Recruitment & Selection By, Dr.

Seema Tatwawadi

Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment
is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for employment to an organization.

Selection
is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or persons most likely to succeed in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.

The general purpose of recruitment

To provide a pool of potentially qualified job candidates. Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of visibly under-qualified or overqualified job applicants. Help reduce labour turnover in the future.

The general purpose of recruitment

Determine the present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its personnel planning and job-analysis activities. Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates. Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short term and long term. Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.

Recruitment and Selection

Factors Governing Recruitment :

Factors influencing recruitment include external and internal factors: A. External Factors : - The supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market. - When the unemployment rate in a given area is high, the company's recruitment process may be simpler. - Labour-market conditions in a local area are of primary importance in recruiting for most non-managerial, supervisory and middlemanagement positions. However, so far as recruitment for executive and professional positions is concerned, conditions of all India market are important. - Legal consideration: We have central and state Acts dealing with labour. They cover working conditions, compensation, retirement benefits, and safety and health of employees in industrial establishments. There are Acts which deal with recruitment and selection. - The company's image is also important in attracting large number of job seekers.

Internal Factors
There are certain internal forces, which need to be considered while recruitment: - Recruiting policy : One such internal factor is the recruiting policy of the organisation whether internal or external.
-

Temporary and part-time employees : Another related policy is to have temporary and part-time employees. An organisation hiring temporary and part-time employees may not be able to attract sufficient applications.

- Local citizens : In multinational corporations (MNCs), there is the policy relating to the recruitment of local citizens. -

Internal Factors
Human Resource Planning : A company must follow the programme of Human Resource Planning for the purpose of quick and easy recruitment. Effective HRP greatly facilitates the recruiting efforts.
-

Size : Size is another internal factor having its influence on the recruitment process. A large organisation will find recruiting less difficult.

- Cost : Cost of recruiting is yet another internal factor that has to be considered. Careful HRP and foresight by recruiters can minimise recruitment costs. One costsaving measure, for instance, is recruiting for multiple job openings simultaneously. Evaluating the quality, quantity and costs of recruitment helps ensure that it is efficient and cost-effective

Recruitment and Attraction

Sources of Recruitment

Internal Sources: Internal recruitment seeks applicants for positions from those who are currently employed. Internal sources include present employees, employee referrals, former employees, and former applicants.

There are two important internal sources of recruitment namely : (i) transfers and (ii) promotions. A promotion is the transfer of an employee to a job that pays more money or one that enjoys some preferred status. - Promotion leads to shifting an employee to a higher position carrying higher responsibilities, facilities, status and pay. The employees can be informed of such a vacancy by internal advertisement.

Sources of Recruitment
Transfers : Another way to recruit from present employees is transfer without promotion. Transfers are often important in providing employees with a broad-based view of the organisation, necessary for future promotions. Transfer involves the shifting of an employee from one job to another. Family and Friends of Employee : This can be a good source of internal recruitment. This source is usually one of the most effective methods of recruiting because many qualified people are recruited at a very low cost to the company. Previous employees : Former employees are also an internal source of applicants.

advantages

The following are the advantages : It promotes greater loyalty and morale among the employees. It encourages competent individuals who are ambitious. It improves the probability of a good selection, since information on the individual's performance is readily available. When carefully planned, promoting from within can also act as a training device for developing middle-level and top-level managers. Those chosen internally are familiar with the organisation. It encourages self-development among employees. They look forward to higher posts. It also creates a sense of security, stability and continuity of employment. It eliminates the chances of hasty decisions. It is a cheaper source of recruitment as compared to external sources.

demerits
Internal sources of recruitment have certain demerits also. These are listed below : When vacancies are filled through internal promotions the scope for fresh blood entering the organisation is reduced. The advantage of hiring outsiders who may be better qualified and skilled is denied. The employees may become lethargic if they are sure of timebound promotions. The spirit of competition among the employees may be hampered. Promotion also results in inbreeding which is not good for the organisation. There are possibilities that the internal sources may "dry up". It may be difficult to find the requisite personnel from within an organisation.

External Recruitment

Advertisements Educational Institutions Professional or Trade Associations Management Consultants Radio and Television Competitors

Advantages

External sources provide a large number of applicants. This permits the enterprise to have a free hand in making the right choice of candidates. The enterprise can expect to get fresh, talented candidates from outside. This means introduction of new blood and new ideas, into the enterprise. Internal candidates have to compete with external candidates for the higher jobs. It serves as inducement for the existing employees to show better performance.

