Recruitment and Selection of Candidates | Term Paper | HRM

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Term Paper on Recruitment of Candidates:

Recruitment makes it possible for organizations to acquire the number and types of people necessary to ensure the continued operation of the organization. Recruiting involves discovering the potential candidates for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies. In other words, it is a linking activity brings together those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs.

Supervisors in all types of organizations are responsible for the human resources in their departments. Selecting competent, high-performing employees capable of sustaining their performance over the long run is a competitive advantage. The selection process consists of forecasting employment needs, recruiting candidates, interviewing applicants, and hiring employees.

External environmental forces affect the selection process. These external forces include labor unions, governmental laws. Labor Unions represent workers and seek to protect members’ interests through collective bargaining. Good labor management relation constitutes an important ingredient in contract negotiations.

The government influences numerous decisions regarding hiring. Employers must ensure that equal opportunity exists for all job applicants and current employees. Many organizations have affirmative action programs to ensure upgrading and retention of protected groups such as women, minorities, and people with disabilities.

Selection is a process of weeding out the unsuitable candidates and finally arriving at the most suitable one. In this way, recruitment is a positive process while selection is a negative process of rejecting most of the candidates, leaving only a few who are considered suitable.

Forecasting Employment Need:

Planning assists in implementing strategy by translating the organization’s goals into the workers; needed to achieve them. The organization forecasts its human resource requirements in order to determine the number of employees to hire and the types of skills they will need. Forecasting employment needs includes current and future assessment.

The supervisor wants to make sure that the number of employees matches the workload. In the current assessment, supervisors take a human resource inventory to assess what talents and skills are currently resident in the organization, and conduct a job analysis to define the tasks and the behaviors necessary to perform them. This helps determine whether there is a fit between who currently works for the firm and what it needs for its work to be performed successfully.

Job analysis provides the information for a job description a written description of job content, environment and conditions of employment, and job specification knowledge, skills and abilities needed to do the job effectively. Future assessment determines the firm’s future human resource requirements by looking at the overall organizational goals derived from strategic planning.

Assessing current capabilities and future needs reveal areas where the organization is overstaffed and estimates of human resource shortages. A program is developed to match these estimates with forecasts of future labor supply.

Recruiting Candidates:

The organization develops a pool of job candidates from which to select qualified employees. Information gathered through job analysis can guide recruitment to fill skill and personnel gaps. The local labor market, the type or level of position and the size of the organization determine which source is used to find potential job candidates.

Recruitment efforts include running newspaper ads, contacting employment agencies, and visiting colleges. To create a more diverse workforce, supervisors can recruit from sources such as women’s job networks, ethnic newspapers and urban job banks.

Many organizations are turning the Internet to recruit a workforce. Benefits of online recruitment include reduced cost-per-hire, less time-to-fill, and a larger pool of quality candidates. De-recruitment is a reduction in the organization’s labor force through firing, layoffs, attrition, and early retirement, or maintaining employees through transfers, reduced workweeks or job sharing.

Interviewing Applicants:

Once supervisors identify a pool of candidates, they screen the applicants to ensure that the most appropriate candidate is hired. Any selection device used by a supervisor must be valid and reliable. Validity means that there is a proven relationship between the selection device and some relevant criteria to differentiate among applicants’ job performance. Reliability means that the device(s) consistently measure the same thing over time.

A variety of valid and reliable selection devises are available for supervisors to make successful acceptance and rejection decisions. Job applications request personal biographical or historical information reflecting activities, skills and accomplishments.

Cognitive ability tests measure intelligence, aptitude, ability and interest. Performance simulation tests are made up of actual work behaviors. For routine jobs, work sampling is appropriate. Applicants demonstrate that they have the necessary skills and abilities by actually doing tasks that model the job for which they are applying. Interviews are valid and reliable devices when they are structured, well organized, and ask candidates valid questions. Background investigations involve verification of application data and reference checks.

Employment Interviewing:

Selection interviews are used to obtain information and to elicit attitudes and feelings from an applicant.

In a structured interview, the supervisor controls the course the interview follows as each question is asked:

1. Determine how Applicants will be Screened:

The interview is based exclusively on job duties and requirements that are critical to job performance. Use the job description to create a screening grid.

2. Determine Questions and Sample Answers:

Make a written list of job-related questions to ask applicants. Again, use the job description to tailor the questions to the specific duties and qualifications of the job. Determine sample answers to your questions.

3. Develop a Guide for the Interview Itself:

The interview guide or agenda should include four parts- the opening, questions and answers, job and company explanation, and closing.

