The weaknesses of our person specification are that it took us a very long time to construct, as we did not know the qualifications that are required for an salesperson. Another weakness is that these qualifications listed and other factors may prevent applicants applying for the job, as they may feel intimidated by our person specification.
We can improve our Person Specification in a similar way to what we can with the Job Description, however we can possibly shorten down the skills and abilities required, this will enable potential applicants to apply for the job, as they will feel more confident in themselves.
Job Advert
We created this so we can easily advertise the job, in a number of distributions. A day after, on Thursday 19th Match 2009 we discussed our job advert. We realised that it was very effective as it clearly advertises the job available in a professional and striking manner. This therefore, gave us a better chance of applicants applying for the job. Our job advert was very easy to construct, as we analysed other job adverts (which is shown in the appendices) and noticed the structure was very similar, therefore we followed this.
The weaknesses of our job advert was that, since we advertised the job to the public, we may have potentially attracted inappropriate applicants, this was time consuming as we were looking through unnecessary application forms. Also as a team, we could not decide on the appropriate information required on the put on the job advert, as there was a lot of useful information to narrow down. It took us a lot of time to do this.
We could have improved our process of creating a job advert by instead of only just analysing the structure of a job advert; we should have looked at the actual information on them. This way, we would have known the exact information to put on it and thus save us a lot of time. We also could of added more colour on to it, to make it more attractive and user-friendly.
Application Form
This was made so that we know the details of our applicants and they qualifications they poses The strengths of our application form, which we analysed on Friday 20th March 2007 showed us that it was very straight forward for the applicant to fill out. A straightforward application form increased our chances of applicants applying for the job. Also, our application form enabled applicants to explain their qualities briefly; therefore a strong applicant would be confident of progressing, as he/she has stated their qualities in a impressive way. Another advantage is that, we only get back the information we wanted and none other. Therefore, we would not waste unnecessary time, reading inappropriate information on application forms. Also out application form allows us to view our applicants work related achievements, from this we can narrow applicants down by the short –listing process. We also thought about external factors affecting us, for example the Racial Discrimination Act, therefore we included a equal oppurtunaties form, therefore applicants of would not feel we are being bias.
The weaknesses of our application form are that it did not give us a chance to analyse the applicants’ personality and their people skills, by doing this, we could have potentially eliminated the best person for the job. Also the application form took us a very long time to create, this was very frustrating.
We could improve our application form by adding more colours to it, this will make it more user-friendly and therefore we could potentially get more applicants’ applying for the position. Also we should put a heading for the gender, as we have missed this out. This is a standard heading which is on all application forms, which we have forgotten to include.
Short-listing process
We did this so that, we can narrow down the applicants we got. On Monday 23rd March 2009 we did our short-listing process, we came to the agreement that it made it easier for us to narrow down the number of applicants that applied. This allowed us to eliminate the weaker applicants. Also it shortened the number of potential interviews, this saved us valuable time.
The weaknesses of our short-listing process are that, we might have lost exceptional applicants, as we may have not judged them right, by their application form. Also it was a very time consuming process, this lead to frustration by the members of my team. In addition, a applicant which we eliminated, might have been the best person for the job and therefore we might have made a vital mistake. What's more, there were disagreements within the group over the elimination of certain candidates.
We could have improved out short-listing procedure by analysing the applications forms in more detail, because as mentioned we could have lost the best person for the job.
Interview questions
We created these so that we know what type of questions to ask, that will increase our knowledge of the applicants. On the Tuesday 24th Match 2009 we made the questions for the interview. We analysed our questions listed for the interview. These were effective as they helped us to find out additional knowledge about our applicants; therefore if we were not keen on a applicant judging on their application form, they can provide us with information can change out views about them.
The weaknesses of our interview questions were that the questions we conducted, took a long time to construct. This was very frustrating as the process took us longer than anticipated. Also during the interview we asked unnecessary questions, as we got sidetracked this adds additional pressure to the applicants and wastes time. Also the wording of the question we created confused us and therefore ruined the professional style of the interview.
We could have improved our interview questions process, by looking at examples of interview questions in more detail, rather than looking at them briefly. Also we should have proof-read our questions to ensure we can understand them and read them clearly. We also could have selected more candidates to interview, as I now feel interviewing two applicants is not enough.
Interview
When we analysed our interview, on Wednesday 25th March 2009. We came to the decision that the interview was effective as we got to see the applicants we choose face-to-face, this way we judged on them how they were in person and not judge them by their application form. Also some responses by the applicants were excellent, this impressed us very much. Also we recorded our interviews, this helped us analyse the interview after the interview had finished.
The weaknesses of our interview was that we did not write down enough notes, as either we did not have time to the information said by the applicant down, or we totally forget about notes, as we was concentrating on the responses given to us by the applicants. Also, since the question did not make sense, we could not clearly say the questions; this ruined the professional style of the interview.
We could have improved the interview by conducting more notes, so we could analyse the applicants clearly. Also even if we could not read the question clearly, we should have improvised.
Final Selection Decision - Thursday 26th March 2009
We did this so that as a group we can agree on the best person for the job. We did this on Thursday 26th March 2009, the strengths were that it was a easy and short process that we all agreed on. Also we did not let our personal feelings get in the way of our final decision.
However, we did not discuss the strengths of candidate 4 in detail, therefore we may have been un-intentionally been bias.
We could have improved our final selection process by analysing both candidates in more detail, which would of decreased the risk of us being potentially bias.