Recruitment and Selection Strategies - Essay Example

?Identify recent key themes relating to recruitment and selection Introduction With constant focus on people in the changing work environment, it is essential to recruit and select the right person at the right time so that the organisation can achieve the height of success it deserves. The performance of the organisation is directly linked to the performance of employee; those who work for the betterment of organisation. Recruitment and selection of the wrong candidate might lead to underachievement which will eventually lead to the failure of the workplace. Hiring the wrong person for the job can be costly for the organisation due to which it is essential that the right individual must be recruited and selected for the right job (Leopold, Harris, & Watson, 2005). Recruitment and selection is a vital process of human resource management as it attract individuals to work for the organisation based on qualification to achieve the height of success (Walker, 2009). Thus recruitment is a process to identify the potential candidate from internal and external sources for the right job and at the right time. On the other hand, selection is a process to identify the ideal candidate for the job that will be allowed to work for the organisation in order to achieve the goals and objectives. In simpler words, selection could be said as the process to make decision to “hire” or “no hire” regarding the candidates recruited for the job. Both the processes vary from country to country and from job to job. Both these processes are used by organisations to increase the odds of hiring the potential candidate for the right job at the right time to be successful at what they do (Walker, 2009). Recruitment and Selection Strategies In order to gain a competitive edge over the others in the market, organisation relies heavily on the recruitment and selection strategies that could identify and attract the best qualified candidate for the job. The strategies that are used by the companies vary from job to job and none of the strategy could be considered the best as recruitment and selection strategies are based on the level of job being offered. To enhance the organisational outcome, it is essential that recruitment and selection strategies should be implemented better. Organisation can either recruit or select potential applicants from internal or external source which is entirely based on the level of job that needs to be done. For a senior level job, organisation tends to recruit and select employees from internal sources; succession management, and for operational and technical jobs preference is given to external sources (Pilbeam & Corbridge, 2006). The process of recruitment and selection is equally important for organisations as this process helps the organisation to attain and attract qualified personnel through strategies. Getting the right person at the right place and at the right time is essential in recruiting and selection process of an organisation. Recruitment and selection strategies act side by side in order to provide the organisation with the best available personnel to work for the accomplishment of goals and objectives (Redman & Wilkinson, 2006). The recruitment process provides the organisation with a variety of talent pool based on the decision to fill an existing vacancy within an organisation. The first strategy in the recruitment process is the identification of requirement for the job and fitting the job in the organisation. According to Legge (2005) the effectiveness of recruitment and selection strategy could be seen through the reduction in turnover rate and motivation of employees. The focus of recruitment and selection strategies is to match the capabilities and skills of candidates against the requirements and demands for the job (Marchington, M. & Wilkinson, 2008). An organisation can recruit and select professional as well as non-management candidate through different recruitment strategies (Salaman, Storey, & Billsbury, 2005). These strategies include; The use of internet for advertisement of available job; this strategy focuses on attracting applicants that are interested to work for the organisation in the upcoming month. This recruitment and selection strategy aims to use the most convenient source in order to get the best potential employee there is in the market (Taylor, 2010). Utilisation of internal as well as external resources; this strategy focuses on the equal utilisation of internal and external sources to hire the best suitable candidate for the job. The organisation has an option to provide an opportunity to an existing employee by enhancing the job responsibilities or to hire a new and fresh employee for the job (Torrington, Hall, & Taylor, 2008). Using temporary and government agencies to recruit for non-management candidate; in order to recruit an applicant to work for organisation, the organisation can use temporary and government agencies to recruit an employee; the best one available, for non-management job (Bach, 2005). Colleges, universities, employment agencies for recruiting professional candidates; since a professional job requires a professional candidate, organisation turns to colleges and employment agencies that could provide the organisation with talented and educated individual that would fit the job as well as organisation (Boxall, Purcell, & Wright, 2007). Recruitment and Selection Practices According to Moynagh and Worsley (2005), the quality of applicants attracted to organisation depends upon the recruitment practices whereas, the selection phase is heavily dependent upon the number of ideal personnel attracted. To find the best candidate, it is essential to implement four main recruitment and selection practices as these practices are easier and ideal to implement (Bratton & Gold, 2007). The four practices include; a. The recruitment and selection practice involves behaviour-based job interviews; where the candidates elaborate their skills with the help of examples. This practice helps the organisation to predict the future performance of employees based on their skills and competencies. This is the most common practice that is implemented by most of the organisation. The behaviour-based interview helps the organisation to find the ideal candidate; that could turn the face of game for the organisation in the market (Claydon & Beardwell, 2007). b. Automated resume screening and search; this practice involves the use of technology to find and assess the resumes that match the requirements of the organisation. This practice could help the organisation to eliminate those resumes that are not-suitable for the job offered by the organisation (Kersley et al., 2005). c. Assessments; this practice is associated with the evaluation of applicant’s motivation regarding the job being offered by the organisation. Assessment practices are not yet common in