Effective Recruitment and Selection Practices - Example

Introduction The success story of any organization is based upon a powerful work force at any particular time. It is therefore a critical aspect to hire very competent employee so as to achieve the company goals and objectives as well as keep up with the ever growing industry competition. Company selection strategies need to be reviewed and redefined as often as possible to ensure that short listing of candidates is done in a highly professional manner and in the most unbiased way. Acquisition of better selection strategies will a stepping stone to realization of the company’s short-term and long –term goal through establishment of a more enabling team. Maximum expertise must be practiced in selecting managers for the vacant posts since managerial positions are the backbone of the company and more so the Human Resource manager. Chances cannot be given to incompetence as a result of ignorance and negligence of under qualified employees. In as much as the company will spend much time and resources in the search for the most appropriate persons for the posts, the benefits will be remarkable and long lasting. In addition to this, the company will have adapted an efficient culture of employee recruitment every time new employees are needed. Resourcing of employees should by all means increase the breadth of experience of the organization and heighten the competitive advantage of the industry over others in the same line of production. It is therefore imperative for the selector team to apply the best practice to find a person who meets the above qualifications. Basing qualification on education achievement is not an adequate approach to development of a powerful workforce and it may only lead to feeble results. Selection should be all rounded basing it on other factors in addition to academic qualifications. Personal talent is a useful consideration in apportioning the positions. This not only creates a competitive advantage but also spares the company resources of internal operations trainings. A blanket machine department manager with a closer interest in operations involved in the department may help the company realize better outcomes. It is however paramount for him to possess adequate knowledge regarding machine operations for example certifications in mechanical engineering are a compulsory requirement. The matter of an additional HR manager should be handled with agency if effective teamwork is to be achieved. Considering the large number of employees working in the company, limited HR personnel may have been a contributing factor to the derailed growth of the company. Generally, the tasks of a HR are strenuous and time consuming. Such responsibilities which include recruitment of employees, preparations distribution of payrolls, researching the web on strategies of improving employee motivation among others cannot be accurately delivered by a single HR. With a stronger HR office, the company stands the chance of accruing benefits of a well trained, motivated and cohesive working team. Objectives of any recruitment procedure should be clearly defined and outlined to ensure that these tasks are for the company development and not for personal benefits. Clear expectations of the employees must also be set before the selection process. It should be the company policy to recruit employees only when need arises. In this case, need is taken to mean a shortage in the labourforce due to emergence of new departments or installation of new machines. An old employee heading towards retirement may call for a replacement. Body In pursuit of adopting a new recruitment strategy the method has to be in line with the laid down standards and government legislations as per the Australian Public Service Act 1922. Some of the guidelines and principles regarding recruitment operations outlined in this act include: Selection practices are aimed at achieving organizational objectives. Selection approach adopted is well defined and easily understood All applicants who meet the minimum requirements have access to the vacancies. Equity and fairness are applied in making and reviewing decisions. Selection decisions are documented and are based on merit and assessment of applications. The panel of selector should be fully aware of administrative law aspect of decision making and the legal framework for recruitment and selection. The legislative framework governing recruitment procedures outlines four basic steps that are required before recruitment is done: Identification of vacancies Determining the selection method and how to advertize Accepting applications and undertaking the selection Acting on the selection outcome. This is undoubtedly an appropriate criteria that can be applied by the company in recruitment procedures. The steps listed above can be implemented by following given procedures. Identification of vacancies It is the duty of the organization management to identify a vacant position and assess the need of having it filled, abolish it, leave it vacant or reclassify it in accordance with the Department of Finance Position Classification Standards. A highly influential position left by an employee following his retirement or demise might call for an immediate replacement. Vacancies are also available whenever the company is opening up new branches and in situations where the company has developed a new line of production. Abolishment occurs when a company is trying to downsize the number of its employees as a survival strategy. The remunerations of these employees are directed towards meeting the market demand aimed at consumer satisfaction. In situations where a department has more than enough personnel serving it the management may decide to leave the vacant positions and assess if there can be