The Recruitment and Selection of Sales Staff - Essay Example

THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION OF SALES STAFF Introduction Recruitment and selection is one of the most important practices for the human resource department. The department has the overall duty of ensuring that an organization meets all its objectives in its operations and as far as human resource is concerned. Recruitment and selection is one of the most important factors that can assist an organization to meet its objectives. (Martin and Jackson 2004, p. 97) The main of aim recruitment is to help an organization to achieve the highest caliber of employees who are competent in their work. It aims at ensuring that an organization recruits the most competent work force that will help it to meet its goals and objectives. Therefore recruitment can be a source of success or failure for the organization. The cost of selection and recruitment can weigh heavily on the organization based on the way the whole process will be carried out. In order to have a competent workforce, many organizations have taken a systematic approach to the recruitment and selection of staff. They have put in place a mechanism that ensures that they attract and select the best workforce in the market. This has been achieved by ensuring that the process is based on selection on merit. The human resource department has been given the overall duty of ensuring that it comes up with the best selection plan that will ensure that the organization meets its objective in recruitment process. The human resource department must ensure that it upholds the policy of equal employment opportunity for all which is reflected theory the recruitment framework. (Gareth 2005, p. 21) Background of the company Kids 'R' US is a super store that has specialized in selling of children's clothes and other equipments like toys. The store is owned byte the ABZee Group. The groups has decided to venture in the market in order to take advantage of the parent pound market which has been one of the growing market in the recent past. In order to achieve its objective, the company wants to one a new store at One Stop Shopping Center, at Perry Bar in Birmingham which will open its doors on September 1 2008. The company wants to embark on recruitment exercise that will see it recruit the best workforce in the market. Recruitment method The company will use external recruitment as compared to internal recruitment In this case it will be recruiting those from the local areas. Due to the size of the company, it may not be able to get enough staffs if it conducts internal recruitment. In order to get enough staff and bring more variety to the new store, the company will be recruiting different people but from the local area who understand the demands of the local people. The company will use physical interview in combination with e-recruitment in order to get the most qualified candidates for the job. (CIPD Factsheet, 2007) Kid 'R' US as an equal opportunity employer The company is an equal opportunity employer in the market and therefore the recruitment process will be targeting all the people the market based on their qualifications. In the recruitment process the company will continue to uphold it's the policy of being an equal opportunity employer. It will continue to recruit, hire, train and promote in all its job levels the most qualified and competent person without any discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, nationality or the sexual orientation of the person. In this case the company will not base its employment on issues of gender favors or discriminate the applicant based on their disabilities. Therefore all the applicants should be treated as equal and the selection procedure will be based on the qualification of the candidate. The company will also continue to administer other personal mater as regards issues of compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs, training and development, education and other social recreation programs that the company wishes to uphold. (Torrington and Taylor2005, p. 28) Recruitment scope The scope of this recruitment plan is to help the company to recruit 20 full time applicants who will be working for 35 hours and roistered over 7 days that the store will remain open in a week. The company will also employ 20 part time sales assistant who will also be roistered to work on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for 15 hours a weeks. Therefore this recruitment plan will be aimed at hiring 55 working staff for its new store. Purpose and goals of the recruitment Apart from having the main aim of hiring the most competent workforce in the market, the recruitment process will also be aimed at achieving the following: (CIPD survey, 2007) Ensure a consistent and fair recruitment that will be based on merit in accordance with the equal opportunity employment policy. The meet and even exceed the planning needs of the new stores in order to meet its objective. Ensure that there is effective use of the recruitment and selection practices for the company Attract a high standard of candidates from which the company will be able to select from Promote the company to become a dynamic place where all the employees feels satisfied working in by ensuring that there is diversity in the recruitment process. References The recruitment process will take into consideration the following provision in the company and also in the government in carrying out the recruitment process. Kid 'R' US as an equal opportunity employer. This will be the main guide that will ensure that the process is fair to all the applicants Anti Discrimination Act Equal pay Act Workforce requirement The store will require a total of 20 employees in order to function properly. In this case these employees will be assigned to different areas in the store. The sales department will require around 16 customer attendant staffs while there will be 2 sales assistants who will be deployed in wrapping and there will be other two who will assistants the customer with loads to their cars. According to the market research data that we have carried out, we have found out that similar stores usually have a lot of customers on the weekends. In this case there is a great flow of customer from Friday throughout the weekend and the above workforce cannot manage to serve all customers. Therefore in order to handle the flow of customers in the store, the store will also be seeking to hire 20 part time employees. These employees will be