Recruitment and Selection Essay Example for Free

Recruitment and Selection Essay 1.0 Attracting and Recruiting Tesco The priority for Tesco is to recruit internally; potential applicants are scouted with their Talent Plan to fill a vacancy. Employees looking for a promotion are targeted first, if there are no compatible people in the Talent Plan or developing within the businesses internal management program then Tesco will advertise the vacancy internally on its staff website for two weeks. Benefits †¢An incentive for employees to work hard therefore rewards good employees. †¢Cost Effective due to not having to advertise externally in expensive mediums e. g. magazines, newspapers etc. †¢The business is already familiar with the skills and capability of the candidates. †¢Motivation can occur as it provides an increase in employee empowerment. †¢Shorter introduction period needed as the candidate is already familiar with the operations and activities of the business. (hrcap.com) Disadvantages †¢Limited applicants given that you are only able to choose from the pool within the business. †¢Lack of new ideas and perspectives introduced externally as people on the outside may have different experiences from business that they have work for in the past and innovative ideas. †¢May cause conflict between potential candidates and resentment from those not promoted or not given the opportunity. †¢As the employee(s) gets promoted this creates another vacancy. (tutor2u.net) McDonald’s Every restaurant franchise is responsible for filling hourly-paid positions this is empowered through McDonalds recruitment policy. The management recruitment department generally advertises the position in the restaurant for recruiting hourly paid employees. However, there are other method that they use such as job centers, careers fairs and other local facilities. Benefits †¢People on the outside can bring in new ideas and perfective that can aid innovation and improve productivity. †¢Larger pool of potential applicants from which to find the best candidate. †¢May reduce training expenses by as experienced candidates can be employed. †¢Diversifies the business, helps company’s aims of meeting their diversity requirements. †¢Does not create conflict between employees. (blurtit.com) Disadvantages †¢Longer process due the need to attract externally. †¢More costly from the requirement of interviewing and advertising. †¢Could cause morale problems as internal candidates are not given the opportunity for a promotion. †¢Requires longer orientation or introduction period. †¢Selection process may not be effective to reveal the best candidate. (Aswathappa, K. 2005) 2.0 HR Planning A systematic process for identifying the human resources required to meet organisational goals and developing strategies to meet those requirements. It defines the activities necessary to have the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time. (cs.ny.gov) Tesco Given that Tescos is putting emphasis on growth, the company needs to recruit regularly to keep up with the demands of the business and its operations for both food and non-food parts of the business. The process runs annually from end of February. Quarterly reviews in May, August and November are used to assess current staffing levels and whether recruitment is needed. McDonalds McDonalds labor turnover is usually high due to the most of them being in education (varies from differing franchises) hence HR planning is a monthly process that requires the assessment of staff that are leaving and therefore the need to evaluate whether recruiting new staff is needed. Advantages †¢The company anticipates future needs of the organisation and evaluates whether appropriate action is needed in effect preventing potential problems before they arise which ultimately increases the overall efficiency of the business good workforce planning is a source of competitive advantage. (ehow.com) †¢HR planning takes a proactive approach in ensuring that the corporate objective is met by aiding the businesss operations. Therefore it allows managers to prepare and plan for changes rather than reacting to changes as they come. Hence HR planning is a good strategic decision making tool. (tutor2u.net) †¢Businesses that are in market with high external changes e.g. Mobile Phone market technology. The business can better react work force implications such as employing someone that have a particular set of skills to match the competition. (datapole.hubpages.com) Potential issues †¢Implementing the decisions made from the HR plan may be difficult due to cost. Most of the decisions made from the HR planning have cost implications e.g. new training, extra recruitment, and redundancies. The cost need to be evaluated relative to the corporate objective and whether the decision aids in meeting the objective(s). (tutor2u.net) 3.0 Equality Act 2010 The Equality Act 2010 is the law which bans unfair treatment and helps achieve equal opportunities in the workplace and in wider society. (homeoffice.gov.uk) The human resource department is responsible for implementing the act given that the act is aimed at recruitment and the selection process and the working environment. Tesco enforces this act in the recruitment process by not including questions about religion, sexual orientation and age on the application form. Tesco has implemented a diversity strategy, Tesco’s aim to employ people from disabled or disadvantaged groups. Tesco offers an interview guarantee to candidates from Remploy, Shaw Trust and Whizz-Kidz three organisations that work with disabled people. McDonalds believes success is due to the experiences and the quality of their employees. Their aim is to develop employees’ talents, whilst nurturing their differences. To ensure equality and diversity