Recruitment and Selection in the Staffing of Organization - Assignment Example

Questions and answers 1. What is the role of induction in the staffing of organization? Give an example Induction is a form of orientation; it is seen as the end phase of recruitment and selection, it is also the beginning of organizational learning and development. Induction has a crucial role in staffing of organizations. These roles include the following:- a) Familiarizing new employees on organization environment Induction helps in familiarizing new employees on organization environment. When it is effectively done, the employees will be able to understand the organization at large; for example the structure, departments, heads of various sections among others are clearly introduced. b) Familiarize a new employee with the job It is expected that after induction the employee will clearly understand their roles and that of their work unit. Once the employees understand their roles, then they will need minimum supervision to work. c) Build confidence in the person When a candidate is selected, there is need to build confidence to enable him/her work without fear or favor. Induction has a crucial role in getting the newly employed staff off to a better start. To achieve this, the organization must engage new employees in formal induction program. d) Establish the right attitude Induction also has a role in ensuring that the right attitude towards the organisation is established in the newly employed person. For instance in a processing firm, the newly employed should always have an attitude that the processed products are the best in the market. e) Employee retention It has been seen that, the success of induction leads to longer retention of employees. Induction reduces the chances of employed persons leaving the organisation prematurely. This is reduced by conducting effective induction and building confidence. d) Commitment to organisational goals Induction foster commitment to the goals of the organisation. When it is effectively done, the employee is able to clearly understand the organisational goals, importance and how to achieve them. Similarly, the individual expectations of the newly employed to succeed and socialization is developed and united with the organizational goals. 2. What is HRIS and how can it help the recruitment? Give an example This refers to the computerized databases that contain all the information concerning the organization workforce, for example the number of the workforce, their qualifications, leave, salary, skills and competencies. The database can therefore give information concerning a given employee whenever it is required for administration purposes. For example, when an analysis needs to be done on cost and benefits, data is retrieved from HRIS. HRIS has a crucial role in recruitment and selection process. These include:- a) Source of information The database is able to provide information that will greatly assist in attracting the best candidate, recruitment and selection. For HRIS keeps the Information from previous external applicants; this can be used for future upcoming posts. b) Analysis and evaluation The HRIS provides information that can be used to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the whole process. c) Internal recruitment The records in the database can give the best person in the organization to occupy a vacant post. For example, before external applicants are invited, the organization can use the HRIS to identify if there is an employee within the organization that best fit the post. d) Workforce turnover analysis The organization is able to use the HRIS to analyze the employee turnover and employment trends hence being able to identify problem areas and put correct measures before undertaking recruitment and selection. 3. Why is evaluation important in the recruitment and selection? Give an example Recruitment and selection is a key process in every organization hence it must regularly be evaluated to ensure it is realizing the expected benefits and is cost effective. The importance of evaluation in recruitment and selection is illustrated below:- a) Management expectations There can be either long term or short term evaluation done to evaluate whether management expectations are realized. For example the time taken to fill a vacancy should be as short as possible; similarly response time should be greatly reduced. . b) Ensures efficiency and effectiveness Evaluation ensures that recruitment and selection process is efficient and effective, this enables the recruiting team to ensure that the financial value and return on investment is satisfactory. c) Ensure Professional Recruitment While recruiting and selecting candidates one must ensure there is overall professional qualifications, for instance rapid changes in technology must be factored in for the organization to recruit the right people. It is after evaluation that one is able to tell whether the same is done or not. . d) Ease of recruitment measure Every organization must have effective structures in place for recruitment and selection. Evaluation therefore measures the ease with which new employees are recruited. e) Complying with the legislation requirements Human resource management decisions must comply with the labor legislations such as privacy, equal opportunity to all and occupational health and safety, hence there is need to evaluate to ensure the same is taken in to consideration. 4. