Importance of Recruitment Method in Achieving Strategic Direction - Literature review Example

LITERATURE REVIEW: IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT METHOD IN ACHIEVING STRATEGIC DIRECTION Prepared by (Student’s Name) Professor’s Name Course Name Date Institution Kadam et al (2016, p.2) engages in a recruitment exercise of doctors within Odisha state, India in order to come up with an efficient and effective health workforce. It is ascertained that a sufficient number of health workers that are positioned fairly and motivated are indeed the backbone of an efficient healthcare system. The State has continued to witness significant challenges in regards to recruiting and retaining of public health doctors hence embarked on an effort to examine existing policies relating to recruitment, deployment and promotion and determine the manner for which there being implemented. The study analysis adopted in-depth interviews of different participants in order to explore their underlying perceptions on these policies. Result findings indicated that the doctors were not aware of these policies but were completely satisfied with the overall recruitment process. thus, it is established that proper and necessary deployment exercise for these health workers is deemed to be a challenge given that it is expected to position personal aspirations of employees with organisation-level expectations through implementation of transparent polices that will improve governance and develop trust amongst these health workers. Jiang, Lepak, Hu & Baer(2012,1273-1280) agree that the strategic position on human resource management (HRM) research has been based on efficient human resource practices that greatly involves high performance work systems, high-involvement work systems and, also high-committed work systems in the course of examining the overall effects of human resource management on both employee and orgnisational-based results. In essence, the capacity to involve strategic human resource management and especially human resource practices is focused on improving on employee’s overall knowledge, skills, capabilities, motivation and opportunity in order to contribute to the overall positive results like greater commitment. To come up with a clear and concise perception of the aspect, the study focused on adopting a meta-analytic structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to ascertain of previous studies used in the identification of meta-analysis. The meta-analysis examined the overall effects of three HR dimensions of HR systems-skills-enhancing, motivation-enhancing as well as opportunity-enhancing on all proximal and distal organisational results. It was established that skills-enhancing practices were indeed positively related to aspects of human capital and less positively correlated with employee motivation in comparison to both motivation and opportunity-enhancing practices. In this regards, it is established that human capital theory as well as resource-based perspective confirms that human resource management is positively related to financial performances given that it fosters desired employees behaviours and developing crucial human capital base. Trewek et al ascertains that despite randomised controlled trials being gold standards in the process of evaluating the overall effectiveness as well as safety of health care interventions(2013,p.2), even so; the recruitment process of clinicians and patients to participate in these studies remain poor. The most notable challenge that arises because of a poor recruitment exercise rests with the creation of a loophole that could prompt inefficiencies. It could also result to elongation of the recruitment process and thus, significant usage of available resources while still generating outcomes that are deemed to be statistically incorrect. To formulate the interventions focused on improving recruitment to a randomised controlled trials; the study notes that there are promising strategies for improving recruitment to trials by clinicians and, a great number of strategies are proposed including telephone remainders, open-trial designs, opt-out strategies and also, financial incentives. There is a significant number of prescriptive literature that is made available to managers to guide them in the process of recruiting staff and thereby assist in improving the chances of selecting the right person for a given job position. Carroll, Marchington, Earnshaw, and Taylor (1999,p.237) embarks on a study to examine the notable differences between recruitment practices in small firms in comparison to prescriptive literature, issues they face and strategies put in place to overcome these challenges. The study also focuses on the application of informal recruitment networks especially since ineffective and poor recruitment as well as selection criterion are deemed to be the major causes of disciplinary issues in most small firms. To establish the effect of recruitment process in small firms, the authors engaged in a study in the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire regions where a total of five economic sectors were analysed including service, manufacturing and transport industries. It also focused on sectors with rampant recruitment issues due to intensive employee turnover. The findings indicated that there was no formal job analysis being conducted in a systematic way. In recruiting their potential candidates these firms opted for internal labour markets as a way of motivating existing employees and encourage their loyalty to the firm. In both hotel and catering sectors, managers opted for internal promotion while using such important tests as aptitude and ability in order to promote them in a more senior and supervisory position. Closed searches were deemed to be the most viable and popular recruitment methods adopted by these small firms since most recruited personnel based on recommendations made by existing staff. The method focused on employing close family members and friends since they were assumed to blend easily. Other notable recruitment methods used by small firms include responsive recruitment where casual callers contacted the company through telephones or in person in the event that there was a vacancy to be filled; open searches through advertisements and contracting jobcentres; and, also through the word-of mouth. According to Breaugh (2008, p. 104) there has been considerable number of research studies conducted to ascertain the nature current recruitment methods in place. In the course of examining the relationship between numerous methods through which potential candidates received information about certain job openings at a bank and, it was found out that these individuals that were referred by existing company employees or those had applied directly without knowing of whether there were openings were most likely to quit as opposed to these that responded to job placements and advertisements in local press. In another study conducted to determine the relationship between five recruitment methods; employee referrals, direct applications, college placement offices, job fairs and newspapers advertisements, it was found out that college placement offices had a lesser experience in comparison to applicants that were recruited using the other four methods. For this reason, the study agrees that employee referrals and direct applications consisted of a technique that helped to identify and fill the most suitable job placements. In yet another study conducted in a manufacturing plant in Israel to establish which of the three recruitment methods; employee