Abstract
The secret behind the success of a business organization or any general firm lies with the employment of efficient personnel. Highly professional and skilled employees are a factor that guarantees prosperity and a bright future for the organization. There is a wide range of available work force on the market, both competent and incompetent.
In order to hire only those that meet the necessary requirements of a type of job, appropriate selection criteria are necessary. This paper will look at the selection criteria used by two international companies, Dell and Ericson, and their importance to the firms. The paper will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external selection of an employee to replace the author at a national Auto Parts Chain.
Personnel Selection Criteria
The sending of an application letter and attached curriculum vitae to either Dell Inc. or Ericsson is the first step for any person looking for employment in these two companies. A prospective employee’s application letter and curriculum vitae is a portrayal of the real person.
This is why both Dell Inc. and Ericsson put extra importance on this first selection criterion. Resume screening as a personnel selection criteria is of most importance to these two international companies especially because they at times offer online employment opportunities. This is because there may not be a possibility of a face to face interview with the person looking for employment. In this case, they solely rely on the resume to assess the suitability of the applicant for the job being offered.
A resume exposes some personal attributes of the applicant. First and foremost, the orderliness of the person is seen in the neatness and the way he or she has arranged the curriculum vitae. A shoddy resume is a possible indicator that the applicant is an outwardly disorderly person. A poorly structured resume may also point to the fact that the applicant does not place special emphasis on his or her work. In this case, the two companies may not risk hiring the services of such an applicant.
It is feared that the scrappy appearance of the resume may translate into negligence in the applicant’s duties if allowed to take the job on offer. This criterion is suitable in situations where the two companies have received a lot of applications and need to choose only those who are tailored to that particular job to move to the next step.
The second criterion in personnel selection is engaging the job applicants in a phone interview. The first thing to be tested in this case is the availability and reliability of the job applicant. This will depend on whether the applicant is available on phone or not. Applicants who can’t be reached by a phone call are automatically disqualified.
This is because they dishonestly provided a wrong phone number or are simply not available. Whichever the case, this is a potential indicator of the future unavailability of the applicant if granted the job. Dell and Ericsson would like to work with people who can be reached by phone at any working hours and this mistake on the part of applicants will cost them the job.
A phone interview is also important when analyzing the communication skills of the applicant. Proper communication skills are important features that the two firms look for in all employees. In the course of the interview, representatives of the either firms pay close attention to the applicant’s way of answering questions asked and manner of talking. Those who show unprofessionalism in their talk or give wrong answers stand a chance to lose the job.
Finally, a face to face interview is the last and most significant criteria in personnel selection. In this case, the Human Resource Manager of either Dell Inc. or Ericsson arranges for an interview with the applicants who have successfully gone through the above two processes.
A face to face interview provides the Human Resource Manager with an opportunity to verify the strengths and positive personal attributes of the applicants that had been identified in the other two processes (Dell and Fredman, 1999). For instance, the manager is able to gauge the cleanliness of the applicants that had been portrayed in their resumes by the way they would have dressed and how they would present themselves.
The most significant aim of a face to face interview is to determine the suitability of the applicants for the job. This decision will be arrived at through careful scrutiny of their skills and knowledge. This will be done using questions related to the job being offered. The resolution of the Human Resource Manager on which applicant gets the job lies with the outcome of the interview.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of External And Internal Personnel Selection
Selection of an employee from the Auto parts retail chain to replace the author as a store manager has a number of benefits. First and foremost, the internal recruitment will not only be used as a tool to appreciate an excellent employee but also as a motivation to other employees in the Auto parts retail chain.
Internal recruitment will also be effective in terms of cost because the employer will only have to add a certain amount to the employee’s salary as opposed to external recruitment where the new employee may demand a higher pay (Huber, 1994). Finally, internal recruitment will be effective because the employer is assured of the employee’s past good performance.
On the other hand, internal recruitment may have disadvantages such as lack of innovative ideas. The employee who will be selected as the new store manager will not bring any new ideas because he or she hails from the same organization. This will lead to minimal or lack of growth in the firm. Another limitation is that the employee may need extra training in order to cope up with the new duties and assignments of a store manager. This will waste the firm’s resources and time. This will translate into a loss to the business.
External recruitment will also be suitable because of the following three reasons. First, the organization gets new ideas into the business by hiring a new employee (Armstrong, 2006). The new ideas may be crucial in taking the business to a new level in production.
Secondly, the new employee will bring a spirit of competition into the business. Other existing employees will strive to perform better than the new employee in efforts to get the job (Legge, 2004). This will improve the production of the business. Finally, external recruitment will reduce training costs. This is because the hired employee has all the necessary skills needed to run a store.
On the contrary, external recruitment has the following two limitations. The outside selection of an employee to fill the position of a store manager will demoralize the internal employees. This may lead to a drop in the production of the Auto parts retail chain. Finally, outside personnel selection may lead to slower operations in the store as the new store manager struggles to adjust to the new job. This may have far reaching consequences on the income of the organization.
In conclusion, personnel selection involves three criteria that have their significance. These are resume scanning, phone interview and face to face interview. The combination of these three criteria leads to the selection of the best personnel. Finally, it is also evident from the foregoing that both internal and external personnel selections have their benefits and limitations to the organization.
Reference List
Armstrong, M. (2006). A handbook of Human Resource Management practice. London: Kogan Page.
Dell, M. & Fredman, C. (1999). Direct from Dell: Strategies that revolutionized an industry. New York: HarperColins.
Huber, B. J. (1994, November 16). Recent Trends in the modern language job market. Profession 23(9), 87-105.
Legge, K. (2004). Human Resource Management: Rhetorics and realities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.