating to the workers, the leaders were presenting them with the new responsibilities accorded to them by the President of the Company. Redesigning of the jobs enabled the organization to have a high quality of work performance since the needs and capabilities of the employees were fully met. Face-to-face dialogue of the management (Campbell, 1970) and employee made communication effective and thus they related on a very common ground that enabled them to exchange ideas and information easily without being distorted at any given time. Not specifying the workstations made it possible for all the workers to mingle and get to know each other well, this contributed greatly to the cohesion that existed among them (Belbin,1993). The idea of projects made employees more active in the activities of the company and thus they aimed at maximizing profits and satisfying the customers whom they served. Developmental change has been able to reinforce the need for incremental change orientation process because it is people oriented (empathetic). The leader determined that the maturity level of the employees in relation to the task to be accomplished increased greatly thus reduction of the task behavior by the leader had changed and relationship behavior was increased (Bergmann, Hurson, Russ-Eft, 1999). Conclusion Emphasis has been made on the key points of change in leadership as part of the set management functions stipulated, and these functions can be traced back to the works of many philosophers. The functions of leaders in the traditional society have changed due to the shift that has occurred in the sources of personal power (Bunce, 1981). Technology was an attribute associated with the growth of an organization, but it is not the case. The one factor that contributes to an organizations growth and expansion is effective leadership skills used. Emotional intelligence has also been discussed widely. Theories have also been cited to show how the Company uses the leadership style to manage and lead its employees effectively. Leadership roles and functions are also seen to be changing with time bearing in mind that if a leader wants to achieve effectiveness in his work, then change of leadership should be looked into. Several skills and attributes that are desired by most leaders are very essential. Strategic and operational, traditional management and leadership styles have been discussed to show how they have managed to embrace the various skills available for an effective change in a leader to emerge (Kreisberg, 1992). Leadership style effectiveness can be adopted at different levels as discussed depending on the change itself. We are now conversant with the approach to take when situations arise and the type of leadership style to adopt. Can the Concept of Realism be Plausibly Applied to film? Can the Concept of Realism be Plausibly Applied to film? Realism is arguably the most important concept within film theory. Since its inception, film has generally been concerned primarily with facsimileing real life events for the audience via photographing and camera techniques. In the process, the aim of film from its early days has been to realise both fictional and non‑fictional events. As Ellis (1998:38) explains, the essence of cinema has always maintained an ongoing and deep‑seated relationship with both visual and aesthetic reality. â€Å"Cinema as a photographic medium instantly poses its images and sounds as recorded phenomena, whose construction occurred in another time and place. Yet though the figures, objects and places represented are absent from the space in which the viewing takes place, they are also (and astoundingly) present.† It is important not to confuse cinematic realism with the realistic and naturalistic dramatic output of theatres. Though the two have often collaborated and interchanged over the past one hundred years, the reality inherent in plays is inevitably different to the reality inherent in films. Theatre by nature, with its long pauses, set changes and asides to the audience, is inexorably less realistic than cinema where the division of scenes and the pace of the plot are subject to the whim and the taste of the film‑maker. Moreover, whereas realism is a difficult term for theatre analysts to digest dictated entirely by the skills of the actor (Styan, 1983:1) the film‑maker is able to use scenery, music, lighting and architectural design in order to re‑create a particular context or feeling. For the purpose of analysis, the following account of realism and films must adopt a dualistic approach. One the one hand, the essay must seek to define realism within film theory, especially with regards to conceptualising the different kinds of realism prevalent in cinema. On the other hand, it must necessarily look at examples of realism in action to show how film‑makers are able to apply theory to practice in a seamless transition. A conclusion will be sought that attempts to show that the realism is the most important paradigm in not only in film but in all serious artistic and creative endeavours. Although realism in film theory would appear to be a straightforward concept, roughly adhering to the Greek idea of memesis (imitation), the history of film has coincided with the history of modern western philosophical tradition, which since the middle of the nineteenth century has sought to rebel against the classical notions of the romantic movement in fiction and in painting (Stam, 2000:15). This signals that realism is a relatively recent phenomenon in western artistic ideology. As such, it would be naà ¯ve to presume that it has not been (and will not continue to be) the subject of vast theoretical changes. The following is therefore a brief overview of the variations of realism in film that have been witnessed throughout the past century. Early films could not hope to achieve realism on camera until the advent of sound. With this development, film was in possession of sight, sound and context to aid its replication of real life. This facilitated the classical era of American film with classical realism used as a staple part of the Hollywood diet in the films of the 1930’s and 1940’s. The aim was to create spatial and temporal continuity. Classical realist films achieved this via the utilisation of conventional devices for denoting the passing of time, editing devices and the adoption of a strict etiquette with regards to changing from scene to scene (such as camera close‑ups.) It is important to note that this classical ideal of film theory did not seek to exactly replicate real‑life scenes so much as present â€Å"an optical illusion of truth.† (Stam, 2000:143). This, it was hoped, would result in the production of a transparent kind of film, removing all traces of the physical and technical construction of the movie in the process. Yet, by definition, classical realism in films could not bequeath an overly elaborate plot. Rather, the concept of classical realism is concerned with episodic construction in order to convey the naturalism of the movie. â€Å"The structure of the realist film, one that attempts to look at the world objectively, differs from that of the usual narrative film in either being very simple or episodic†¦ Each episode or sequence of the film suggests random occurrences that are typical and representative of the people or environment portrayed.† (Wead and Lellis, 1981:325) Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) is a prime example of this classical early Hollywood realism in action. The movie concentrates on portraying the realism of the American crime era in a way that had not been attempted beforehand. Whereas previous productions had tended to sway towards the stereotypical view of the underworld, Angels with Dirty Faces looks to a depicting a classical realist film with characters that are believable with a plot that rests solely on the human element of the complex world of the American gangster rather than the more idealistic, impressionist view that had hitherto been championed by Hollywood impresarios. The American model of realism has been applied with equal vitality to European cinema where the depiction of another kind of reality has been achieved, particularly since the end of the Second World War. This is not surprising as artistic realism cannot thrive in a climate of oppression and authoritarianism like that which characterised mainland Europe during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. The life span, for instance, of leftist film‑maker Brecht was directly related to German politics at the time. In addition, it is surely no coincidence that the heyday of French poetic realism in mainstream French cinema (where Jean Renoir stands out as the most prominent realist film‑maker of his day) came in the late 1930’s, just before the collaborationist Vichy regime strangled the creative life out of all of the national arts. It is an important point and one that should be remembered throughout the remainder of the discussion: realism is directly affected by t he social and political context in which it is expressed. Moreover, when this expression is denied by law it likewise affects the vision of realism that a film‑maker wishes to convey. Post‑war incarnations of realism were reflective of the mood (certainly in Europe) in the immediate aftermath of fighting. Indeed, after this point, cinema was increasingly seen as the vehicle through which to transport real life to the viewer. This was a highly significant factor in the realism and neo‑realism of the time. It is worth remembering that cinema was partly responsible for the unprecedented carnage of the previous decades with the fascists in particular using film as a means of propaganda to seduce the people into acquiescence. Thus, neo‑realist film‑makers of the post‑war era such as Orson Welles and Roberto Rossellini wished to seduce the audience back into seeing cinema for the positive medium that it is, not the tool of despotic politics it had hitherto come to represent. â€Å"In spite of conflicts of style, neo-realism tends to give back to the cinema a sense of the ambiguity of reality.