Recruitment and Selection for an IT Manager - Essay Example

1.0 Introduction One may want to know which department within any organization is more important than all the others. As much as the departments of an organization strike synergy to achieve efficient and performance, individuals will at times want to compare the functions of each organizational departments. One such very crucial organizational department is the human resource department. If there is any department that is the backbone of any organization, then it is the human resource department. This is so because of the importance of the human resource in an organization (Ulrich, 1997). It has once been said that the human resource in an organization can either make or destroy the organization. If the people factor of an organization is well managed then success is evident and the opposite is also true. The human resource department has the responsibility of hiring and firing employees, paying, controlling, disciplining and awarding employees (Williams, 2001). The department controls and manages the people factor in an organization by setting policies that regulate and direct the human resource. These policies often have a regal implication. The implication may be skewed to the positive thereby enabling the hiring and maintenance of an efficient workforce. However, the policies may be skewed to the negative thereby posing a potent legal risk for the organization. This paper seeks to highlight the implication of human resource policies that rely on positive action as a means of means of recruitment and selection (Kay & Banfield, 2008). Human resource policies may be construed to refer to the set of systematic codified decisions institutionalized by and organization to aid in the administration of the human factor in the organization. The policies also aid in the management of performance, management of employee relations and the human resource planning function. It is imperative to understand the fact that the human resource policies of one organization vary significantly from those of other organizations. This is because of the differences in the circumstances that the organizations find themselves in. Because of these circumstances that are unique to each organization call for enactment of unique human resource policies. The human resource policy enables the organization to communicate a number of things to the employees thereby being clear with the employees on among other things: Employee expectations of the company Company expectations of the employees Nature of the organization The working of policy and procedure in the organization Acceptable and unacceptable behavior Penalties and repercussions of unacceptable behavior The organization therefore uses these policies to hire workforce. The policies differ from one organization top another. The hiring process starts from the advertisement of the vacancy to the preferred candidate being given the letter of appointment (Transit Cooperative Research Program et al, 2002). Using the policies, each organization has its individual strategy that it uses to hire the best and highly competent workers. This paper seeks to highlight the recruitment and selection strategy that can be applied in the recruitment of an IT manager. Amongst a myriad of strategies, the in-house recruitment strategy is discussed and the entire process highlighted as well thereby showing its pros and cons. The paper will start with offering a background to the recruitment and selection strategy before submitting a critical review of recruitment and selection strategy i.e. the in-house recruitment strategy. 2.0 Background to the Recruitment and Selection Strategy The in-house recruitment strategy is often preferred by majority of the organizations. It often employed by the larger employers who prefer to carry out their own in-house recruitment (Williams, 2001). They do this using their human resource departments sometimes in coordination with recruitment agencies. In-house recruiters often advertise job positions that are vacant mostly on their official website or any other media and then work with some external associations ton get the candidates apply or basically focus on what is commonly termed as an on campus graduate recruitment. Alternatively, these employers may opt to outsource the recruitment process (Adler et al, 2004). What are the steps involved in an in-house recruitment process Basically, a need for manpower to feel specific position is reckoned and ascertained by the senior management. The HRM department is then authorized to seek the person or people with the specific expertise and skill proportionate with the position or vacancy. The HRM department carries out a job specification and candidate qualifications anticipated. The department than decides the kind of strategy to be used to source the best qualified candidate(s) for the vacancy or vacancies. Once this is completed, the HRM department then goes ahead to advertise the vacancy or vacancies mainly through their website or any other media that will reach the amount of people the organization desires. Once the advertisement has been made, the HRM has to look for a strategy that it can use to screen the applicants and get the best candidates who can then move on to be short listed to attend the actual interview (Analoui, 2007). The screening and selection concludes the recruitment process and it constitutes the very important part of the process. It is here that the candidates are evaluated, observed and assessed to ensure that they have the exact skills that the company requires in the position advertised. The suitability of the candidates is determined in this stage by looking for skills such as communication and computer skills among other computer skills. Qualification on the other hand can be shown through the rsums sent in earlier by the applicants, testimony of references or an in-house testing can as well be employed to ascertain the qualifications required. For an IT manager, the testing will involve assessment s on the skills mentioned in the advert. For an IT manager, for instance, he can be tested on the following skills: Desktop and peripheral hardware Desktop operating systems (Windows) System Development Life Cycle TCP/IP Networking Local and Wide area network technologies Server and Network operating systems Modern Computing and Storage technologies System integration This recruitment strategy helps not only to manage getting interested candidates but also getting highly qualified and experienced interested candidates. The applicants can be attracted by using remuneration that is slightly above the market rates (Society for Human Resource Management et al, 2006). It has been found by research that remuneration is the most common attracting factor of job applicants. As such, in the advert, the salary can be quoted so as to serve the purpose of attracting those qualified and experiences applicants to fit the vacant position(s). 