McDonalds implements policies and monitors and reviews them regularly to maintain their effectiveness. For an example in application form there are not questions regarding age, sex or race. Through Diversity Awareness Training, Managers Guide Training, the Employee Handbook, managers will make certain every employees are trained and made aware of their responsibilities under the equality and diversity policies. Moreover, employees have an option on joining internal programs and employee business networks that serve to provide a sense of community in a diverse work place such networks include: Hispanic Employee Network, McDonald’s African American Council, and McDonald’s Gay Lesbian Allies Network. Moreover, they provide information, education, and advice for both the employees and the company. Benefits †¢Creates a good image an ethical corporate image. †¢Attracts and retain talent from the widest range and best possible pool of potential candidates for the vacancy. Feeling included and appreciated increases loyalty and feeling of belonging therefore reducing absenteeism and labor turnover, ultimately saving on recruitment expenses. †¢Creates a more respectable and safer work environment and culture since it is illegal to bully or harass an employee based on sex, race, age, or disability. †¢Managing and adapting to the impact of globalisation and technological change. In effect improving knowledge of how to operate in different cultures which is extremely beneficial for businesses that operate overseas (e.g. Tesco) †¢Enables a work force to develop creativity and a variety of perspectives that can benefit problem solving due to having more solutions to choose from. Morale can increase as a result of a mixture of different age groups within the workforce. The mix of young and older people brings a broad range of knowledge, experience and social skills to the company. †¢A diverse workforce is more flexible, since it consists of a wide range of people from a different stage of the life cycle, all able to work together to deliver the best service in all circumstances which is especially important for a mass market firm such as Tesco and MacDonalds (oneworkplace.org) Disadvantages †¢Different cultures could provoke a conflict in views and opinions and negatively affect team work therefore decreasing productivity. †¢Diversity and equality policies help against preventing discrimination which can be very costly if convicted. †¢People may feel insecure or threatened to work with people of a different age, sex, or culture. An increase in training expenses could occur due costs associated with seminars, programs and lectures given to promote diversity in the corporation. These types of training are given to all levels of staff within the organization (Outtz, J.L, 2004) †¢The pressure of increasing work place diversity can bias the selection process. Hiring managers may believe that diversifying the work place to meet policies is more of a concerning matter as if they dont there is a stigma attached to it for being discriminatory and therefore putting their job at risk. Hence, increasing diversity requirements might make fail to notice more suita ble qualified applicants in favor of applicants who bring diversity (not necessarily talent) to the organization. †¢Making adjustments to accommodate diversity can be costly (e.g. installing lifts). Numerous diverse groups demands can become burdensome on employers therefore causing de-motivation. Employee requests and work constraints based on religion, national origin, gender and race can become overpowering if your workplace has so much diversity that it takes human resources staff member too much time and workload just to keep track of obliging to the needs of diverse groups in the workplace. (chron.com) (scribd.com) 4.0 Involvement of the human resource practitioner The HR practitioners play a proactive role, contributing to the formulation of corporate strategy, developing and integrating HR strategies and giving guidance on matters related to uphold legislations, policies and ethical principles. (Armstrong, M. 2010) Tescos human resource practitioner is responsible for workforce planning, the process of analysing an organisations likely future needs for people in terms of numbers, skills and locations. This planning process runs every year late February. There are quarterly reviews in May, August and November, in order for to Tesco to alter staffing levels and recruit where necessary. This permits Tesco sufficient time and flexibility to meet the businesses demands for staff and allows the company to meet its strategic objectives, such as maintain a good level of customer service or opening new stores. In terms of McDonalds each individual restaurant is responsible for filling hourly-paid positions. The HR manager is usually the general manager of the franchise. The HR manager sets policies for hiring and recruitment such as enforcing the equality act. Theyre responsible for creating job postings and advertisements when there are vacancies, they are also responsible for the contents within the application form so they must keep in mind the equality act so questions on age, race, disabilities etc. are not permitted within the application form. The manager typically decides the final candidate that is applicable for the job. 5.0 Section Methods Interview An interview is described as a conversation with a purpose†¦ most job interviews are structured with questions aim about the candidates experience, careers and qualifications (Armstrong, M. 2006 p441) This information is exchanged, with the intention of establishing the applicant’s suitability for a position. (businessdictionary.com) Strengths †¢Useful to determine if the applicant has good communication and social skills which may be