recruitment and selection

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I. ContentsRecruitment1. Introduction. The importance of the recruitment process 2

2. Organizing the process of Human Resources Recruitment 2.1 Recruitment strategies and policies 3 2.2 Recruitment planning 7

3. Sources of recruitment 3.1 Internal and external factors of recruitment. 8 3.2 Internal sources. 93.3 External sources. 10 3.4 Effectiveness of Recruitment Methods. 12

II. Selection1. The importance of the selection. 13

2. Job Analysis 14

3. Steps in the Selection Process3.1 Application Form. 15 3.2 Selection interview. 16 3.3 Testing candidates. 163.4 References checking 183.5 Sorting candidates. 183.6 Interviewing. 193.7 The decision-making. 19

4. International Staffing 19

5. Criteria for Choosing the best candidates 20

III. Equal Employment Opportunity and Recruitment 22 Bibliography 24 Recruitment

1. Introduction.The importance of the recruitment process

Human Resources Management (HRM) encompasses those activities designed to provide for and coordinate the human resources of an organization. The human resources (HR) of an organization represent one of its largest investments. In fact, government reports show that approximately 72 percent of national income is used to compensate employees. The value of an organization's human resources frequently becomes evident when the organization is sold. Often the purchase price is greater than the total value of the physical and financial assets. This difference, sometimes called goodwill, partially reflects the value of an organization's human resource. In addition to wages and salaries, organizations often make other sizable investments in their human resources. Recruiting, hiring, and training represent some of the more obvious examples. Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen. Most organization has a recruitment function managed by the human resource department. In an era when the focus of most organization has been on efficiently and effectively running the organization, recruiting the right person for job is a top of priority. The magnitude of an organization's recruiting effort and the methods to be used in that recruiting effort are determined from the human resource planning process and the requirements of the specific job to be filled. If the forecasted human resources requirements exceed the net human resource requirements, the organization usually actively recruits new employees. However, organizations do have options other than recruiting new employees to accomplish the work. Some of these options include using temporary workers, offering overtime to existing employees, subcontracting the work to another organization and leasing of employees. In addition, recruitment should include seeking and attracting qualified job candidates. Successful recruiting is difficult if the jobs to be filled are vaguely defined. Regardless of whether the job to be filled has been in existence or is newly created, its requirements must be defined as precisely as possible for recruitment to be affective.

Recruitment is the process of discovering potential candidates for actual or anticipated organizational/company vacancies - it is a linking activity that brings together those with jobs to fill and those seeking jobs[footnoteRef:1]. [1: DeCenzo, David, Robbins, P., (2011), Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, eight edition, Ed. John Wiley, United States of America, p. 166]

It is no longer sufficient to be effective in selling a particular product or service or to rely on past reputation. Organizations/companies need to respond to a rapidly changing global environment. Continued success is, thus, dependent on attracting and retaining high-quality individuals who can respond effectively to this changing environment. This implies that there can be wrong people; individuals who are a liability rather than an asset because they do not contribute to organizational success and may even harm the organization. This occurs because there are differences between individuals, which influence how they perform particular jobs.

Recruitment and selection is a process of selecting the correct jigsaw piece (the right individual) from the incorrect pieces (the wrong individuals) to fit into a particular hole in a jigsaw puzzle.[footnoteRef:2] In others words, recruitment is the process of attracting people who might make an organizational contribution to fill a particular role or job. This process is often stimulated when an existing employee leaves. The organizational response is often to try and replace the individual with a replica of that person. [2: Stephen, B., (2005), Managing Human Resources, fourth edition, Ed. Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom, p. 115]

Successful employment planning is designed to identify an organization's human resource needs. Once these needs are known, an organization will want to meet them. The company must acquire the necessary people to ensure the continued operation of the organization/company.

2. Organizing the process of Human Resources Recruitment2.1 Recruitment strategies and policies

The human resources management process consists of planning, attracting, developing, and retaining employees. It is also known as the staffing process. We can say that planning and compensation affect attracting employees, labor relations affects planning; job analysis affects training, and so on. The External environment, especially the competitive and legal environment, has a major impact on human resources practices. When the organization does not offer the competitive pay and benefits that competitors offer, employees may change companies. The human resources department usually has the responsibility of seeing that organization complies with the law. Some of the legal considerations follow. Major laws affecting employment are Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and executive orders on Affirmative Action (AA). EEO, a 1972 amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, race of color, or national origin and applies to virtually all private and public organizations that employ 15 more employees. Who is legally considered a minority? A minority is just about anyone who is not white male, of European heritage, or adequately educated. The EEO minority guidelines list includes Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Alaskan natives. The EEO also protects disadvantaged young people, disabled workers, and person over 40 years of age. Although the law protects women from discrimination in employment, they are not considered to be a legal minority because they make up half of the population, and in some situations, are majority. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for legally enforcing equal opportunity to all. Violation of the law can lead to investigation by the EEOC or to becoming a defendant in class-action or specific lawsuits. Courts find discrimination when selection criteria are vague, elusive, unstructured, undefined, or poorly conceived.