† (Bazin, 1997:69) In the UK, the concept of realism has been applied to film with arguably greater frequency and arguably a more accurate result than in any other comparable western country. British cinematic realism differs from the American and European models of realism in its strict representation of social reality, bequeathing the cinematic concept of social realism. Certainly, with its bleak architecture and temperamental weather, Britain provides the realist film‑maker with the raw materials for accurately depicting the social realties of modern life. These films are consequently oppressive with a strong focus on the human element. In this sense, British social realism can be seen to be apolitical, though it can also be argued that this can never really be the case. Regardless of such theories, social realism is a highly useful means of understanding the value of realism in movies. The late 1950’s and early 1960’s witnessed a spate of such social‑realist films. Room at the Top (1959), Look back in Anger (1959), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) are all testimony to the introspective path that British film had taken in the post‑war years. Part of the impetus behind this change in direction can be attributed to the domestic artistic world being opened up to younger film‑makers of varying degrees of social class who wished to portray British life as they saw it as opposed to British life as viewed through the eyes of the traditional socio‑political elite. This ‘kitchen sink’ realism was superseded by a more urbanised, radical realism in British film in the last decade of the twentieth century. The major difference between the two is the way in which the realism of the 1990’s was so much more pessimistic in its outlook than the realism of the m iddle of the century. No one film‑maker better represents this slip into melodrama than Ken Loach the architect of â€Å"documentary realism†. (Hill, 2000:182) At this point, mention must be made of the alternatives to realism as a dominant film theory. While European and North American cinema continues to view realism in all of its forms as a highly useful means of social and cultural expressionism, the movies that tend to make by far the most money at the box office continue to be the typical Hollywood blockbuster. These films are defined as cinematic escapism: the diametric opposite to films that rely on depicting realism to tell a story. Blockbusters are increasingly divorced from the social realties of the day with science fiction movies being a luminous example of the way in which cinema and realism are often at odds with one another; an uneasy alliance between make‑believe and the movies that has served to make Hollywood cinema the most profitable industry in the USA. In terms of consumption, it would appear to be that it is not the films of realism that are the most important partners in film; rather it is the non‑real ism, escapist films that appeal to the most broad‑based conception of the public audience. Indeed, focusing on the viewer and the audience asks further questions as to the ultimate validity of realism in films. Although the actor, the director and the producer may all feel that they have collaborated in making a truly realistic film, their judgement is in the end irrelevant. Movies may be made by film‑makers, but the final verdict on its artistic (as well as commercial) success always resides with the audience. As such, it is surely the viewer and the audience who must state whether or not a film is realistic. This, of course, â€Å"involves readerly or spectatorial belief, a realism of subjective response, rooted less in mimic accuracy than in a strong desire to believe on the spectator’s part.† (Stam, Burgoyne and Flitterman‑Lewis, 1998:185) Therefore, in the final analysis, each and every viewer will have a different opinion with regards to whether a film was on the whole realistic or not. No two viewpoints are ever likely to be the same. This is surely the defining reason why films are made: to encourage divisions of opinion and cultural debate on matters that are of relevance to the society in which the audience lives. Only films that are rooted in the concept of realism are able to achieve this kind of debate, which is in itself testimony to their ultimate value to the artistic community. Those films which seek to transport the audience away from reality are generally more concerned with the enormous commercial impact of films in the modern era, not with inciting intellectual debate. Serious film‑makers, on the other hand, will always tend to be attracted to the inherent realism afforded by the technology of film and it is for this reason that it is surely the most fundamental paradigm not only of film‑ making but also of any artistic endeavour that truly seeks to engage its audience in any meaningful way. BIBLIOGRAPHY Braudy, L. and Cohen, M. (Eds.) (1999) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings Oxford: Oxford University Press Ellis, J. (1998) Visible Fictions: Cinema: Television: Video London: Routledge Lay, S. (2002) British Social Realism: from Documentary to Brit Grit London: Wallflower Lehman, P. (Ed.) (1997) Defining Cinema London: Athlone Murphy, R. (Ed.) (2000) British Cinema of the 90s London: BFI Stam, R., Burgoyne, R. and Flitterman‑Lewis, S. (1998) New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post‑Structuralism and Beyond London: Routledge Stam, R. (2000) Film Theory: An Introduction London: Blackwell Styan, J.L. (1983) Modern Drama in Theory and Practice, Volume 1: Realism and Naturalism Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wead, G. and Lellis, G. (1981) Film: Form and Function Boston: Houghton Mifflin Selected Articles Bazin, A. (1997) The Evolution of the Language of Cinema, in, Lehman, P. (Ed.) Defining Cinema London: Athlone Hill, J. (2000) Representations of the Working Class, in, Murphy, R. (Ed.) British Cinema of the 90s London: BFI

Women in Homers The Odyssey Essay -- essays research papers

Homer's The Odyssey Women are important to the plot and overall theme of the Odyssey. In fact, without many of the women there would not be a complex plot to this epic poem. In the narrative and in Greek society women played a variety of roles, as mothers, herons, and many other strong roles yet, they were treated as less significant, and were made to be loyal and submissive to men. The women were required to wait on and sulk for love, as Penelope did for 20 years. In Greek society, the women had very little authority but the little control that they did have was sort of a sexual power, which at times they could use to outwit the men. Obvious examples of this sexual power would be Circe and Calypso. Calypso and Circe however, are not the only examples of women from the text that used this mystifying power. The beautiful nymph Calypso and beautiful witch-goddess Circe had super natural powers, which they each used to make Odysseus their love slave. Calypso had captured Odysseus and taken him to her island, Ogygia, where they had an affair for a while. She used her beauty and she seduced him to control him. Circe used what we would call the â€Å"puppy dog† allure to get Odysseus to have mercy on her and eventually she seduced him in chapter ten. He and his men lived with her for a year. The Sirens, enchanted Odysseus with their singing, their songs put him in a trance, they had this sultry spell-casting power. Throughout the tale, Penelope uses her feminine charm to subtly lead t...

