Perception of employer brand and recruitment process

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH

The Research can be define as something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their Knowledge. The two key phrases in this definition are “systematic” & “to find out things”. That means there are multiplicity of possible purpose to conduct a research & that should be based on a logical relationship by using methods to collect data and the results are argue in a meaningful way, it should not be just a beliefs.

There is no one best way for undertaking all research. The choice of what to research is influenced by the topic that excite you, and the way you collect & analysing your data by the skills you have or are able to develop. But a research should have following characteristics,

1. Data are collected systematically

2. Data are interpreted systematically

3. There is no clear purpose: to find things out

Research can also represent as a Multi stage process which must follow in order to undertake and complete the research project. Research process can be viewed as a system which can further be broken down into separate stages. The specific number of stages varies, but they usually include formulating & classifying a topic, reviewing the literature, designing the research, collecting data, analyzing data & writing up. Theoretically research process is rational & straightforward. But in reality considerably messier, probably revisit each stage more than once.

BACKGROUND

Purchase

EXTERNAL Repurchase

Recommend

External

BRAND

Internal Attract

INTERNAL Retain

Motivate

Every organization has both external and internal brand. However, business has focused almost exclusively on consumer (external branding). The importance of external branding is to protect customer loyalty. To be success in external brand, internal branding is also an important driver.

Simply put, your employer brand is the perception the world has about your company as a good or bad place to work. Having a good employer brand means your company is perceived as an employer of choice, known in your industry and region as a highly desirable place to work.

Having a poor employer brand could mean losing star performers in 2011 and experiencing an uphill climb to replace them. Because there’s a direct impact on the employer brand and employee trust. Organizational profit and sustainability are influenced by perceptions of the employer brand, both internally and externally. Further, the reputation of the organization directly influences employee trust and productivity. Attainment of high level performance through productivity and efficiency has always been an Organizational goal of high priority. To gain employee trust & high productivity in an organization every organization places a considerable reliance on their individual employee performance.

The employer brand also helps to attracts talent/skilled candidates. Taking actions to maintain and/or restore employee trust in the company, and is made more challenging by difficult economic times. The first place where we consider employee performance is the Recruitment & selection process. Shortage of skills & use of new technology are putting considerable pressure on how employers go about recruitment & selection staff. It is important that the organization have a right person on the right job. In other words, a satisfied individual employee and his/her commitment to words the organization is critical for the successfulness of the organization.

RESEARCH QUESTION

To gain high productivity in an organization every organization places a considerable reliance on their individual employee performance In other words, a satisfied individual employee and his/her commitment to words the organization is critical for the successfulness of the organization. So it is important that the organization have the “right person on the right job”. Therefore Recruitment & selection process place a vital role in an organization. Shortage of skills & use of new technology are putting considerable pressure on how employers go about recruitment & selection staff.

Therefore the research problem of this study is that,

Are there an impact about “The perception of employer brand in an organization & its impact towards organizations Recruitment & Selection process?”

AIMS & OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH

Once the need for research information has been clearly defined, the researcher must specify the

research objectives. Objectives should pursue in order to answer the research questions. Maylor & Blackman suggest that for a research objective should fulfill the SMART test & answer the question as “Why is this project being conducted?”

It is evidenced by the empirical research literature that there is a relationship between employer brand in an organization and recruitment and selection processes. This research is aimed to assess the validity of this relationship from local working environment.

Research objectives:

Analyze the level of effectiveness of employer brand in an organization for recruitment & selection.

Critically evaluate employee perception of branded organizations.

Investigate the influence of employer brand when choosing a job

………………………………….

Critically evaluate employee effectiveness of branded organization to selecting the best candidates

Critically evaluate the perception of candidates profile to match with defined Job Requirement and selection processes.

Critically evaluate the selecting right mix of employees to aligning with the culture of branded organization. 

Newspapers is also a good source to gather information regarding topical events which are happening in market about the employer brand. In earlier issues with the newspapers are more difficult to access as they are usually stored on microfilm located using printed indexes. But with the new technology most of the newspapers can be accessed using World Wide Web. However need to be careful, as newspapers may contain bias in their coverage, be it political,

geographical or personal. Report can also be inaccurate and you may not pick up any subsequent amendments.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The foundation of the research is literature, therefore in this part major theoretical development of concepts involve in problem statement of the study. Literature should be critically reviewed by aim at the research objective. Although the researcher should review the literature before collecting data it directly depends on the research methodology used.

