Human Resource Management and Recruitment and Selection Processes - Essay Example

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Introduction Organizations have to recruit people with requisite skills, qualifications and experience, if they have to survive and flourish in a highly competitive environment. While doing so they have to be sensitive to economic, social political and legal factors with a country. To be effective, they need to tap all available sources of supply, both internal and external. Internal promotions and transfer boost the morale of people who have served the firm loyally for a number of years. External sources, too, need to be explored regularly to bring qualified people with lots of ideas into a firm Recruitment is the process of locating and encouraging potential applicants to apply for existing or anticipated job openings (Rao, 2005, p-124) It is actually a linking function, joining together those with jobs to fill and seeking jobs. Recruitment logically aims at (i) attracting a large number of qualified applicants who are ready to take up the job if it is offered and (ii) offering enough information for unqualified persons to self select themselves out The size of the labor market, the image of a company, the place of posting, the nature of job, the compensation package and a host of other factors influence the manner in which job aspirants are likely to respond to the recruiting efforts of a company. Through the process of recruitment, a company tries to locate prospective employees and encourages them to apply for vacancies at various levels. Recruiting thus, provides a pool of applicants for selection. Selection is a process of picking individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organization (Rao, 2005, p-143) The basic purpose is to choose the individual who can most successfully perform the job, from the pool of qualified candidates. 2. Sources of Recruitment The various sources of recruitment may be grouped into the following two categories Internal sources (recruitment from within the enterprise) External sources (recruitment from outside) (Rao, 2005, p-144) 2.1 Internal Sources There are two important internal sources of recruitment, namely transfers and promotions which are discussed below: (i) Transfer. It involves the shifting of an employee from one job to a one department to another or from one shift to another. Transfer is a good source of filling vacancies with employees from overstaffed departments or shifts. at the time of transfer, it should be ensured that the employee to be transferred to another .job is capable of performing it. In fact, transfer does not involve any drastic change in the responsibilities, pay and status of the employee. Transfers or job rotations are also used for training of employees in learning different jobs. (ii) Promotion. It leads to shifting an employee to a higher position, carrying higher responsibilities, facilities, status and pay. Many companies follow the practice of filling higher jobs by promoting employees who are considered fit for such positions. Filling vacancies in higher jobs from within the organization has the benefit of motivating the existing employees. It has a great psychological impact over the employees because a promotion at the higher level may lead to a chain of promotions at lower levels in the organization(Rao, 2005, p-148) Why should Internal Sources be used Filling vacancies in higher jobs from within the organization or through internal transfers has the following merits (Braver, 1998, p15-16): Employees are motivated to improve their performance. Morale of the employees is increased. Industrial peace prevails in the enterprise because of promotional avenues. Filling of jobs internally is cheaper as compared to getting candidates from external sources. A promotion at a higher level may lead to a chain of promotions at lower levels in the organization. This motivates the employees to improve their performance through learning and practice. Transfer or job rotation is a tool of training the employees to prepare them for higher jobs. Transfer has the benefit of shifting workforce from the surplus departments to those where there is shortage of staff. Some organizations completely overlook the value of recruitment from within. It is not only reasonable but wise also to let the existing employees know of vacancies by internal advertisement. Now it is being realized that a good source of supply for higher posts is the personnel already in the organization (Braver, 1998, p17) The existing talented employees may be given adequate training to be eligible for promotion to higher positions in the organization. 2.2 External Sources Every enterprise has to tap external sources for various positions. Running enterprises have to recruit employees from outside for filling the positions whose specifications cannot be met by the present employees, and for meeting the additional requirements of manpower. The following external sources of recruitment are commonly used by the big enterprises. (i) Direct Recruitment. An important source of recruitment is recruitment by placing a notice on the notice board of the enterprise specifying the details of the jobs available. It is also known as recruit factory gate. The practice of direct recruitment is generally followed for casual vacancies requiring unskilled workers. Such workers are known casual workers and they are paid remuneration on daily-wage basis. (ii) Casual Callers or Unsolicited Applications. The organizations are regarded as good employers draw a steady