Session 4
Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment and selection process
Recruitment and selection policy
Recruitment is the process of selecting a supply of possible candidates for positions within an organization.
Selection is choosing from a number of candidates the one most suitable for the specified position.
Choosing the right candidate for a job, or selecting the right person for promotion, is a critical organizational decision. The overall aim of an organizations recruitment and selection process is to obtain the quantity and quality of employees required to fulfill the objectives of the organization.
Overall process of recruitment and selection will involve:
Roles and responsibilities
While responsibility for staffing should rest with every manager at every level the ultimate responsibility is with the chief executive officer and the policy making group of top executives.
The final decision in the selection of a person for a new position should rest with the candidate’s prospective superior.
In some organizations, the human resource or personnel department manages the recruitment process.
Many new employees join organizations after approaching the employer directly or hearing about the possibility of employment through friends.
Employment agencies can offer a specialized and efficient way of obtaining good candidates.
Reasons for ineffective recruitment and selection
Ineffective recruitment may arise from many factors:
Inadequate job analysis
Unattractive terms
Failure in media chosen to attract candidates
Ineffective selection may result from many factors:
Inadequate job analysis
Bad interviewing
Ignorance of the job
Lack of a validation system
Successful recruitment and selection practices
It is important to make a constant evaluation of the entire recruitment process. The simplest measure is in terms of cost per applicant.
The usual method of assessing the value of a selection process is by cost-benefit analysis, although it may be hard to identify the actual costs and benefits.
Question 1
Your employer has no formal recruitment procedures, but being in an expanding market realizes that a formal procedure is now required.
Required
a) Advise your employer on the process and practices involved in recruitment. (7 marks)
b) Prepare a recruitment and selection plan (9 marks)
(15 marks)
Answer Plan
Recruitment
Process of recruitment
The best recruitment campaign will encourage a small number of highly suitable applicants, be cost effective, be speedy and show courtesy to all candidates.
The recruitment plan includes:
Job Analysis
Job analysis is the process of collecting, analyzing and setting out information about the content of jobs in order to provide the basis for a job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management. Job analysis concentrates on what the job holders are expected to do.
Job analysis consists of the following elements:
Defining job requirements – job description and job(person) specification
The process of job analysis starts with a detailed study and description of the tasks that make up the job and the kind of person required to do the job.
Job evaluation
This involves comparing jobs by using formal and systematic procedures to determine wage and salary differentials. Methods of job evaluation are both non-analytical and analytical.
Job classification
This is the process by which jobs with similar content, pay and status are grouped together.
The methods or stages of job analysis are:
Stage 1: Obtain all the necessary relevant and appropriate documentation.
Stage 2: Ask managers about the purpose and more general aspects of the job, its main activities and the responsibilities involved.
Stage 3: Ask the same questions of the job holders whose perceptions may differ.
Stage 4: Actually observe the job holders at work.
Information that should be collected during the job analysis investigation should include:
Purpose of the job – why does the job exist
Content of the job – what tasks are to be undertaken
Accountabilities of the job – for which results is the job holder responsible
Performance criteria – what will the job holder’s performance be judged on
Responsibilities of the job – what decisions and degree of autonomy will the job holder have
Organisational factors – who does the job holder report and who are their staff
Developmental factors – promotion and career prospects
Environmental factor – working conditions and requirements
Effective recruitment depends on accurate job analysis. This can save an organization time and money and avoid unwanted personnel. Job analysis may help establish that recruitment is not after all needed.
Job description
A job description is a broad statement of the purpose, scope, duties and responsibilities of the job.
A job description usually defines the nature of the job classified under a series of headings as follows:
Identification of the job
Purpose of the job
Position in the organization
Duties
Responsibilities
Physical conditions
Social conditions
Grade, salary and benefits
Promotion prospects
Key difficulties
Organisations can also use the job description to try and project a favourable image of the company and the job.
Person specification
The person specification (personnel specification) is a list of the attributes that the ideal candidate would possess and by which candidates for the job are measured.
