Pre-recruitment, Recruitment, and Selection - Term Paper Example

Recruitment and Selection Name Professor Institution Course Date Recruitment and Selection Table of Contents Recruitment and Selection 2 Table of Contents 2 Recruitment and Selection 3 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Pre-recruitment 4 2.1 Business Strategy 4 2.2 HR/Staffing strategy /Talent Philosophy 5 2.3 Position (job) requirements matrix 6 3.0 Recruitment 9 3.1 Employment Value Proposition 9 3.2 Recruitment communication (job advertisement) 11 3.3 Sourcing effectiveness analysis 13 4.0 Selection 14 4.1 Assessment plan 14 4.2 Panel Interview Questions 15 4.3 Evaluating and choosing candidates 17 5.0 Conclusion 17 6.0 References 19 Recruitment and Selection 1.0 Introduction The most critical asset of every organization has always been the people or employees. According to Breaugh and Starke (2000, p.406), the organization which has the right staffs within appropriate positions and having proper skills makes the disparity between those ones which are regarded as successful or unsuccessful. It means recruitment and selection process as a function of human resource is vital in acquiring and attracting prospective applicants capable of productively filling the job vacancy existing within the organization (Gannon, Roper & Doherty, 2015, p.65). However, with competition and changing happening so fast in business markets, conducting just the traditional recruitment and selection without focusing the process on business strategy is not enough to make the company competitive in the industry. Hence strategic recruitment and selection has been recommended to companies which currently filling positions in their organization like OZStyle4U. Therefore, this report describes and justifies the process of a strategic recruitment and selection plan for the hiring of the Store Manager – Hobart for the company. The report will review various literatures draw on the theories and concepts on strategic recruitment and selection. To put the discussion into perspective, the report will describe and analyze the pre-recruitment, recruitment and selection. 2.0 Pre-recruitment 2.1 Business Strategy Business strategy is defines the approaches and framework the company intend to use to move to defined direction or achieve a particular goal (Brauns 2013, p. 1407). The business strategy defines company goals, mission and vision and how the company intends to achieve them. The concept is aligned to external environment; how the company will meet the need of customers. Being the business market is currently very competitive; business strategy enables an organization to gain competitive advantage. Fabi, Raymond and Lacoursière (2009, p.16) stated that there are three types of business strategy including growth, stability, retrenchment and mixture of growth, stability and retrenchment. From the information provided, OzStyle4U business strategy is growth and is in terms of expansion into new market. This form of growth enables the company to increase product awareness, attract large customer base, and increase its profits hence competitive advantage (Cokins 2005, p. 107). The company intends to expand its operation to Tasmanian, particular to Hobart in the next 12 weeks. The fashion company has since acquired stored and is yet to open due lack of store manager. Therefore, the company aims to recruit a new store manager to work in new its new outlet. Gannon, Roper and Doherty (2015, p.67) argued that growth strategy normally requires structuring an organization through as the size grows to accommodate more employees. Growth strategy means the company is expanding and vacancies are created which are expected to be filled with qualified and experienced who can handle challenges of new markets. Despite being recruitment a recruitment process, job design is highly required because the position is of ‘flagship’ store and it’s highly vital for the company and can derive high growth from high. The staffing implication associated with growth strategy is that the new employee may bring on board networking skills to the company (Nankervis et al. 2014, p.78). In addition, external recruitment which OzStyle4U has opted for normally incurs high costs. Also, the staffing implication of growth strategy is that the new position often comes with cultural differences challenges. The new employee for the store manager may find it hard to fit in the company culture. 