On the application blank and during interviews, no member of organization can legally ask discriminatory questions. The two rules of thumb to follow are: (1) every question asked should be job-related. When developing questions, the recruiter should have a purpose for using the information, (2) any general question that the recruiter asks should be asked of all candidates.

Figure 1 lists some factors of what a recruiter (lawful information used to disqualify candidates) can and cannot (prohibited information to disqualify candidates) ask during the selection process. In all cases the assumption is that the information asked for is not a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) for the job. A bona fide occupational qualification allows discrimination where it is reasonably necessary to normal operation of a particular organization. In an example BFOQ upheld by its supreme court, the state of Alabama required all guards in male maximum-security correctional facilities to be male. People believing that this requirement was sexual discrimination took it to court. The Supreme Court upheld the male sex requirements on the grounds that 2- percent of the inmates were convicted of sex offenses and this creates an excessive threat to the security of female guards.

Applying pre-employment questions

Can askCannot ask

Name Current legal name and whether the candidates has ever worked under a different nameMaiden name or whether the person has changed his/her name

AddressCurrent residence and length of residence

If the candidate owns or rents his/her home unless is a bona fide occupational qualification.

AgeIf the candidates is between specific age groups, 21 to 70, to meet the job specifications. If hired, can you furnish proof of age? For example, an employment must be 21 to serve alcoholic beverages,

How old are you? Or see a birth certificate. Do not ask an older person how much longer he plans or she plans to work before retiring.

SexOnly if sex is a BFOQIf it is not a BFOQ. To be sure not to violate sexual harassment laws, do not ask questions or make comments remotely considered flirtatious.

Marital and Family StatusIf the candidates can meet the work schedule or job and whether the candidate has activities, responsibilities, or commitments that may hinder meeting attendance requirements. The same question should be asked both sexes.To select a marital status or any questions regarding children or other family issues.

National Origin, Citizenship, Race or ColorIf the candidate is legally eligible to work in the United States, and if this can be proven if hires.To identify national origin, citizenship, race, or color

LanguageTo list the candidate speaks and/or write fluently. The candidate may be asked if he or she speaks and/or write a specific language if it is no BFOQ,

The language spoken off the job, or how the applicant learned the language.

Figure 1

The Human Resources Department

Human resources is one of the four major functional departments in an organization. It is a staff department that advises and assists all the other departments in the organization. In organization large enough (usually 100 or more employees) to have a separate human resources department, the department develops the human resources plans for the entire organizations:

it recruits employees so the line managers can select which employees to hire it orients employees and trains many of them to do their job it usually develops the performance appraisal system and forms used by managers throughout the organization it determines compensation for employees it is usually responsible for employee health and safety programs, works on labor relations, and is involved with the termination of employees. Employment records are kept in and by the human resources department, and it is often involved with legal matters.

The recruitment strategies and policies define the way how an organization is accomplishing the responsibilities in the recruitment process and also define the values of the organization regarding this process.The recruitment strategies and policies differ from one organization to another, especially when these have to accomplish various objectives. Concerning this process, the managerial decisions that create the strategies and recruitment policies have to take in consideration following aspects: identify and attract a larger number of candidates to ensure the necessary number and quality of candidates; choice of recruitment sources (internal, external or a combination of the two sources) one of the main problems of philosophy of recruitment; ensure consistency between the organization's recruitment activities and strategies, values; the extent to which the organization prefers attract candidates who pursue a career in the long run and can provide a performance management in human resources; concern the organization to identify and attract a variety of categories of candidates; take into account the objectives envisaged by hiring staff, including post-recruitment effects; attitude toward candidates; they are seen as a commodity to be bought or as individuals to be identified or drawn (making approach); recruitment of staff achievement in a short time and with the lowest cost possible, set forth in this sense, right time recruitment, after establishing a recruitment plan and job sharing equally the costs for the period envisaged for not affect the organization; recruitment efforts lead to expected effect including improving the overall image of the organization;For successful recruitment process is necessary to develop an integrated strategy and an appropriate policy to meet expectations and future development projects of the organization. Once the recruitment strategies and policies are established, the Human Resource Department can make the recruitment planning and this can be an important step toward successful process.

