Executive Summary
Human resource is the most important asset within an organization. Firms have been struggling to find the best way of recruiting the most qualified employees to fill in various positions. Recruitment and selection is one of the most complex tasks in human resource management. The process of selecting the right employee out of a number of applicants is not an easy task.
This is because in most of the cases, the selection team does not have any knowledge of the applicants. They are forced to rely on the resume and other particulars presented before them. The problem is that there are cases where applicants send misleading information about themselves.
The recruiting panel must find a way of getting the right candidates in such cases. A number of ways have been suggested that may help an employer select the most qualified candidates out of the applicants. It involves a series of steps starting from the stage of receiving the applications, their verification, interviews, and making referral calls.
Introduction
Human resource management refers to the management of the workforce within an organization. It involves the process of attracting, selecting, and training, assessing, and rewarding employees within an organization. The field of human resource management has increasingly become important in the current competitive business environment.
According to Roberts (2000), business environment has experienced massive changes due to the changing technological environment. Although these changes have brought about a positive transformation in the field of education, it has also brought with it a number of challenges when in the management of human resource.
It is important for the management to ensure that it understands the workforce in order to be able to lead them towards the desired direction. Human resource management in the current society needs people with the capacity to understand environmental dynamics that have direct impact the workforce.
Employees within an organization should always have the right qualifications in order to deliver the desired services. This means that recruitment and selection process should be done in a diligent manner.
Recruitment and selection refers to the process of sourcing for personnel with the highest qualifications to fill vacant position within a firm. The main aim of the recruitment process is to select the most qualified candidates out of those presented before the recruiting committee. The committee must first understand the need for which an employee should be hired.
The relevant departments must do this process of task comprehension. For instance, if the finance department needs an accountant to fill in a position that has fallen vacant, the chief financial officer must state to the human resource management all the features needed of the new employee.
This means that there might be a need of including the head of finance department in the selection panel so that he or she may help in identification of the needed features.
The main challenge comes in the process of making the selection of the candidates. According to Billsberry (2007), employers always depend on the testimonials presented before them to make the right selection of the employees they need. This is because the individuals who apply for various positions may be total strangers.
The complexity comes because it is possible that out of the many applicants, there will be those who have the desired ability for the task, while others may lack the needed capacity. The recruiting panel must have mechanism of shifting these applicants in order to select the most desired candidates to fill in the positions.
This will involve identifying the applicants with the needed skills and experience. Catano (2009) observes that in most of the cases, applicants may lie about their true capacity using fake documents. Others may have the right academic credentials but lack the needed experience in the post.
There must be a way that the selection panel will use to identify the needed candidate amidst this confusion. This research paper is going to talk about the process of recruiting new employees and some of the challenges experienced during the recruitment process.
Recruitment
The process of hiring the right employees is very involving. According to Cooper and Robertson (2001), this process requires a lot of diligence on the side of the human resource managers in order to come up with the most qualified candidates. In order to be able to understand the best approach that should be taken during recruitment, it is important to know the stages that are always taken during recruitment process.
Job analysis
The first stage in recruitment and selection process is job analysis. At this stage, the relevant head of department will determine if there is a genuine reason to hire a person to take a given position. The manager must identify the gap that such an officer is going to fill in the firm.
Job description
The next step is always job description task. The human resource manager- in collaboration with the relevant head of department- always does this task. This involves describing the job in terms of its title, the duties of the officer, the responsibilities, and the reporting office (Jewson & Mason, 1986). This will help in determining the remuneration and authority that the office holder would have once elected to the position.
Person specification
The third stage is always to specify the person who would assume the office. Person specification will always involve stating the qualifications that the desired person should have in order to be considered fit for the job (Simerson, 2011).
This is always done based on task description. Some of the factors that will be indicated will be the level of education needed, the area of specialization, the experience the candidate should have, and other testimonials that may be considered relevant.
Job advertisement
The next stage will entail advertisement of the post. Compton (2009) says that advertisement can always be done internally or externally. Internal job advertisement will be done if the management is convinced that the desired candidate can be found among the current employees of the firm.
They are always preferred because the management have their record of accomplishment and can easily determine if they have the capacity to meet the desired goals once in office.
If the candidate may not be found among the current employees, the human resource management would be forced to make external advertisement. Then the human resource will receive the application forms from the interested candidates. The human resource will receive the applications within the desired time. The applications will include the cover latter, the resume, and copies of the applicant’s testimonials.
Filtering the application
The recruiting panel will need to filter the applications. The relevant human resource department will sort the applications and separate the undesired candidates from those with the desired skills (Jewson & Mason, 1986). The teams will then shortlist the candidates with the desired skills. When this is done, the management will then make a communication to the shortlisted candidates on how they can come for the interview.
