?Application form
?Job description
?Terms and conditions of employment
?Anticipated start date for job
?Career development opportunities
?Information on the organization – its aims, structure and activities
?Travel directions
?Statement of whether expenses will be met
Examine what information is normally sent out to applicants in your (a selected) organization, then evaluate how the system could be improved.
Recruitment and Selection Definitions
Recruitment involves searching for and attracting candidates – external or internal – for job vacancies. New people are found and brought into the organization. This involves communicating with actual or potential job seekers, motivating them to apply and persuading candidates that they really want to come and work for the firm. The objective is to attract candidates of the right quality in the right number. The best candidates may be in jobs and not looking to leave them, but many candidates must leave their present job. In a situation of low unemployment/labor shortage good candidates may be scarce, and competition exists in the labor market. Conversely, where there is high employment, some good candidates may be reluctant to move from positions where they perceive some stability.
Recruitment occurs across the whole spectrum of occupations from school and college to the unskilled and semi-skilled, to technologically oriented staff and successful senior managers.
Recruitment activity has an element of public relations about it. The organization opens its doors to job seekers and hence the outside world. Certain organizational development, marketing, promotional, and quality aspects take recruitment activity beyond being just a maintenance process. Strategic policy questions are raised. Beardwell and Holden (1992, p232) in their compendium suggest that there are no guaranteed selection methods. The prescriptions, or ?how to do it?s? of selection, are problem-solving strategies which taken as a cocktail narrow down the selection decision and increase the chances of choosing the right candidate, although, probably, “best available” is a better term.
Selection methods
?Interviews – the most popular and hence the skills of interviewing are important
?Analysis of candidate career/life data
?Evaluation of candidate behavior/ performance in group activities
?Work attachments/experience (trial periods)
?Skill testing with task/work simulations. (for example, typing, computer programming, brick-laying) and candidates making presentations.
?Knowledge, aptitude and psycho-metric tests of various facets of intelligence and personality
Selection is a social, interactive activity and the use of structured and tested methods are recommended for objectivity and reliability and reduced risk and uncertainty.
Recruitment Practice vs. Theory
Academically, recruitment activity is treated more as experience-based knowledge about practice than as a body of theory. There is a vacancy when an entirely new job opens or someone leaves the organization. One is short of a brain and a pair of hands. It is a functional necessity to fill the post. As to how best to fill the job (decision-making), its demands need to be understood and a skilled, systematic approach is needed for this “personnel” task.
The literature on recruitment tends to give more space to selection processes than the wider practices of recruitment (systems and procedures of job definition, advertising, short-listing, organization of selection and overall administration).
How to do it guidelines (prescriptions) on ?best approaches? typically recommend the following:
?Methods for evaluating job requirements;
?Skills and understandings associated with processes of selection (e.g. for traditional interviews);
?Further methods/techniques for ascertaining candidate suitability (which may even substitute for the interview and include tests of ability, aptitude, and intelligence); and,
?Policy frameworks to satisfy the legal side of the recruitment problem.
A Systems Approach vs “Be Systematic”
Analysis of the inputs, processes and outputs and environmental contexts of recruitment and selection systems helps in understanding the strengths and weaknesses. Generally these prescriptions recommend if those doing recruitment and selection take systematic care, use the right methods, and apply specific expertise, giving attention to detail, then they will make more reliable selection decisions.
However a systems approach requires definition of
?Interviews. A single one-on-one interview may give way to a series of one-on-one interviews or interviews with many people. We can analyze the interview in terms of how it is structured, the processes of interaction, the problems of interpersonal decision-making, the relationship between job-related questions and personal questions.
?Ability Tests. Tests may be designed or brought in to “measure/evaluate” a candidate’s knowledge or skills. The test may be specifically job related or the test may be generic.
?Psychometric Tests. These include tests of cognitive ability (traits of general intelligence such as verbal, numerical and logical ability). They also extend to self-reporting tests about the candidate’s self-perceived behavior, personality, life/work orientations and value systems.
?References. Current or previous employers and other “notables” may be asked to give information on their knowledge of the candidate. References are usually sought in the latter stages of the selection cycle either immediately before a job offer is made or afterwards. The offer is made ?subject to satisfactory references being received?.
?Work experience. Can candidates be invited to do the advertised job for a short period? Most employees are engaged on the basis that their first few weeks/months at work consist of a probationary period during which time their suitability is being assessed by their actual manager, peers and anyone else directly affected by their performance.
