Introduction
Recruitment is a complex process that aims to fill positions with candidates most suitable for the job. Talent planning and selection policy are the two pillars supporting it. While it may seem like an easy task to match candidate’s competencies with a job description, recruitment is always based on a company’s long-term strategy, and current laws must be taken into consideration during the process.
Report
Attracting Talent
Four basic factors are affecting the talent attraction approach, which is influenced by a situation with employees and by business strategies and operations. The first factor is the employee exit from a company. There are several reasons for it, including reaching the retirement age, termination of a contract, and a loss of key employees. Some of the positions cannot stay empty for a long time, as this might heavily affect the operations or planning processes. The second factor is explained by staff turnover. High turnover rates can be reasoned by both internal and external conditions.
The internal conditions include the list of terms that are specific to a certain position and are drafted by each company individually and the work environment that is created by administrative executives. A company might represent an industry field with the default high turnover rates or experience adverse business conditions, all of which are considered to be the external influence. The third factor is the business objectives. New trends within a corporation like the culture change, diversification, up-skilling, and others require new workers to meet the strategic goals. Finally, the fourth factor is the business operations. Not all jobs are routine, for instance, and new projects require unique teams of workers to be hired each time. Production peaks also call for an additional workforce. Events like restructuring or expansion imply the new employees have to be found.
Diversity
One of the latest trends in the HR practice of the last several decades is the strive for diversity. This concept underlines the importance of hiring different people from the pool of candidates instead of forcing them to fit into the existing framework of a company. Diversity has several vital benefits for businesses.
The modern age of globalization requires a deep understanding of communication in a multicultural environment. Diversity can help to manage better the situations in international business and increase the knowledge of operating in different cultures. Motivation is another factor affected by diversity. Employees can focus more on their work instead of making efforts to fit into the community. Besides, it allows the development of commitment and culture where everyone would feel valued, resulting in better productivity and an increase in the satisfaction level. Finally, the customer focus could also have benefited from diversity, as people with different backgrounds and experience could better predict the clients’ demands and analyze their responses more effectively. It must also be mentioned that diversity plays a positive role in a company’s reputation, as it deals with matters of corporate social responsibility and builds a better picture for stakeholders and potential investors.
Recruitment and Selection
Several internal factors affect a company’s approach to the recruitment and selection process. Two of the factors embrace resources like time and financing. The other two focus on the company’s reputation and the required skills.
If the resources are limited, the pool of potential candidates becomes sufficiently smaller, as a company cannot afford to pay highly skilled specialists the same wage as he or she was receiving at the previous workplace. Moreover, it is not always possible to predict the final sum for such types of employment as the project work or sales. Another crucial resource that businesses consider is time. When an empty position threatens to sufficiently pause the process, resulting in the loss of revenues, there is little time for choosing a new candidate, and the selection process has to deal with a limited number of applications.
The company’s reputation is also very important for the recruitment process. Not many people seeking a job would address a corporation that has failed to prove its efficiency and high standards on the labor market. In such a case, an HR department would most likely choose between candidates who are desperate to find any job. Finally, the type of job affects the number of potential candidates. For instance, positions in management or science usually require many years of experience and supporting higher education, making the number of applicants sufficiently smaller.
Methods
Three methods that offer the most benefits include social media, corporate websites, and recruitment agencies. Social media is sometimes better than a traditional CV. Pages in social media are much more descriptive regarding hobbies and a public position. When candidates apply for a job through a corporate website, it benefits the HR department since it recognizes the candidate’s initial interest in a company and shows his or her basic knowledge of primary activities and operations. Finally, cooperating with recruitment agencies also has benefits as it eliminates the necessity in the initial part of the process and simplifies the work of HR specialists allowing them to take more time on the more important tasks.
Some of the most used methods of selection include structured interviews, assessment centers, and ability tests. Structured interviews are designed as questions similar to all candidates. Although they do not allow to treat each candidate uniquely, structured interviews contain sets of questions that aim to discover whether a potential candidate possesses the skills crucial for a position. Cooperation with assessment centers is also beneficial, as corporations can trust their results unlike the information stated in applications. Finally, various ability tests help to ensure a potential employee will cope with work before hiring him or her.
Induction Purposes
The process of induction has three main purposes. The fists one is to get a new employee acquainted with a company. It helps new people to better understand local values and culture, and work towards reaching the same goals. The second purpose is to describe the requirements and expectations. Even if a new employee has worked in the same position, some elements of these jobs may vary. Finally, induction has the purpose of receiving benefits from hiring a new worker as soon as possible to cover the costs of finding and selecting a new candidate.
Induction Plan
2- 4 weeks
The first day of induction traditionally includes the largest portion of information. The most important elements must include:
- Job description and clarification of tasks.
- Health and safety regulations.
- Career development perspective.
- Policies and benefits.
This information would ensure a candidate recognizes the company’s expectations and conditions of work.
Throughout the following couple of weeks, a new candidate should receive a deeper understanding of processes inside a company. Apart from doing the work, an employee would have to be acquainted with the local corporate culture several days a week to be able to fit in that community.
