The Recruitment And Selection Process Business Essay

In this report the topic that will be discussed is The Recruitment and Selection process and how it has moved on from the days of newspaper ads and block interviews. The introduction of the report will discuss recruitment and selection and the methods of recruitment and selection. The main body of the report will focus on companies today, and how they are recruiting and selecting with more innovative approaches that many companies are beginning to use in 2013. Then in the report there will be a section on some weaknesses about the ways in which companies are beginning to recruit and select. To conclude the report I will sum up everything on the topic of recruitment and selection and state my opinion.

Recruitment and selection is one of the many roles played by a human resource manager in an organisation. In the human resource department they deal with what positions need to be filled, they take the possible candidates through a series of interviews, select the best candidate for the job, the training of the employees, they also tell the employees all about the services they offer and they make sure that the employees and the organisation are highly motivated. Organisations all over the world have realized that human resources is a very valuable asset to them and therefore necessary measures have been put in place to make sure that the organisation will gain and keep a highly skilled workforce which would guarantee that the organisation manage a competitive advantage over its competitors (Jones & George, 2007).

In recruiting and selecting it is very important to have a clear job description and personal specification. A job description will entail what the title of the job is, to whom the job holder will be responsible and for whom they will be responsible too. It will also entail what their roles and responsibilities will be. A person specification will look for what skills and characteristics the applicants will need for the job. When applying the two together they provide the foundation for a job advertisement.

Recruitment is the process in which you source possible applicants for a job. The manager who is in charge of hiring the applicants can use the likes of job boards, social networking sites, recruitment programmes that may be linked with colleges and possibly job fairs. These may be used by companies to create an interest in jobs that are available in a certain company (Peterson, J. 2013).

Selection is the process where when all the candidates have been selected the group of candidates will be broken down and one out of all of them will be selected for the job. This process may and can require a couple of different interviews and assessments of the applicant’s personality (Peterson, J. 2013).

For the selection of a candidate, many organisations use a range of different tools and technologies to measure a candidate’s abilities and skills, allowing them to successfully choose the most qualified candidates that would benefit the company most to proceed to the interview process. By assessing a candidate’s skills this will enable the organisation to look into different qualifications within the interview.”(Human Resource Management in Ireland 3rd edition (2006) Page 119).

As part of the recruitment and selection process, it is very important to assess the candidate’s true interest in the company and their position in the organisation, which can then ensure you are hiring a long-term employee. A good way to retain employees in an organisation is to include things such as telling them about their salary and the benefits that they may offer within the good work environment.

“Today there are many different methods of recruitment such as:

1. Internal methods – e.g. Internal promotion

2. External agencies – e.g. Employment agency

3. Printed media – e.g. National & local newspapers

4. Other media – e.g. Internet, TV

5. Education Liaison – e.g. Careers fairs

6. Professional contracts – e.g. Conferences, trade unions

7. Other methods – e.g. Past applicants, word of mouth”

(Noel Harvey – Lecture slides)

There are a few different selection processes, which are as follows:

“The interview – The objective of this, is to meet the candidate face to face to see if they are the right person for the job, to record some answers to critical incident-type questions, to discuss contractual terms and conditions etc.

Psychometric tests – Standardised test of performance attitudes or personality. There are a few different types for example: cognitive ability, personality, attitudes and values, and career choice and guidance. These tests can either precede or follow interview stage. Results can form basis of further interview questions, or interview can be used to feedback test results.

Assessment centre’s – Multiple-method design, usually incorporating testing, interviews, and work sample exercises, where candidates are tested by observers on job-relevant dimensions. Can last from 1-5 days. These are usually the final stage of assessment to reach outcome decisions. 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, and multiple assessments by several assessors over several exercises can eliminate some individual biases associated with one-to-one interviews.”(Human Resource Management in Ireland 3rd edition (2006) Page 120)

It is essential to recruit and select employees who are fully committed to the aims and objectives of the organisation. An employee who believes in what the company is about and what it wants to achieve, will try their best to accomplish the company’s goals. They will want the company to be successful, and will feel the sense of achievement from being part of the company’s success. By hiring the right high quality employees for the job, with the right qualifications and skills, who are determined to succeed, this will result in increased levels of organisation performance. Every company has recruitment and selection processes in place to hire their employees, for example Boston Scientific, ESB, Google, and Dunne’s Stores etc.

In recruiting today we are now in an era where technology rules. The whole process of the recruitment and selection has and is continuously changing and evolving as the years go by. Its changing as technology is changing. As stated in paragraphs above recruitment and selection strategies can vary but now employers are turning to more efficient, effective and modern ways of recruiting staff. Methods today are changing drastically for not just the employer but the employee too.

Online recruitment is the way forward and in 2013 it’s what most companies are using to recruit and select. Online recruitment uses the power of the internet to match people to jobs (George Finnegan- Lecture slides). Some examples of the online recruitment methods are using social networking sites like Facebook and twitter, job boards and even mobile apps.

Research shows that 2012 was the year for workforce innovation; companies were testing in the use of social media in branding and marketing their organisations. But in 2013 research has shown that now companies are taking social further and that this year 2013 will be the year of social HR, as many organisations are integrating with social technology to recruit, develop and engage employees (Meister. J, 2013).

Employers have begun to find out more about who they may be recruiting and selecting by going online. The Death of the CV, in 2013 the traditional CV is being replaced by a person’s personal brand and how they are portrayed online. Now that times have changed employers are checking out potential candidates backgrounds before they are even interviewed. The manager that is going to hire you will definitely look into some of the following sources about a potential employee. (Meister. J, 2013).

They will check your Facebook profile.

