RECRUITMENT
INTRODUCTION
According to (1956), recruitment refers to the process of finding possible candidates for a job or function, usually undertaken by recruiters. It is any act of canvassing, enlisting, contracting, transporting, utilizing, hiring or procuring workers and which includes referrals, contract services, promising or advertising for employment, locally or abroad, whether for profit or not. The choice of workers has been long based on age, appearance, height, physical build, skill, education, race, and religion. Previously, there were no tests given to the applicants and even the interview is conducted haphazard.
Recruitment differs among companies. In the small firms, recruitment is usually done exclusively by the owners of the enterprise, the superintendent, or the manager. This is the traditional unplanned process in which the interviewer usually used his own impression during the interview and gives a little weight on the applicant’s actual aptitude and capacity to work.
On the other hand, in the larger firms, the trend today is to assign the job of recruitment, selection and hiring to an employment officer or personnel staff which assists the line supervisor or department head in this task, following well-established procedures of selection.
The main objective of a good employee selection and hiring procedure is to acquire people who possess the ability and competence to accomplish successfully the duties and responsibilities not only of the job to be filled but also of the potential to grow with the company.
The success of any organization, large or small, chiefly depends on the ability and efficiency of the persons in its rolls. People are hired to do jobs to attain the objectives of the organization. People make use of money, materials, and machines to produce goods and render services. People with specialized knowledge and skills are needed to render services.
People who possess the right qualifications for their jobs also require less supervision, give better work performance, get along better with fellow employees, and are happier in their jobs than those who lack the proper qualifications. When people are interested in what they do, they make efforts to get better at it (2000). No job is performed in a static situation. Additionally, those who have the right qualifications for the job are less likely to present problems to the management in the long run.
The challenge here is to look for applicants who through interviews and tests will assure the selecting committee that they can handle the job at present but at the same time also show that they are equipped to handle and face tomorrow’s challenges and responsibilities.
WHY RECRUIT?
Jobs differ and require a wide variety of skills, knowledge and ability. Workers also differ from one another in many ways. If a person is assigned to a job to which his ability, character, knowledge and temperament is not suited, he is likely to fail and thereby create a problem to the management. The hiring practices used in some of the companies are haphazard that may be the root cause of many problems involving personnel. It is undoubtedly that there has been a motion and failure in trying to suit the worker to the job.
It is therefore god personnel policy to attract and hire for every vacant position those who possess the ability, personality, and potential to grow with the company and to develop them into efficient, loyal and satisfied employees.
Finding the right man for a job and finding the right job for the man who is available is essential to sound employee recruitment, selection and placement. The objective is to build and maintain a working force which will be stable, productive and satisfied and to insure union-management relationships which are free from conflicts. In short, recruitment process is a sound practice designed to get the right kind of employees, place them properly, and handle them effectively.
The company which must meet competition and maintain leadership in the field cannot leave the hiring and selection of its workers to chance. It needs people to contribute to the company’s business, people with progressive ideas for new products, services and methods. Employees with the right qualifications for the job are more economical for the company in the long run since they learn faster and are less costly to train. People who possess the right qualifications for their jobs also requires less supervision, gives better work performance, get along better with fellow employees, and are happier with their jobs. Moreover, they are far less likely to do damage to the company’s equipment, customers, publics and corporate image.
In addition, there are still several reasons for proper recruitment. These are enumerated as the following:
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
The procedure in recruitment, selection and hiring should be in accordance with the company policy. When the company has a personnel department to handle matters of employment, the selection and hiring process could be more objective and satisfactory. There is no single technique that is effective at all times, under all circumstances for all companies. Employee selection involves serious responsibility and it is worth the effort to know and observe proper procedure in hiring to ensure success in choosing the right man for the job and to avoid snap judgments.
Step1. Studying the Different Jobs of the Company and Writing the Job Description and Specification
The first requirement for recruitment process is knowing what kind of man the job needs. This requires the knowledge of the exact nature of the job to be filled; its duties and responsibilities; the steps taken to perform those duties and responsibilities; the tools and equipment used; the working conditions under which the specific job is performed; the amount of authority delegated to the job incumbent; the supervision involved in the job such as education, skill and physical demands; and environment of the job.
