Chapter 315 - Tengda’s Recruiting Standards
Chapter 315 Tengda’s Recruiting Standards
When Tengda was started, Assistant Xin was also the one who took care of recruitment and finances. The administrative team only worked under her.
However, as the company expanded, Assistant Xin became unable to cope. She very smoothly split the administrative team into the human resources and finance departments.
The recruitment jobs and other tasks related to human resources were handed over to the human resources department, or the HR department for short.
“Call Little Hao over, then. I’ll brief Little Hao about future recruitment drives.”
“Alright.” Assistant Xin nodded and left.
Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, falling into deep thought.
Now that he thought about it, he had belittled the HR department before. That might have been his mistake. He might have done this because of some prejudice that he had against that department.
Some people said that HR departments in big companies could be compared to espionage or royal guards of ancient times.
HR departments were often heavily involved in big company scandals, such as forcing a sick employee to retire, firing without giving compensation, and the like.
Although the boss would definitely have been the one who thought about forcing sick employees to retire, the HR department would have been the one who executed this thought. Naturally, they became scapegoats. At the same time, HR departments would pick on people’s flaws and reduce the offering salary as much as possible during interviews. Ordinarily, they would also invite outsiders to run courses for employees and order professionals around. That was why Pei Qian found them extremely annoying. In his former life, Pei Qian was an ordinary employee. Of course, he felt disgusted at the thought of the HR department.
However, Pei Qian finally realized at that moment that he had been wrong.
At the end of the day, the HR department did the boss’ dirty work.
Whether an HR department was good or bad did not depend solely on its staff’s professional integrity. Instead, it depended more on the type of company and boss the HR department was working for.
Heartless companies could make use of their HR departments to reduce their employees’ salaries. However, Boss Pei could also use his HR department to achieve his aim of shortlisting slackers!
If he could train his HR department well so that they could offer candidates higher salaries than they asked for and select candidates who did not enjoy working, wouldn’t they be doing Boss Pei a huge favor?
Thus, Pei Qian decided to meet this Little Hao to impart Tengda’s spirit to him or her and clarify Tengda’s recruitment model.
After a few minutes, someone knocked on the door.
Hao Yun entered the office looking a little nervous.
She was a lady of average height and looks, who looked to be in her twenties. Her face was round, her eyes were large, and she looked like an ordinary employee in the company. She was also much younger than Pei Qian had imagined.
However, this was normal. After all, when Pei Qian hired his first batch of employees, he chose a bunch of newbies without any experience.
Thus, most people in the management level of Tengda were young.
Little Hao did not look as overbearing as Pei Qian expected HR staff to be. He had a pretty good first impression of her.
What’s more, Little Hao did not seem to have much of a presence. Pei Qian tried very hard to recall who she was, but he could not recall when he had ever seen her in the office before. Obviously, she normally blended into the background.
“Boss Pei, are you looking for me?” Hao Yun asked timidly.
“Yes, take a seat. I have a very important task for you.”
Hao Yun sat opposite Pei Qian, feeling slightly apprehensive.
All this time, she had been receiving instructions from Assistant Xin. Now, she was talking to an even more senior NPC. Naturally, she was finding it hard to adjust.
“The HR department is very important. I’m sure you know that. Tell me the main responsibilities of the HR department,” said Pei Qian.
Hao Yun quickly nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei. The HR department is supposed to assess all applicants’ potential based on their experience and merits. At the same time, we are supposed to ensure the working environment is relaxed and harmonious, and employees’ passion for their work doesn’t
die.”
Hao Yun said all of these things in a single breath. She wanted to briefly describe the HR department’s job scope, but since Boss Pei did not stop her, she continued until he did.
Pei Qian remained silent for a while and said, “That’s exactly right!”
He wanted to be polite and play up the importance of the human resources department. However, he had no idea what to say. That was why he allowed Hao Yun to explain her job scope first.
Hao Yun ended up answering the question so well that Pei Qian felt bad stopping her.
“All in all, the HR department is extremely important. That’s why I hope that your department would better understand Tengda’s culture. It would help you to recruit new employees and manage current ones.
“At the moment, you’re shortlisting candidates based on their resumes. How’s that going? What do you think about it?”
Hao Yun perked up.
Coincidentally, this was among her responsibilities!
“We first read their resumes once through. Since we have received many resumes and we don’t need to hire many people, we can afford to be a bit stricter with our shortlisting process.
“First, we shortlist applicants based on their educational background, the school they graduated from, their work experience, their project experience, and other similar factors. This would filter out over eighty percent of applicants.
