Recruitment and Selection Approach - Essay Example

Recruitment and selection Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Recruitment and Selection Approach Introduction Recruitment is the process through which an organization identifies the need to fill a position in the organization (Amhed et al 1997). The recruitment process is initiated with the need for recognition, the advertisement of the position and until the time the job applications are received in the organization. Selection is the process of identifying the best qualified and best applicant to fill the position advertised. Interviews are conducted to the shortlisted candidates to select the best applicant for the job position. In this discussion, the essay will discuss the various concepts concerning recruitment and selection process, human resource planning, theories and models of Human resource evaluation. Recruitment and selection approaches The two recruitment approaches include internal and external recruitment (Whiddent & Kandola 2000). Internal recruitment or sourcing is the filling of a new position within the organization among the employees of the organization. For example Intel Company practices both internal and external recruitment. It is done through transfers and promotions. The advantages of this approach are; The organization cuts down the costs that could be associated with external sourcing. The costs are for the training of new employees and the induction process. The employees of the organization already have some knowledge on how some activities are done and therefore they will need less training or the orientation for the job. Internal sourcing also acts as a motivator in the organization (Smith & Robertson 1993). All employees will want to be promoted to a new position when it arises therefore they will work hard so that their efforts will be recognized during recruitment. This helps to improve the performance of the organization. Finally, internal recruitment will enable the organization to assess the insider strengths and weaknesses of the employee. This is possible because the Human resource manager already knows the employee to be recruited. This aspect reduces the risk of employing somebody from outside the organization who has the academic qualifications but not the practical qualifications. The drawbacks internal recruitment include; it may lower the morale of someone else in the organization. This is because two employees might be having the same professional qualifications but during the recruitment one person is selected as best qualified than the other (Robertson 1995). Internal selection will replace someone who had been promoted earlier. This will lead to disputes because there will be disrespect from the person who was demoted to the promoted employee. Conflicts will lower the performance of the organization. The external recruitment approach is the method of recruitment whereby the organization searches qualified candidates from outside the organization to fill the positions (McHenry 1997). A good example is the Sysco Company which adopts the external sourcing of its human resources. The advantages of this approach are; It helps the organization to bring in new blood with new ideas and skills. Offering a job to someone from outside the organization will bring in new ideas on how to handle issues for the benefit of the organization. The external sourcing will hire the best qualified candidate than the internal sourcing. This approach is economical because from the large human resource market, the best applicant will be selected who will not need any extra training. This saves the cost of training and inducting the employees to their position because they know how to carry out their responsibilities from their past experience. The challenges of this recruitment approach include; this approach is somehow expensive. The costs involved in this approach include the cost of advertisements (Jordan 1997). Because the advertisement is meant to reach a wider human resource market, it may be expensive especially when using tools like newspapers. It will also lead to hiring an employee whose internal qualities may be undetected (Ronald 2002). After the selection of the applicant the person may seem incompetent and might be having some bad internal qualities. These undetected qualities like trouble maker will cause conflicts in the organization hence disrupt the teamwork spirit which will lower the productivity of the organization. Human resource planning and development on the other hand is the practice where the organization is able to identify the human resource needs which are needed by the organization and investing resource capital in training its employees (Dickson & Derry 2002). These needs can be current or the future. The importance of human resource planning and development include; it helps the organization achieve its desired outcome, helps the organization to identify the future directions of the organization and it helps the organization to ensure maximum utilization of resources by the organization by assessing the possible future human resource demand and qualifications and offer training opportunities for its employees. Job analysis Job analysis is the examination of the job requirements by defining the details of the job (Michael et al 2007). Some of the components of job analysis include the title job title and explains the roles and responsibilities of the employee within the organization. Job analysis is important for the organization because it helps the organization to select the best qualified candidate from among the qualified, job analysis also helps the organization to prepare for the training requirements after selection has been done, it helps the organization to identify the equipment that will be needed alongside the job. This will ensure a smooth flow of work because all the equipment needed will be available for use. Job analysis can be done by observing the employees at work (Prien et al 2009). It can also be done by interviewing those are the job or that position and assessing their response. Job analysis can be carried out by referring to books and documents like the job manuals for training. The supervisors can also play an important role in job analysis by providing information required concerning the job (Prien et al 2009). Some big organizations will employee job analysts to offer advise concerning the vacant position. For example the PepsiCo employs analysts who advice the Company concerning the job analysis of their positions. Job description Job description comprises of the data that is related to the job (Michael et al 2007). It helps to attract a pool of the required skills for the job during the advertisement. Job description includes; the title of the job, the location of the job, the job objectives and its nature, the responsibilities associated with the job, the conditions of working