How Employee Motivation Effects an Organization Essay

In the following paper I will identify what employee motivation is, why it is important, who it is important to, and how it affects the workforce as a whole. I will also touch on the subjects of whose job it is to motivate, the benefits of motivation and what actually motivates employees. Through out my research I have discovered many different theories and opinions as of to what â€Å"effective motivation† is, and how it is to be applied in the work setting. This is the result of my findings. The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this the manager should be able to motivate employees. But that’s easier said than done! In spite of enormous research, basic as well as applied, the subject of motivation is not clearly understood and more often than not poorly practiced. To understand motivation one must understand human nature itself. And there lies the problem! Human nature can be very simple, yet very complex too. An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the workplace and therefore effective management and leadership. There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink; it will drink only if it’s thirsty – so is with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on the workshop floor or in the ‘ivory tower’ they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus. Are they born with the self-motivation or drive? Yes and no. If no, they can be motivated, for motivation is a skill which can and must be learnt. This is essential for any business to survive and succeed. Allow me to ask a very simple question: Are you really happy with your job? Or is it just a way to pay the bills? If so, you are not alone. In fact, half of all employees only put enough effort into their jobs, to keep their jobs. 70% of employees are less motivated today than they used to be, and another 80% could perform significantly better if they wanted to. What does all this mean you ask? It means people are unhappy at work, and many overlook the importance of a fulfilling work life. Not only is it important for employees to be content, their happiness is important to their employers as well. Disgruntled employees perform considerably poorly compared to content ones. Motivated employees work more efficiently, producing better products or services in less time. Whereas unmotivated employees waste time and generally take longer to accomplish the tasks assigned. When employees are motivated, they invest time, effort and brain power into producing the best products or services possible. They take pride in their work, meaning they will give a company a better name out in the market simply by producing a superior product. Unmotivated employees, on the other hand, will put in the bare minimum effort resulting in poor customer service and low quality products. Improved productivity and higher quality services and products equal monetary gains for an organization, possibly freeing funds to be used as benefits for employees or company improvements. If employees are motivated, a company will be able to retain more of them. Every time they hire a new employee, they have to invest time getting that person up to speed on the job requirements, integrating that person into the workforce and figuring out exactly how that new person can contribute. Existing employees have a wealth of knowledge about the company and how projects work. They are also already accustomed to working with the other employees at the facility. By retaining employees, an organization can save money and time. Employees that are motivated are happy; smiling is contagious, which leads to a better work environment. Companies these days are offering interesting, sometimes even outrageous benefits to keep their staff motivated. Some offer great health plans, a 401k-retirement plan, or extra vacation time. Others have company parties, picnics and other rally-boosting events. Some companies take their staff out to movie premieres; some engage in go-carting to create a fun atmosphere. Sure, it’s nice to have a company parking spot, your cellular phone bills paid, and free lunch Fridays, but these types of benefits are better at attracting and retaining employees. A free lunch will not magically create a healthy work environment. However, these morale boosters can be steps on the road to motivated employees. The question employers are trying to figure out is, if benefits keep employees happy, then what makes them productive? The problem is that employers lose focus of the difference between high morale and motivation. I am not saying to get rid of the benefits, but get rid of other behaviors that hold employees back. These behaviors vary from company to company, but we all know what they are. Office politics, unclear expectations and being criticized instead of receiving constructive feedback are all things we hate and that hinder our progress. Things like appreciation and taking pride in your work, as well as social interaction and fun in your work, are all contributors to motivation. Personally, I would rather work in an environment where there are no politics, employers are honest with their employees and have nothing to hide, and are committed to the overall productivity of the firm. Here is a list of items that are considered to be detrimental to employee motivation: * Create an atmosphere full of company politics. * Develop unclear expectations regarding your employees’ performance. Create a lot of unnecessary rules for employees to follow. * Plan unproductive meetings for employees to attend. * Withhold information critical for employees to perform their work. * Provide criticism instead of constructive feedback. * Tolerate poor performance so your high performing employees feel taken advantage of. * Treat employees unfairly. * Underutilize the capability of your employees. While some of those are worse than others, they will vary across companies and individuals. Any company that actually makes an effort to rid themselves of these annoyances is on the right track. It just goes to show that it does not take a lot of money to tap into an employee’s natural ability. Here are some active measures companies can take to motivate: * If your employees do routine work, add some fun and variety to their routine. * Provide employees with input and choice in how they do their work. * Encourage responsibility and leadership opportunities within your company. * Promote social interaction and teamwork between employees. * Tolerate learning errors by avoiding harsh criticism. * Promote job ownership. * Develop goals and challenges for all employees. Provide lots of encouragement. * Make appreciation part of your repertoire. * Develop measurement that shows performance increase. With the rapidly changing competitive environment, key employees are becoming younger and with a variety of skills and accomplishments. This means that if they are unhappy with their work environment, they are more than willing to move on. For employers, the speed of business is such that employees that join their company learn so much and become so valuable that employers need to do whatever it takes to keep them content.

Fret and Regret

Case-1 Fret and Regret 1. Explain in detail using concepts from the course what the problem Ian is faced with. Ian has 2 major problems; he doesnt want to use Iphone 4S instead of Galaxy S2 and he doenst want to broke Molly’s heart. First problem is about his personal taste and desires. Ian thinks that with Galaxy S2 he can benefit from extra technological advantages such as 4g, extra storage and computer remote contrale. This shows that in Ian’s opinion Galaxy S2 has better quality rather than Iphone 4S. Another reason about Ian’s preferance is Galaxy S2 has bigger screen.So in his opinion Galaxy S2 is more succesfull than Iphone about designing. In terms of technology and design Galaxy S2 seems more attractive to Ian. The fact is that these two smart phones both have comparative advantages to each other and price is the same. At this point, personal taste becomes important and that is why Ian prefers Galaxy S2. Second problem is about ethics. Molly bought expen sive, usefull and one of the best smart phones; Iphone 4S to make Ian happy. She sacrifised her money and time in order to give perfect present. So if Ian exchanges the phone that would make her sad and her efforts would be in vain. . Should Ian change the phone or keep the phone? Again use as many concepts from the course as are relevant. Ian’s consumer behaviour depends on; brand, his personality, his girlfriend and technology. According to the case if he only considers brand and technology his choice would be Galaxy S2 for sure. But if he considers all of these points and gathers more information, rational choice would be Iphone 4S. For that reason Ian should keep the phone. He didnt give Iphone 4S enough credit and he admitted that he has distaste for apple products; proof of prejudice.Also Ian didnt do enough market research so he has some wrong informations about Iphone 4S’s technology. You can have computer remote apps and extra storage options unlike Ianâ€℠¢s claims. Before buying new products, awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption should be the process. Ian skipped trial and evaluation parts and only paid attention to interest. While purchasing expensive and to be used for a long time products these steps shouldnt skip. Bigger screen and some extra features directed him to want Galaxy S2. But he also stated that these phones are identical in terms of functionality.Ian realised he needs a phone and briefly searched for Galaxy S2. He was in the second step of the buyer decision process. He should have asked his Iphone 4S and Galaxy S2 user friends, get more information and try Galaxy S2 before making final decision. Since there is no time left for evaluating alternatives, he should keep Iphone 4S and doesnt make sad Molly. If he exchanges the phone he might regret from Galaxy S2 and also broke his girlfriends heart. So instead of taking those risks, he should continue with the phone which he started to get used to.