“After that, we would invite the remaining applicants to be interviewed.
“There would be two rounds of interviews. The first round would be conducted by the department head, and the second round would be conducted by the HR department.
“Finally, we would discuss the starting salary with the shortlisted applicants and select those that can agree with the company on a suitable figure.”
Hao Yun briefly explained the entire recruitment process.
As Pei Qian listened, his frown grew deeper. This was the process that ordinary HR departments would go through. However, Boss Pei would definitely not be satisfied with it!
Most applicants with weaker educational backgrounds, less work experience, or who graduated from lesser schools would be filtered out at the resume stage. Wouldn’t that greatly reduce the chances of Tengda hiring slackers?!
If things went on like this, the company would be filled with hard workers. Wouldn’t Boss Pei have difficulty eating and sleeping then?
This could not go on!
Pei Qian remained silent for a while and said, “The process sounds very good, but… I don’t think it fits Tengda’s recruiting standards.”
Hao Yun looked slightly nervous. “Ah, is that so? Boss Pei, what do you think the process should look like?”
Hao Yun quickly took out a notebook and prepared to take down notes. Pei Qian was very satisfied with obedient employees like Hao Yun. He began to explain to her the employee-selection criteria that he thought about earlier.
“Tengda wants to hire unique talents!
“How can we belittle others just because they have weaker educational backgrounds, insufficient work experience, bad resumes, and graduated from lesser schools?
“We can’t do that!
“We have to view everyone who submits their resumes equally. We have to give them a chance to compete fairly!
“That’s why we have to stop shortlisting applicants based on their resumes. We will accept anyone who submits their resumes and seeks a job.” As Hao Yun scribbled in her little notebook, she became filled with confusion. “Huh? But Boss Pei, that’ll be too much work. We can’t finish interviewing them all.”
Pei Qian shook his head. “You don’t have to interview every single one of them. We’ll look for a suitable time and venue to host a closed-book, written examination for all of them.
“Then, we can invite the top-scoring candidates to be interviewed.”
Hao Yun still looked confused. “That’ll still require a lot of money. In order to host a large-scale examination like that, we would need to rent a venue, set the questions, hire invigilators and markers, and so on.
“As more people apply, we would have to spend more money. Given how passionate people currently are about applying to Tengda for a job, I’m afraid hosting a large-scale written examination like that would not be cheap…”
It would not be cheap?
That’s perfect!
Pei Qian said solemnly, “This is necessary expenditure; we cannot save on it.”
“Er, alright.” Hao Yun nodded and quickly scribbled notes in her little notebook.
Once she was done, she scanned the contents of her little notebook and asked, “Will we ask the various department heads to set the questions and grade their respective sections?”
Pei Qian shook his head. “The various department heads will only be responsible for setting one part of the paper.
“The written examination will be split into two papers. The first paper would be a basic skills test. It would emphasize on applicants’ basic skills, including their basic knowledge, judgment, reasoning, data analysis, exposition, and the like. The second paper would be a specialized knowledge test. The various department heads will set the questions in order to test applicants’ relevant knowledge and skills for the job that they desire.
“At the end of the examination, we will rank them according to their overall grade.
“During the interview stage, we will mix up their sequence and allow the various department heads to conduct cross-interviews.”
Hao Yun asked, “Huh? What do you mean by ‘cross-interview’?”
Pei Qian explained, “The head of the games department would interview employees for Upwind Logistics. The head of Fish-Catching Take-Out would interview employees for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe… we will decide which department head would conduct interviews for which employees by ballot.”
Once again, Hao Yun looked confused. “Boss Pei, would that work? After all, different professions are different worlds.”
Pei Qian smiled. “That’s easy to deal with.
“The interview questions and answers should be prepared beforehand. For instance, imagine that the head of Tengda Games would be interviewing employees for Upwind Logistics. Even if the former isn’t familiar with the latter’s business, he would be able to tell who performed well during the interview if he has the answer script in front of him.”
Puzzled, Hao Yun asked, “What meaning would there be?”
Pei Qian was caught off-guard, but he recovered quickly. “The meaning… would be immense! For example, this could help prevent nepotism[1] and cliquism[2]!
“It can prevent corrupt hiring practices, which is rampant in other large companies!”
A realization dawned on Hao Yun as she nodded, noting all of these down. Pei Qian continued, “After interviewing all the applicants, calculate each applicant’s overall score by adding the interview and written examination results together. The top scorers will pass this stage.
“However, there will be a third stage: the test of one’s compatibility to the Tengda Spirit!