2.2 Recruitment planning

"Action without planning is the cause of all failures. Action with planning is the cause of all success."- Brian Tracy

Before any applicants for a job are interviewed, any organization who is about to engage in the recruitment and selection process needs to undertake a number of important steps. These prior steps, in which the Human Resource Management specialists in the organization are likely to be particularly prominent, include the forecast of human resource needs, the specification of individual jobs requirements and the identification and use of appropriate recruitment channels. Recruitment plan comprise the number of people per category that is necessary to take its business due to its development and vacancies for various reason. The number of recruited is not simply the difference between the number of staff at the beginning and end of it. The difference could be partly explained by the development activity; because the activity can be increased and by stressing labor productivity. More specifically, we might say that the difference in extra staff required is not covered by the labor productivity growth. But apart from this difference must be taken into consideration changes in personnel structure determined by the promotion of natural loss, departure for military service, sick, accidents, and deaths. For these reasons, the result in job vacancies must be filled, as they are subject in the recruitment plan.The recruitment and selection is the major function of the human resource department and recruitment process is the first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organizations. Recruitment process involves a systematic procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the interviews and requires many resources and time. A general recruitment process is as follows:

Identifying the vacancy: The recruitment process begins with the human resource department receiving requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company. These contain: posts to be filled numbers of persons duties to be performed qualification required

Preparing the job description and person specification; Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees (Advertising etc.); Short-listing and identifying the prospective employee with required characteristics; Arranging the interviews with the selected candidates;

The recruitment process is immediately followed by the selection process, the final interviews and the decision making, conveying the decision and the appointment formalities.

3. Sources of recruitment

3.1 Internal and external factors of recruitment

Every organization has the option of choosing the candidates for its recruitment processes from two kinds of sources: internal and external sources. Recruitment of human resources is not an easy task because the internal factors are those that can be controlled by the organization and the external factors cannot be controlled by the organization.

The recruitment policies and management practices in this field are affected by a number of constraints, such as:

the conditions and labor market changes, because changes have an important impact on recruitment; capacity of trainings system and development of human resources educational methods; attractive area, local facilities; legislative or legal framework for human resources, that establish various aspects of staffing, including recruitment activities, to avoid illegal orders or employment practices and discrimination of any kind; unions, fulfilling an active role in the staffing process can cause some constraints of recruitment activity; the reputation of the organization/company which can exert positive or negative influence on the recruitment process; organizational objectives and especially those in the human resources; an organizational culture that influences the desire to recruit potential employees; policies and practices of human resource management which is the organization's code of conduct in this area and affecting the recruitment process, as well potential candidates; requirements that an organization/company considers that applicants meet the vacancies; economic and financial situation of the organization/company, because some resources and train staff recruitment involves certain costs;

The process of identifying and attracting competitive candidates should start early. Recruitment methods used must vary and the labor market segments should be considered less requested or underutilized. The more applications received, the better the recruiter's chances of finding an individual best suited to the job requirements[footnoteRef:3]. [3: DeCenzo, D., Robbins, P., (2005), Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, eight edition, Ed. Wiley, United States of America, p. 146 ]

An important part of the recruitment process is to identify recruitment sources that can be internal or external, as most companies use both sources of recruitment. This is because the number and the variety or recruitment sources are higher, the greater are the chances to identify and attract candidates as competitive.

3.2 Internal sources

For vacancies call, the main source is the organization. The vacancies are offered primarily to promote their employees. Internal recruitment involves only a change of position of employees, horizontally or vertically. Internal recruitment is a recruitment which takes place within the concern of the organization. Internal sources of recruitment are quickly available to an organization. The primary three internal sources are showed in the following figure (Figure2):Figure 2Transfers

PromotionsRe-employment of ex-employees

through internal Job Posting and biddingone of the internal sources of recruitment in which employees can be invited and appointed to fill vacancies in the concern; there are situations when ex-employees can provide unsolicited applications also.

Internal recruitment may lead to increase in employee's productivity as their motivation level increases. It also saves time, money and efforts. But a drawback of internal recruitment could be the fact that it refrain the organization from new blood. Also, not all the manpower requirements can be met through internal recruitment, but hiring from outside must to be done as well.

