Recruitment

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Recruitment Selection
GCSE Business Studies
tutor2u
Revision Presentations 2004
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The Recruitment Process
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Reasons to Recruit Staff

• Business is expanding due to
• Increasing sales of existing products
• Developing new products
• Entering new markets
• Existing employees leave
• To work with competitors or other local employers
• Due to factors such as retirement, sick leave,
  maternity leave
• Business needs employees with new skills
• Business is relocating and not all of existing
  workforce want to move to new location

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Workforce Planning

• Workforce Planning involves deciding how many and
  what types of workers are required
• The workforce plan establishes what vacancies
  exist and managers then need to draw up a job
  description and job specification for each post.
  
• A job description is a detailed explanation of
  the roles and responsibilities of the post
  advertised. Most applicants will ask for this
  before applying for the job. It refers to the
  post available rather than the person.
• A job specification is drawn up by the business
  and sets out the kind of qualifications, skills,
  experience and personal attributes a successful
  candidate should possess. It is a vital tool in
  assessing the suitability of job applicants and
  refers to the person rather than the post.

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Changes in Employment Patterns Affecting
Recruitment

• The way we work is changing rapidly
• Increase in part-time working
• Increases in numbers of single-parent families
• More women seeking work
• Ageing population
• Greater emphasis on flexible working hours
• Technology allows employees to communicate more
  effectively whilst apart (teleworking)
• People rarely stay in the same job for life
• Businesses need to understand and respond to
  these changes if they are to recruit staff of the
  right standard and keep them!

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Part-time Staff

• Increased numbers of people in the UK are working
  part-time
• Advantages
• Cheaper to employ as entitled to less benefits
• More flexible workforce (easier to reduce labour
  hours when sales fall or add hours when demand
  increases)
• Wide range of potential recruits (e.g. working
  mothers who want to restrict the number of hours
  they work)
• Disadvantages
• Employees feel less loyal to business and
  therefore less motivated
• Harder for managers to control and coordinate
  workforce

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Recruitment Methods

• Internal recruitment
• Positions are filled from people already employed
  by a business
• Involves promotion and reorganisation
• External recruitment
• Job centres
• Job advertisements
• Recruitment agency
• Personal recommendation

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Internal Recruitment

• Advantages
• Cheaper and quicker to recruit
• People already familiar with business and how it
  operates
• Provides opportunities for promotion with in
  business
• Disadvantages
• Business already knows strengths and weaknesses
  of candidates
• Limits number of potential applicants
• No new ideas can be introduced from outside
• May cause resentment amongst candidates not
  appointed
• Creates another vacancy which needs to be filled

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External Recruitment

• Advantages
• Outside people bring in new ideas
• Larger pool of workers from which to find best
  candidate
• People have a wider range of experience
• Disadvantages
• Longer process
• More expensive process due to advertisements and
  interviews required
• Selection process may not be effective enough to
  reveal best candidate

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Stages of Recruitment Process

• Preparation
• Identifying what jobs need filling and what role
  and specification of job is
• Finding possible candidates
• Various methods (e.g. advertising) to encourage
  potential candidates to apply for job
• Selection
• Interviews and other selection processes to
  choose best person for job
• Completing contractual employment of that person
• Induction
• Introducing selected candidate to business

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Job Description and Specification

• Job description
• Detailed explanation of roles and
  responsibilities of post advertised
• Most applicants will ask for this before applying
  for job
• Refers to post available rather than person
• Job specification
• Drawn up by business
• Sets out qualifications, skills, experience and
  personal attributes a successful candidate should
  possess
• Vital tool in assessing suitability of job
  applicants
• Refers to person rather than post

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Contents of a Job Description

• Job Title this indicates the role/function that
  the job plays within an organisation, and the
  level of job within that function (e.g. Finance
  Director would be a more senior position than
  Financial Accountant - although both jobs are in
  the "finance department")
• Reporting responsibilities who is the immediate
  boss of the job holder?
• Subordinates who reports directly TO the job
  holder?
• Main purpose - who is involved in the job overall
• Main tasks and accountabilities description of
  the main activities to be undertaken and what the
  job holder is expected to achieve
• Employment conditions (e.g. basis of payment
  amount of benefits, holiday etc, period of notice)

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Objectives of Recruitment Advertising

• Inform audience of potential candidates about
  opportunity
• Provide enough information to both inform and
  interest possible applicants
• Help screen or dissuade unsuitable applicants
• Obtain most number of suitably qualified
  applicants for post advertised
• Note recruitment adverts can be published
  internally and externally

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Placing a Job Advertisement

• Internal recruitment
• Notice boards
• Staff magazines newsletters
• Email
• External recruitment
• Newspapers and magazines
• Job centres
• Employment agencies and Head-hunters
• Direct contacts (e.g. with employees in a
  competitor business)
• Internet recruitment websites

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Role of a Recruitment Agency

• A recruitment agency works to provide a link
  between the employer and employee
• Potential employees register with the agency and
  provide personal details
• Employers approach the agency for shortlists of
  potential candidates
• Recruitment agencies charge a fee for the service
• Main fee is to the employer
• Usually a percentage of the employees wages and
  salary in the first 6-12 months
• Often an expensive option
• Some agencies specialise in particular employment
  areas
• E.g. nursing, financial services, teacher
  recruitment

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Factors to Consider When Advertising a Job

• Type of job
• Senior management jobs merit adverts in the
  national newspapers and/or specialist management
  magazines
• Many semi-skilled jobs need only be advertised
  locally to attract sufficient good quality
  candidates
• Cost of advertising
• National newspapers and television cost
  significantly more than local newspapers etc
• Readership and circulation
• How many relevant people does the medium reach?
  How frequently (e.g. weekly, monthly, annually!.
  Is the target audience actually only a small
  fraction of the total readership or Viewer ship?
• Frequency
• How often does the business want to advertise the
  post?

