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Recruitment and selection

The importance of good recruitment and selection
Recruiting people who are wrong for the organisation can lead to increased labour turnover, increased costs for the organisation, and lowering of morale in the existing workforce. Such people are likely to be discontented, unlikely to give of their best, and end up leaving voluntarily or involuntarily when their unsuitability becomes evident. They will not offer the flexibility and commitment that many organisations seek. Managers and supervisors will have to spend extra time on further recruitment exercises, when what is needed in the first place is a systematic process to assess the role to be filled, and the type of skills and abilities needed to fill it. Most recruitment systems will be simple, with stages that can be followed as a routine whenever there is a vacancy to be filled, and which can be monitored and adapted in the light of experience. This booklet describes the main features of such systems, and other related issues. Systems should be:

efficient - cost effective in methods and sources effective - producing enough suitable candidates without excess and ensuring the identification of the best fitted for the job and the organisation fair - ensuring that right through the process decisions are made on merit alone.

The importance of fairness

The employer has the legal responsibility to ensure that no unlawful discrimination occurs in the recruitment and selection process on the grounds of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. Equality of opportunity is an integral part of the recruitment and selection process, and to this end employers may offer training and encouragement to any underrepresented groups. Examples include pre-application assistance for those who do not have English as their first language, or management development training for women where they are under-represented in management grades (1). Job advertisements may also state that the employer encourages applications from those groups that are under- represented in the organisation. Employees and their representatives will also have an interest in fair, non-discriminatory recruitment and selection policies, and they should be fully consulted when new procedures are introduced or existing procedures reviewed. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Employment Equality Regulations (covering sexual orientation, religion or belief, and age) and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 set out the legal requirements for employers. Organisations should be aware that the provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 not only make it unlawful to discriminate against disabled individuals without justifiable reason but also require employers to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace or working arrangements. Detailed guidance is available in the Code of Practice on the elimination of discrimination in employment. This can be obtained from The Stationery Office (2). The Acas Equality Direct helpline (tel: 08456 00 34 44) can give advice on the best ways of implementing an equal opportunities policy.

Advice is also offered to employers in small and medium sized organisations through the Business Link service (4) and through Acas training (5).

Human resource planning

Recruiters need to keep abreast of changes in the labour market to ensure that their recruitment efforts are not wasted or directed at too small a pool of labour. Skill shortages may occur unexpectedly and recruitment and training processes need to be kept flexible. It is a good idea for any organisation to plan its labour force requirements, matching available supply against forecast demand. A skills audit of existing staff will increase knowledge of the skills the organisation has available and those which are lacking, and thus help pinpoint areas for future development. A human resource plan need not be highly complicated. A straightforward plan will help organisations to:

assess future recruitment needs formulate training programmes develop promotion and career development policies anticipate and, where possible, avoid redundancies develop a flexible workforce to meet changing requirements control staff costs whilst ensuring salaries remain competitive assess future requirements for capital equipment, technology and premises.

Management is responsible for producing the human resource plan, senior management for supporting it. Implementation is likely to be most effective if it carries the support of the workforce, normally achieved through consultation with trade union or other employee representatives. Producing a human resource plan involves:

forecasting staffing requirements against business objectives assessing the available supply of people to meet those requirements matching available supply against forecast demand (6).
Information on current employees, labour turnover and the labour market will help in the formulation of the plan. The Learning and Skills Council (visit www.lsc.gov.uk/)will be able to provide general information on the local labour market in England and on the skills balance available, as will the local Jobcentres. Local Education Authorities can assist with information on the numbers of school and college leavers.

Labour markets and the labour force

In times of changing labour markets, organisations need to adapt their recruitment and retention policies to allow them to compete more effectively for staff, particularly those with skills that are in short supply. The offer of training and development opportunities is often a strong attraction to potential recruits, and here again the Learning and Skills Council can offer advice and assistance. Jobcentres, which administer Government training schemes are another source of advice and potential recruits. If recruitment is difficult in certain jobs or skills, consideration may need to be given to redesigning the job to make it a more attractive prospect - perhaps by offering a greater variety of tasks, or increased self-management. Employers also need to encourage a good 'work-life

balance' within the organisation by giving consideration to more flexible ways of working. Employees with young and disabled children and the carers if adults, have the right to request flexible working arrangements - including job-sharing, part-time working, flexi-time, working from home/teleworking and school time contracts - and employers must have a good business reason for rejecting any application. Another possibility is to introduce some more flexible working arrangements, perhaps job-sharing, part-time working, flexi-time, working from home/teleworking, and school term-time contracts. These variations on the 'standard' forms of working will open the vacancy to people who might otherwise be unable to consider it. Equally, the offer of assistance with domestic care arrangements and costs can prove highly attractive to people with these responsibilities. Many companies are now offering 'family-friendly' policies. These are often developed in conjunction with local Business Links and Chambers of Commerce, which can provide examples of good practice. The balance of the labour force is changing, with some increase in the numbers of women, young people, and most particularly older workers available for work. Employers are beginning to give serious consideration to the employment of older workers, and a voluntary Code of Practice to counteract ageism in employment has been introduced by the Government (7). Jobcentres will not accept vacancies with age limits. The value of labour market information is that it gives employers some forecasts from which they can decide how best to plan for future recruitment. Should the organisation make a positive move to attract older workers? What might best be done to counter any shortage of potential recruits with particular skills? Should training new and existing workers move higher up the priority list in the firm? Should the organisation make the introduction of family-friendly policies a priority so as to attract the widest range of suitable staff? Looking at all the options means that recruitment will be better targeted and therefore more efficient and effective.