The main advantages of internal recruitment are: the organization has a better knowledge of the job; organizations/companies can better know the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, because there is sufficient information about them; attracting candidates is much easier, because being much better known, can be given better opportunities to the position held; candidates for the job have a better understanding of the organization/company; selection according to organizational criteria is much faster and more efficient; employee motivation is stronger; the probability of poor decision making is greatly diminished; time orientation and guidance for the posts of new employees to integrate them as quickly as possible, is much diminished; recruitment is faster and less expensive even if additional training is required of candidates; the feeling of belonging to the organization/company, loyalty or attachment to this growth;

This form of recruitment presents also disadvantages:

the battle for promotion may adversely affect employee morale; finding job within the same organization can reduce both creativity as well as implementing new ideas of human resources; where promotion is made, especially based on age or seniority, favoritism can occur; It creates a propagation affect of vacancies when promoting or transferring an employee.

3.3 External sources

If it is estimated that the items can't be filled from internal sources, it is necessary to act outside the organization to identify potential external sources. Because it requires detailed planning and coordination is attributed to the human resources department.

External sources of recruitment have to be solicited from outside the organization. The external sources of recruitment include:

1. Employment at factory level: this is a source of external recruitment in which the applications for vacancies are presented on bulletin boards outside the factory or at the gate. This kind of recruitment is applicable generally where factory workers are to be appointed. There are people who keep on soliciting jobs from one place to another. These applicants are called as unsolicited applicants. These types of workers apply on their own for their jobs. For this kind of recruitment workers have a tendency to shift from the factory to another and therefore they are called as "badly" workers[footnoteRef:4]. [4: Byte-Sized Training, Management Study Guide]

2. Advertising: it is an external source which has got an important place in recruitment procedure. The biggest advantage of advertisement is that it covers a wide area of market and scattered applicants can get information from advertisement. This can be done through Newspapers and Television.

3. Employment Exchanges: there are certain employment exchanges which are led by government. Most of the government undertakings and concern employ people through such exchanges. Now-a-days recruitment in government agencies has become compulsory through employment exchange.

4. Employment Agencies: there are certain professional organizations which look towards recruitment and employment of people.

5. Educational Institutions: there are certain institutions which serve as external sources for recruiting fresh graduates from these institutes. This kind of recruitment done through such educational institutions is called Campus Recruitment. They have special recruitment cells which help in providing jobs to fresh candidates.

6. Recommendations: there are certain people who have experience in a particular area. They enjoy goodwill and a stand in the company. There are certain vacancies which are filled by recommendation of such people. The biggest drawback of this source is that the company has to rely totally on those people which can later on prove to be inefficient.

External recruitment presents advantages such as: the group of people who have real knowledge and skills is wider; can bring new perspectives and ideas to organization; allows reducing spending or staffing costs; in difficult situations where significant changes are necessary or very important, only one person outside the organization, which does not have any obligations to other persons inside, can be objective and can make those changes;

Disadvantages of recruitment: attracting, contacting and evaluating prospective employees is more difficult; risk of job seekers who subsequently prove not or cannot maintain the high potential that they have demonstrated during the selection process; time employee training or orientation is longer; there may be moral issues among those employees who feel qualified for that post;

This form of recruitment may be achieved through two methods: Informal methods Formal methods

Informal methods

It addresses a narrow segment of the labor market, meaning hiring former employees or former students who have worked together. It also makes a very limited advertising but by appealing to existing employees. Employees are required to encourage those interested in the company.

Formal methods

Through this method the organization is looking for people willing to commit or to change jobs.Calling to one or other of the forms of recruitment, formal or informal methods is based on achieving the following objectives: if the organization/company want simply filling vacancies; if the organization/company aimed at employees with career training; if potential candidates are seen as a commodity to be acquired or as clients; if the organization/company approach recruitment as a marketing process or not;

3.4 Effectiveness of Recruitment Methods

Organizational recruitment programs are designed to bring a pool of talent to the organization. From this pool, the organization hopes to select the person or persons most qualified for the job. An obvious and very important question faced by human resource departments is which method of recruitment supplies the best talent pool.

Many studies have explored this issue. One study concluded that employee referrals were the most affective recruitment source when compared to newspaper advertisements, private employment agencies, and walk-in applicants. This study found that turnover rates for employees hired from employee referrals were lower that for employees hired through the other methods.

