Source: (Recruitment And
Selection Guide, New South Wales, Australia, 2019)
Introduction
Barber (1998) has provided this widely accepted definition of recruitment:
“Recruitment includes those practices and activities carried by the
organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential
employees”. Among all the activities with human resource management, the
recruitment process is the first formal chance company have to manage their
employee turnover (David and Philip, 2012). As brilliant words put by Amos (2020), “people are an organizations’ greatest asset”, so the effective
recruitment and selection play a critical role to an organizations success.
Today, With the rapid growth of the economies
the labour market fluctuates like a roller coaster ride, most employers are not
enough competent to launch aggressive recruitment efforts (Arthur, 2012).
To overcome these challenges,
as discussed by Armstrong (2006) there is a three steps process in recruitment
and selection:
1. Defining Requirements –
Creating job descriptions and specifications; determine terms and conditions of
employment;
2. Attracting Candidates – Reviewing,
evaluating additional sources of candidates, internal and external to the
company, advertising campaigns, using agencies and consultants;
Figure 1.0: The Process Of RecruitmentSource: (Stephen, 2020)
1.0Defining Requirements
More
typically requirements are expressed in the form of ad hoc demands for positions
because of the creation of new posts, expansion into new activities or areas
for an existing post, or the need for a replacement (Armstrong, 2010). Job
descriptions and specifications are very essential to run an organization
smoothly and it allows people to understand their role in the organization
(Pakdil and Leonard, 2016).
Most
of the times the requirements are built up in the form of role profiles and
personal specifications and this information required to post vacancies on the
company’s website or the internet, draft advertisements, brief the agencies or
recruitment consultants (Armstrong and Tylor, 2014).In addition to the knowledge,
skill, and abilities (KSA), also it needs to consider the behavioural aspects
and right competencies of the person and it supports his job performance (Armstrong,
2010).
2.0Attracting
Candidates
The approach should be targeting to narrow
down the very specific audience to get better responses and these will be from
an elite group of candidates who are truly best fit for the position (Fyock,
2007). Attracting talent is primarily consists of the identification,
evaluation, and use of the most suitable sources of applicants (Armstrong, 2006).
However, if there is a difficulty of attracting or retaining candidates, it may
need to conduct a preliminary study and identify the right factors (Amos, 2020).
Armstrong and Tylor (2014) has described,
the following steps are required when planning on how to attract candidates:
1.Analyse
recruitment strengths and weaknesses to develop a worker price proposition and
brand of the employer.
2.Analyse
the necessity to what sort of person is required.
3.Establish potential sources of candidates.
When
the potential facts are analysed in recruiting, defining the employer brand
vision is to re-emphasize strengths and weaknesses and develop the qualities
that will further increase the external appeals (Simon et al, 2011).There
may be factors such as similar experience and knowledge that will enable the right
candidate to hit the ground when they take up the role, however, it can be achieved
through effective induction and training if they are not already in place
(Stephen, 2020). So it matters the nature of the person who hires have
underlying characteristics such as adaptability and a desire to learn then it
is for them to have specific experience (David, 2012).
It is
not like early days, the modern sources of candidates reside on the internet,
so it needs to harness the power of social media channels including LinkedIn,
Glassdoor, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat to spread the word about the
organization offers employees (Mosely and Schmit, 2017). However, legacy methods of
the sourcing candidates are still contributing significantly, such as
advertising, recruitment agencies, employment centres, consulting, and direct
approach the education authorities(Armstrong and Tyler, 2014). For example the world's giant companies like Microsoft,
Google and Apple, they are following their innovative recruitment strategies to
attract the superior level of candidates (Heckman, 2018).
3.0 Selecting Candidates
Dessler (2018) indicates that when there is
a pool of candidates, the subsequent stage is to choose the most ideally
equipped individual for the activity. This normally implies shortlisting the
candidate pool by utilizing the selection framework including tests, meetings,
and record verifications (Miller, 2017). The cautious selection very important
since it will impact to the organization as well as the candidate’s future, and
ultimately to the whole society that they serve (Arthur, 2012). The most
significant example for selecting the right candidate is Steve Job, after he
hired back to Apple he brought up the market capital from $ 3 billion to $1
trillion by the designing and executing a completely new business strategy of
his own (Heckman, 2018).
Why
Careful Selection Is Important;
As
described by Dessler (2018), effective employee selection is important for several
reasons;
To
improve employee and organizational performance. For example, a call centre
employee attrition rate of 90 days left after 90 days increased from 41% to 12%
after the test started applicant.
