Understanding Recruitment and Selection

Introduction

This assessment will be going to highlight all the aspects of the theories and principles of the recruitment and selection process of the organisations. This assessment will also present an understanding of all the principles and techniques of how to properly conduct the candidate assessment to fulfil the recruitment and selection process in organisations. The assessment here will focus on the considerations and information needed for the recruitment and selection process. Every organisation has their specific structure and culture and this assessment will highlight all the factors that got affected by the structure and culture of the company. The effective questions for the interview process that will make the recruitment and selection process efficient are mentioned too in this HRM dissertation help assessment.

Activity 6.1.1

Explaining the workforce planning techniques

The techniques and tools of the workforce planning is the current and future planning of the workforce. Sparkman (2018) opined that it analyses their needs so that the gaps between the present and future of implementing solutions can be identified the in every organisation and to fulfil the goals, strategic plans, targeted plans. The few techniques are –

1. Defining the business goals and objectives, first the business organisation needs to analyse and identify the vision, goals, mission, objectives, motives and targets.

2. Modelling of the current workforce plans and comparing them to the past workforce plans are done in the organisations

3. Establishing the future plans for workforce alignment is directed by acknowledging the past and present plans within every stage of the organisational context

4. Identifying and addressing the gaps in the workforce planning is also necessary because without them there will be no progression whatever steps and strategies are changed

5. Developing the proper measures and implementing them for closing the identified gaps in the organisational workforce

Activity 6.1.2

Describing the information needed to identify recruitment requirements

While conducting a selection and recruitment process in any organisation regardless of their type, there are certain factors or information about the company that are addressed to recognise that whether the recruitment is necessary or not for the organisation. Those definite information or data are –

One of the most significant information that is included in the requirement list is the post specifications which is a combination of the vacancy post qualification needed, skills required for getting hired, experience needed to be selected if the post demands and the other attributes which are must when the recruitment process is being conducted (Bals et al. 2019)

In the recruitment and selection process, the thing to notice is the size and structure of that organisation in which the recruitment requirements are identified because sometimes there are unnecessary recruitments done which hampers or overloads the workforce resulting into unwanted issues

The salary structure must be analysed and revised in every organisation so that when recruiting new staff and employees there should not arise any kind of shortage or unevenness in that matter (Bals et al. 2019). Each one should get appropriate salary and it needs to be protected and confidential so that there are fewer chances of jealousy and unhealthy competition.

Work culture and work condition are the two prominent things to notice in every organisation since a peaceful environment is must for better working capacity of each of the employee. And if there is conflict and tension in the environment the recruited employees will also get into that with a bad image of the company culture.

Activity 6.1.3

Explaining the importance of an organisation’s structure and culture in its recruitment and selection policies and practices

The organisational culture and the organisational structure are those two potential pillars which shapes the hiring processes and practices of every organisation whether small, medium or large. The importance of the organisational structure and culture in the recruitment and selection process can be listed as:

When a company is desiring to hire the top talents from the wide range of diverse candidates, the employers also must understand the aspects of the company structure and culture matters to identify what is needed to match the hiring of the an appropriate candidate.

Skills and competencies of a candidate is directly linked and correlated with the organisational structure and culture. This is important because an employee who matches the organisational environment can only be able to work properly and meet the needs of the company with the matching skills and competences (Saeed et al. 2019). If a candidate who is rigid and stiff in his job responsibilities and performances is hired in such an organisation which is flexible, innovative and creative in their working ways. At this situation, that employee will not be compatible to work in that organisation.

Another importance is the working and employee managing style of the team leaders and managers of a company is mostly shaped according to the business activities and functions of that company and so do the employees should be able to quickly accept & adapt their instructions and follow their managers and team leaders with full efforts. So the new candidate when selected to be hired must be able to adjust and cope with these things. If the candidate will be unable to follow the directions and instructions, it will be an issue for the managers also to handle them and make them do what the company wants to (Saeed et al. 2019).