Another study examined the relationship among employees performance, absenteeism, work attitudes, and methods of recruitment. This study showed that individuals recruited through a college placement office and, to a lesser extent, those recruited through newspaper advertisements were lower in performance than individuals who made contact with the company on their own initiative or through a professional journal or convention advertisement. This study concluded that campus recruiting and newspaper advertising were poorer sources of employees that were journal/convention advertisements and self-initiated contacts.

Generally, it seems safe to say that research has not identified a single best source of recruitment. Thus, each organization should take steps to identify its most effective recruitment sources. For example, a human resource department could monitor the effectiveness of recent hires in terms of turnover, absenteeism, and job performance. It might then contrast the different recruitment sources with respect to employee effectiveness and identify which of the specific recruitment sources produces the best employees.

I. Selection

1. The importance of the selection

The selection is one of the main activities related to human resources, being also a real responsibility for senior managers.

Organizations, in general, and companies, in particular, are concerned about how to make a better selection of personnel because this task can become expensive when it comes to hire people who prove to be inadequate in relation to job requirements.

Human resources selection problem arises whenever there is a need to choose between two or more persons, for a position. It requires an objective analysis of the consistency of professional characteristics and possibilities of an applicant job.

Selection of human resources is the consequence of three factors:

each profession requires a certain configuration aptitude; skills vary from individual to individual; ability to measure skills;

Although today the selection of staff is a basic activity of human resource management, it is more than a process based on intuition; but it must take into consideration the existence of numerous internal and external factors.

The selection is an activity that follows logically after job analysis, planning staff after vacancies to be filled and after recruitment staff must attract a sufficient number of potential candidates to be elected to the most competent to fill vacancies.

2. Job Analysis

Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job and where judgements are made about data collected on a job. The purpose of Job Analysis is to establish and document the 'job relatedness' of employment procedures such as training, selection, compensation, and performance appraisal. Job Analysis can be used in selection procedures to identify or develop:

job duties that should be included in advertisements of vacant positions; appropriate salary level for the position to help determine what salary should be offered to a candidate; minimum requirements (education and/or experience) for screening applicants; interview questions; selection tests/instruments (e.g., written tests; oral tests; job simulations); applicant appraisal/evaluation forms; orientation materials for applicants/new hires

Job Analysis should collect information on the following areas: Duties and Tasks - the basic unit of a job is the performance of specific tasks and duties. Information to be collected about these items may include: frequency, duration, effort, skill, complexity, equipment, standards, etc. Environment- This may have a significant impact on the physical requirements to be able to perform a job. The work environment may include unpleasant conditions such as offensive odours and temperature extremes. There may also be definite risks to the incumbent such as noxious fumes, radioactive substances, hostile and aggressive people, and dangerous explosives. Tools and Equipment - Some duties and tasks are performed using specific equipment and tools. Equipment may include protective clothing. These items need to be specified in a Job Analysis. Relationships - Supervision given and received. Relationships with internal or external people. Requirements - The knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) required performing the job. While an incumbent may have higher KSA's than those required for the job, a Job Analysis typically only states the minimum requirements to perform the job.

3. Steps in the Selection Process

Selection is the process of choosing the most qualified applicant recruited for a job. Not set sequence is universally followed. Organizations may even use different selection methods for different jobs. Selection is important because bad hiring decisions can hang around to haunt the organization.

Processing an applicant for a normally job entails a series of steps. The size of the organization, the types of jobs to be filled, the number of the people to be hired and outside pressures from the Equal Employment Opportunity or union all influence the exact nature of an organization's selection. With this technique, am applicant must be judged satisfactory through a series of screening devices, such as application forms, interviews and tests. The applicant is eliminated from consideration for the job if any of these devices is unsatisfactory. All of these screening devices must be validated if they produce adverse or disparate impact.

3.1. Application FormAs part of the selection process, the recruited applicants may be asked to complete an application. Organization may use different application forms for different jobs. For professional jobs, a resume may replace the application form. Organizations including White House, Disneyland and Ford now use computers to read/scan application forms and resumes. Before sending in a resume, candidates may check to see if the organization uses computers. If it does, the human resources department can give specific instructions to make sure that the resumes information is scanned accurately. The selection process can be though as a series of obstacle that the applicant must overcome to be offered the job. The first obstacle is typically the application. The data the applicant provides are compared to the job specifications. If they match, the applicant may progress to the next obstacle. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and the courts have found that many applications and interview inquires disproportionately reject minorities and female, and frequently is not job related. Many questions have therefore been explicitly prohibited. Some of the major questions that should be eliminated from pre-employment inquires (both application forms and interviews) or carefully reviewed to ensure their use is job related and nondiscriminatory include the following:1. Race, color, national origin, and religion. Inquiries about race, color, national origin or religion are not illegal per se, but asking or recording this information in employment record can invite careful scrutiny if discrimination charges are filed against the employer. 2. Arrest and conviction records. An individual's arrest record has been ruled by the courts to be an unlawful basis for refusal to hire unless the job relatedness for such a policy can be established.3. Credit rating. An applicant's poor credit rating has also been ruled by the courts to be an unlawful basis for refusal to hire unless a business necessity for such a policy can be established. Inquires about charge accounts and home or car ownership may be unlawful unless required because of business necessity.

