Human Resource Management - Recruitment and Selection - Essay Example

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT - RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION One of the most important duties that any human resource manager has to perform is that of recruiting new employees to the organization. In doing so the HRM ensures that they recruit the best employees who are suited for the job at hand. With no regard to the kind of organization that we look at, where in pubic, service sector, manufacturing or production, there are usually some standard and accepted procedures and processes that are used for recruitment of new employees. Any management usually knows the procedure that the organization uses in order to arrive to the desired objective of hiring competent employees for the organization. Human resourced planning The success of any task that is to be accomplished depends on the initial planning put in place before executing the plan. The same applies to human resource planning. Human resource planning is an important aspect of any task in an organization including recruitment. Human resource planning is the act of considering all the aspect of the job in advance before starting the process of hiring. Human resource planning involves detailed analysis of the job. This will be in terms of the skills that will be required for the job, the experience that will be required, gender issue as far as the job is concerned and the age bracket. In light of the organization, human resource planning will looks into the objectives of the company in order to know the position of the company in regard to the job. (Iacovou, 2002) In planning, human resource management will look into the working structure of the company in order to know where the deficiency is. This is important as it avoids duplication of duties in the work. This means that the human resource management must know areas which require new employees. Other wise management cannot create a vacancy where there is no work to be done. A detailed analysis of the function to be perfume by the new employees is important since it makes work description easier for the management. There are other fine details of job the planning process must look into. Apart from the skill experience, and others the plan must also outline in detail the duties that the new employees will be expected to perform. This outlines the requirements for the job and helps and individual to gauge their position as far as the requirements for the job are concerned. This also helps potential applicants to prepare themselves for interview on the job. Other information that the planning process must look into is the commencement of the job and the availability of the individual. It must also look into the financial position of the organization in light of the vacancy at hand and come up with a package for the job. However this is not a must and some companies will not indicate how much they are offering for the job. But the human resource management usually has a clear cut limit on the amount of salary that the company can offer for the job which sometimes is a subject of testing individuals in the interview. Hence human resource planning is essential in ensuring that the process of recruitment is smooth as it is guided by the plan. The plan must outline the first to the last step in the process. it ensures that this process can be taken over by any other person since it is already outlines. Human resource planning involves various stages. As has been mentioned the first stage in the recruitment process will be detailed analysis of the job in terms of the requirements of the job and any other aspect of the job. This analysis will then act as the guideline fro the process. After the initial planning, the subsequent stages will definitely under the plan and those who have been given the mandate to oversee its implementation. The planning process will also help the human resource department to decide whether it will take the recruitment process or if it will seek the services of a recruitment agency. It is also in this stage of planning where the management will decide whether it will recruit individuals from the organization or if it will recruit from outside the organization. In this stage, the management will also decide which medium of advertisement that it is going to use for the job. This initial stage of human resource planning is very important since it determines how the overall process will be. (Bent, 2001) The next stage in the planning process after analysis and selection of a panel to oversee the process will be placing advertisement for the job. This is actually the begging of the real recruitment process and implementation of the plan. Comparison of the structured process for recruitment The two organizations have a clear structured recruitment process which definitely arises from the initial human resource planning process. However there are some differences that are evident in the recruitment process of the two companies. It is clear that in the first vacancy, the organization is doing a national wide recruitment for many entertainers while in the second vacancy; the organization is looking for specified one employee. There is a difference when an organization is recruiting many people and when it is recruiting and just one special person. The process is also different in that while in the first vacancy there is not clear indication of the package to be offered; in the second vacancy salary package is clearly indicated with the limits. This arises from the fact that while the first vacancy is looking for many people, their offer for salary may be varied which will help the organization to come up with a standardizes package, but in the second vacancy, the organization is very clear on what it wants and the package it is offering. The seriousness of the two vacancies is also exhibited in the way the two companies clearly takes time to inform the applicants about them. In the second vacancy, the advertisement has taken time to explain about the organization, its mission and the kind of services that it is offering. On the contrary the second company has put blank advertisement in which it does not mention the specific organization that is seeking to recruit but rather it talks of an industry. On matters concerning the medium of recruitment and the techniques for recruitment, I find it easy for the vacancy two to use face to face interview. This is because it is very specific of what it wants. Since it is looking for more of a specialist, it needs to ensure that it gets the right person for the job. The fact that it has put all the stringent demands for job including the salary package makes it easy for the company to carry out a face to face advertisement. It needs to take the applicants through a rigid scrutiny process so that it can get all the details including the said experiences. Also according to the nature of the job the organization has to be satisfied of the qualification of the individual person who takes over the job. These and other factors are the reason why I tend to think that interview will be the best method to get the required person. Regarding vacancy one, it is clear that the vacancy is not do much detailed on what an individual should possesses in order to qualify for the job. Qualification of an individual is pegged on the ability of an individual to perform or have a talent in performing arts. Hence this vacancy does not involve a very rigid process in which individuals