Human Resources Planning and Development >> Recruitment and Selection

A) Outline the reasons why Human Resource Planning is important for the organization and the stages involved with Human Resource Planning

HR planning is important for organizations as it enables the organization to meet the strategic goals and move to the next level of competitiveness. According to Nyamupachari Vareta (Human Resources Assistance) states in an article titled The Importance of Human Resources Planning in Organizations, she states that HR Management would ask the following questions when the HR Manager is planning ‘How many staff does an organization have?’, ‘What type of employees as far as skills and abilities does the Company have?’, ‘How should the Organization best utilize the available resources’ and ‘How can a company keep its employees’ .

Once the organization has its strategic objectives set out the relevant skillsets and employee types can be recruited, it is vitally important that the HR plan is well documented as it will set out exactly the skillsets and behaviors required for the organization to meet its objectives. If the HR plan is poor the wrong staff will be recruited and this could result in strategic objectives not being met and financial losses. Costs will also rise due to the extra recruitment campaigns ongoing trying to secure the correct resource and extra staff being hired to make up for the inadequacies of the newly appointed staff. A good HR plan will enable development and training of existing staff which will motivate and produce better results from existing staff and enable rightful promotions. The resources are the most important asset of an organization and if a plan exists to onboard the correct staff and develop current staff the organization will benefit.

According to an article published on 24th July 2006 on ‘HR Planning Steps in your Business Plan’, there are four steps that one should follow. These are as follows, ‘Prepare a forecast’, ‘Develop an HR inventory’, ‘Develop a job analysis’ and ‘Prepare a comprehensive plan ’.

The first step is to ensure the forecast meets the organization’s strategic objectives and the relevant numbers and skillsets of staff to be acquired has been identified. This will depend on previous growth as well as projected growth, if these figures are incorrect it could lead to the wrong numbers being recruited and expenses being incurred. This should also be based on the current economic climate as this will determine the amount of resources that are required. The 2nd stage is to ‘Develop an HR inventory’; this can be closely linked to the 1st stage and basically ensures the organization has an accurate reading on current employees and the gap that is required to be filled out between the current and future staff.

The 3rd stage ‘Develop a job analysis’ occurs after the forecasting has been completed, the organization will need to know what roles the new staff will fill, this should be aligned to the company’s strategic objectives. This should also be aligned to what current staff will be doing and a in-depth gap analysis should be completed at this stage to identify how the new employees will help existing employees and the organization. The 4th stage is the induction plan for new employees to the organization and should include objectives that will monitor their performance whilst at the organization. Bonus and wage information should also be captured and adverts need to be circulated for initial screening.

Once all stages are complete interviewing, aptitude tests, psychometric tests and assessments centers could be facilitated to obtain the right candidate.

B) What structured process of recruitment the organization will choose. An evaluation of methods and media that can be used.

To ensure the best candidates are recruited to meet the company’s strategic goals a stringent process needs to be implemented. Once the job analysis has been completed the job description needs to be created and advertised accordingly, this could open to both internal and external employees or just one group if that is the direction the organization wishes to take.

Medium such the Internet, newspaper / magazines and universities are a way to capture a wide-ranging audience, depending on the job requirements. Websites such as monster and jobsite are very popular with prospective candidates and will attract many applications, if the role is for an entry level or graduate position universities will be the most appropriate place to advertise to capture the right level of candidates.

Internally the organization should advertise on the intranet which is available to all employees and the HR manager should enforce a policy if required to make the position available to all internal and external employees, in most situations the HR manager will open the position internally and if no successful candidate is found this will be open to external candidates. Technology needs to be utilized fully to take advantage of the wide catchment available.

C) Evaluation of the selection practices and procedures and the use of the legal framework

With the use of technology application forms should be used as the first stage of screening suitable applicants inviting candidates to fill in their personal details, answer a few competency based questions and upload their CV. At this stage the number of prospective candidates are reduced to a handful that should be seen individually or as a group, this process is called shortlisting.

All suitable candidates should then be put through an assessment centre and interviewed. This will enable HR to ensure the correct candidate will be selected according to the criteria set in the job specification. The HR manager will interview the candidate and ask more about individual experiences and competency-based questions testing the candidate against specific skills required for the position applied. An assessment centre will allow the HR manager to view how the candidate reacts to different situations and how he/she reacts to group work allowing the HR function to analyze how the candidate works in a team. The assessment centre will also test presentation skills, analytical skills, problem solving skills and general aptitude making them a powerful selection tool.

Once the most suitable applicant has been identified references need to be obtained and this is generally a character and work reference. The HR manager then needs to draw up a contract and inform the candidate in writing of the outcome, all other candidates will also need to be informed and feedback should be provided on what each unsuccessful candidate needs to improve on .

According to the university of York the Legal framework includes a guideline to what HR functions need to consider when interviewing and selecting candidates, such as ensuring there is no discrimination based on sex, religion and race. Disabilities are not taken into detrimental effect when hiring and ensuring all employees are treated fairly when applying for promotions .

D) Consider the value of interviews as a selection method applicable to the organization. Think of the selection process for recruiting different levels.

The interview is still the most widely used selection technique for prospective employees. Interviews are wide ranging and can be 1 2 1, or with a panel, it can be purely scenario or competency based, and it can be with a single interviewer or a panel of interviewers.

Interviews are a useful way of determining the suitability of a candidate for a job role and a wide range of questions can be asked. The interview will give both parties a chance to understand the role and the type of candidacy on offer. One of the reasons why interviews are used widely is that the candidate’s personal feelings about the job role can be determined, and the interview can be tailored to meet each individual’s needs and level.

The interview allows the organization to ask more probing questions and ascertain more information that would not be able through another candidate selection technique. This method of selection also allows the organization to understand how verbally comfortable the candidate is, useful in customer facing roles where the candidate will be expected to engage customers. The full list of advantages can be seen in a tutorial by ‘evalued’ .

The disadvantages of the interview as a selection technique are that the organisation may not see the candidate in a work example and be able to see the interaction with other team members. During the interview, a decision about a candidate will be made within the first few minutes; this could be due to the candidates’ mannerisms, look, appearance and the verbal style. An article written by the HR Guide to the Internet on Personnel Selection can find the full list of disadvantages .

As mentioned previously at Centrica they use a variety of methods ranging from Interviews (face to face and telephone) to assessment centers. For senior members Level 5 and above, this is the Director to executive level the process of interviews is more widely used than assessment centers and for these levels there could be up to 5 different interviews with 5 different groups of employees, these could be HR managers and direct reports.

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