2.2 HR/Staffing strategy /Talent Philosophy HR strategy is very important for OzStyle4U because it links the human resource functions and business functions. The success of OzStyle4U lies in the staffing strategy or talent philosophy that is collection of policies, behaviors and priories employed in managing flow of the talent in and of the company and beliefs or philosophy of how their employees ought to be treated (Sparrow 2007, p.851). There are several elements of staffing strategies which are available to OzStyle4U however the one the company chooses heavily depends on the business strategy and the current status of its human resource. Since OzStyle4U is seeking to recruit store manager, one of the available staffing strategy elements for them has been to hire internally or externally. In this option, OzStyle4U has opted to recruit externally due to the fact that the company has not found suitable internal candidates available for store manager position. However, since the new position is very important as the holder will be posted ‘flagship’ store in Tasmania which is a new market external recruit is highly justified because the candidate must be one who understands this market better. Hiring externally means large pool of talents which are experience in different markets (Sparrow 2007, p.851). Roberts (2005, p.114) posit that these fresh entrants will give the process and system of the organization a fresh outlook that would assist the organization to adjust to the ever changing business setting. The fashion company has also chosen the core or flexible element of staffing strategy. In particular, OzStyle4U has settled for core where a full time employee is preferred. The position of store manager in “flagship” store is important and the company prefers full time employment because it encourages uniform and flow of operations. Cokins (2005, p.16) argued that OzStyle4U conducting and displaying job analysis and design also shows that company is skill focus on its HR strategy. The company conducts strategic recruitment and selection to get both person-Job fit and individual-organization fit. The person–job fit theory hold by complimenting the right person and right job, the employee can attain better synergies and stay away from drawbacks like low rates of job satisfaction and high turnover (Brauns 2013, p.1406). 2.3 Position (job) requirements matrix Job requirements matrix is a tool used by human resource experts to carry out job analysis. Morgeson et al (2004, p.45) Job analysis is the formal procedure of categorizing the job content; activities and qualities required to carry out the work and key job requirements. The size of organizations like OZStyle4U is growing each day, which consequently increases demand for more employees. This finding, though, requires a logical approach to establish the right candidate for the required position (Morgeson 2004, p.67). Currently, the work of HR department is not just the traditional job analysis before recruitment process but to link job requirement to business strategies of the company. The process can be regarded as strategic job analysis. Sackett and Lievens (2008, p.116) asserted that the process categorizes task to be performed and the skills, knowledge and abilities required to perform them based on market needs. For instance, management of a fashion store requires effective customer services. Therefore, the store manager highly requires communication skills to effective engage customers and provide for their needs (Wood, Holman & Stride 2006, p.107). Furthermore, another job description for a store manager human resource management since the holder of the office works with employees to enhance performance. Therefore, a job specific requirement for the store manager is to have leadership skills and to have the knowledge in principles of equal employment opportunity as shown in the job requirements matrix below. Thus, OZStyle4U can use the job requirements matrix to demonstrate job requirements and behaviors, knowledge, skills and other attributes desirable for reasonable job performance as shown in figure 1(Jackson, Schuler & Werner 2011). Job requirement matrix for the OZStyle4U Store Manager – Hobart Job Duty Specific Task significance of the relative Time Spent in percentage KSAO or competency Significance of Competency or KSAO to performance of task (1-Low, 10-High) (E-Essential, D-Desirable)) Education level Operations management Manage the OZStyle4U store operations so as to exceed sales and budget targets in operations 30% -Knowledge in financial management and accounting processes -Ability to design costing and preparing marketing strategies Essential Tertiary education Customer service management Manage the provision of exceptional customer service at the OZStyle4U store in line with the company’s Customer Service Standards 20% -Ability to communicate effectively Essential Human resource management Manage staffing, performance, job knowledge and skill development through identifying and implementing training 30% -Knowledge in principles of equal employment opportunity -Leadership skills High Safety management Maintain the Safety Plan and Management Systems 20% -Ability to define, meet, and exceed the relevant health and safety legislative requirements. Desirable Figure 1: Job requirement matrix for the OZStyle4U Store Manager – Hobart 3.0 Recruitment 3.1 Employment Value Proposition According to Heger (2007, p.23) Employee Value Proposition is defined as the benefits and rewards that the employer provides to the staffs in return for capability, skills, experience and performance they bring to the organization. OzStyle4U has their Employment Value Proposition which they use to attract, retain and engage their employees. The fashion’s business strategy uses rewards and