TOPIC 3: HUMAN RESOURCE PROCUREMENT

Human Resource Procurement involves looking for right persons to fill in the vacant positions

in the organization.

RECRUITMENT

Recruitment process is concerned with identification of possible sources of human resource

supply and tapping those sources.

Acoording to Whether and Davis “Recruitment is the process of finding and attracting capable

applicants for employment. The process begins when new recruits are sought and ends when

their applications are submitted. The result is a pool of applicants from which new employees

are selected

In most medium sized and large organizations human resource department is responsible for

recruitment process however in smaller firms; recruitment is likely to be handled by individual

managers.

When human resource planning indicates a need for employees, the firm may evaluate

alternative ways to meet the demand through recruitment process.

Recruitment process begins when HR manager places employee requisition

Employee requisition specifies the job tithe, departments, date the employee is needed for work

etc

Recruitment process should be preceded by job analysis. ie

Human Resource Planning

Job Analysis

Recruitment

Selection
Organizations may have a recruitment policy to guide the process while some organizations

may not have. A recruitment policy specifies the objectives of recruitment and provides a

framework for the implementation of the recruitment programme. It also involves the

employer’s commitment to some principles so as to find and employ the best qualified persons

for each job, to retain the most promising of those hired, etc. It should be based on the goals,

needs and environment of the organisation

Sources of Recruitment

Sources can be internal or external

Internal source is suitable where job fairly routine and applicants are plentiful in supply.

Internal recruitment can be done by job positing and bedding.

Job posting is a procedure of informing that vacancy exist.

Job bidding is a technique that permits employees who believe that they posses the required

qualification for the post to apply.

External Sources

- Schools and Colleges

- Universities

- Employment agencies

- Voluntary applicants

Online recruitment

- Corporate websites

- Commercial job boards

Merits of Internal Sources of recruitment

1. It creates a sense of security among employees when they are assured that they would

be preferred in filling up vacancies.

2. It improves the morale of employees, for they are assured of the fact that they would

be preferred over outsiders when vacancies occur.

3. It promotes loyalty and commitment among employees due to sense of job security and

opportunities for advancement.

4. The employer is in a better position to evaluate those presently employed than outside

candidates. This is because the company maintains a record of the progress, experience

and service of its employees.

5. Time and costs of training will be low because employees remain familiar with the

organisation and its policies.

6. Relations with trade unions remain good. Labour turnover is reduced. · As the persons

in the employment of the company are fully aware of, and well acquainted wit, its

policies and know its operating procedures, they require little training, and the chances

are that they would stay longer in the employment of the organisation than a new

outsider would.

7. It encourages self-development among the employees. It encourages good individuals

who are ambitious.

8. It encourages stability from continuity of employment.

9. It can also act as a training device for developing middle and top-level managers.
Demerits of Internal Sources: However, this system suffers from certain defects as:

1. There are possibilities that internal sources may “dry up”, and it may be difficult to find

the requisite personnel from within an organisation.

2. It often leads to inbreeding, and discourages new blood from entering and organisation.

3. As promotion is based on seniority, the danger is that really capable hands may not be

chosen. The likes and dislikes of the management may also play an important role in

the selection of personnel.

4. Since the learner does not know more than the lecturer, no innovations worth the name

can be made. Therefore, on jobs which require original thinking (such as advertising,

style, designing and basic research), this practice is not followed.

Advantages of External Recruitment: External sources of recruitment are suitable for

the following reasons:

1. It will help in bringing new ideas, better techniques and improved methods to the

organisation.

2. The cost of employees will be minimised because candidates selected in this method

will be placed in the minimum pay scale.

3. The existing employees will also broaden their personality.

4. The entry of qualitative persons from outside will be in the interest of the organisation

in the long run.

5. The suitable candidates with skill, talent, knowledge are available from external

sources.

6. The entry of new persons with varied expansion and talent will help in human resource

mix.
 Disadvantages of External Sources:

1. Orientation and training are required as the employees remain unfamiliar with the

organisation.

2. It is more expensive and time-consuming. Detailed screening is necessary as very little

is known about the candidate.

3. If new entrant fails to adjust himself to the working in the enterprise, it means yet more

expenditure on looking for his replacement.

4. Motivation, morale and loyalty of existing staff are affected, if higher level jobs are

filled from external sources. It becomes a source of heart-burning and demoralisation

among existing employees.

FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT

The factors affecting recruitment can be classified as internal and external factors.

