2.3.

Recruitment, selection and

Orientation of Human
Resources
The Recruitment function: putting
HRP into action

What is recruiting?
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
action
• Recruiting consist of any activity carried
on by the organization with the primary
purpose of identifying and attracting
potential employees
• The goal of recruiting is encouraging
qualified people to apply for the jobs
The Recruitment
Recruiting function:
Human putting HRP into
Resources
action
Areas of recruiting that require decisions
include:
 Personnel policies,
 Recruitment sources, and
 The characteristics and behavior of the
recruiter
The Recruitment function: putting HRP
into action

Job
choice
Recruitment Influences
 The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
action
A. Personnel policies relevant to recruitment:
1. Internal Vs External Recruiting- this decision
affects the nature of jobs, recruitment sources, and the
nature of applicants
2. Lead-the-market pay strategies- “lead-the-market”
approach to pay
3. Employment at will policies- the employer and
employee may end an employment relationship at any
time, if there is no employment contract saying
otherwise.
4. Image advertising- designed to create a favorable
impression of the organizations.
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
Recruiting Humanaction Resources

B. RECRUITING SOURCES
1. Internal sources: Job posting,
communicating information about the
vacancy on company bulletin boards, in
employee publications, or corporate
intranets and any where else the
organization communicates with employees.
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
Recruiting Humanaction Resources

B. RECRUITING SOURCES
2. External sources: Direct applicants (walk-
ins/Unsolicited applicant files) and
Referrals, advertisement in newspapers
and magazines, electronic recruiting,
Employment agencies public and
private), colleges and universities, etc
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
action

 Advantages of Internal Recruiting

 Better assessment of candidates
 Reduces training time
 Faster and cheaper
 Motivates employees
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
action

 Disadvantages of Internal Recruiting

 Promulgates old ways of doing things
 Hinders creative problem solving
 lack of new blood
 Encourages “managerial inbreeding.”
 Politics probably have a greater impact on
internal recruiting than external recruiting
The Recruitment function: putting HRP into
action

 Advantages of External Recruiting

 Facilitate the introduction of new ideas
and thinking into corporate decision
making.
 The new blood comes with no
ownership of past strategies that can
hinder an objective assessment of future
strategy
The Recruitment Function: Putting HRP into
Action
 Disadvantages of External Recruiting
 The introduction of new personnel may have a
negative impact on work group cohesion and
morale
 The new personnel takes longer to learn the
ropes of the job
 External recruiting can be costly
 You typically have less data on external
candidates( Thus, a good assessment need to be
used such as tests, interviews and background
checks)
The Recruitment Function: Putting HRP into
Action

