Recruitment and Selection in Rent-a-Car Company - Case Study Example

Recruitment & Selection (Rent-A-Car)

Introduction

Omar founded rent-A-Car LLC in 1957. The organization became operational in Muscat-Oman in the basement of a car dealership. At the time of starting its operations, the company had only seven cars. Presently, Rent-A-Car happens to be the largest business in offering car rental services in Oman and roughly 90 other countries internationally. The company has more than 100 centre in Oman and other centres in GCC countries such as Canada, Ireland, the UK, Puerto Rico and Germany. Statistics performed in 2007 showed that Rent-A-Car had 17,800 rented cars and employed roughly 2500 people. The company offers its services in four segments, Rent-A-Car Truck rentals, Rent-A-Car Fleet Management, Rent-A-Car Car Rentals, and Rent-A-Car Car Sales. The company ascertains the provision of fast, efficient, and reliable services regardless of the type of business and the diverse needs of their customers. Even though customers in the different places need diverse products, good customer service is always a priority.

The car rental business is highly competitive. To gain dominance in the market, the companies need to uphold the provision of exceptional services. Rent-A-Car strives to ensure that it meets the needs of its diverse customers. The company continues to expound on its range of service delivery to ascertain the comfort of its clients. Besides offering business rentals in airports and other locations in different cities, it offers car replacement services for accidental repairs. This service is made possible courtesy of constructed garages. It also offers rentals during holidays in special events and an array of services to escort their clients to car rental centres. The main reason that spurs growth for Rent-A-Car is the maintenance of high levels of customer satisfaction.

Rent-A-Car has devoted to the provision of excellent services to its customers for the years it has been operational. Consequently, it has championed in winning awards for its efficiency in service delivery. Its small, regional structured and entrepreneurial personnel who have the administration’s permission to make decisions independently make these achievements possible. This paper discusses the company’s means of attracting applicants, strategies of recruitment, and selection approaches incorporated in ensuring that the company has competent people for the achievement of its goals and objectives.

Recruitment is a process entailed in attracting the right candidates within the speculated time, and in adequate numbers, and inspiring them to make applications for their appropriate jobs in the organization. Normally, the process entails strategic planning for the identification of the goals of the organization followed by an assessment of the required workers to meet organizational goals. Recruitment offers a leeway of attaining the required numbers of employees for purposes of achieving predetermined goals and objectives (Gilmore and Williams, 2009, p. 48). Furthermore, it facilitates the creation of a pool of candidates for the selection of the right person for the job.

On the other hand, selection describes the process of selecting the right person for the task from a group of applicants. The selection process guides the management in hiring suitable candidates for a job in accordance with an organization’s culture. It is important for an organization to incorporate the most appropriate selection methods for the purpose of effective service delivery. The use of proper techniques of selection helps in reducing the costs of training (Thompson and McHugh, 2009, p. 32) This is because qualified candidates will be in a position of recording the expected performance, hence, enhancing chances of achieving an organization’s goals. Good selection processes in an organization reduces the likelihood of the occurrence of issues of absenteeism and labor turnover.

Recruitment

The recruitment and selection process play a crucial role in the achievement of the set goals and objectives (Joy et al., 2015, p. 25). In selecting the right candidates, the organization will have a higher chance of producing productive results and reducing the chances of employee turnover. Improper selection of candidates results in financial losses and time wastage for human resource managers (Arnold, 2005, p. 80). The main methods of recruiting employees in any given organization include the external and internal approach. Rent-A-Car LLC attracts its applicants for the available posts through both approaches. The appropriate means to apply depends on the situation at hand. The internal recruitment method the company uses is internal promotion. Sometimes, the company promotes its managers, hence offering career opportunities for other members within the organization. This approach plays a vital role in ensuring the availability to competent employees in Rent-A-Car LLC. It is an efficient approach because it also serves as means of motivation to the existent members of staff. They normally deliver organizational services to their maximum ability knowing that there are high chances of an unavoidable promotion. It helps in ensuring the maintenance of happiness among the employees raises the chances of retaining them in Rent-A-Car and guarantees the delivery of services to the best of their capability.