Activity 6.1.4

Describing the factors involved in establishing recruitment and selection criteria

There are two categories of factors that impact the selection and recruitment process in organisations – one is the internal factors and the other is the external factors. Both the internal & external factors involve:

Activity 6.1.5

Comparison of the suitability of different recruitment and selection methods for different roles

There are lots of ways of the recruitment and selection methods which have their own pros and cons as different level of suitability for different job roles. All of them may not be suitable to hire different roles because each of them has their own pros and cons which makes them different from each other (Ployhart et al. 2017). Few common recruitment methods are like job boards, job fairs, job centres and job advertisements is detailed here with their suitability:

Job boards – This method are suitable when there is a need to be hiring any specific & filtered skilled or qualified candidate for any specific job role.

Job fairs – These are suitable when there is a need of quick response and immediate joining where both the company and the candidate are ready to join hands.

Job centres/Recruitment agencies – This is considered to be the fastest hiring method as these agencies already selects a certain candidate after their own selection process as per the company requirements and the company then just have to finalise that candidate for final hiring (Ployhart et al. 2017).

Job advertisements – in this method, the job specifications are already given so the candidate who matches them can only apply for that particular job vacancy.

In this regards, some selections methods are also there whose suitability depends on the job roles like:

Interviews – These are face to face interactions where the hr asks a series of questions to the candidates regarding the job and observe hoe the candidate responds and according to that the selection is done.

Assessment centres – These are useful when there is a need to hire bulk candidates where these centres screens multiple candidates, interviews them and chooses few who have the potential (Ployhart et al. 2017).

References – This is considered to be one of the most trusted and safe selection process since the candidate who came with reference means the candidate has a statement of trust with him which is given by any reliable person.

Activity 6.1.6

Explaining the patterns of employment that affect the recruitment of staff

Employment patterns are those designs following which the recruitment & selection process are conducted in organisations. The employment pattern is determined by the aspects like the labour supply of the company, growth rate of the population & changing sizes of that specific place or region and the composition type of the labour force of the market, all these affects the employment patterns (Merrilees et al. 2017). The common employment patterns are –

Full time employment – These are the employees who work on regular basis of 7 to 8 hours daily and 30 to 40 hours per week.

Part time employment – These are that person who works half of the day or for 3 to 4 hours a day from the full working hours.

Temporary employment – This system is for those candidates who work for certain period of time or who works in place of other people for a temporary period of time due to some reason.

Seasonal employment – This type is where people are hired frequently after a fixed time of year or are hired due to some occasional work like the seasonal workers.

Activity 6.1.7

Explaining the factors to be taken into account when developing job specifications, personal specifications and job advertisements

The main purpose of the job vacancy specification and advertisement is to initiate attraction of the candidates and readers primarily grabbing the sufficient interest of the job applicants so that they can do self-analysis of whether they will be suitable for that specified vacancy or not and if yes, it could help them to further reach to the company for being selected for the advertised designation (revistaespacios.com, 2018). The basic factors to be taken into account are:

A clear and attractive heading which must be non-ambiguous job title along with the organisation logo and stamp or motif.

Detailed brief information about the organisation, its work culture and goals.

Key points which will describe the information of the specified job with its description.

There needs to be a clear sense of non-discrimination in the company culture which will be presented by the job description.

The expected qualification and experience attributes of the applicants (from the personal specifications).

Relevance of the job specification with the skills that are mentioned in the job advertisement is needed so that the candidates can be clear with their suitability for that.

Career prospects of the organisation progression.

An outline of the salary and other benefits of the remuneration package.

Detailed, adequate and appropriate is must since inappropriate or missing details of the job information may create misunderstanding or negligence (revistaespacios.com, 2018).

The methods of response for the applicants who are interested.

And lastly, the closing date of the applications.

Activity 6.2.1

Explaining the characteristics of good biographical interviewing techniques

The biographical interviews are also known by the name of unstructured interviews which is an essential conversation between the employer and the candidate where the interviewer asks few questions about the candidate’s personal life, some job vacancy relevant questions, questions about their expectations from this designation and the organisation. All these questions are asked without any kind of specific aim in mind. Pugh (2019) advised that this is the stage where these questions create an impression of the company on the candidate and vice versa. The few characteristics of a good and impressive biographical interview are:

The interviewer must have the skill to put the candidate at ease

The interviewer must listen to the candidate for probing the information provided by him/her

The interviewer must have a good and specific knowledge about the type of personnel required for the designation before choosing the candidates

The interviewer must be capable to read the applicant’s attitude along with analysing their abilities

Activity 6.2.2

Explaining the structure and use of competence assessment interviewing

Competency assessment interviews and called by the name of behavioural, situational or structured interviews which are specially designed to test the skills or competencies of the applicants. This type of interview consists of a long list of set interview questions where each question is targeted to focus on a significant skill or competency assessment. All the answers given by the applicant are then analysed and compared with the pre-defined and pre-determined answer criterion and are marked according to them. In tray tests are conducted along with that the presentation preparing skills are also checked of the candidate while interviewing. These things comes under the assessment and competency tests which must be included in the interview process according to the requirements of the job role.