What method of recruiting is

most effective?
The Recruitment Function: Putting HRP into
Action
 Measures of Effectiveness of Recruitment methods:
 Cost per hire
 Number of applicants generated
 Time to fill
 Interview/invitation ratio
 Applicant performance on the job after specified period of
time and
 Retention or turnover rates
 EEO/Diversity impact
 Total cost of recruiting
The Recruitment Function: Putting HRP into
Action
C. RECRUITERS TRAITS AND BEHAVIORS
 Persons characteristics and behavior
 The recruiter affects the nature of the job
vacancy and the applicants generated
The Recruitment Function: Putting HRP into
Action
 How to enhance recruiters impact?
 Recruiters should provide timely feedback,
 Recruiters should avoid offensive behavior,
 Recruit with teams rather than an
individual recruiters
 Recruiters should be warm and informative
 A Recruiter should provide a realistic job
preview(RJP)
 Selection: It sounds simple- match
employees with jobs
What is selection?
 It is the Process of gathering and assessing
information about job candidates and
ultimately making decisions about Human
Resource.( H Jhon Bernardin, 2007) or
 It is the process through which organizations
make decisions about who will or will not be
allowed to join the organization.(Noe, et.al.,
2009)
 Selection: It sounds simple- match
employees with jobs
 Selection begins with the candidate
identified through recruitment and attempts to
reduce their number to the individuals best
qualified to perform the available jobs.
 At the end of the process, the selected
individuals are placed in jobs with the
organization
Steps in the selection process
 Step 1:Job applications and Resumes
 Nearly all employers gather background
information on applicants at the beginning of
the selection process using application forms
and resumes.
 Organizations also verify the information by
checking references and conducting
background checks.
 Step one…
 Application forms/Application Blanks and
Biographical Data – low cost way to gather basic
data from many applicants and allows
organizations to collect standard information from
all applicants
 Employment applications include areas for
applicants to provide several types of information:
 Contact information
 Work experience
 Educational background
 Applicant’s signature
 Step one …
 The application form may include other areas of the
applicant to provide additional information, such as
specific work experiences, technical skills, or
memberships in professional or trade groups
 By reviewing applications form, HR personnel can
identify which candidates meet minimum
requirements for education and experiences.
 Revision of applications enable the organization to
narrow the pool of candidates to a number it can
afford to test and interview
 Step one…
 Resumes:
 Applicants control the content of the
information, as well as the way it is presented.
 This type of information is biased in favor of
the applicant and may not even be accurate.
 It is inexpensive way to gather information
and used as a basis for deciding which
candidates to investigate further.
 Step one…
 Resumes…
 As with employment applications, an HR staff
member reviews the resumes to identify
candidates meeting such basic requirements as
educational background, related work, and types
of equipment the person has used.
 Resumes indicates the ability of the candidate to
communicate and present themselves.
 Employers tend to decide applicants whose
resumes are unclear, sloppy, or full of mistakes
 Step one…
 References
 the goal is to gain insight about the potential
employee from people who have had previous
work experience with him or her.
 The second purpose of reference checks is to
assess the potential success of the person for the
new job.
 It provide the names and phone numbers of
former employers or other who can vouch for the
abilities and past job performance.
 Bear in mind that, references are not an unbiased
source of information.
 Step Two: Employment Tests
• Aptitude tests
• Job knowledge and proficiency Test
• Interest Test
• Personality Tests
 1. Aptitude Tests
• Measure a person’s capacity or potential to
learn and perform a job
• Some of the tests include: verbal ability,
numerical ability, perception speed test,
spatial tests, Reasoning Tests
 2. Job knowledge and proficiency
test
• Job knowledge tests are used to measure the
job related knowledge possessed by the
applicant( either written or oral)
• It include questions that differentiate
experienced worker from inexperienced ones
• Proficiency test measures how well the
applicant can do a sample of work that is to be
performed.
 3. Interest Test
• Measure how a person’s interests compare with
the interest of successful people who do the
same type of job. For example, a persons
interest to work with or deal with people
measure a person’s interest in a salesperson’s
position.
• The underlying assumption of this test is that
people perform better if placed in positions that
interest them.
 4. Personality Tests
• It measures the basic aspect of an applicant’s
personality: introversion, stability, and
motivation
• They are expressed as self-confidence, tact,
emotional control, optimism, decisiveness,
conformity, objectivity, patience, fear, distrust,
initiative, judgment, dominance, impulsiveness,
sympathy, integrity and stability.
 Five major personality Dimensions
Measured by personality inventories
No Dimensions Characteristics