A person specification defines the attributes of the ideal candidate. There are two main theories relating to the content of a person specification – those put forward by Alec Rodgers and John Munro Fraser.
Rodgers devised a seven – point plan
Physical make – up
Attainments
General intelligence
Special aptitudes
Interests
Disposition
Circumstances
Fraser devised a five-point plan
Impact on others
Qualifications
Brains and abilities
Motivation
Adjustment
In practice most person specifications are a mixture of the two plans and include the following points:
First impressions
Education and qualifications
General intelligence and special aptitudes
Personal circumstances
Experience
Interests
Personality
Motivation
Question 2
The manager of the finance department has asked you to carry out a job analysis of the other employees in your department.
Required
a)Explain what is meant by the term ‘job analysis’. (3 marks)
b)Briefly explain the four stages involved in carrying out job analysis (4 marks)
c)Identify and briefly explain the information you would expect to collect during the job analysis investigation. (8 marks)
(15 marks)
Answer Plan
Sourcing candidates
Internal recruitment is when an existing employee fills a vacant position. The person is known, it is cheaper, there is a learning curve period getting to know the job and the culture and it boosts staff morale/motivation.
External recruitment is when an organization seeks to bring in someone from the outside the orgainsation to fill a vacancy.
Organisations can use a number of ways to encourage suitable external candidates to come forward, These include:
Introductions by existing employees
Casual applications
Government employment services
Recruitment consultants/agencies
Advertising
National press
Local press
Specialist journals
Radio and television
Internet
A job advertisement will need to include:
Organisational information
Job description
Person specification
Administrative information
The application form usually includes sections for:
Personal details
Education
Employment
Personal interests
The main purpose of the application form is to obtain all the essential information about the applicant.
Question 3
The accounting department is expanding and a new member of staff is required. Your manager has been instructed to place a recruitment advertisement, but has no experience in writing one. You have been asked to provide guidelines to management for such an advertisement.
Required
a)List the information that the advertisement should contain. (8 marks)
b)Briefly describe five factors which will influence the choice of advertising media. (7 marks)
(15 marks)
Answer Plan
Understanding organisational structure
by John Ball16 Oct 2001 Professional SchemeRelevant to Paper 1.3
Accountants and accountancy is about communication. But communication is not just sending messages or emails, or indeed producing management reports or final accounts. It is about understanding the nature of the communication process, especially for the management of people. If people do not communicate then the accountants work can never succeed.
Central to the communication process is a fundamental element of management – understanding organisational structure. Everyone knows what an organisation chart is; every accounting practice, factory, shop and office proudly displays such a chart. But what message is it intended to convey?
The organisation chart describes in diagrammatic form the structure of the organisation. It is the skeleton upon which every other activity depends, more importantly, it is the framework which explains the communication pattern, process and the linking mechanisms between the roles. It illustrates to everyone who communicates with whom, how the control system works, who is in control, who has authority and above all, who is responsible. It explains how the organisation is co-ordinated and how individual departments relate. Formal structures are often based on specific tasks and it is how these tasks are allocated and the authority which they carry are explained by the organisational structure. A business organisation may be structured in many different ways, depending upon the environment within which it operates.
Traditionally, the structure – and therefore the communication process – is based upon a hierarchy of individual departments, although more and more organisations now see the product and the market as more fundamental to structure than individual departments. There are always problems with any organisational structure. Traditional organisations based on departments often tend to be bureaucratic and slow in distributing information, whilst organisations which are more aware of the external environment often lack the formality and control of the traditional organisation.In more formal organisations, especially accounting practices, the organisation chart defines the way that communication and work flows through the organisation. The typical organisation chart assumes a hierarchical structure, reflecting communication flowing downwards from top management to the departments further down the organisation. But of course communication also flows in reverse, instructions received from above have to be acted upon and reported. However, in many modern organisations where conventional communication structures either do not exist or are less formal, communication tends to be horizontal, between individuals and departments, rather than the upwards or downward flow assumed by so many to be the normal case.