Galaczi and Taylor (2018) opined that this type of interview answers are listened carefully where the interviewer needs to have the active listening skill to process and understand the complex information what is heard from the applicant and then the interviewer take time to think about the answers by taking notes. The aim of the interview sessions is to test the candidates with their core competencies, skills and other elements all of which must be relevant to the job role. For instance if the job role needs quick flexibility in handling the matters, the applicant must also attain that level of flexibility in them else they will not be suitable to get hired. Apart from this, another example can be when a teacher is interviewed then he/she must possess the skill of observing another teacher giving lessons keenly which comes under the job responsibilities of a teacher. After this the interviewer discusses with the other interviewers (if any) and with the authority management for progressing the hiring procedure. This type of interview is used for those vacancies which are specifically designed for utilising the skill specified job designations.

Activity 6.2.3

Explaining the features of effective questioning and interviewing skills

There are some prime characteristics & features of a good and effective questioning and interviewing skill which are:

Relevant – The questions asked must be related and relevant with the job specification that is given for the designation. A good question focuses mainly on recalling of all the duties that are aligned and covered by the overall learning of the applicant.

Creating environment – Bull (2018) stated that the effectiveness of the interview questions must also be responsible to bring the candidate at ease and comfortable while answering the interview questions and the questions must be open and clear without any hidden meaning behind and most importantly the questions must be probing so that the in-depth understanding and knowledge of the candidate can be tested.

Clear – Complex questions are hard to understand and answer by the applicant so all the questions asked must be clear and simple in the nature and language without any vagueness and confusion.

Concise – A good and skilful question must be concise and crisp in nature so it can omit any excessive and unnecessary information which will take time to understand by the applicant.

Purposeful – Every question asked in the interview must have any purpose and value. The purposeful question helps in setting benchmarks against some of the questions asked.

Skill testing – According to Bull (2018) questions should be test the listening skills because an effective listening comes with great benefits for accomplishing the given tasks. This can be done asking scenario questions like when the candidate has to face any scenario, what he/she will do or how he/she will manage the same efficiently.

Guiding & not leading – A good and skillfull question always guides both the interviewer and the candidate to understand the concept in the picture.

Stimulates thinking – A skillfull question must require the applicant to think and recall all the learning and knowledge gained during the academic period.

Single dimensional – Bull (2018) noted that it is essential to remember that one question is only one question and not continued or turned towards other question. This says that a good interview question is one dimensional at one time.

Activity 6.2.4

Explaining the “halo and horns” effect

The halo effect when form a negative impact can be manifested and named as the horn effect or the devil effect or can also is called as the reverse halo effect. In this effect the observer is allowed to pursue one disliked or unfavourable behavioural trait on a person or product so that it can influence the applicant’s global opinion in a negative directional way. In simple and clear language, the halo & horn effect can be defined as the effect which happens when we meet with anybody (nature.com, 2020). The first impression the opponent puts on us is called as the halo & horn effect and this could be either positive or negative without any biasness about that person or company. It is the basic idea that is formed when we meet or go to any place. A good example of the halo & horn effect is that stereotypical attractiveness or the tendency to assign the positive qualities and behavioural traits to grab people’s attention.

Activity 6.2.5

Explaining the techniques to gain rapport with candidates

There are certain ways or techniques following which the interviewer can create a good interview environment and rapport with the candidate so that he/she can be at ease and comfortable while facing the interview (Chou et al. 2020). The techniques through which the rapport scan be developed are such as –

The interviewer needs to be concise in the language and speaking tone so that the interviewer’ speech looks tempting into his voice pitch and tone.

The interviewer needs to focus on asking frequent and relevant questions and also must listen to the responses of the candidate.