Selection
Interview
In the selection process, the recruiting panel will need to subject the applicants to an interview. This may involve a series of stages that are meant to determine how qualified a candidate may be for the advertised post. The interview may start by analyzing the presented testimonials and asking relevant questions to the applicant.
It may also involve oral or written tests to determine their capacity. It is at this stage that the applicant’s personality, aptitude, and IQ will be tested to determine their desirability within the firm (Jewson & Mason, 1986).
Making referrals and job offer
Upon completion of the interview, the management will make referrals by calling relevant referees given by the applicant in order to determine the truth of the testimonials presented by the applicant. When the referees confirm that the testimonials are factual, then the final step would be to offer the applicant the position. These stages may appear to involve simple activities that may not pose any form of challenge to the officers involved.
However, Dale (2003) says that each stage has its own challenges that the recruiting panel must know how to handle. Failure to understand how each stage should be handled may result into selection of a wrong candidate. It is important to analyze some of the main challenges faced during recruitment and selection of the candidates.
Major Challenges Facing HR Managers during Recruitment and Selection Process
According to Elearn (2005), the process of recruiting and selecting the right workforce comes with a number of challenges to the human resource. This scholar further states that these challenges must always be addressed in a professional manner in order to avoid cases where the recruitment process results into hiring of an unqualified officers who are unable to undertake the tasks needed for the office holder.
Understanding these problems will be the only way of addressing them in a conclusive manner in order to reduce chances of hiring unqualified candidates. The following are some of the main challenges facing human resource managers during recruitment and selection process.
Falsified Documents
According to Fox (2000), one of the main challenges facing human resource management during recruitment process is falsified documents. In some cases, the applicants will falsify some documents in order to get a position that is beyond their capacity. In other cases, it may be easy to detect individuals who are falsifying their capacity. It may be very challenging to identify such individuals.
The management always depends on the oral interviews to identify those who might have falsified their qualifications. In case they manage to pass this stage successfully, the recruiting panel will rely on the referees to authenticate the documents presented before them.
The problem comes in when the candidates seals all the loopholes that can make him or her be identified. With the advanced technology, individuals can falsify a certificate and claim to be holding an academic position he or she does not have.
Their experience would also be forged in a skilled manner in order to ensure that the recruiting panel gets convinced of the qualifications of the candidates. The candidate would then identify individuals who can act as their referees and help them in authenticating the otherwise false information. It may not be easy to identify such a culprit until he or she is offered the job.
It is at this stage that the management will realize that they have awarded a wrong candidate the job. Dale (2003) says that this may not be realized for some time. It may take a while before the management realizes that the officer is underperforming. The realization may also come after the officer has committed an unrepairable mistake while undertaking his or her duties. This may cost the firm a lot.
Favoritism and Corruption
This is probably the biggest challenge that firms face when it comes to recruitment and selection of candidates to fill various positions. According to Edenborough (2007), some of the top managers always prefer to hire their friends and relatives to fill various vacant posts. This means that they would instruct the recruiting panel to select specific candidates for given posts.
This is very common in government offices where the top manager is not personally concerned of the output of the employees. In such cases, the recruitment and selection panel will conduct this process in a normal way, but with the desired candidates predetermined.
Not only is this process a waste of time and resources of the organization, but it also discourages other qualified candidates from ever making applications for future vacancies. The recruitment panel will ignore all the predetermined qualifications on the candidates and make the wrong choice consciously (Simerson, 2011). They will be fully aware that they are making a wrong choice among the presented candidates.
In some instances, corruption plays out during the recruitment and selection process. Some of the panelists would receive bribe from the applicants in order to gain favor. In such instances, the selection panelists would be blinded by the bribe and select a lesser qualified candidate because of the bribery.
Limited knowledge among the recruitment panelist
Another problem that has been common during the process of recruitment and selection has been limited knowledge of the panelist in the area of selection. According to Compton (2009), it is a big challenge for a professional human resource manager to conduct a successful interview for a position of electric engineer.
Inasmuch as human resource manager can have some questions to ask an engineer, he or she may not know issues of specialization about engineering. This problem is very common in the current society where there are numerous fields of specialization. According to Edenborough (2007), there are cases where some panel members lack understanding of the skills needed of the officer to fill a given post.
This scholar says that it is not possible for a marketing manager who has no knowledge of electronic marketing to interview a candidate expected to fill the position of electronic marketer for the firm. This mismatch of the panelists and the candidates can easily make the panelists select a candidate who lacks the right qualifications.
An Interview with the Human Resource Assistant
When conducting a research, it is important to consider using both primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher interviewed Mr. James McCann, the human resource assistant of National Australia Bank Limited located in 129 James Street in Perth. The interview took place on October 2, 2013 at the bank’s premises in the office of Mr. McCann.
