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26970 Management Skills

Assessed Coursework : Recruitment and selection with an organisation in relation to management and management skills

Recruitment is a key issue with regards to modern business. All companies, at some point require, through the replacement of staff or the expansion of the business, to recruit and select new employees. In order to select the right person for the right job, companies, their human resource departments and line and departmental managers must employ a number of recruitment techniques.

In this report I will disseminate the techniques and theories used in the recruitment and selection of new staff, and the best ways to go about this selection, with reference to relevant texts, my personal learning journal (where relevant) and my own personal experience of the recruitment and selection processes experienced on a number of levels.

These personal experiences range from delivering the local newspaper when I was younger to my gap-year employment and my application to University, via summer and weekend jobs and unsuccessful applications where I have been able to learn from mistakes and improve relevant techniques. Such experiences will be used to back-up the text where required.

To be knowledgeable about the selection process in an important skill to possess, line and departmental managers are often involved in the selection process, and must be knowledgeable about recruiting procedures, as per Pedler’s qualities of a successful manager “Command of basic facts”, “Relevant professional understanding” and “Analytical, problem-solving, decision/judgment-making skills”.

The idea of recruitment and selection has, in essence, been an issue for companies since the industrial revolution. Pre-industrial revolution, the population was mainly located in small villages and towns where sons would practice and apprentice their father’s profession (which in turn would also have been his father’s profession), there was no need for recruitment. Once the industrial revolution began, families moved from the countryside to the vastly expanding cities to work in the factories and mills, or on construction of the new railways, thus prompting the start of recruitment.

Now, recruitment and selection have become an important part of business, especially since the latter decades of the 20th century, with a work force where the idea of a “job for life” is no longer true. This can be related to two factors:

The movement of employees from department to department or company to company on the search for new opportunities, promotions and a better income (a statistic in the Financial Times, 31st July 1996 stated that the proportion of managers with at least 6 years company tenure had fallen from 80% in 1955 to 10% in 1995)
Companies are constantly aiming towards maximising profits and efficiency, and as such are looking to get more for less. During my gap-year employment working in head office IT support for a national high-street chemist, I noticed the company had re-organised the various business units of it’s operation to reduce costs and maximise profits, which removed obsolete and created new positions, the company was also de-merging it’s high-street motor spares business and towards the end of my placement was outsourcing a number of departments to 3rd party companies, in order to reduce costs.

So, with a constantly changing work-force, recruitment and selection is important, as quoted in Beardwell and Holden “the decision to appoint an individual is one of the most crucial an employer will ever take”(IRS, 1991), while employing someone unsuitable can often prove costly.

When a vacancy becomes available there are a number of ways for the company to use existing resources to cover the work being undertaken by whoever vacated the position. These can include the re-organisation of an existing group of staff in order to undertake the extra tasks, the use of overtime to complete the tasks and staggering workforce hours by introducing shifts and flexible working hours. Vacancies may also be covered by mechanising the work (using the non-replacement of staff to justify expenditure on computers, software, hardware and robots), or using sub-contractors or temporary agency staff.

Once a vacancy has been identified as a vacancy that needs to be filled, there are a number of techniques available to first advertise the post and then to select the best candidate. Due to the number of vacancy advertising techniques, techniques used to advertise the post do differ depending on the organisation (e.g. size, local or nationally based), the level of employment (e.g. managerial, secretarial, etc) and the types of people expected to apply. For example is would be unconstructive for the University to apply for a candidate for the post of cleaner in the Guardian, a more sensible approach would be placing an advertisement in the local Job Centre or in the local newspaper.

