Recruiting and Selecting staff

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today, in every organisation personnel planning as an activity is necessary. It is an important part of an organisation. Human Resource Planning is a vital ingredient for the success of the organisation in the long run. There are certain ways that are to be followed by every organisation, which ensures that it has right number and kind of people, at the right place and right time, so that organisation can achieve its planned objective.

The objectives of Human Resource Department are Human Resource Planning, Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Career planning, Transfer and Promotion, Risk Management, Performance Appraisal and so on. Each objective needs special attention and proper planning and implementation. For every organisation it is important to have a right person on a right job. Recruitment and Selection plays a vital role in this situation. Shortage of skills and the use of new technology are putting considerable pressure on how employers go about Recruiting and Selecting staff.

It is recommended to carry out a strategic analysis of Recruitment and Selection procedure. With reference to this context, this paper is been prepared to put a light on Recruitment and Selection process. This paper includes Meaning and Definition of Recruitment and Selection, Need and Purpose of Recruitment, Evaluation of Recruitment Process, Recruitment Tips. Sources of Recruitment through which an Organisation gets suitable application. Scientific Recruitment and Selection, which an Organisation should follow for, right manpower. Job Analysis, which gives an idea about the requirement of the job.

Next is Selection process, which includes steps of Selection, Types of Test, Types of Interview, Common Interview Problems and their Solutions. Approaches to Selection, Scientific Selection Policy, Selection in India and problems. Recruitment and Selection are simultaneous process and are incomplete without each other.

INTRODUCTION

Recruitment and selection are two of the most important functions of personnel management. Recruitment precedes selection and helps in selecting a right candidate. Recruitment is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirement of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of efficient personnel.

Every organisation needs to look after recruitment and selection in the initial period and thereafter as and when additional manpower is required due to expansion and development of business activities. ‘Right person for the right job’ is the basic principle in recruitment and selection. Ever organisation should give attention to the selection of its manpower, especially its managers. The operative manpower is equally important and essential for the orderly working of an enterprise.

Every business organisation/unit needs manpower for carrying different business activities smoothly and efficiently and for this recruitment and selection of suitable candidates is essential. Human resource management in an organisation will not be possible if unsuitable persons are selected and employment in a business unit.

MEANING OF RECRUITMENT

Recruitment means to estimate the available vacancies and to make suitable arrangements for their selection and appointment. Recruitment is understood as the process of searching for and obtaining applicants for the jobs, from among whom the right people can be selected.

A formal definition states, “It is the process of finding and attracting capable applicants for the employment. The process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when their applicants are submitted. The result is a pool of applicants from which new employees are selected”. In this, the available vacancies are given wide publicity and suitable candidates are encouraged to submit applications so as to have a pool of eligible candidates for scientific selection. In the recruitment, a pool of eligible and interested candidates is created for selection of most suitable candidates.

 NEED FOR RECRUITMENT

The need for recruitment may be due to the following reasons / situation: Vacancies due to promotions, transfer, retirement, termination, permanent disability, death and labour turnover. Creation of new vacancies due to the growth, expansion and diversification of business activities of an enterprise. In addition, new vacancies are possible due to job specification.

PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT:

• Determine the present and future requirements of the organization on conjunction with its personnel-planning and job analysis activities.
• Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
• Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of visibly under qualified or overqualified job applicants.
• Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will leave the organization only after a short period of time. Meet the organization’s legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its work force.
• Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates.
• Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short term and long term.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.

UNSCIENTIFIC RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION: Previously, the selection of candidates was influenced by superstitions, beliefs, personal prejudices of managers looking after the recruitment and selection of the staff.

The net result of such unscientific recruitment and selection are:

• Low productivity of labour
• High turnover
• Excessive wastage of raw materials
• More accidents and corresponding loss to the organization
• Inefficient working of the whole organization and finally
• Ineffective executive of training and management development programs

SCIENTIFIC RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

The importance of selection recruitment and selection of staff is now accepted in the business world. Selection is important as it has its impact on work performance and employee cost.

As result scientific methods of recruitment and selection are extensively for the selection of managers and the supervisory staff. The assistance of experts such as industrial psychologist and management consultants are also taken for the purpose of scientific selection. As a result, the objective of “right man for the right job” is achieved in many organizations. Moreover, “right job” is the basic principle in manpower procurement.

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

When it is estimated that what types of recruitment and how many are required then one has concentrate in

• Make or Buy employees.
• Technological sophistication of recruitment and selection devices.
• Geographical distribution of labour markets comprising job seekers.
• Sources of recruitment.
• Sequencing the activities in the recruitment process.