roistered over the weekend from Friday, Saturday and Sunday in order to assist the full time employees. They will be expected to work a maximum of 15 hours per week unlike the full time employee who will be working for 35 hours a week. Recruitment board In order to ensure that the process of recruitment is free and fair and that it is carried out effective, the company will put in place a board that will oversee the recruitment process. In the regard the human resource department has been given the overall duty carrying out recruitments in the organization. The composition of the board has ensured that there has been particular attention that has been pad to gender composition of the board in order to ensure that fairness is upheld in the recruitment process. (Griffeth 2007, p. 61) The recruitment board shall be composed of the following: Human resource manager Assistant human resource manager Sales manager Accounting manager Production assistant manager Requirements of the position For the position there will be no experience that will be required in the selection although those who will have experience will have an added advantage. In this case there will be training that will be given to the successful candidates in order to ensure that they are well equipped with the policies and procedures of the company. Target market In recruitment the permanent employees the recruitment process will be targeting the local market. This means that the recruitment process will be aimed at taping the local employees who are well accustomed with the practices of the local people. This experience in the local practice of the community will help the employees to serve them well. Therefore the target market will be local people to Perry Barr in the West Midlands. In the recruitment process, the company will be targeting the long term unemployed people. Since there are no particular skills that are required in the job, the company will hire the local people who have not been in the employment market for along time. In this case the company will be able to negotiate the salary scale with these people rather than targeting the skilled workforce whom it may become difficult to negotiate payment. The company will also be target employees through the new deal employment scheme which means it will recruit mostly the young and old who have not been in job for long time. It will also target school and college leavers in order to ensure that it will bring in new skills in the department. It will also look at reemploying some of it earlier employees who have experience in the department. Part time employees The company will be looking forward to recruit 20 part time employees. These employees will be rotated on weekend when the store has more customers and therefore will be deployed in order to assist the full time employees who are likely to be overwhelmed by the number of customers. Therefore in order to enhance efficient flow of customers, the company will need extra part time employees. Target market For the part time employee, the company will be targeting students who are free during the weekends. It will also recruit school and college leavers, women returnees, carer, retired personnel and people with disability. The main reason for targeting this market segment is that they can work with flexibility and are able to spare some of their times in the weekend. The company will also be meeting its overall duty as an equal opportunity employer. The target make also will be local people to Perry Barr in West Midlands. General requirements for the job In order to serve the customers well there will be some basic requirement that every candidate will have to meet in order to be selected for the vacancies. There will be no experience that will be required since the company will be providing training that will be necessary in order to deal with customers. However the selected condition will be expected to be proficient in the following skills: (i) Communication The ideal candidate for the job will be required to communicate information to others in a clear manner. Oral communication will be very crucial in this case since they will be communicating directly with consumers and other staff. They will also be expected to exhibit the same skills in writing since they will be expected to complete some forms like stock order forms. They will also be expected to communication and understand quantities information. (ii) Customer focus Ideal candidates will be expected to be focused on customers. They are expected to show empathy with customers with a desire to understand their needs and serve them. They need to be approachable and able to meet the needs of adults and children. (iii) Teamwork There sales assistant will be expected to work as a team. In this case they will be expected to work together in order to serve the customers. Therefore an ideal candidate will be required to be sensitive to the needs of other members of staff and attend to their needs and concerns. They will be expected to contribute to teamwork and during staff meetings. They will be expected to help others and provide a friendly and cooperative atmosphere. (iv) Business result An ideal candidate will be expected to be committed to achieve success for the store and the organization in general. They will be expected to understand the product well and flexible enough to be deployed in any parts of the store. One will be expect to show drive and determination to serve customers and help the store to work in an effective and efficient manner. The above competences will form the main selection criteria in the recruitment process. The recruitment board will be expected to base their recruitment on the above competences. Advertising The main aim of the company will be to recruit competent local workforce. Therefore it will be expected to use the advertisement method that will enable to reach a big number of the local people. Therefore the company will advertise using posters which will be put on the local area. This will help the company to target the local people. The posters will be hung in the local advertisement boards and also in schools and in other places in which it will be able to reach many people. (Arnod 2005, p. 32) However the company also wishes to recruit those how under the new deal which means that it will have to be public in nature. Therefore it will be expected to post advertises on this website but will have to give specification of the people whom it will be targeting and from which area. The following will be the advertisement