an efficiency of the remaining team. The roles that were played by the immediate occupant of the vacancy should be determined in order to know the best criteria to apply in filling the gap. The company’s constitution clearly defines the responsibilities of each of its workers hence it is the obligation of organization authority to ensure implementation of the set out policies. It is advisable for them to document the needed person’s responsibilities to avoid cases of misunderstanding and disputes among the board members and employees themselves. Prior to declaring the sits vacant the manager should ensure that there is complete clearance with the previous occupant in terms of payments and making sure that any cases that could be underway in court are being handled appropriately by the company lawyer. The predecessor should vacate office within the set time to allow the recruitment overseeing board enough time to look for an occupant in the shortest time possible. In many cases identification of a job opening may take as long as eight months to notify and screen applicants. Ideally, the organization management should be in a position to identify a possible job opening following announcement of a resignation.Such projections provide the management with time needed to plan and implement selection strategies for the vacancies. It is proper to decide on who is the best candidate to fill the vacant position. Usually, there are two options that the firm can choose from: to outsource for the candidates or to recruit candidates internally or externally. If management finds it unnecessary to fill the vacant position, it may be prudent to provide overtime opportunities to cover the needed work. Determining the selection method and advertizing for it Any selection strategy that shall be adopted shall be line with the laid out federal laws by the Australian Human Rights that covers breach of human rights and discrimination. According to these acts, selection shall be independent of race, disability, sex and age. It is therefore advisable for the company to employ an independent body to carry out the process to avoid application of measures that do not meet the above mentioned standards. In deciding the best method to apply, the organization is first of all faced with the task of identifying the type of individual required to fill the vacant position. In so doing it should identify the specific job description such as remuneration range, responsibilities, competencies and reporting relationships. The decision on whether to target all the qualified applicants or to limit selection process to a segment of the applicant population is a vital tool to identification of an appropriate selection strategy. If the company decides to recruit externally, it stands a chance to reap an advantage in targeting a population with specific qualification over the decision of informing all potential applicants. For example in the current situation of looking for a HR manager, it would be advisable for the company to select graduates from renowned schools that have exceptional programs in the specific area of concern. Although risky, the company may pirate employees from other firms by placing a competitive salary range for the needed positions. The next step in the process of recruitment involves notifying the target population. The organization can engage two approaches in meeting this requirement. A low-involvement strategy involves advertising the company’s product or service to attract attention of potential applicants. At this point, advertisement is strictly based on the production product of the company and does not mention availability of a vacant position. In the high-involvement strategy, detailed recruitment advertisement for a job vacancy and employee andorsement whereby is done potential applicants meet with the current employee to get to know more about the company. Factors to consider when choosing an appropriate advertising method include cost of advertisement. Costs depend on the recruitment method the company will employ and the importance attached to the process. If the aim is to attract a large number of applicants, the company will be forced to advertise thoroughly. The broader the extent of advertising the better the chance of reaching applicants with needed qualifications. Choice of informing applicants will also depend on the number of positions to be filled. Many positions may require the firm to involve extensive advertisement perhaps using radio, newspapers and internet postings. Characteristic of the target population influences the selection method. For example at such a time when the economy of the country is deteriorating, the number of applicants will be tremendous due to the increased levels of unemployment. Consequently, there will be a lower average applicant quality which therefore calls for the organization to adopt a method that discourages all but the best applicants. For external resourcing, the firm may choose to use one or a combination of the most popular advertisement options like radio, television, newspaper advertisement, internet posting, trade magazine advertisement and college interviews. In case of internal recruitment, internal job postings may be availed. Accepting application and undertaking the selection Resumes and other certifications posted by applicants via the company mail box and email as well as those delivered personally to the HR office are thoroughly assessed and analyzed by each member of the selector panel prior to the interview session. This is aimed at providing a list of the most potential candidates for the posts. The list is submitted to the HR office who subsequently informs the candidates on the interview dates, what is required of them during the interview and provides them with information about the