When analyzing the literature the important factor is to identify the sources to gather data.

The literature sources available to develop a good understanding about the research can be divided into three categories. It’s namely Primary, Secondary & tertiary.

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Reports

Books

Indexes

Theses

Journals

Abstracts

Emails

Newspapers

Catalogues

Conference Proceedings

Some Government Publications

Encyclopaedias

Company Reports

Dictionaries

Unpublished manuscript sources

Bibliographies

Some Government Publications

Citation Indexes

The successfulness of the research is mainly dependent on the knowledge that the researcher has regarding the employer brand in the recruitment & selection process of an organization. In this research, the researcher has used three types of literature sources. They are namely books, Magazines and World Wide Web related to HRM & Employer Branding.

Books

Books are written for a specific audience and some of the books aimed at academic market with a theoretical slant. The materials in the book are usually presented in a more ordered & accessible manner than in journals it will be easy for the researcher, but a drawback of using books can be the information in it can be outdated.

Journals

Journals are a vital literature source, its periodicals & published on regular basics. Academic journals regarding employer brand & its impact towards R & S process will be most useful for this research project, because prior to the publication of academic journals quality & stability is assessed & evaluated by peers. Therefore the information in it is more accurate. Professional journals also an important source to gather information regarding employer brand, because it’s produced by members of the organizations & contain of it is a mix of news related items & articles. The disadvantage of articles in professional journals can be biased towards their author’s attitudes about organization culture. We can gather information regarding employer brands in and organizations from Trade journals as well. Trade journals are published by trade organizations, it fulfill a similar function to professional journals & aims at particular industries or trade.

Leadership teams should pay more attention to the management of their employer brand as a potential source of differentiation. (By Geoff Dodds of The Business Development Practice (Article 2009)) Since employer brand have a direct impact towards the organizational profit and sustainability. If the employees of the organization are not satisfied their efficiently level will be reduced this will directly affect the productivity of the organization and the quality of the product.

World Wide Web

The main reason for selecting World Wide Web is easily accessible and can be access vast area within a short time period. The information in the World Wide Web may not be 100% accurate & also there may be some security issues when dealing with the confidential information.

THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Identify the research methodology is a core segment in a research. Research methodology will allow the researcher to identify the techniques and ways available to conduct the research. Also it allows organizing the activities of the research and to collect the necessary data. Having a proper research methodology will allow to follow a logical and proper structure.

There are two types of research methodologies. They are,

Deductive methodology

Inductive methodology

Deductive Methodology

This research will by relying on a scientific method of investigation. A hypothesis is an expected result, which is based upon some sort of idea of what the outcome possibly will be. One of the features of the deductive theory is that the hypothesis is testable, with the primary aim of either supporting or refuting the hypothesis.

Conceptual Model

Freedom on the job

Work challenging

Recruitments & Selection

Process

Promotions

Employer

Brand

Retention

Pay for the job

Feedback of the Performance

Prestige of the job inside/outside the organization

Formulation of hypothesis

Hypothesis has derived on the basis of the literature review on the topic of “the perception of employer brand in an organisation and the extent to which it could be used to enhance recruitment and selection processes”.

Hypothesis:

H1 There is a positive relationship between the employer brand in an organization and recruitment and selection processes.

Positive attitude of its employees about employer brand leads to high level of effectiveness in its employees.

Employee reputation of the organization directly influences employee trust and productivity. 

Job satisfaction & perception of the employees towards the organization is influenced by various job related factors. In this study the following job facets are to be identified to determined employees satisfaction towards their job & employee perceptions.

Moderate variables – Factors affecting the perception of employer brand in an organization

Freedom on the job / Working independently

Opportunities to do challenging work

Feedback of the performance

Opportunities for promotions /growth

Prestige of the job inside/Outside the organization

Pay for the job

Amount of the respect and fair treatment

Variety on the job

The above job factors are derived from the job content & context.

As far as the perception of employer brand in an organisation and the extent to which it could be used to enhance recruitment and selection processes are concern two type are con

Type of research Methodology

Primary Data & Secondary data

In order to carry out this research, primary or secondary data will be used. Whether we use one or both the methods will depend largely on the research question and the availability of these data sources.