Each method of advertising a vacancy has it’s pros and cons. The most appropriate form or forms need to be implemented in order to attract the best possible candidates, from which one can be appointed. The methods include:

Internal Advertising – a cheap option and, as the individual will have some understanding of the organisation, the induction period can be decreased. However this method has a limited number of candidates.
National Press (Times, Guardian, Telegraph, etc) – Available to a national audience, and the accepted medium for positions in higher management. Advertisements in the broadsheets are expensive though, and not all who read are appropriate candidates
Local Press – focuses on local employment, so good for reaching people to work for local businesses or local branches, but only for lower level jobs and not managerial or technical professionals
Technical Press – focuses on a specific population, e.g. readers of the British Computer Society newsletter will be computer scientists and software engineers, so this would be an ideal place to advertise a relevant position. However, technical newsletters are infrequently published.
Displaying details of the vacancy outside the company premises – used by companies such as shops, where passing trade will notice such an advertisement.
Job Centres – a nationwide free resource where job vacancy data is available via computer. However, Job Centres mostly attract those presently unemployed, and not potential candidates who may be in work but seeking a change. Job Centres may, however, attract candidates who are not interested in taking the job, but have applied in order to be seen as “actively seeking employment”
Employment Agencies – agencies provide temporary filling for vacancies for posts in fields such as secretarial work, with little administration work for the employer. These staff are, however, temporary and agencies may be an expensive option.
“Head-hunters” – Headhunters approach individuals directly. This allows candidates to be directly chosen and offered the job. However, the process can be costly and excludes potential candidates who are outside of the headhunted selection. Also, as the recruit as been headhunted to fill the vacancy, they may be headhunted for another organisation in the future.
The Internet – this is a new medium for recruiting potential employees, which many companies (especially those related to the internet and computing) use. A website recruiting staff for an organisation can reach many people, especially when used in conjunction with another method and is inexpensive to set-up and quick to use. There is the threat of an attack by hackers and the issue of confidentiality, but Internet recruitment is one area that is set to increase as more of the UK’s population get on-line, along with the extension of job vacancy websites such as fish4jobs.com.

I have experienced a number of these techniques during my previous employment experience, where I have applied to fill a position after reading an advertisement in the local newspaper or having seen an advertisement outside a shop, and my gap-year employment was organised through an organisation who run gap-year industrial placements, where my details were collected and forwarded to companies who are part of the scheme. Hopefully on graduating from university I will also experience other recruitment methods such as advertisements in broadsheet and industry newspapers.

Once the vacancy has been advertised, the organisation will need to select the most appropriate candidate for the vacant position. There are a number of ways for a company to select the candidate that they feel will be the most suited to perform the job, and again these will be described with relation to my own personal experience.

The most common selection methods at present are application forms and/or interviews, although depending on the organisation and the position various other methods may be employed.

The application form method has grown in use as of the last two decades, as it is a more convenient way of collecting information about potential candidates than the traditional letters of application. Application forms are used as a method of gaining candidate information ahead of interviews and selection decisions, as a preliminary source of information. Application forms are an ideal way of gathering information such as personal details, employment history and skills and qualifications.

As well as this basic information, many application forms now include open-ended questions prompting the applicant to give information of past experiences and to assess how the candidate may react in given circumstances. Examples of these questions, which I have taken from a number of application forms include:

“Why do you want to work for company x”
“Please give an example of where you feel you have ‘gone the extra mile’ to deliver a truly exceptional service”
“Tell us about a difficult person you have had to deal with. How did you approach the situation and what was the outcome?”
“Give an example of when you have promoted a new idea or changed a way of doing things in your current / previous job”
“Give an example of when you have worked under pressure on several tasks and yet maintained or exceeded the required standards and deadlines”
“Please give an example of when you have worked as part of a team”
“Explain who you see as company y’s key competitors, stating briefly who you believe company y’s strengths and weaknesses are against each other”

These are examples taken from the application forms for high street retailers HMV, Virgin Megastores, the Gadget Shop and MVC, for the post of sales assistant. As the position of sales assistant requires good communication, customer service and team-working, these open-ended questions have been designed to explore the candidates knowledge and experience of these valuable traits, as well as to provide the manager and/or personnel officer more details and background information of the candidate, as well as being able to investigate how well he or she is at communicating and their use of spelling and grammar.