The interviewer should be truthful with the information provided on behalf of the company with openness, honesty & candid in the responses towards the questions asked.

The interviewer must respect the time factor of both the sides and must understand one’s time to be valuable.

The delivery of the commitments done by the company needs to be ensured so that the candidate also respects the company with a good impression.

Activity 6.2.6

Explaining the importance and role of candidate feedback in the assessment process

In case of any interview, the candidate’s feedback is as essential as the feedback of the interviewer to improve their own performance for further future opportunities. The importance of the candidate’s feedback increases respect and appreciation from the candidate’s side towards the company and the interviewer because that feedback is gained properly the candidate will also understand that how the company employees its workforce. Its somehow makes and good image of the organisation after the interview process and that image will be passed on towards the other people in the external environment which affects the goodwill of the company too. As suggested by Torres and Gregory (2018) another important point to be reminded is not to compare any candidate with any other candidate in front of the candidates. The feedbacks from the applicants clearly denote what improvements and changes are required in the recruitment process for further betterments. Feedbacks and responses can be taken in both personal and video interviews after the ending of the questioning assessments.

Activity 6.2.7

Explaining the use of reasonable adjustments in candidate assessment

The reasonable adjustments are those type of changes which are needed to implement in the recruitment assessments of the candidates so that the prevention of any disabled candidate or employee can be kept away from any uncomfortable situation or any disadvantage. These disadvantages can be either the virtue of any physical feature of the company premises such as flat platforms along with stairs or a no step-free access for entering into the interview premises. The usefulness of the reasonable adjustments process enables all the places to be accessible for all the people including the candidates with necessity of any kind of physical disability also (Flower et al. 2019). these type of adjustments are the necessity and duty of every organisation and company as far as the adjustments are reasonable at its place so that a disabled worker will also have the access to the everything same like a non-disabled worker. A reasonable adjustment can be said as that change which removes or reduces the effect of any employee’s disability to do their job and for an applicant, disability to apply for a job vacancy.

Activity 6.2.8

Explaining the considerations following candidate assessment

While taking any candidate assessment for recruiting and selection process, there are certain considerations which are must to follow while choosing the candidates to be an employee for the company or organisation. These considerations can be listed as:

While interviewing questions, notes must be taken of the whole interview process including the answers of the candidates, skills acquired by them and other important facts.

While taking interviews of bulk candidate s or in groups of applicants, each applicant gets a different score among all of them depending upon their performances. So it is necessary and must to write down the scores of all applicants for later referencing and analysing who got the highest score and who will be appropriate for the post (Liem et al. 2018).

From all the candidates, some have definite appealing skills and competencies in them regarding the job role, so that specific candidate can be offered the post on first preference.

From all the CVs, the ones who have references must be obtained first since references are statements of trust and reliability of the applicant from a designated person.

Apart from resumes, scores and skills, the performances of the applicants also matters with confidence, reliability, conviction, dedication, morale, flexibility and positivity since all these will be helpful in real circumstances and scenarios (Liem et al. 2018).

Experience and correct skills are vital things for choosing and selecting any candidate for any specific job designation without which no candidate can be recruited.

The candidate who will be hired might need some support for further development, so while assessing the interviews the areas of developments needed must be noted.

Sometimes it becomes a need to check the qualification certificates of the applicants to check the accuracy and as a proof for the company records.

DBS, Disclosure & Barring Service check is a detailed inspection for certain job roles to examine that whether the candidate has any previous criminal records or not. This check is needed for some specific job role such as healthcare centre responsive roles or any security related job role (Liem et al. 2018).

Conclusion

This assessment cleared the concept of the recruitment and selection process and highlighting all the aspects of in this regards. Everything related to the recruitment and selection process; whether the considerations the complications the factors affecting and various methods of the process has been described briefly. The above assessment detailed what are the needs for a good interview procedure and what skills and qualities an interviewer and a candidate must possess to make the recruitment and selection process smooth and easy with the benefits and disadvantages too. This can be concluded at last that the recruitment and selection process in every company whether small, medium or huge, being a vital part, must follows certain rules, guidelines and practices to make the workplace a better space to perform for the employees their best.

Take a deeper dive into Understanding Onboarding, Induction, Training and Development with our additional resources.

References

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