that job, the equipment to be used in that job and the dangers that may be involved in that job. The aims of the job description are to have adequate knowledge about the job so that during advertisement the description will attract only the relevant skills (Kent 1997). It shows the kind of skills required by a particular department to perform specified jobs. Finally, it shows the direction of authority that is who should report to whom. Job specification Job specification is more specific and descriptive of the job and it comprises of all the educational qualifications required by the job, the experience level of the applicant, the ability to communicate efficiently and sufficiently, the duties to be carried out by that job and other specific requirements. It also specifies the personal attributes like personal health, intelligence, ability to lead others and personal ethics (Cascio et al 2009). Job specification helps the recruitment team to select the best candidate among the many applicants and finally it enables the recruitment team to know the job demands so that they will be able to eliminate the applicants who are not qualified. Job design Job design is the integration of all job activities that is organizing activities and duties into a common objective. It shows the necessary steps which are needed so that the job can be implemented successfully. The aim of job design is to ensure that the job has been implemented successfully. It also ensures that training of employees is done and what time and how it will be done. Theories of recruitment and selection The first theory of recruitment and selection is the objective theory (Michael et al 2007). This theory assumes that all the applicants are intelligent when they are making their decisions. Therefore more information like the job working conditions, the employee benefits and of course their salaries will enable the candidates to consider these factors before making a conclusion whether to apply or not. For example in the case of Deere Company they use this theory to fill their positions. They advertise their jobs citing all the terms and conditions of the job. There is also a theory of subjective (Michael et al 2007). This theory assumes that the candidates are not intelligent or are irrational but they react to their well being needs like achievement and security. This theory aims at getting qualified candidates because of their social needs. Therefore the subjective theory aims to attract more qualified applicants by mentioning the social needs like the promotion strategies and the security of the job. For instance the Target Company applies this theory in their recruitment. They attract the applicants by quoting the social needs like promotions. There is also critical contact theory of recruitment (Dickson & Derry 2002). This theory assumes that among the applicants there will be a factor that will distinguish the best candidate like ethnicity recruitment, the follow up after the application and being sincere in the application. From the research which has been conducted, it has been noted that when the recruiter is contacted more frequently, he or she is likely to accept the offer. This research has also shown that the more experienced applicant is more preferred than the inexperienced. A good example in this case is the Coca Cola Company which prefers experienced skills than the inexperienced applications. Factors affecting recruitment and selection These factors can be internal or external. The internal factors are the factors from within the organization and they include the recruitment policy of the organization, the size of the organization- the bigger organization will recruit more experienced employees (Gatewood et al 2008). The cost of the recruitment whereby the recruitment is limited to the available resources which are used in the payment of salaries and job advertisement will also affect the recruitment process. The growth of the organization also affects the recruitment. The external factors affecting recruitment include; The economic conditions also affect the recruitment process because when the economy of a country is low, less organizations will want to pay huge salaries hence they may not recruit the best skills. Labor market conditions also affect recruitment that all organizations must abide by the set regulations of the labor market (Gatewood et al 2008). Finally, recruitment is affected by the forces of demand and supply. For example high demand and low supply of labor will lead to increase in salaries and low demand and high supply of labor will lead to decrease in salaries. Recruitment and selection model A model is a simplified form of the whole process of recruitment. The Human Capital Integrated selection model is shown below. The culture and fit states that the employer should consider how the culture of an applicant will influence the organization and select one who whose culture will rhyme with that of the organization. The candidate’s needs are valued proportion and opportunity growth (Dave 2005). Value proportion ensures that the organization should value itself better in the market so that it will get the most qualified applicants in the human resource market. Opportunity and career growth states that if the organization wants to attract the best skills from the market it should give guidelines on the possibility of the growth of the firm and career. The employer’s needs in this model are knowledge, skills and abilities and attributes for success (Zottoli & Waous 2000). Knowledge and skills state that for the organization to get most qualified candidates it should do job analysis and come up with the necessary job details. Attributes for success like personality and intelligence should be possessed by the applicant as required by the employer. An example of a Company that applies this model is the Avnet Company. The above explanations are simplified in the diagram below. Diagram for Human Capital Integrated recruitment model Conclusion Considering all the concepts of recruitment, the recruitment approach that should be adopted to achieve the best practice of HRM within an organization is the external recruitment. This is because external sourcing will provide a wider human resource market where the organization can select the best employee (Whiddent & Kandola 2000). It is also less costly because the selected applicant will have all the desired qualifications thus there will be no much training of the employee. It will also minimize the conflicts which may arise in the organization as a result of selecting one employee and leaving the other with the same skills (Robertson 1995). Finally, external sourcing will bring in new blood and new skills to the organization which will improve the performance in the overall output. All the above will improve the organization’s productivity. 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