Coursework Report

Submitted to



Holborn College London

Course Name: Bachelors of Arts in Business Studies

Module Name: Recruitment and Selection


By

Ahmed ========
ID: ============


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Abstract
This report was distributed into three parts. First part explains the concept of HR
planning and its advantages for an organisation. Moreover, the author also highlights
the consequences for the organisations that fail to use HR plans.

Second part explains the concept of recruitment and selection in the organisations. It
includes detailed description of different stages in recruitment and selection process.
The author also compares all of these practices in the case of Bywater (selected
organisation). It has been indicated that Bywater is following most of the practices of
recruitment and selection. However, some improvements can be introduced such as
detailed description of job needs.

Third part of this report highlights different methods that can be used by the
organisations to evaluate recruitment and selection process. There have been a
number of methods indicated that can be used by the organisations to evaluate
recruitment and selection process such as accident rates, absent rates, meeting
deadline, competency in tasks within role, productivity, employee turnover rates, time
keeping, employees and customers attitudes, discipline issues, cases contested in
employment tribunal and recruitment of minority groups.




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Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 4
2. Question 1: HR Planning ...................................................................................... 4
2.1. Advantages of having Detailed HRP ................................................................................. 5
2.2. Disadvantages of not having Detailed HRP ...................................................................... 5
3. Question 2: Recruitment and Selection ................................................................ 5
3.1. Identification of Job Needs .............................................................................................. 6
3.2. Identification of Required Skills ....................................................................................... 6
3.3. Targeting the Candidates ................................................................................................. 6
3.4. Job Application Process .................................................................................................... 7
3.5. Selection stage ................................................................................................................. 8
3.6. Job Induction .................................................................................................................... 9
3.7. Avoiding Discrimination ................................................................................................... 9
4. Question 3: Evaluation Methods .......................................................................... 9
4.1. Evaluation Methods ......................................................................................................... 9
5. Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 11
References ............................................................................................................... 12




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1. Introduction
This report is distributed into three parts. First part explains the concept of HR
planning and its advantages for an organisation. Moreover, the author also
highlights the consequences for the organisations that fail to use HR plans. Second
part explains the concept of recruitment and selection in the organisations. It
includes detailed description of different stages in recruitment and selection
process. The author also compares all of these practices in the case of Bywater
(selected organisation). Third part of this report highlights different methods that
can be used by the organisations to evaluate recruitment and selection process.

2. Question 1: HR Planning
As reported by Armstrong (2000), HR planning refers to a process that ensures
identification of all human resource requirements of an organisation and in order to
satisfy these requirements, different plans are made. They point out that major
objective of HR planning is to ensure that there is no shortage or surplus of
manpower in the organisations. They further point out three major elements in HR
planning. First element is to forecast labour demand. Second factor is to analyse
current labour supply and final element is to balance expected demand and supply
of labour.

Major connection of HRP is with developing business plans and strategies. Choosing
skilled and right number of employees is one of the basic functions of HRP.
Moreover, HR managers have to motivate the employees for achievement of
assigned targets. HRP plays an important role in bridging employees planning and
organisational objectives. Furthermore, HRP also identifies the gaps between
organisational capabilities and reasons behind failure to achieve organisational
objectives. HRP also identifies talent and capabilities of the employees that are
required to improve responsiveness and organisational efficiency. Finally, HRP also
identifies poorly used valuable resources of organisations (Armstrong, 2009).


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2.1. Advantages of having Detailed HRP
The most important benefit of having a detailed HR plan is competitive advantage in the
market. It enables the organisations to select most suitable and skilled employees who
can put in their best efforts for success of the organisations. Moreover, organisations
having detailed HR plans are likely to focus on weaker areas of the organisations and use
available resources and capabilities in the best possible manner (Boxall and Purcell,
2003). Detailed HR plans helps the organisations to design training and development
programs for their employees who can up-to-date their knowledge and improve their
performance. Overall, detailed HR plans are likely to result in achievement of
competitive advantage in the market (Chadwick and Cappeli, 2005).

2.2. Disadvantages of not having Detailed HRP
It is very likely that the organisations that do not have detailed HR plans will have
poorly motivated workforce (Katou and Budhwar, 2006). Employees will show poor
commitment with their jobs and they will have no important role in improving
organisational performance (Maund, 2001). Moreover, such organisations will not be
able to effectively do employee development (Edwards and Wright, 2001).

Inability to have detailed HR plans will result in recruitment of under skilled
employees who will not be able to appropriately complete assigned tasks and it will
adversely affect organisational performance (Baron and Armstrong, 2007).

3. Question 2: Recruitment and Selection
As reported by Secord (2003), recruitment and selection is a process that helps an
organisation to identify, attract and select suitable persons to fill its vacant posts to
meet its HR requirement. He highlights various stages in this process that a business
needs to plan carefully to attract and select candidates. The author will be going
through recruitment and selection in one of the organisations during this report. Its
recruitment and selection process will be reviewed from theoretical and practical
perspectives.