stream of unsolicited applications in their offices. This serves as a valuable source of manpower. If adequate attention is paid to maintain pending application folders for jobs, the personnel department may find the unsolicited applications in filling the vacancies whenever they arise. The merit of this source of recruitment is that it avoids the costs of recruiting workforce from other sources (Rao, 2005, p-113) (iii) Media Advertisement. Advertisement in newspapers or trade or professional journals is generally used when qualified and experienced personnel are not available from other sources. Most of the senior position in industry as well as commerce is filled by this method. The advantage of advertising is that more information about the organization, job description and job specifications can be given in advertisement to allow self-screening by the prospective candidates. Advertisement gives the management a' range of candidates from which to -choose. Its disadvantage is that it bring in a flood of response, and many times," from quite unsuitable candidates (Dhawan, 1996, p-9). (iv) Employment Agencies. Employment ' exchanges run Government are regarded as a good source of: recruitment for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled operative jobs. In some cases, compulsory notification of vacancies to the employment exchange is required. Thus, the employment exchanges bring the job givers in contact with the job seekers. However, in the technical and professional area, private agencies and professional bodies appear to be doing most of the work. Employment exchanges and selected private agencies provide a nation-wide service in attempting to match personnel demand and supply. (v) Management Consultants or Head Hunters. Management consultancy firms help the organizations to recruit technical, professional managerial personnel. They specialize in middle level and top level executive placements(Dhawan, 1996, p-16). (vi) Educational institutions and campus recruitment Big organizations maintain a close liaison with the universities, vocational institutes and Management institutes for recruitment to various jobs. Recruitment from educational institutions is a well-established practice of thousands of business and other organizations. It is also known as campus recruitment (vii) Recommendations or Referrals. Applicants introduced by friends Wows may prove to be a good source of recruitment. In fact, many employers prefer to take such persons because something about their background is known. When a present employee or a business friend recommends some one for a job, a type of preliminary screening is done and the person is placed on a job (Dhawan, 1996, p-19). (viii) Labor Contractors. Labor contractors are an important source of recruitment in some industries. Workers are recruited through labor contractors, who are themselves employees of the organization. (ix) Telecasting. The practice of telecasting of vacant posts over TV is gaining importance these days. 3. Recent trends In Recruitment 3.1 Outsourcing Under this arrangement, a company may draw the required personnel from the outsourcing firms or agencies on commission basis rather than offering them employment. This is also called leasing of human resources. The outsourcing firms develop their human resource pools by employing people for them and make available the personnel to various companies (called clients) as per their needs. The outsourcing firms get payment for their services to their clients and give salary directly to the personnel. The personnel deputed by the outsourcing agencies with the clients are not the employees of the clients. They continue to be on the payroll of their employees, i.e., the outsourcing agencies (Rao, 2005, p-137) 3.2 Poaching or Raiding Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company which might be a rival in the industry A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions. 3.3 Website or e-Recruitment Many big organizations use internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise the job vacancies through the worldwide web (www). 4. Process of Selection The basic purpose of the selection process is to choose right type of man various positions in the organization. In order to achieve this purpose, a well organized selection procedure involves many steps and at each steps, unsuitable candidates are rejected. In other words, the aim of selection process is to reject the unsuitable candidates (Campion ,1999, p-34). Thus, every organization will design a se procedure that suits its requirements. However, the main steps or stages that could be incorporated in the selection procedure are as under: 1. Preliminary interview. 2. Receiving applications. 3. Screening of applications. 4. Employment test. 5. Employment interview. 6. Physical examination. 7. Checking references. 