(i) The Opening:

Establish rapport by welcoming and putting the applicant at ease. For example, after the introductions and handshake, say, “Have a seat. Would you like a cup of coffee? Did you have any trouble getting here today?”

(ii) Questions and Answers:

Obtain information from the applicant using the questions on your list. Develop a rating point scale, Define the ratings.

(iii) Job and Company Explanation:

Provide information to the applicant. Describe current and future job opportunities. Sell the positive features of the firm.

(iv) Closing:

Respond to the applicant’s questions. Clarify responses. Provide an opportunity for final applicant input. Explain what happens next.

4. Evaluate the Applicant:

Assess match between the technical qualifications and job requirements. Judge personal qualities such as leadership and team orientation. Make a recommendation.

Sources of Recruitment:

The sources from which employees may be recruited can be broadly divided into two categories:

i. Internal recruiting; and

ii. External recruiting.

i. Internal Recruiting:

Internal recruiting is the search for in-house employees who have the abilities and the attitudes to fulfill the requirements needed and to help the organization achieve its objectives.

Internal recruiting means considering present employees as candidates for opening within the organization. Promotions from within can help build morale and keep high-quality employees from leaving the firm. In unionized firms, the procedures for notifying employees of internal job change opportunities are usually spelled out in the union contract.

The purpose of the internal position opportunities posting system is to assure consideration is given to qualified and interested employees who are able to meet basic performance standards of the open position. Although internal recruiting is often neglected it is crucial not to overlook this strategy.

Advantages of Internal Recruiting:

Internal recruiting has a number of advantages:

1. Recruiting Costs:

Since the recruiting machinery is focused on an already existing pool of employees to fill a vacant position, and therefore, selection and socializing processes are less time and money consuming, internal recruiting tend to be less expensive than external recruiting.

2. Motivation:

The prospect of potential promotion or transfer provides a clear sign to the current work force that the organization offers room for advancement. This addresses the employee’s need for self- achievement.

3. Familiarity:

The familiarity of the employee has a two-side effect on the one hand the employee is familiar with the organization’s policies, procedures, and customs. At the same time, the organization has established an employment history showing the workers formal and informal skills and abilities.

Disadvantages of Internal Recruiting:

Internal recruiting suffers from a number of disadvantages:

1. Inbreeding:

One drawback of extensive internal recruiting is the reduced likelihood of innovation and new perspective. A lack of new employees from the outsides leads to a lack of new ideas and approaches.

2. Ripple Effect:

Another disadvantage of internal recruiting is its ‘ripple effect’. When an employee moves to a different job, someone else must be found to take his or her old job. In one organization, 454 job movements were required as a result of filling 195 initial openings.

3. More Training:

Internal recruiting demands a higher degree of employee training. In order to develop the skills needed to train the current workforce in new processes and technologies, the organization has to provide a more expensive training program.

Methods of Internal Recruiting:

There are several methods for locating applicants from within the organization. Among the most common are job posting, referrals, and skills inventories. Some large firms use assessment centers to recruit and evaluate present employees who might prove to be good candidates for supervisory positions.

1. Job Posting:

Job position is one of the most common methods of finding internal applicants. Job posting involves announcing job openings to all current employees. Bulletin board notices or printed bulletins can be used for this purpose. Computerized job positing systems have also been developed so that employees can obtain information on their computer screens.

In some organizations the human resources office publishes a regular newsletter listing the positions available. Job positing can assist ensure that minority workers and other under privileged groups become aware of opportunities to go up in the organization.

2. Employee Referrals:

The recruitment efforts of an organization can be aided by employee referrals, or recommendations made by current employees. Managers have found that the quality of employee-referred applicants is normally quite high, since employees are generally hesitant to recommend individuals who might not perform well.

Bohlander lists five suggestions for effective employee referral programs:

a. Up the Ante:

Companies pay high commissions to employments agencies and search firms, so why not do the same thing with employees when they provide a good referral? Other recruitment incentives used by organizations include complimentary dinners, discounts on merchandise, all-expense-paid trips, and free insurance. By paying higher bonuses for “hot” skills, employees are more likely to focus on people they know in that area.

b. Pay for Performance:

It is sometimes a good idea to save part of the referral until the new hire has stayed for six months. This encourages referring employees to help the new hires succeed.

c. Tailor the Program:

Companies typically need more of certain type of skills than others, but the referral programs do not always reflect this. Part of a good referral program is educating employees about the kinds of people the company wants to hire. This includes some communication of the skills required. But also a reaffirmation of the values and ethics sought in applicants.

d. Increase Visibility:

One of the best ways to publicize a referral program is to celebrate successes. Some companies use novel approaches such as “job of the month” or “celebrity endorsements” from managers. The idea is to keep everyone thinking about bringing in good people.

e. Keep the Data:

Even if a referral does not get the job, it might be a good idea to keep the resume on file just in case another vacancy arises.