4 – 8 weeks
The next few weeks should give a new candidate the knowledge of the corporate social responsibility of business. Information may include a description of policies targeted at creating ecological or social welfare. This would help a worker to develop commitment, as there would be an understanding of the benefits done to the environment and people through this job.
8 – 12 weeks
This should become a period of instructing an employee about the company’s strategies and goals for the future. Understanding this information is crucial for developing motivation. Besides, a worker would feel more secure, and his or her results will be targeted at reaching objectives drafted by a company.
Portfolio and Interview Observation
Interview
After reviewing the candidates’ compliance with the selection criteria mentioned above, we have decided to interview with Marcus as he had gotten the highest score. This was the structured interview with the set of questions made for each applicant reaching that stage. The questions were as follows:
- What is your understanding of the office manager role?
- What qualities do you bring to this opportunity?
- What is your current role and what are your current responsibilities?
- What is the most challenging thing about being an office manager?
- How did you help your team being productive?
- How do you define success in your job?
- How do you keep track of office resources?
- Describe your approach to conducting training sessions for employees.
In the interview, Marcus demonstrated a high level of experience in his previous position. He understood the duties of an office manager and connected it with actions he had been practicing, which included assigning and supervising administrative tasks, managing staff performance, collecting and organizing data, allocating resources, and providing support. He found the most important qualities of an office manager to be the organizational, planning, problem-solving, and communication skills. The most challenging thing for Marcus appeared to find about being an office manager was identifying a problem and finding a solution to it. This candidate recognized the value of the team productivity and worked towards ensuring it by choosing an individual approach to each member and situation. Marcus’s understanding of success met IKEA’s perception of cost-effectiveness and smart hiring techniques, as well as efficient planning and organization. The candidate mentioned the ability to keep track of resources by keeping an accurate inventory log. Finally, the training sessions for employees according to Marcus should include not only the induction part, but also the regular refreshment of knowledge, analysis of skills, and the focus on development.
All the answers are given by this candidate fall into the IKEA corporate policy (“Who we are” para. 3), which defines its employees as team workers, who can plan and organize resources, resolve problems, and lead a group of people. Resource planning is also one of the key skills valued as a part of the company’s sustainability program (“Sustainability Report FY16” 7). Marcus looks like an employee that would bring many benefits to the business through his work.
Legal Requirements
An HR specialist must be very careful regarding the personal information of each candidate (Nixon and Kerr 126). It is required by law to collect and retain only the type of information that would not discriminate anyone, lead to adverse consequences, or would be transferred or used in a way harmful for a candidate. Most of these terms are regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998, which, for instance, has the concept of sensitive information (“Sensitive Personal Data” para. 1) that includes the following:
- Ethnic or racial background.
- Political views.
- Religious beliefs.
- Union membership.
- Health state.
- Sexual life.
- Criminal history.
No such data would be collected or retained for further usage within the company, as the office manager position is not the type of a job that would require such information. Furthermore, the data of unsuccessful candidates would be retained for 3 months. This would be done to invite them to an open position if there is one in the future in a case if the HR department would assume they would be suitable for the job.
All the data submitted by a successful candidate would be retained for the entire period of his or her work. Moreover, some additional information would be collected in the process of forming the employment documents. This would include the check of eligibility to work in the UK done under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 if a candidate is subject to the immigration control (“Employment” para. 1). This is required to ensure there will be no legal obstacles for hiring an employee for and signing a long-term contract.
Since IKEA is not a telecommunication company, it does not fall under the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 that requires such businesses to keep all users’ data and metadata for the national safety purposes (“Retention of Relevant Communication Data” para. 1). All employee information will be kept for IKEA’s use only and should not be transferred to the side companies in cases other than creating a bank account for receiving a salary.
Letter Examples
All candidates, independent of election results, would receive a letter from the company explaining its choice. It is done for two reasons, the first of which is to ensure a candidate does not have to contact the company to find out the decision, and the second one is to describe the next steps for a successful candidate.
The following text is an example of a letter to an appointee.
Dear Firstname Lastname,
We are happy to announce that You have been chosen as the successful candidate for the office manager position in IKEA.
We are offering You to join our team by starting the induction program the next week. Please let us know your final decision this week by e-mail or phone during office hours.
Sincerely Yours,
Firstname Lastname.
HR Department of IKEA Corporation.
A non-appointee would receive the following letter.
Dear Firstname Lastname,
Thank You for taking Your time to the interview. Unfortunately, we have chosen another candidate to fill the office manager position in IKEA.
The data provided by You will be kept for three months for us to let you know if there are any open positions You may be interested in. It will not be transferred to any side party and will be deleted after the stated time.
Sincerely yours,
Firstname Lastname.
HR Department of IKEA Corporation.
Works Cited
“Employment.” Legislation.gov.uk. Web.
Nixon, Barry W., and Kim Kerr. Background Screening and Investigations: Managing Hiring Risk from the HR and Security Perspectives. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008.
“Retention of Relevant Communication Data.” Legislation.gov.uk. Web.
“Sensitive Personal Data.” Legislation.gov.uk. Web.
“Sustainability Report FY16.” IKEA. Web.
“Who we are.” IKEA. Web.