This type of structure is often referred to as the Matrix structure. Its great advantage is that it is cross functional whilst maintaining functions and the commitment and specialisation of individual departments. At the same time it allows adaption to change, encourages commitment to the organisation as a whole, improves communication and perhaps most importantly of all, reduces the need for slow, laborious communication up and down the traditional hierarchical structure.
The importance of teamsby John Ball28 Oct 2004Professional SchemeRelevant to Paper 1.3
We are often told that teams are the way forward, especially in business. But of course the problem is that if the team is not working, perhaps because the members cannot get on, or the skills are out of balance or indeed the team has not come together, then serious, often negative, problems can arise. And that's bad for business. Teams are everywhere. They have to develop, mature and often eventually terminate.
According to the writer Tuckman, it is possible to identify five distinct stages of development through which teams should pass. The first stage is the so-called forming stage, when the members meet and decide on the purpose of the team and how it will operate. At this stage the team is no more than a collection of individuals, finding out about one another and discussing the task - which may be unclear. Although wasteful and time consuming, this stage is essential to ensure that the team members become comfortable with each other.
The second stage is referred to as storming. The phrase is a deliberate reference to conflict, ideas, ideals and behaviour that are challenged and sometimes rejected. There is competition and argument about who should fill the roles in the team. Although characterised by conflict, this is constructive with trust developing and if the individuals are successful with this stage then a stronger team will result.
The third stage is norming, when the routines under which the team will operate become established. The team is now settling down, investigating ideas, testing the reactions of the team's members and consequently norms are established. In addition, patterns of behaviour are established, trust will develop and the methods by which decisions will be taken will be decided on. By the time the performing stage is reached, the team is complete and is able to perform effectively. Problems with team roles, conflict and issues of adjustment have been resolved. In practice, many teams reach the dorming stage, which is the final stage. The team becomes complacent, loses interest in the task and self-preservation becomes the dominant issue.
All teams, it is suggested, go through these five stages. However, if for some reason the team loses members, or the external environment imposes fundamental changes on it, the team very often may revert to earlier stages of development.
Team development is however only one dimension in understanding the importance of the ways in which teams work. Dr Meredith Belbin has studied team membership (as opposed to team development). He has suggested that all teams are a matter of balance and that the team members fulfil two roles. The primary role is the skill or function for which the individual was appointed to the team in the first place. This is usually the individual's professional role.
The secondary role is the team role based on the individual's preferred behaviour pattern. All the team roles are needed for a team to be successful, the team role being in addition to the members bringing their own disciplines and skills. It is also possible that members have more than one team role skill, although one will usually dominate. The team role may change, depending on the task and the number of team members to avoid the problem of team imbalance. Belbin describes eight team roles:
the coordinator provides the leadership, presides and coordinates the activities - he or she is a balanced and disciplined person, good at working with others
the company worker is the administrator and organiser who turns the team's ideas into jobs and tasks - this person is efficient, trustworthy and unexcitable
the shaper is highly-strung and a dominant, extrovert personality - task-driven to the point of passion, he or she is a force for action
the plant is the introvert, invariably intellectually bright, and imaginative who acts as a source of ideas
the resource investigator is the popular, social member of the team - an extrovert, this person is relaxed and a useful source of new contacts but not ideas
the monitor-evaluator is not creative but is analytically gifted - often tactless and aloof, the role is to examine ideas and spot errors and flaws
the team worker is the silent member - concerned with the maintenance of the team, he or she is supportive, understanding and popular with the team but only noticed when absent
the completer-finisher enjoys the details, pushes the team to meet targets and sees urgency and follow-through as important.
Later research has identified a further team role - the specialist. This person joins the team only when expert or specific advice is required on matters outside the competence of the team. This additional role has come about because of the greater use of teams for project work.
John Ball is examiner for Paper 1.3