Applied Business Unit 2 Coursework

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Applied business unit 2

Recruitment         

 

Job analysis

I have decided that the job role that I will be interviewing candidates for will be a job working as a shop assistant in the students shop selling food. This job role is a customer service operative role and as such, the candidate will be coming into contact regularly with customers. The role will be paid £5.75/hour. The general tasks that the candidate would be expected to take part in include:

  • General assistance to management
  • Carry out tasks set by management.
  • Stacking shelves with products
  • Working on the tills
  • Heavy lifting of products when they are delivered.
  • Collecting deliveries
  • Price labeling
  • Checking the sell by dates of the food  
  • Stock control

These are all of the tasks that the candidate would do if chosen to do the job role. However, in order for the candidate to take part in these activities effectively, the candidate must have a number of skills, personal qualities and also qualifications to take part in the job:

  • Have at least 7 GCSE’s including one in math’s and English or equivalent
  • Friendly and approachable.
  • Must be able to follow instructions
  • Must be able to work in a team
  • Must be willing to go on training courses
  • Have a good knowledge of customer service
  • Have basic mathematical skills
  • Have basic literature skills
  • Previous experience in similar work.

I have decided on these seven person specifications because a lot of them, such as being friendly, have good customer service skills, be able to follow instructions and having basic mathematical skills are obvious skills necessary when working customers in the shop. I think it is important to put some sort of threshold to entry on qualifications because it will help me with the short listing process.  It is important to have basic literature skills so that the employee is able to understand anything he comes across. For example if the employee is given an induction pack with health and safety stimulus in there that he has to read, but cannot read well then he may misread something and hurt himself. He must be able to work in a team because he will always have to be with other staff when he is working. The candidate must be willing to go on training courses because during the induction this may be required so that he can work effectively and therefore if the candidate does not go then he will not be able to work effectively. It is important that the candidate has had previous experience in similar work because it may reduce the time needed for training and may also result in the candidate working more effectively. Being able to speak

It is very important that I advertise my job in the right place. I think that because this will be a very popular job role amoung younger citizens and students in the university because it is similar to work they have probably done in the past, I think that I would be better if I only advertise locally. Not only will this save money because I will not have to spend more on advertising in more mediums, but also it will restrict the total number of applications because less people will know about the job role. I think that it would be beneficial for me to advertise on the internet because Warwick University can advertise free on its own website and people can view most jobs nationally. Newspapers can also be a very cheap method of advertising. I will probably only advertise in the telegraph and the Birmingham mail. This will save money because less people will apply for the job and therefore the whole process can be carried out faster.

I also carried out an interview with a human resources expert from Warwick University to help me with my documents. The questions I asked are shown in appendix 67. Whenever I refer to Katie Watts in my research section it is always shown in appendix 67.

Recruitment process

Advertisement:

The advertisement will be one of the most important parts of my recruitment process because it attracts the candidates. I have already decided on where I am going to advertise but I now need to make the advertisement. To do this, I analysed a number of existing advertisements and used the good and bad points about them to create my own advert. Below is the table I have used to analyse the different job adverts. The pay, job title, brief description and type of placement are all very important. Pay is the main motive to work so if the pay is not shown then the person looking at the advert may not apply because they are unsure of the pay. The job title is important so that the person reading the advert can tell what the job is before having to read the description. The job description will briefly tell them what the job entails and gives an overview. It is not usually the full job description but if an applicant does not recognize the job name then they will be able to see what the job is. The type of placement is also very important. For example if you were looking for part time work then you would not want to fill out an application form for a temporary or full time placement. I have used the following criteria to assess each documents fitness for purpose and for each one I have given a score because I think some are more important than others. The most important will be shown with 3 and the least with 1:

  • Job location shown ( 3 )
  • Pay and benefits shown (1)
  • Job title shown ( 3 )
  • Brief job description shown ( 3 )
  • Brief company description (1)
  • Summery of information (1)
  • Clear layout (2)
  • Opening and closing date shown (1)
  • Logo (1)
  • Type of placement shown (2)
  • Does it conform with legal requirements



The advert started as a summery at the beginning, which is useful for the applicant, but the information is expanded upon further down the page. I have decided that it would be better if the main information was contained in the summery and then a brief summery and then, after, the job description and company description will be shown. It is very important that the job location is shown because otherwise the candidate will not know whether to apply if he is geographically immobile. As all of the adverts contain the job location it shows how important it is.

All of the adverts also included the pay and benefits. I think that this is very important because pay is one of the reasons that people work and if the companies don’t include it on their job advert then people may not bother applying. The third job advert I analysed did not contain the job benefits. I think that it is very important to have the benefits in the job description but not essential. It is good the other two have them in there but I will not be putting in the benefits in my advert because I will be making my motivational package based on the candidate’s personal needs.

All three of the job adverts contained the job title. This is extremely important because it ensures that the candidate knows what job he is looking at. No candidate is going to apply for a random job. Two of the three companies had a brief description of the job. However the first advert didn’t. I think that it is important to have a brief job description just so the candidate knows what sort of work the company expects. I don’t really think that it is important to have a company description in the job advert however all of the adverts I have analysed have done so. Therefore I am going to put in a brief description of the Warwick University.

The layout is one of the most important factors. I think that a job advert should be clear and short because if it isn’t and has a lot of information then the candidate won’t bother to read it and Warwick may loose a good candidate for the job. All 3 of my adverts I analysed are quite clear but have a lot of information on one sheet of paper. This is bad because someone will look at that and won’t bother to read. Therefore when I make my job advert I am going to make it clear and concise and to the point so that the reader gets all of the vital information but does not have to read through mounds of text to find the information he needs. Two of the three adverts contained the opening and closing date of the job. Although this is the case I don’t think that it is very important because when the job advert becomes out of date it is simply taken off the website so people won’t have the chance to apply after the date.

