Recruitment & Selection and the

Management of Change

The case of Protection Royale

The focus is on the Financial Consultancy Division of this
insurance company
There had been very low turnover among the sales consultants
whose job had been to market the company’s insurance
products to insurance brokers.
Recruitment was by replacement:
advertise in the trade press
use specialist recruitment agencies
recommendations from existing staff
shortlist from applications
interviews, roles plays, psychometric testing
references
But the job became harder as products diversified and become
more complex

Protection Royale... Result

Customers lost confidence, the company lost its position
in the marketplace
There was a big shake-up
The company recognised the need to have a more focused
product range and high-performing staff who could
persuade brokers that these were worth selling on to
clients.
A new person specification emerged:
excellent product knowledge
influential and persuasive
negotiation skill
Protection Royale ...
Furthermore, legislation introduced in 1994 required
financial sales practitioners to hold various
qualifications
Therefore there was a big reduction in eligible people
within the external labour market.
Existing staff were deemed either ‘suitable’, ‘unsuitable’
or ‘possible’; many left
Line managers tried to head-hunt replacements, but
failed.
A crisis became apparent

Protection Royale ... Steps taken

‘Recruitment champions’ were appointed
Line managers and HR specialists were given performance
indicators relating to recruitment objectives
A new search for direct recruits and for trainees.
A matrix of selection methods (e.g. Application form,
testing of job knowledge/ skills/attitudes,
psychometric testing, interviews, simulations,
presentations, references) and competencies.

Protection Royale...
National advertising
7 day ‘phone-in’ interviews, followed by screening
interviews
Assessment centre based selection
Appointment of an induction manager
Thorough procedural knowledge training for all those
involved in the recruitment and selection process.

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment and Selection is defined as “defining a
vacancy, attracting applicants, assessing candidates and
making the final decision.”
It is a systematic process applied to meeting an
organization’s staffing requirements through filling
identified vacancies.

Difference between Recruitment and

Selection
Recruitment Selection

The basic objective of recruitment is The basic objective of selection is to

to attract maximum number of choose best out of the available
candidates so that more options are candidates
available

Recruitment is a positive process Selection is a negative process as it

designed to assemble a suitable pool involves rejection of candidates until
of applicants against a given job a suitable candidate for the job is
vacancy found.

Recruitment techniques are not very In Selection process highly

intensive, requiring high skills specialized techniques are required.

Recruitment and Selection Process

Recruitment
Identify the job vacancies
Defining the vacancy (the job or role to be filled)
Identifying relevant personal attributes correlated with
effectiveness (person specification)
Searching for and attracting relevant applicants
Persuading those people to apply for the vacancy.

Selection
Reception
Screening Interview
Application Blank
Selection Testing
Intelligence tests
Aptitude tests
Personality tests
Achievement tests
Situation tests
Job knowledge test
Skills tests
Interest tests
Selection Interview
Medical examination
Reference checks
Hiring Decision

Importance of Recruitment
Determine the present and future requirement of organization.
Increase the pool of job candidates with minimum cost.
Help increase the success rate of the selection process by
reducing the number of obviously underqualified job applicants.
Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once
recruited and selected will leave the organization only
after a short period of time.
Start identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will
be appropriate candidate
Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short
term and long term
Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques for
all types of job applicants

Methods of Recruitment
Internal Methods
Promotions and transfers
Job Posting
Employee Referrals

External Methods
Campus Recruitment
Gate Hiring
Walk-ins
Advertisements : Newspaper ads, Television and Radio ads

Third Party Methods

Private employment search firms
Contractors
Internet Recruiting

The traditional model of Recruitment and

Selection
 Traditiona
l Recruitment & Selection Model
Vacancy
Job description
Personnel specification
Publicise vacancy
Shortlist
Interview
Select
Offer accepted?
References
Appoint
Engage and induct
Recruitment philosophy
One of the key issues in recruitment philosophy is whether to promote largely from within
the organization or to hire from the outside for vacancies at all levels.
Second aspect of recruitment philosophy concerns where the emphasis is: on merely filling
vacancies or on hiring for long-term careers.
Third aspect of recruitment philosophy concerns depth of commitment to seeking and hiring
a diverse range of employees.
Fourth aspect of recruitment philosophy is whether applicants are viewed as commodities to
be purchased or as customers to be wooed.
Fifth aspect of recruitment philosophy has ethical overtones, in terms of fairness and
honesty in the recruitment process.