benefits to attract and motivate employees to attain the best performance in the market. On the other hand, more and expensive benefits and rewards can be used to attract the most qualified candidates for the job (Heger 2007, p.27). The argument is that incompetent candidates will be scared away from applying for the position because they know with more rewards and benefits; the management will hold them accountable to perform or face the sack. Employment Value Proposition is a give and get concept. However, this concept is also used to retain employees. Employees who feel more qualified and least rewards will be less motivated hence look for work elsewhere (Kucherov & Zavyalova 2012, p.91). In this context, this framework is used to retain employees and reduce the turnover rates. The Employment Value Proposition for OZStyle4U Store Manager – Hobart is shown in figure 2. Item Focus (Job-related/ Organization-related/ Person-related) Type of reward of benefit (Intrinsic/ Extrinsic) Organization contribution Employee contribution To which applicants might it appeal Competitive pay Operations management Extrinsic Competitive pay of $39.95/hr Management operations for the chosen person Benefits HRM Both intrinsic and extrinsic 420K plans of 15% of base pay; 8 individual days including the sick leave benefits Better human resource management for the right candidate Performance-based remuneration Sales Extrinsic Can get 150% of basic pay based on increased performance in the Tasmanian store Exceeding the set sales targets Employee valuing rewards based on contributions Promotion Opportunities Sales, operation management and HRM Intrinsic The store manager is promoted after 3 years based on performance. A combination of a exemplary HRM exceeding set sales target, and better operations management An employee who aims at advancing his or her career Figure 2: Employee Value Proposition for specified position 3.2 Recruitment communication (job advertisement) Institute of Leadership & Management (2007) posited that recruitment communication entails all communication and details employed by a company in its quest to attract the top talent in the market to manage its operations. Job seekers also have their standards and recruitment communication creates the first impression of the company. It is such first impression which will determine job seeker’s interest for the job (Huffcutt 2011, p.65). Unattractive and unprofessional job advert will attract less qualified and undesirable candidates for the job. Maluti (2012, p.32) stated that he situation has negative impact on the organization in that they use more resource to in terms of finance to re-advertise for the job and conduct a new recruitment and selection process. As a fashion company which has grown and now has over 10 retail stores and in excess of 150 full-time permanent and part-time casual employees, its evidence the OZStyle4U employees has contributed towards its growth. Through its professional recruitment communication process, OZStyle4U has attracted the best talents in the market for the jobs. The same is replicated in Store Manager – Hobart recruitment adverts. The company recruitment advert generally has factors such job title and location, a paragraph explaining about the firm, employer brand, description concerning the position and requirements for the job and work type (part-time, permanent, full-time or casual). OZStyle4U recruitment communication is shown below. OZStyle4U “Leaders in the fashion experience” Ozstyle4u Is The Largest Queensland-Owned Chain Of Designer Fashion Retail Stores With Plans To Expand Into Other States Of Australia, Starting First In Tasmania. OZStyle4U is proud to announce an opportunity for passionate job seeker for the following position. Position: OZStyle4U Store Manager – Hobart Status: Full-time Reports To: OZStyle4U Operations Manager – Retail (Southern Region) Job duties Manage the OZStyle4U store operations so as to exceed sales and budget targets in operations Manage the provision of exceptional customer service at the OZStyle4U store in line with the company’s Customer Service Standards. Manage staffing, performance, job knowledge and skill development through identifying and implementing training. Maintain the Safety Plan and Management Systems ensuring compliance at all times with the company’s Safety Standards and relevant legislative requirements. Job requirements A desirable candidate must have; Relevant tertiary qualification or an equivalent alternate combination of knowledge and training Three (3) years’ relevant recent experience in retail management, preferably in the fashion industry Knowledge of financial management systems and accounting processes, and point-of-sale software. Leadership and communication skills in a retail environment. Understanding of the principles of equal employment opportunity. Figure 3: Recruitment communication for OZStyle4U 3.3 Sourcing effectiveness analysis HR experts argue that a single incident of poor recruitment strategy may cost a company heavily. As the company expands, the necessity for effective sourcing strategy becomes highly