How To Use Suffixes in Spanish

How To Use Suffixes in Spanish One sure-fire way to boost your Spanish vocabulary is to take the words you already know and learn how to apply suffixes to them. What Are Suffixes? Suffixes are simply word endings that can be used to modify a words meaning. We use suffixes  in English all the time, and nearly all of them that we use in English have a Spanish equivalent. But Spanish has an even wider variety, and their usage isnt always as obvious as it would be in English. Take a common word like manteca, for example. Thats the word for lard, a much-used cooking ingredient in some Spanish-speaking countries. Add the ending -illa, a common ending, and it becomes mantequilla, or butter. Add the ending -ero, and it becomes mantequero, which can mean either a dairyman or a butter dish. Add the ending -ada, and it becomes mantecada, or buttered toast. Add -ado, and it becomes mantecado, or french ice cream. Unfortunately, it isnt always possible to figure out what a word means simply by knowing the root word and the suffixes. But the suffixes may give enough clues that in context you can make an educated guess. For the Spanish student, suffixes can roughly be classified as diminutives, augmentatives, pejoratives, English cognates, and miscellaneous. And one, the adverbial suffix, is in a class of its own. The Adverbial Suffix Probably the most common Spanish suffix is -mente, which is usually added to the feminine singular form of adjectives to turn them into adverbs, just as we add -ly in English. Thus simplemente is simply, carià ±osamente is lovingly, rpidamente is quickly, and so on. Diminutives These suffixes are extremely common and are used to make a word refer to something smaller, either literally or figuratively as in a form of endearment. Thus, un gato is a cat, but un gatito is a kitten. In English we sometimes do the same thing by adding -y. The most common diminutive is -ito (or its feminine equivalent, -ita), sometimes expanded to -cito or, less commonly, -illo or even -zuelo. You can add one of these endings to many nouns and adjectives to arrive at a diminutive form. Examples: perrito (doggy)hermanito (little brother)papelito (slip of paper) Augmentatives Augmentatives are the opposite of diminutives and arent used as much. Augmentative endings include -ote, -ota, -à ³n, -ona, -azo, and -aza. For examples, un arbolote is a large tree, and un hombrà ³n is a big or tough dude. Just as the diminutives sometimes are used to denote an endearing quality, the augmentatives can be used to convey a negative connotation. Whereas un perrito may be a cute puppy, un perrazo could be a big scary dog. One augmentative, -à ­simo, and its feminine and plural forms are used with adjectives to form a superlative. Bill Gates isnt just rich, hes riquà ­simo. Pejoratives Pejoratives are added to words to indicate contempt or some form of undesirability. They include s include casucha, a house thats falling apart, and ricacho, referring to a person who is rich in some undesirable way, such as arrogant. English Cognates These suffixes are ones that are similar to suffixes in English and have a similar meaning. Nearly all of them have come to both languages by way of Greek or Latin. Most have an abstract meaning, or are used to change one part of speech into another. Here are some of the more commonly used cognates along with an example of each: -aje - -age - kilometraje (like mileage, but in kilometers)-ancia - -ancy - discrepancia (discrepancy)-arquà ­a - -archy - monarquà ­a (monarchy)-tico - -atic - luntico (lunatic)-ble - -ble - manejable (manageable)-cida, cidio - -cide - insecticida (insecticide)-cià ³n - -tion - agravacià ³n (aggravation)-cracia - -cracy - democracia (democracy)-crata - -crat - burà ³crata (bureaucrat)-dad - -ity - pomposidad (pomposity)-esa, -iz, -isa - -ess - actriz (actress)-fico, -fica - -fic - horrà ­fico (horrific)-filo, -filia - -file - biblià ³filo (bibliophile)-fobia - -phobia - claustrofobia (claustrophobia)-fono - -phone - telà ©fono (telephone)-icio, -icia - -ice - avaricia (avarice)-ificar - -ify - dignificar (to dignify)-ismo - -ism - budismo (Buddhism)-dad - -ity - pomposidad (pomposity)-ista - -ist - dentista (dentist)-itis - -itis - flebitis (phlebitis)-izo - -ish - rojizo (reddish)-or, -ora - -er - pintor (painter)-osa, -oso - - ous - maravilloso (marvelous)-tud - -tude - latitud (latitude) Miscellaneous Suffixes Finally, there are suffixes that dont have a clear English equivalent. Here are some of the common ones along with an explanation of their meanings and an example of each: -ada - similar to English suffix -ful or -load - cucharada, spoonful (from cuchara, spoon)-ado, -ido - can indicate similarity to root word - dolorido, painful-al - indicates a tree or grove - manzanal, apple tree-anza - makes noun forms of some verbs - enseà ±anza, education-ario - indicates profession or place - bibliotecario, librarian-azo - a blow of the object of the root word - estacazo, a hit with a stick (from estaca, stake)-dero - indicates instrument, means, or capacity - lavandero, laundry (from lavar, to clean)-dor, -dora - indicates agent, machine or place; sometimes similar to -er - jugador, player; comedor, diner; calculadora, calculator-dura - indicates the effect of an action - picadura, puncture (from picar, to pick)-ear - common verb ending, often used with coined words - emailear, to email-ense - indicates place of origin - estadounidense, of or from the United States, American-erà ­a - place where items are made or sold - zapaterà ­a, s hoe store-ero - variety of meanings relating to root word - sombrero, hat (from sombra, shade); vaquero, cowboy (from vaca, cow) -à ©s - indicates place of origin - holandà ©s, Dutch-eza - makes abstract nouns from adjectives - pureza, purity

Rpo Challenges and Opportunities Essay Example

Rpo Challenges and Opportunities Essay Example Rpo Challenges and Opportunities Essay Rpo Challenges and Opportunities Essay A research report prepared by HCI Research Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities A Research Study Conducted by the Human Capital Institute for Futurestep Human Capital Institute | Futurestep | January 2009 Futurestep Futurestep, a Korn/Ferry Company, is the industry leader in strategic talent acquisition, offering fully customized, flexible solutions to help organizations meet specific workforce needs. Strategic RPO from Futurestep combines talent acquisition strategy, global recruiting resources, competency-based methodologies and a flexible service delivery model that enable clients to identify, attract and retain top talent. In addition to Strategic RPO, the company provides a full-spectrum portfolio of services, including: Project-Based Recruitment, Mid-Level Recruitment, Interim Professionals and Consulting Services. With locations on four continents and a record of success in securing top talent around the world, Futurestep provides the experience and global reach to help companies turn talent acquisition into a competitive advantage. In 2008, Futurestep was named as part of the annual Baker’s Dozen list of top RPO providers by HRO Today Magazine. To learn more about Futurestep and its complete array of Strategic Talent Acquisition solutions, visit futurestep. com. Human Capital Institute The Human Capital Institute (HCI) is a catalyst for innovative new thinking in talent acquisition, development, deployment and new economy leadership. Through research and collaboration, our global network of more than 130,000 members develops and promotes creativity, best and next practices, and actionable solutions in strategic talent management. Executives, practitioners, and thought leaders representing organizations of all sizes, across public, charitable and government sectors, utilize HCI communities, education, events and research to foster talent advantages to ensure organizational change for competitive results. In tandem with these initiatives, HCI’s Human Capital Strategist professional certifications and designations set the bar for expertise in talent strategy, acquisition, development and measurement. www. humancapitalinstitute. org Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities By Dr. Ross Jones, Senior Researcher/Analyst, Human Capital Institute Executive Summary Organizations outsource recruitment and hiring practices for many reasons. Some may lack the internal resources to address their talent acquisition needs. Others may want to focus on core competencies, or to look for a competitive advantage in competing for talent. Whatever the reasons, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a growing practice. Despite this growth, limited information exists on the trends in RPO use, the specific recruitment practices it includes, and how well it is being carried out. Survey To gain a better understanding of today’s RPO practices, we surveyed 381 business professionals who have insight about their companies’ approaches to RPO. In the survey, we explored current or planned use of RPO, the prevailing definitions of RPO, recruiting practices and employee levels covered by RPO, the business case and drivers, Return on Investment (ROI), and recruiting practices that create the most effective RPO. Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Findings The survey results reveal several trends about the adoption of RPO today, the definition and scope of the practice, and current and future ROI opportunities. Adoption: More than half of companies utilize RPO. 59 percent of organizations sur veyed currently outsource some or all of their recruiting processes. 