Internal and External sources of recruitment

Internal sources
Promotions and Transfers
Job posting
Employee referrals
External sources
Informal methods
Formal methods

External sources
Informal methods:
Rehiring former employees
Hiring people referred by present employees
Walk-ins or gate hires

Formal methods:
Campus recruitment
Advertising – mainly newspapers
Employment agencies
Internet recruitment
Public job service agencies
Unions
Additional Recruiting methods – job fairs, TV or radio ads, direct mail, telerecruiting.

Advantages of Internal sources of

recruitment
The vacancy is filled by a person of known ability.
Motivate current employees
Employees participation in development activities of the
organization
Training and socialization time is reduced
Faster and less expensive
Increases rate of retention

Disadvantages of Internal recruitment

Insufficient supply of qualified individuals.
One vacancy gets filled but another vacancy is created, if
that vacancy is filled another is created (ripple effect)
Reduces flexibility and lacks creativity
Advantages of External Recruitment
Brings in new ideas and viewpoints
Avoids ripple effect confusions
Cope with the demands of rapid growth without overusing
inexperienced personnel
Savings in training costs
Disadvantages of External Recruitment
Cost
External market is harder to reach
Risk of non-performance
Discourages the current employees

Countercyclical Hiring
One strategic issue relevant to external recruiting is
when to do it. Most firms recruit each year to meet
that year's needs.
Evaluation and Benchmarking of Recruitment
Evaluation of past recruiting efforts can help the organization to
predict the time and budget needed to fill future openings.
Helps to identify the recruiting methods that yield the greatest
number or best quality of candidates.
Benchmarking against similar firms can also be informative.
Evaluation based on cost per hire with speed of filling vacancies.

Measures used to evaluate recruiters

Measures used to evaluate recruiting sources
Decision making in selection
The HR specialist collects several types of information about job
applicants before making a selection decision. At least 4
different methods exist for combining information and making
a selection decision:
Additive Models
Multiple Cutoff
Multiple Hurdle
Profile Matching

Additive Models
Additive models are a purely statistical approach to
selection decision making. When using additive models,
the HR specialist simply converts test scores received
by a job applicant to some common metric and then
adds them up. The job applicants with the highest
totals are hired.

Eg:

Name Problem Scheduling Interview

Solvin & Rating
g Planning
Ability Ability
Neha 20 5 9
Rohan 5 15 7
Raj 25 4 5

Neha: 2(20)+3(5)+1(9)= 64
Rohan: 2(5)+3(15)+1(7) = 62
Raj: 2(25)+3(4)+1(5) = 67
Multiple cutoff
In the multiple cutoff method, job applicants are required to
have some minimum level of each predictor variable.
In the preceding example if the multiple cutoff procedure is
used. Cutoff's for each of the three predicator variables are
set so that the minimum level of problem solving ability needed
is 10, a score of 5 on the scheduling and planning test is
required and an interview rating of 5 is necessary.

Eg:

Name Problem Scheduling Interview

Solvin & Rating
g Planning
Ability Ability
Neha 20 5 9
Rohan 5 15 7
Raj 25 4 5

Multiple Hurdle
The multiple hurdle method can be described as a sequential
multiple cutoff approach. Using the preceding example with
Neha, Rohan and Raj, suppose that all three applicants take the
scheduling-and –planning test. This would be the first hurdle in
the selection process. Raj would not pass this hurdle and would
 be excluded from further testing. Neha and Rohan then take
problem-solving test.