essential. According to Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2011, p.56) sourcing is defined as an ability of a company to make use of effective and efficient recruitment and selection strategy in its process of filing the vacant positions. In determining the effective sourcing strategy, there are several questions which the recruiter should ask himself including kind of skills which a position requires, whether a position requires part-time or full time employee, the level of education is required for the position (Greenidge et al., 2012, p.167). The company then lays out resource available to fill the position based on their strategic intent. The process of recruitment can either be being internal or external methods depending on competence and ability required. However, OZStyle4U used external due to unavailability of the suitable candidate to fill the position of store manager. Through is sourcing approach, OZStyle4U is currently using adverts which target specific group or people with particular skills. This strategy sourcing enables OZStyle4U to reduce time period of recruitment exercise as only qualified employees apply (Jackson, Schuler and Werner 2011, p.61). The strategy may reduce cost of hiring slightly depending on the source of the recruitment used as shown below. Source (list in order of importance) Type of applicant (Active/Passive/ Semi-passive) Average speed Fast/Medium/slow Cost per hire (High/Medium/Low) Expected applicant quality (High/Medium/Low) Job positing passive Medium High Low Data banks Passive Fast low high Networking active Medium High Medium Professional association Active Fast medium high Figure 4: Source effectiveness analysis a store manager 4.0 Selection 4.1 Assessment plan Just like any other company, OZStyle4U conduct its assessment plans to select the best candidates from a pool of applicants. This process is often carried on merit as the personal attributes, knowledge, skills, experience, and work performance are scrutinized if they match the requirements stated in recruitment communication (Louw 2013, p.54). In addition, since there are many applicants for store manager position, to reduce the number and select the best candidate for interview, the HR manager normally assesses the applicant attributes and credentials against other applicants. The process focuses on resumes and qualification certifications. In a typically selection, the company normally set their assessment plan scores which employees must attain to be shortlisted for interview (Kunerth & Mosley 2011, p.24). The assessment plan matrix combines score in various attributes or assessment criteria such as hurdles and compensatory to get the best candidates for interview has shown in figure 5. Characteristic (Selection Criteria) Importance of characteristic to job performance (1 = Essential; ≥2 = Desirable) Select (S) Train (T) ‘Knowledge’* (indicate if hurdle or compensatory) ‘ability’* (indicate if hurdle or compensatory ‘skill’* (indicate if hurdle or compensatory Panel Interview (total) x(y)# Relevant tertiary qualification 1 select 400% (hurdle) 30 (hurdle) 30 (Hurdle) 100% Three years experience 2 Select 30 30 Leadership skills 1 Train 25 (compensatory) 35 (compensatory) 40 (compensatory) 100% Communication skills 2 Select 40 (hurdle) 35 (hurdle) 25 (hurdle ) 100% principles of equal employment opportunity 2 Select 20 (compensatory) 35 (compensatory) 45 (compensatory) 100% Health and safety skills 2 train 30 (compensatory) 45 (compensatory) 25 (compensatory) 100% Financial and costing understanding 1 Select 40 (hurdle) 40 (hurdle) 30 (hurdle) 100% Figure 5: Assessment Plan for store manager 4.2 Panel Interview Questions Panel interview is normally the last selection process where shortlisted candidates are taken thorough evaluation of their personal attributes, skills, knowledge and experience on the type of job they applied for (Huffcut, 2010, p.124). The process give the interview panel to verify if they understand what the task entails, their motivation level, problem solving skills, presentation and communication skills. Several questions are often asked during this process, and the success of the applicant highly depends on how they answer questions. Huffcutt (2011, p.76) claimed that interviews questions normally differ in terms of structuring including structured questions, free-wheeling question to unstructured. Structured interview is regarded as good predictor getting good employees. Structured interview are classified as behavioral or situational (Louw 2013, p.57). Interview question Question type (Behavioral/ Situational) Selection criteria Answer (Include three model answers for each question as examples of three types: Good; Satisfactory and Poor) Answer scoring (Good = 10; Satisfactory = 5 Poor = 1) Tell us about yourself? Behavioral Knowledge and Ability I am Felix Smith, an finance graduate, with experience of five years in fashion store management-Good 10 Why should we employ you? Situational Ability and skills I bring a wealth of experience in store management and skills which I feel were not utilize in may previous work