Human Resources Planning Recruitment and Selection - Case Study Example

Title Page Running header: Recruitment and selection Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Executive Summary The success of any organisation is greatly determined by the kind of staff the organisation employs. As such, every organisation should strive to find the right candidate for the particular job and develop him/her in a valuable human resource if it is to get value from the employee. Proper recruitment and selection is therefore important in helping the organisation attain effectiveness in accomplishing its goals and objectives. This calls for the human resource department to pay proper attention to recruitment and selection process in a bid to harness human energies in the achievement of organisational goals. When carried out properly, recruitment and selection processes will enable the organisation hire and retain the services of the best person in the job market. This implies that the strength for the best performing companies is their people. Proper selection and recruitment will help the selected candidate identify with the company and hence help in building his/her self esteem and morale which will in essence be organisational strength. Thus, organisations follow certain processes in ensuring that it attracts and retains the best people at all times so that it can achieve its objectives as planned. This paper is a recommendation of the selection process that the family and community services (FACS) organisation should adopt in ensuring that the right candidate and the best brain in the market is selected for the post of Principal Economist which is vacant at the moment. The position and hence the recruitment and selection criteria adopted by the company is of vital importance to the company given that the company serves over 80,000 people. In addition, the position involves proper investment of the organization’s funds as well as negotiating with donors for funds. Given that the company does not have a right candidate from its existing employees, external recruitment has been adopted. This will be done through adverts in the newspaper and the internet to ensure as many people as possible are recruited. Care has been taken to ensure that all legal requirements are adhered to and no one is unfairly excluded from the recruitment. In addition, the paper explains the selection criteria that will be followed for the position in a bid to ensure the best candidate is selected (Jordan, 2010). The paper has also recommended the selection process that the organisation should adopt for the post. The process should ensure fairness in selection and no one should be discriminated against. Finally, the paper suggests some steps that the human resource department should adopt in a bid to ensure that the selection is fair and equitable. The adoption of the suggested processes will ensure that the organisation actually attracts and retains the best talent for the position. Table of Contents Title Page 1 Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 4 Introduction 5 Selection criteria 5 Recruitment methods 7 Selection strategy 9 Conclusion 11 Recommendation 12 References 12 Human Resources Planning, Recruitment and Selection Introduction Recruitment and selection play an important role in the success of any organisation since they act as a filter that is supposed to select the best candidate. As such, the processes should lead to the appointment of candidates that are loyal, knowledgeable, adaptable, confident and dependable which should be a good foundation for organisational success. Apart from that, proper recruitment and selection should result in saving organisational cost as the company will not need to replace those already selected. Proper recruitment and selection should lead to retention of those selected. This is because the right candidate will be selected as per the job description. This should increase productivity and loyalty thereby leading to organisational success. In addition, organisations should adopt proper recruitment and selection practices in a bid to protect the company from any legal issues that might arise from improper selection. This paper suggests the recruitment and selection process that should be adopted by the Family and Community Services (FACS) in recruiting and selecting the best candidate for the post of the organization’s Chief Economist. If adopted, the process should see the company y realise all the benefits stated above. The following is the information relating to a job as a principal economist in the government based in Sydney. The position is based in the family and community services (FACS) in which offers services to over 800,000 people across the state. Selection criteria The key selection criteria that I would consider for the position include; Experience: to perform this job successfully, I would be looking for a candidate who has five years experience in the same or similar position. This means exposure to both local and international trade as well as micro and macro economics. Experience within the economics field as well as practical experience in economics analysis as well as experience application of economic knowledge to policy, business policies and organisational guidelines Qualification: the suitable candidate will have tertiary qualifications in Economics, finance or statistics preferably up to a PHD level. This being a managerial level position, a candidate with a managerial qualification such as business management would have an added advantage. Knowledge, skills and abilities: I would be looking for knowledge in both local and international trade dynamics, knowledge in both micro and macroeconomics, knowledge in economics analysis and modeling as well as the Ability