Issues in Human Resource (HR) Recruitment

Issues in Human Resource (HR) Recruitment

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Issues in Human Resource (HR) Recruitment

Hugh Davis Graham’s peer review of The Politics of Whiteness: Race, Workers, and Culture in the Modern South by Michelle Brattain illustrate the extent to which race acted as a barrier in ensuring diversity in labor and employment. In respect to the article, the globalization of the business environment has generated discourses encompassing human resource (HR) issues, especially recruitment and selection. In fact, for international companies, recruiting talent has become rather a significant challenge because of the language, cultural, and racial barriers. The solution genuinely involves deploying a recruitment strategy that addresses these challenges to ensure that globalized firms hire and retain the best possible talent.

Graham’s article covers the core issues covered in Brattain’s book on the role that race assumed in the textile sector’s ascent and fall. A look at the history of the United States illustrates a time when racial segregation was a major constituent of the labor sector. Using this as a foundation, Graham (2002) demonstrates the extent to which race was used to legitimize employment in the respective industry. White racism favored the recruitment of European immigrants while segregating minorities such as Asians and African Americans (Graham, 2002). Institutional mechanisms such as the Jim Crow Laws accentuated the segregation without accounting for the implications of globalization. Therefore, the textile sector was rendered incapable of surviving under the pressures of international competition.  

The premises posited by Graham and Brattain to some extent correlate to the present issues that affect the globalized labor market.. Currently, organizations face the challenge of implementing recruitment exercises that move past cultural, language, and racial barriers. The situation can be attested by the way numerous firms provide cultural sensitivity programs to ensure inclusivity despite the disparities that exist among the talent recruited across the global divide. Otherwise, a failure to acknowledge the implications of global forces on recruitment and selection practices ultimately affects the firms’ capacity to compete on an international level. Consequently, the ability of organizations to evolve into multinational corporations (MNC) is an illustration of this novel procedure.

Possible Challenges While Recruiting for MNCs

Lessons from the failure of the textile sector due to the exclusionary practices necessitate the use of a diversity-based recruitment program. When we are recruiting for a global conglomerate, the strategy should address the challenges presented by the globalized business environment. For instance, an MNC seeking to acquire talent from a foreign country should apply a scheme that enables it to seek out and hire employees that are beneficial to its mission and objectives. However, this would be impossible if the firm decides to apply a narrow recruitment framework that does not accommodate cultural and racial differences.  

Conclusion

The business environment of modern times presents challenges for organizations regarding recruitment of talent as an outcome of global forces. Indeed, globalization has eliminated barriers that once limited firms from recruiting potential employees as an outcome of aspects such as race. Based on the way the textile sector failed due to segregation practices, it is clear that the application of diversity-based recruitment programs could benefit local firms and international conglomerates. To this end, the employment of such frameworks will prevent organizations from succumbing to the pressures of global competition by facilitating the hiring and selection of the best possible talent while overlooking issues such as cultural, racial, and language barriers.

References

Graham, H. D. (2002). Review of the book The politics of whiteness: Race, workers, and culture in the modern South, by M. Brattain. Journal of American Ethnic History, 157-158.