required for to fill the vacancy. †¢Opportunity for candidates to ask questions – to solve any issues. †¢Enables the supervisor and current employees to evaluate if there is compatibility between the applicant and the team. †¢The candidate may reveal additional information useful for making a selection decision that he/she did not write on the application form. †¢The interviewer can explain the job in detail and assess the applicants job knowledge. †¢Opportunity to ask exploratory questions that investigates the candidates characteristics and competencies assess if they meet the job requirements. †¢Interviews to get an understanding of a candidates personality, which may be difficult to distinguish from a CV or application on paper. †¢Rich in qualitative data that is useful to analyse personality. (evalued.bcu.ac.uk) Weaknesses †¢Some applicants may feel nervous during interviews, leading them to forget key points about present them selves badly leading to a bad first impression. Therefore an interview may not be a fit for everyone only those that prefer interview hence biasing the process towards more confident people. This could undermine more qualified and experienced people as they are over shadowed by their first impression of being nervous and not confident, ultimately, this may cause the HR manager hiring the wrong person for the job. †¢Interviews rely on the interviewers own judgment and dont guarantee the best outcome as interviewer bias can distort the results. †¢Qualitative data is subjective and depends on the interpretation of the interviewer, deeming it unreliable. †¢Can lack validity due to it not being a true measure of how the candidate will perform in a work place. Moreover, it does not necessarily review competence in matching demands of the job, given that answering questions is not a valid measure of the persons ability to do the job. †¢They can be very time-consuming: setting up, interviewing, transcribing, analysing, feedback, reporting therefore, can be costly. (academic.udayton.edu) (siteresources.worldbank.org) Assessment Centers ‘A method for assessing aptitude and performance; applied to a group of participants by trained assessors using various aptitude diagnostic processes in order to obtain information about applicants abilities or development potential.’ (psychometric-success.com) Selection techniques may be combined and applied together at events referred to as assessment centers. Such events may last one to three days during which a group of applicants for a post will undertake a variety of techniques†¦ the general methods used would be group discussions, role plays and simulations, interviews and tests.† (Bratton J. and Gould J. 1999 p206) In assessment centers candidates take part in management related exercises (test). Common exercises include: Different types of Psychological tests. †¢Management games. †¢In-Basket exercises. Here, the candidate is asked to solve different management problems. †¢Group discussion (GD) about different management topics. †¢Oral presentations of management topics. †¢Good report writing, etc. (http://psychcentral.com) Advantages †¢Identify strengths and weakness of the candidate.(kevinmorrell.org.uk) †¢Multiple tests increase reliability and validity. They are deemed to be more accurate than a standard recruitment process as use a wider variety of selection methods to be used during the process. (kevinmorrell.org.uk) †¢Allow interviewers to differentiate between candidates that seem similar on paper. (Martin M. and Jackson T. 2000) †¢Gives the applicant a better insight of the skills and knowledge needed to fill the vacancy. (Martin M. and Jackson T. 2000) †¢Employers that use assessment centre build an employer brand of being professional and process that genuinely reflect the job. (getfeedback.net) †¢Enable assessors to observe and assess candidates’ behaviour in a number of different situations which provide a more comprehensive and rounded picture of the individuals concerned. (Martin M. and Jackson T. 2000) Disadvantages †¢Expensive; Barclays estimate their assessment centers cost around  £15,000 †¢Arguably the personal characteristics of a person cannot be assessed accurately within the 3 or so day they are running for. †¢Assessor bias can distort results as they may sub consciously prefer a certain characteristic. Work Sample Test Standardized measures of behavior whose primary objective is to assess the ability to do rather than the ability to know through miniature replicas of actual job requirements; also known as situational tests. (highered.mcgraw-hill.com) Advantages †¢The method provides a real life context therefore the method is high in ecological validity which makes the work sample a valid measure of the candidates competence in performing task required in the vacancy. (Van Kleef, J. et al 2007) †¢Provides the assessor a basis to test the applicant skills such as communication that are not clear on paper. (Van Kleef, J. et al 2007) †¢Due to their relationship to the job, these tests are typically viewed more favorable by examinees and candidates than aptitude or personality tests. (hr-guide.com) †¢Difficult for applicants to fake job proficiency which aids validity as the score on the test correlates to how well the applicant completes the task. (hr-guide.com) Disadvantages †¢Useful for jobs that take a short period of time. However it is a poor assessor of jobs that take a long period of time such as designing. (hr-guide.com) †¢Does not predict whether the applicant will have the motivation or personal attributes to carry out that task reliably on the job. (dpc.nsw.gov.au) †¢Denoting work behaviors into number is highly subjective, open to interpretation as well, therefore is open to assessor bias ultimately lowering validity. (dpc.nsw.gov.au)