CHAPTER 6

Recruitment and Selection

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Recruitment
The process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers, and with appropriate qualifications, and encouraging them to apply for jobs with an organization.
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Aims

Recruitment Initial Screening Final Selection

Importance of recruitment and selection

Management or Professional positions vs Clerical or Shop floor levels Value of commitment and motivation Getting people with exact skills, qualities and attitudes Workforce is becoming increasingly heterogeneous Unsophisticated
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Recruitment and selection at Nissan UK

Shopfloor Production jobs 11,500 applied for the first 500 vacancies Sophisticated selection process Application form -Seven pages in length Focus - Attitude and approach to problem-solving rather then simple technical knowledge.
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What does recruitment selection involve?

Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting a pool of suitable candidates for the vacancy. Advertising is important here.

Pool of candidates To reduce the field to manageable proportions

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Next phase concerns initial screening

Final selection phase

Assessment of recruitment and selection processes.

Cost

In terms of financial resources refers to the extent to which a particular recruitment or selection technique is an accurate or valid predictor of actual job performance. (0-1) Possibility of bias
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Validity

Fairness

Does a vacancy exist?

Avoid automatic replacement syndrome

Really necessary to recruit a replacement or Work can be reorganized or Rescheduled amongst existing staff

Initially via promotion, or whether it should be sourced externally via recruitment Career advancement

First step is to determined the type of person or people the company ideally wishes to recruit

Internal Promotion and External Recruitment

President and Chief Executive Officer Promotion A. L. Weaver Retirement

Vice President, Human Resources R. E. Lewis Promotion

Manager. Employment R. R. Jackson

Manager, Human Resource Department M.L. Denney Promotion

Manager, Compensation J. Hicks

Salary Analyst B. Massenburg B.B.S., State University External Recruit G. L. Newman

Benefit Analyst B. W. Swain 9

Conduct a job analysis

Two components: a job specification and a person specification

Functional flexibility Wide range of job tasks when the workload requires Rapidly changing environments Completely different role in the near future (Bratton and Gold, 1999)

Identification of candidates that are willing to be flexible, and that have the right attitudes and motivational qualities rather than searching for candidates that have a specific 10

The Recruitment strategy

Internal advertisements, External advertisements in press publications, Recruitment agencies, Executive search agencies, or Encouraging current employees to ask friends and relatives to apply (so-called grapevine Recruitment)
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Outside Sources of Recruitment

Advertisements Unsolicited applications and resumes Internet recruiting Employee referrals Executive search firms Educational institutions Professional organizations

Labor unions Public employment agencies Private employment agencies Temporary help agencies Employee leasing

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The Recruitment strategy

The Recruitment process is a marketing exercise Strength of their brands Reputations

By merging their recruitment strategy with their product marketing strategy. Such an approach involves adopting similar formats, styles and colours in recruitment advertisements as are used in product marketing advertisements 13 (Capelli, 2001)

E-recruitment

Online application forms Online assessment tests

More viable or more effective than traditional recruitment methods

McKinseys, Bain, Accenture, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers

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E-recruitment

IPDs annual recruitment survey (Institute of Personnel and Development, 1999), 32 per cent of UK employers were recruiting through the Internet in 1999(up from 14 per cent in 1997) In the US, 90 per cent of large US employers are already using erecruitment (Capelli, 2001) 15

Benefits of e-recruitment
Monster.com 18 million employee profiles and CVs available on-line (Capelli, 2001) Some companies have also established Internet alumni networks. Re-establish contacts with former employees that have left the company to work for competitor organisations.
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Benefits of e-recruitment (Capelli, 2001)

43 days to recruit - Using traditional techniques 6 days by posting jobs online 4 days if on-line application forms were used Further 7 days if applications were screened electronically (e-rec - 17 days)

Cost benefits Recruitment advertisements are expensive Quality of applicants higher

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Hot Recruiting Sites

Career Builder: http://www.careerbuilder.com Carries its own listings and offers links to sixteen specialized career sites. Employment Guide: http://www.employmentguide.com Another leading career resource site, has thousands of job listings from hundreds of major companies. FlipDog: http://www.flipdog.com Features more than 400,000 jobs and 57,000 employers in 3,700 locations. HotJobs: http://www.hotjobs.com Owned by Yahoo, offers advanced management features and smart agents to streamline the recruiting18 process.

