Recruitment and selection
This report gives a wide view on recruiting process and its step by step evolution and discusses in detail the weaknesses and strengths of the techniques, trends in modern recruitment environment as we know business flourishes because of people and its people that are running business that's why it is always important to choose a best possible employee because they are the key factors in the success of any organization. The more qualified, dedicated and creative they are the better the performance of the organization as employees are the asset of an organization. Creating efficient recruiting policy is the basic step towards efficient hiring and ensures sound and successful recruitment process .By reading this report one can easily understands that why recruitment process will be said as “Heart of an organization”.
In 1878 first time the legislation passed for variable working hours for women and children under the name of industrial welfare. At that time Cadbury Company believe that the every member of the staff is responsible for employee wellbeing. In 1913 Seebohm Rowntree called conference in which welfare worker association was formed which after many changes developed into today's chartered institute of personnel and development.
In 1916 the ministry of munitions set up its own industrial welfare department and its charge is in Seebdohm Rowntree hands. Finally by 1921 the national institute of industrial psychologists was established and published outcome of studies on selection test, interviewing techniques and training methods. During the Second World War the welfare work is spread to many areas of the organization and covers much concern of the employees like training, health and safety, discipline and wages policies.
Book “introducing human resource management” pg (5,6,7)
The purpose of this report is
- To understand the process of recruitment
- Strategies used by the organization for recruitment process in today's world of business
- Importance of the recruitment and drawbacks of the recruitment process that is not successful.
- Factors that affect recruitment process
Definition of Recruitment:
According to Edwin B. Flippo “recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization”.
Recruitment is needed when:
- Organization is short of staff
- Need arises due to some unexpected events like death ,resignation ,illness etc
- Need for future employees after analyzing the company productivity.
Life cycle for recruitment process
The first stage in recruitment process is applying for job either by filling the application form or sending curriculum vitae, then the selected candidates are invited for interview and tests regarding their skills needed for job which results in either success or failure which is known as decision stage. The candidate who passes this stage will be offered job. If the winning candidate accepts the joining offer then contract will be signed between employee and the company which is the final result or outcome of the recruitment process. In case where the successful candidate refuse to join company then a new candidate among selected candidates will be invited for interview, tests and the process continues until the most appropriate applicant is find.
Types Of Recruitment:
Recruitment is mainly of two types
1. Internal recruitment
In this kind of recruitment process vacancies can be filled with existing employees of the company
2. External recruitment
In external recruitment process employees are taken from outside the organization and this include many activities and the most common method is classic trio which includes three stages which are
- Application form
But in today world there are many new trends in recruiting process which are:
These are the private firm that recruits people according to the need of their client companies.
Vacancies are advertised in newspapers which is the most commonly used and reached source of recruitment
Many educational institution provide facilities for in campus interviews and work placements
It is government funded agency that help and advice people on jobs .
2.4 Employee Referrals
Many organizations have a system where current employee can refer their friend, relatives for some position
Today many organizations are using internet for recruiting process by advertising jobs on their World Wide Web career sites and the applicants send their curriculum vitae, covering letter or fill the application using internet.
Why New Trends?
Because new trends have the following advantages
- Advertisement is less costly.
- Time taken to advertise a job is speedy and wide spread.
- 24/7 to an online recruitment process either for collecting applications or for assessing information.
- Online database matches the requirements automatically, rejects the unqualified candidates and send an automated message regarding their failure.
Definition of selection:
Selection is the last part of the recruitment process when the organization decides who to employ from the candidates available.
Perspective of selection
1. Psychometric perspective
2. The decision -Action perspective
Psychometric perspective involves two kinds of tests
Especially designed test for general intelligence used to measure ability i.e. ability to notice difficulty level and strategy to solve it.
Three Main Factors Of Cognition Field
This figure shows main factors of the cognition filed which plays an important role in individual's intelligence. This explains that how a person pays attention to a specific problem and remembers things shows their level of brainpower. Executive function include the ability to set up or stop procedures, change behavior according to situation, make decisions and also plan for the future action when faced some unexpected situation.
Example Of Cognition Test:
This graph shows the average change in house prices in rural and urban areas over 5 years
In which year did rural houses show their greatest change in value?
a. Year 1 b. Year 2
c. Year 3 d. Year 4
e. Year 5
This test is used to measure job performance and based on five traits which are
This includes emotional expressiveness like outgoing , social approachable, responsive, bold ,enthusiastic and draw attention to themselves.
This trait includes characteristic such as trust, humanity, compassion, affection, and cooperative with others. They are generally optimistic.
Those high in conscientiousness should be hardworking, organized, dedicated, act dutifully, keep commitments.
Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, nervousness, moodiness, get angry easily and highly reactive in stressful situations.
The individuals with this trait are open-minded, listen to others and are imaginative and creative.
Example of personality tests:
The last stage of the selection process is decision .After the initial selection activities there is still a temptation to make a decision on the basis of information collected during tests or interview .In order to get a best decision it is worth using a scoring system for the answers to interview questions by giving marks to each questions according to the importance of questions for the specific position or job requirement and skills .for example a candidate who is giving interview for a customer assistant position and gives an overall great performance during the interview except the race discrimination issue which are totally unacceptable answers which results in rejection.
