Recruitment Selection Process

In this report the topic that will be discussed is the Recruitment & Selection process and some of the more innovative approaches being taken by companies in 2013 towards filling vacancies. Recruitment can be defined as “the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organisation” and selection the “process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons more likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.” (Bratton & Gold, 2007) In simper terms recruitment deals with attracting a group of potential candidates to apply for a vacancy; Selection is a process of choosing the most suitable candidate from the pool identified through recruitment.

People are a company’s most important asset. Your employees are the face of your business and in today’s competitive environment making the right recruitment and selection choices is crucial to the success of your business. Choosing the best most suitable applicant to join the organisation is a key stage in developing an effective workforce. Recruitment and selection helps ensure that your company is a strong and successful one, by attracting, screening, and securing the best candidates for the position.

Recruitment has many important functions some of these include attracting a pool of suitable applicants for the vacancy, to deter unsuitable candidates from applying and to create a positive image of the company by choosing a suitable applicant, one that will represent the company appropriately.

The methods of recruitment open to a business are often categorised into internal and external recruitment. Internal recruitment is when the business tries to fill the positionfrom within its existing workforce. External recruitment is when the business looks to fill the position from a suitable applicant external to the business. Both internal and external recruitment methods possess advantages and disadvantage to the company.

Internal recruitment is cheaper and quicker to recruit also the people applying are already familiar with the business and how it operates. It can also be seen to be motivating for the current staff if they are competing with each other for a new and often superior position. A negative reaction is also found from internal recruitment as it can sometimes cause resentment amongst candidates not appointed to the new position. Also no new ideas are introduced from outside which can have a damaging effect on the business. If the company carries out external recruitment procedures, it is opening the business to new ideas and people who have a wider range of experience, skills and ideas. Even though the process may be longer and more expensive there is a larger pool of workers from which to find the best candidate. (Riley, 2012)

Some Internal recruitment methods include promoting existing employees to a higher role, a supervisor or manager may make a recommendation of an employee they see suitable for the role. Other methods include succession planning which is a process for identifying and developing internal people with the potential to fill a new role. Transfers have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in the hotel industry, transferring department heads from different locations and departments help save the business both time and money also. Previous applicants or previous employees may also be eligible for the role needing to be filled. Using existing employee contacts can be seen to work also but sometimes a bias opinion may render the recommendation.

Some of the most popular and classic methods of recruitment include Job advertisements which are the most common form of external recruitment. They can be found in many different places and use many different mediums. Some examples include local and national newspapers, notice boards, and recruitment fairs. Advertisement should include some important information relating to the job, job title like pay package, location, job description, how to apply-either by CV or application form.

Companies sometimes use employment and recruitment agencies if they have limited resources themselves. These companies can save a business a huge amount of time and money and general hassle involved with the recruitment and selection of a candidate. These companies normal charge a fee and can be expensive. They also sometimes specialise in a certain areas or industries e.g. www.Hoteljobs.ie have a bank of positions and cvs available in the hospitality industry.

Career fairs can also be a useful tool of recruitment. A career fair can be held independently or sometime sponsored by a college. This can be a great way of recruiting well educated and new graduate to a company.

Once a pool of applicants is created the Selection methods or screening devices which include application blanks, employment interviews, aptitude tests, and personality test are used to narrow down the applicants to find a suitable candidate.

The interview is the most commonly used method of the selection. This method is the exchange of information between an applicant and an interviewer regarding their suitability and interest in a job the employer seeks to fill. the interview give the employer an opportunity to probed more deeply into any information the applicant has already give through the means of a cv or application form. Since interviews can be rather flexible, any missing pieces of information about an applicant can be collected at this time. Even though interview have shown to be a useful tool of selection in the past this method has posed some problems such as pre-existing criteria of what the ideal candidate should be and the comparison of an applicant to this. Also some interviewer may hold a bias opinion on what they are looking for and what they are not. They’re are many different forms an interview can take these include Selection interview this procedure is designed to predict future job performance on the basis of applicants’ oral responses to oral inquiries, a Non-structured interviewer asks questions as they come to mind and there is no set format to follow, a Structured questions interview id when there are specific question drawn up in advance and the responses may be rated.

Another method of selection which proves quite successful is the Psychometric tests. These tests include the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement. These test use measurement instruments such as questionnaires, tests, and personality assessments to determine the above attributes.

An assessment centre is an important tool in the method of selection. It is normally used to see how a candidate will act in a typical situation they will face in their new position. Different test and simulations are carries out in assessment centres; the candidates are observed and evaluated by psychologists and experienced managers. The candidates are also interviewed during the tests. Then an evaluation report is prepared for each candidate. This evaluation report is given to the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee uses this report to select a right person for right post. This method can last from 1-5 days. It is usually in the final stage of assessment. This is a good form of selection because it gives employers the opportunity to observe candidates over a longer period of time in formal and informal situations, (Gunnigle, Heraty, & Morley, 2006)

Despite the rapid pace of change in HR methods, many of the classic recruiting methods still have roles to play in today’s world. Recruitment strategies vary. In the past, a company with job openings placed a classified help wanted ad in the newspaper or stuck a help wanted sign on the door. The world is growing and changing, and so is the world of recruiting. New technologies like the internet and smart phones have made information available to job seekers and employers any time and anywhere. With the increase in technology, it has become easier to approach candidates all over the world.

