Abstract
The plan to expand the operations of an organisation internationally is often met with myriads of challenges such as cultural shock, inadequate capital and inexperienced expertise. Calidad Coches offers car rental services and would like to spread its business operations as part of the broad plan to grow the company and boost its profitability. Hence, the company has advertised positions for site managers who are expected to take over the operations of new facilities to be opened in Belize. The essay also explores a number of selection criteria that can be used to absorb the ten job applicants.
VACANT POSITIONS FOR SITE MANAGERS (10 POSITIONS)
Job title: Site Manager
Job Ref. No. DQ2764
Recruiter: Calidad Coches, Inc.
Closing date: 20th July, 2014.
Site managers are urgently required in Belize to initiate and foresee the operations of a car rental business in a newly acquired site. The nature of the contract is permanent although successful candidates will have the option to renew their contracts within a period of five years.
About the Company
Calidad Coches, Inc. (Quality Cars) operates 14 car rental sites throughout the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. The company was established way back in 1981. Our current holdings include an inventory of 58 vehicles, company operations and valuable rental sites located in tourist centres. Our rapid growth agenda perfectly coincides with a coordinated move by the federal government of Mexico and regional governments within the Yucatan to establish a tourist destination. We pride in offering high quality services to our clients. We have a broad base of satisfied returning customers and referrals.
Tasks, Duties and Responsibilities
- The daily operations of the Calidad Coches will be overseen by the site manager.
- Ensure that safety is maintained throughout the operations of the car rental business
- Maintaining high quality standards in the service delivery to clients in order to enhance customer satisfaction
- Work and plan daily operations within the stipulated budget
- Report and be accountable to a senior manager or management team
- Install temporary staff at the car rental business as the need may arise
Knowledge, skills and abilities
- A bachelor of commerce (B.Com) degree from a reputable institution
- Be adequately organised when undertaking operations at the car rental services
- Articulate in decision making
- Excellent problem solving skills
- Good IT skills
- Ability to work under high pressure
- Motivated, self-assured and strong-willed
- Strong administrative skills
- F& I experience
- Minimum three years experience in a similar position
Interested applicants are required to submit their applications on or before 20th July 2014 to the above address.
Selection criteria
In order to select the most suitable and qualified managers who can take the seven available positions, it is necessary to adhere to a strict selection criteria. To begin with, it is pertinent to mention that some of the vital areas that must be considered in the selection criteria include specific skills required to do the given work, background knowledge, skills, personal attributes and general competences (Schramm, 2011).
Selection of the ten required site managers should be purely based on merit. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the individual applicants in terms of their abilities to perform the required tasks. As a matter of fact, performing the assigned task should be the first issue to consider in this selection criteria (Tyler, 2011).
The applicants should also be assessed in terms of their resilience levels. The successful applicants are expected to demonstrate the ability to persevere hardships even as they pursue to achieve the company’s goals. Resilience should also be measured in terms of the ability of the applicants to cope with obstacles. In other words, the ten candidates should be taken through a process of expounding how they can handle difficult situations that demand critical decisions. For example, the selection panel can pose a number of case scenarios that require pragmatic decisions to be made. Such a process will clearly expose applicants who can competently handle challenging situations (Woollard, 2010).
It is also interesting to mention that site managers of such a company are supposed to remain calm even when under pressure. They ought to accommodate constructive criticism. Capacity to communicate effectively must be included as part and parcel of the selection criteria. In any case, it is not possible for a site manager to handle operations in the new geographical region without effective communication skills. As the company plans to expand internationally, one of the challenges to be faced is the cultural barrier especially through language. Hence, the ten applicants can be evaluated in terms of language aptitude. Apart from communicating effectively in the default languages, candidates who understand more than one language should definitely have an added advantage over others.
Advanced skills in computing is yet another selection criterion that can be used to obtain the most suitable candidates. Successful businesses in the contemporary business world rely on the establishment of a firm Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. Even though Calidad Coches might eventually employ a professional IT manager, it is still crucial for the applicants to be well endowed with computing skills. The ten candidates should be rated in terms of their skills in IT (Tobenkin, 2011).
The organisational and administrative competences of the applicants should equally be considered during the process of selection. However, the selection panel is required to be in a position to assess the applicants practically or through the application documents. For example, the administrative skills of any given applicant can be examined via the past work experience. Some of the applicants may also be holding additional awards and qualifications. These can be used by the selection panel to choose the most suitable applicants.
Team work is an integral attribute of any employee in an organization. Moreover, the current president of Calidad Coches values the contribution of all the employees so that the company can experience expedited growth. Hence, the applicants must demonstrate proven ability to execute roles and responsibilities through established teams. It is not possible for an organization to attain its goals without the input of all the employees.
Customer service skills among the ten applicants should be well developed. Since the company deals with car rental services, the abilities to attract and retain customers are of utmost importance. Calidad coches has so far flourished due to the large number of return customers and those who are referred to the facility. Unless the incoming managers are properly prepared to embrace customers by offering high quality services, it might as well be cumbersome to retain and attract new clients (Jassawalla, Asgary & Shashittal, 2006).
The applicants should demonstrate that they are able to manage large and complicated projects. Since the company is planning to expand its services, the selected site managers will face additional challenges. The selection process should ensure that the ability of the applicants to manage large-scale operations can be proven.
Creation of competency files can equally be a powerful selection tool for the process (Scroggins, 2010). It may not just be enough to eliminate applicants straight away bearing in mind that all the 10 candidates are supposed to be picked for the job of a site manager. A significant effort is required when carrying out assessment of each applicant. Competency file for each of the candidate must be created and thereafter correlated with specific qualities desired for a site manager. All the ten applicants can be adequately screened when their individual competency levels are assessed against the advertised position. Screening questions are formulated after the competency profile for each candidate has been created. It is also profound to mention that each applicant has unique strengths that the company can utilize for the purpose of rapid growth. Therefore, the various screening questions should be designed in such a way that each candidate finds a chance to express his or her knowledge, skills and abilities.
Applicants can also be compared against the adopted criteria using screening software. It is pertinent to mention that such software can equally be used to screen the applicants against themselves so that outstanding abilities are identified easily. In addition, the software is definitely fair, transparent and objective since it cannot favor one applicant against others. Since the required position is the same, such a software can provide the most viable tool for assessing each candidate by offering comparison and similarities. The same questions ought to be answered by the candidates (Adeleye, 2011). Their responses should then be correlated against the same selection parameters adopted by the interviewing panel. Nonetheless, this type of selection criteria can be suitably used when all the applicants have applied using the same channel such as fax, mail, or online.
On a final note, the selection criteria adopted should reflect the needs of the company. Needles to say, each of the applicants can inject a different energy to the organization in spite of the fact that their skills vary.
References
Adeleye, I. (2011). Theorizing the diffusion of international human resource practices: Towards an integrated conceptual approach. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(12), 254-269.
Jassawalla, A. R., Asgary, N., &Shashittal, H. C. (2006). Managing expatriates: the role of mentors. International Journal of Commerce & Management, 16(2), 130- 140.
Schramm, J. (2011, June). Think globally. HR Magazine, 56(6), 156.
Scroggins, W.A. (2010). International human resource management: diversity, issues and challenges. Personnel Review, 39(4), 409-413.
Tobenkin, D. (2011, May). Learn the landscape. HR Magazine, 56(5), 51-54.
Tyler, K..(2011).Global ease. HR Magazine, 56(5), 41-42.
Woollard, S. (2010). Managing talent across a global workforce. Strategic HR Review, 9(5), 5-10.
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