Introduction
Recruitment is a managerial function which requires analysis of the type of the job available in order to determine the skills and qualifications of the individuals. The selected people must be suitably qualified and proficient to perform the specific job involved. In this case, organizations may either recruit the employees by themselves, or hire professional recruitment bodies to do it for them. In both cases, the criteria applied on the process of recruiting the employees are the same. The employees being recruited are screened on whether they are suitably qualified for the job, in order to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in their positions in the organization (Xander, 2010).
Screening of Online Applications
Sheppard (2010) observes that many organizational managers are resorting to online screening of their candidates before hiring the applicants on the basis of the information contained in their resumes and CVs. This has been made possible by the availability of on line recruitment agencies that have databases for resumes and CVs. More importantly, the rise of social online sites such as face book and blogs has brought significant change in recruitment processes among employers. As it has been revealed, information about individuals can be accessed at free will from these sites. In a survey commissioned by Microsoft, surveyed US managers revealed that; more than 80% recruitments done in US use online screening of job application documents.
In addition, 75% of US employments are reported to have been following their company formal policies which require candidates to have their information be available on online sites. However, ethical issues have been raised concerning this act of providing private information on online sites. Specifically, some online data may be personal and beyond professionalism; which may lead to the disqualification of proficient and competent candidates in some companies and organizations. More over, recruitment professionals differ in what information they consider. In the next five years, Sheppard (2010) observes that online reputation data and its use will increase significantly in recruitment.
Challenges Facing Recruiters
Consequently, applicants will be faced by a new challenge; where not just the professional qualifications will be considered but also their social lives using free and voluntarily displayed information on their social site accounts profiles. Even though there are no specific laws forbidding recruiters from using such information to disqualify candidates, it is expected that; recruitment professionals may find themselves at losses of facing lawsuits to explain the disqualification criteria used. It is generally agreed that it would be unethical to disqualify a candidate on his/her social life grounds if he she is adequately qualified to hold the position applied for (Cottell, 2010).
On this basis, recruitment professional may have to be faced by the daunting task of explaining ho such social traits as may be gotten from social sites will negatively affect the duties of the job vacancy. As it has been observed by Cottell (2010), social networks are private and are not gateways to applicant’s information. On this basis therefore, organizations and companies should not entirely rely on social sites to recruit employees, but should develop other more reliable and efficient strategies to enhance fairness in recruitment, as well as upholding of ethics. Recruitment trends have largely changed through the embracing of the increasing technology in attracting, screening and hiring of the desired applicant for job vacancies. However graduate recruitment has remained a source of relatively cheap and very robust workforce with companies going round schools to recruit fresh graduates.
Criteria of Recruiting Graduates using Aptitude Test
They use of intelligent quotient measures aptitude tests to get those individuals to hire. However the fresh graduates may not have the needed experience and may require on job training. This is the main reason why most organizations do not opt to use online amplitude tests for IQ of applicants. Sometimes, graduates are considered overqualified for specific jobs; but at certain times they may not be capable of dealing with specific jobs. However, graduates are usually keen to learn and embrace new technology and changes; hence keeping the organization dynamic and well performing. As it has been observed, graduate recruitment as a means of obtaining not only a sharp work force but also a work force that is highly motivated and with self initiatives to handle the workload (Cottell, 2010).
Generally, managers can only acquire updated employees by embracing the changes experienced in the current society. This would reduce the cost when recruiting employees, as well as enhancing the recruitment of more competent and proficient employees. In addition, this strategy reduces time wastage as the managers will not waste time looking for potential employees but rather, the applicants will be applying through online sites. More over, technology itself is a thing to be embraced in all undertakings from advertising for opportunities to screen online applications (Xander, 2010).
Conclusion
As it has been observed, employers in organizations and ought to be analytical in the process of recruiting their staff and other employees. This requires their being considerate of social and ethical standards in order to facilitate the recruitment of competent and proficient employees in such organizations. In this case, the online strategies currently devised by various organizations, both local and international, ought to be revised of their upholding of ethics and accuracy in recruiting the required by the organizations.
References
Cottell, C. (2010). The Rise of the internal Recruiter. Web.
Sheppard, S. Cyber screening. Human Resource Management, 34(2), 2010: 45-51.
Xander, P. (2010). Graduate Recruitment – The smart Option for Employers. Web.