50 percent say they will use RPO in the next five years. Another 20 percent are unsure. Scope: The majority of current RPO deals cover selective practices for tactical needs. Among users, the most common definition of RPO is the outsourcing of some recruiting activities for some levels of employees, with 36 percent of respondents choosing that specific definition. More generally, 73 percent of respondents accept an RPO definition that includes some form of selected outsourcing of recruiting services for selected levels of employees. The recruiting service considered most important to organizations’ talent acquisition goals, Active Recruiting, is the second most likely service to be outsourced. However, RPO practices that focus on strategic talent needs (for example, talent strategy development/consulting) are outsourced less frequently. ROI: Strategic emphasis correlates with increased RPO value among respondents. Only 39 percent of organizations rate the ROI for their current RPO program as good or excellent. In contrast, organizations that use an RPO approach to encompass longer-term strategic needs, such as workforce planning, employment branding and competency management, are significantly more likely to report excellent ROI for their recruitment outsourcing. An Opportunity for Competitive Advantage The results of our study indicate a widespread use of RPO to focus on tactical recruiting practices. However, they also demonstrate that those organizations using RPO as a talent acquisition approach to address strategic needs are much more likely to capture the full value of RPO, as evidenced by their significantly greater ROI. The underutilization of this strategic approach today means that there is an immediate opportunity for organizations to adopt RPO to achieve a holistic talent acquisition strategy, increase ROI, and improve competitiveness in today’s marketplace. organizations typically begin using RPO by outsourcing tactical practices first and, with growing maturity of the process, will outsource strategic practices later. Survey results show that those organizations that do move toward a more strategic approach to RPO will reap rewards for their efforts. 2 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recr uitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities RPO in Today’s Economic Environment As of late November 2008, the economic climate is changing on a daily basis. To gauge how the ongoing economic crisis will affect RPO over the next two years, we conducted a short follow-up survey of 86 talent acquisition experts working for a wide range of organizations. We asked them the following three questions: 1. Given the current economic downturn, what trend do you predict for the outsourcing of recruiting practices in your organization over the next two years? 2. Assuming that your overall recruiting budget will decrease over the next one to two years, what will be the trend for your spending on Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)? 3. Would your organization outsource strategic recruiting practices (e. . , talent strategy development, employer branding, recruitment planning) IF it resulted in an increased Return on Investment (ROI) for your talent acquisition process? The responses to the first question point to the uncertainty gripping businesses today - both because of the range of responses and by the fact that the largest group of respondents is the uncertain one. 17 percent believe that their outsourcing of recruiting practices will decrease. 30 percent will not outsource recruiting practices. 14 percent believe that their outsourcing will remain unchanged. 6 percent believe that their outsourcing will increase. 3 percent are unsure about future trends. However, many organizations are open to the possibility that RPO, particularly if focused on strategic business needs, can be a tool to compete during difficult economic times. The first indication of this comes out of the answers to the second question above - namely that 44 percent of respondents are open to the possibility that, even if their overall recruitment budget declines, their organization’s investment in RPO may increase. Specifically, while only four percent believe that their RPO budget will increase, 40 percent are unsure about the future of their organization. Again, while highlighting the current uncertainty about what can and will be done in the future, this result points out that many organizations remain open to the possibility of increasing their RPO budget in the future. 3 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Finally, as the figure below shows, the answers to the third question indicate that strategic RPO may be the answer for many organizations looking to optimize their investment in talent acquisition. In fact, 78 percent of our respondents are either using a strategically focused RPO effort now, would definitely use it in the future, or, at least, have not ruled it out. The fact that 52 percent of respondents are unsure if their organizations would move to a strategic RPO, even if it might increase their ROI, again points to the uncertainty of today’s economic environment. However, it also highlights a silver lining - that a vast majority of businesses will remain open to the idea of increasing investment in RPO in general, and strategic RPO in particular, if it helps them compete in the complex environmental climate of the future. Would you outsource strategic recruiting practices if it increased your talent acquisition ROI? Unsure Yes Already use strategic RPO No 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 4 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities I. Talent Acquisition and RPO - The Current State Facing increasing competition for talent and the current economic downturn, many organizations are focusing limited resources on core business needs. As a result, they are outsourcing many key recruiting processes (see Figure 1), fueling the growing trend for services and solutions in the market known as Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO). During August and September 2008, we surveyed and interviewed a wide range of HR professionals, from many types of organizations, to determine: The current state and successes of RPO Figure 1. Does your organization outsource some of its recruiting process? The challenges and opportunities facing RPO The best practices and solutions for implementing a winning RPO program 5% Yes No Unsure/Dont Know 50% 75% n 220 147 8 percent 59% 39% 2% n=375 Defining RPO What talent acquisition activities are organizations referring to when they say they use RPO? Our study found a general consensus that RPO is the selective outsourcing of some recruiting activities. Results reveal that 73 percent of responding organizations believe that RPO is the outsourcing of some or most recruiting processes, while only 1 6 percent define RPO as the outsourcing of all recruiting activities for, at least, some levels of employees1 (see Figure 2). Clearly, there is no consensus on the scope of RPO, but the widespread application of RPO on a limited basis suggests a current emphasis on tactical considerations, even though many of our write-in responses suggest a need for a more holistic strategic approach. 5 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 2. What best describes your understanding of RPO? 5% Outsourcing ALL aspects of the recruiting process for ALL levels of employees Outsourcing ALL aspects of the recruiting process for MOST levels of employees Outsourcing ALL aspects of the recruiting process for SOME levels of employees Outsourcing MOST aspects of the recruiting process for ALL levels of employees Outsourcing MOST aspects of the recruiting process for MOST levels of employees Outsourcing MOST aspects of the recruiting process for SOME levels of employees Outsourcing SOME aspects of the recruiting process for ALL levels of employees Outsourcing SOME aspects of the recruiting process for MOST levels of employees Outsourcing SOME aspects of the recruiting process for SOME levels of employees Other n=371 50% 75% n 29 15 15 24 44 28 20 24 134 38 percent 8% 4% 4% 6% 12% 8% =73% % 6% 36% 10% What are some other definitions of RPO? (From the 10 percent that chose â€Å"Other†) â€Å"Outsourcing ANY aspect of the recruiting process for ANY level of employees† â€Å"RPO can be an end-to-end solution for all positions, or a service to take over part of the recruitment process, or be confined to just a certain title-type, such as a highvolume title. RPO can be as flexible as it needs to be for what the client wants. † â€Å"Outsource according to current needs of firm - could be any one of the above at different times or economic conditions. Ability to recruit for needed hires varies, depending on the current workload for in-house recruiters. â€Å"RPO can mean any or all of the above options based on business need. Some organizations choose to keep recruiting higher-level positions within the organization, while outsourcing the candidate sourcing, screening and administrative support up to and some including onboarding (full life cycle). † 6 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Why Use RPO? Now that we know how users define RPO, the next question is: Why do they use RPO? It is unlikely that the decision to turn over parts of such a key talent management process (recruiting) to a third-party service provider is taken lightly. To understand the reasons for this decision, we asked respondents to tell us which of the following were their organizations’ reason(s) for turning to RPO: 1. The existence of pressing staffing needs that they cannot meet themselves 2. The desire to concentrate on their core competencies 3. A lack of internal HR resources 4. The high cost of attracting and recruiting new talent themselves 5. Lack of satisfaction in the new hires they recruited themselves While many organizations chose more than one reason for using RPO, Figure 3 shows that three stand out: 1) Pressing staffing needs that they cannot meet, 2) Desire to concentrate on core business functions, and 3) Lack of sufficient internal HR resources to do the job. The fact that â€Å"the existence of pressing staffing needs† is the most important reason for choosing RPO shows that short-term business necessities can be a powerful motivator for action. This is particularly true if those same organizations also lack the internal HR resources needed to deal with staffing needs themselves - another major reason to outsource. The other main reason to use RPO, â€Å"the desire to concentrate on core competencies,† is one example of a driver that is influenced by the organization’s long-term business strategy rather than immediate responses to staffing needs. It is certainly likely that many of the organizations that initially choose to use RPO to meet short-term goals will, eventually, embrace it for its ability to solve long-term strategic problems. However, our results show that many organizations are already making business strategy a main reason for using RPO. Later in this report, we will show how those organizations may also be generating greater benefits as a result of this decision. 