Neha successfully meets the minimum level of problem solving

ability required; Rohan does not. Rohan would be excluded from
further testing. The HR specialist then interviews Neha and
eventually hires her.
Advantage:
More cost effective
Disadvantage
Restriction of range

Profile Matching
Profile matching assumes that there is some ideal level of
predictor variables that an applicant should have rather than
some minimum level that must be met or exceeded. For
example, the ideal employee might have average intelligence,
good social skills, a low need for dominance over others, and a
high level of planning ability. In profile matching, the job
applicants hired are those who most closely match profile of a
successful employee.
How Recruitment and Selection may contribute to
Organizational Change
Relevance of recruitment and selection to strategically driven change
revolves around three concepts:
First, Strategy can be viewed as operating at three different levels starting
with corporate strategy and moving through the strategic issues relating
to organization structures to end with functional strategies.
Second, the essential relationship between functional and corporate
strategy, referred as ‘external integration’, can be regarded as two-way.
This acknowledges that much of what happens at the functional level flows
directly from the demands of corporate strategy.
Third, the various dimensions of human resourcing should
not only be integrated with corporate strategy but
should also be ‘internally integrated’ with each other.

How recruitment and selection can contribute to strategic change

at the three levels:
First level of strategy ‘“Upstream”, first-order decisions are
concerned with long-term direction of the enterprise’ and
embrace ‘the big decisions taken in the corporate office’
Such as mergers or acquisitions of an existing business.

There are three distinct strategies adopted by

organizations to secure competitive advantage:
Innovation strategy
Quality enhancement strategy
Cost reduction strategy

Second level of strategy is termed ‘downstream second-order

decisions’ and concerns the organization structures and
operating procedures put into place to support first-order
decisions. Thus a decision to merge with or take over another
organization is followed by a set of decisions governing the
structures and relationships of the ‘new’ organization.
Changes at this level can impact on such HR areas as the
roles performed by employees, their reporting
relationships, and management style. These changes will
feed through to recruitment and selection as revised
expectations of and demands on employees become
clarified.

The third level of strategy is termed ‘downstream third-order decisions’

where functional areas, in this case HRM, define their strategies in
accordance with the first- and second-order decisions and the external
environmental factors operating on the organization. Here recruitment
and selection along with other HR levers, have to take account of the
human resource implications of the first- and second-level strategic
decisions taken by the organization. It is this direct linkage of third-level
functional areas to corporate strategy that is referred as ‘external
integration’.

The 21st century challenges

The major challenges faced by the HR in recruitment are:

Lead Time Analysis – Time taken to complete the process of
recruitment is the main concern for an organisation.
Road Ahead – The ongoing and upcoming new systems are both an
opportunity as well as a challenge for the HR professionals.

Recruitment strategy
The following points should be taken care of in
formulating recruitment strategy:
 * Identifying and prioritizing jobs
* Candidates to target
* Trained recruiters.
* How to evaluate the candidates
* Sources of recruitment
Strategic Recruitment and Selection
According to Lundy and Crowling “If organization
selection is informed by the organization’s environment,
linked to strategy, socially responsible, valid,
periodically evaluated and maintained by knowledge of
leading theory and practice, then such selection is
indeed, strategic”
Dimensions of Strategic Recruitment & Selection
Challenges to Strategic Recruitment &
Selection
Expensive
Often the lack of clear or coherent corporate strategy
Difficulty validating selection decisions

HR Planning choices
Change HRP Strategic selection choices Selection criteria
Scenario approaches
Provision of Select for short-term Operational
Status QUO human proficiency and accept the criteria: attributes
resources for possibility of high levels of required for
existing jobs turn over if employees cannot successful current
cope with change. job performance
Provision of Select for longer-term Visionary criteria:
Planned/ human adaptability to change, but attributes that are
predictable resources for accept that there will be hypothesized as
change envisaged limited knowledge of future necessary for
future jobs changes and therefore some successful future job
difficulties in assessing performance
adaptability
Future Provision of Follow a path of continuous Transformational
imperfect human modifications as the future criteria: attributes
Unplanned/ resources for unfolds, with numerous that are required to
unpredictable jobs which changes to selection systems enable change to
change cannot be or vocational training systems happen; the
prescribed competencies to
change rather than
the changing
competencies