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment and selection process? Give an example. Given that evaluation of the effectiveness of recruitment and selection process is very crucial, the following is an illustration on how to undertake the evaluation process/ a) Cost benefit analysis Here hiring cost is correlated with work output to confirm whether what is spent in the process is less than the work output. Similarly a comparison of various recruiting and selection alternatives is done in order to come up with the best alternative. For instance if a job in question is too simple, then one may require internal selection to avoid advertisement cost. b) Performance measure Performance measure is a method used to evaluate the level at which the recruitment process is performed; it employs the use of statistical ratios, response time, workforce turnover and productivity indicators. For instance to evaluating the time taken to fill a given vacant position one can use performance measure. c) Cost tracking Here hiring cost is measured against individual candidate as a percentage of the amount in the payroll. d) Human resource audits Regular internal audits on human resources can be conducted to evaluate the degree at which the workforce is retained, recruited and competence. For example an organization can conduct quarterly recruitment and selection audits to establish whether the vacant positions are correctly filled in time. 5. When you want to improve employee diversity, what aspects of selection and recruitment stragegy would you change? Explain why. Give an example. Employee diversity is inevitable in the current economy; this is because expertise may not necessarily come from a specific group of persons but rather from diverse origin. Given that the best recruitment process must attract the best candidate for the job, there are strategies that must be changed to open way for diverse candidates to submit applications and participate in selection process equally. Human resource legislations support for equal opportunity to all and discourage discrimination. a) Adopting external recruitment Rather than internal recruitment, it is better to adopt external recruitment to increase the number of applicants from diverse origin. b) Working environment The organizational working environment should be changed to accommodate people from diverse background, for example people with disability should be provided with special working facilities to enable them work. Similarly the organization can cater for travelling cost for all the candidates. This will enable all the potential candidates to attend without fear of distance and travelling cost. c) Organizational culture The organizational culture should be changed to fit diverse workforce, different people have different believes and norms. The organizations that allow stereotyping and discrimination will not attract workforce from diverse origin, hence there is need to change the organizational culture. For example, the organizational core values should not discriminate against a given race, religion or culture. d) Recruitment policies There are recruitment policies that prevent people from different diversity to apply for a given job. Such policies must be changed to provide equal opportunity to all. For instance women labor should be allowed in all levels of management rather than restricting to lower posts only. 6. What are the 4 aspects of the preparation process prior to recruitment and selection? Explain each aspect. Recruitment and selection being a vital process needs prior preparation to ensure the best result is achieved. There must be a pre-established process that is valid and acceptable as far as organizational policies and legislations requires. a) Planning There must be planning prior to selection and recruitment process. The committee should consider the recruitment and selection process steps, schedule the activities, organize resources and provide time frame. Planning therefore is important because it ensure the recruiter follows a methodical and professional approach in the whole process; similarly organization and applicant’s time is best utilized. b) Job analysis The recruiting committee should be able to understand the job descriptions, of the identified vacant position. On job analysis, the recruiters should determine the required knowledge, competence and skills that are required in the given job. This task is fundamental because it identifies the selection criteria. For example if job analysis is not done well the recruiters may have false believes about certain jobs hence end up recruiting a wrong candidate. c) Selecting the people to recruit The recruitment and selection team should be persons who are competent and understand all the aspect of the process. Putting in place the right team is very crucial in ensuring the process is successful. The committee should also be aware of the legal and labor regulations governing recruitment and selection for example rights to participate, privacy and anti-discrimination. The team should also understand the background of the job being recruited; one needs to look in to work experience in order to determine the potential of a candidate for a job. d) Broad attraction The key role of recruitment is to attract the best candidate to apply for a vacant position. The recruitment and selection team should put in place the right attraction strategy in order to achieve the objective. The strategy should also be evaluated to ensure the past mistakes are avoided. For example the strategy for attraction may include branding and marketing benefits to be offered. 7. What are the three basic interviewing skills and discuss each. Interview process is a complex task to perform, however with appropriate skills, one is able to perform the task with minimal efforts. There are basic skills that every interviewer must have in order to perform the task competently. The following are three basic interviewing skills that an interviewer ought to have:- a) Interpersonal skills Every interviewer should be able to effectively communicate and collect relevant information from the candidate through questions, observation or prior information from Curriculum vitae. The interviewer must be able to make the candidate relaxed and free from tension, bias or stereotyping. b) Self evaluation Interviewer should be able to evaluate himself/herself by studying observation, relationship building and reflection. The self evaluation ability in various settings, circumstances and jobs is an admirable interviewing skill. c) Numerical ability Interviewer should be able to know whether there is a match between the candidate and the job interviewed for. They must have the ability to compare, collate and calculate using various statistical and geometric computations to weight and award marks to candidates. 