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3.1. Identification of Job Needs
Secord (2003) points out that this stage identifies the needs of vacant post. He
argues that this is the most important stage as HR managers should be aware of the
needs of vacant post i.e. what the reason of arising of this post is. He further argues
that business needs to analyse different aspects of vacant job such as working
environment and conditions and training requirements. Moreover, a business needs
to clearly define job description during this stage.

Current system in Bywater to identify job needs is very good as its HR department
regularly monitors the posts that get vacant and it regularly updates its records for
further steps. It includes making a list of vacant jobs at different locations.

3.2. Identification of Required Skills
Judge et al. (2001) argues that identification of required skills is the second stage
during recruitment and selection process. Every vacant post demands different
skills in new employees and best results will only be achieved if the organisation is
able to find such person or has capabilities to train such people for required skills.
Every vacant job has different required skills and it is extremely important to
identify all of these and include in job advertisements.

Bywater is fully aware of all required skills in most of the jobs. However, there have
been some occasions when it was unable to include all required skills in the
candidates. Currently, Bywater has a published guidance for all types of jobs and
this booklet is regularly updated. It includes detailed description of each required
skill that makes it very easy for decision makers before hiring new employees and it
saves a lot of time for those who have to shortlist the candidates.

3.3. Targeting the Candidates
Armstrong (2009) argues that analysis of recruitment strengths and weaknesses is
the most important stage in targeting the candidates. Secord (2003) argues that
most of the organisations use different methods of advertisements to target their

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candidates. These advertisements are prepared after identification or job needs and
required skills in prospective candidates. Armstrong (2009) points out various
methods that can be used by the organisations to advertise their vacant jobs. These
methods can be advertisements through internal boards and advertising the vacant
job in some external sources such as local and newspapers TV, radio, internet and
company web pages.

Bywater prepares its advertisements after considering job needs and required skills
for each vacant job. There are different methods used to publish these
advertisements. These jobs are advertised through internal boards, national
newspapers, job agencies, radio, internet and its website. However, it has been
noted that it does not advertise through its local newspapers. Advertisements in
local newspapers only cost around 30-60 for each advertisement that is nearly 10
times lesser than advertisements in other sources of advertisement.

3.4. Job Application Process
There are various stages involved in this process as hinted by Armstrong (2009). It
includes application form filling, sorting of applications and short listing of
candidates. Secord (2003) argues that some organisations rely on CVs however;
most of the organisations use application forms that can get detailed information
from the candidates about their educational and professional history. Some forms
can also explore how to meet with certain situations in life.

Application for used by Bywater is just a basic form as it only focuses on getting
educational and work history of prospective candidates. It does not get any
additional information such as future aim and targets and candidates level of
commitment to achieve these goals. Moreover, this form also fails to explore
previous achievements of prospective candidates. Furthermore, Bywater does not
explore what the candidates expect about salary as it does not publish salary of most
of the jobs in its advertisements.


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Second stage in job application process is sorting that is followed by short listing of
candidates. Nankervis et al. (2009) argue that this stage picks up most suitable
candidates from a wider pool of applications for next stage. However, they argue
that organisations should ensure that there is no discrimination in this process and
all candidates are given equal opportunities.

Bywater has assigned this task to various members in its HR team. All the members
are given job specification of each job and they assess each application against this
specification. However, none of the persons is individually responsible to short list
the candidates. As a panel of four members reviews all of the candidates who have
been short listed. Sometime Bywater struggles with short listing. It especially arises
when there are more number of candidates who may fit the job.


3.5. Selection stage
Driefus (1997) points out that most important stages during selection stage are
inviting the candidates for entry tests or interviews. Secord (2003) argues that
every organisation has different procedures in this stage. Some will use entry test
before interviews and some will directly invite the candidates for interviews.
Schedule of both the procedures is communicated to the candidates using different
methods. Basic purpose of interviews is to assess a lot of factors such as candidates
confidence, communication skills and interpersonal skills.

Interview process in Bywater is very good as there is a panel of interviewers that
interviews all the candidates. All the candidates are assessed for required qualities
and competencies. This panel is expert in cross-questioning the candidates for any
lies they have spoken or written in application forms. This panel asks all types of
questions during this interviews that are not only relevant to candidates education
and previous experience but also comprise of exploring candidates drive for
applying for specific jobs. Scoring of all of these interviews is done before making
final decision to hire the candidates.


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One of the steps that is not used in Bywater is entry tests. As hinted by Beardwell
and Claydon (2007), these tests can help the organisations to explore a lot of
qualities in the candidates. These tests may include ability test, aptitude test and
psychometric tests.

3.6. Job Induction
Armstrong (2009) argues that job induction is an important stage in selection
process. It involves detailed explanation to the employees about job and how to do
different tasks. Bywater has been effectively arranging job induction for all of its
posts. This induction lasts for minimum period of 1 week. However, it can be
prolonged for certain cases.