that will be posted to the new deal website and hung in the local area. (Wilson 2004, p. 57) Full time sales assistant Job Tite: Sales Assistant Region: Must be from Perry Barr, West Midlands Number of positions: 20 Availability: In a month's time from the time of advertisement Salary: Competitive package Experience: No experience required Other requirements include: The ideal candidates will be expected to show proficiency in: An ideal candidate must possess good communication skills with the staff and with customers. The ideal candidate will also be expected tot show the same level of proficiency in writing. One must have ability to communicate and understand quantitative information Must be customer focused. An ideal candidate will be expected to exhibit empathy with customers and show a desire to understand their needs and offer assistance especially when it comes to parents and their children. One should be a team player. Must be able to coordinate and world with other and nation a friendly and cooperative working atmosphere. One must be business oriented. One must exhibit commitment to achieving success for the stores and for the organization in general. The ideal candidate will be expected to show desire to learn and understand products and flexibility to work in any area in the store. Application: To apply for the vacancy, drop your Curriculum Vitae and other testimonials document the human resource department of the organization on or before 5th June 2008. You can also send your application through the following the address Hrrectruit-salesass1@ABzee.com NB: ABZee is an equal opportunity employer. All people are encouraged to apply for the job. Remember that only the short listed candidate will be contacted. Part time Sales Assistant Title: Part time sales assistant Region: Must be from Perry Barr, West Midlands Number of positions: 20 Availability: In a month's time from the time of advertisement Salary: 6 pounds per hour Experience: No experience required The candidate will be expected to meet the qualifications in the above advertisement Application: To apply for the vacancy, drop your Curriculum Vitae and other testimonial document to the human resource department of the organization on or before 5th June 2008. You can also send your application through the following ema address Hrrectruit-salesass2@ABzee.com NB: ABZee is an equal opportunity employer. The following are encouraged to apply for the job: students, women returnees, careers, retired people, and people with disabilities. Remember that only the short listed candidate will be contacted. Recruitment process The recruitment procedure will be guided by the producer that will ensure that the process is fair and flows well as anticipated. It will be conducted as follows: (i) Assessment of the workforce need of the store This will be the process of assessing the need of workforce for the company. In this case the assessment will take the form of understanding the number of employees who will be required for the store to operate well. The initial assessment has shown that the store will require a total of 20 full time sales assistant and 20 part-time sales assistant. (ii) Composition of the recruitment board The board will be constituted in order to oversee the recruitment and hiring procedure. The board composition will take care of the gender balance and other issues in order to make sure that the recruitment process will be fair and will uphold the principle of equal opportunity employment for all the applicants (iii) Determination of the competencies After its composition the board will be given the mandate of looking at the desired qualities that each company will be expected to meet. In this case the board will set the desired qualities that the candidates will be expected to meet. (v) Selection of the forms of advertisement The board will then decide on the mode of advertisement that will be used to select the best candidates for the job. This will take into consideration that the job will be aimed at recruiting local residents. (vi) Short listing The board will then look at all the applicants and select the almost appropriate for the job. The following matrix will be used to help the board shortlist the best candidates for the job. The board is expecting to receive around 400 applicants fro the whole job. The following matrix will be used in the selection process ABZee Selection Matrix Application Form Interview (CBI) Role Play Test Group Exercise Communication x x x x x Customer focus x x x Teamwork x x x Business Results x x x x Candidates will be selected in the view of how one will have satisfied the board based on the above analysis. Based on the matrix, the selection board will be able to asses the most qualified candidates on the way they are able to satisfy the four selection matrix. (vii) Interview The numbers of candidates who will have been called for the interview will then have to go through the interview which will be conducted by the board. In this case the board will use the same score card but the emphases will now be on the competency of the candidate on the four competencies. After the interview the boards will then sit and decide on the candidate who will have accumulated more points and therefore the first twenty will be considered to have succeeded for the interview. (vii) Invitation of the candidates and orientation The successful applicant will then be invited for having passed the interview. The successful candidates will then be given an induction in their job and will be issued with job prospectus. Cost of the recruitment In order to reduce the cost of recruitment process the HR department should try to use the resources within the department. This means that it have to utilize all the available resource. This can be achieved through including company employees in the interview board which means there will be no extra cost to be paid. It is also good to shorten the interview days to two or three depending on the number of applicants. References Arnod, J 2005, Work psychology: Understanding human behavior in the workplace, FT Prentice Hall CIPD Factsheet, 2007, Recruitment and E-recruitment CIPD survey, 2007, Recruitment, retention and turnover Gareth, R 2005, Recruitment and selection, CIPD Griffeth, R 2007, Human Resource management Review, Harvard Business School Martin, M. & Jackson, T 2004, Personnel Practice, CIP Torrington, D. & Taylor, S 2005, Human Resource Management, Prentice Hall Wilson, L 2004, The human resource agenda, Harvard Business School. Read More