7 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 3: Reasons why organizations turn to RPO Percent that agree/strongly agree 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Pressing staffing Desire to Lack internal needs could not concentrate HR resources on core be met competencies Cost of recruiting is too high Not satisfied with our recruits 55% 50% 43% 25% 16% What Recruiting Practices Drive RPO Today? Before determining the specific recruiting practices included in most RPO programs today, we sought to discover which practices organizations viewed as most critical. Figure 4 clearly shows that most organizations agree or strongly agree that all of the major practices presented are important. Even the lowest-ranked practice - permanent hiring services - was viewed by most respondents as a critical part of their talent acquisition program. However, our results do indicate that two specific practices, active recruiting and talent strategy development/consulting, are particularly critical to most organizations’ talent acquisition processes - see Figures 6 and 7. These two practices represent the tactical and strategic aspects of recruiting practices, respectively, and they represent the prime components of an effective RPO program. 8 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 4: The following activities are critical to achieving your organization’s talent acquisition goals. Strongly Disagree - - Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 Active recruiting Talent strategy development/consulting Employer branding Measuring success of recruitment process (metrics) Onboarding Skills assessment Applicant tracking management Skills training Talent research (trends, demographics, etc. ) Passive recruiting Employee offboarding Temporary and contingent staffing services Permanent hiring services Some Other Critical Activities Related to Organizational Talent Acquisition Goals As noted by our Survey Respondents â€Å"Alignment with corporate objectives and business strategy† â€Å"Adopting and maintaining a model of continuous sourcing is not only best practice but critical in achieving effective proactive talent acquisition. † â€Å"Employee referrals- good source of applicants† â€Å"Ensuring our Applicant Tracking System is best in class and competitive† â€Å"Market tracking and employment forecasting† 9 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 5: Recruitment practices most likely to be outsourced (ranking of importance in talent acquisition in parenthesis - from Figure 4) 25% Temporary and contingent staffing services (12) Active and passive recruiting (1) Applicant tracking management (7) Permanent hiring services (13) Skills training and assessment (6, 8) Talent research (trends, demographics, etc. ) (9) Employer branding (3) Measuring success of recruitment process (metrics) (4) Talent strategy development/consulting (2) Employee offboarding (11) Onboarding (5) n=273 50% 75% n 166 135 84 67 51 51 50 29 26 24 19 percent 61% 49% 31% 25% 19% 19% 18% 11% 10% 9% 7% In Figure 5, the talent acquisition practice that ranks second in its likelihood of being outsourced, active and passive recruiting, was deemed most critical to the success of a talent acquisition program (see Figures 4 and 6). The practice that ranks third in its likelihood to be outsourced, applicant tracking management, is also one of the three practices (along with active and passive recruiting) that makes up the Tactical Recruiting group of practices identified by our analysis (see next page: Linking Strategic Priorities and Recruiting Practices). Finally, the practice that is most likely to be outsourced, temporary and contingent staffing services, is also another type of tactical recruiting practice. These results highlight the important fact that RPO today is focused mostly on outsourcing a range of tactical practices, some of which are considered critical components of talent acquisition. 10 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 6: Tactical Practice - Active Recruiting 90 percent of respondents agree/strongly agree that this practice is critical to their organization’s talent acquisition process. 25% Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree Unable to Rate n=371 50% 75% n 195 139 25 5 5 5 percent 53% 37% 25% 1% 1% 1% Figure 7: Strategic Practice - Talent Strategy Development/Consulting 89 percent of respondents cite this practice as critical to their organization’s talent acquisition process. 25% Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree Unable to Rate n=371 50% 75% n 189 141 26 4 7 4 percent 51% 38% 7% 1% 2% 1% 11 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Linking Strategic Priorities and Recruiting Practices Not surprisingly, our analysis showed a high degree of correlation in the value placed on similar types of recruiting practices. For example, organizations that believe talent strategy development/consulting is very critical also tend to choose employer branding as a very critical recruiting practice. To determine if the 13 recruiting practices could be reduced to a smaller number of key â€Å"practice types,† we used a statistical method called factor analysis to assess the pattern of responses from multiple respondents (organizations) to combine various responses into natural groups or components2. The analysis showed that the 13 recruiting practices belong to the following groups: Strategy Analysis: Talent strategy development/consulting, employer branding, talent research, and measuring success of recruitment process (metrics) Tactical Recruiting: Active recruiting, passive recruiting, and applicant tracking management Skill training and skill assessment Permanent hiring services and temporary and contingent staffing services Onboarding is part of both the Strategy Analysis and Skill-based groups, while offboarding is unrelated to the other practices. Most organizations treat it independently from the more recruitment-focused practices. Skill-based: Staffing Services: Miscellaneous: See Appendix 2 for a complete description of the factor analysis method and results. 2 As our definitions in Figure 2 describe, most organizations view RPO not only as a selective process when it comes to which recruiting practices to outsource, but also when it comes to which level of employees to include in an RPO program. Similarly, as with critical recruiting practices, an initial goal of our research was to determine if the recruitment of certain levels of 12 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 8: Which levels of employees will be most critical to your organization’s talent acquisition effort over the next year? mployees is considered more critical in order to understand how well RPO is meeting the needs of organizations today. As Figure 8 shows, 59 percent of respondents say that recruitment of upper and middle managers is a very important part of their talen t acquisition process - closely followed by executive recruitment (56 percent). Clearly, if an RPO program is to be fully integrated into the talent acquisition process, it needs to be used in the recruitment of these critical employee levels. Very Important Unimportant Important Irrelevant Neutral Irrelevant - Very Important 2 Upper and middle management 3 4 6 7 29 101 207 (59%) Executive 11 16 48 71 192 (56%) 133 (39%) 99 (28%) 93 (27%) 31 (9%) Exempt 22 19 1 122 Entry-level managers 22 21 73 134 Hourly 30 36 72 116 Contract labor 36 58 101 107 Contingent labor 69 56 97 76 35 (11%) 59 percent of respondents = 207 out of 381 total respondents calling â€Å"Upper and middle management† very important to talent acquisition efforts. 56 percent = 192 out of 381 total respondents calling the â€Å"Execuitve† level very important to talent acquisition efforts. 