8. What are the recruiting methods and explain each. a) Internal Recruitment Internal recruitment involves the selection of the employees to fill the vacant positions with the existing workforce from within an organization. This is mainly done through promotion. In this case, the recruitment department can advertise the positions to be filled by emailing to all employees of the organization the qualifications and experience needed and the roles and responsibilities that need to be played in a particular vacant position. The internal advertisement of the job should treat with a lot of confidentiality to avoid the information reaching other people who are not the employees of the organization. b) External recruitment External recruitment refers to situation where an organization fills the vacant position using any interested applicant from an external source or business. The external recruitment is done through advertising the jobs to be filled in an organization using Medias such as newspapers, radios, televisions among others. Once the applications are invited, all the applicants who qualify for the vacant position are invited for the interview. The most qualifying applicants are then selected and granted the opportunity. There are three main ways of external recruitment: i) Job centers Job centers are funded by the government and their major role is to assist those people who are unemployed to secure themselves jobs and acquire training for their respective jobs. They are also of great importance because they help organizations to advertise their vacant positions free of charge. ii) Job advertisements A Job advertisement is a crucial method of external recruitment. Job advertisement is done by use of advertising instruments such as local and national newspapers, notice boards, and recruitment fairs. These instruments should contain relevant information of the job such as the pay package, job title and description, location, how to apply either by use of curriculum vitae or the application form. This information will assist the applicants to understand the requirements of the job being advertised. iii) Recruitment agency The recruitment agency gives the employing organizations the information concerning the qualifications of suitable applicants for a vacant position. The agency is given a fee for their work and usually concentrates in certain areas employment such as recruitment of teachers, nursing and financial services. 9. What is the interview selection tool and what are the advantages and disadvantages? Interviewing is a major selection tool in the organization staffing. It is a way of exchanging information where the interviewer and the candidate meet to discuss the capability and suitability to handle the vacant position. The interviewer has a chance to match needs and candidates response. The interviewer should at least welcome the interviewee, ensure he/she is relaxed then ask questions that are relevant. The questioning technique is crucial; similarly feedback and note taking should be effective. Interviews are required to be objective and always free from bias, favour of prejudice. Both the interviewer and the applicant should have a common goal of achieving what is expected of them. Advantages A) Interview such as structured method provides guidelines for questions to ask. This is because applicants are questioned basing on the selection criteria. b) The interviewer can apply various arrangements to suit special needs for candidates. c) Interviewer can ask more probing questions to enable the candidate express himself. d) There is consistency because planning is done in advance. Disadvantages a) Interviewing gives room for subjectivity. b) It may no be the best to determine candidate’s personality. c) Individual differences are not factored in if uniform questions are asked. d) The interviewer may even dominate the session giving less time to interviewee to express himself. 10. What are the types of interview? Explain each There are various types of interview; the recruitment team should select the best option to adopt basing on the job requirement. A team can even opt to combine various methods to achieve the best of the process. The following are some of the types:- a) Structured interview This is an interview where a similar set of questions is asked to each and every candidate interviewed. This type of interview is consisted and all the candidates are subjected to equal process. Here it is very simple to compare all the candidates. b) Unstructured interview This is where the interviewer asks questions based on the interviewee response. There are no prior set questions. It is very flexible and gives different people with different qualities to explore their potentials. c) Panel interview This is where a team of staff are selected to conduct interview together. The team ask questions to the candidate one at a time. Here the team members have various roles for example the chair of the team may welcome the candidate and ask the first question, the next person asks the next question and another one closes the interview. d) Group interview This is an interview where several candidates are interviewed at the same time; the interviewer observes how the group respond and discus the set questions. e) Others Others include Stress interview, Behavioural interview, Situational interview, hybrid interview and Computer assisted interview. References Australian Master Human Resources Guide, 4th edition, 2006, CCH Australia Limited, Sydney. Read More