Hot Recruiting Sites

JOBTRAK: http://www.jobtrak.com A leading college recruiting site, has more than 40,000 listings and links to 750 campuses in the United States. JobWeb: http://www.jobweb.com A college recruiting site run by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Monster.com: http://www.monster.com One of the oldest and largest general recruiting sites on the Internet, with more than 50,000 listings. Net-Temps: http://www.nettemps.com The webs leading site for recruiting temps Spherion (formerly E. Span): http://www.spherion.com 19 One of the largest and best-known web recruiting sites.

e-recruitment at British Airways www.britishairwaysjobs.com

Merrick, N. Wel.com aboard, People Management, 17 may 2001 Leaders for Business Management Training Programme - can apply through e-mail only Ads posted traditionally & on web

Received 5000 instead of 12000 (usual) Dealing with high quality base - valid way to screen out people who are not conversant with web technology.

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Which recruitment techniques should a company use?

Type and level of vacancy Managerial or executive job as opposed to a semi-skilled manual job Time constraints Cost limitations

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Recruitment Techniques

Yield analysis

A systematic yield analysis Ensuring fairness Executive search agencies tend to take a long time, whereas employee referrals can be very quick Executive search agencies - expensive

Time-lapse analysis (Cascio, 1998)

Cost-per-hire

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Recruitment Techniques
Yield Ratio

Percentage of applicants from a recruitment source that make it to the next stage of the selection process.

100 resumes received, 50 found acceptable = 50% yield.

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Recruitment Techniques
Cost of Recruitment (per employee hired)

SC = source cost AC = advertising costs, total monthly expenditure (example: $28,000) AF = agency fees, total for the month (example: $19,000) RB = referral bonuses, total paid (example: $2,300) NC = no-cost hires, walk-ins, nonprofit agencies, etc. (example: $0) H = total hires (example: 119)

SC AC + AF + RB + NC = H H

Cost to hire one employee = $414

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Initial screening

Application form

Many countries have regulations Using psychometric techniques Case studies, job sampling or videos

Biodata inventories

Realistic job previews

(Permack and Wanous, 1985)

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Initial screening

Drug screening

Approximately 20 per cent of US private sector firms now drug-screen their applicants (Cascio, 1991) Evidence to suggest that drug use predicts poorer job performance Accuracy is unproven Experts argue that the tests can be beaten (Saxe, Dougherty and Cross, 1985)

Graphology

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Initial screening

On-line tests

Highly sophisticated psychometric instruments For example, JP Morgan Chase contains a clever on-line application for college students: a game based on job hunting and investment decisions, which elicits information about applicants interests, attitudes and abilities (Capelli, 2001)
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Initial screening

Online Tests

Unsupervised Quite easily seek assistance Non-controlled and non-supervised environment, may well be less than rigorous Some companies retest candidates when they attend interview (People Management, 2001)
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Final selection

Companies include selection techniques like

Interviews Assessment centres Tests and work samples

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Selection Techniques and the Frequency of Use

Technique Percentage of firms reporting use Reference checking 96% Interviews 94% Application forms 87% Ability tests 78% Medical examinations 50% Mental ability 31% Drug tests 26% Personality inventory 17% Weighted application forms 11% Honesty tests 7% Lie detector tests 5%
SOURCE: A.M. Ryan and P. Sackett, A Survey of Individual Assessment Practices by I/O Psychologists, Personnel Psychology 40 (1987), pp. 455-488; Bureau of National Affairs, 1988-89 Survey of Fortune 500 Companies, Washington, D.C.; I.T. Robertson and P.J. Jakin, Management Selection in Britain: A Survey and Critique, Journal of Occupational Psychology 59, pp. 45-57.