The interest of the researcher from this interview was to identify some of the challenges these officers face during the process of recruiting candidates for various posts within the organization. The researcher was interested in knowing the stages involved in the recruitment process and the problems faced at these stages.
The researcher also sought to know how these challenges are dealt with within this firm, and some of the consequences that the firm may face when a wrong candidate is hired. The choice of National Australia Bank Limited was made due to the high number of employees it has and the frequency with which they employ different officers in various fields.
The researcher was able to gather a number of facts from the human resource assistant. The researcher was keen to avoid close-ended questions during the research. Open-ended questions created room for the respondent to elaborate on the responses given. The following are some of the questions that the researcher was seeking an answer for during the interview.
- What are some of the approaches this company uses during the recruitment process?
- What were the factors that guided the choice of recruitment that this firm uses currently?
- What are some of the changes that this firm has made in the past in its recruitment process?
- What is the importance of recruitment and selection process within an organization?
- What are some of the changing trends in recruitment and selection?
- What are the main challenges faced during recruitment and selection process?
- How can these challenges be addressed address?
- How can the management determine if the challenges have been successfully addressed?
- Who should be responsible in addressing the challenges faced during the process of recruitment and selection?
The interview questions and the response given have been outlined in the appendix of this research paper.
A Critical Review of Recruitment and Selection Process
A critical analysis of the answers given by the respondent, and the available literatures reveals a number of facts about recruitment and selection process, and the challenges that comes with it. During the interview, the respondent stated that recruitment and selection process in one of the most challenging tasks in human resource management.
The respondent stated that it is always challenging the selection panel to select the most qualified candidate out of the applicants. This is because several obstacles always limit the ability of coming up with the candidate.
This statement is in agreement with what Dale (2003) says about human resource management. This scholar says that the process of hiring the right workforce poses a serious challenge to the management because of a number of factors that inhibit their ability to identify the most qualified candidate.
The respondent noted that one of the biggest challenge that they face during the selection process is favoritism. The respondent says that there are times when instructions may come from the highest office of the firm on who should be selected for a given post. Being a junior officer, he would be forced to select the preferred candidate even if others had better qualification.
Reynolds (2009) confirms this fact when he states that some top management officers always affect the process of hiring the most qualified officers when they demand that their preferred candidates be selected for given posts. This forces junior officers who are in charge of the selection process to approve individuals with lesser qualification.
The respondent also observed that in cases where the selection panel is allowed to vote where one panel member is given one vote, the process might be affected if some officers are compromised. This respondent stated that there are cases where the panelists accept bribe from candidates and this affects their judgment.
According to Edenborough (2007), corruption has infiltrated various departments of organizations, including human resource unit. This scholar says that some people are forced to buy their jobs despite their qualifications. This means that those who are unable to buy their jobs would lose out to those with lesser capacities who are able to pay the needed price.
The respondent also noted that there are cases where they are forced to interview officers who have qualification beyond their understanding. The respondent noted that he has Masters in Business Administration. His undergraduate degree was in Marketing. This means that he may have a problem interviewing an officer who is expected to fill the position of chief engineer of the firm.
However, he recalls the day he was forced to interview a senior software engineer of this firm. He noted that he had limited number of questions, and there were cases where the responses given included jargon that was beyond his understanding. In such cases, Compton (2009) says that it may be impossible for the recruiting officers to determine the right candidate.
This scholar says that it is important to ensure that officers who are in the recruitment panel understand the field in which an employee is needed. It is important to note that further research should be done to identify the best approach that can be used in identification of falsified qualifications or stolen identities.
Conclusion
Human resource management is key to ensuring that an organization achieves its intended goal. This will always depend on the ability of the human resource manager to steer employees towards the desired direction. For this to be possible, it is important to ensure that, an organization hires the most qualified employees.
Recruitment and selection process is therefore, considered as one of the most important tasks in human resource management. It involves selecting the most qualified candidates to fill various positions within an organization. It is important to ensure that the individuals selected for various positions meet the specification for the job in order to be able to deliver the desired output.
A number of challenges exist in the process of selecting and recruiting the most qualified candidates for various position. Success of the recruitment and selection panel will depend on its ability to mitigate these challenges. The recruiting panel must be in a position to address these challenges in a manner that would enable it select the most qualified candidates among the numerous applicants presented to them.
References
Billsberry, J. (2007). Experiencing recruitment and selection. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Catano, V. M. (2009). Recruitment and selection in Canada. Toronto: Nelson Education.
Compton, R. (2009). Effective recruitment & selection practices. North Ryde: CCH Australia.
Cooper, D., & Robertson, I. T. (2001). Recruitment and selection: A framework for success. London: Thomson Learning.