3.2. Selection InterviewSpecialists in the human resources department often conduct screening interviews to select the top candidates who will continue on in the selection process. This especially helps save line managers' time when there are large numbers of job applicants. Organizations including Nike and Princewaterhouse Coopers are using computers to conduct screening interviews. For example, at Great Western Bank job candidates for a teller job sit before a computer, with a microphone, which asks them to make change, respond to tough customers, and sell products that customers don't ask for.

3.3 Testing candidatesThe usefulness of testing candidates is one of the most controversial within the procedure. When the tests are well-designed and performed by professionals, it can provide clues about potential candidates.Interview is not the only objective way to select the right person for a job. To have a larger volume of information in order to make decisions and to increase the objectivity of the selection can turn to test. There are a variety of test (for skills, personality, intelligence). Volumes have been written about the use of tests in selection of candidates, but not make it an infallible selection tool. The test can only provide information to help the selection process. Psychometric tests also known as Recruitment Selection Tests are becoming increasingly common for large companies to select and recruit new staff. The aim of the tests is to find if a candidate has the right attitude, personality and abilities for a particular job. For example, some jobs require a methodical and very accurate approach to work, while success in other jobs depend more on the ability to make decisions quickly and take the lead effectively. In addition, most jobs require some ability in calculating numbers (known as numeracy) and some ability in analyzing and processing written information and concepts (known as verbal reasoning). Companies will set a minimum score that candidates need to achieve in these particular tests in order to progress to the next selection stage. Most tests will generally consist of the following sections: Numerical ability: The ability to perform simple calculations, quickly and accurately without a calculator. Verbal reasoning: The ability to quickly analyze and summarize the main point or the key information from a piece of text. Logical reasoning: The ability to quickly match similar shapes, identify the next number or shape in a sequence.All of the above are timed to intentionally put you under pressure and see how you perform. It is not necessarily expected that you should be able to complete all the questions in the time allowed. You need to be able to balance speed with accuracy. Personality profiling - this test or section often follows the ones described above and they are not usually timed so you can take as long as you like (within reason!). They are designed to highlight those candidates whose personality profile is a match for the personal characteristics required to be successful in a particular role. Try to work though the questions reasonably quickly and dont waste time trying to work out what the right answer is. Test designers know that candidates will try to do this and so they design their tests to take this into account! The tests results provide only a part of the image about candidate and should not be given more importance than other selection criteria: they can't replace the interview or review the application.Testing the qualities and professional skills is particularly useful given that candidates do not have relevant work experience. Difficulties arise in developing tests and correct interpretation of their results, in addition, a problem is their relatively high costs (time and money).A test must measure relevant job skills. However, the mark obtained not always indicate the employee's ability to perform task of a job, but rather its ability to achieve a particular note in term of that test. The test may give different results for the same candidate. As such, it is clear that a test can't separate candidates in "fit" or "unfit".Testing can be used to predict job success when they meet EEO guidelines for validity (people who score high on the test do well on the job and those who score low do not well on the job) and reliability (if people take the same test on different days, they will get approximately the same score each time). Illegal test can result in lawsuits. Some of the major types of tests include: achievements tests, aptitude test, personality test, interest tests, and physical exams.

3.4 References checkingOrganizations should prevent poor hiring decisions and negligent hiring liability by instituting a reference-checking system to verify the information on a candidate's application form and/or resume. Many applications contain false or erroneous material. For example, people have stated that they have earned college degree when they have never even attended college.

3.5 Sorting candidatesSorting is a form of selection that identifies and removes unsuitable candidates. The aim is to remove from recruitment the candidates who clearly do not meet vacancies. Sorting saves time and money. If multiple sorting, each of stages and criteria for selection are obstacles to candidates and can lead to rejection. We can start with the premise when a candidate does not meet all job requirements and can't have adequate performance on the job. Most times, however, the lack of certain qualities of the candidate may be compensated by the possession of other qualities.