to apply economic knowledge to policy, business policies and organisational guidelines. Being a managerial position, I will be looking for leadership and management skills such as the ability to develop and communicate vision, ability to inspire and motivate ability to bring about and manage change as well as people, financial management skills as well as ability to manage strategically. In addition, he/she should demonstrate a working knowledge of risk management and governance principles and practices that will enable us achieve project objectives. Personal characteristics: the ideal candidate should possess highly developed interpersonal and communication skills as well as negotiating, consultation and influencing skills. He should also be highly innovative and have the ability to work effectively as a team member. Special requirements: The principle economist’s position is a managerial one. In addition, FACS is a very busy organisation. As such, I would look for a person who is willing to work in a busy environment at times calling for him/her to work overtime, working in different environment and travelling constantly away from home mostly to negotiate with donors or inspect projects. Ideal industry background- I would be looking for a person who has worked with a similar organisation, community based organisations, government’s treasury, NGOs, donors and international organisations such as the IMF as these are the organisations that would give him/her the necessary experience for the position. This will ensure the candidate has enough managerial and professional experience suitable for the job. Ideal current position –Preferably, the ideal candidate should be holding a similar position currently. However, those working as senior economists or assistant chief economists would also be ideal for the position. This will ensure the candidate has enough managerial and professional experience suitable for the job. Route up- There is n o ideal route up for the position. Preferably, the ideal candidate should have started his/her career as a junior economic analyst in a similar or related organisation and graduated upward to a management position before becoming an assistant or a principal economist. Remuneration- the ideal candidate should be earning a combined annual salary and benefits of between $85,000-105,000. This is because the position is a managerial one and we intend to offer between $110,000-$125,000. We believe that proper remuneration will be a motivation to the candidate. Recruitment methods The principal economist’s position is key to the success of the organisation. As such, we would want to attract the best talent for the position. Given that we currently do not have an ideal candidate internally, I would advice the recruitment team to consider using external recruitment for the position. In this case, we will seek to search for the ideal candidate from outside the organisation as this will bring in the technicality and specialty we require for the position. It is true that external recruitment is likely to take longer than internal recruitment. It will also be more expensive due to the advertisements and interviews we will conduct. However, I would recommend it due to the following reasons; i) We currently do not have an ideal person to occupy the position internally. The people we have currently do not have the technicality and specialty we require. ii) External recruitment will provide us with a larger pool of candidates from which to choose the person with the requisite knowledge and experience. iii) By recruiting externally, we will be bringing in new ideas that could help us improve the management of our affairs. The recruitment channel Since the organisation aims at attracting the best talent for the position, the recruitment channel to be used should ensure the largest pool of qualified applicants is reached within the available budget. As such newspaper and the internet should be used to advertise for the position. The recruitment process will be partly managed by My Career Recruitment Agency. In this regard, they will advertise for the position and do an initial selection of the best candidates who will then be interviewed by the organisation and the best candidate will be hired (Burden, 2005). This will save the department both in terms of human resources and time required to do the selection as such a position is likely to attract thousands of candidates. Justification of using newspaper and internet i) We can reach the maximum number of people within the minimum amount of time we have as man y people are able to access the channels at minimum cost. ii) Reduced cost- owing to budget constraints, we will place a small advert in the newspaper and direct the reader to the internet from where he/she can access the position’s details. This will ensure we reach even those who really look for jobs online at minimum cost since the adverts are relatively permanent and we don’t have to buy airtime now and then through other channels such as the radio thus greatly reducing our cost. iii) Databases build up – the online advertisement option will allow the applicant to apply online. This will allow us to create a database of applicants from where we can source potential employees in future without necessarily having to repeat the whole recruitment process. This is an advantage to us as it saves on money and time. I believe that the advert and the recruitment process has been designed in such a way that no individual will be excluded from accessing information about the position or excluded from applying for the position for whatever reason other than that which is necessary for the position. As such, our advertisement is not discriminatory towards any person and does not contravene any applicable