?Simulations. These range from asking candidates to make a presentation on a subject to candidates meeting in an (observed) group to discuss a topic or resolve a problem (case study or simulation exercises involving planning, organizing, leadership, communication skills, analysis, synthesis, influencing, etc.). Applicants may be presented with a situation that they might face if they got the job such as planning a conference, evaluating an organizational case study, or making decisions.
?Biographical Analysis. Analysis of the application form and the interview process in a broad sense involves biographical analysis. Employers seeking to fill jobs involving considerable responsibility, perhaps including a high security or risk element, may wish to investigate the candidate more deeply. A security background check may be involved. Clearly issues about privacy are raised here. It depends on the type of job.
Recruitment and Selection Stages
Having a recruitment policy in a large organization guides managerial action. Such a policy usually reflects the prescriptions of the literature on recruitment, which itself forms an implementation checklist covering use of interviews of given sequence and composition, adoption of educational qualification standards, use of limited sources for recruits, strict regulation of references, and/or use of a psychometric test. This a sensible chart to navigate the recruitment maze.
Stage What is involved?
1 Response to vacancy ?Vacancy arises. Impact on staffing plan? Job re-design, re-shuffle? ?Permission to recruit/replace? ?Exit interviews?
2 Job analysis ?Is the post understood by participants in the process? ?What are the priorities, demands, competence required? Analyze the job. ?Produce/up-date job description, personnel specification. ?Define target groups – where are they and what will attract them to apply?
3 Employment terms ?Define the terms and conditions of employment. ?Agree upon the rewards package internally. ?Anticipate anomalous relationships with other jobs. ?Equal opportunities?
4 Communicate Vacancy ?From where will we get our candidates (sources)? ?Should the vacancy be offered openly? ?Is there scope for internal promotions and job transfers? ?External sourcing.
5 Process applications ?Is the administrative machine ready to respond to applications? ?Follow-up on references/security clearances. ?Decide on/organize recruitment program. Who, when, meetings, appointments. ?Short-list and invite candidates to selection activity. ?Courteous rejections/on-hold candidates.
6 Carry out selection program ?Finalize selector briefing/training and interviewer preparation/strategy. ?Implement selection program: conduct interviews, exercises, tests.
7 Make job offer(s) and finalize contract ?Advise unsuccessful candidates of rejection or stand-by. ?Process job acceptances. ?Complete reference investigations. ?Confirm terms and conditions of employment. ?Confirm arrangements for job start. ?Design new starter induction program.
8 Evaluate effectiveness of ?Recruitment process and methods. Validity, reliability and utility? ?The selection decisions. Is the new employee really suitable?
Recruitment and Job Analysis
Recruiters obviously need to comprehend job requirements fully, thus methods of job analysis are needed. Job analysis and exit interview can confirm the nature and contribution of the job role which may often turn out to be more complex than originally thought. Information from job analysis and sources, such as exit interviews, can help to restructure the job and resolve potential difficulties;
?Scope and authority
?Job demands (overload, underload), choices, and constraints
?Ambiguities and uncertainties
?Complexity and technical challenges
?Incompatibility (person-job-organization)
?Conflict and stress
We can identify needs for supervisory support, developmental opportunity, etc. Job re-design is an organizational re-structuring activity.
?A job description can be prepared with what needs to be done in the job and a definition of the main responsibilities and tasks/priorities. This is useful for recruiters and applicants.
?Once one understands the job one can specify the attributes (education, skills, experience, competencies) required of a person who is likely to do the job successfully. (A person profile – modeling those candidates) most likely to be successful in the job.
Job analysis generates
?Job prospectus information needed by applicants
?A recruitment campaign that will attract suitable candidates (inclusive of job advertising).
?Better understanding of how applications received must be handled/processed to evaluate candidates (candidate-to-candidate and candidate-to-job) and produce an initial short-list to invite for interview.
?Better information so that selection decisions can be made as objectively as possible. It is known to be prone to unhelpful subjectivity, stereotyping and premature judgements.
?A better understanding of what selection methods, interviews, or tests might serve as valid, reliable, and useful (utility) tests for different types of jobs/staff.
?Clear decision-making criteria for selectors to use. Such criteria must be relevant/valid for performance of the job in question, otherwise forms of discrimination may endanger equal opportunities statutes.