Hiring
manager performance is in. Hire employees who are lack skills or are
obstructive, and the manager performance will suffer (Kennedy, 2019).
Screening
reduces dysfunctional behaviour at work. In one account, about 30% of all
employees say they have stolen from their employers; about 41% of them are
managers. Time to track down these people is before they are incurred (Dessler, 2018).
Even
hiring and training an employee can cost $ 10,000 in costs and time monitoring.
This money is wasted if the person does not retain (Paul and Lovelock, 2019)
Conclusion
In
present, most of the companies have formed a separate entity called “Talent
Acquisition Department” to boost the recruitment and selection process (Kennedy, 2019).
In Sri Lanka, global companies like Pearson, Willey, Virtusa and London Stocks
Exchange have their very own talent acquisition teams to aggressively grasp the
cream of industry talent to cater their business requirements. And also to
attract the candidates, those companies run huge campaigns on Facebook,
LinkedIn and many online spaces to promote their brand value and the employee
benefits. Furthermore, they are reaching directly to universities organizing
career days and participating career fairs such as the most famous, FutureMinds
and Edex Expo.
Also,
most of the companies nowadays in Sri Lanka conducting a series of interviews
to select the right candidates including technical tests, aptitude tests and
psychometric tests. Furthermore, well-structured interviews and feedback
documents enhanced the quality and transparency of the selection process which
most of the multinational companies have adhered. Recruitment and selection
always go hand-in-hand, and it is vital to bring the value to the business
which inherits the organization's success (Paul and Lovelock, 2019).
Reference
Amos, S., 2020. Successful recruitment. 1st ed. New
York, United States: Business Expert Press.
Armstrong, M., 2006. Handbook of human resource
management practice. 10th ed. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited.
Armstrong, M., 2010. Armstrong’s essential human
resource management practice. 1st ed. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page
Limited.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook
of human resource management practice. 14th ed. London, United Kingdom:
Kogan Page Limited.
Arthur, D., 2012. Recruiting, interviewing, selecting
& orienting new employees. 5th ed. New York, United States: AMACOM.
Barber, A., 1998. Recruiting employees: individual
and organizational perspectives. 1st ed. California, United states: Sage
Publications Inc.
Barrow, S. and Mosley, R., 2005. The employer brand .
1st ed. Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
David, A. and Phillip, B., 2012. Managing employee
turnover. 1st ed. New York, United States: Business Expert Press LLC.
Dessler, G., 2018. Fundamentals of human resource
management. 5th ed. London, United Kingdom: Pearson Education, Inc.
Fyock, C., 2007. The truth about recruiting the best job
candidates. 1st ed. New Jersey, United States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Heckman, R., 2018. The talent manifesto. 1st ed. New
York, United States: McGraw-Hill Education LLC.
Miller, T., 2017. Successful interviewing. 1st ed.
New York, United States: Business Expert Press, LLC.
Mosley, R. and Schmidt, L., 2017. Employer branding for
dummies. 1st ed. New Jersey, United States: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Pakdil, F. and Leonard, K., 2016. Performance leadership.
1st ed. New York, United States: Business Expert Press LLC.
Paul, D. and Lovelock, C., 2019. Delivering business analysis:
the BA service handbook. 1st ed. Swindon, United Kingdom: BCS Learning
& Development Limited.
Kennedy, B., 2019. Flat, fluid, and fast. 1st ed.
New York, United States: McGraw-Hill Education LLC.
As Rebecca (2002) defined an interview is an essentially
structured face to face conversation where one party asks questions and other
party answers, also in general parlance, it can be one to one or many to one
conversation where it can be with the physical presence or through the
internet.
In the context of recruitment and selection, as discussed
by Rob (2008) a job interview should have 3 main objectives;
1.To asses and identify the candidate accurately and fairly who will add
the most value into the job.
2.To treat candidates in a
professional and well-mannered way so that they attract to work for your
organizations
3.To assist candidates to understand the full picture of the job so they
can decide whether they want to work for your organization.
Lynn (2012) has mentioned, a job interview is there to
discover the following factors about the candidate;
1.Essential and desirable
skills, knowledge and abilities.
2.Personal characteristics
3.The enthusiasm and commitment
4.Industry achievements
5.Career development
6.Consistency and stability of the employment within the
industry, including previous employees.