Secondary data can be defined as data gathered by others or from other studies. In general gathering secondary data is cost effective and less time consuming than primary data. Secondary data can be collect earlier than primary data is gathered, and it will help to determine the course by which primary data is pursued. This type of data can be used as the background information about specific research, it may also answer some specific research questions but since secondary data was collected for another purpose it may not address the new research question adequately. In today’s world with the effect growing technology secondary data are available from numerous sources.

Primary data can be defined as the data which collected by the researcher to address the current research question. Types of primary data include demographics, lifestyle, behavior, attitude, knowledge, satisfaction, motivation & intention.

Demographic data includes – Employee brand regarding employees, such as sex, age, income, level of education etc.

Lifestyle – candidates respondent’s activities, interest and opinions regarding the job

Behavior – what is the candidatures respond

Attitude – Opinion & the View about things events & idea

Knowledge – degree to which the candidate aware of the employee brand of the organization

Motivation – reasons behind the applicant behavior

Intention – applicants future behavior

Sample

This research is mainly carried out based on primary data. To analyse the research problem total number of two hundred and fifty applicants will be selected from ten organizations limited in one industry. (Manufacturing Industry) .Two employee categories will be considered as Managers & Non- Managers based on their experience & education level. All respondents will be selected from random basis. Further respondents will be selected by 10 % of existing numbers of employees in each category of in each organization.

Data Collection Techniques

Primary data can be collected through communication and observation.

Communication requires direct questions – Conducted through face to face interviews or telephone survey. (i.e. Questionnaire)

Observation – Direct recording of respondent behavior

Surveys are probably the most common design in business research. In this study a filed survey will be conducted. Filed studies are realistic because they study the phenomenon in their natural setting. Primary data pertaining to attitude related with employer brand through Job satisfaction, rewards, age, sex, knowledge & experience of employees will be collected. In order to do that, the principle method of data collection will be conducted through questionnaires. The questionnaires method is chosen as it affords the advantages of speed, cost & versatility.

In this study impact of employer brand towards the recruitment & selection process will be measured by a questionnaire.

In the questionnaire the respondent/candidate are required to indicate their rating on the given statement by using five points. This scale ranging from very low to very high. The interpretation of this scale will find out the level of relationship between the employer brand in an organization and recruitment and selection processes.

Advantage & disadvantage of using questionnaires

The surveying method used with people who directly involve in the issues. It can investigate candidates experience in their day to day setting. By using a survey questionnaire, researcher is not distributing or controlling the normal routing of a setting.

Disadvantage of using a questionnaire is that it keeps the researcher at a distance from the respondents, so that opportunities to go back and check and answer or explain the answer further denied. It’s another reason for make a questions carefully in order to ensure the quality of responses meet with the researcher’s expectations.

Developing the questionnaire

It’s better to develop the questionnaire through brainstorm ideas about the employer branding & its impact towards recruitment & selection process. It’s a random process; questions will be modified & placed in order afterwards. Using this method will end up with too many questions some of the questions can be rejected immediately. After discarding the obvious ones, the remaining will be remaining will be checked to see whether there is any improvements could be made to the wordings with the view to achieve exactly and unambiguous meaning. Again, each question will study separately to check whether it is need to be amended.

Analysis and Results

In this study, the main research question going to be addressed will be the impact of employer brand in an organization and its effect to the recruitment & selection processes in privet sector organizations in Sri Lanka. The co efficient of co relation will be calculated by using level of perception (recruitment & selection processes) as the “X” – Variable and employer brand as “Y” – Variable. The coefficient of correlation can be calculated separately for Managers & Non – Mangers. It will be identified whether there is a positive and significant relationship between the employer brand in an organization and recruitment and selection processes.

The researcher will use the statistical technique call paired comparison of mean to determine the perception about employer brand towards recruitment & selection process is derived from intrinsic rewards or extrinsic rewards. For the statistical test, it is hypothesized that Employer brand is influence more by intrinsic rewards that Extrinsic rewards for managers, For Non Managers it is hypothesized that Employer brand is influence more by extrinsic rewards than Intrinsic Rewards.