place. I also love challenges which come with new store-good 10 Where do you want to be in the next 4 years? situation Ability I am ambition person and would want to use my skills, knowledge and ability in leadership, HRM and general management to take make this store a “fashion company of choice” in Tasmania. As result, I see myself being promoted to be general manager of this division-satisfactory 5 Figure 6: Panel Interview Questions for Store Manager 4.3 Evaluating and choosing candidates Evaluation and choosing of employees narrow down to a pool of candidates who passed the hurdle model. As stated earlier, evaluating and choosing candidates depend on how they answer questions. Louw (2013, p.53) posited that evaluation can be conducted in three ways including written questions, oral interview (panel interview) and psychometric test. The few remaining candidates are taken through a thorough written question to understand how can theoretical aspects solves issues and their general knowledge about their field of specialization. On the other hand, these selected candidates are taken through a psychometric test to observe if their behavior, attitude and judgment of the job and tasks (Muchinsky 2012, p.36). The person who results match with the attributes of the job stands high chances of being hired. Oral or panel is the one of one session of asking questions about the job. The members of the panel then rate a candidate and the highest scorer is given the job (Institute of Leadership & Management 2007). 5.0 Conclusion In this broad research, the report has found that recruitment and selection is the core concept of companies which are successful today. This argument justifies that recruitment and selection has contributed to the growth of OzStyle4U which now has more than 10 retails. The argument is based on the theory that getting the right candidate at the right time for the right place is one of the processes of creating an effectively performing company. OzStyle4U management understands this notion and highly put more focus and resource on its recruitment and selection. The analysis of the information provided also portrays an organization which understands doing a traditional recruitment and selection might not help the company gain competitive advantage, hence the process must be aligned with business strategies of the company. 6.0 References Brauns, M 2013, Aligning Strategic Human Resource Management to Human Resources, Performance and Reward, International Business & Economics Research Journal Vol. 12, No.11, pp.1405-1410. 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Heger, B.K 2007, Linking Employment Value Proposition (EVP) to Employee Engagement and Business Outcomes: Preliminary Findings from a Linkage Research Pilot Study, Organizational Development Journal, Vol.25, No.2, pp. 21 -33. Huffcutt, A. I 2011, An empirical review of the employment interview construct literature, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Vo.19, No.1, pp.62–81. Huffcut, A. I 2010, From science to practice: Seven principles for conducting employment interviews, Applied H.R.M. Research, Vol.12, pp.121-136. Institute of Leadership & Management, 2007, Recruiting, Selecting and Inducting New Staff in the Workplace Super Series, Routledge, London. Jackson, S. E, Schuler, R. S & Werner, S 2011, Managing human resources, Cengage Learning Kunerth, B& Mosley, R 2011, Applying employer brand management to employee engagement, Strategic HR Review, Vol.10, No.3, pp.19-26. Kucherov, D & Zavyalova., E 2012, HRD practices and talent management n the companies with the employer brand, European Journal of Training and Development, Vol.36, pp.86-104. Louw, G.J 2013, Exploring recruitment and selection trends in the Eastern Cape, SA Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol.11, No.1, pp.49-67. Nankervis, E, Compton, R, Baird, R, Coffey, T & Sheilds, N 2014, Human Resource Management: Strategy and Practice, 8th ed, Cengage Learning, South Melbourne. Maluti, 2012, Impact on Employee Retention in State Financial Corporations in Kenya, International Journal of Business and Public Management, Vol.2, No.2, pp.30-38. Morgeson, F. P, Delaney-Klinger, K, Mayfield, M. S, Ferrara, P & Campion, M.A 2004, Self- Presentation Processes in Job Analysis: A Field Experiment Investigating Inflation in Abilities, Tasks, and Competencies, Journal of Applied Psychology Vol.89, No. 674–686. Muchinsky, P.M 2012, Psychology Applied to Work, Hypergraphic Press, Inc. Roberts, G 2005, Recruitment and Selection, 2nd ed., Chartered Institute of Professional Development, London. Sackett, P.R & Lievens, F 2008, Personnel selection, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 59 pp 419-50. Sparrow, P 2007, Globalization of HR at function level: four UK-based case studies of the international recruitment and selection process, International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol.18, pp.845 – 867. Wood, S, Holman, D & Stride, C 2006, Human resource management and performance in UK call centres, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol.44, pp. 99–124. Read More