Dale, M. (2003). A manager’s guide to recruitment & selection. London: Kogan Page.
Edenborough, R. (2007). Assessment methods in recruitment, selection & performance: A manager’s guide to psychometric testing, interviews and assessment centres. London: Kogan Page Ltd.
Elearn, L. (2005). Management extra. Oxford: Elsevier.
Fox, G. (2000). The complete recruitment and selection toolkit. London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
Jewson. N. & Mason. D. (1986). Modes of discrimination in the recruitment process: Formalisation, Fairness and efficiency: Sociology, 20(1), 43-63.
Reynolds, D. (2009). Online recruiting and selection: Innovations in talent acquisition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Roberts, G. (2000). Recruitment and selection: A competency approach. London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
Simerson, B. (2011). Strategic planning: A practical guide to strategy formulation and execution. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
Appendix: The Questionnaire
It is with humility that I present the following questions to you. I assure you that the questions are purely meant for academic purpose and the identity of the respondent will not be disclosed to anyone.
Demographic Factors
The researcher: What is your age?
Mr. McCann: I am 28 years old.
The researcher: What is your gender?
Mr. McCann: Male
The researcher: Are you married?
Mr. McCann: Yes
The researcher: What is your nationality?
Mr. McCann: I am an Australian
The researcher: What position do you hold in National Australia Bank Limited?
Mr. McCann: I am human resource assistant
The researcher: For how long have you been holding this position?
Mr. McCann: I have been holding this position for the past two years
Importance of recruitment and selection process
The researcher: What do you understand by the term recruitment and selection?
Mr. McCann: Recruitment and selection refers to the process of identifying the most qualified candidate for a given position within a firm through rigorous stages involved in identifying the capacity of the candidates.
The researcher: What are some of the approaches this company uses during the recruitment process?
Mr. McCann: This firm has different categories of employees. The human resource management team recruits most of these employees. However, technical human resource such as engineers and lawyers are hired through agencies.
The researcher: What were the factors that guided the choice of recruitment that this firm uses currently?
Mr. McCann: The need to recruit technical human resource using agencies was because the internal recruiting officers did not have adequate knowledge to interview and determine their appropriateness for the desired task.
The researcher: What are some of the changes that this firm has made in the past in its recruitment process?
Mr. McCann: In the past, this firm did not rely on recruitment agencies to hire its employees. However, the need to have the most qualified candidates for various technical positions have forced this firm to use these agencies because of their efficiency.
The researcher: What is the importance of recruitment and selection process within this organization?
Mr. McCann: Recruitment and selection has been considered as an important process within this organization because it helps in hiring the most qualified candidates for various positions.
The researcher: What are some of the changing trends in recruitment and selection?
Mr. McCann: A number of changes have taken place in recruitment and selection process. One of the main changes is that currently the task of recruitment and selection is outsourced from various agencies within the city. It is believed that these agencies have the best capacity to profile applicants and select the most qualified candidates.
Challenges faced during recruitment and selection
The researcher: What are some of the main challenges you face during recruitment and selection process?
Mr. McCann: In this field, a number of challenges exist. One of the main challenges is direct influence of the activities recruitment panel by the top managers. They may give an order for their preferred candidate to be selected. Another challenge is on the fact that some candidates falsify their qualifications. It may take time to realize that the documents are falsified.
Some get away with it. Another major challenge is the mismatch between the intellectual capacity of the panelists and the candidates being interviewed. Such cases are common where individuals lacking engineering background interview an engineer. Other challenges include poor communication from either the panel member or the candidate and cultural differences between the interviewer and the interviewee.
The researcher: How do you address these challenges?
Mr. McCann: These challenges have been addressed from different positions. For instance, the management came up with policies prohibiting favoritism during recruitment. The current recruitment panel would also include officers from the relevant fields. This means that when interviewing an engineer, senior engineers of the firm would be present. The firm has also come up with elaborate plans to identify falsified documents.
The researcher: Has this worked?
Mr. McCann: Yes, recruitment and selection has become a much simpler task.
The researcher: How can the management determine if the challenges have been successfully addressed?
Mr. McCann: It may not be easy for the selection panel to determine if the challenge has been addressed, especially if they are part of the problem. However, when they are made aware of their weaknesses and how to address other challenges, then they can determine if the issues raised have been addressed. If the issues have been addressed, then it would be considered that the challenges have been successfully addressed.
The researcher: Who should be responsible in addressing the challenges faced during the process of recruitment and selection?
Mr. McCann: Every single member of the recruiting panel is responsible in addressing these challenges. The top management also has a role in advising this panel and avoiding direct interference.
The researcher: Thanks a lot for your time.
Mr. McCann: You are most welcome.