The average level of perception on Employer brand will be determined by the summation of total scores, dividing by number of employees in each category. Level of perception & level of recruitment & selection will be categorized as high, medium & low. The analyzed data will show that average level of Employer brand & recruitment & selection for Managers & Non Mangers category is high or low. Further level perception (Employer brand) & level of effect in the recruitment & selection will also be calculated.

Data will also be analyze to find out , positive relationship between the employer brand in an organization and recruitment and selection processes, which is a null hypothesis. The data will also be analyzed to determine the employer brand with recruitment & selection.

Discussion & Conclusion

It is assumed that the following conclusions could be arrived from the study, which would be turn to give some insight to the managers to improve the level of employer brand in an organization because it effects the employee attraction & retention.

Perception about employer brand

Through analysis of data, researcher will identify whether there is a positive or negative relationship perception of employer brand & recruitment & selection process in an organization. Thereby arriving at the conclusion, which would elaborate the impact of job satisfaction of employee’s impact to the employer brand, and how that will effect to the recruitment & selection process of and organization.

Through coefficient of co-relation calculations it will be identified whether there is a positive or negative relationship between perception of Employer brand and recruitment & selection process.

Satisfaction of reward

By analyzing data it will be further evaluated employer brand is mainly related to job satisfaction of the employees. Whether the managerial level peoples job satisfaction mainly from intrinsic rewards than extrinsic reward. Normally managerial level people are highly educated therefore they have a favorable attitude towards their growth. Base on these it will be conclude that employees who are high level or low level their perception towards the employer brand is more relied on intrinsic reward.

By analyzing data researcher will arrive at the conclusion, the employees who are in high competitive industry are more satisfied with their job and they have positive attitude towards their job . It will increase the productivity & profitability of the company.

Therefore by maintain high employer brand should select the qualified candidates to do their job in a effective way.

Suggestions & Recommendations

Satisfied employees have positive attitude regarding their jobs. Satisfied workers are tend to attend to work on time , concern about the given targets, work efficiently & effectively ,loyalty & commitment to the job, less dependability, suggest new ideas, tend to improve knowledge, willing to accept more responsibilities. Positive attitude about the job will increase employer brand in and organization. Satisfied employees will talk good about the company. This will direct to effect to attract qualified new candidates to the company and to retain the existing candidates. Such a situation is good for an organization, better performance can be expected. Relationship between satisfaction and performance is positive and significant. But some organization do not concern about the employer brand. This aspect should be more consider by the managers in order to improve performance.

Through the finding of the study , hypothesis or the research question is to be validated or rejected and the recommendation are to be made as to how managers should plan organizational reward systems, should they give priority to only for extensic reward or intrinsic reward. Such as Opportunity for achievement, Giving of challenging responsibility , Opportunity for advancement, Opportunity for growth in stature and peer recognition etc.

THE ETHICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE RESEARCH

Ethics means making distinction between what we can consider right & what can be considered

wrong. In the context of research, ethical issues take a major role. Researcher should address ethical issues in order to avoid any conflicts in the report. When conducting a research the researcher should face ethical issues under following stages,

Ethical Issues

Examples

The Nature of the research

· Suitability of the study

· Obligations of and to clients

Conducting the research

· Evidence collection methods

· Integrity of the evidence

· Honesty & trust

Processing the Data

· Use of human subjects

· Data accuracy

· Data protection

· Sampling

Reporting the research

· Publication

· Plagiarism

· Referencing

· Intellectual property

· Assistance from others

· Misrepresentation of the work done

When conducting this research regarding “Employer brand in the recruitment & selection process of an organization” some of the ethical issues that the researcher has to concentrated are as follows.

Conducting the research

The voluntary participation requires that if the candidates refuse to participate for the interview, the researcher cannot force him/her to participating in research. When conducting face to face interviews the interviewer should avoid over zealous questioning and pressing the participant for a response. Doing so may make the situation stressful for the participant he/she may be decline to respond to any question. Prior to start the interview; the interviewer should clearly inform the interview participant that they have the right to decline to respond to any question.

2. Whether the interview is face to face or using a telephone it would also be unethical to attempt to prolong the discussion when it is apparent that participant needs to attend to the next part of their day’s schedule.

