Recruitment & Selection

• When HR planning indicates the need for additional labor, organizations

have a number of choices to make.
• Before the organization moves recruitment. It is better to consider
alternatives to recruiting.
– Outsourcing.
– Contingent labor.
– Part-time employees.
– Overtime.
• This may be the first step in a full-scale recruitment and selection
process.
• The process of attracting individuals in sufficient numbers with the right
skills and at appropriate times to apply for vacant positions within the
organization is called Recruitment.
• Selection is the process of choosing individuals who have relevant
qualifications to fill jobs in an organization.
Recruitment Process

Medical Exam
Recruiting Decisions
Internal Sources of Candidates: Hiring from Within

• Advantages • Disadvantages
– Foreknowledge of – Failed applicants become
candidates’ strengths and discontented
weaknesses – “Political” infighting for
– More accurate view of promotions
candidate’s skills – status quo
– Candidates have a
stronger commitment to
the company
– Increases employee
morale
– Less training and
orientation required
 Internal Recruitment Sources

• Job posting:
• The organization can notify employees of all job
vacancies by posting notices, circulating publications, or
in some other way inviting employees to apply for jobs.
• The most common method employers use to notify
current employees of openings is to post notices on
bulletin boards in locations such as employee lounges,
cafeterias, and near elevators. Computer software is
now available to handle posting and bidding on PCs and
intranets.
• Rehiring former employees:
– Advantages:
• They are known quantities.
• They know the firm and its culture.
– Disadvantages:
• They may have less-than positive attitudes.
• Rehiring may sent the wrong message to current
employees about how to get ahead.
• Employee Referral:
• Recruitment method in which the current employees
are encouraged and rewarded for introducing
suitable recruits from among the people they know.
• In an organization with numerous employees, this
approach can develop quite a large pool of potential
employees.
• Studies have found that new workers recruited
through current employee referral had longer tenure
with organizations than those from other recruiting
sources.
• Succession planning:
– The process of ensuring a suitable supply of
successors for current and future senior or key
jobs.
– Succession planning steps:
– Identifying and analyzing key jobs.
– Creating and assessing candidates.
– Selecting those who will fill the key positions.
 External Recruitment Sources
• Advertising:
– The Media: selection of the best medium depends
on the positions for which the firm is recruiting.
• Newspapers (local and specific labor markets)
• Trade and professional journals
• Internet job sites
• Constructing an effective ad
– Wording related to job interest factors should evoke
the applicant’s attention, interest, desire, and action
(AIDA) and create a positive impression of the firm.
• Campus Recruitment:
• At the college or university level, the recruitment of
graduating students is a large-scale operation for
many organizations. Most colleges and universities
maintain placement offices in which employers and
applicants can meet.
• One study suggests that campus recruiting might be
made more effective by creating favorable pre-
interview impressions through advertising,
promotion, and media coverage.
• Trade and Competitive Sources:
Other sources for recruiting are professional and trade
associations, trade publications, and competitors.
Many professional societies and trade associations
publish newsletters or magazines containing job ads.
Such publications may be a good source of specialized
professionals needed in an industry.
• Ads in other specialized publications and listings at
professional meetings also can be good sources of
publicity about professional openings.
• Employment Agencies:
• Types of employment agencies:
– Public agencies operated by federal, state, or local
governments
– Agencies associated with nonprofit organizations
– Privately owned agencies
• Reasons for using a private employment agency:
– When a firm doesn’t have an HR department and is not geared to
doing recruiting and screening.
– The firm has found it difficult in the past to generate a pool of
qualified applicants.
– The firm must fill a particular opening quickly.
– The firm wants to reach currently employed individuals, who might
feel more comfortable dealing with agencies than with competing
companies.
– The firm wants to cut down on the time it’s devoting to recruiting.
• Executive Search Firms:
• Some employment agencies focus their efforts
on executive, managerial, and professional
positions.
• The size of the fees and the aggressiveness with
which some firms pursue candidates for
openings have led to such firms being called
headhunters.
• Internees and Walkins.
• Internet Recruiting
• Employers often begin the Internet search process by
establishing an organization website and listing jobs
on it. Alternatively, companies with a web page that
specializes in posting job listings (an Internet job
service)—much like the electronic bulletin board of
days gone by—can be used by job seekers.
• Finally, online employment agencies can be used to
post jobs and find applicants on the Net.
 Candidate Screening
• To screen for candidates companies :
– Review resumes and cover letters
– Conduct a phone interview
• For Screening there must be
– A fair set of screening criteria
– The criteria must be in line with the job content
and appointment as well as advertised
requirements
– The criteria should apply to all applicants in a
consistent manner
– `Any waivers should be fully motivated and
approved
 Recruiting Evaluation