13 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Todayâ€℠¢s Challenges and Opportunities II. RPO - Challenges and Opportunities Results from the survey point to key challenges in the use of RPO in the future. The first challenge is the need to address strategic, rather than tactical, priorities with RPO. Three recruiting practices that comprise the core of a strategic approach to talent acquisition - talent strategy development/consulting, employer branding, and measuring success of recruitment process (metrics) - currently are the least likely practices to be outsourced. For most organizations, the strategic side of talent acquisition remains in-house. This may simply be an artifact of the still-early stages of RPO implementation: organizations typically begin using RPO by outsourcing tactical practices first and, with growing maturity of the process, will outsource strategic practices later. Our survey results show that those organizations that do move toward a more strategic approach to RPO will reap rewards for their efforts. A second major challenge facing RPO is the apparent uncertainty about how to use and benefit from it in the future. This uncertainty is evident in the responses we received when we asked people to tell us if their organizations would be using RPO in the next five years. As Figure 9 shows, 30 percent of respondents told us that their organizations will not be using RPO in the future, and another 20 percent are unsure. This last number, in particular, points to some uncertainty - as well as potential opportunity - for the future of RPO. Figure 9. Does your organization plan to outsource some of your recruiting process within the next 5 years? 25% 50% 75% n 188 111 74 percent 50% 30% 20% n=373 Yes No Unsure/Dont know Why this uncertainty about the future use of RPO? The main reasons for this reluctance are highlighted in Figure 10. It is important to note that these particular results combine both current users and non-users of RPO who say they will not be using RPO in the future. Therefore, most of the 39 percent of organizations that are not using RPO now (see Figure 1) presumably chose 14 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities the â€Å"No need to† reason for why they won’t in the future. However, two other reasons - â€Å"too expensive† and â€Å"we have not found a company that can provide us with the services we need† - are likely to be key reasons why some potential users of RPO may remain wary. Figure 10. Why will your organization not consider outsourcing some or all of its recruiting processes in the next five years? Results only include the respondents who state that their organizations will not be using RPO in the next five years. At the same time, it is important to note that 50 percent of respondents say they will use RPO in the future - indicating that many companies are satisfied with their current RPO services. At the end of this report, we will identify the â€Å"best practices† that create satisfaction and value between organizations and their RPO service providers. When it comes to turning those â€Å"unsure† organizations into RPO users, the challenge, for RPO providers, will be to provide them with those best practices in a cost-effective manner. 25% 50% 75% n 95 26 9 14 percent 66% 18% 6% 10% No need to - we do a good job of recruiting Too expensive to outsource We dont know which parts of the recruiting process should be outsourced We have not found a company that can provide us with the services we need n=144 The third challenge for RPO is one of focus and priority. Organizations consider upper and middle managers, as well as executives, as the levels for which recruiting is most important - see Figure 8. While executive recruitment is the second most likely employee level to be outsourced, turning to a third-party provider for the recruitment of upper and middle managers occurs less frequently than does the outsourcing of contingent and contract workers - two levels of employees for which recruitment is considered a relatively low priority (see Figure 11). These results indicate that RPO today tends to be used most for the recruitment of employees on two opposite ends of the spectrum - temporary workers and executives. The final RPO challenge may also be the greatest opportunity - maximizing the Return on Investment (ROI). As with every other business decision, the success of RPO can be measured by its ROI. While organizations use various payment models to invest in their RPO programs, the â€Å"fee per hire† model 15 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 11: How often do you outsource the recruiting of each level of employee? Most recruiting is outsourced Always Sometimes (but we do most) Infrequently Never Never - Usually 2 Contract labor 3 4 86 47 70 86 41 Executive 92 46 79 87 32 Contingent labor 104 51 49 71 43 Upper and middle management 102 58 112 61 14 Exempt 108 85 99 21 9 Entry-level managers 130 81 91 27 7 Hourly 142 82 63 39 9 dominates (see Figure 12). This is not surprising given the fact that RPO is largely viewed by our survey respondents as a solution to address pressing staffing needs (Figure 3). Organizations that are initially turning to RPO to deal with immediate recruiting problems will likely look for a short-term payment model, given the uncertainty of their future RPO needs. However, as those same organizations become aware of the long-term value of RPO (in other tactical and strategic recruiting areas), they will likely move towards longer-term contractual arrangements with RPO service providers, or a combination of payment models (see Figure 12). 16 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 12. What payment model does your organization use when recruiting is outsourced? Note: the majority of respondents who chose â€Å"Other and/or combination of the above† indicated that they used a combination of fee per hire and short- or long-term contracts for specific levels of employees (e. g. , Contingent and/or Executives). 25% Fee per hire Monthly retainer/management fee Short-term service contract based on services provided, not number of hires recruited Long-term service contract Other and/or combination of the above n=323 50% 75% n 169 23 39 25 67 ercent 52% 7% 12% 8% 21% Regardless of how recruiting is financed, measuring the success of the process is critical to determining ROI - whether for in-house or outsourced recruiting programs. Sixty-four percent of respondents say that they know that their organizations measure some aspects of recruiting success (anoth er 10 percent are unsure). Figure 13 summarizes the results for RPO effectiveness, broken down by specific recruiting metrics. Overall, the results display a moderate level of satisfaction with RPO. The vast majority rank their process as â€Å"average† or â€Å"above average† for each metric, with only a few citing â€Å"poor† or â€Å"below average† satisfaction. However, it is also true that relatively few organizations believe that their RPO is doing an outstanding job as measured by any metric. This means that there are definite opportunities for improving RPO effectiveness. 17 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 13. How effective is your organization’s current RPO for each of the following measures of recruitment success? Above average Below average Outstanding Average Never - Usually 1 Offer acceptance ratio Quality of hire Percent of jobs filled New hire retention rate Staffing efficiency ratio Candidate diversity Time to submission Time to fill Cost per hire 2 3 As a bottom-line question, we asked respondents to rate RPO impact: is there positive ROI, or is RPO a drain on the organization? As Figure 14 highlights, the current level of satisfaction with RPO programs leaves room for improvement. In fact, almost two-thirds of all organizations (61 percent) rank their current RPO program as being only break-even or worse. In contrast, only 39 percent of organizations currently using RPO think their program is providing a good or excellent ROI. Poor 5 8 4 4 4 7 5 5 6 7 6 18 16 19 29 17 33 30 65 70 73 73 69 81 86 93 90 85 101 82 89 44 62 55 60 58 37 32 39 23 19 26 17 24 19 18 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Figure 14. How would you rank the current Return on Investment for your organization’s RPO? Note - only results from organizations currently using RPO. 25% 50% 75% n 13 60 82 80 19 percent 5% 24% 32% 31% 8% Poor - the quality of hires and services does not justify the cost of the process Fair - We want the quality and/or cost of the services to improve to continue with RPO provider Neutral - it is a break-even process at the current time Good - RPO has measurably increased the quality of hires and cost effectiveness of recruiting Excellent - RPO is a critical factor in our organizations current and future success n=254 However, to end the story, we took a deeper look at specific organizations that are experiencing the greatest ROI from their Recruitment Process Outsourcing program. To do this, we differentiated between those organizations that are currently using an RPO approach that outsources talent strategy development/consulting practices (along with other practices that our analysis identified as strategic recruiting practices) and those that aren’t - and looked for how their ROIs differ. The results are striking - see Figure 15. Clearly, those organizations that apply RPO to addressing strategic needs in their talent acquisition process are the organizations that are capturing the full value of RPO. with Excellent ROI Figure 15. Organizations that apply RPO to addressing strategic needs are significantly more likely to achieve an â€Å"Excellent† ROI from outsourced recruiting practices. RPO with Strategic Focus 22% RPO with Tactical Focus 4% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 19 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities III. Conclusion Our study confirms the findings of other recent reports on RPO. For most organizations, RPO means the outsourcing of selected recruiting activities for selected levels of employees - the definition used by 73 percent of our survey’s respondents. Given that definition, we found that RPO is an important component of most talent acquisition processes today, with 59 percent of organizations currently outsourcing some or all of their recruiting services. We identified several important reasons for using RPO. However, the two major ones are distinguishable by their focus on tactical goals - the need to meet pressing staffing needs - and on strategic goals - the desire to focus on core competencies. Clearly, most organizations using RPO