1. Extroversion Sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative,

expressive
2. Adjustment Emotionally stable, no depressed, secure,
content
3. Agreeableness Courteous, trusting, good- natured,
tolerant, cooperative, forgiving
4. Conscientiousnes Dependable, organized, preserving,
s thorough, achievement-oriented
5. Inquisitiveness Curious, imaginative, artistically
sensitive, broad- minded, playful
 Step Three: Comprehensive
Interview
• Used to supplement information gained in
other steps in the selection process.
• Designed to probe into areas that cannot be
addressed by the application forms or tests
• The interview could be structured or
unstructured
 Types of Interviews
 Interviewing techniques
Non directive interview
A Structured interview
A Situational interview
A behavior description interview
Panel interview
 How to Interviewing Effectively
 Be prepared
 Assign responsibilities
 Put the applicant at ease
 Ask about past behaviors
 Figure out what your best employees do, and
ask questions that look for similar behaviors
 At the end of interview, make sure the
candidate knows what to expect next
 Step Four: Reference checking/
Background Investigation
• It involves contacting individuals who are
listed as references of the applicant.
• It may include contacting former employers to
confirm the candidate’s work record and
performance level, contacting other job
related, personal, and educational reference to
verify accomplishments shown in the
application.
 Step Five: Physical examinations
• It is given to determine whether an applicant is
physically capable of performing the job
• Employees eligibility for group life, health,
and disability insurance
 Step Six:Final Employment
Decision
• Given all the above processes, this is made by
the hiring department as per the qualifications
set up for the job to be filled.
 Approaches to selection
 How organizations select employees?
Multiple- Hurdle Model: process of arriving at a
selection decision by eliminating some candidates
at each stage of the selection process
Compensatory Model: process of arriving at a
selection decision in which a very high score on
one type of assessment can make up for a low
score on another.
 Selection Decisions
 Communicating the Decision
The Human Resource department is often
responsible for notifying applicants about the
results of the selection process.
When a candidate has been selected, the
organization should communicate the offer to the
candidate including job responsibilities, work
schedules, rate of pay, starting date, and other
relevant details.
 Basic Testing Concepts
Selection Methods: Are they Effective?
Three key terms related to Effectiveness are:
reliability, validity, and utility
 Selection: It sounds simple- match
employees with jobs
1. Reliability- the extent to which a
measurement is free from random error
2. Validity- the extent to which performance on
a measure( such as test score) is related to
what the measure is designed to assess( such
as job performance).
 Selection: It sounds simple- match
employees with jobs
3. Practical value/utility
 Not only should selection methods such as tests
and interview responses accurately predict how
well individuals will perform, but they should
also produce information that actually benefits
the organization.
 Selection procedures such as testing and
interviewing cost money. They should cost
significantly less than the benefits of hiring the
new employees.
 Orientation/induction
• Once suitable applicants have been selected to
join the organization, it is desirable to integrate
them into the organization and the job to which
they are responsible. Helping new employees fit
in, i.e. designing orientation programme is one of
the functions of human resource department.
• Orientation, therefore, is a planned introduction
of new employees to their jobs, coworkers, and
the organization.
 Orientation/induction
Purposes of Orientation
• The overall goal of orientation is to help new
employees learn about their new work
environments and get their performances to
acceptable levels as soon as possible. The
orientation process has several specific purposes:
 To create initial favorable impression
 To enhance interpersonal skills
 To reduce turnover
 
 Orientation/induction
Create Initial Favorable Impression
A good orientation programme creates a favorable
impression of the organization and its work. This
impression begins even before the new employees report
to work.
Providing sufficient information about when and where
to report the first day, handling all relevant paper work
efficiently, and having personable and efficient people
assist the new employees all contribute to creating a
favorable impression of the organization.
 
 Orientation/induction
 To enhance interpersonal skills
 Another purpose is to ease the employee’s entry into
the work group. New employees often are concerned
about meeting the people in their work units.
 Furthermore, the expectations of the work group do not
always matching with those presented at management’s
formal orientation.
 Also if a well planned formal orientation is lacking, the
new employees may be oriented solely by the group,
and thus possibly in ways not beneficial to the
organization.
 Orientation/induction
 To reduce turnover
 Over half of all new hires may leave their jobs
within the first six months in some
organization if the orientation is not proper.
 Research has found that individuals who had
been through more orientation sessions had a
lower turnover rate than those who had less
orientation.
 Orientation/induction
 Some other benefits of better orientation
include the following:
 Stronger loyalty to the organization
 Greater commitment to organization values
and goals
 Lower absenteeism
 Higher job satisfaction