How many have we got at present?
By looking at how many employees that you have already you can decide whether you need another. This could help decide how many people you need to employ without hiring too many so that people don’t get enough working hours. This also helps to make sure that we hire enough people to spread the work load fairly between all of the employees.
After making sure that we know the answer to these questions we can then begin the recruitment process. Below is a diagram of a typical recruitment process for a business. I will then go on to explain each part of the process in more detail.
IDENTIFY THE ROLE
This is the first stage of the recruitment process and is exactly what it’s called. You identify the role that you need to recruit for. This may be a role on the production line or a role for a department manager. They usually appear when the business wants to expand or needs more personnel to complete the job with more efficiency or quality. Vacancies within a business can also appear when employees get promoted or if somebody dies. Businesses may consider not promoting somebody as they may not believe they are suitable for the job, but if they were to recruit somebody externally they may be able to find a more suitable candidate for the job. By identifying the role within the business that needs to be filled the recruitment process can then move on to the next stage.
JOB SPECIFICATION
The job specification is the part of the process which specifies the job that the recruited person will be doing. It is an outline of what is involved within the job role. This is shown to all the applicants for the job so that they know exactly what job they are applying for. Within the specification there will need to information on the business so that the person applying knows who they will be working for. The information included can be a brief history of the organisation explaining how they became the business they are today and what markets they are currently in. Another part may be a brief description of the aims of the business so the candidates can see whether it is an aim that they personally, can help to achieve. Information on what is involved within the job will also be provided. This will explain what the candidate will be expected to do if they get the job. The duties required for the job will be included with another duty saying that the employee will be expected to do anything else that the business feels is necessary. This is a safety net for the business as they don’t want employees going on strike if they don’t want to do something that is not on there job specification. Who the candidate will be responsible to and who they are responsible for will also be included in the job specification. This avoids confusion and lets the candidate know where they are in the business hierarchy. An important part of the job specification is the salary and the opportunities for promotion with the job. This shows the candidate how much they will be paid and whether or not they have a chance to work their way up in the business. The candidates will also be told where the job will be located. This means that the candidate can decide to turn it down if it means having to travel quite far, or move closer to make the journey to work easier.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
The person specification is a brief outline of the businesses view of an ideal candidate for the job. This shows each candidate whether or not they will be suited or not for the job which will help the business narrow down the best candidates for the job. The person specification for a job is usually given with the job specification. Businesses have to be very careful when writing a person specification as they cannot discriminate between applicants. This means that cannot say what kind of people that you don’t want. You can only describe the person that you think is suitable. An example would be that the physical make-up of the candidate should be fit and healthy, but you cannot say no fat people should apply. Another part of the person specification would be the attainments that the candidates will need. This could just be some certain GCSEs or possibly a degree the candidate will need to carry out the job sufficiently. There will also be a part saying what skills the candidate may need in the job, such as good arithmetic skills or people skills if they using a phone. The employer may also specify some interests that may be needed in the applicants. These are usually relevant to the job being applied for. In the more important jobs within a business, the person specification may include some previous experience that the candidate may need. All of these things are likely to appear in a person specification, although they may not all be essential for candidates. Each part of the specification is labelled with either an ‘E’ or a ‘D’. If a part is marked with an ‘E’ then the employers see it as essential for the candidate to be able to do the job and if marked with a ‘D’ then the employers would see it as desirable within a candidate. The problem is getting a balance. If too many parts a marked ‘essential’ then you may just narrow down the suitable candidates too much and not have enough people apply for the job. The opposite could happen if you mark too many parts ‘desirable’. After writing both the job and person specifications you can then move on to the advertising of the job.