Recommendations for Recruitment & Selection

by Lucy Friend, Demand Media Recruitment and selection is a defined process organizations use to find and hire employees. For a small business, this process can be a critical part of the success of the organization's future growth and retention of employees. This process should include several key factors to ensure a small business not only complies with internal policies but also with local, state and federal regulations.

Job Description
Before starting a recruitment and selection process, job descriptions should be defined for each role in the organization. Each job description should include the skills and education required to perform each role successfully, as well as a detailed list of responsibilities. Job descriptions allow employees to understand their roles and responsibilities, and also provide a tool for hiring personnel to use when choosing the most qualified candidates based on the requirements of the job.

Policies and Procedures

Policies and procedures should be defined and adhered to for the recruiting and selection process, and should ensure that everyone in the organization adheres to local, state and federal regulations. Policies should provide a list of guiding principles for hiring personnel to follow, and procedures should provide the required steps for recruitment and selection. If a small business has a human resource department, company policies and procedures should address this department's oversight of the hiring process.

Training
Once procedures are clearly defined, hiring managers and supervisors should be trained regarding the requirements of the process. Training should include not only what steps are required to recruit and select employees, but how to interview candidates appropriately and effectively. Include applicable laws and regulations, as well as the organization's goals during training.

Involvement
Small businesses should include a senior member of the organization during the recruitment and selection process. If an organization does not have a human resources department, someone who is responsible for making high-level decisions for the organization should be involved. This can be accomplished by including a senior member in the interview process. This provides direct oversight to the process and ensures the process is being completed to meet the expectations of the organization. Most candidates who interview will also appreciate the involvement of senior members of the organization because they feel their contributions will be recognized.

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References
University of Kansas Medical Center: Recruitment and Selection

Resources
Society of Human Resource Management: Staffing Management

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Competency-based recruitment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Competency-based recruitment is a process of recruitment based on the ability of candidates to produce anecdotes about their professional experience which can be used as evidence that the candidate has a given competency. Candidates demonstrate competencies on the application form, and then in the interview, which in this case is known as a competency-based interview. The process is intended to be fairer than other recruitment processes by clearly laying down the required competencies and then testing them in such a way that the the recruiter has little discretion to favour one candidate over another; the process assumes high recruiter discretion is undesirable. As a result of its perceived fairness, the process is popular in public services. Competency-based recruitment is highly focused on the candidates' story-telling abilities as in indication of competency, and disfavours other indications of a candidate's skills and potential, such as references.
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[edit] Best Practices Having established the competency profiles for groups and roles, organizations can use the competencies as the standards for assessing candidates throughout the screening and selection process as well as advertising and communicating the organizations requirements to potential applicants. Competencies support recruitment and selection by:

Providing bona fide, validated, fair and unbiased standards against which to assess applicant competencies to perform in the targeted role / job. Improving the transparency of the selection process by clearly communicating the behaviours employees must display for success in the role / job. Contributing to the design of a well-articulated, efficient and effective recruitment and selection processes. Creating efficiencies by providing re-usable selection tools and processes (e.g., question banks for interviews and reference-checking organized by competency; template interview and reference checking guides for roles / jobs within the organization; targeted role plays, work simulations, inbasket assessments; etc.)

Providing explicit, clear and transparent criteria on which to give candidates feedback on their performance in the selection process (e.g., input for future learning and development; etc.) Providing standards for evaluating the success of the selection process - e.g., correlating the results of the selection process with competency-based on-the-job performance.

Some of the common benchmark competency-based practices in Recruitment and Selection include:

Notices of job requirements - A template is developed to define how competencies will be reflected in .notices regarding the requirements of jobs to be filled. As the competency profiles are completed, sample notices are developed for the varied types of jobs/ roles. . Interview and Reference Checking Guides - Template interview and reference checking guides are developed for varied types of jobs/ roles, including instructions and rating guides. These are made available to hiring managers and HR Advisors. Template Interview and Reference Checking Guides - Template interview and reference checking guides are developed for roles/career streams and levels within Occupational Groups including instructions and rating guides. These are made available to hiring managers and HR Advisors. Competency-based Track Record / Portfolio Reviews - Track record / portfolio reviews allow employees / applicants to document their past experiences and accomplishments that relate to the competency requirements for positions within the organization. Once completed, trained evaluators score the extent to which the required competencies are demonstrated in the written examples using standardized scoring criteria. Typically, the candidate / employee also provides references who can attest to the validity of the examples provided. Results can be used as part of the staffing process and / or for other purposes (e.g., competency gap analysis for Learning and Development; Succession Management; HR Planning). Other Competency-based Assessment Methodologies - A variety of other competency-based assessment methodologies can be incorporated into the selection process, including In-basket assessments, role plays or simulations of workplace situations that the employee will encounter, multi-source input (as appropriate), etc. When designing and implementing any methodology, it is important that it be defensible (i.e., reliable, fair, valid and unbiased). Training on Competency-based Selection - Managers must have the knowledge and skills to be able to apply the various competency-based assessment methodologies noted above to arrive at valid selection decisions. Likewise, employees must be able to participate effectively to provide an accurate picture of the competencies they possess. Finally, both managers and HR professionals must be able to establish selection processes that are both efficient and effective (i.e., reliable, fair, valid and unbiased). All of this requires targeted training / orientation programs to ensure that all stakeholders have the necessary skills.