The researcher should not ask them to participate in anything that will cause harm or intrude on their privacy. Thought the candidate take part in your research they have the right to withdraws as participants, and that they may decline to take part in a particular aspect of your research.

Processing the Data

1. The researcher should maintenance of the confidentiality of data provided by individuals or identifiable participants in their interview and their anonymity. Identified information should not be made available to anyone who is not directly involved in the study. Once promises about confidentiality and anonymity have been given, it is of great importance to make sure that these are maintained.

Reporting the research

The maintenance of the research objectivity will be vital during the analysis stage, to make sure that researcher do not misrepresent the data collected which have been collected by conducting the interviews & from the literature review.

2. When thinking about avoiding harm, many researchers forget about themselves. The possibility of harm to the researcher is an important ethical issue which the researcher should not ignore. This important with regard to this is not divulging personal information about the researcher such as researcher’s home address or telephone number.

LIMITATIONS TO THE RESEARCH

Limitations are some difficulties that hamper our schedule research report.

Limitation of related with the organization

The Candidates/employees could be too busy with their work, thus may

not have sufficient time to fulfill our queries.

Difficulty in collecting data

Majority of the employees in the organization were not well known about all information that we asked them. Many of them also hesitated to answer the questions. That hampered the information collection.

Confidential data

Researcher got some confidential data about organizations which is not possible to disclose publicly, therefore those data and information had to be ignored for this report.

Shortage of time

The most important limiting factor in a research is the time constraint, in which the researcher has to prepare a questionnaire and get the feedback on time to analyze and conclude with in the time.

EMPLOYMENT BRANDING

Turnover of staff is expensive and undermines an organisation’s ability to establish a stable workforce – vitally important during periods of change.  With competition for the right people increasingly tough, companies can’t afford to let their competitors beat them to the market for talent.

An effective employment brand will:

Reduce the recruitment costs associated with high turnover.

Reduce short-term absenteeism.

Free managers’ time. Effort spent on recruitment, induction and exit interviews can be channeled back into achieving business goals.

Increase employees’ motivation, productivity and job satisfaction. Employees will be more likely to tell people that theirs is a great place to work and the best people are more likely to stay.

Consolidate the company image with employees, customers and shareholders and create the loyalty factor.  Increases the retention of knowledge within the organization ensuring better service for customers and better results for shareholders.

Provide guidelines and tools, based on internal research, which allow tailoring of messages to different audiences.

Develop integrated and credible communications with consistent, crystal clear messages for both existing and potential employees

The investment in research that underpins employment brand is a tiny percentage of the savings it will earn the company. It also ensures that recruitment budget is spent in the most effective way.

APPENDIX 01

Job descriptions

A documented J.D. should include:

The title of the job description – The actual name of the role. It is important to identify every role: Operational Manager, Administrative Secretary, Water Girl etc.

Subjection – To which role, the function is subjected to. To whom must he report at the end of the day? Or in other word who can shout at him when he is making a mess and who is responsible for his vacations.

Specifications of responsibilities – What are the activities that combine the function’s working day. What must he does every day: typing information to the computer, answering telephone calls, fixing malfunctions, surfing the internet etc.

Specifications of authorities -Where and when the function is authorized to make a decision and in which subjects: submitting price quotations, approving payments, approving credits etc.

External qualification – What are the external qualifications required for the job: engineer, electronic technician, certified fireman, certified pilot etc.

Internal qualification – What are the internal qualifications required for the job: working procedure training, ERP system training, lunch break hours, leisure activities etc. The ISO 9001 standard handles this subject with much care. We will discuss this in details in our next session. 

APPENDIX 02

Intrinsic Rewards

Outcome that gives an individual internal (personal) satisfaction such as that derived from a job well done.

As we’ve noted previously

Rewards may be “intrinsic”

Opportunity for achievement

Giving of challenging responsibility

Opportunity for advancement

Opportunity for growth in stature and peer recognition

Each of these must be

Timely, appropriate, worthwhile, offered sincerely

And done in public!

Extrinsic rewards are said to be

A positive outcome that is obtained by performing work but which is separate from and not inherent to the work task. The most obvious extrinsic rewards are the pay and benefits that workers receive in return for work, though others might include praise from superiors and a sense of career progression.

Pay

Working environment or conditions

Status

Security