There are some potential negative factors associated with employee referrals. They include the possibility of inbreeding and the violation of EEO regulations. Since employees and their referrals tend to have similar backgrounds, employers who rely heavily on employee referrals to fill job openings may intentionally or unintentionally screen-out, and thereby discriminate against, protected classes.

Furthermore, organizations may choose not to employ relatives of current employees. The proactive of hiring relatives, referred to as nepotism, can invite charges of doing favor especially in appointments to desirable positions.

3. Skill Inventories:

Many firms have developed computerized skills inventories of their employees. Information on every employee’s skills, educational background, work history, and other important factors is stored in a data base, which can then be used to identify employees with the attributes needed for a particular job.

ii. External Recruiting:

Unless there is to be a reduction in the workforce, a replacement from outside must be found to fill a vacancy when a jobholder moves to a new slot in the organization. Thus, when the president or CE of the organization retires, a chain reaction of promotions may subsequently occur. This creates other managerial openings throughout the organization.

The question therefore is not whether to bring people into the organization, but rather at which level they are to be brought in. In many cases hiring someone from the outside is seen as essential for revitalizing the organizations. External recruiting involves attracting people from outside the organization to apply for jobs.

The external sources of recruitment generally include:

Sources of External Recruiting:

The sources of external recruiting include employment exchanges, advertisement, casual applications, educational institutes, raiding and headhunting.

These sources are described as under:

1. Employment Exchanges:

Employment agencies or private personnel placemen! services, include any person who charges fees, whether direct or indirect, all or any part of which may be in consideration of the person providing information on employment opportunities, procuring or attempting to procure employment for applicants seeking employment, or for procuring or attempting to procure employees for employers seeking applicants

2. Advertisement:

One of the most common methods of attracting applicants is through advertisements. While newspapers and trade journals are the media used most often, radio, television, billboards, posters, and electronic mail are also utilized. Advertising has the advantage of reaching a large audience of possible applicants.

Some degree of selectivity can be achieved by using newspapers and journals directed toward a particular group of readers. Professional journals, trade journals, and publications of unions and various fraternal organizations fall into this category.

The preparation of recruiting advertisements is not only time-consuming it also requires creativity in developing design and message content. Well-written advertisements highlight the major assets of the position while showing the responsiveness of the organization to the job and career needs of the applicants.

Also, there appears to be a correlation between the accuracy and completeness of information provided in advertisements and the recruitment success of the organization. Among the information typically included in advertisements is that the recruiting organization is an equal opportunity employer.

Advertising can sometimes place a severe burden on an organization’s employment office. Even though the specifications for the openings are described thoroughly in the advertisement, many applicants who know they do not meet the job requirements may still be attracted. They may apply with the hope that the employer will not be able to find applicants who do meet the specifications.

3. Casual Applications:

Generally unsolicited applicants are told that no appropriate positions are currently available. Nevertheless unsolicited applications may provide a firm some valuable employees.

4. Educational Institutes:

Educational institutions typically are a source of young applicants with formal training with relatively little full-time work experience. High schools are usually a source of employees for clerical and blue-collar jobs. Community colleges, with their various types of specialized training, can provide candidates for technical jobs. These institutions can also be a source of applicants for a variety of white-collar jobs, including those in the sales and retail fields. Some management-trainee jobs are also staffed from this source.

For technical and managerial positions, college graduates and universities are generally the primary source. However, the suitability of college graduates for open positions often depends on their major field of study. Organizations seeking applicants in the technical and professional areas, for example, are currently faced with a shortage of qualified candidates. To attract graduates in areas of high demand, managers employ innovative recruitment techniques such as work-study programs, internships, low-interest loans, and scholarships.

5. Raiding:

The process of attracting the employees working elsewhere to join the organization is known as ‘raiding’. Though it is unethical to directly contact the employees of other organizations, some companies engaged in such raiding. Raiding is resorted to where the need to recruit is especially pressing.

6. Headhunting:

A process known as headhunting ‘or’ executive search sometimes recruits executives at very senior positions.

The headhunter, on behalf of a client, searches for potential candidates:

(i) In competing businesses,

(ii) In the membership lists of professional bodies, newspapers,

(iii) Through confidential headhunting network.

Selected candidates are then approached discretely and one or two of them are introduced to the client firm. Headhunters can reach those top managers already in employment who do not bother to read job advertisements, newspapers and other media. Sometimes senior managers prepared to move make this known to leading headhunters, even though they would not openly apply for the post.

