Sara Knight
OPS/571
September 17, 2012
Stephanie Coleman
Identifying Bottlenecks in the Hiring Process A bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is less than the demand placed on it. It can cause an entire process to slow down or stop completely. (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005, pg 725). In the hiring process, there are many things that may be considered bottlenecks which may slow down the hiring process. This paper will identify a major bottleneck that I experience when hiring new employees and discuss how the application of Goldratt’s theory of constraints can improve the process by eliminating such bottlenecks. In my experience with hiring new employees, one of the most frequent bottlenecks that I encounter is my search to find qualified candidates to fill positions. The consequence of this bottleneck results in increased hiring time and reduced productivity which ultimately slows down the hiring process. Dr. Eli Goldratt created a five-step process that is widely used as a problem-solving approach for many organizations. (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005, pg 721). I intend to apply his theory to the hiring process with the hopes of eliminating the current bottleneck of qualified talent acquisition. The first step in Goldratt’s theory is to identify the problem. (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005, pg 721). My problem or bottleneck with the hiring process is the inability to acquire quality talent for new positions. According to Goldratt’s theory, the next step in his process is to exploit the constraint. (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano, 2005, pg 721). One of the ways I plan on applying this step is to justify the fact quality talent is difficult to acquire. I can do this by utilizing the learning curve and documenting new hires’ progress over their 90-day probation period. This learning curve will determine if the new hire is qualified to maintain the position for which they were hired.