company. Failure of availing sufficient information about the company’s policies and procedures might be detrimental in the long term job satisfaction and may be viewed as an indication of the panels disinterest in them. Implementation strategy According to Gatewood R.D. and Field H.S. (2001) recruitment is a process of critically analyzing the applicant following a given formant agreed by an organization in order to extend its offer to that particular applicant upon qualification. To hire and select the best employees that can be resourceful to your organization requires that detailed and evaluated criteria be followed. The selection strategy aims at overseeing the revenues that the selected employees accrues but not really that a particular candidate is chosen. The quality, cost and utility model helps the employer to ensure that only highly performing candidates are selected. Gatewood and field (2001) clearly bring out an implementation process that an organization can employ in order to come up with good strategy of recruiting its employees who are competent. They do include: the need of job analysis an organization interview panel will have to systematic study the job content for the human resource graduate and the blanket machine operator this will allow the organization to determine the dimension needed to perform the job. Identify the requirements of the job. Following the job analysis this organization will have to identify the abilities, knowledge and the skills of importance, needed to carry out the job of the human resource graduate and the blanket machine operator. The KSAs of any job should be written in details in a job specification. Critical analysis of methods of assessing the applicants. An organization has to come up with a selection methodology will have to analyze the level by which the applicant posses this job specifications or the KSAs with this but not limited to; being of much importance cognitive schema, structured, semi- structured and unstructured interviews, psychometrical tests, drug test , assessments.etc. According to Price J.P. (2007) Cognitive schema is one of the most preferred approach to select candidate as per his or her psychological attributes and beliefs for the right job in an organization. It is also used to measure the mental capability of any applicant. In this case the organization will have to evaluate the psychological competence for the graduate and the machine operator to be able to come up with the best applicant. Interviews can be of any agreed form though structured interviews bring about uniform assessment for the interviewee. Psychometrical tests according to Price J.P. (2007) helps the employer understand the employee better and also understand his perception about the job and may be if he was also previously employed his capabilities that can be employed for the success of the organization. Validity and reliability of the methods selected. In any organization the methods chosen should aim at checking at the ability , skill and knowledge that the applicants have so as to distiquish between the minimum qualified to the more qualified and be able to bring the best of the highly qualified. Finally the organization will then use the methods to come up with the successful candidate for the human resource graduate and the blanket machine operator who will be given the job. Conclusion In conclusion recruitment strategy is not just any procedure that an organization or any other employer has to wake up and make a decision of having an employee though is a day-to- day task. Barrick M.R. and Zimmerman R.D (2005)159-166, comments that for any successful employer a good layout of how to accrue the employee has to be laid. Otherwise poor laid strategy to either employ some one may lead to collapse of an organization. Any recruitment should follow the standards and government legislations as per the Australian Public Service Act 1922. The organization has to critically analyze the need of recruiting a new staff whether is valid enough and the weakness of employing someone because of personal interest should be in the back of any successful organization unless the individual accrues the specified KSAs for a human resource manager and the blanket machine operator. The method that the organization chooses to use in order to select the employees should be valid in terms of time and the particular job and should be reliable for that particular recruitment for the human resource and the machine operator. Once employed the human resource manager and the blanket machine operator should be granted a good orientation for them to have a good knowledge on the vision, Mission and the motto of the organization. References Gatewood, R, & Field, H. 2001. Human Resource Selection 5th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press. Price, J. 2007. Cognitive Schemas ,Defence Mechanisms and Post-traumatic Stress Symptomology .Psychology and Psychotheraphy: Theory , Research and practice , 80:343-353.doi :10.1348/147608306x144178 Barrick, M, & Zimmerman, R. 2005. ”Reducing Voluntary Turnover Through Selection” Journal of Applied Psychology 80, no.1 (159-166) Alan, N., Robert, C, & Bill, M. 2009. Effective Recruitement and Selection Practices. London: Mc pherson’s printing group. p.190-194 Sheryl, A., Amy, S,& Paul ,H ., 2005. Staff recruitment, retention, & training strategies for community human services organizations. Sydney: Brookes Publishing Company. 386 pages Tapomoy, D. 2006. Strategic Approach to Human Resource Management. Newyork :Atlantic Publishers & Dist, - 412 pages Raj, K. 2010. Human Resource Management: Strategic Analysis Text and Cases. London: K. International Pvt Ltd. 488 pages Marilyn, J. 2007. Public Sector Employment in the Twenty-First Century. Sydney: ANU E Press. 331 pages Read More