8. Final selection. STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 STEP 6 STEP 7 STEP 8 (Source: Campion, 1999, p-35) 5. To achieve efficiency, effectiveness and fairness in recruitment and selection in an organization Fitting the worker to the job is the first and the most important step in promoting individual efficiency in industry. Scientific selection of employees is an important function of the Personnel Department (Schreyer, 2003, p-75). The object of scientific selection is to place on each job a worker who can maintain a given output with minimum expenditure of energy and who will be best fitted to the job. The factors to be considered for selecting the right person for the right job Physical Characteristics: Sound body, limbs, height, weight, sight, etc. Personal Characteristics: Age, sex, marital status, number of children, family background, etc Proficiency or Skill and Ability: Qualifications and previous experience Competency: Potential of an individual for learning and becoming proficient in a job. Competency points out capacity to acquire knowledge and skill for success on the job. Temperament and character: Emotional, moral and social qualities, honesty, loyalty, etc. A high degree of intellectual competency can never serve as a substitute for such qualities as honesty and trust worthiness. It is important to know about individual's character, his habits of work, his way of rejecting in this or that situation, his driving forces in determining his fitness for the job (Schreyer, 2003, p-76). Interest: Without interest, work is colorless and monotonous. With interest work seems meaningful and worthwhile to the individual and abilities are developed as well as accomplishments are realized. If a person has skill, and competency, but he has no interest in the job, he will be unhappy in his work 6. The legal environment The different legislative policies governing child labor, night shift work, bonded labor, contract labor, reservations, 'sons of the soil' have brought the legal government to be major item to be looked into carefully by all companies intending to recruit people for various positions (Schreyer, 2003, p-77) 6.1 Equal Opportunity employment Policy Policies offer guidance for thinking. They direct the manner in which activities are to be achieved. Most policies in large organizations relate to management of human resources only. Equal opportunity policy is to choose the best-qualified person for each position in a fair and non-discriminatory method in the organization. No employee is allowed by organization policies to discriminate against an applicant for employment or member employee because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, disability status or any other prohibited basis. This is applicable for recruiting, hiring, training, compensation, and promotion of all persons in every job classification. The organizations should document all allegation made during investigations and will take suitable remedial action, including disciplinary dealings when justified, to remedy violations of organization policy and procedures (Rao, 2005, p-147) At the same time, companies have to understand and appreciate the changing values of young workers who join the company with lot of expectations. To attract and retain young brains, organizations are bound to institute appropriate Human Resource policies, supported by attractive compensation offers. 7. Casualisation of the Workforce Casual workers in an organization do not have an ongoing contract of employment; have no entitlements to superannuation, annual, long service, parental or sick leave and little or no industrial protection or security. They can be retrenched without prior notification Casualisation of workforce is often cited as an issue for both the public and private sectors. This is cause of some concern as the permanent skills base of the workforce is decreasing. The growth in the casual workforce has been the result of both demand and supply factors (Rao, 2005, p-161) Advantages Employees can combine their work with studies or family responsibilities. Good opportunity for people with limited training and work experience and struggling to find a job Company obtains a more flexible workforce and greater flexibility in the management of their workforce which leads to a more efficient use of resources Disadvantages Linked with discontent, low wages and lack of career opportunities Face problems in getting money assistance due to the uncertainty of tenure. Over-dependence on casual workforce could create a severe risk to productivity. As organizations may be less likely to invest in training, which could direct to deterioration in skills development of casual employees Increased automation, modernization and computerization have changed the way the traditional jobs are handled. In such a scenario unless employees update their knowledge and skills constantly, they cannot survive and grow. This will necessitate training, retraining and mid career training of operatives and executives at various levels. Where such initiatives are missing, it becomes very difficult for employees to face the technology with confidence and get ahead in their careers steadily(Rao, 2005, p-166) 8. Conclusion Human resource planning identifies employment needs, job analysis determines the qualifications needs and recruiting provides a pool of applicants for selection. Recruitment and selection is much more than just choosing the best candidate. It is an attempt to strike a happy balance between what the applicant can and wants to do and what the organization requires. Various recruitment and selection tools and techniques are used to find people with relevant qualifications who are willing to accept the job offers and give satisfactory service and performance in the long run. References Braver A, (1998), "Recruiting employees", Thousand oaks: Sage, p-12-19 Campion M A, (1999), "A Review of structure in the selection interview", Personnel Psychology, Reston Publishing p-35-56 Dhawan R, (1996), "How to recruit on campus" Business Today, Jan p-7-21 Rao V S, (2005) Recruitment and selection: Human resource management, Excel Books, New Delhi, p-123-166 Schreyer R & Mc Carter J,(2003), "10+steps to effective internet recruiting" , HR focus, p 75-83 Read More