7.General employment stability including an average period in
any job
8.Remuneration expectation
Unconscious
Bias In Interviews
The good or bad
characteristic must not creep into judgement on the other characteristic
(Adrian, 2002).
Halo Effect
When evaluating a candidate the results are unwittingly
allowing stronger ratings on one characteristic to affect judgement on other
characteristics which is called “halo effect”(Thomas, 2013). If a weighted
rating system used, the interviewer must be careful of the halo effect whereby
if the firm ratings are favourable on one criterion, although it may not be the
best in the other criteria, it is still hit high ratings because it excels in
one of the criteria (Craig et al, 2015).
For example, in a software engineering interview when a
candidate is very fluent in communication and the technical knowledge is
average, with the halo effect while high ratings hit for communication
unintentionally technical knowledge criteria also get the best ratings.
In the context of selections, the halo effect is the most
common “error” although often working indirectly (Tom, 2002).
Horn Or Devil Effect
This is opposite to Halo effect, which poor performance or
evaluation on one characteristic can affect the other characteristics, this is
called “horn” or “devil” effect (Thomas, 2013). The candidate evaluated on a
range of criteria, despite being weak in one criterion, undoubtedly some
judgements are reaching into lower ratings (Tom, 2002).
For example, in a sale executive interview, when the
candidate gets low ratings in accounting knowledge and his rating for
negotiation, communication and other skills are high, the interviewer
unwittingly rate him low in overall.
Similar To MeBias
This bias will develop an affinity with the candidate,
because of interviewer and interviewee are sharing the same personal
characteristics, instead of focusing on the skills and qualifications for the
job (Brian et al, 2013)
For examples, both were graduated from the same university
or played for the same sports team or attend to the same school or worked for
the same company in past.
Confirmation Bias
This bias will force the candidate to accept a subject that
interviewer is very interested in and because of this will lead to inconsistency
of questions or irrelevant conversation which deviates from the actual jobs the
scope (Lynn, 2012).
For example, the interviewer is a golf player and talk
about the golfing or interested in modelling or interested in automobiles
industry.
Overconfident Bias
When the interviewer’s confidence level is high than the
given characteristics and objectives of the interview will lead the misjudge or
the miscalibration of the skills and abilities of the candidate which will end
up the wrong selection (Rob, 2008).
For example, when an interviewer thinks that he or she can
read the people from external appearance or behaviour or the way communicating
without going through the job-related skills set and abilities of the
candidate.
Source: Stanford Graduate School of Business, California,
United States
Conclusion
The structured and
well-prepared interview plan will avoid these above mentioned biased situations
and also a multiple-member interview panel supports to keep the track of the
interview and follow the flow chart with assertive interruptions if needed
(Sandra, 2005). Researches were done by top business schools and universities
show that a technique called competency-based interviewing is much more
effective and productive than the unstructured way of interviewing (Rob, 2008).
The importance of selection criteria involves that each panel member adheres to
the interview plan and responsible to ensures that all the aspects of the
criteria have been fully discussed and tested in the interview (Sandra, 2005).
Reference
1.Bensoussan,
B. and Fleisher, C., 2015. BUSINESS AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: EFFECTIVE
APPLICATION OF NEW AND CLASSIC METHODS. 3rd ed. New Jersey, United States: FT
Press
2.Bunting,
S., 2005. THE INTERVIEWER'S HANDBOOK: SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES FOR
THE WORKPLACE. 1st ed. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited.
3.Corfield,
R., 2002. SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW SKILLS. 5th ed. London, United Kingdom: Kogan
Page Limited.
4.Diamante,
T., 2013. EFFECTIVE INTERVIEWING AND INFORMATION GATHERING. 1st ed. New York,
United States: Business Expert Press LLC.
5.McIvor,
B. and Hanson, M., 2013. THE INTERVIEWER'S BOOK: HIRING THE RIGHT PERSON. 1st
ed. Dublin, Ireland: Orpen Press.
6.Wilkinson,
A. and Redman, T., 2002. THE INFORMED STUDENT GUIDE TO HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT. 1st ed. London, United Kingdom: Thomas Learning.
7.Williams,
L., 2012. ULTIMATE INTERVIEW: 100S OF GREAT INTERVIEW ANSWERS TAILORED TO
SPECIFIC JOBS. 3rd ed. London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited.
8.Yeung,
R., 2008. SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEWING AND RECRUITMENT. 1st ed. London, United
Kingdom: Kogan Page Limited.
