Recruitment and selection
From WikiTextbook
If a business to be successful it must have employees with the right skills and attitudes. In order to get the right worker the business will have to decide upon what type of person they want to employ. The business will then have to recruit and train that person. The recruitment process can involve the following activities:
• identifying the vacancy;
• job analysis to create a job description
• drawing up a job description;
• drawing up a person specification;
• advertising the vacancy;
• short listing applicants;
• interviewing applicants;
• selecting and appointing the most appropriate candidate.
All of these activities must be carried out in such a way that does not break any legal or ethical rules. In a medium to large business, the Human Resources functional area will carry out these tasks. In smaller businesses there may be no separate department and it will be the job of managers.
Contents |
Identifying The Vacancy
A job vacancy may arise for a number of reasons, such as:
• A worker retires;
• a worker leaves to join another business;
• a worker is sacked;
• somebody is promoted leaving a vacancy for their old job;
• an increase in sales meaning more workers are needed;
• new technology means that workers with new skills are required.
This should be an ideal time to decide how the vacancy should be filled, for example, should the new employee be full or part-time. The business will also have to decide whether to recruit internally, where the job is filled by a person already working for the company, or, externally, where a new employee to the business is employed.
Job Analysis
Before advertising for job applicants the business will usually draw up a job analysis. This will outline what the job involves:
• the skills required;
• the tasks that are carried out;
• the level of performance expected by the business.
In order to make the job analysis as accurate as possible, different people will have to be asked what the job involves, for example, the person carrying out the job at the moment and their boss.
Drawing Up A Job Description
The business should decide what it wants the worker to do and the qualifications and qualities he or she should have. This information can be made into a list and it will provide a word picture of the job; this is known as the job description. A worker’s job description should include the following information:
• key responsibilities – an outline of what a worker is expected to achieve;
• tasks or activities – the day to day activities a worker needs to do in order to carry out responsibilities;
• job security – will let the employee know how long s/he is being employed for;
• skills, qualifications and personal qualities required;
• the related pay and benefits – when and how much the employee will be paid and information about benefits, such as a company car.
The job description has a number of uses:
• allows the business to let people applying for jobs know what is expected of them;
• helps the people carrying out interviews decide upon the qualities that successful candidates must have;
• can help gauge whether or not employees are doing their job properly;
• disputes about what the employee has to do can be settled by looking at the job description.
Sometimes the job description can be misunderstood as it is simplified. It would be virtually impossible to include every detail and feature of a job.
Drawing Up A Person Specification
Many businesses will then choose to produce a person specification. This gives a profile of the ideal person needed for the job. The person specification can include details such as skills, experience, qualifications and personality. This description will often form the basis for the selection of the most suitable person to fill the job.
The business will usually divide the characteristics of the ideal person for the job into essential/desirable/additional categories.
Advertising The Vacancy
There are many ways that a business can attract potential employees for a post. They could use one of the following methods:
• Commercial employment agencies – theses are businesses that specialise in recruiting and selection. They will either provide a shortlist of candidates for the company to interview or a temporary worker. They minimise the administration for the company, however they usually only come up with staff that stay in the job for a short amount of time and they charge the business fees. (picture of recruitment consultants)
• Job centres – are government run and they can find people easily as they have access to national databases of the unemployed. (picture of job centre)
• Headhunting – businesses will ask executive agencies to approach individuals who have an excellent reputation in a particular field of work.
• The milk round – this involves visiting universities and meeting final year students at universities’ careers fairs. (picture of university careers fair, if not then a university)
• An advertisement – this can be placed in a local or national newspaper, or on an internet site. The decision on what to include in a recruitment advertisement is important because of the high cost of space and the need to attract attention. It is also important to decide where to place the advertisements in order to ensure the right type of people see the advert. Information commonly included in an advert will be the similar to that contained in the job description and person specification. (picture of appointments section in newspaper/advert for drivers on a bus)
Short Listing Applicants
Which ever way the business attracts applicants it will have to decide upon a short list of people to interview. To assist the business in drawing up its short list, it will ask applicants to complete an application form and/or a curriculum vitae (CV).
An application form will ask the applicant to provide answers to questions set by the business. The application form makes it relatively easy for the business to compare applicants as they have the same information about all of them.
Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Application Forms
When an applicant applies for a job s/he will normally be asked to complete an application form and/or provide a curriculum vitae (CV).
The person applying for a job is called an applicant. An application form will ask the applicant to provide answers to a number of questions that have been set by the business. The business may ask why you want the job or what skills you have that would be useful in the job. A useful tip is to make a photocopy of the application form to practice on before completing the final one that is sent to the business.
An application form has the benefit of allowing the business to compare applicants relatively easily as they will have the same information about all of them. Businesses can then judge the applicants by looking at the answers to the questions they set.
A curriculum vitae will normally contain the following information about an applicant:
Personal details
This will include name, home address, school/college address, phone number, email address and date of birth.
Education history
A list of the places the applicant studied should be listed here. It is important that details of subjects and grades awarded are included.
Previous job experience
This should be a list with the most recent experience first. Give the name of the employer, job title, and details of the tasks that you had to do in the job. Part-time work should also be included. You must always make sure that your CV is relevant and up to date. Your part-time paper round is no longer of interest to an employer looking for a manager!
Skills
Any skills such as ability in other languages, computing experience, or possession of a driving licence should be included here.
Interests
Businesses will be interested in activities where leadership or responsibility was required. Interests such as butterfly catching will be of less interest to the business than, for example, being captain of a team. Keep the information brief, for example if you were school netball captain it is not necessary to list how many games you played and how many you won. Details of any voluntary work should also be given here.