legal provisions. Selection strategy The company should select a selection strategy that ensures the best candidate is selected for the post in a bid to obtain quality performance from the employee while avoiding unnecessary turnover and absenteeism. In addition, the process adopted must ensure no bias. This will serve to save the organisation time and money while realizing value for money. As such, I would recommend that we adopt the following selection strategy/process; a) Preliminary interview: this will serve to eliminate those who do not meet the key selection criteria identified above and it will examine skills, experience, competencies and interests and academic backgrounds will be examined. b) Filling of application form: after clearing the preliminary interviews, the candidates will fill a job application form that will enable us gather data on their age, reason for leaving previous employment, qualification and experience. c) Written test: we will conduct a written test that will aim at assessing the suitable candidate’s aptitude, intelligence, personality and reasoning capabilities. This will help us to objectively assess their potential. d) Employee interview: Those who pass the above processes will be invited for a selection interview and will allow a one-one interaction between the candidates and the selection team. This will enable us make a decision on who among those invited is best suited for the job. e) Appointment letter: the selection panel will select the best candidate based on the above processes before his appointment after which he will be given an appointment letter. Referee checking Due to the sensitive nature and the high level of responsibility required of the principal economist’s position, we will conduct a referee check for the people who qualify for the selection interview. This will enable us to verify the accuracy of the information they give us (Stringfield, 2004). In addition, it will enable know what the referee’s views regarding the applicants are and hence predict the success of the applicant through comparison of their experience to the competencies that the post requires. However, this will be carefully done to avoid potential bias by referees. Discrimination avoidance and compliance to laws The entire selection process and the interview questions will be structured in such a way that any form biasness is avoided while every member of the selection panel will have a chance to go through the questions in a bid to ensure that they are not discriminatory to any group and do not contravene any law relating to recruitment and selection. Ensuring that the successful candidate is fairly and equitably hired once the process is over; To ensure that the successful candidate is fairly and equitably hire, the organisation has taken the following measures; i) Interview questions will be based on job analysis and the key selection criteria identified above. Each candidate will be asked the questions on the list while follow-up questions will emanate from the candidate’s response. ii) The interview questions will assess the candidate’s abilities in general areas and not on protected characteristics iii) We will invite a representative from a human resource firm stated above in the interviewing panel to aid in the process. The representative will act as a witness that all relevant laws are observed and the process is fair and equitable. iv) All the candidates’ answers will be documented in a bid to avoid inaccurate and untruthful discrimination. v) The reasons for settling on the particular candidate will be noted down in a bid to prove that it conforms to the selection criteria. This will be kept for a one year period as a prove that there was no bias or discrimination during the process. Conclusion Being a top managerial position, the company should ensure that proper attention is paid to the processes outlined above. This will ensure that the best candidate is recruited and selected for the job. This is important given the company’s vision and objectives. In addition, care should be taken to ensure that the company observes all the laid down legal requirements regarding recruitment and selection of employees. As such, the process should not be biased and efforts should be put in to ensure that no one is exempted from the processes unfairly. This way, the company will avoid any legal issues that may emanate from the process. Recommendation Being a senior management position, the post of the principal economists at FACS in no doubt needs to be filled with a very competent person who is able to help the company realise its goals. Furthermore, the position will involve offering services to more than 80,000 people with funds which mostly come from donors and non governmental organisation. A competent person will ensure proper economic management and hence avoid disappointing those who support the organisation through their funds by ensuring that the best projects are undertaken at the most economic costs. In addition, the process adopted should ensure that the person selected for the post has negotiations skills that will help the organisation in convincing donors to fund it. As such, I am convinced that the organisation should adopt the recruitment and selection process outlined above. This will ensure that the best candidate is chosen and will be in line with the company’s vision of improving its performance. References Jordan, B 2010, Effective recruitment and selection practices, London, Rutledge. Burden, H2005, Competency based recruitment and selection: A human Resources Managers’ Guide, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Stringfield, W 2004, Dimensionality and validity of a structured telephone reference check procedure. Personnel Psychology, 57, 745-772. Read More