Recruitment and selection Essay Example for Free

Recruitment and selection Essay Vacancies for jobs exist in businesses for one of the reasons below: A new job becomes available because of the expansion of the organisation. When the economy is growing and people are becoming better off organisations take advantage of that and expand their operations. To do this they may take on extra employees. This is more likely to create new jobs, preferring instead to use other methods listed below under alternatives to filling a vacancy. Someone in the organisation has retired Someone has been dismissed Internal promotions have occurred- the vacancy arises because the previous holder has been given a better job either in the same business or establishment. This is dealt with below under filling the vacancy- internal candidates. Someone has died- Some employees may die during their working lives. There is a restructuring of the business, which means there are gaps to be filled in the organisation Someone has left because they have found a better one or dont like there job. Alternatives to filling a vacancy Human resources management departments are under constant pressure to justify the filling of a vacancy because it will save the organisation money if they do not. There are several alternatives to filling a vacancy, all with benefits and all with disadvantages too: overtime by the remaining employees restructuring of the work employing part-time staff more use of machinery/technology At this critical stage it is important that the human resources manager looks critically at the job description and person specification for this vacancy. From these documents (examined later in this chapter) it will be possible to assess how far it is practical to rely on these options instead of the filling the vacancy. Read more:Â  Recruitment and Selection Strategies Finding applicants If the human resources manager, after consideration of alternatives examined above, decides that the vacancy will need filling, then the next stage will be where to look for candidates. There are only two sources of candidate- internal and external. Internal candidates Unless a vacancy is for the lowest grade job possible, there will be internal candidates who are interested in the vacancy for promotion. Internal promotion is an important method of motivating employees and is identified by several writers as a feature of a best practise employer (i.e. a good employer who tries to do everything properly). Advantages to the employer of internal appointments An organisation with a reputation for internal advancement will find it easier to motivate staff, whereas in organisations where internal advancement is rare, staff will be less committed to the work and may be preoccupied with external job applications. The organisation will attract better candidates if they see there is a future career in it. Many candidates will be local people who have bought homes there, have children at local schools and husbands/wives in other local jobs. Internal candidates know the business and what will be expected of them, and they can become effective in the new job very quickly. Although there is bound to be bitterness from other internal applications who do not get the job, they will at least feel that there will be another career opportunities in the organisations and that they will get promotion later on. The organisation will not need to rely upon external references when choosing from internal applicants accurate information will be available from departmental heads and other colleague. Disadvantages to the employer of internal appointments The candidates doing well role conflict in that they are now senior to people with who they worked with as equals- there may be a problem for them in asserting their power. A person promoted internally may be expected to pick up the new job in an unreasonably short space of time. Filling a vacancy internally leaves another vacancy to fill note also that where an employer is practising equal opportunity policies they cannot favour internal when filling vacancies. External candidates Job Description A job description lists the main tasks required in a job. More and more organisations have job descriptions for every job they have- from the caretaker to the managing director. In drawing up a job description the personal department has a number of alternatives. These are: The line manager can draw up a description of what the job entails The existing job holder can do it The human resources manager can interview the job holder and the line manager to find out what the job involves. In most cases it is probably best to combine approaches. Clearly the second approach may produce a biased view of what the job involves. After all, most people are likely to exaggerate the importance of what they do and the effort that is required to do it. Moreover, the job holder may emphasise those duties they prefer to do rather that their most important duties. Also, since they are leaving they may not bother to do a very thorough job of it anyway. On the other hand, in approach to my first point- the line manager will probably miss out many little but important tasks which are only obvious to the job holder. The aim of the exercise is to itemise all the tasks involved in a job and try to allocate to proportion of the working week to each task. The list of tasks, and the relative importance of each one, is vitally important for several reasons: In carrying out appraisals of employees- a manager cannot appraise his employees if he/she does not know what the job involves When analysing the job for training needs the manager must be able to see what tasks a job involves so that he/she can determine what training may be required. In planning the size of the workforce for the future, it will be necessary to know exactly what tasks each job involves in case the re-allocation of tasks between jobs is required, e.g. three people may be required to share the work of a forth post which is being made redundant- this cannot be done fairly without a detailed knowledge of the tasks involved in the forth post. For pay determination- analysis of, and comparisons between, job descriptions means that each job can then be allocated a pay rate. This process is known as job evaluation. A simple example is where clerical jobs which include the responsibility for handling money get a higher ranking, and therefore higher pay, than clerical jobs which do not. Clearly, none of this is possible without good quality and detailed job descriptions. Drafting the Job Description From all the information collected, by whichever method is chosen, it will then be necessary to draw up the document itself. People that apply for jobs will be sent a job description along with an application form and a personal specification. Main features of a job description- 1. The job title 2. The location of the job 3. A brief outline of what the employing organisation does 4. The main purpose of the job 5. A detailed list of the main tasks required 6. The standards that the job holder will be required in the job 7. Pay other benefits 8. Promotion prospects 9. The person to whom the job holder reports 10. The person(s) who report(s) to the job holder. This days employees are expected to be more flexible and to be able to do a wider range of work. This shows that point 1 tends to be broader than it used to be. Advertising the Job Before writing the advertisement the employer must determine exactly what is wanted from the job being advertised. To ensure this the employer must look carefully at the person specification, what type of person is required, job description, what the person will be required to do in the job, before writing the advert. Ikea Part-time Human Resources Administrator 26 hours per week To maximise your HR initiatives to strengthen our vision, business idea and HR idea to make IKEA the best retailer to work for in the UK