The external recruitment approach starts with the creation of mutual and healthy relationships with board representatives in campuses and ends with the help of an online recruitment platform. The external recruitment process applies whenever there is a need for more growth and the company needs to diversify its employees (Argue, 2015, p. 22). This approach offers a chance for the provision of new skills and raises the chances of enhancing the business capacity for purposes of expansion. However, the external recruitment approach is detailed and time consuming. It requires keenness from the availed team of recruiters. There are different ways through which Rent-A-Car attracts high quality candidates. First, the company plans on way of elevating its profile in universities with the help of Campus Brand Mangers. Through this approach, the company raises its chances of acquiring devoted students that do not need advanced training to familiarize with the industry’s environments. In other cases, the company offers internship programs for hardworking and committed students. These students serve as ambassadors in their respective schools at the end of their time of internship. The approach of reliance on Rent-A-Car interns ascertained utmost competence in potential applicants. Some of the activities that the company performs to attract interested applicants in universities include company-oriented presentations, fostering healthy relationships with campus groups, mentorship programs, and attending career fares.

The online recruitment approach the organization incorporates entailed the development of a platform on the website where individuals can register for the listed vacant jobs. The platform allows the organization to provide comprehensive information regarding the responsibilities of management trainee, and corporate values and culture (Broughton et al., 2013, p. 24). This allows applicants to ascertain whether the jobs are suitable for them before making applications. The external recruitment approach serves as an appropriate technique for the organization because it is fast and efficient for both the applicant and the firm (Armstrong, 2014, p. 130). Recruits enter the organization through a stipulated internship scheme for campus students. While working at the organization students have an opportunity of gaining essential experience. This enhances the chances of being absorbed in the organization’s operational structure after graduation. The process entails participation in an office training session and working in diverse branch offices for training. The administration allows interns to take on the jobs as management trainees so that they can gain information about administration support, sales, customer services, marketing, and business management.

Rent-A-Car LLC executes its recruitment process by advertising vacancies across different media such as online platforms, magazines, and newspapers. Individuals targeted by the firm’s advertisements are graduate recruits. The devoted recruitment brand titled ‘Come Alive’ enables the company to advance its interests on targeting graduate recruits. The platform allows interested candidates to see the benefits of securing a job in the company and avails the medium of submitting their applications for respective posts. During peak times, the company dedicates all recruitment process to a specialist graduate recruitment website for a year to attract a huge audience. Generally, the external recruitment methods Rent-A-Car LLC employs includes online recruitment through job vacancy posting on the website, media advertising in newspapers and online platforms and job fairs. Job fairs are expositions the company organizes for the purposes of matching candidates with job specifications.

Advantages and disadvantages

Internal Promotions

Internal promotions happen to be a quicker and easier method of recruiting employees. It takes the candidates recruited from the organization less time to be efficient and effective in the new job because of the advance training the current employees have gone through while working in the company (Boxall and Purcell, 2011, p. 172). Notably, current employees are appropriate individuals capable of handling specific vacancies in the organization. Furthermore, the approach is economical. The company does not have to incur any extra costs meant for job advertisements and other inevitable job fairs. By embracing the internal recruitment method, Rent-A-Car LLC eliminates advertisement costs, costs of interviewing, training, and development because current employees have the required familiarity with their respective works.

Employees who have worked in an organization for a specific period have a high capability of fitting within the organization’s culture. This is important for the organization because it raises chances of attaining a firm’s efficiency. For instance, employees who show attributes of cooperating well with others can enhance efficiency in an organization’s productivity. This is because individuals working in a good environment where they are in good terms with the instituted culture have a chance of enhancing the levels of productivity. This serves as an encouragement for people to work harder to scoop promotions.

One of the limitations of this approach is that it offers a limited choice for the organization. The process of selecting employees takes consideration of a limited pool of candidates. Consequently, the organization may have to sacrifice the chances of getting the right applicant at the expense of individuals with less qualification. Additionally, candidates from within the organization lack new ideas. It is not possible for individuals within the organization to have new skills and talents. There are also no plans for the coming in of new plans for task execution in the organization. This circumstance may not lead to any possible growth and improvement in an organization. The approach can also lead to inefficiencies because promotions rely on an individual’s length of service rather than value (Rees and French, 2010, p. 185). Inefficient employees may not have a ready challenge to work hard to prove that they are fit for the job. There are also no measures to affirm that they are worth their respective positions in the organizations.

Online Recruiting

Recruitment via electronic means saves the company from the likelihood incurring costs of promoting company vacancies because it is free. Furthermore, it is easy to post an online advertisement for a huge audience. In most cases, websites are user friendly, hence no need of comprehensive IT knowledge for Human Resource Managers. However, the online recruitment approach is time consuming due to the high chance of attracting many unqualified candidates (Sills, 2014, p. 19). Notably, Human Resource managers may waste a lot of time trying to filter the applications to get rid of unqualified individuals. It may also be a source of confusion in trying to choose appropriate individuals from a huge pool of candidates.