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Percentage of Job Skills Testing in Selected Industries

INDUSTRY TEST ALL JOB ONLY SELECT APPLICANTS JOB CATEGORIES

Manufacturing Financial Services Wholesale and Retail Business and Professional Services Other Services

7% 4% 0% 2% 6%

49% 68% 53% 57% 63%

Source: American Management Association: Job Skills Testing Questionnaire, 1998. 31

Final selection

Interviewing

Focused interview Structured interviews Unstructured interviews

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Effectiveness of interview

A lot of evidence to suggest that their effectiveness ids poor Structured interviews that are effective as predictors of future job performance Validity of 0.62 Unstructured interviews Validity rating of 0.31 (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993)
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Effectiveness of interview

Why are structured interviews so much more effective than unstructured interviews?

Easier to objectively compare Necessarily asked the same set of questions Extremely difficult

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Effectiveness of interview

Structured interviews as Behavioural interviews rather than as a situational interview (Barclay, 2001) When interviews are unstructured difficult Highly subjective Reduces the validity of the process
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Sample Situational Interview Question

QUESTION: It is the night before your scheduled vacation. You are all packed and ready to go. Just before you get into bed, you receive a phone call from the plant. A problem has arisen that only you can handle. You are asked to come in to take care of things. What would you do in this situation? RECORD ANSWER:

SCORING GUIDE: Good: I would go in to work and make certain that everything is O.K. Then I would go on vacation. Good: There are no problems that only I can handle. I would make certain that someone qualified was there to handle things. Fair: I would try to find someone else to deal with the problem. Fair: I would go on vacation.

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Effectiveness of interview

Researchers have found that subjectivity within the unstructured interview process takes a number of forms.

Expectancy effect Primacy effect Contrast effect Quota effect Similar-to-me effect (Managing diversity at Marks and Spencer, and British Telecom) 37

Effectiveness of interview

Researchers have found that subjectivity within the unstructured interview process takes a number of forms. (Continued)

Personal liking bias (Eg. Common sporting grounds) Physical cues (Wearing Glasses are often equated to intelligence) Ability to recall information (Memory of 38 interviewers??)

Effectiveness of interview

Unstructured interviewing can be said as a Hallmark of an incompetent interviewer US suggest that only about 35 per cent of companies use structured interviews (Cascio, 1991) Implication is - 65 per cent of companies rely on unstructured interviewing
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Final selection tests

Cognitive ability tests - Numerical and verbal reasoning tests. Ability tests fall into two categories:

attainment tests (which assess the skills a candidate already possesses, such as typing skills), and aptitude tests (which assess the likely ability of candidates to acquire new skills).
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Final selection tests

Work sample tests/job simulation tests

Candidate is placed in a situation that they are likely to face in the job itself Example - In-tray tests, asked to prioritize the hypothetical workload in a logical manner Mostly assess the methods and processes the candidates utilises rather than results they achieve
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Final selection tests

Personality tests

100000 psychometric tests are taken every day in Western countries (Wilson, 1999:30). Ability, aptitude and personality questionnaires are used mainly for managerial posts, while literacy and numeracy tests are more popular for clerical and secretarial positions (Beardwell and Holden, 2001) Complementary to interviews, rather than replacing them 42

Effectiveness of tests

Ability, attainment and aptitude tests

Ability tests 0.54 vs Work sample tests- 0.55 (Anderson and Shackleton, 1993) Criticized by Robert Stenberg,Professor, Yale University, People Management, 1998 argues that successful people have 3 kinds of abilities

Analytical abilities Creative abilities Practical abilities

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Conventional ability tests focus primarily on measurement of Analytical or abstract skills

Effectiveness of tests

Personality tests (Beardwell and Holden, 2001)

The extent to The extent to over time The extent to identified The extent to questionnaire

which personality is measurable which personality remains stable which personality traits can be which the completion of a
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Effectiveness of tests

Personality tests Problem of cultural bias

Need for achievement Assessing sales drive PA consulting (HR consultancy firm) iron out Cultural inconsistencies

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Effectiveness of tests

Assessment centres

Participants undertake a variety of tests, group exercises and interviews observed by a team of multiple assessors Final decision based on pooled information Several days to complete -- costly process Accuracy is high but should be conducted properly Reserved for management and graduate selection - due to high costs

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Effectiveness of tests

Reference checks

Reference request from previous and current employers Mostly positive?? Debatable - Referees knowledge on candidates on the job performance?? More used as factual check relating to candidates qualifications and prior experience.
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Is there an ideal, or one best way approach to final selection?