They will enter your name into Google and Bing to see what may come up.

They will check up on your twitter account to see how many followers you have and to look through your tweets.

They will check your LinkedIn profile, they will look into the quality and size of it community.

They will also check your recommendations on your LinkedIn profile.

Another innovative approach online that some employers are taking in recruiting and selecting candidates is through Gamification. This process is edging its way in through the back door. Here is an example of how the Marriott use it as a method of recruiting and selecting.

The Marriott Hotel have come up with a hotel-themed game that is played online, it’s quite similar to Farmville. In this game the players (potential candidates) have to play and manage the responsibilities if they were to be an actual manager in a kitchen. The candidate playing the game will get to know a bit about the industry, also there is a reward system in place to make it more realistic for the candidates. The basis behind the game is first of all the Marriott’s name is growing outside the market, and the younger generation coming up they are finding new ways to interest them in careers in hospitality. Gamification is now a popular tool being used in the recruitment process because it attracts possible candidates through these social games on Facebook and LinkedIn. The game My Marriot on Facebook is an opportunity for any company to use a social network like these as a platform to engage global perspective new hires and show them what it could be like to work for them in there company (Meister. J, 2012).

Another innovative approach used online to recruit is using YouTube a social media site it a very effective tool for recruiting employees today. It is used by managers who are hiring. They may talk about a role that they are looking to fill in their team. When using this method of recruitment it means that anybody who is a candidate for the job can get the chance to see where they might be working, who they may be working for and they may be working with.

Another approach online that is being taken is RSS (really simple syndication). This website is used by applicants. It’s a website that keeps potential applicants up to date with any jobs that have been posted online. There is a daily update about the posting of jobs without the applicant even having to return to the website. When the website is set up the RSS reader will continuously check websites for any new and available jobs that may have been posted online. It will then proceed to show these jobs to the applicant without them having to do a thing.

This section of the report will discuss some of the disadvantages of online recruitment. Today online recruitment and selection is one of the most popular methods with most companies and it is the way forward in this process. There can also be some disadvantages to this method.

The first disadvantage may be the high volume of responses to the job because now everyone around the world is able to gain internet access so easily they could see the job advertisement online. Many unqualified may apply for the job this may be time consuming for a company to go through each applicant. To avoid this happening make sure the job advertisement is specific to exactly what you are looking for.

Another disadvantage is online recruiting is too impersonal because a lot of it involves emailing and telephone interviews this can make it come across as too impersonal. The employer may not get the chance to interview the possible candidate multiple times; this makes it hard for the employer to determine if the candidate would be correct for the job and for the company and its culture.

Another disadvantage of online recruitment is security problems that may come about with the internet. People can create spams and fake profiles.

Here are some of the more innovative approaches being taken by companies in 2013 towards filling vacancies in an organisation. These recruitment sources have become very popular also. This section of the report will discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of these different recruitment methods.

Companies have now begun to use airplane banners in recruiting. The advantage of these is that it will grasp the attention of potential applicants. Although some may think it is an unprofessional approach even slightly intrusive.

Companies have also begun to hang large banners and signs. The advantage of these banners is that they are cheap making them cost effective. But also they may be considered as an unprofessional approach and a busy location is always needed.

Bill bored advertising is now another popular recruitment method. Its advantage is it’s a high volume attention grabber but it’s unable to display a large amount of information this could come as a disadvantage.

Another popular recruitment method that is now being used is companies have begun to use competitions to recruit. The advantage of this would be the opportunity to evaluate skills before extending the job offer. It may be very time consuming though.

The use of kiosks makes it easy for the person to apply for the job. The disadvantage of kiosks would be the unmonitored application flow.

Many companies are now using movie ads because they attract people who are currently looking for a job. The disadvantage is that these ads may be intrusive and disturbing.

Another recruitment method would be on site recruitment. Here the company can reach a wide variety and audience of people; it also saves time and deals with good public relations. There would be a disadvantage that it would deal with lots of unqualified applicants.

To conclude this essay it entails a thorough analysis and discussion and on what the recruitment and selection process is and how it is one of the many roles played by a human resource manager. There is a definition of what recruitment is and what selection is and how they come together as a process. In the report it states many different methods of recruitment and different selection processes. It discusses why it is so essential to recruit and select employees who are fully committed.

The report then goes on to discuss the innovative approaches that are now being used by companies in recruiting and selecting. This was the primary aim of the report. The main one and most popular being online recruitment. It discusses firstly how employers are now before interviewing possible candidate’s, finding out more about these candidates online. Then the report discusses a new innovative approach called gamification that is starting to become popular and how companies are using it as a tool for recruiting. The report also states some of the disadvantages of online recruitment.

After discussing the innovative online approaches of recruitment and selection in the report, there is then a few other examples of innovative approaches that are being used in recruitment and selection in 2013. Here the advantages and disadvantages are discussed of each.

In my opinion after researching this topic on recruitment and selection it gave me a better understanding and insight into how companies are going about recruiting and selecting today. As technology is evolving so are the methods and processes of recruitment and selection. In an article that was discussed in the report it stated that 2013 will be the year of social HR, as many organisations are integrating with social technology to recruit, develop and engage employees. The further I researched the more true this statement became.

I feel after doing this research that online recruitment will be how all companies will be recruiting and selecting within the next few years. As technology gets more innovative so will the approaches to how companies will recruit and select. There where both pros and cons to online recruitment but within the next year I feel that any negative of online recruitment will be flushed out.

There is no problem with using the old methods of recruitment and selection but as the new generation workforce coming up now they should be mostly aware and comfortable with the online methods that they are going to come across as they begin to look for employment.