A logo is very important. As you can see all two of my job adverts contain different logos and I think that it gives the job advert a look of professionalism and makes it whole. The advert that does not have the logo does not look as appealing. It is not important in terms of the information it gives it just makes the advert look much better and complete. In the last two adverts the type of placement is shown. However in the first and second advert it is not shown which is evidence of bad communication between the company and the candidate because the candidate does not know what sort of placement the business is advertising. The first advert does show the pay per year but that could mean that the job is a permanent or temporary placement. All of my adverts conformed to legal requirements.

The creative blue print manager was the best job advert because it conformed to all of the criteria. The only bad thing about it was, although the layout was clear, there was a lot of information on the page and as a result some people may be put off from applying.

The business advisors job advert was the second best as it complied with most of the essential criteria. The only bad thing about this particular job advert is that it does not have a logo. This lets the appearance of the advert down. It also does not have the opening and closing date for applicants of the job role which is not that important because old jobs are taken off the website. The last bad thing about this advert was that it did not show the type of placement. This is obviously bad because the applicant may get confused about the type of placement on offer and not apply which is a disadvantage to the company as that particular lost applicant may be the best at the job.

The first job advert for the professor of accounting was by far the worst in meeting the criteria. Although it met more of the criteria than the business advisors job adverts it did not meet the most important factors and therefore lost marks. It did not have a brief description of the job shown so a candidate may be confused about the sort of activities he would be involved in. Also, it did not show the type of placement. As I said before this is one of the most important factors because the candidate needs to know whether he is required to work full time, part time or as a temporary placement.

All three of my jobs conform to legal requirements. As you can see, none of them refer to the candidate’s age or gender. For example if one of them had information on the number of years work experience required then it would be illegal under the Employment equality (age) regulations 2006. This is a recent regulation so it is likely that if I found any old adverts then they would be illegal under this act.

I have scored each advert out of 18. If the advert competency is met then that section will score different amounts of points depending on how important I think that they are.

  1. Score = 8. This advert was very clear however there was a lot of information on the one page and this may put people off reading through it and also confuse them. It had a summery on the page but it also repeated all of the information.
  2. Score = 10. This advert was also very clear but had the same problems as the last one.
  3. Score = 7. This advert was very short and to the point and also covered all of the main points. However it did not tell you what sort of placement it was.

I used the information from my analysis to come to some conclusions about what I would like to have in my advert:

  • Name of the company
  • Logo
  • Main information contained in a summery at the top
  • A brief job description
  • A brief overview of Warwick

I used this information to make the job advert for the company. It is shown on the next page. As you can see from my job advert below, I have tried to use logos, involve the name of the company and have a main summery of the information at the top which includes the wages, opening and closing dates, location, job title and benefits.


 

Job Advert

Job title:                  retail assistant (general store)

Location:                 west midlands

Type:                      part time/temporary

Wage:                     £5.75 per hour

Benefits:                  Health insurance and performance related pay.

Opening date:          12/1/07

Closing date:            12/2/07

 The Warwick University is one of the top universities in the country and has a vast multicultural society. It has an excellent social and academic atmosphere with friendly staff and students.

The successful applicant will be expected to provide general assistance in the student shop which will involve interaction with both staff and students on a regular basis. You will need to have a high level of responsibility awareness as you will be required to open and lock up every day and sign of deliveries.

If you want to apply for this job role then please download our application form and send the completed copy to:

Human resources department

University of Warwick

Coventry

CV4 7AL


Person specification

I will now conduct similar analysis on person specification to make one of my own that is fit for purpose. I will use the following criteria to assess each person specification’s fitness for use because it is information that I have gained from Katie Watts. I have also weighted each criteria so because I think that some parts are more important than others. I have put the points for each below next to the criteria. 3 are the most important and 1 is the least.

  • Shows relevant experience (3)
  • Shows relevant skills (3)
  • Shows relevant qualifications (3)
  • Shows how they will test for the skills (1)
  • Shows whether the skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications are desirable or essential.  (3)
  • Clear (2)
  • Logo (1)
  • Company name and job title shown (2)
  • Conforms to legal requirements (3)



As you can see all three of these person specifications are very different in content. All three of the person specifications have shown that experience is needed to take part in the job role. This is very important because if someone does not have any experience in the Job role then the businesses would have to pay for them to have all of the training and spend time training them and also wait for them to get used to the equipment. This is bad for businesses because they would usually need someone to get onto the job straight away and if the candidate has no relevant work experience then he would not be a good candidate for the job role. Therefore I have decided that I will include the experience in my person specification.

It is also very important that business make the skills needed clear because if the candidate does not have the right skills for the job then he would not be able to carry out the job effectively. I have therefore decided to give this characteristic a weighting of 3. As you can see all of the different person specifications in the table above show the relevant skills needed to apply for the job role. They have all don this well by showing a detailed list of all of the skills the candidate needs As I have said if the candidate does not show evidence of having the skills needed to carry out the job role then he would not be the most suitable candidate and there would be no point in applying. It would be like a someone applying to a taxi company who could not drive. Therefore I have decided to include the skills in the person specification.

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Not all of the person specifications I looked at contained the qualifications needed to get the job. For example in the apple shop job there is no mention of any qualifications needed to do the job. There might not be any need for the job however the other two person specifications I looked at both contained some sort of qualification entry requirements. I have also given the qualification section a weighting of three because I think that this is one of the most important sections that can be used, not only to make sure that the candidate has the ...

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