Management Question.?

Question

Compare and contrast the ways in which a large company and a small company might approach recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training personnel. Three for each one please.

Answer 1

Having worked in both instances [my thoughts on comparison are in brackets]:

Recruiting [small may not always get the best for the fact they have small reaches to these poeple and pay/ benefits may not be that great, but large companies see larger turnover and seem more cut-throat from people with low satisfaction in their job once they get in]
Small: if it is a family business, they get either family or those close to them. As cash may be short, these companies generally rely on a small ad in the local paper or by placing a sign for help wanted outside. The job description is known, but you will have a great number of responsibilities. Large: watch colleges and universities or people making headlines in their industry- many times gaining people through mergers/ acquisitions or stealing them from suppliers or competition. These people may not know what they have in store as far as job descriptions.

Selecting [although both company types select based on the same principles, smaller companies look to the future and better know how that potential will fit in their corporate regime]
Small: outside of meeting core criteria, selected based on longevity and propensity to play well with others Large: selected based on core criteria, generally tie breaking on 'does person look the part', 'fit for the job'

Orienting [smaller companies rely on management (attempting HR responsibilities) to presnet the employee into the company - stronger cliques may exist which make it harder to adjust, with more work duties, employees may not be prepared to load, larger companies, outside of HR actions, tend to rely on employees handling orienting through water cooler talk and acting out social/ working norms]
Small: the boss tells you what to do, employees may not always be willing to help you adjust due to corporate cliques Large: Rely on Human Resources to handle orientation, employees handle orientating the employees when on the job

Training [many small companies lack training programs and thereby rely on hands on training normally assigned to senior employees. Large companies have you reading manuals or working on training programs, then get into training which is usually done by another employee]
Small: your supervisor or a senior employee trains you on how to do everything, the employee does learn faster. Large: employee reads manuals the first week and then gets tossed into work hands on with another employee that may not have all the answers. New employee may not have grasped all the rules.