3.7. Avoiding Discrimination
Roberts (1997) argues that one of the best practices during recruitment and
selection is to avoid discrimination. Candidates should not be discriminated due to
their race, religion, colour or any disability. Bywater has very good system to avoid
discrimination as there are more than one persons involved in each stage of
recruitment and selection.

4. Question 3: Evaluation Methods
There are different methods that can be used by the organisations to evaluate
recruitment and selection process as hinted by Armstrong (2009). These methods
include evaluation of performance, benchmarking, HR auditing, goal based
evolution. Basic reason behind recruitment and selection is to attract and retain
employees.

4.1. Evaluation Methods
There are different methods that can be used by the organisations to evaluate
recruitment and selection process. A brief summary of these methods is discussed in
the following paragraphs.

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Organisations can compare employees achievement against job description. This is
considered to be a useful method to evaluate recruitment and selection process as
hinted by Dale (2003). However, this method is not always very suitable. As an
instance, Bywater did not highlight a number of things in its job description such as
accident rates, absences, punctuality and time keeping. However, all of these things
are very important to evaluate if an employee is performing assigned tasks in a
suitable way. In such situations, it is extremely important for the organisations to
design a job description that includes all areas as inability to do so may lead to
differences between assessors and candidates.

Another method that can be used by the organisations to evaluate recruitment and
selection process is comparing employees performance against specific objectives as
reported by Armstrong (2009). Organisations should evaluate if the employees have
been able to meet organisational objectives. There are different methods that can be
used by the organisations to evaluate. This includes regular feedbacks. However,
most important aspect in this regard is to set realistic goals for each employee and
ensure that employees have capabilities to achieve these goals.

Dale (2003) argues that organisations can use employee and candidate surveys to
evaluate their performance and this method is called qualitative assessment.
Similarly, quantitative methods can be used by financial departments. Moreover,
some other indicators such as absent rates, sales, employee turnover rates can also
be used as quantitative methods to evaluate recruitment and selection process in
the organisations.

Organisations can use a lot of indicators that include accident rates, absent rates,
meeting deadline, competency in tasks within role, productivity, employee turnover
rates, time keeping, employees and customers attitudes, discipline issues, cases
contested in employment tribunal and recruitment of minority groups.


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5. Conclusions
This report was distributed into three parts. First part explains the concept of HR
planning and its advantages for an organisation. Moreover, the author also
highlights the consequences for the organisations that fail to use HR plans. Second
part explains the concept of recruitment and selection in the organisations. It
includes detailed description of different stages in recruitment and selection
process. The author also compares all of these practices in the case of Bywater
(selected organisation). It has been indicated that Bywater is following most of the
practices of recruitment and selection. However, some improvements can be
introduced such as detailed description of job needs. Third part of this report
highlights different methods that can be used by the organisations to evaluate
recruitment and selection process. There have been a number of methods indicated
that can be used by the organisations to evaluate recruitment and selection process
such as accident rates, absent rates, meeting deadline, competency in tasks within
role, productivity, employee turnover rates, time keeping, employees and
customers attitudes, discipline issues, cases contested in employment tribunal and
recruitment of minority groups.




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References
Armstrong, M. (2000), Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action,
London: Kogan Page Publishers

Armstrong, M. (2009), Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management
Practice, London: Kogan Page Publishers

Baron, A. Armstrong, M. (2007), Human Capital Management: Achieving added value
through people, London: Kogan Page Publishers

Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T. (2007), Human Resource Management: A
contemporary Approach, Harlow, Prentice Hall.

Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003), Strategy and Human Resource Management, New
York: Palgrave Macmillan

Chadwick, C. and Cappelli, P. (2005), Alternatives to Generic Strategy Typologies in
Strategic Human Resource Management cited in Wright, P. Dyer, L. Boudreau, J.
Milkovich, G. (Eds.), Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management,
Supplement 4, Strategic Human Resources Management in 21st century, pp 11-29,
JAI Press.

Dale, M. (2003, A manager's guide to recruitment & selection, London: Kogan Page
Publishers

Driefus, C. (1997), Interview, USA: Seven Press

Edwards, P. and Wright, M. (2001), High Involvement work Systems and
Performance Outcomes, International Journal of Human Resource Management,
12(4), 568-585

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Judge, T. Thoresen, C. Bono, J. and Patton, G. (2001), The Job Satisfaction-Job
Performance Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review Psychological
Bulletin, 376-407

Katou, A. and Budhwar, P. (2006), Human Resource Management Systems on
Organisational Performance, International Journal of Human Resource Management,
17(7), 1223-1253

Maund, L. (2001), An Introduction to Human Resource Management, New York:
Palgrave

Secord, H. (2003), Implementing best practices in human resources management, 1
st

Edition, Canada: CCH Canadian Limited publishers

Nankervis, A. Compton, R. and Morrissey, B. (2009), Effective Recruitment and
selection Practices, Australia: McPhersons printing Group

Roberts, G. (1997), Recruitment and Selection: A competency Approach, New York:
CIPD Publishers