‘Make’ or ‘Buy’: Organisation must decide whether to hire le skilled employees and invest on training and education programmes, or they can hire skilled labour and professional. Essentially, this is the ‘make’ or ‘buy’ decision. Organizations, which hire skilled and professionals shall have to pay more for these employees. Technological Sophistication: The second decision in strategy development relates to the methods used in recruitment and selection. This decision is mainly influenced by the available technology. The advent of computers has made it possible for employers to scan national and international applicant qualification. Although impersonal, computers have given employers and ob seekers a wider scope of options in the initial screening stage.

Where to look: In order to reduce the costs, organisations look in to labour markets most likely to offer the required job seekers. Generally, companies look in to the national market for managerial and professional employees, regional or local markets for technical employees and local markets for the clerical and blue-collar employees. When to look: An effective recruiting strategy must determine when to look-decide on the timings of events besides knowing where and how to look for job applicants.

Typically, sources and search methods are activated by the issuance of an employee requisition. This means that no actual recruiting takes place until lone managers have verified that vacancy does exist or will exist. If the organisation has planned well and done a good job of developing its sources and search methods, activation soon results in a flood of applications and/or resumes.

The application received must be screened. Those who pass have to be contacted and invited for interview. Unsuccessful applicants must be sent letter of regret. A second issue to be addressed in the searching process concerns communications. Here, organisation walks tightrope. On one hand, they want to do whatever they can to attract desirable applicants. On the other hand, they must resist the temptation of overselling their virtues. In selling the organisation, both the message and the media deserve attention. Message refers to the employment advertisement.

With regards to media, it may be stated that effectiveness of any recruiting message depends on the media. Media are several-some have low credibility, while others enjoy high credibility. Selection of medium or media needs to be done with a lot of care.  Screening of applicants can be regarded as an integral part of the recruiting process, though many view it as the first step in the selection process. Even the definition on recruitment, we quoted in the beginning of this chapter, excludes screening from its scope.

However, we have included screening in recruitment for valid reasons. The selection process will begin after the applications have been scrutinized and short-listed. Hiring of professors in a university is a typical situation. Application received in response to advertisements is screened and only eligible applicants are called for an interview. A selection committee comprising the Vice-chancellor, Registrar and subject experts conducts interview. Here, the recruitment process extends up to screening the applications. The selection process commences only later.

EVALUATION AND CONTROL

Evaluation and control is necessary as considerable costs are incurred in the recruitment process. The costs generally incurred are:

• Salaries for recruiters.
• Management and professional time spent on preparing job description, job specifications, advertisements, agency liaison and so forth.
• The cost of advertisements or other recruitment methods, that is, agency fees.
• Recruitment overheads and administrative expenses.
• Costs of overtime and outsourcing while the vacancies remain unfilled.
• Cost of recruiting unsuitable candidates for the selection process.

Personnel records help discover employees who are doing jobs below their educational qualifications or skill levels. Promotions has many advantages like it is good public relations, builds morale, encourages competent individuals who are ambitious, improves the probability of good selection since information on the individual’s performance is readily available, is cheaper than going outside to recruit, those chosen internally are familiar with the organization thus reducing the orientation time and energy and also acts as a training device for developing middle-level and top-level managers. However, promotions restrict the field of selection preventing fresh blood & ideas from entering the organization. It also leads to inbreeding in the organization.

Transfers are also important in providing employees with a broad-based view of the organization, necessary for future promotions. • Employee referrals- Employees can develop good prospects for their families and friends by acquainting them with the advantages of a job with the company, furnishing them with introduction and encouraging them to apply. This is a very effective means as many qualified people can be reached at a very low cost to the company. The other advantages are that the employees would bring only those referrals that they feel would be able to fit in the organization based on their own experience. The organization can be assured of the reliability and the character of the referrals.

PURPOSE OF SELECTION

The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidate who would meet the requirements of the job in an organisation best, to find out which job applicant will be successful, if hired. To meet this goal, the company obtains and assesses information about the applicants in terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience, etc. the needs of the job are matched with the profile of candidates.

The most suitable person is then picked up after eliminating the unsuitable applicants through successive stages of selection process. How well an employee is matched to a job is very important because it is directly affects the amount and quality of employee’s work. Any mismatched in this regard can cost an organisation a great deal of money, time and trouble, especially, in terms of training and operating costs. In course of time, the employee may find the job distasteful and leave in frustration. He may even circulate ‘hot news’ and juicy bits of negative information about the company, causing incalculable harm to the company in the long run. Effective election, therefore, demands constant monitoring of the ‘fit’ between people the job.