Use of Electronic Selection and Recruitment Methods - Example

Human Resources Management. Traditional method of recruitment has been gradually revolutionised by advanced technology through internet. The traditional methods of recruitment include recruitment agencies, advertisements on print media and networking. Over the years, internet has been changing the face of recruitment of human resources and how organisations perceive the recruiting function. In future, the digital process of hiring and recruiting is expected to grow exponentially. Currently, the process of e-recruitment has been adopted in various organisations ranging from small size companies to large ones. The main reason for a recruitment process is to generate an applicant pool which is competitive and truly interested in the organisation as a response to the posting of a job. Recruitment methods that are internet-based have proved to be very effective. These methods are usually driven by skills where employers give the description of the free positions while on the other hand applicants provide their skills in extensive details. Once the job seekers post their resumes on interested jobs, the recruiters then focus the applicants’ skills versus the current position requirements (Caggiano, 1999). However, there are pros and cons of e- recruitment methods. The pros of these methods will be discussed first. One of pros is facilitation to reach a large target and fetch wide range of qualified candidates. Recruitment through online provides and efficient way for identification and classification of unlimited number of applicants. Also, through e-recruitment, the employers are allowed to broaden the scope of what they are searching which results to acquiring of high quality pool of candidates. This is because most applicants in the internet are educated, computer literate and have interests in the company requiring recruitment. E recruitment also provides list of link to site that are unending which give employers space to place their vacancies and get potential candidates for the advertised posts. Moreover, e-recruitment method reaches many applicants throughout the world thus increasing the pools of the applicants (Zall, 2000). Another pro of this method is cost-effectiveness which leads to achievement of the economy. Publishing vacant positions cost less in company website than employing other media such as newspaper. This leads to low costs of recruitment and saving of time through a process that is faster. This method can also increase the organization’s image where a corporate site of recruitment attributes the company’s image of innovation and flexibility. An organisation with a strong geographical presence and a strong brand name will tend to attract a great pool of applicants. These methods are quick as a vacancy can be posted in the morning, applications arrive at mid day, and the candidates are interviewed as the day ends. The method is also easy as it is straight forward to post a job in the organisation’s website. It will also be easy to post a job in the social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Another pro is that these methods do not require any intermediaries such as agents in traditional methods. Finally, e-recruitment method is very effective tool for reaching the global market. Internet has no boundaries other than language barriers which can easily be overcome (Galanaki, 2002). However, e-recruitment methods have some cons. Most of the organisations may find it challenging for recruitment of the executive level using the internet. Recruitment of a candidate on an executive level in management is mostly preferred for personal contact as they are very essential for achievement of the organizational goals. Some of these positions are better resourced by use of website and traditional methods. This method may also lead to discrimination as there are applicants that are skilled but lack access to computers. This will act as a drawback as it will be difficult for the company to make achievement on diversity goals which create a potential legal threat. Although there is increase in geographical scope using internet, it should be also remembered that it is still limited in demographic scope (Greengard, 1998). Another con in these methods is that they are only proven as effective for organisations that are already known. Companies that are not yet established will end up getting a smaller pool of skilled and competitive applicants. Finally, these methods may lead to the risk of overloading of the resumes because by using internet the applicants have no barriers in the geographical communications and time between them and employers. This would result to very large volumes of resumes for unqualified candidates. This will lead to more work of assessing low quality skilled and high applicants’ volumes (Pearce & Tuten, 2001). The best methods for recruitment and selection depend on the vacant position in the level of management. I will consider the roles of a manager and a store keeper in an organisation. A manager is the top level executive and is the building block of the organisation. He or she performs the five basic functions in the management; planning, staffing, organising, controlling and directing. The main role of a manager is the achievement of the organisational utilization of resources. A manager also plays a key role in the achievement of the objectives of the organisation. He or she is responsible for alignment of objectives of individuals with the organizational objectives which is very essential for long-term achievement of the success of organization. The manager communicates the vision of the organisation to other employees, has a crucial role in the process of making decision in the organization, and resolves the conflicts within the organisation and comes up with an acceptable solution. This means that he or she requires adequate skills to control the operations within the organisation (Matt, 2010). Since the manager’s position is an executive level in the organisation, there is a need for combination of both traditional and e-recruitment methods and selection process. Because this position requires a highly skilled personnel, it will involve both traditional and e-recruitment methods