HRES2202 - Recruitment & Selection: Analyzing Downsizing Strategies

This case study analyzes the recruitment and selection challenges faced by a government agency undergoing downsizing. It identifies key issues such as discrimination, diversity, productivity decline, and flawed recruitment strategies. The analysis explores the importance of addressing these issues in compliance with Canadian employment laws. Alternatives to downsizing, including reduced working hours, cross-training, and soliciting employee ideas, are considered. The report recommends prioritizing alternatives to downsizing, ensuring fairness in layoff decisions, and avoiding discrimination based on physical abilities. Effective implementation requires financial and human resources, with a focus on productivity and cost-saving strategies. Desklib provides access to similar case studies and study tools for students.

Running Head: RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION 1
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
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Institutional Affiliation

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Executive Summary
The report is based on a government agency that is undergoing downsizing. It explores
issues that the organization is facing such as downsizing, discrimination towards people with
disabilities, productivity, recruitment and selection issues. The report explores why the issues
facing the organization are important. These are key issues that need to be addressed by the
organization. The report also gives recommendations on what needs to be done by the
organization to deal with the issues. The organization should consider alternatives to downsizing
and only used downsizing as the last option. In case downsizing becomes inevitable, the
organization should ensure that only there is n discrimination in the dismissal process.

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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Company Situation..........................................................................................................................4
Key Issues........................................................................................................................................4
Alternatives......................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6

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Company Situation
The company is Alberta, a government agency that is currently undergoing downsizing.
The facts presented for the company indicates that its recruitment and selection strategy is
discriminative towards people with disability. Its downsizing strategy includes laying off
employees with physical disabilities such as Smith irrespective of their performance rating and
contribution to the organization. My analysis is likely to be influenced by external and internal
factors such as legal, economic, social, technical and economic factors as well as funding,
facilities, and equipment. The key stakeholders in the department include the government which
doubles up as the main stakeholder. Others include unions, employees, directors and the citizens
benefiting from the services provided by the department. The company is a public entity
involved in the provision of government services. The downsizing scenario presents an
opportunity for the organization to minimize its expenses in terms of eliminated remuneration for
the employees that will be terminated; the risks involved include the fact that the scenario has
lead to the elimination of employees whose services are not necessarily less important(Snider, da
Silveira, & Balakrishnan,2009). There is a risk of legal battles with employees such as Smith
who feel unfairly targeted. Downsizing means more work for the remaining employees; there is,
therefore, the risk of reduced productivity (Cascio, 2010). The downsizing move can be viewed
as a positive undertaking however its approach towards its implementation and filling other
vacant positions are not working. There is a gap in the organization’s recruitment and selection
and termination processes. There is lack of an inclusive approach in these processes.

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Key Issues
The organization is facing some key human resource issues. These include discrimination
and diversity, Downsizing, productivity, discriminative recruitment, and selection. There is an
involuntary loss of jobs by employees within the organization due to the downsizing exercise
being carried out. These issues are important in that they can either make or break an
organization. The recruitment strategy employed by an organization can determine the type of
employees available in an organization. With the discriminative recruitment strategy being
employed by the organization there is a danger of missing out on the services of competent
employees such as Smith. Discrimination in employment is an act that is prohibited by Canadian
as well as other international employment laws to which employers are required to abide by
(Dobuzinskis & Howlett, 2018). The recruitment strategy being employed assumes that all
employees including those with disabilities possess equal abilities, which disadvantages qualified
but disabled employees. Downsizing does not only affect employees who are terminated but also
those who are left behind. The fact that they will have to take up more responsibilities means that
the organization needs extra effort in maintaining high productivity. These need to be addressed
to facilitate normal operations within the organization. Some of the impacts of these issues
include involuntary loss of jobs by some employees and denial of equal opportunities for people
with disabilities (Datta, Guthrie, Basuil &Pandey, 2010).
Canada Labor Code governs employment in Canadaode. Discrimination in employment
is prohibited by Canadian Human Rights Act 1985. Employment Equity Act also regulates
matters of employment. Canadian legislation provides for the preference of downsized
employees to other posts within an organization (McMillan,2018).

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Alternatives
Other than downsizing, the organization can adopt the use of alternatives. Such
alternatives might include the reduction of working hours, cross training, redeployment.
Reduced hours
This will involve placing all employees in particular job categories in flexible work
arrangements to reduce the number of hours spent by employees on their jobs. The will translate
into reduced expenses(Hcamag.com,2009). On the negative, it might affect the overall
productivity of the organization by affecting its output. By minimizing working hours, the
organization will reduce its expenses hence the need to downsize.
Cross training
Cross training can also be an effective alternative strategy. Through this strategy, the
organization will allow its employees to determine the actions that they need to undertake for
them to remain employed in the future. Besides, this strategy will also give a clear picture of the
required training and development needs within the organization(Hcamag.com,2009). On the
negative side, the organization will incur training expenses. The strategy will minimize
redundancy in the organization, hence the need to downsize.
Soliciting ideas from the employees
This would also be an effective alternative to downsizing. The company can implement
this strategy by seeking the opinions and ideas of their employees on the current
situation(Hcamag.com,2009). The disadvantage of this strategy would, however, be that it might
not necessarily translate to the implementation of the proposed ideas and opinions. It is

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advantageous in that it will act as a morale booster for the remaining employees. This will cost
the organization a significant amount of time. This would minimize complaints and ensure that
productivity is not affected.
Recommendations
Considering Alternatives to Downsizing
Before resulting in downsizing, the organization should first ensure that it has exhausted
all other available alternatives. Although downsizing might be considered less costly by some, it
is much more costly by the fact that it leads to disruption of business, affects the morale of
employees and leads to the incurrence of training expenses. The Alternative strategies will be
more effective because they will enable the organization to save money and minimizes work
disruptions. This will require both human and financial resources
Acting with fairness in deciding who to lay off
The organization should also ensure that it does not act discriminatively in its downsizing
endeavors. In the case of Marita Smith, the organization should not dismiss employees based on
their physical abilities but other aspects such as productivity. The impact of dismissing
employees because you don't like them may also affect the morale of remaining employees.
Implementation of this strategy will also require effective utilization of both financial and human
resources.
The return on investment for these strategies will be analyzed regarding output both at
individual and organization level. The implementation will require training across all levels on
the importance of promoting fairness within the organization and the importance of considering

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cost-saving strategies. The metrics will, therefore, be productivity for individual employees and
the entire organization as well as organizational expenses and discrimination related cases.
References
Cascio, W. F. (2010). Downsizing and redundancy. The Sage handbook of human resource
management, 334-346.

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Datta, D. K., Guthrie, J. P., Basuil, D., &Pandey, A. (2010). Causes and effects of employee
downsizing: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 36(1), 281-348.
Dobuzinskis, L., &Howlett, M. (Eds.).(2018). Policy analysis in Canada.Policy Press.
Hcamag.com (2009).Alternatives to downsizing. Retrieved from https://www.hcamag.com/
Maertz, C. P., Wiley, J. W., LeRouge, C., & Campion, M. A. (2010). Downsizing effects on
survivors: Layoffs, offshoring, and outsourcing. Industrial Relations: A Journal of
Economy and Society, 49(2), 275-285.
McMillan, (2018). Employment laws in Canada: Provincially regulated employers. Retrieved
from https://mcmillan.ca/files/Employment%20Law%20in%20Canada%20-
%20provincially%20regulated%20employers.pdf
Snider, B., da Silveira, G. J., &Balakrishnan, J. (2009). ERP implementation at SMEs: analysis
of five Canadian cases. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 29(1), 4-29.