Levels of Strategy
Recruitment & Selection flowing down from
Corporate Strategy
Here the objective of recruitment & selection would be to recruit
people who will enhance the org.’s capacity to deliver its
corporate strategy.
E.g. for an INNOVATION corp. strategy, the company would seek
to recruit people with:
highly innovative behaviour
preference/ability for co-operative behaviour
relatively high risk taking
tolerant of uncertainty
longer-term focus
For a QUALITY ENHANCEMENT or COST REDUCTION
corp. strategies, the patterns would be different
Employee Behaviour Continua Relevant to
Corporate Strategy
Innovation
Self-autonomy
Risk taking
Adaptability to change
Comfort with certainty
Concern for quality
Concern for quantity
Concern for outcomes Responsibility preference (avoids vs. seeks)
Job/org involvement
Skill base (broad-narrow)
Time focus (long/short term)

Recruitment & Selection Flowing down from

Organisation Structure
Behaviours required in managers in Organic Organisations:
networking
team building
information retrieval
innovative problem solving
Mgt competencies required in Organic organisations
info search
concept formation
Flexibility
managing interaction
developmental orientation
self confidence
proactivity
achievement orientation
(These may be needed by non-managers too)

Recruitment & Selection Flowing down from a

desire to recruit Theory Y employees
The target candidates would be
committed to the job
accepting of change
flexible
Their precise qualities would depend on the context and
circumstances that are envisaged

When the higher level strategies are undetermined and

uncertain, Strategic R&S seeks to provide new people who
can help to shape future strategies and help the
organisation to be more FLEXIBLE
Recruitment & Selection driving Corporate
Strategy
Build more DIVERSITY into organisations.
Managing diversity has been developed as a strategic response to the
changing demographic complexion of the workforce and social values that
emphasise the need for the full participation of all the people in and at
work.
It can also be argued that the recruitment of a diverse workforce adds
generally to an organizations ability to meet the challenges presented by
an imperfect future through the creation of a more flexible and adaptable
workforce. R&S processes have a key role to play in securing a diverse
workforce.

Recruitment & Selection driving Org.

Structure
e.g. Recruiting people in order to help reconfigure the
organisation as delayered and TEAM-BASED rather
than tall.
Therefore look for people:
who are dependable
have interpersonal skills
are self-motivated
 have integrity
have leadership potential
are assertive
tolerate ambiguity
are able to cope with stress

Necessary Characteristics for Workers

in a ‘Learning Organisation’
Desired traits
Experiments
admits mistakes
open
encourages ideas
makes joint decisions

Undesired traits
Cautions
rationalises mistakes
defensive
discourage ideas
dominates

Change Agents
Change Agent is someone who "alters human capability or organizational
systems to achieve a higher degree of output or self actualization."
Beginning with the end in mind, the goal of a change agent is obviously to
make changes that stick. The result of change agent activity is to enable
people to do more, or find a new and better perspective on life.
Sometimes this latter idea is the foundation for future change which
achieves outcomes that were previously not attainable.

Necessary Qualities of Change Champions

& Change Agents
Take calculated risks
Good product knowledge & technical skills
Good motivation & work attitudes
Achievement-oriented
Good people skills and communication skills.
Probably require political skills and sensitivities to
survive organisational politics games.
Qualities of Transformational Leaders
Charisma
Provides vision
Generates respect, trust & pride
Inspiration
Conveys high expectations
Intellectual stimulation
Promotes rational approaches to problem solving
Individualised consideration
Individual needs are addressed through personalised
approaches