Implementation Stages As competency profiles are developed for varied job groups, the following implementation stages are suggested for their use in recruitment and selection on a corporate-wide basis. Stage 1:

Define the policies and decision-rules for using competencies in the recruitment and selection processes Identify considerations / guidelines for including information on competencies in notices of job requirements Develop sample notices of job requirements as the competency profiles become available for use. Customize or build an interview / reference checking question bank organized by competencies included in the competency profiles. Customize or build other competency-based tools or processes (e.g., track-record reviews) that can be used across a number of occupational groups.

Stage 2:

As the competency profiles are completed for the job groups, develop and implement recruitment, and selection processes consistent with policy and tools / templates defined in Stage 1. Review and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of these processes and adjust policies, procedures, templates, etc., as required. Plan for and train managers and HR personnel on appropriate competency-based interviewing approaches (e.g., behavonral interviewing; situational interviewing). This training should be just-intime i.e., as competency profiles become available for the different job groups. Plan for, design and implement an orientation / training program for employees on how to participate in a competency-based recruitment and selection as new processes are being implemented). Collect data on the effectiveness of the new recruitment and selection process (e.g., correlate results of selection process with on-job or training performance results) and make adjustments to the process, as required.

[edit] Vendors Vendors of Competency-based Management Systems include:

Select International Human Resource Systems Group Cornerstone on Demand Kenexa Zwell International

[edit] See also

Strategic human resource planning Human resource management systems Learning management system Talent management

[edit] References
[edit] Books

Dubois, D., & Rothwell, W. (2004). Competency-Based Human Resource Management. DaviesBlack Publishing Dubois, D., & Rothwell, W. (2000). The Competency Toolkit (Volumes 1 & 2). HRD Press Lucia, A., & Lepsinger, R. (1999). The Art and Science of Competency Models: Pinpointing Critical Success Factors in Organizations. Pfeiffer Shandler, D. (2000). Competency and the Learning Organization. Crisp Learning. Spencer, L M. in Cherniss, C. and D. Goleman, eds. (2001) The economic value of emotional intelligence competencies and EIC-based HR programs, in The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace: How to Select for, Measure, and Improve Emotional Intelligence in Individuals, Groups and Organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Wiley Spencer, L., & Spencer, S. (1993). Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance. Wiley Ulrich, D. and Brockbank, W. (2005) The HR Value Proposition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press Wood. R., & Payne, T. (1998). Competency-Based Recruitment and Selection. Wiley

[edit] Articles

Bartram, D. (2005) The Great Eight competencies: A criterion-centric approach to validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 11851203 Catano, V., Darr, M., & Campbell, C. (2007). Performance appraisal of behaviour-based competencies: A reliable and valid procedure. Personnel Psychology, 60, 201-230 Cheng, M. I., &. Dainty, R. I. J. (2005). Toward a multidimensional competency-based managerial performance framework: A hybrid approach. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 20, 380-396

Draganidis, F., & Mentzas, G. (2006). Competency-based management: A review of systems and approaches. Information Management &Computer Security, 14, 51-64 Homer, M. (2001). Skills and competency management. Industrial and Commercial training, 33/2, 59-62 Horton, S. (2000). Introduction- the competency-based movement: Its origins and impact on the public sector. The International Journal of Public Sector Management, 13, 306-318 Kochanski, J. T.,& Ruse, D. H. (1996). Designing a competency-based human resources organization. Human Resource Management, 35, 19-34 McEvoy , G., Hayton, J., Wrnick, A., Mumford, T., Hanks, S., & Blahna, M. (2005). A competency-based model for developing human resource professionals. Journal of Management Education, 29, 383- 402 Rausch, E., Sherman, H., & Washbush, J. B. (2002). Defining and assessing competencies for competency-based, outcome-focused management development. The Journal of Management Development, 21, 184-200 Sanchez, J. I., &. Levine, E. L. (2009). What is (or should be) the difference between competency modeling and traditional job analysis? Human Resource Management Review, 19, 5363 Schmidt, F.L., & Hunter, J.E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practice and theoretical implications of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274 Shippmann, J. S., Ash, R. A., Battista, M., Carr, L., Eyde, L. D., Hesketh, B., Kehoe, J., Pearlman, K., & Sanchez, J. I. (2000). The practice of competency modeling, Personnel Psychology, 53, 703-740. Spencer, L. M. (2004). Competency Model Statistical Validation and Business