Keeping record of decision making is very essential as this provides evidence of fair procedure and judgment, comments can be provided for the candidates who request it for their own purpose and this will make sure that the managers are stick to the procedure accurately.
“Introducing human resource management “by Margaret Foot, Caroline Hook pg 120, 121
Difference between recruitment and selection are given below for better understanding
1.This is the process of searching candidates and motivating them to apply for job
2.This allows more and more peoples to apply for the position
3.Encourging process involves acceptance
4.No contract need for recruiting
1.This process involves selecting the most suitable person from all applied candidates for available vacancies
2.Its purpose is to select the only right person for the position
3.Negative process involves rejection
4.Involves contract between employee and organization
Recruiter is the individual who is responsible for hiring employee for an organization and to be:
- Able to understand the importance of recruitment process
- Expert in recruitment activity and have experience in this field.
- Able to take systematic approach
- Able to analyze the requirement of job.
- Offer substitute for the interview i.e. test of intelligence, aptitude
- Able to listen interviewee effectively.
- Create an organizational recruiting policy structure that satisfies the legal requirement from the government.
Linda Maud “An introduction to human resource management “(page 152)
John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold “Human resource management theory and practice” (page 237)
Why is good recruitment and selection important?
Good recruiting and selection process enables us to
- Build pool of efficient, dedicated and motivated people.
- Develop proficient strategies for training of employees with improved and satisfied working environment.
- Give the fair rewards for employees performance that increases the company performance and growth which will directly affect the economy.
- Decrease the number of unqualified applicants by using successful selection process.
Influence of low quality recruitment process
- Low productivity.
- Increase involvement in recruitment process and planning
- Increase social abuse
- deviate managers interest from then their own job
- Damage the organization's image
- Create uncertainty in existing employees that affect their performance
- Turn out unqualified applicants which will increase the work load for recruiting staff.
Essentials of HRM (4th edition) Shaun Tyson, Alfred York (pg 64,65)
Article” RECRUITMENT PROCESS: THE ‘HEART' OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT” Author: Nyamupachari Vareta
Factors Affecting Recruitment Process
In internal factors that largely affect organization recruiting policy is the legal requirements for hiring people like skills needed for the job should be mention clearly in advertisement, working hours are limited to 48 hours per week and employees cannot work more than these allowed hours, they should be given four weeks annual leave according to UK employment law and companies cannot discriminate on the basis of gender, religion, age, physical and mental ability, notice of termination up to two years service is one week. Company cannot employee a person below the age of 18 for nigh shifts no matter how suitable that candidate is for the position.
If the organization productivity and size increases it will recruit more people and effective recruitment activities will help to eliminate the gap between existing and new employees. As recruitment process is costly today companies are using low source of recruiting like E-recruitment, job centre.
External factors that affect recruitment more is unemployment and working environment in the organization. The company with stress free atmosphere in which colleagues help each other, free to share their ideas attract more people to join as compared to the non flexible working environment companies. Government laws regarding prohibiting discrimination in employment have direct impact on recruitment like reservation for the disabled, maternity paid leave etc. Competitor's recruitment policies also affect the recruitment function, which may lead to the change in policy of the organization
Article “Signs of a Healthy Working” written by Ron Prewitt
“Introducing human resource management “by Margaret Foot, Caroline Hook pg 172,173
Recruitment Influence On Organizational System
A business is organize by dividing it into groups or teams and each group has its own job which is managed by their managers which are the persons expert in their fields but one thing common for a managerial level is that they must be efficient in supervising people.
Above diagram is the functional structure of any organization. HRM is responsible for providing more appropriate people to all the departments of the organization according to their need and skill requirements .This can be achieved only if there is a clarity and strong communication among the departments or divisions of a company.
The problem arises when each department concerned with its own goal rather than an overall objectives of the company which will destroy the team spirit and productivity of an organization. If the HR department effectively manage the number of strategies to improve employment connections among different sectors, fair system to reward employees, healthy competition environment between groups, co-operation between departments then the company will keep its competitive rank in market without any treats from internal factors and able to achieve its goal easily.
“Essentials of HRM”
In today's market companies are competing in every field like price, technology, product quality, packaging but the most important competition is among the talent they want from the labor market so our priority should be our employee's wellbeing and the environment that increase their performance. Our human resource management team should always review the organization policy of recruitment process to analyze if these policies are in accordance with the welfare of the employees and changing environment of competition market or not because problem arises when there is not a sufficient flexibility in the policies and fairness in procedures.
Training should be given on managerial level which includes awareness of the equal opportunity, development of questioning skills. Too keep track of the fair procedure it is important to keep record of the whole recruitment process like for eliminating discrimination questions during interview usage of designed set of questionnaire for collecting information regarding applicant will be helpful because irresponsible behaviour in recruitment can breakdown the organization repute and also decrease the danger of wrong placement. Morale of the existing employees will be kept high by giving them training for the new technologies being introduced in an organization.
“Introducing human resource management “by Margaret Foot ,Caroline Hook pg 104