“I will come up with the questions for this stage. Everyone will sit for another examination, and the papers will be graded electronically.
“Only those who pass this test will be hired.
“Whoever fails this test can only join the company for a one-month internship. Although we will pay them appropriately, they would not be allowed to take on any key tasks during their time here. They must focus on learning and understanding the Tengda spirit.
“After their one-month internship, they can take the Tengda Spirit compatibility test again. If they fail, we would have to regretfully postpone their recruitment. We’ll only allow three postponements before we would have to apologize, compensate them appropriately, and invite them to leave.”
Hao Yun could not help but feel emotional as she furiously noted these things down.
Boss Pei was indeed Boss Pei. He had come up with so many stages for the recruitment process!
It sounded like a very rigorous process at that!
Although Hao Yun felt that there were more steps than necessary, she also knew that Boss Pei had his own reasons for doing so. Thus, she did not overthink the matter.
What’s more, Boss Pei did seem to be making sense.
Pei Qian himself was satisfied.
If they stuck with the original recruitment process, Pei Qian could be sure that the human resources department—which Assistant Xin had personally nurturedwould do their jobs competently. What’s more, every department head seemed to love stabbing Boss Pei in the back. The new employees they hired would surely be formidable, and Pei Qian would have a hard time fending against them.
Although Pei Qian could not completely prevent the above with this new process, he could at least minimize the negative repercussions!
First, they would not shortlist applicants based on resumes. Everyone would have a fair fighting chance. That would prevent uneducated, inexperienced people from being filtered out.
On top of that, only half of the written examination would focus on applicants’ knowledge. The other half would test their basic skills, which would have nothing to do with their desired jobs. Once again, this would be of great help to those who were good at writing but bad at working. The department heads would also conduct cross-interviews. Outsiders would pick employees for each department, thereby minimizing the chances of them selecting outstanding talents.
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Last of all, Pei Qian could select slackers using the Tengda Spirit compatibility test. He would pay the hard workers and persuade them to leave. Not only would he be able to spend money, but he would also make sure only reliable people took the available roles.
It was perfect!
Of course, this process did not match Pei Qian’s expectations perfectly.
However, he could not go overboard. He could not possibly write ‘slackers’ as his recruiting standard.
This was as much as the rules allowed. It was the best recruiting process that Pei Qian could ask for.
Soon, Hao Yun finished writing down everything. A few pages of her little notebook had been filled with her handwriting.
Pei Qian nodded, obviously pleased. He said, “The HR department’s main task now is to coordinate with the other departments as soon as possible and get this process running.
“You should settle things like the venue and arrangement for the examinations, the number of roles available in each department, and so on.
“If you need money to settle these problems, just let me know. Don’t be afraid of spending money!
“Take registration for example. If you think reading resumes would be too troublesome, spend some money to create a website specifically for recruitment. Registration, printing of admission tickets for the examination, and other steps can be fully automated.
“I’ll emphasize this again: don’t be afraid of spending money! “The talents are the root of any business’ success. This mechanism will help us with recruitment in the long-term. We’ll do the work now but enjoy the benefits for a long time. Do you understand?”
Hao Yun nodded. “Yes, Boss Pei! I understand!”
She paused for a moment, realizing that she overlooked one problem. “Er, Boss Pei, at which stage should we decide on their starting salary?
“Must we try and reduce it?”
According to the way ordinary companies worked, the HR department should discuss applicants’ expected salaries during the interviews. In their discussion, the department would normally be required to push the figure down as much as possible.
This was a common tactic used by most companies.
However, this seemed to be missing in Boss Pei’s recruitment process.
Sternly, Pei Qian replied, “Bargaining does not fit into Tengda’s culture!
“If applicants can pass the various stages and examinations, it shows that they’re talents we are looking for. “Of course, we should honor them accordingly. How can we still try to bargain with them?!
“In an attempt to save mere hundreds of dollars a month, we would be making these people unhappy, causing them to take their work lightly—thereby affecting their productivity. Wouldn’t our company suffer in the end?
“That’s why we should never bargain!
“We would be acting like hooligans if we ask the applicants to suggest their starting salary and then bargain with them!
“We’ll pay them according to the upper limit in the market. We have to make sure that Tengda’s salary remains competitive. Once the employees pass the Tengda Spirit compatibility test, we can distribute their first salary.
“We must pay our employees enough money to ensure that they work hard for Tengda!”
[1] This refers to hiring based on familial bonds like preferring relatives. [2] This refers to having a certain clique that excludes others outside the circle.