The internal factors are:

1. Wage and salary policies;

2. The age composition of existing working force;

3. Promotion and retirement policies;

4. Turnover rates;

5. The nature of operations involved the kind of personnel required;

6. The level and seasonality of operations in question;

7. Future expansion and reduction programmes;

8. Recruiting policy of the organisation;

9. Human resource planning strategy of the company;

10. Size of the organisation and the number of employees employed;

11. Cost involved in recruiting employees, and finally;

The external factors are:

1. Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market;

2. Company’s image perception of the job seekers about the company.

3. External cultural factors: Obviously, the culture may exert considerable check on

recruitment.

4. Economic factors: such as a tight or loose labour market, the reputation of the enterprise

in the community as a good pay master or otherwise and such allied issues which

determine the quality and quantity of manpower submitting itself for recruitment.

5. Political and legal factors also exert restraints in respect of nature and hours of work

for women and children, and allied employment practices in the enterprise, reservation

of Job for SC, ST and so on.

SHORT LISTING

- Short list is a small number from larger list. The outcome of recruitment process is to

produce a short list of candidates whose background and potential are in accordance

with profile contained in job specifications.

- Short listing involves eliminating applicants who do not meet the required

specifications to arrive at only those candidates who qualify for the selection process.

Selection

Selection is a process which involves deciding on the degree to which the characteristics of

applicants informs of their competencies, experiences, qualification, education and training

match the person specification.

Selection should be impartial and objective.

Selection Technique

1. Interviews: the candidate presents himself or herself before an individual, panels or

selection boards, panels is where two or more are gathered together to interview one

candidate.

Selection board is a larger interview panel with different people who have a look at

applicants and compares notes on the sport.

Interviews play three important roles:

a. Verification of identity

b. Authentication of five ownership of supporting documents.

c. Opportunity for judging candidates social aspects.

The selection interview can be: One to one between the candidate and the interviewer: ,

Two or more interviewers by employers representatives-sequential; By a panel of

selections, i.e., by more than representative of the employer.

Types of interview

(1) Unstructured or non-directive: in which you ask questions as they come to mind. There

is no set format to follow.

(2) Structured or directive: in which the questions and acceptable responses are specified

in advance. The responses are rated for appropriateness of content. Structured and non-

structured interviews have their pros and cons. In structured interviews all applicants are

generally asked all required questions by all interviewers. Structured interviews are
 generally more valid. However structured interviews do not allow the flexibility to pursue

points of interests as they develop.

(3) Semi structured

The interview involves structured and unstructured questions where interviewer is allowed

to ask questions outside

Demerits

1) Likely to be subjective

2) May suffer from hallow effects – making judgments at sight.

3) Biasness

4) Lack of consensus amongst panelists.

Employment Interviews

The employment interview is a vehicle for information exchange between applicant and

interviewer regarding an applicant's suitability and interest in a job the employer seeks to fill.

Information provided in an applicant's application for employment can be probed more deeply

in the interview, and other information relevant to an applicant's qualifications can be elicited.

Since interviews can be rather flexible, any missing pieces of information about an applicant

can be collected at this time.

Interview problems.

As a selection method, interviews are problematic. Research shows that interviews have good

test-retest reliability (same interviewer twice) and good internal consistency reliability, but low

inter-rater reliability (between different raters). The reason for low inter-rater reliability is that

interviews are apt to be unstructured and subjective.

include: (1) rater error; (2) talkative interviewer hampers collection of job-related information;

(3) variance in questions asked of applicants during interview; 4) interviewer asks "trick"

questions; (5) interviewer asks inappropriate questions relating to an applicant's race, religion,

sex, national origin, and age.

Rater Error in Interviewing

Central tendency errors result in most applicants being rated as average. Leniency and

strictness errors, on the other hand, result in most applicants being given either uniformly high

or uniformly low ratings. The halo effect has the result of an applicant being seen as generally

good or bad because one characteristic of the applicant overshadows all others. Contrast effects

may occur if an average applicant is rated more highly than he or she deserves because he or

she is interviewed after several poor applicants. Stereotyping is the tendency to compare

applicants with one's stereotype of the "ideal" applicant.

Improving employment interviews.

The value of the employment interview as a selection method will increase if these guidelines

are followed:

1. A structured interview guide containing questions for applicants should be used to increase

the reliability of interviews.

2. Interviewers should be given complete job descriptions and job specifications for each job

for which they are interviewing. This tends to reduce interviewer bias because actual

requirements are spelled out in detail.

too much and making hasty judgments.

4. Interviewers should be trained to deal with all applicants, regardless of level of

qualifications, since the interview is also a public relations vehicle.

5. Interviewers should receive special instructions in properly and legally interviewing women

and minorities.