3.6 Interviewing candidatesThe interview is the most heavily weighted selection criteria. A human resource manager for Xerox gives the resume about 30 percent and the interview about 60 percent of the weight in the selection process. The interview is usually the final hurdle in the selection process. The interview gives the candidates a chance to learn about the job and organization. The interview also gives a manager a chance to learn things about candidates that can't be obtained from an application, test, or references, such as the candidate's ability to communicate, personality, appearance, and motivation. Because job interviewing is so important, the candidates must learn how to prepare for and conduct a job interview in this section.

3.7 The decision-making

The final selection is usually aimed at the candidate who meets the essential requirements of the job and has as many personality traits that make up the portrait of an ideal candidate.After obtaining information using the selection methods discussed, the manager compares the candidates without bias, and decides who is best suited the job. Diversity should be considered when selecting a candidate. The candidate is contacted and offered the job. If the candidate does not accept the job, or accepts but leaves after a short period of time, the next best candidate is offered the job. Scitor has a growth strategy; therefore, it is continually attracting employees. However, due to its reputation as an excellent company to work for, which was developed through its human practices, it does not have problem attracting well-qualified employees.

4. International Staffing

One of the most challenging issues facing multinational firms is staffing. Should a firm relocate home-country staff to its foreign operations or hire host-country personnel? The multinational firm can choose to relocate experienced personnel from the United States (home country) or employ and train national (citizens of the host country). The choice is often determined on the basis of trade-offs between technical expertise that may be available only from the home country and the firm's need to adapt to local customs. If the type of employee needed to staff the overseas operation is technically or professional unique (e.g. a computer engineer), chances are high that the person will be transferred from United States. However, this strategy is very expensive.The cost of sending personnel overseas (including Central and South America) is estimated at around half a million dollars for a three-year assignment for executives. Of course, this cost will vary in terms of hardship to the employee, distance from the United State, and family obligations. Big-ticket expenditure for relocation personnel may include bonuses for hardship, education of children, visits back to United States, and additional expenses to maintain an American standard of living. The high cost of expatriates is a major reason why fewer companies continue the personnel practice.By and large, international firms are depending more on local labor sources to meet their staffing needs. Recruiting local workers is less expensive and, with the exception of a few countries, there is usually and adequate and available labor pool from which to recruit, an added advantage that it creates career opportunities, goodwill, and loyalty to the company. It may also be politically astute since governments have been known to impose constraints on the number of foreign managers and specialists brought into their countries. An American mining company in Africa, for example, was required to hire all lower-lever workers locally and to phase out all American workers within ten years. Furthermore, studying the case of Coca Cola's International Recruitment, a company based in Georgia that operates in 16o countries and employees about 400 000 people. Thus, its HR department must recruit professional and managerial staff that can successfully operate internationally. Mike Semra, director of international resources for Coca-Cola, believes that "As you look to the future, the people who are running companies are going to be people who have operated in more than one culture." Therefore, he has concluded that Coke's management needs to be multilingual and multicultural. While the global language of business is English, according to Semran, applicants who have additional languages skills are more valuable to the company. Coca-Cola's managerial recruitment program focuses on candidates on college level in U.S schools with strong international programs. A large percentage of its new hires are from the company's formal internship program. According to an International Orientation Resources study, Coca-Cola's international recruitment firms require in recent college graduates include technical expertise, management ability, previous overseas experience, and a second language.

5. Criteria for choosing the best candidates

Generally, for each post, the companies need qualified, experienced, motivated, skilled employees that can adapt in the working team and organization. Therefore the criteria for choosing the right candidate can be grouped into:

1. Experience and knowledge. Lack of knowledge and professional experience will impose additional costs related to the training time for the employees; If the vacancy refers to a management position, should be considered: The history of the applicant's professional life (and wage growth on job responsibilities previously held ); availability and managerial skills of the minimum level of experience; Professional knowledge (attested by diplomas or certificates) required by jobs conditions.

2. Skills and qualities. Each work situation requires certain requirements to be met: work under stress, at high speed, a work program with periods of stagnation, contacts with the public, communication with colleagues, restrictions labor protection. Other items worthy of attention: physical appearance, mannerisms, dress, general culture, decision-making capacity, knowledge of foreign languages;

3. Motivation. It is good to have a match between the expectations of the candidate and his interest in the post, on the one hand, and job conditions, on the other hand. If the chances of promotion and professional development are minimal, and working conditions are difficult, it is wiser to hire a person with very high aspiration and not lower potential. This is because, under the conditions mentioned, there is chance that you can attract and keep business, especially a performer. For some jobs, no opportunities for promotion or salary are the only way to motivate employees. In other stations, the organization can offer creative and professional development event. You must consider the main driving factors that motivate employees: interest in the profession and their desire to firm values.