Media Advertising

Rent-A-Car LLC uses newspapers as media for advertisement because of a higher chance of attracting a huge pool of candidates. There is a high chance that the company attracts audiences from diverse backgrounds, with diverse knowledge and expertise. Rent-A-Car LLC has a wider ground of selecting positive contributors to the growth of the organization. However, advertising wastes money and time. It may be time consuming and may not be cost effective due to the likelihood of generating many unqualified candidates. Filtering and sifting out candidates may be lead to time wastage and cause confusion among human resource managers.

Career Fairs

This approach allows Rent-A-Car LLC to meet many applicants within a short time. Furthermore, employers have a chance of meeting their prospective employees in a face-to-face interaction where they can interact and analyze the applicability of their different skills and competencies. On the side of limitations, the environment may not be too conducive due to the likelihood of noise and overcrowding. The process may also consume a lot of time due to the availability of many unqualified candidates.

Selection Process

Rent-A-Car LLC incorporates different approaches in an attempt to match the skills of candidates with the competencies necessitated by the organization. It performs the selection process for immediate replacement for available vacancies and organizational development for prospected growth. Human resource managers have stipulated rules on documentations from where they can match job descriptions with personal expertise and qualities. Job descriptions specify the roles of the job in the firm and provide a list of possible tasks while person specification provides desirable qualities a company needs and the characteristics of an ideal candidate for the task (Taylor, 2011, p. 112). There are different processes the company presents to allow candidates to showcase their best abilities in different situations. First, screening candidates allows managers to make a comparison between skills on an online application form and the needs of the role. Second, Rent-A-Car LLC allows the recruitment and branch manager to perform a face-to-face interview with the candidates. The initiative allows the panel to identify viable candidates for the assessment day. The assessment day as a third step entails participation in practical exercises such as role-play and a final interview with a senior manager. Role-play offers a platform for testing customer service and communication skills. Different methods may also be incorporated to test work ethic, teamwork, flexibility, leadership, and sales aptitude skills. The final interview allows for the ultimate selection of a qualified candidate.

Advantages

Screening candidates at an early stage saves time and costs, because it allows for the elimination of weak candidates. This process sends high quality candidates for the face-to-face interview where verbal skills can be tested with ease. The two processes leave one final stage for the selection of an appropriate candidate.

There is a high chance for increased efficiency based on the diverse but compressed selection tests. The process allows for faster comparison due to standardized procedures of selection (Smith et al., 2008, p. 122). Face to face, interviews enhance efficiency due to the application of similar questions in the entire process. Through this, interviewers have the best formal answers to base on for judgment.

Through face-to-face interviews, Rent-A-Car LLC enhances chances of reliability and accuracy. The process eliminates the chances of getting fraud documents and information from the candidates.

Disadvantages

There are higher chances of biasness for specific groups of people especially during face-to-face interviews. Furthermore, the performance of candidates may be subjective based on the perspectives of different members of the panel. For instance, if interviewers have a preconceived mindset that, men perform better in accounts than women, their judgment will be inclined on the side of men irrespective of how best women perform. Rent-A-Car LLC may lose better workers due to idiosyncratic opinions hence reducing its competitive advantage.

In enhancing the levels of accuracy and reliability, the company may be wasting time. An instance of time wastage may include checking processes for the validity of documents and the review process of applicants during interviews (Schuler and Jackson, 2007, p. 34). In cases where applicants wait for longer times without receiving feedback, they may search for other job opportunities.

Recommendation

Rent-A-Car LLC should be consistent in the delivery of perfect services to its customers. This is because its business is service oriented; hence, failure to deliver ideal services at any given time may lead to customer dissatisfaction. Furthermore, the industry is highly competitive. To achieve superiority in the marketplace, Rent-A-Car LLC should focus on offering high levels of customer satisfaction. Its approach of recruitment is appropriate because it enables the company to acquire people with the right competencies and skills. This enables the firm to achieve its aims and objectives. Furthermore, Rent-A-Car LLC upholds the tradition of maintaining key skills in the business by offering training and development programs to promote growth on a lasting career path. The firm can introduce more aspects of motivation such as souvenirs for employees recording higher performance to challenge promotion recruits.

Conclusion

The initiative of employing the right person in any given organization is the most vital part of its venture. Employing reliable and competent candidates raises chances of offering good quality services to the organization’s clients. Rent-A-Car LLC recruits its employees through both internal and external means. Recruitment from within the organization ensures that the culture and traditions upheld and reduces the wastage of money training new applicants. However, the approach locks out the likelihood of accommodating new skills and talents. The external approaches Rent-A-Car employs include online postings, media advertisements and career fairs. The approach allows the company to have a large pool of candidates to select from. However, it is costly and time-consuming. The selection process is efficient as it allows the organization to absorb competent candidates.