References
A reference is a confidential letter written by a referee that provides information about the applicant’s ability to carry out the job. It is usual to give two names for referees - one from a place of study, and one from any work situation. If it is not possible to list a work situation it is possible to give the name of club leader or an older family friend. It is important that referees are willing to provide a reference and that they know that you have named them.
The curriculum vitae will usually be accompanied by a letter of application. The letter of application will outline why an applicant wants the job. It is important to demonstrate your enthusiasm and highlight what you might bring to the job in the letter of application.
Interviews
Interviews are an essential part of the selection process. An interview is usually a face-to-face meeting between the applicant and the interview panel. The interview provides an opportunity for the panel to ask the applicant questions about their suitability for the job. These questions may be based upon information provided in the application form and/or the curriculum vitae. It will also allow the applicant to ask for further details about the job. The interview panel will decide upon the applicant who they believe best fits the person specification.
The interviewer should try and make the applicants feel relaxed before asking them questions. The use of interviews is sometimes criticized as the interviewer will often come to a decision within the first few minutes of the interview.
Interviews have become more varied in recent years. The business may choose to ask an applicant to do one or more of the following in addition to a formal interview:
• A presentation – the applicant will be asked to give a presentation on a particular topic relating to the business;
• Situational interviews – the applicant will be asked to take part in a role play, such as, how to deal with an angry customer or a worker who is frequently late;
• Informal interviews – these may take place over lunch or during a tour of the workplace. It is hoped that these informal interviews will give the employer the opportunity to ask applicants questions in a relatively relaxed atmosphere.
Interviewing Applicants
An interview is usually a face-to-face meeting between the applicant and the interview panel. The interview provides an opportunity for the panel to ask the applicant questions about their suitability for the job. These questions may be based upon information provided in the application form and/or the curriculum vitae. It will also allow the applicant to ask for further details about the job. The interview panel will decide upon the applicant who they believe best fits the person specification.
Interviewing has become more varied in recent years with business carrying out:
• Personality or psychometric tests
• Aptitude tests
• Intelligence tests
• presentations
• Situational interviews
• Informal interviews
Unsuccessful applicants should also get some feedback from the interviewer(s).
Job Tests
Many businesses have started to use testing to help them recruit the most appropriate person for a job. The business will hope that the tests will give them an indication of how the applicant would perform if appointed. There are a number of different types of test that a business can use:
• Personality or psychometric tests are used to try and find the characteristics or attitudes of the applicant. The tests may indicate how the person may react to a particular situation or how they deal with colleagues and consumers;
• Aptitude tests are used to measure skills the applicant already has, for example word processing or language skills.
• Intelligence tests are used to measure the general mental ability of the applicant. Questions may cover areas such as numeracy, literacy and general knowledge.
Contracts
When a business employs a new worker, he or she is entitled to know the working arrangements he or she will face. This information will be contained in an employment contract. An employment contract is an agreement between the employer and employee that is legally binding. The employer must give the employee an employment contract within two months of being appointed. Contracts will be given to permanent and temporary, full and part-time employees.
Contract of Employment Acts, 1972-82 set out what must be in a contract. Contracts include the following features:
• the name of the employer
• the name of the employee
• job title
• the date on which employment is to start
• hours of work, including shift work, flexi time, overtime, breaks from work;
• where the employee is to work, including offices, retail outlets, tele-working, mobile and home-based working;
• pay and benefits;
• rates and frequency of pay
• sickness benefit
• grievance procedures and disciplinary procedures
• legally binding agreements with trade unions
• pension rights and contributions
• period of notice from the employer or employee
• the number of days holiday.
If the business wishes to be flexible and respond to changes in the marketplace it may be necessary to change the working arrangements of the employee. The may involve changing the employment contract. It is essential for a business to be flexible if it is to maximise the levels of profits. There are a number of reasons why the business may feel it is necessary to change an employee’s contract:
• react to changes in customer demand – if customers no longer wish to buy goods or services from the business it will be necessary to either reduce the worker’s number of hours or to terminate their contract altogether.
• Improve customer service – the business may choose to extend its opening hours, e.g., 24 hours supermarket opening. This will mean that they need staff to cover the new shifts. It maybe necessary to change the hours of work stated in the contract.
• increase productivity – this will allow the same number of workers to produce a greater amount of output. This will reduce the cost of each of the products and allow them to either sell the product cheaper or make more profit on each item. This will help the business become more competitive than its rivals. The business may offer improved pay and benefits in order to motivate their employees or a bonus if productivity targets are reached;
• improve the quality of products – this will have similar effects to increasing productivity. Improving the quality should increase the business’s sales. The business may decide to offer improved pay and benefits to try and motivate their employees;
• introduce new technology – if the business wished to introduce new technology it may not need some workers and will therefore have to make them redundant, in other words terminate their contract;
• introduce team-working and multi-skill practices – this should improve the workings of the business and reduce their costs.
Statement of Employment
All employees are entitled to receive a written statement of employment as long as they are going to be employed for at least one month. The Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights (TURER) Act 1993 states that an employee must be given a written statement of the main terms and conditions of employment within two months of starting work in a new job. Any changes to the statement must be notified in writing within one month.
This statement of employment will not necessarily cover every aspect of the contract, but can provide more information about the terms and conditions of the job.
The written statement of employment must cover:
• the names of the employer and the employee;
• the date when the employee started work;
• the level of pay and how often the employee is to get paid;
• the hours of work;
• the holiday entitlement;
• details of sick leave and information about sick pay;
• details about pensions;
• how much notice the employer and employee have to give to end the employment;
• job title or a brief job description;
• if the job is not permanent then a date when the job will finish must be given.