4. Adaptable. Adaptability and integration of the employees depends on: communication skills- posts that involve social contact need to have pleasant people; resistance to stress and behavior in difficult situations; ability to influence others (management skills); positive attitude in teamwork; Adaptation to the conditions and working hours.

The objective of recruitment is to attract a number of qualified personnel for each particular job opening. Organizational inducements are all the positive features and benefits the organization offers to attract jobs applicants. Three the more important organizational inducements are organizational compensation systems, career opportunities, and organizational reputation.

Starting salaries, frequency of pay raises, incentives, and the nature of organization's fringe benefits can all influence the number of people attracted through the recruitment process. For example, organization that pay low starting salaries have a much more difficult time finding qualified applicants than do organizations that pay higher starting salaries.

Organizations that have a reputation for providing employees with career opportunities are also more likely to attract a larger pool of qualified candidates through their recruiting activities. Employee and management development opportunities enable present employees to grow personally and professionally; they also attract good people to the organization; assisting present employees inducement to potential employees.

Finally, the organization's overall reputation, or image, serves as an inducement to potential employees. Factors that affect an organization's reputation include its general treatment of employees, the nature and quality of its products and services, and its participation in worthwhile social endeavours. Unfortunately, some organizations accept a poor image as "part of our industry and business". Regardless of the type of business or industry, organizations should strive for a positive image.

II. Equal Employment Opportunity and Recruitment

The entire subject of recruitment interviewing is made even more complex by equal employment opportunity legislation and court decision relating to this legislation. For example, if an interviewer asks for certain information such as race, sex, age, marital status, and number of children during the interview, the company risk the chance of an employment discrimination suit. Prior to employment, interviewing should not ask for information that is potentially prejudicial unless the company is prepared to prove that the requested information is job related. Equal opportunity legislation has significantly influenced recruitment activities. All recruitment procedures for each job category should be analyzed and reviewed to identify and eliminate discriminatory barriers. For example, The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOQ) encourages organizations to avoid recruiting primarily by employee referral and walk-ins because these practices tend to perpetuate the present composition of an organization's work force. If minorities and females are not well represented at all levels of the organization, reliance on such recruitment procedures has been ruled by the courts to be a discriminatory practice.

The EEOC also suggests that the content of help-wanted ads should not indicate any race, sex or age preference for the job unless age or sex is a bona fide occupational qualification. Organizations are also encouraged to advertise in media directed toward minorities and women. Advertising should indicate that the organization is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate. However, one study has concluded that despite the passage of equal opportunity legislation and numerous court decisions, recruitment ads that discriminate on the basis of sex continue to be widespread.

Campus recruiting visits should be scheduled at colleges and universities with large minority and female enrollment. The EEOC also recommends that employers develop and maintain contacts with minority, female, and community organizations as source of recruits.

Employers are encouraged to contact nontraditional recruitment sources, such likely organizations that place physically and mentally handicapped persons. It is likely that hiring of both females and minority groups will continue to receive attention, and increased emphasis will be placed on hiring those groups. More than likely, recruiters will also have to pay more attention to the spouse, male or female, of the person being recruited. It may become necessary to assist in finding jobs for spouses of recruits. In hiring women, especially for managerial and professional jobs, it may be necessary to consider hiring the husband as well. The process of staff recruitment and selection is becoming increasingly complex and its integration into organizational and Human Resource (HR) strategies means that the successful outcome of these processes is vital for job performance and organizational success. The intricacy of matching the right applicant to the right job is a perpetual activity for management and HR practitioners considering the organization's economic, social and political contexts.Recruiting and selecting the right people for your business is a challenge, and every situation is unique. If one is innovative, persistent and realistic, and can communicate the strengths of his business and the benefits of the positions one offers, one should be successful in attracting high quality employees to build careers with his or her organization.Generally, characteristics which employers look for while hiring are: the person should be hungry for success and have a risk taking capacity. He or she must also be able to think-out-of-the-box, learn to live with stress, be a great team player and have a commitment outlook. Hence, the organization will end up having strong committed team to meet its goals and objectives.

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