market. You will provide administration support to the small HR team including preparing contracts, logging and following up job applications and taking responsibility for monitoring the sick procedure. You will be able to work on your own initiative with high accuracy and attention to detail. You will be computer literate including using MS Word and Excel plus experience of using databases. You will have the ability to demonstrate a high degree of confidentiality and have excellent interpersonal skills. You will ensure that HR filing systems are maintained and up to date. You will contribute to the development of the HR function in the store. Hours will be 26-30 hours per week, 5/7 days Letter of application, CVs and references Once Ikea has attracted a number of candidates, the next stage will be to reduce all the candidates to a smaller enough group so they can all be individually invited for an interview. For most jobs e.g. cashier there are many applicants and a simple quick process is needed to sort them out. Some jobs are more complicated, these would be jobs like a manager position where there would be few candidates who will be taken seriously which means Ikea can spent more time on investigating them. The three main documents assessed in this sorting process are: Letter of application Curriculum Vitae (CV) Application form All Business require at least on of these documents when recruiting more staff. CV Some people unfortunately to not take time and care on their CV. These people do it in an unprofessional and untidy way which will not impress a possible employer. These CVs are usually badly typed or even hand written. If you arent that confident that you could write and put together your own CV then these days there are plenty specialists agencies that can prepare CVs for people in a professional manner. CVs should always be written in a word processing document and printed neatly. In your CV you put everything that would normally be asked for in an application form this includes- Name and Address Telephone number E-mail address Date of Birth Martial status Education and qualifications Training Employment history Hobbies and interests References When listing employment in chronological order, start with the most recent job, this same rule applies to education and employment. Letter of Application This is just a letter that could be written or word-processed asking for the job and explaining why the writer is suitable for it. The letter will be structured in any way the writer thinks is appropriate to the job, this fact alone makes it a useful selection method. Advantages The personnel staff will have identified specific requirements from the job and person specifications. They can then compare these with information on the forms. The business only needs to interview those people who have met those qualifications the business is asking for. References There are several different types of references. These are: Testimonial a letter, usually from a former employer or teacher which will say very positive and kind things about the applicant. As the applicant has been given this letter it is unlikely that the writer will make anything other than positive helpful statements (clearly, if the writer did say something critical the applicant would tear the testimonial up and look around for someone else to write one) Reference letters requested the prospective employer- this is the most usual type of reference. The letters are confidential so that the referee can be completely honest without embarrassment, but it may not tell the prospective employer all he/she know. Employers can learn to read between the lines, and often omission of information can be a telling factor. Reference forms some organisation, the civil service for example, use a structured form with specific questions about the applicant. These include assessments on effort, ability, and about their honesty and health Telephone references some organisations telephone the people given as references. The main benefit is that the recruiter can asses the tone of the voice of the referee, and this can often say far more about an applicant than a letter can. Medical reference most employers will carry out some kind of medical check up even if it is just a completion of a medical form asking a few simple questions. These checks are necessary because- * The employer needs to safeguard the health of other employers * The job itself may require specific health standards * If an employer is to join a company pension scheme a medical check- up will be needed * Medical matters of growing importance- notably the problem of AIDS- may mean that in the future medical checks will have to be tougher, this includes blood tests. Interview Interviewer- The interview is one of the last stages within the recruitment process and one of the most important, often these days the applicant will also get a small test of some kind to go along with the interview. Interviews are arranged for nearly all kinds of jobs. Only a few of the people who applied for the job will get interviewed this is because after the human resources department have sifted through all the CVs, application forms, and references they should have narrowed the list down to a few applicants. The list is narrowed down to save time and money this is because usually the senior manager must be present at an interview, this means if he has less interviews to do he has more time for other things. Interviewing- interviewing has to be conducted in an appropriate manner for the business if it is not the business may get a bad name from it. To prevent this most businesses follow these simple rules- The interviewer must ask what are my objectives? What im a looking for? How will I phrase the question I am going to ask? The interviewer must be able to fill in the gaps that the CV and application form didnt answer. Decide if the vacancy requires just one interviewer or two. It could even have a panel of up to 4-5 interviewers. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. 1. One on one interviews put applicants at ease so that they will talk more naturally the problems are that A single interviewer lacks range A single interviewer is more likely to suffer from bias and can be highly prejudiced. Mirror imaging favouring candidates who are like them. Halo effects favouring candidates who have particular attractive characteristics even if those characteristics have little bearing on the job applied for. Horns effect opposite to above. Tests Nowadays it is increasingly common for employers to expect job applicants to carry out tests this is to give a fuller picture of their ability for the job applied for. These are usually referred to as aptitude tests. They are appropriate for manual work where there is some skill involved and also in office work where applicants might be required to take short typing or word processing test. For professional posts such as tests are less usual because it is felt that the candidates qualifications, references and experience are sufficient evidence. In more recent years new developments in testing have included. Psychometric Testing Psychometric tests assess the intelligence and personality of applicants. They are much more sophisticated than aptitude tests and the employer must have properly trained staff to analyse the test results properly. Such tests are particular valuable when assessing intelligence, interest in the job applied for, motivation and personality. The producers of such tests (there are dozens available) Verbal reasoning This test is to see how you reason with words. Contact The contact side of the recruitment process is the simplest of all the areas of function. The business uses methods such as telephone, e-mail, and letters to contact any applicants who may have applied for the job. The human resources department maintains this to make sure the business ensures these methods are kept in place.