Step 2. Requisition for New Employee
To inform the employment office about the existence of a vacancy to be filled, the line supervisor or the department head concerned should accomplished a formal requisition form, indicating the facts and information about the vacancy to be filled such as the date when the new employee will be needed, his rate pay, the required qualifications of the employee, the job description and job specification, approval by the responsible official of the firm and other data.
In making the selection, the employment officer must be given sufficient time to recruit and evaluate the records of applicants and to arrive at a sound decision as to the right man for the vacancy.
Step 3. Recruiting Qualified Applicants
Recruitment is the process by which prospective applicants are induced to apply to the company in order that their qualifications for present and anticipated vacancies can be evaluated through sound screening and selection procedures.
The employment officer must continually look for prospective applicants until he has the sufficient number of applicants to choose from. He must determine the most productive sources of qualified applicants. The employment officer devises an effective means of reaching qualified applicants and encouraging them to apply. Care should however be made to prevent overselling the company to the prospective employees through false promises of attractive salaries and benefits.
Step 4. Reception of Applicants
Not all applicants can go through the selection process. Some are eliminated through screening whereby the undesirable applicants are quickly eliminated in the basis of his apparent characteristics.
Step 5. Application Form
Those chosen to be given examination and further interviews are asked to fill out application form in their own handwriting. The application form is an important tool in the selection and hiring procedure as it gives vital information about the applicant which is relevant to the job for which he has applied.
Step 6. Testing
The purpose of testing is to measure the applicant’s ability. Tests are needed to discover mental ability, aptitude, proficiencies, potential ability, skills and knowledge of an applicant. They measure a person’s ability to quickly learn those jobs which involve memory, reasoning, abstracting, analyzing, and solving problems and reading comprehension.
Step 7. Checking the Applicant’s Work Experiences, School Records, and Personal References
This step determines the type of job formerly done by the applicant and how efficient his performance was. His work experience and his educational background may indicate the applicant’s can do and will do qualifications.
Step 8. Interview
The interview is done to find out how well qualified the applicant is for the vacancy; to give the applicant he information he needs in order to decide whether or not he will take the job if offered to him and to create goodwill for the company (1961).
Step 9. Matching the Applicant with the Job
This matching process will enable the employment officer to determine if the applicant can perform the job satisfactorily.
EMPLOYEE RETENTION
Job satisfaction is one of the most important issues in employee retention. Job satisfaction is the overall attitude of liking or disliking a job. It is a significant aspect that is essential for career development as well as the success of an organization. Employees typically experience a lack of job satisfaction when (1) they don’t receive the outcomes they want, (2) they receive outcomes they don’t want (like more work), or (3) they don’t find their work rewarding enough. Employees are particularly vulnerable to this problem during times of change, because the number and types of rewards that organizations in transition can offer are frequently limited or curtailed ( 1999). However, another most important factor for job dissatisfaction, and one which sometimes organizations fail to consider is the suitability of an employee for the job. Many organizations hire people without detailed emphasis on the suitability of the applicant to the organization or the job.
STRENGTHENING THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
In order for the company to strengthen this process, reduce turnover, save cost and keep asset, the following should be undertaken by the company.
Job Enrichment
Job enlargement or job enrichment is the term given to the reversal of a job specialization trend. The motive is to make jobs more interesting and promote job satisfaction by adding variety. Adding variety to a job does not mean adding unnecessary motions. The enrichment is more mental than motor. Sequential tasks performed by, say, two or three workers can be grouped so that each worker performs all the tasks. The regrouping of jobs allows method changes that might otherwise be difficult to initiate. Job enrichment, if properly done, could provide opportunities for employees to be interested and satisfied with what they do.
Career Development and Reward System
Recruitment and career development systems generally reflect the dominant cultural values of the society in which they operate (Schein, 1984). Identification of these values is an important human resource management function. The career development system that focuses on recruitment, socialization, growth and development, retirement, and replacement of human resources, should be adequately integrated with the organization’s performance appraisal and reward distribution system. As (1976) defined it, a career represents a sequence of promotions and other moves in a work-related hierarchy during the course of a person’s work life.