Psychological Tests

Main aim of testing psychological is to obtain data about the applicant that would help

predicting probable success in respective duties. Source of the benefits of psychological test is

to:

a. Find best person for the job.

b. Obtain high degree of job satisfaction for the applicant.

c. Reduce labour turnover.

Such tests attempt to uncover likely behaviour with questions such as “would you agree to be

successful through luck or by hard work”?

Psychological Tests include:

a. Intelligence Tests – measure a range of mental abilities which enable a person to

succeed at variety of intellectual tasks using facilities of abstract thinking and

reasoning.
 b. Ability Tests – establish what people are capable of knowing or doing. Primary it

may mean reasoning ability.

British psychological society (2007) – refers to ability tests as capacity for:

1) Verbal reasoning – ability to comprehend, interpret and draw conclusions from oral

or written information.

2) Numerical reasoning – ability to comprehend, interpret and drain conclusions from

numerical information.

3) Spatial reasoning – ability to understand and interpret spatial between objects.

2. Personality Tests - personality tests predict behavior of individuals.

The key five personalities to be tested are:

Extraversion / introversion - Being Outgoing, assertive / reserved, inward looking.

Emotionally stable – resilient, independent, confident.

Agreeableness – courteous, cooperative

Consciousness – hardworking, perseverance, careful, openness to experience – curious,

imaginative, willingness to learn, broad

3. Aptitude Tests

Job specific tests designed to predict the potential an individual has to perform tasks within a

job.

It takes a form of work sample which replicate an important aspect of the actual work.
 4. Assessment Centre

A process that incorporates multiple forms of assessment. Observers rate performance on asset

of activities and make references regarding such candidate’s managerial skills and abilities.

Assessment center must be planned well and should take care of the following:

a. Competencies on other qualities to be assessed.

b. Appropriate use of an assessment centre.

c. Standards of performance to be looked at.

d. Who will be assessor?

e. Measures to be incorporated into assessment to ensure so far as practicable that

results are consistent.

f. How to give feedback etc.

Assessment centers provide opportunities for indicating the extent to which candidates match

the culture of the organization. This is indicated by observation of their behaviour in different

but typical situations and the range of the tests and structured interviews that are part of

assessment Centre.

5. Bio Data

It is individual’s biographical information which is related to age, education personal history,

current and past employment questionnaires used to collect such information regarding

applicants. These aspects are weighted according to their relative importance as products of

future behaviour.

6. Use of Referees

The use of reference is to obtain the confidence factual information about prospective

employer.
Referees will provide the following information:

a. Provide information that confirms allegations information regarding the candidate.

b. Provide information on character.

c. Provide candidates track record.

The main disadvantage is that referees choice is stage managed and may not give true

information about job candidates.

7. Graphology

It is a method of drawing conclusions for candidate’s handwriting about his or her personality

as a basis for making products about future performance in a role.

A trained graphologist uses a handwritten page by a candidate on unruled paper he/she will

examine size of letters, slant, within and even pressure to draw conclusions.

PLACEMENT

Placement is a process of assigning a specific job to each of the selected candidates. It involves

assigning a specific rank and responsibility to an individual. It involves matching requirements

of a job with qualification of candidate.

An employee should be placed on the job according to the requirements of the job. The job

should not be adjusted according to the qualifications or requirements of the employee. Job

first; man next, should be the principle of placement.

While introducing the job to the new employee, an effort should be made to develop a sense of

loyalty and cooperation in him so that he may realise his responsibilities better towards the job

and the organisation

1. Improve employees morale

2. Helps in reducing employee turnover

3. Reduces absenteeism

4. Reduces accident rules.

At times human judgment in placement may prove incorrect and follow up measures may be

required in the form of transfer, promotions and demotions.

Recruitment, selection and placement are consecutive steps in an employment programme and

they can be improved through follow up.

INDUCTION

Induction is a method by which new employee is rehabilitated into the changed surrounding

and introduced to the purposes, policies and practices of the organization, job and working

conditions, salary etc.

Induction should be done due to the following reasons:

1. When an employee joins an organization, he is a stranger to the organization and vice

versa.

He may feel insecure, shy, nervous in the strange situation. He/she may have anxiety

because of lack of adequate information about the job, work procedures, organization

policies and practices. Induction is needed so that relevant information can be provided

regarding work procedures and even other members of staff.

2. Induction serves to minimize reality shock some new employees may undergo. Some

employees come in with high:

General organizational induction training checklist

a. Safety and emerging procedures

c. Food and drink

d. Smoking area

e. Mission statement

Organization Overview and Structure

- Dress codes

- Facilities and washrooms

- Absenteeism and lateness

- Trade unions

- Access to personal data

NOTE

There should be training review and feedback as some may leave immediately after induction.