organisations but this practice is being considered by many organisations to evaluate the elements that help the applicants to be motivated. This practice of recruitment and selection is aimed to identify the motivation level of employee regarding the company’s way of doing things (Ulrich & Smallwood, 2005). d. Simulations; this practice involves giving the applicants with tasks, related to job, to evaluate and measure the skills and abilities of individuals. This practice helps the organisation to identify the ideal candidate without any difficulty. This practice is essential at it provides the organisation with an overview of the individual’s knowledge and abilities to match with the requirements of the job (Ulrich and Brockbank, 2005). Recent trends in Recruitment and Selection Practices One of the most significant trend in recruitment and selection practices is the increasing use of internet; online, for recruiting the potential candidate for organisation (Gusdorf, 2008). The recent trend has influenced the overall recruitment and selection practices as companies can now post job opening on their websites or websites that supports organisations by providing them with the ability to recruit the best suitable candidate through specialised websites. This recent trend has totally eliminated the concept of hard-copy application for the job and is cheaper than the traditional method of advertisement; where the company had to wait for the interested candidate to submit their applications for the job openings. Through this recent trend, companies are able to quickly post job openings and are able to attract wider range of talent (Gusdorf, 2008). Recent trend in the recruitment and selection practices is the focus on social recruiting; recruiting the potential candidate through social networking sites. In order to attract the potential candidates for the right job, organisations have shifted from the traditional means of recruitment and selection to virtual web-based recruitment. This trend has allowed the organisation to attract the best, multitalented human resource through two-way transparent communication between the organisation and the potential employee. This trend includes top social networking sites that have active users such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc. and aims to provides the potential candidate with the clear understanding of job qualification, expectation and requirements (Cachinko, 2011). In order to acquire the best talent pool in the talent war, organisations use external contractors to recruit candidates for jobs within the organisation. To do so, the external contractors are paid fee based on the salary offered to the employee. This trend has been revived as organisations are in dire need to have employees to boost the performance through their skills and expertise. To be effective in recruiting the right candidate for the right job, external contractors are provided with the accurate information regarding the job which included the job responsibilities, qualification required, level of experience and the salary offered. This information helps the contractor to reduce the number of applicants based on the information and screen only those candidates that are suitable for the job (Gusdorf, 2008). Organisations are also focusing on temporary workers in order to tower the competitor’s performance and to meet the constant fluctuating demand. This trend has recently boomed in the war to acquire the best talent due to which organisations are bringing in temporary workers with an aim to reduce the hiring process and time. These temporary workers are considered for permanent job based on their performance and the ability to cope with the environment (Cachinko, 2011). In order to attract the best talent pool, organisations are now offering jobs to young and fresh college undergraduates and graduates. Students are given preference over other potential candidates as these students are motivated and energetic as compared to others and with their creative and innovative talent, the organisation aims to reduce the challenges of acquisition of talent pool. In other words, organisations have adopted the concept of “looking for great people in unexpected places” (Cachinko, 2011). The recent trend also includes the recruitment of innovative individuals from foreign countries. The selected applicants are offered jobs in the multinational organisations in order to reach the potential height of success (Cachinko, 2011). The concept of global recruitment might not be new but it is ideally followed by multinational giants in order to attract talent pool that could help the organisations to successfully change the game. These innovative young individuals are recruited so that the organisation can benefit from their creative thinking and to provide the people with differentiated products rather than products that are already available in the market in abundance (Sako, 2006; Grimshaw & Miozzo, 2009). The emerging trend of mobile-phone recruiting is also the central focus of organisations through which the organisation can attract limited and qualified crowd quickly and effectively. This trend has somehow changed the whole traditional process of organisation and with constant advancement in technology; this trend is gaining focus by other organisations in the market and the industry. The aim of this trend is to attract qualified and potential candidate through text messages or video messages that are willing to work for the organisation to help the organisation in achieving the goals and objectives effectively and efficiently (Cachinko, 2011). Poaching is another emerging trend that focuses on acquiring talented and creative employees from other organisations in the industry or from competitor’s company. This trend has continuously been observed to deal with the rising competition and to enhance the performance of the organisations. To attract manpower, an organisation might provide the applicant with higher salary package or position in a company (Cachinko, 2011). Recruitment advertisement is also an emerging trend where the organisations not only provide particular information regarding position opening but also inform the jobseekers about the culture, work environment and the people employed by the organisation. This trend focuses on attracting diversity; where minority could work without any discrimination and are welcomed to be a part of the organisation (Cachinko, 2011). Challenges for HR For on organisation human resources is the most effective asset to accomplish the goals and objectives but in order to do so, the potential candidate that should work for the organisation must be properly recruited and selected. Poor decisions related to the recruitment and selection could lead to chaotic and catastrophic situation from day one as bad hires could damage the overall performance of the business (Vosburgh, 2007). The overall