One of the biggest movements in the recruitment and selection process is the introduction of social networking. Companies are now using social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to both recruit new applicant and in the selection of a new employer. Employers and third-party recruiters can now search these social networking platforms using specific key words to find groups of individuals who meet their pre-defined job criteria, regardless of whether they are currently on the job market. They can also use these sites to advertise any job opportunities they may have available in their businesses. This gives companies a much larger pool of candidates to choose from but also lets them choose the candidate they see as suitable. Social networking sites can also prove quite useful in the screening of new candidates. Doing a basic search of their public activity in cyberspace can be conducted to reveal any potential risks they may create for the employer.

There are many other social networking trends which are set to make huge influences on the future of the recruitment and selection process these include Klout. Klout is the biggest player in the growing world of digital influence at present. Klout measures your influence and ability to drive action on social networks. This site gives an insight into how influential someone is and what they are influential about. It is said that this rating scheme will find a prominent place on your resume. (Meister, 2013)

Although the use of social networks prove an advantage to many companies a recent study in which HR professionals from 20 science companies across the country were interviewed showed, while 70% said that social media is very important for the future of recruitment, only 25% are actively using social media to promote jobs. The reasons for the low use are: Most are not using social media because they find it hard to measure the return on investment for the amount of time they spend on it and haven’t so far been able to justify the time investment. Also from the companies that tried using social media the result was a bigger response from hopeful job candidates but of much lower overall quality. (Gormely, 2013)

Dr. John J. Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University and critic of traditional hiring practices states that “The first rule of recruiting is that the best people already have jobs they like, So you have to find them; they’re not going to find you. It’s amazing that so many companies still use job fairs to recruit talent. Who goes to job fairs? People without jobs! ” . A successful recruitment strategy which has been seen to be doing quite well in the US is “road rally” in which teams of recruiters travelled around different companies and shops looking for suitable candidates. The recruiters spent hours inside stores like Best Buy and Circuit City and restaurants like T.G.I. Friday’s. They walked the aisles, bought merchandise, ordered meals and hunted for employees and managers who stood out by virtue of their energy, enthusiasm and rapport with customers.

“Too many companies focus on industry experience when they recruit,” Dr. John J. Sullivan said. “We’re after certain kinds of people, not people from a certain business. We’ve turned waiters and waitresses into great mortgage bankers. We’ve hired soap-opera actors and electricians. We can teach people about finance. We can’t teach passion, urgency and a willingness to go the extra mile.” (Sullivan, 2013)

Company websites have grown and developed hugely in recent years. Many business are only contactable and only also recruitment through their website. These businesses recruit simply by posting jobs on their website and waiting for applicants to find the job posting and apply. They find don’t need to do anything else as there is such a large volume of people searching for employment. For example, Southwest Airlines had a 4349 job opening in 2011, the company received a staggering 193,636 resumes. Southwest Airlines has a Careers section on the company’s website where it has information on jobs, benefits, the company culture, internships. Applicants can apply here by uploading, copying and pasting, or using the resume wizard to get their resume into Southwest’s applicant systems.

An new style of recruitment which is seeing to become more popular with the recruitment and selection. Rather than a formal interview, candidates will be asked to apply for the jobs with a personal sales pitch, in the style of the Apprentice TV show. This style is in play in A newly formed software company in Belfast. They are using the unusual job application process in a bid to recruit a 20-strong sales team. Mr McCaul a spokesperson for the company said: “This is a unique way of hiring staff but this is a chance for those people who may have a lack of experience in their CV, struggled in interviews, or for one reason or another, find themselves unemployed at the minute”. Applicants were asked to submit their CV to Dealtronic and a selection of successful candidates that they feel suitable for the position will be invited to pitch their own credentials as a potential sales representative in front of a panel of three judges that will include Mr McCaul.

PricewaterhouseCoopers which a firm in Ireland that provides integrated Audit, Tax and Advisory services across all industries in Ireland has taken a lead from Google in unconvential and innovative ways in which they recruit and select their employees. PwC has been known to use Lego when recruiting at British universities. The company asks it potential recruits build a tower using the smallest number of bricks.

In South Korea a company has been noted that it gets recruits to climb a hill, in order to identify potential leaders and see how people will react in given situations. The British hardware company B&Q was criticised in early 2007 when potential recruits were asked to dance to a Jackson Five song. While the union said the practice was “demeaning and irrelevant”, the company said it was “to make sure candidates were relaxed before the interview process.” Nicola Monson, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), in London, supported the company on this occasion, saying, “Companies are beginning to look further than just the skills and competencies to do the job”.