Vary depending upon the position being recruited to(such as whether managerial/professional as opposed to non-managerial) Irrespective of the level of vacancy must carry out the processes of recruitment, initial screening and final selection in a through, systematic manner (Else no guarantee on suitable candidate)

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Is there an ideal, or one best way approach to final selection?

Final selection

Tests can be highly accurate predictors of future job performance (better to study candidates ability and personality) Interviews should be freed up to assess other issues (speech, poise and appearance) Persons level of friendliness-ratings of a candidates friendliness in interviews frequently match supervisor assessments of friendliness in later appraisals?? 49

Is there an ideal, or one best way approach to final selection?

Public relations perspective

Disheartening for applicants to be rejected A candidate rejected today may well be a potential customer in the future, so it makes good business sense to treat them with courtesy and respect

Interviews are to be structured if they are to prove effective.

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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

Anti-discrimination law in the US means that any R&S process has to be undertaken very carefully.

Eg, words and phrases such as man/girl; saleswoman; bar

maid; waitress; college student; recently retired; bilingual, are

all potentially illegal.

Each of these indicates a preference gender, age, education and nationality.

Selection procedures are also subject to legal constraints in US. Application forms, interviews etc should all conform to the requirement of being job related.
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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

In HK recruitment has traditionally occurred through family networks (Torrington and Tan, 1995), although it has been noted that western methods have grown since the 1980s with the increasing use of advertising (Kirkbride and Tang, 1989).

In Singapore only 53% of women are economically active. One challenge is to attract women into the workforce.
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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

The MOM in Singapore offers CareerLink@mom. This is an advisory centre that provides job seekers with information on employment and learning opportunities to enhance employability.

It also provides employers with labour market trends and information and they can source for suitable employees from the database.

NTUC has an Employment Assistance Programme. The SHRI also offers such services.
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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

There are also Tripartite Guidelines on Non-Discriminatory Job Advertisements. These do not have legal force but aim to reduce discrimination in this process.

Criteria that should not be used in job advertisements race, religion (unless required), marital status, age, gender (unless required).

Acceptable criteria are educational qualifications, releveant skills and knowledge (proficient in both English and Malay), relevant attributes, relevant experience, other job requirements.
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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

Core workers in Japanese corporations are recruited and selected through rigorous processes requiring resume, photograph, an official family record, physical examination, letters of recommendation. An entrance examination will also be administered.

Japanese employers will seek the following stability, commitment, teamworking capability, and generalist rather than specialist skills. Japanese companies tend to operate the core/peripheral split. Women in Japan are recruited more casually as their role is perceived as homemaker.
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Recruitment and Selection: Country Differences

In Korea employees are separated into 3 types of employees core, basic (permanent employees), temporary employees.

Elements of the selection process in Korea would include test for specialist knowledge, test of English proficiency, a personal interview.

The split between core and peripheral workers is again an important one.
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Factors That Motivate Top Talent

Source: E. G. Chambers, H. Hanafield-Jones, S. M. Hankin, and E. G. Michaels, III, Win the War for Top Talent, Workforce 77, no. 12 (December 1998): 5056. Used with permission of McKinsey & Co.

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Best and Worst Majors for JobHunting Graduates

Source: Patrick Scheetz, Employment Research Institute, Michigan State University.

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Occupational Breakdown of Temporary Help Agency Placements

Source: Steve Jones, Youve Come a Long Way, Baby: What the Staffing Industry Offers Today, Canadian HR Reporter 14, no. 19 (November 5, 2001): 15.

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