Recruitment & Selection

Below represents the 5 typical stages of R&S...

Why is R&S so important? :

• Employees who are lacking in motivation, knowledge and capabilities can have detrimental effect on an organisations performance.
• Maintaining and strengthening the human capital base is essential for firms.
• The retention and development of current employees can also be just as important.

Pressures to fill positions quickly can often result in the wrong decisions being made.

Why is it important to make the right R&S decisions? :

It is important because..

• Employment protection rights makes firing unsuitable employees more difficult
• Employees who are lacking in motivation etc can have a negative effect on a firm
• Correcting a hiring mistake can be difficult, prolonged and costly to all involved

Checklist:

To avoid a situation in which an excessive number of applicants are submitted, which can increase the administrative burden and costs of assessment and selection, the following, actions are recommended..

• Develop clear communications on the kind of person required and set realistically high standards.

• Engage in the rigourous screening of applicants using criteria that have been validated against job performance measurements.

• Use validated assessment techniques after the shortlising stage.

• Employment contingent contracts (i.e. - permanent job based on performance reviews).

• Yse probationary periods to allow initial employment decisions to be checked against behavioural and performance standards.

The role of fairness in recruitment:

• Decisions at all stages of the R&S process should be based solely on the merits of applicants and their suitability for the position in question.
• However, the law allows for some exceptions to the rule, known as 'genuine occupational qualifications' (i.e. - hiring a male attendant at a mens changing room).

Identifying recruitment requirements:

When a vacancy arises, it is important to consider whether the need for the tasks carried out has changed, whether or not a different skill may be required etc.

Defining recruitment requirements -

The job description and the person specification are 2 important documents that are used to define recruitment requirements.

Fitting the person to the job or the job to the person? -

Jack Welch (2005) strongly believes in the importance of looking for evidence that candidates possess the following qualities..

• Integrity - (i.e. - admitting to mistakes)
• Intelligence - (i.e. - cognitive skills)
• Maturity - (i.e. - handling pressure and setbacks)

Attracting the right applicants:

Horowitz et al (2003), in their study of knowledge workers, found that highly effective attraction strategies included..

• Competitive total reward packages
• Internal talent development strategies

On the other hand, less cost effective strategies tend to be less effective..

• Online recruitment, recruitment fairs, head-hunters etc

Handling applications -

• Large organisations may  use scoring systems based on agreed criteria

• Smaller organisations may choose to simply rank the applications based on the closeness of the match with the person specification

Other checks -

• Criminal record checks
• Eligibility to work in the UK
• Checking references and health screening

These checks should always be applied consistently and fairly to avoid the risk of indirect discrimination.

Recruitment & Selection