However, headhunting is highly disruptive to successful businesses. A headhunted executive later might be allured by other headhunters to leave his new firm after a short period. Also an unsuitable candidate might bribe the headhunter to recommend him for the vacant position.

There is an ongoing debate among employment managers as to whether it is better to give preference to internal candidates before looking externally to fill vacancy. Older, more established firms traditionally give preferences to internal candidates while fast-growing and more innovative firms tend to focus more on external hires. Although most firms end up using a mixed strategy, the target ratio of internal to external hires is always a topic of hot debate. First let us focus on giving preferences to outside hires.

Reasons to Favor Outside Hiring:

1. It helps you acquire competitive intelligence about other firms.

2. New hires can help you identify other potential candidates to “poach” from their firm.

3. The new ideas that applicants and new hires bring in stimulate the thinking of others.

4. New hires ask “why we do things that way” so we are often forced to re­think the way we do things.

5. It keeps our employees on the edge because they know they must compete against outsiders for jobs.

6. Outside hires don’t have political alliances already set up. This can help them implement new ideas without the “baggage” of past political battles.

7. Already trained external hires may give us “instant talent” for new products, programs, and skills.

8. Some argue that hiring “already trained” people is cheaper than developing and promoting internal talent. This effect varies depending on the cost of a new hire.

9. It allows other firms to train and weed out the “turkeys” so we can hire the cream of the crop. As a result it can lower training cost.

10. In a stagnant culture, “outsiders” might help “shake things up” and help us evolve our culture.

11. When you hire a great talent from a close competitor, you gain one and as an added benefit…the competitor also loses one.

12. The outside recruiting and advertising for outside hires may tangentially help build your brand, send a message that you are growing and also help boost sales.

13. Re-hiring boomerangs (former employees) may aid in retention efforts as they tell other employees that the “grass is not greener” on the outside.

14. In a fast-growing company (or small firms) you might have no choice but the higher externally because there isn’t enough talent to go around inside the firm.

15. If the firm has weak training or development, the inside talent will not have sufficient skill to do the job.

16. If the firm has a weak hiring process promoting internally, is not a realistic option because of the lack of talent.

17. In jobs where you absolutely require experience, there may not be enough experience in newly developing areas.

18. External hiring forces are managers to stay up with trends and to benchmark as they interview search. This is the added impact of improving their learning.

19. In most cases external hiring adds more to the diversity of the workforce than internal hiring.

20. If the firm is going global, it will undoubtedly line that external “local” hires are superior and performance to internal promotions.

21. The World Wide Web makes recruiting so easy and inexpensive the advantage has shifted towards external hiring.

Problems with Outside Hiring:

1. Outside hires can weaken the corporate culture by bringing in counter culture people.

2. The turnover rate for external hires is almost always higher than internal promotions because the candidates must both adjust to a new environment and they come to us as relative unknowns.

3. External hires often have a longer “adjustment period” and orientation costs are higher.

4. Customers may feel slighted if they don’t get one of the Firm’s current employees. In a tight job the (potentially) higher starting salaries of outside hires may cause internal equity issues and eventually increase all salaries.

5. In a tight job market there may be little external talent available or the quality of the limited talent may be poor.

6. Firms with strategic alliances may anger their partners by “poaching” their talent.

7. Hiring talent away from customers and suppliers may harm your business relationships.

8. Legal issues can occur when hiring intact teams, top technical talent with non-compete agreements.

9. In a competitive market you can’t hire quality talent without a strong recruiting function.

10. Learning internet recruiting and setting up web pages may be prohibitively expensive or time consuming.

11. The world of external recruiting changes so rapidly and is so competitive that we might end up with lesser talent unless we can afford a strong recruiting function.

12. The likelihood of lawsuits resulting from illegal practices by hard to control managers is high.

13. External hires have already demonstrated their lack of loyalty by leaving their firm. They may have the same lack of loyalty at our firm, resulting and high turnover rate.

14. In a cyclical economy, large-scale external hiring might just mean future layoffs.

Term Paper on Selection of Candidates:

The selection process involves judging candidates on a variety of dimensions, ranging from the concrete and measurable to the abstract and personal. To perform this, organizations depend on one or more of a number of selection devices, including application forms, reference checks, tests, physical examinations, and interviews. Any of these devices must satisfy strict requirements of relevance and legality, and their effects on the individual applicant and the organization as a whole must be considered carefully.

Sources of Information about Applicants:

1. Application Forms:

The main aim of employee selection is to select those persons who are most likely to prove good on the job performers. The application bank and employment interview are the most widely used selection methods and they are often used in combination to supplement each other.