can be taken through since they will be identified based on their talent. This advertisement makes the vacancy appear to be more of a continuous recruitment since it does not have defined period of recruitment. This advertisement also portrays that recruitment is being done through an employment agency which means. Looking closely at all these factors, it means the recruitment process of the company does not necessarily need to be a face to face interview in the initial stage. This is because of the wide scale of this recruitment. For example there can be voice testing tests online which will help in eliminating some of the competitors who does not bear qualifications of the jobs. This process will help in reducing the number of individuals who will have to go for face to face interview in the later stages of the recruitment. Interview and other alternate selection method Job interview has become one of the most dominant methods of recruitment in the modern job market. However the trend has started to change with time with a shift to other methods although interviews remain one of the crucial selection methods in any recruitment process. Job interview helps the organization to recruit the best persons who is suited for the job. However it is good to understand that interviews sometimes predominantly gives the personal aspect of an individual and may fail to show the capability of the person. interview are primarily based on set of questions which are directed to the interviewee which test the ability of the persons more so on communicating and reasoning. It is good to test how an individual make judgment of issues. In most instances it helps to learn abut the reasoning and reaction of the person if put under intense pressure. Most interviews will concentrate on the ability of the person to answer question with clarity and without hesitation. However it is good for interviewees to keep track on open-ended question like how, why, tell me, what in order to get the interviewee talking. The interviewer should ensure that 90 percent of the interview is spent on talking. Interviewers must clearly avoid putting interviewees on pressure since this rarely exposes the personality of the person. A calm process can help the interviewer to understand the interviewee very well and learn more about their personalities. In most recruitment, interview comes as the last part of the recruitment process. it comes from earlier tests which shows the technical ability of the person to handle the job beyond any doubt. Face to face interview is very important more so to those being recruitment for management job. The panel must test their ability to interact and community with others and their ability to make decisions while faced with a complex issue. (Susan, 1999) There are many other selection methods. One of the recent methods that have gained momentum in the job market is the use of psychometric tests. These tests have somehow replaced the tradition method of direct questioning in terms of gauging the reasoning pattern of an interviewee. Many companies have resulted to use of psychometric test especially when they are recruiting junior staff fresh from school. Psychometric tests constitute of some structured questions which the interviewee is supposed to answer in written form. A test will contain a set of questions which the interviewee is supposed to answer in a given period of time. Psychometric tests assess the ability of the individual person to reason and make a decision in a period of time. However psychometric tests are not very reliable method of selection. In most instances they are sued as an elimination process in instance where an organization is looking to recruit many people. These tests are usually followed by a face to face interview of the applicants. Another effective method of selection is work samples. In this method applicants are supposed to take a mini-job in a selection situation. This method captures the ability of the individual persons to perform on the real job. Work samples can include typing test for keyboard skills, role playing, group decision, reports, and other methods. In most instances candidates are given a task to accomplish in a given period of time. Another method of selection is graphology. In this method individual are given papers to write about something. Specialists are then used to tell more about an individual from their handwriting. It is claimed that one can understand personalities through their handwriting. Evaluation of selection practices and procedures in the two organizations In our earlier chapters, we tried to look into the difference that exists between the two organization in terms of their selection procedures and practices. It is clear that the two organizations have used some very standardized procedure of recruitment in the context of the job at hand. In the first place both organizations have clearly indicated the job title which is being advertised and which the two organizations want to recruit for. According to standard procedure of recruitment, it is necessary for the human resource management to be very clear on which positions it wants to recruit individuals for. This helps the management in planning for the recruitment process. Also in the two organizations the recruitment procedure clearly displays the duties of the post which it wants to recruit for. In normal practices this is very important since it helps potential applicant to gauge their ability to person the duties outlined for the post in light of their ability. Outlining these duties is also important since it help the interviewing panel to stay focused in assessing the ability of the individual to perform the outlined duties. However there are some differences in the way the organizations have put applications to guide those who want to apply for the job. The first organization has clearly outlined the application criteria through the email. However the second organization does not give a detailed procedure or direction for applying for the post. It has taken time to explain to the individuals on where they can be found but it says little on how individuals should apply for the job. In normal practices, a company is supposed to guide potential applicant on how they should apply for the job. This sometimes includes the reference number for the job which makes it easy for the human resource department to sort out applications in case it has advertised for more than one post. (Rey, 2000) In terms of payment, it is a normal practice in any recruitment procedure for an organization to outline the expected payment for the job. However the first organization has not specified payment for the job. This approach is usually used when an organization is recruiting many people since sometimes it becomes difficult to know the exact amount to pay for the vacancy. This is also practiced in contract jobs where the organization cannot clearly indicated the amount it will pay for the job since it will be based on a mutual agreement between the two parties. However as you find out, the second organization has clearly indicated the range of payment since it is very specific on the job and the amount it will pay for the job. References Bent, H. (2001). The Seven HR Process. New York: Wiley Iacovou, S. (2002). Structured Recruitment and Retention. Oxford: Oxford University. Rey, M. (2000). The Recruitment Process. Journal of Management, Vol. 2(4): 9-11 Susan, J. (1999). Recruitment and Selection Interviewing. London: Macmillan Publishers Read More