The application form process is usually followed by at least an interview, where those candidates selected from the application forms are invited to a face-to-face interview with one, two or a panel of interviewers, depending on the position of the vacancy. The interview is designed to give the employers information on candidates that cannot be gathered from an application form, such as what type of person is the candidate, how does he/she measure against the pre-determined criteria for the position, what can the candidate bring to the job that has not been stated on the application form, and are they of an outgoing, helpful, polite nature.

Before or during the interview the candidate may be asked to perform a number of tests to skills and qualities required for the position. These may come in four variants:

Attainment Tests – skills and abilities
Aptitude Tests – the individual’s potential to undertake specific tasks
Intelligence tests
Personality questionnaires – the candidate’s characteristics which would be important to job performance.

I have experienced a number of these tests and tasks, for example before my most recent employment, selling ice-cream last summer, I was asked to undertake a mental arithmetic test, as the company was unable to use any kind of cash register due to the nature of the job; during the interview for a weekend job in the electronics department for the local co-operative society, I was asked to describe the functions of a VCR to the interviewer; prior to an interview for a supermarket chain, I had to watch a corporate video, then answer questions on the company; and as part of the selection process for the company I was employed by during my gap-year, I was asked to design a student club night, that would be different from other student nights, for students at university in Nottingham.

These tests proved an important part of the selection process, as they were able to portray my skills, abilities and attributes, and determine how well I would be able to perform the job. The first three examples are all work related, and prove my skills, understanding of the vacancy and the ability to perform well, while the fourth had nothing to do with the job I was applying for (which as mentioned previously was in IT Support), but allowed the interviewers to understand my organisational, problem solving and decision making skills, by putting me into a situation where I could only rely on limited facts, personal experience and my own personal judgements.

Beyond face-to-face interviews, employers may also use “assessment centres”, which are not centres but a process to test members of a small group using a number of tests and exercises under observation. These tests and exercises are used to understand and assess candidate’s skills and competencies, and how well they are able to work in groups, with others and how well candidates are able to react to situations, delegate tasks and communicate. During the selection process for my gap-year, where there was a group of six, of which not all were to be employed, we had to undertake a number of tasks to test our team working, communication and arithmetic skills.

Finally, employers may use references, who may be previous employers, academic tutors of other people able to give an unbiased opinion of the applicant. References are used to gain and confirm details regarding the previous job, time in employment, reasons for leaving, academic achievements, etc.

Throughout the recruitment and selection process, the legal issues relating to recruitment and equal opportunities must also be understood, as it is unlawful to discriminate employment on grounds of colour, race, nationality, gender, marital status, disability and soon age, as anyone found to be discriminated against could be liable to claim for compensation. The legal acts, which cover this, include:

Sex Discrimination Act (1975), which makes in unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex, marital status or gender reassignment in recruitment, as well as other areas, also the Equal Pay Act (1970, 1983) to eliminate discrimination in pay between men and women.
Race Relations Act (1976), which makes it unlawful to discriminate on grounds of race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, which covers recruitment as well as may other areas
Disability Discrimination Act (1995), which places a duty on the employer to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to premises or working practices to allow a disabled person (i.e. physically or sensory disabled, or suffering from learning difficulties, mental health problems or progressive conditions) to be employed.

Using these recruitment methods and selection techniques, with a knowledge of the legal framework, an organisation will be able to recruit the most suitable candidate for the position, a candidate which will be the most efficient and knowledgeable about the tasks in hand, and a candidate who is able to communicate and work with team-members, customers and managers alike. Being knowledgeable about the recruitment and selection techniques helps me to understand the techniques used within business to recruit and select employees, so upon graduating from University I will be able to challenge for the best employment possible, with the knowledge I hold on how to be selected.

References

I. Beardwell and L. Holden – Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective

D. Torrington and L. Hall – Personnel Management, A new approach

M. Pedler, J. Burgoyne and T. Boydell - A Manager’s Guide to Self-Development

L.J. Mullins - Management and Organisational Behaviour

D. Buchanan and A. Huczynski - Organisational Behaviour

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