recruitment and selection process is filled with challenges and to overcome these challenges is the basic task. Some of the major challenges that have evolved with the recent trends of recruitment and selection are as follows; a. Determining the characteristics that would lead to performance; this challenge relates somehow to organisation fit as it is necessary for an organisation to identify the characteristics of potential applicant and the required characteristics for the job offered. It is compulsory for an organisation to evaluate the characteristics of individual in order to be selected or not for the job. If the characteristics are not evaluated accurately, it would lead to dissatisfaction and eventually increase in turnover rate (Tobey & Benson, 2009). b. Motivation; motivation could be said as the basis of performance. The most important challenge for the HR is to identify the level of motivation of the employee and the ability to meet the target. Because without motivation, abilities of the individual are considered as useless until the individual is motivated to perform the task. To achieve high level of performance in job, it is essential that the applicant should be highly motivated as well as capable to perform the job (Stephens, 2010). c. Decision Making; another challenge that organisation faces is the intervention by the management in the hiring and final decision making process. Since the HR is responsible to recruit and select the best available applicant for the job, it is essential that the management should allow the HR to take decisions regarding the hiring of employees rather than any other department. Managers should also take part in the process of recruitment and selection but the role of managers should be limited to supervising of newly hired applicants (Secord, 2003). d. Lack of talent; organisation’s success is dependent on human resource and with lack of talent within the market, it becomes impossible for the organisation to accomplish the desired goals and objectives. This challenge could change the face of game as individuals with lack of talent and experience could lead to organisation to disaster only (Pilbeam & Corbridge, 2010). e. Threat of poaching; the recent trend in recruitment and selection leaves the company with a threat of poaching. With lack of talent and expertise in the market, rival organisations tend to poach highly expertise human resource that eventually leaves the competitors with a challenge of attrition (Price, 2007). Meeting the Challenges Effectively For an organisation to be successful, it is essential that it meet the challenges effectively and efficiently. Human resource being the most crucial asset for an organisation must be motivated and loyal to work in the company for longer period of time rather than shorter one. To meet the challenges effectively it is essential for an organisation to recruit, select and manage the human resource effectively (Punia & Sharma, 2008). This could be done through following; a. Understanding the needs; for an organisation to successfully meet the challenge, it is essential that the organisation should understand the needs of the applicants rather than providing the applicants with organisational needs. A potential employee should be considered as a customer and to attract the customer it is essential to understand the needs first (Purcell & Hutchinson, 2007). b. Meeting the needs; after being clear regarding the needs of the potential candidate, it is the responsibility of the organisation to think regarding how the preferences and needs could be met. If the needs of the candidates are met accordingly, it could motivate the applicant to remain with the organisation for long-term which will eventually help the organisation to understand the further requirements of the employee (Redman & Wilkinson, 2009). c. Motivation; to meet the challenges effectively, motivation is critically important. Motivation could help the organisation to mould the behaviour of employees thus, creating a stronger relation between the organisation and the employee. To enhance level of motivation, employees should be provided with incentives based on their performance from time to time. d. Poaching issue; to effectively deal with the poaching problem, the key employees should be provided with key position in organisation. This could reduce the issue of attrition within the organisation. Being provided with key position in the organisation, employee would tend to increase the performance which would ultimately enhance the performance and productivity of the organisation (Berrebi-Hoffmann, Grimshaw, Lallement, & Miozzo, 2010). Conclusion To conclude the individual paper, it was observed that with the passage of time, the key trends in recruitment and selection have radically shifted from traditional hiring to more easier and reliable recruitment and selection strategies. The recent trends in recruitment and selection include: 1. The constant use of internet to attract variety of talent pool to work for the organisation 2. Social networking websites that has active users such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter etc., 3. Use of external recruitment agencies and contractor to provide the organisation with best available human resource, 4. Focus on temporary workers to meet the fluctuating demand, 5. Importance given to fresh graduates and undergraduate, 6. Diversity of workforce 7. Mobile marketing to reach qualified and ideal candidate easily for the job. Along with these trends, the organisation had to face challenges due to the recent trends in which the most prominent challenges are: 1. Understanding the characteristics that leads to performance 2. Motivation 3. Decision making 4. Lack of talent 5. Poaching. In order to effectively meet the above mentioned challenges, it is essential that the organisation must undertake measures such as: 1. Understanding the needs of the applicants 2. Effectively meet the needs of the applicants 3. Motivate the employees to boost their performance, and 4. Providing the key employees with higher position in the organisation to reduce the poaching issues. Thus to conclude, it could be said that for an organisation to reach the desire height of success and to tower over the competitors in the market, an organisation should recruit and select the best available applicant. This would allow creating a talent pool within an organisation which can be relied upon in catastrophic situations in forthcoming years. List of References Bach, S. (ed.) (2005). Managing Human Resources, fourth edition, Oxford: Blackwell.  Berrebi-Hoffmann, I, Grimshaw, D, Lallement, M, & Miozzo, M. (2010). ‘Employment challenges facing the knowledge economy in Europe: The case of IT services’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 84-103. Boxall, P., Purcell, J. & Wright, P. (eds.) (2007). 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