Limitations of External Recruitment

Recruitment from outside may cause dissatisfaction and frustration among the existing employees who aspire for promotion. External recruitment, takes more time than the internal recruitment since the enterprise has to publicize the vacancies and wait for response of prospective candidates. The prospective candidates from outside may or may not be good for the enterprise. There is no guarantee that the enterprise will be able to attract suitable applicants even after advertisement. It is very costly to recruit staff from external

Recruitment strategies

Job posting Electronic posting Personal contact recruitment Recruitment by mail Head-hunting Noncompetive recruitment Develop a recruiting DVD

Recruitment strategies:

Partnerships

University/college/ high school communications, art and computer science programs

Student Interns

Other city departments or agencies to advertise

Professional production companies and advertising agencies

Recruitment and Attraction

The main approaches to attracting applicants can be summarized as follows:

Walk-ins Employee referrals Advertising Websites

Professional associations
Educational associations Professional agencies E-recruitment (general recruitment agents/ companies own sites) Word-of-mouth

Recruitment and Attraction

An organization will take account of a number of factors when forming its recruitment plans and choice of media.

These might include:

Cost Time taken to recruit and select Labour market focus, for example: skills, profession or
occupation

Mobility of labour geographic and occupational Legislation on sex discrimination, race discrimination and
disability

Recruitment and Attraction

Job description format

Recruitment and Attraction

Personnel specifications versus competencies

Personnel specifications may contain stereotypes of the

ideal person and so organizations may be reinforcing the stereotype in their recruitment practices.

The use of competencies allows organizations to free

themselves from traditional stereotypes in order to attract applicants from a variety of sources.

Competencies appear to be more objective, have a variety

of uses in attracting applicants and allow an organization to use more reliable and valid selection techniques.

Selection: Costs
Organizations have become increasingly aware of making good selection decisions, since it involves a number of costs:

The cost of the selection process itself, including the use

of various selection instruments

The future costs of inducting and training new staff

The cost of labour turnover if the selected staff are not
retained

Selection: Principles
Underlying the process of selection and the choice of techniques are two key principles:
1.

Individual differences: Attracting a wide choice of applicants will be of little use unless there is a way of measuring how people differ, i.e. intelligence, attitudes, social skills, psychological and physical characteristics, experience etc. Prediction: A recognition of the way in which people differ must be extended to a prediction of performance in the workplace.

2.

Selection
Reliability and Validity Issues
Reliability refers to the extent to which a selection technique achieves consistency in what it is measuring over repeated use. Validity refers to the extent to which a selection technique actually measures what it sets out to measure.

Selection Interviews
Information elicited interviews have a specific focus, i.e.
facts, subjective information, underlying attitudes.

Structure ranging from the completely structured to the

unstructured. A compromise between the two enables the interviewer to maintain control yet allowing the interviewee free expression.

Order and involvement the need to obtain different kinds

of information may mean the involvement of more than one interviewer. Applicants may be interviewed serially or in a panel.

Selection

Selection

Psychometric Testing
Personality research has lent support to the use of sophisticated selection techniques such as psychometric tests that have a good record of reliability and validity.

Ability tests: these focus on mental abilities (verbal/numerical) and physical skills testing. Right/wrong answers allow applicants to be placed in ranked order. Inventories: self-report questionnaires indicating traits, intelligence, values, interests, attitudes and preferences. No right/wrong answers but a range of choices between possible answers.

E-assessment
On-line testing, or e-assessment, is also used for selection and other HR purposes. Benefits: Online testing enables organizations to test at any time and anywhere in the world. It enables the quick processing of applicants. Drawback: Loss of control over the administration of the tests anyone can be called on to help

Assessment Centres
Assessment centres are designed to yield information
that can be used to make decisions concerning suitability for a job.

They provide a fuller picture by combining a range of

techniques.

General methods used include group discussions, role

plays and simulations, interviews and tests.

Candidates attending an assessment centre will be

observed by assessors who should be trained to judge candidates performance against criteria contained within the competency framework.

Realistic Job Previews

Applicants have expectations about how the organization will treat them. Recruitment and selection represent an opportunity to clarify these. Realistic job previews (RJPs) provide a means of achieving this.

RJPs can take the form of case studies, shadowing, job sampling and videos this enables the expectations of applicants to become more realistic.
RJPs: lower initial expectations, cause some applicants to deselect themselves, increase levels of organization commitment, job satisfaction, performance and job survival.

Chapter Summary