Sources of Candidates
We might
?Keep and sift through previous applications
?Internal advertising: drawing on talent within one?s own organization. Are you nurturing this talent enough?
?Advertise externally through the press or local radio.
?Put a jobs page on the World Wide Web.
?Use employment agencies and job centers.
?Use a headhunter, a specialist who?s job is to find the best and most available candidate. Be careful. In time the headhunter may be ringing up that recruit to persuade him that another job move may be more profitable.
?Networking: build up your own list of who is a potential future employee and recruit via the old boys/girls network.
?Ask current employees to nominate people they would recommend.
?Build up links with educational institutions – schools, colleges, and universities. One might treat applicants from these establishments more favorably.
?Do not recruit at all – out-source the job or export it to another country!
Different vacancies require different methods. It is pointless advertising in a national newspaper for part-time staff. Part-timers live locally, use the local paper, respond to job descriptions, or apply via word – of – mouth. There is a danger in using only one method of external recruitment. It reduces scope for others to apply and can be discriminatory if the method excludes or disproportionately reduces the number of applicants in a particular group.
Whatever methods are used the imperatives will be to:
?Keep the costs of recruitment as low as possible. Put recruitment costs into perspective. What will be the costs of the person once in the post? (include salary, overheads, costs of training, etc?) What contribution to profit/savings will that person make?
?The vacancy and the process of filling it offers an opportunity to present the organization to a wider audience through press advertising. This may indicate success and expansion. It may tell of instability because of people leaving. Placing an advertisement gives information to competitors. If confidentiality is required, use a recruitment agency without carrying the company name.
The Application Form as a Test
The application form requires ability in filling it in. It is a test of handwriting, literacy, and being meticulous. The content must be composed. Questions may be asked which require an explanatory narrative. Even for manual work situations the recruiter must know that the candidate has filled out the application form personally, not by a third party.
If another unknown person has completed it – what additional test will the recruiter use to ascertain if the candidate can read and write? Is this a job requirement for health and safety purposes?
Selection Interview Purposes
The interview is an examination, a face-to-face encounter in which each side seeks to make a decision about the other. The employer is in the dominant position. Even where the short-list is very short and the employer is desperate to fill the post, it is unlikely that an applicant perceived as being a rogue or maverick will be employed. The employer at all times will seek to protect his interests.
The face-to-face selection interview is the traditional method, yet it is fraught with the problems of subjectivity, interpersonal judgment, interpretation and mis-interpretation.
The technical and social purposes of the interview are as follows:
?For interviewers. To gather further information about candidate competence and qualities to make a judgment about the person in relation to the job and the job to the person.
If there is a weak candidate short-list and none fit the job’s requirements, then interviewers need the confidence to start again. This of course involves costs. It is better to incur these costs than to employ unsuitable, inexperienced people for whom there may be a high probability of them being under-performance on in the job. The rule for interviewers is to avoid the ?zombie theory of recruitment (If they breath, take?em!)?.
?For applicants. Where there is a competitive labor market (lots of demanding jobs to be filled but few candidates with the right ability and experience ready to move, then the candidate may not be desperate for the job. Confident candidates will bide their time to find the right job and will come to the interview(s) seeking more information.
?Is the company’s performance, strategy, product, management style and organizational climate in line with their needs and expectations? How do they feel about joining an ailing company, one that faces turbulence?
?What are the ambiguities, potential conflicts and stresses in the job role? Does it offer the right conditions – stability, predictability, society, and reward opportunities (material and non-material rewards).
?Will the candidate be able to accommodate himself to the peculiarities and peccadillos of those already working for the firm (his boss/the team).
?The candidate has a private life. How will the job affect this? (job move, good local schools for the kids, housing and other life-style issues).
?Public relations. There is a public relations side to recruitment – certainly for household name and local employers – and that is to treat applicants with respect and courtesy. Even applicants who are rejected, when reflecting, need to be able to say that they were treated well, and were given every opportunity to present themselves to a good advantage. Every candidate needs to feel he has been treated fairly and equitably and that the interviewers made their judgments on the basis of objective criteria and with the fullest information at hand.
Rites and Rituals to Enter the Temple
The interview is a rite of passage and initiation. Applicants desire membership and will jump through hoops to be found acceptable and to be given admittance.
?They seek to join/enter or rise within, a social framework.
?Deferential behavior is required for upward mobility into desired circles and involves proper performance and the maintenance of front.