today are using it for tactical reasons. However, equally evident is the fact that those organizations that have adopted a strategic RPO approach are the ones that are capturing the most value from the process. With 50 percent of our respondents saying that they will use RPO in the future and another 20 percent open to the idea, the future of RPO is positive. For those organizations that want to leverage the full potential of RPO to improve the talent acquisition process, and their overall business strategy, it is critical that they consider making RPO a larger part of their talent management strategy. Then, they may be able to join that group of respondents who manage to more fully benefit from RPO - see RPO Best Practices. What our respondents have to say about RPO Best Practices â€Å"Any organization moving to an RPO should expect to invest its own time in ensuring hiring managers are adequately trained on how to best work with a new system, process, recruiter, etc. in order to make the relationship work effectively. - Manager in a mid-size retail company â€Å"Knowledge and experience in our industry [are important] because we are so niched. Standard approaches just don’t work for us. Our providers must exhibit competence in many different industries †¦Ã¢â‚¬  - HR Director for a large healthcare company with offices in seven countries â€Å"I can buy supplemental recruitment services a la carte to supplement my internal team’s capabilities. RPOs give me an alternative to the traditional outsource contingency and temporary staffing firms. † - Vice President of HR of a mid-size Financial Services company â€Å"[A best-practice RPO provides] good utilization of HR and company resources, good-quality hiring processes, and good metrics on a timely basis. Consistency in processes is important. - Vice President of HR for a large automotive company â€Å"My providers have an understanding of my specific needs and qualifications †¦ [and the] more personality- and attitude-driven qualities that I would like to see in employees. Will the employee fit in with our corporate atmosphere? My providers can key in to attributes that they have learned from doing business with me for so long. † - HR Director for a small high-tech company â€Å"Great communication! † - Recruit er for a mid-size bank holding company 20 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. A report by Dr. Ross Jones, Senior Researcher/Analyst, Human Capital Institute Appendix 1: Methodology and Demographics Methodology We surveyed 381 people, of which more than 50 percent are Director/Vice President or higher, and over 75 percent work in some area of HR or talent management - see demographic breakdown below. The online survey consisted of 33 questions concerning issues related to RPO use, definition, practices outsourced, payment models used, and overall (and practice-specific) effectiveness. The survey took respondents, on average, about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The 33 questions on talent branding were divided into six main parts: 1. Current or planned use of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) 2. User definition of RPO 3. Recruiting practices and employee levels included in RPO services 4. Drivers for organizations to use RPO 5. The Return on Investment for RPO 6. Best/worst practices in RPO For part 6 above, we also conducted nine in-depth telephone interviews with selected survey respondents to gain more information on the success and failure of specific RPO practices. A two-step analysis of all quantitative data was carried out: 1) Standard descriptive statistical methods were used to determine the frequencies and/or means (and standard errors) of the current state and future trends in RPO, as well as variation among organizations in RPO practices, payment models and program effectiveness. 2) Various inferential statistical methods (i. e. ANOVA and z-tests) were used to determine whether there are statistically significant differences in the responses for the various groups of respondents, as identified by the demographic shown on the next pages3. The only significant findings in this part of the analysis were the not surprising results that larger organizations wer e more likely to use RPO, as well as the fact that larger organizations place more emphasis on certain recruitment practices- e. g. , employer branding. 3 21 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Demographic Information Industry % 17% 8% 6% Automotive 3% 2% 3% Banking Chemicals Petroleum Consumer Packaged Goods Education Electronics/Technology 5% 3% Financial Markets Government Healthcare Industrial Products 10% Insurance Media Entertainment 4% 1% 3% 1% Pharmaceuticals Professional Services Retail Telecommunications Transportation Logistics Trade Tourism Utilities Other 2% 1% 5% 3% 2% 20% 15% 17% Position 37% Board/C-Level/Principal Director/Vice President 30% Supervisor/Manager Practioner/Other 22 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. A report by Dr. Ross Jones, Senior Researcher/Analyst, Human Capital Institute Functional Area 23% 21% Recruitment General HR or Talent Management Training Development Leadership Succession Workforce Planning Other Human Resources Non-HR 8% 3% 3% 5% 37% 1% 3% 1% 1% 1% 2% 4% 4% 2% Country United States Canada India Australia United Kingdom 7% Brazil Malaysia Other- Europe Other- Asia 72% Other- Central/South America Other 9% 15% 47% Organization Size 1,000 employees 1,001 – 10,000 employees 10,001 – 50,000 employees 29% 50,000 employees 23 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. Recruitment Process Outsourcing: Today’s Challenges and Opportunities Appendix 2: Factor Analysis of Critical Talent Acquisition Practices As discussed in the main text, we performed a factor analysis of the 13 talent acquisition practices in order to determine: 1. If the practices could be grouped into logical functional groups 2. Which groups are most used by RPO today, as well as which groups are underutilized and provide the most opportunity for the future of RPO These factor components are a very powerful method to shrink the number of variables to a more manageable level and provide insights unavailable with the analysis of individual variables (e. g. , specific talent acquisition practices). More importantly, these groupings often allow us to see patterns in the results that are obscured by the sheer number of original variables. In other words, they allow us to identify new, previously unnamed variables that underlie and drive the variables in our survey. We were able to group all 13 of the original questions into one of five factors (groups) that explained 70. 8 percent of the variation in responses - a very high level of explanation. The results are summarized in Table 2, Appendix Two, which shows how much the original questions contribute to each of the groups. The results of the factor analysis are striking: 1) Factor 1 is made up of all the talent acquisition practices associated with talent strategy, metrics and analysis (numbers in red) that are major parts of a strategic RPO. In addition, onboarding is partially included in this group, indicating that onboarding programs play a role in talent strategy, although not as great as the four practices in red. The clear implication is that there is an underlying variable focusing on talent strategy and analysis, of which the four specific practices are parts. 2) Factor 2 is made up primarily of the two skill-based practices- skills training and skills assessment (numbers in green), with a significant contribution from onboarding. This should not come as a surprise ince while onboarding includes other important purposes, skill training for new recruits is certainly a major one. 3) Factor 3 covers the general recruitment practices. They include the major parts of any tactically driven RPO progr am and consist of the active and passive recruiting practices, as well as the associated applicant tracking management practice (numbers in blue). 4) Factor 4 includes the two specific hiring services- permanent hiring and temporary/contingent staffing (numbers in pink). This provides evidence that organizations tend to deal with their permanent and temporary hiring needs in a coordinated fashion- a positive approach to take! ) Factor 5 consists entirely of the employee offboarding practice (in orange) and indicates that most organizations do not integrate this practice with their more recruiting-specific practices. 24 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved. A report by Dr. Ross Jones, Senior Researcher/Analyst, Human Capital Institute Appendix 2: Table 1. Factor Analysis of 13 talent acquisition practices to determine recruitment practice groups. The larger the absolute value of the number in each box (the closer it is to 1 or -1), the more important it is to the creation of each group. Factor 1 Talent strategy development/consulting Employer branding Talent research (trends, demographics, etc. Measuring success of recruitment process (metrics) Skills training Skills assessment Onboarding Active recruiting Passive recruiting Applicant tracking management Permanent hiring services Temporary and contingent staffing services Employee offboarding Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization a. Rotation converged in six iterations . 753 . 736 . 770 . 641 . 220 . 254 . 446 . 208 . 165 . 228 . 225 -. 073 . 071 2 . 241 . 172 . 139 . 244 . 858 . 868 . 513 . 190 -. 072 . 240 . 002 . 051 . 147 3 . 138 . 185 . 167 . 350 . 107 . 088 . 195 . 743 . 811 . 661 . 011 . 141 . 092 4 -. 015 . 003 . 197 . 052 . 003 . 062 . 021 . 133 -. 016 . 118 . 804 . 850 . 152 5 -. 095 . 189 -. 023 . 224 . 174 -. 017 .316 -. 051 . 048 . 224 . 154 . 016 . 916 25 Copyright  © 2009 Human Capital Institute. All rights reserved.