ADVERTISING
This is an important part of the recruitment process as the advertising for a job needs to be in the right places and of a good quality to attract the suitable candidates. Location of adverts for a job is vital. You wouldn’t expect an advert for a job as a paper boy on TV; it would usually be in the window of the local newsagent. The same applies for jobs larger businesses. You would expect to find science related jobs in science magazines and on science websites but not in the local newsagent. This is an easy part of advertising and if it is done incorrectly then you may receive unwanted applications. Another issue when it comes to advertising is how you advertise. You need your advert to stand out from the rest and still look professional. A balance of these will hopefully maximise relevant applications. A modern way of advertising is on a businesses website. Most businesses websites will have a link leading to a page about either careers or job opportunities within the business. This is a common way to advertise and effective as the internet is increasing in popularity everyday. You will also need to decide how much you want to spend on advertising for the job. This can be helped by the decision before, as you may need to spend more on the advert if you would like it to be more professional. This is a tough decision and is mostly dependant on the job being advertised for. All of the advertising issues will depend on what the job is to find the correct answer. Another way to advertise is to use an outside headhunting agency. This will increase your chances of hiring a more reliable candidate for the job and one that is more likely to make the business more money. After advertising you can then move onto handing out application forms to those who respond to the advert.
APPLICATION FORMS
This is an important part of the recruitment process as it is a first impression of each candidate and who they are. Each application form should be the same for each candidate to make it easier to compare each candidate to one another. By making each candidate complete the same document the information needed by the employer is easier to find than if you were to compare every candidates CV. In the application form the employer will ask about each candidate’s personal information such as name, address and possibly date of birth. More than likely the application form will not ask for religion or ethnicity so that there is no way that the business can discriminate based on race later on in the recruitment process. They will then go on to ask about the education of the applicant to see whether they meet the requirements set in the person specification and to help distinguish the better candidates from the worse. Another part of the application form will require the candidate to state their employment history. This shows the employer what past experience they have and why they left their job. This can say a lot about people if they got fired and why that happened. Some businesses may only ask candidates for a copy of their CV. This may be because they believe that al they need to know about the candidate will be in their CV. Another reason may be that an application form with extra questions will be unnecessary for the recruitment process. After comparing the application forms it is then time to move on to making a short-list of the best candidates.
SHORT-LISTING
Making a short-list of suitable applicants needs to be a very careful job. Whilst making a short-list of applicants, the employer will need to make sure that they are not discriminating between applicants for any reason. If an applicant doesn’t make the list then there will need to be a legitimate reason that is not based on race, religion, sex and anything else that discriminates them. Each decision must be justified by using information such as the applicant’s education or previous employment. When making the short-list you will need to study each applicant carefully as you don’t want to decline the perfect candidate and add a terrible candidate to the short-list. Those candidates that do not make the short-list but are capable workers you could possibly offer those candidates jobs in other areas of the business. After making a short-list of suitable candidates it is then time to move on and interview those that have met the short-list.
INTERVIEWS
Interviewing candidates is done so that the employer can get to know each candidate and choose the best one for the job. There many ways to interview a candidate from speaking to them over the phone to having a meal with them. Deciding on the correct technique to interview a candidate is vital to get the information that you need. This again depends on the job that you are recruiting for but can be done in any way that the employer feels will work best. There are usually some set questions which are asked to each candidate to easily compare their responses to find the better candidates. Each interview would probably be best done by one person because they can then compare each candidate easier than if a different person interviewed each candidate. This also means that each candidate will be interviewed the same and will not be marked any harsher than another candidate. This again is not essential but may make the interviewing process easier. Other types of interviews can include having a panel of employees that interview the candidate or a ‘2 on 1’ type where one person is rude and the other is polite to see how the candidate handles both of them and how they can cope with stress. Some interviews may require the candidate to do an aptitude test to see how well suited the candidate is for the job. This is usually only in jobs where it is needed and employees will need to be well trained to control equipment or vehicles. After deciding upon the perfect candidate for the job it is then time to offer them the job.
JOB/CONTRACT OFFER
Now that the applicant has been decided you can move onto offering them the job or contract. This doesn’t mean that they are hired so you may want to keep the records of the other applicant’s interviews in case the chosen applicant declines the offer. If so you can then offer the job to the second best candidate. If the applicant accepts the job then the employer will need to produce a contract within four months to say that they are working for them. If the contract is not produced then the employee is working illegally. After the reply from the job offer the employer can move onto the induction process to see how the new recruit copes with the job.
