Dakotta.com

In order to maximize employee productivity and ensure seamless employee succession, a reliable communications link must be established between those working in a recruiting capacity and those who comprise the project teams in their entirety. That link must come in the form of a dedicated Program Manager in Human Resources. I have the technical, managerial, and communications skills necessary to make that happen.

Is Amazon.com next?

Many companies face an organizational “disconnect” between project teams and their respective recruiting personnel. As it stands, ineffective and inefficient communication between the groups is hampering employee productivity and contributing to an overall climate ill-suited to efficient team-based operations and adequate employee succession. It goes without saying that conditions like these detract from departmental performance and profitability in the long run.

Why? The highly specific (and forever changing) needs of the individual teams are not being identified, evaluated, and articulated as efficiently as they should be – both on the inside and vis-à-vis those working in a recruiting capacity. Moreover, the intentions, motivations, and operational concerns of each recruiting team are not being made known to their relative project teams. Thus, what must be a seamless communicative relationship is now replete with misunderstanding, misdirection, and misinformation.

As I see it, this communication breakdown – and the subsequent losses in terms of employee productivity – is less a product of individual personalities and/or unfulfilled employment responsibilities and more a product of an organizational structure that needs adjustment and continuous management; it is, therefore, systemic as opposed to episodic.

THE PROPOSED RESOLUTION

The resolution lies not only in the clarification of existing roles and responsibilities, but in the creation of a specialized position with a mandate to effectively bridge the communications gap between each of the project teams and their respective recruiting teams. By making this a specialized role in and of itself, we can ensure that the process of identifying and evaluating needs receives the attention they deserve, especially if a productive and efficient relationship is to exist between dozens of individual teams and those responsible for fulfilling their staffing needs. Moreover, this ensures that each and every step of the recruiting process – from the initial identification of team needs to the final introduction of a new team member – is properly evaluated and documented for immediate and future reference.

As it stands, recruiting personnel are alleged to be the primary conduits through which the needs and concerns of the project teams are channeled and/or taken into consideration for recruiting purposes. However, the sheer volume of work that is required to ensure that each teams’ needs are being properly defined, evaluated, prioritized, and communicated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis is often beyond the capacity of those working in recruiting. Moreover, recruiting teams do not have the time or resources to monitor that team managers are following the proper procedures for initiating the recruitment process. This is especially the case when recruiters are faced with the enormous task of filling in excess of 20 positions per month.

The creation of a specialized PMHR does not reflect the needless “hair-splitting” of existing roles and responsibilities but, rather, the addition of an essential component in what is now an organizational system that is missing a fundamental communications link.

Roles and Responsibilities:

The specialized and (entirely exclusive) roles and responsibilities of this full-time position would include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Attending all project team meetings, in a unified messaging capacity, to carry out in-depth evaluations and consultations with individual team members, management, and HR generalists while working to clearly isolate, define, and record present and future team needs.

• Routine consultations with project management staff to ensure that all documentation relating to recruitment is being completed and submitted properly. Additional instruction and clarification would be provided if necessary.

• Routine meetings with recruitment staff in order to keep them up to date on the needs and status of each project team while, at the same time, identifying and recording their concerns and intended courses of action.

• Carrying out systematic follow-up evaluations with project teams after new positions are filled so as to evaluate the extent to which needs were/are being met. Data gathered from these evaluations would be compiled and relayed back to those in charge of recruiting in a systematic and efficient fashion. (The systematic relay of this information will also help off-set the disorganization that ensues when internal transfers generate discontinuity within recruiting operations.)

• Developing and monitoring trends across teams with an eye toward identifying emergent, broad-based, recruiting needs. These trends would be elaborated upon in quarterly “needs assessment” reports made available to those working in a managerial capacity; whether it be those in Recruiting, Human Resources, or inside the project teams.

• Conduct ongoing research relating to recruitment procedures being conducted outside of AMAZON.COM to appropriate and implement the most innovative ideas. This task would involve networking with other recruiting departments in companies currently operating in the same or similar fields and presenting those findings to management.

BENEFITS TO AMAZON.COM

This position is fundamentally about streamlining the recruitment process at Amazon.com. By improving communications, this position advocates that organizational needs are efficiently translated into action and that, subsequently, those hired for new positions are ideally suited for the task at hand. In the end, this translates into: (1) reduced training costs, (2) procedural efficiency, (3) reduced employee turn-over, and (4) employee empowerment and satisfaction. It goes without saying that a well structured and streamlined recruitment process is invaluable to any corporation: a recruitment facilitator will maintain that is the case here at AMAZON.COM.

SUITABILITY

I have experienced first-hand, the strengths and weaknesses of many recruiting systems and believe that my experience will only benefit the corporation in this new capacity. As such, I have the necessary insight and best practices as my disposal to ensure this position makes a worthwhile contribution to the organization as a whole.

It is without hesitation that I can say I am ideally suited to fill this position on a full-time basis. Given my 6 years of managerial and recruiting experience across various business environments (technology, sales, and HR), I am confident that I have the organizational and interpersonal skills necessary to effectively solicit and communicate the needs of each project team.

When combined with my advanced skills in recruiting, organizational process development, software design, training, and evaluations I am confident that I can design, implement, and maintain a system that will effectively bridge the existing gap between those in recruiting and project teams while at the same time contributing to a stronger and more productive team atmosphere.

FINAL REMARKS

The organizational and communicative limitations described above will require constant attention and care if they are to be rectified. The solution, as I see it, is not a temporary adjustment but, rather, a permanent organizational change to the way things currently operate. As a PMHR, I believe, will fulfill that need amicably.

An ongoing opportunity to contribute to Amazon.com’s operations in this capacity is of the utmost importance to me. This being the case, should you have any questions or concerns about this proposal, be sure to contact me at any time. I would be happy to clarify and expand upon what I have written here.