to reach wide range of competitive pool of applicants. The traditional method for recruitment will be use of print media for advertising of the position. In addition, the position will also be advertised online using the organisation’s website. The electronic resume method of recruitment will be best. This is because the experienced applicants in this field will be able to present their resume in an efficient way such that they will stress their knowledge on the job, their cognitive ability and the capacity to work. This will also provide the achievement in education and skills that captures the applicant’s motivation. The section process will involve online short listing of the most qualified candidate and later on a face to face structured interview which will display the real applicant from the imaginary one on internet. Combination f the traditional and e-recruitment and selection processes for this position will enable employment of the best manager who will be responsible for the achievements of the company’s objectives (Borck, 2000). A store keeper may be one of the junior positions in an organisation and it will be better resourced using online advertisements only. A store keeper is in charge of the departmental store and is responsible for controlling of the store. He or she must be skilled and should keep a full eye on how the materials are moved in and out of the store. He or she should have experience and technical knowledge in store maintenance and should have undoubted and organizing ability. The store keeper primary duties and responsibility include receiving of material by ensuring that the supplier has sent them according to the purchase order, and arrangement of materials in a proper way. The store keeper also records the receipt and issuance of materials in a regularly, issues the materials and purchase requisition and supervision and coordination of the staff that is under his or her control (Assar, 2011). A store keeper may be one of the junior positions in an organisation and it will be better resourced using online advertisements only. The best method of e-recruitment for this position is online interviewing which will be enough to measure the characteristics of a store keeper. A structured online interview will be able to measure the interpersonal skills and the cognitive ability of a store keeper. The technology suitable for online interview for this position will be use of a social media such as Facebook or by audio streaming (Cook, 2001). I will summarize the key issues in an academic journal on ‘Human Resource Management in the Internet Age: e-Recruitment and e-Selection Methods by Bodea, C. in 2003’ which is a research done in electronic selection and recruitment methods in organisations within the city by the ministry of education in the Bucharest city of Romania. From this article, applicants in the firm in this city view the attractive of an organisation based on the information it provides in its website during the recruitment process. The recruitment and selection process in firms is mostly done using the electronic process of recruitment and selection but depending on the weight of the position, they apply both electronic and traditional recruitment and selection process. The traditional methods employed in the firms in this city are networking, print media advertisement such as recruitment brochures and use of recruitment agencies. Most e- recruitment methods used in these firms are electronic resumes where candidates submit their resumes in company’s website, online assessments where applicants access interactive forms from company’s website, complete them and submit their responses. Other e- method used in this city is online interviewing where online interviews are designed on the website offering structured interviews for measuring the applicant’s cognitive ability and structure interviews for measuring the applicant’s interpersonal skills. Digital technologies employed for conducting online interviews include social media, web cams, audio and video streaming. The final e- method of recruitment used in these firms is use of online assessment centres. The e-selection is use for the purpose of distinguishing the applicants on the grounds of important characteristics. The selection tools that are available in these firms for measuring the characteristics of the applicant include personality inventories, work samples, cognitive tests on ability, structured interviews and situational tests on judgement (Bodea, 2003). In conclusion, use of electronic selection and recruitment methods are not meant for negating the importance of traditional methods. Due to advancement in technology, many traditional approaches are proving to lack feasibility thus requiring new techniques in for the process of recruitment and selection in firms. However, some of traditional methods such as face to face are very essential in recruitment and selection of top level management and a combination of both electronic and traditional methods should sometimes be employed. References Assar, R. (2011). Who is a store keeper? What are the duties & responsibility of a store keeper? Retrieved on 17 February 2012 from: http://www.publishyourarticles.org/knowledge-hub/cost-accounting/who-is-a-store-keeper-what-are-the-duties-a-responsibility-of-a-store-keeper.html Borck, J.R. (2000). Recruiting systems control resume chaos’, InfoWorld, 22(30), 47-48. Bodea, C. (2003). Human Resource Management in the Internet Age: e-Recruitment and e- Selection Methods, Economy Informatics, 2, 5-7. Cook, S. (2001). Search and ye shall find online, Australian CPA, 71(1), 54-55. Caggiano, C. (1999). The truth about Internet recruiting’, Inc., 21(18), 156-157. Galanaki, E. (2002). The decision to recruit online: a descriptive study, Career Development International, 7(4), 243-251. Greengard, S. (1998). Putting online recruitment to work, Workforce, 77 (8), 73-74. Matt (2010), Role of a Manager in a Company. Retrieved on 17 February 2012 from: http://www.sayeconomy.com/role-of-a-manager-in-a-company/ Pearce, C.G. & Tuten, T.L. (2001). Internet recruiting in the banking industry, Business Communication Quarterly,64(1), 9-18. Zall, M. (2000). Internet recruiting’, Strategic Finance, 81(12), 66-72. Read More