The application bank provide the information regarding identification such as name, address, telephone number, personal information such as marital status, age, dependents, place of birth; physical characteristics such as height, weight, health, defects, family background, education, academic, technical and professional and also information regarding experience, reference and miscellaneous information.

2. Reference Checks:

Reference checks involve communicating with previous employers and others who can provide information about the applicant. The reference checks verify what the application has told the organization and produce supplemental information that can be very useful in a hiring decision

3. Physical Examinations:

Physical examination serves as a final step before the hiring decision. A physician appointed by the organization may conduct a physical examination.

Physical examination serves several purposes:

1. Help an organization place its employees in suitable jobs.

2. Permit firms to screen out application with health problems.

3. Can be used to judge the individual’s qualifications for a job involving physical efforts.

Selection Tests:

Organizations administer tests before the final stage of interviewing. Managers can use the test results as guidelines in asking candidates about their abilities, experience, and interests.

Companies use the following broad categories of tests in their selection process:

(i) Measures of proficiency, achievement, or knowledge,

(ii) Measures of aptitude or potential ability,

(iii) Measures of mental ability or intelligence,

(iv) Measures of personality,

(v) Measures of interest,

(vi) Measures of physical ability, and

(vii) Measures of substance abuse.

The Selection Interview:

The interview, along with the application blank, has proved to be an almost universal selection tool. However, the value of the interview to selection has been the subject of considerable debate, with most of the evidence stacking up against the interview as an effective predictive tool. Research has shown that the reliability and validity of interviews as an effective selection are generally low.

Interview Scenarios:

Interviews can follow the under-mentioned scenarios:

(i) The Group Interview

(ii) The Panel Interview

(iii) One-on-one interview

Industrial Economics and Management:

(i) Videotape interview

(ii) Computer-assisted interview

(iii) Telephonic interview

1. The Group Interview:

In the group interview, a number of candidates are interviewed at once. The candidates are allowed to discuss job-related matters among themselves while one or more observers evaluate their performance. This type of interview is usually thought most suitable for the selection of executive.

2. The Panel Interview:

In the panel interviews, one candidate appears before a panel or two or more interviewers. One of the panelists acts as a chairperson, but each of the members participates in the questioning and discussion. The panel interview allows the interviewers to coordinate their efforts and follow up on each other’s questions.

3. One-to-One Interview:

In one-on-one interview, the candidate meets privately with a single interviewer. Generally, a candidate will pass through a series of such interviews, first with a member of the HR department, then the manager in whose department there is a job opening, and finally with the manager’s superior.

4. Video, Computer and Telephonic:

In the age of information technology, organizations are also conducting interviews with the assistance of video, computer and telephone.

Placement:

A decision to place a selected individual in one job than in another is called placement. In selection the task is to match people with the positions. In placement the task is to match positions with people so that each individual is assigned to that position where he is likely to make the best use of his abilities consistent with the requirements of his total working group.

At the time of employment, selection and placement are often inseparable parts of a single process. Placement problems arise when large-scale transfers or promotions are needed or when some people are rendered surplus or executive trainees on completion of their general training program are being assigned to jobs in different functional areas.

Orientation and Induction:

After employees are selected, they enter an orientation program to be formally introduced to their jobs. The orientation program expands on information received by the employee during the selection process. Orientation is a program that introduces new employees to the organization as a whole, their work unit and co-workers, and their job duties. It helps to reduce initial anxiety over starting a new job by facilitating the outsider- insider transition.

Orientation sets a tone for new employees’ work by describing job -related expectations and reporting relationships. Employees are informed about benefits, policies, and procedures. Specific duties and responsibilities and performance evaluation are clarified. During orientation, the supervisor has the opportunity to resolve any unrealistic expectations held by the employee.

Formal orientation programs can include tours of facilities, discussions about the history of the organization, vision and mission, meeting with human resource representatives to discuss policy and compensation, and/or being assigned a mentor to introduce employees to processes and people. A successful orientation result is an employee transition where the new member feels comfortable and capable of performing well on the job.

Induction is the process of inducting a new employee into the new social setting of his work.

There are two main objectives of induction:

(i) Familiarizing the new employee with his new surroundings and company rules and regulations, and

(ii) Integrating his personal goals with the organizational goals.

The information generally passed on to the new employee includes company history, products and major operations, geography of the plant, structure of the organizations and functions of various departments, general company policies and regulations regarding wages and payment, hours of work and overtime, safety and accidents, discipline and grievances, uniforms and clothing and parking, economic and recreational services available, opportunities for promotion and transfer, performance appraisal and suggestions system.