3.0 Critical Review of Recruitment and Selection Strategy A myriad of researches have been made concerning the recruitment and selection practices. These researches have often found out that most employers re now, more than ever before, ready to spend more in the recruitment and selection process. This is because it has inevitably dawned on their realization that better recruitment and selection strategies have a positive impact of organizational outcomes and deliverables. Therefore, the more effective the recruitment and selection process is carried out, the more likely an organization is to hire and retain not only competent and qualified but also highly satisfied employees. As a result of the realization of the correlation between the effective recruitment and selection process and positive organizational outcomes, 75% and 68% of organizations plan to increase their spending on recruitment and selection respectively (Mintzberg et al, 2003). One of the most common aspects of recruitment and selection researched on is the use of tests and assessments during the recruitment and selection process. This has been a common undertaking especially by those organizations that opt for an in-house recruitment strategy. A survey carried out on fortune 1000 firms in North America showed that more than half of the firms were already using various tests during their recruitment and selection. Actually, 20% of these firms were in use of the personality test as a pre-employment test. Majority of the firms also indicated that they were already in use or intended to use the pre-employment tests in the near future (Piotrowski & Armstrong, 2006). The findings further indicated that most of the firms relied on the traditional recruitment and selection methods as opposed to popular online assessment instruments. Similarly, there is great urgency of organizations to adopt the recruitment strategies that are perceived to be more effective. Actually, 47% and 41% seek to change their current recruitment and selection approaches respectively. It has often been believed that the internal candidates are likely to stay in positions and successfully as such than their counterparts but all the same way, most organizations to recruit external candidates 13% more often than the internal candidates (Rioux & Bernthal, 2005). Therefore, a larger majority of the organization recruits and select personnel fro external candidates but using the in-house recruitment strategy where the HRM department of the organization interviews, tests and ensures that the external candidates have all that it takes to fill the vacant jobs in the organization. Therefore, as far as the in-house recruitment strategy is concerned, the external or internal candidates can be recruited and selected but most organizations prefer most of the time to recruit and choose from the external candidates. The recruitment strategies are dependent on the kind of personnel to be recruited. For instance if the non professional personnel are the ones to be recruited, then an in-house recruitment (where the organization would use internal job postings and staff referrals to source for candidates) or use of temporary or government recruitment agencies are the most appropriate. However if management and or professional personnel are the ones under recruitment then the organization will use the internet to advertise these position. This is so because internet reaches a wider population and as such has the probability of presenting talent, experience and qualified applicants. The more the applicants the better chance of the organization to choose the most suitable candidates for the job position in question. For the case of the IT manager job, this is a management job and as such advertisement of the job in the internet will work well to attract as large number of applicants for the job. Actually, more than 76% of the organizations in the world use the internet to advertise the management and/or professional job vacancies whenever they are using the in-house recruitment and selection strategy (Simms, 2003). As far as the in-house recruitment concerned, other third parties may be involved in the recruitment process. Different kinds of agencies are involved depending on the nature of job vacancies in question. For instance, recruitment of non-management personnel calls for the involvement of temporary and government agencies. However, recruitment/employment agencies, universities or other professional organizations may be used to recruit professional and/or managerial job candidates. What is the guarantee that people will get to apply after the job vacancy advert has been run either in the internet or whatever media Well, this is a very important question that the HRM department has to ask itself if it envisions to conduct a successful in-house recruitment and selection process. It is a common spectacle when organizations repeat job adverts after the application deadline mentioned in the prior advert had passed. The only implication from this action is that the job advert did not attract any or enough applicants to sustain a selection process. Therefore, it is imperative that the organizational offerings are mentioned in the job advert. Majority of organizations do this in their job adverts. The advert for the IT manager job vacancy y lacks to mention the organization's offerings. These offerings include but not limited to the salary scale, allowances and benefits which should be slightly above the market offerings. This is capable of attracting a good number of applicants for the organization to be able to select the skills and talent it requires to fill the vacant position or positions. Such offerings are not limited to remuneration. They can also include things like a strong company reputation. Actually, 69% of the organizations believe that they are offering potential applicants a strong company reputation. 55% however think differently; they believe that they are offering the potential applicants an opportunity to learn. However, 65% offer the applicants high-quality benefits and salary packages. All these offerings are meant to attract a good number of the applicants to sustain the selection process and as such choose the most competent candidate for the job. Apparently, the advert on the IT manager job lacks any visible or imagined organizational offering and it is therefore less likely to attract substantial number of applicants (Piotrowski & Armstrong, 2006). 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it is necessary that an organization adopts the most effective recruitment and selection strategy so as to be able to not only hire competent personnel but also be able to retain satisfied personnel. If it is an in-house recruitment that the organization has chosen to use, it should be able to run an advert that spells the job description and offers the responsibilities expected of the candidate. Similarly, the advert should be able to spell out the organizational offerings which are most of the time meant to attract a good number of applicants to sustain a successful selection process. The interview and testing process helps to filter the applicants to ensure that only the most competent, qualified and experienced applicants are hired. The recruitment strategy should be chosen depending on the job vacancy at hand. Most organizations advertise the managerial/professional job vacancies in the internet while internal job listings and staff referrals are used for the case of non-management or non-professional job vacancies. Most organizations will prefer to recruit external candidates despite the fact hat the internal candidates have a 13% more chance of staying on the job than the external candidates. Finally, based on the above submission, it is now common knowledge that more effective the recruitment strategy of an organization is, the more chances the organization has of recruiting competent personnel and retaining. Further, organizations with effective recruitment strategies re more likely to have better organizational offerings such as employee advancement, strong company reputation, better salary and benefits packages, stocks offerings to employees and strong corporate culture e.g. the culture of innovation and diversity. 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