referrals, geographically focused and unfocused advertisements, indicated that referrals produced more potential applicants, more hires and significant yield ratio in comparison to both geographically focused and unfocused advertisements. In a research study, conducted to examine the application of large scale surveys of recruitment activities and investigate the usage and success of both corporate and commercial websites by employers, (Parry & Tyson, 2008) note of its greater implication in the United Kingdom corporate sector as a whole. It is agreed that the internet provides a favourable platform for recruiting potential candidates and the strategic significance being that it is able to attract and retain high quality personnel and thereby foster ability to gain competitive advantage. Studies indicates that in the United Kingdom just like in the United States of America, the application of online recruitment continues to be a popular platform for both organisations and individual at large with more than 64% of UK firms embracing e-recruitment platforms over the years. The idea of embracing e-recruitment strategies over others deemed conventional lies in its cost effectiveness, access to even more potential applicants, quicker responses and turnaround capacities as well as ease of use and economic in nature. The notion behind the use of e-recruitment seeks to allow potential applicants self-select through the reading of vast amounts of texts and watching online videos as well as listening to audio files relating to specific requirements of job offers. Breaugh (2014, p.390-95) argues that the manner for which companies recruits employees can directly influence the type of personnel it hires, their performance capacities as well as their respective retention rates. The study identifies two forms of explanation used in expounding on why specific recruitment methods possess the capability to direct both pre and post hire results. The realism hypothesis indicates that applicants recruited using specific methods as employee referrals will likely show a higher level of comprehension of job specifications thereby assisting them make fairly-informed decisions. The individual difference hypothesis notes that different recruitment methods will likely bring a different set of recruitment methods to the attention of applicants who are defined by their distinctive attributes that relate to recruitment outcomes. Taking into consideration of current research findings, it is established that the current employee referrals support effective recruitment method for most organisations since it aids in potential applicant self-selection process that prevents time and resource wastage on the part of the recruiting firm especially when conducting extensive interviews to locate the best fit. It is argued that smaller firms engage extensively in informal recruitment methods like word-of-mouth and employee referrals. In a recent study conducted to ascertain the relationship between the size of organisations and the chances of recruiting possible graduates or using other methods, Cem (2003, p.109) examines the economic and cultural environment in North Cyprus. It is established that more than 88% of the country’s private sector is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises. Considering that there is intensive cultural influence in this country, most of the managers in these SMEs engage mostly in informal recruitment methods to fill in positions since they feel they have an obligation to help out close family members and friends. As a result of this informal recruitment method that seeks to garner trust and trustworthiness, these businesses enjoy lower employee turnover rates. These organisations also depend on informal recruitment methods and especially employee referrals to encourage recruitment of such special group personnel as those with disabilities. On the contrast, the recent encouragement by the North Cyprus government to shift the economy from agriculture to service-based adopted formal recruitment methods for potential suitors to work within the different established government agencies. Thus, it indicates that small firms use informal recruitment methods while the larger ones embrace formal processess. Gatewood, Gowan, and Lautenschlager, (1993) collects data from five different groups in order to examine aspects related corporate image, brand image as well as recruitment perspective. The study found out that different recruitment message that are provided in different recruitment methods has the ability to easily change the immediate attributes of the underlying response rates. It is further noted that image is highly correlated with potential job applicants immediate intentions to engage further contact with an organisation since the perceptions of both overall corporate and recruitment image were related with these intentions. Goodman et al (1998) conducts a study to ascertain the role of disciplinary problems on recruitment strategies. The study notes that managers are perceived to blame poor and inefficient recruitment and selection strategies for most disciplinary issues and practices for that matter. Of particular interest, most of the disciplinary problems arose within sectors that adopted formal as opposed to informal recruitment practices. In essence, the use of word-of-mouth recruitment model was extensive as more organisations sought to cut down on cost, time and risks involved with formal advertisement strategies. Employees recruited under informal methods were not likely to be dismissed due to poor disciplinary behaviours as those that engaged in these vice were dismissed in a short span after being recruited. References List Breaugh, J.A., 2008. Employee recruitment: Current knowledge and important areas for future research. Human Resource Management Review, vol.18, no.3, pp.103-118 Breaugh, J., 2014. Employee recruitment. Annual Reviews, vol.64, pp. 389-416 Carroll, M., Marchington, M., Earnshaw, J. & Taylor, S., 1999. Recruitment in small firms: Processes, methods and problems. Employee relations, vol. 21.no.3, pp.236-250. Cem, T 2003 "Firm size and recruitment: staffing practices in small and large organisations in north Cyprus", Career Development International, vol. 8, no. 2, pp.107 – 114 Gatewood, R.D., Gowan, M.A. & Lautenschlager, G.J., 1993. Corporate image, recruitment image and initial job choice decisions. Academy of Management journal, vol.36, no.2, pp.414-427. Goodman, J, Earnshaw, J, Marchington, M & Harrison, R. (1998) "Unfair dismissal cases, disciplinary procedures, recruitment methods and management style: Case study evidence from three industrial sectors", Employee Relations, vol. 20, no. 6, pp.536 - 550 Jiang, K, Lepak DP, Hu, J & Baer, JC 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms, Academy Of Management Journal, vol. 55. No.6, pp.1264-1294 Kadam, S, Nallala, S Zodepey S, Pati, S, Hussain M, A, Chauhana.2016. A study of organisational versus individual needs related to recruitment, deployment and promotion of doctors working in the government health system in Odisha state, India, Human Resources For Health, vol.14, no.1,p.1 Parry, E. & Tyson, S., 2008. An analysis of the use and success of online recruitment methods in the UK. Human Resource Management Journal, 18(3), pp.257-274 Treweek, S., Lockhart, P., Pitkethly, M., Cook, J.A., Kjeldstrøm, M., Johansen, M., Taskila, T.K., Sullivan, F.M., Wilson, S., Jackson, C. and Jones, R., 2013. Methods to improve recruitment to randomised controlled trials: Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ open, vol.3, no.2, pp.e002360. Read More