Reward systems are one of the most important mechanisms for establishing the direction in which individuals will develop in their work roles. Organizations design reward systems to (a) induce individuals to join the organization, (b) motivate attendance and performance effectiveness, and (c) reinforce the organizational structure by signaling to employees the instrumentalities of various valiant outcomes (1977).
Performance Appraisal
The purposes of performance appraisal are evaluation and development (1992). Evaluation aims to establish the relative worth of each individual’s contribution and encourage good performance while development aims to improve communication between managers and employees, and to assist employees develop their skills and improve their performance.
Appraisal systems can provide valuable performance information to a number of critical human resource activities, such as the allocation of rewards, e.g., merit pay, promotions; feedback on the development and assessment of training needs; other human resource systems evaluation, e.g., selection predictors; and performance documentation for legal purposes (1989). Appraisal systems seem to offer much potential for enhancing the effectiveness of human resource decisions and for satisfying employees’ need for performance feedback ( 1979).
Employee Morale and Motivation
The job satisfaction of an employee could be attributed to the level of morale and motivation that is present in the employee. Employee morale is an attitude, a state of mind, intangible but manifested by the employee’s manner and reactions to his or her job, working conditions, the company policies and programs, fellow workers, supervisors, compensation, opportunities for advancement, and the general environment (1976).
The word “motivation” is derived from the word “motivate” which means to move, impel, or induce to act to satisfy a need or want (1999). The company may provide the necessary motivations such as good pay, excellent benefits, and good environment but if he or she lacks personal drive, or the will to forge ahead, no amount of motivation will make him strive to great achievement (1960).
The best form of motivation is self-motivation with proper attitudes toward his or her work, co-workers and the management because this comes from within the individual. An individual’s own motivators are his or her own personal drives to achieve his ambition and goals. The company may provide the necessary motivations such as good pay, excellent benefits, and good environment but if he or she lacks personal drive, or the will to forge ahead, no amount of motivation will make him strive to great achievement. The employee needs personal initiative and motivation to achieve superior performance. Management should develop in the employees good work attitudes and proper behavior through seminars, conferences, workshops, and consultations.
According to a survey conducted by The Ohio State University, the top ten factors that affect employee motivation includes interesting work, good wages, full appreciation of work done, job security, good working conditions, promotions and growth in the organization, feeling of being in on things, personal loyalty to employees, tactful discipline, and sympathetic help with personal problems (2005).
Training and Development
Employee training and development is “any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing, through learning, an employee’s ability to perform, usually by increasing his or her skills and knowledge” (1992). Having the proper training, employees can be more confident in their work and gives them a feel of satisfaction.
Job Feedback
Giving feedback is the activity of providing information to staff members about their performance on job expectations (London, 2003). A desirable employee, who accepts criticisms as part of growth and development within the job, will look at a mistake as feedback rather than as a failure, regard every job assignment as developmental, and seek out challenging opportunities where the pressure to learn will force them to grow professionally and stretch their capabilities (2000).
ADVANTAGES OF SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO RECRUITMENT
According to (1992), most of the concern with staffing organizations involves getting matches between job candidates’ capabilities and organizational requirements on the one hand and the job candidates’ wants and needs and organizational climates and culture on the other. With the systematic approach of recruitment, it would allow the company to ensure to have a post to fill. It also offers the company the opportunity to re-evaluate the existing position to see if a different type of job specification is needed. In addition, it also let the company decide on what basis the company wishes to employ somebody. Moreover, it ensures that the company considers all possible avenues for finding the person.
CONCLUSION
Recruitment is therefore an important aspect in the success of the company. It is important to follow the some steps in the recruitment process to be able to be sure to select the right person for the right job. In the competitive market, it is important that companies can capture the highly competitive employees. When the company has already has selected its employees, it is also important to retain them for the long term success of the company. One of the identified root cause of retaining employees is job satisfaction and therefore companies must do some techniques to keep their employees satisfied with their job.
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