• Quantity of the applicants

• Quality of the applicants
• Cost per applicant hired
• Time required to fill the opening
• YIELD RATIOS Yield ratios can be calculated for each
step of the recruiting. A yield ratio is a comparison of
the number of applicants at one stage of the
recruiting process to the number at the next stage.
• The result is a tool for approximating the necessary
size of the initial applicant pool.
 Employee Selection
• Selection is much more than just choosing the best
available person. Selecting the appropriate set of
knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) is an attempt to
get a “fit” between what the applicant can and wants
to do, and what the organization needs.
• Fit between the applicant and the organization
affects both the employer’s willingness to make a job
offer and an applicant’s willingness to accept a job.
Fitting a person to the right job is called placement.
• A selection criterion is a characteristic that a
person must have to do the job successfully.
• Predictors are Measurable indicators of
selection criteria.
 Steps In Selection Process
• Application Form
• Test and /or Interviews
• Background Investigation/Reference Checks
• Conditional Offer
• Medical Examination
• Negotiation and Final Offer
• Placement
• Ability tests assess the skills that individuals have
already learned.
• Aptitude tests measure general ability to learn or
acquire a skill.
– The typing tests given at many firms to secretarial
applicants are commonly used ability tests.
– Other widely used tests measure mechanical ability and
manual dexterity.
– A type of ability test used at many organizations simulates
job tasks. These work sample tests, which require an
applicant to perform a simulated job task that is part of the
job being applied for, are especially useful.
• Mental ability tests measure conceptual reasoning.
• Assessment Centers
• An assessment center is not necessarily a place; it is
composed of a series of evaluative exercises and tests used
for selection and development. The assessment uses multiple
exercises and multiple raters.
• In one assessment center, candidates go through a
comprehensive interview, pencil-and-paper test, individual
and group simulations, and work exercises. The candidates’
performances are then evaluated by a panel of trained raters.
• It is crucial to any assessment center that the tests and
exercises reflect the job content and types of problems faced
on the jobs for which individuals are being screened.
• Psychological/Personality Tests
 Selection Interviews
• A selection interview is designed to identify information
on a candidate and clarify information from other
sources. This in-depth interview is designed to integrate
all the information from application forms, tests, and
reference checks, so that a decision can be made.
• The interview is not an especially valid predictor of job
performance, but it has high “face validity”—that is, it
seems valid to employers and they like it. Virtually all
employers are likely to hire individuals using interviews.
• Types of Interviews:
• Structured interview: Interview that uses a set of
standardized questions asked of all job applicants.
• Situational interview: A structured interview
composed of questions about how applicants might
handle specific job situations.
– Hypothetical: Asking applicant what he or she might do in a
certain job situation
– Related to knowledge: Might entail explaining a method or
demonstrating a procedure
– Related to requirements: Explores areas such as willingness
to work the hours required and meet travel demands.
• Behavioral description interview: applicants
give specific examples of how they have
performed or handled problems in the past.
• Stress interview designed to create anxiety
and put pressure on an applicant to see how
the person responds.
• Panel interview several interviewers interview
the candidate at the same time.
• Effective interviews do not just happen; they are
planned. Pre-interview planning is essential to a well-
conducted in-depth selection interview.
• The interviewer should review the application form for
completeness and accuracy before beginning the
interview and also should make notes to identify
specific areas about which to question the applicant
during the interview.
• The questioning techniques that an interviewer uses
can and do significantly affect the type and quality of
the information obtained.
• Snap Judgment, Halo effect, Biases etc avoided.
• Reference Checking:
– Telephone inquiry
– Written method
• Medical Examination:
• determining whether the applicant is able, with or
without any adjustment, to perform the inherent
requirements of the job; or
• checking whether the applicant has any infectious
disease so that the employer may act reasonably in
order to protect public health.
• An offer letter is issued usually after all these steps. An offer letter is a
short congratulatory note extending a job offer. An employment
contract is then prepared which is a long written agreement setting
out the terms and conditions of employment.
• An employment contract is an agreement between an employer and
employee and is the basis of further employment relationship. A
contract of employment regulates the terms and conditions of
employment between employer and employees.
• Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance,
promulgated in 1968, The Ordinance applies to all industrial and
commercial establishments throughout the country employing 20 or
more workers and provides for security of employment.
• The ordinance requires every employer to provide every worker an
employment contract, showing terms and conditions of his/her
service. The employer is responsible to provide this contract at the
time of appointment, transfer or promotion.
• The obligatory contents of each labor contract are
confined to the main terms and conditions of
employment, namely nature and tenure of
appointment, pay, allowances and other fringe benefits
admissible, terms and conditions of appointment.
• In the case of workers in other establishments,
domestic servants, farm workers or casual labor
engaged by contractors, their labor contracts are
generally unwritten and can be enforced through the
courts on the basis of oral evidence or past practice.
 Orientation
• It is an initial training that provides easy access
to basic information, programs and services,
gives clarification and allows new employees to
take an active role in their organization.
• An orientation program helps the employee
understand their assigned duties, terms and
conditions of employment as well as the
organizational culture.
• HR deptt. Is responsible for designing and
evaluating orientation program of the new
employee.
• In some organizations an employee handbook
is available to all employees. The content of
the handbook covers the key topics covered in
an orientation session for new employees.
• Benefits:
– Establish clear standards that help reduce disputes
and limit liability
– Promote consistent management
– Inform new employees of the company's policies
– Demonstrate a commitment to equal treatment of
personnel
 Orientation must include
• Organization • Company policies and
introduction: procedures, for
• history example:
• mission statement • dress code
• goals and objectives • reporting procedures
• organizational structure • smoking and other
• future plans restrictions
• expense claims
• Rules and Procedures • Tour facility and work
• Safety procedures areas:
• Emergency procedures • introduce employees
• Operating facilities • identify amenities, e.g.
• who to call for repairs washrooms, shower
• Explanation of benefit • explain emergency
package procedures
• group insurance, • identify safety equipment
• sick leave, • Describe job
• holidays responsibilities and
expectations