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What Makes a Good Job Advertisement?

• Whilst there are no hard and fast rules about the
  contents of a job advert, the following features
  are likely to be in an effective advertisement
• Accurate - describes the job and its requirements
  accurately
• Short - not too long-winded covers just the
  important ground
• Honest - does not make claims about the job or
  the business that will later prove false to
  applicants
• Positive - gives the potential applicant a
  positive feel about joining the business
• Relevant - provides details that prospective
  applicants need to know at the application stage
  (e.g. is shift-working required are there any
  qualifications required)

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Contents of a Job Advertisement

• Most job adverts contain
• Details of the business/organisation (name,
  brand, location, type of business)
• Outline details of the job (title, main duties)
• Conditions (special factors affecting the job)
• Experience / qualifications required (e.g.
  minimum qualifications, amount of experience)
• Rewards (financial and non-financial the
  financial rewards may be grouped together under a
  total valued "package2 - e.g. total package circa
  50,000)
• Application process (how should applicants apply,
  how to deadlines)

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Contents of a job application form

• Personal details
• Name, address, date of birth, nationality
• Educational history
• Including examination results, schools/universitie
  s attended, professional qualifications
• Previous employment history
• Names of employers, position held, main
  achievements, remuneration package, reasons for
  leaving
• Suitability and reasons for applying for job
• A chance for applicants to sell themselves
• Names of referees

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Curriculum Vitae

• A written document
• Often on one or two sides of A4
• Designed by the job applicant
• Covers similar ground as job application

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Using a Job Application Form Rather than a CV

• Advantages of a Job Application Form
• Business can tailor questions and format to exact
  needs
• An application form forces candidates to answer
  same questions and provide information in a
  consistent format
• CVs often come in many different formats, with
  key information either missing or presented in
  different ways
• Encourages the applicant to consider the specific
  needs of the employer e.g. respond to questions
  relevant to the employer
• More likely to get up-to-date information from
  the applicant

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Reasons for Rejecting Candidates at Application
Form Stage

• May not meet standards set out in job
  specification
• Wrong qualifications
• Insufficient experience
• May not have completed application form to a
  satisfactory standard
• May be unlucky
• Employer has set a limit on number of candidates
  who progress through to interview stage

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Recruitment Interview

• Interview is a crucial part of the recruitment
  process
• Chance for an employer to meet applicant face to
  face
• Can obtain much more information on
• What person is like
• Whether they are suitable for job
• Whether they will fit into the business
• Interview is also an important for the candidate
• Obtain information about job
• Assess the working culture of a possible new
  employer
• Recruitment interviewing is a hard skill often
  it is done very poorly!

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Information to Obtain During a Recruitment
Interview

• By the employer
• Information that cannot be obtained on paper from
  a CV or application form
• Conversational ability- often known as people
  skills
• Natural enthusiasm or manner of applicant
• See how applicant reacts under pressure
• Queries or extra details missing from CV or
  application form
• By the employee
• Whether job or business is right for them
• What is culture of company like
• What are exact details of job that may be omitted
  from job description

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Selection Tests

• Formats
• Aptitude tests
• Intelligence tests
• Personality tests
• Why used
• Basic interview can be unreliable as applicants
  can perform well at interview but not have
  qualities or skills needed for job
• Selection tests increase chances of choosing best
  applicant and so minimise high costs of
  recruiting wrong people

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References

• What are references?
• Written character statements from people who know
  the applicant well
• An important safety check
• A chance to learn more about the strengths and
  weaknesses of an applicant
• Final check that all information given by
  candidate is correct
• Good honest reference from an independent source
  can also reveal good or bad incidences from
  candidates past or particular traits that may
  have been missed.

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Employee Retention

• All businesses lose staff
• Retirement / Maternity / Death / Long-term
  Illness
• Unsuitability
• Changes in strategy (e.g. closure of locations)
• Staff turnover needs to be managed if the
  business is to succeed
• Employee retention the ability of a business to
  convince its employees to remain with business
• How to keep staff
• Offer financial (e.g. bonus, salary rise)
• Offer non-financial (e.g. promotion, more
  decision making power) incentives

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Labour/staff turnover

• What it means
• Proportion of a firms workforce that leaves
  during course of a year
• A business with a high staff turnover is said to
  have problems with staff retention
• Problems of high staff turnover
• Increases recruitment costs (e.g. advertising for
  replacement staff employing temporary staff
  whilst job vacancies are filled)
• Reflects poor morale in workforce
• Increases training costs of new workers
• Loss of productivity while new worker settles in