Cost to the Organisation
The process of recruitment and selection is expensive, involving many different costs, starting with labour. Personnel need to discuss the job analysis, construct a job description in order to make it clear to an applicant what is expected of them under working conditions. Also, a person specification is needed to be clear of what is required of an applicant as well as an advertisement so that the job is known to possible applicants.
Other costs include the price of producing an application form. This could be anything as seemingly minor as postage costs. A way around some aspects of this is the idea of a 14 day waiting period. This is so that if a candidate is unsuccessful, they will not hear from the business within 14 days. Should this happen, after two weeks the candidate should assume they will not be contacted. This is just one way of ensuring the business saves time and money on replying and posting to all applicants. Another way would be via the internet. Using online services is now a popular way of applying for a job, making email an easy way of contacting an applicant should they be successful or not.
Impact on the Applicants
Potential Employees should always feel valued and benefitted from any recruitment and selection process. It is vital that whether a potential employee is successful or not, they should feel as though they have accomplished something worthwhile and shouldn’t feel de-motivated if they are not chosen.
A business should always consider how they are going to make their recruitment and selection process accessible to all who wish to apply. Every stage of this process will have an effect on the applicant; the advertisement attracting people through its design, layout and information.
The person specification and job description must be easily understood as well as being honest about what the job entails. The application form must have a clear format, containing only questions that are relevant to the job title being pursued. Some business may use the same application form for all positions of staff. This gives the chance of the application containing questions that aren’t of a suitable standard for applicants of a more lowly-skilled ability. In order to reduce the negative impact a recruitment and selection process may give, some business now have two application forms; one for those of a lower-skilled ability and a more complex one for those of a higher-skilled ability. This, in effect, means no candidates feel under-educated or as though they do not have the skills required for the job they are applying for.
Compliance with Legal and Ethical Constraints
There are extremely rigorous legal and ethical constraints that must remain in place during the employment of any staff to a company. This includes; The Data Protection Act, Equal Opportunities Acts such as the Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act as well as the Equal Pay Act.
Mcdonalds applications are online and contain questions involving only those which are designated to pursue the suitability of the possible employee, and also suit the Data protection act procedure throughout.
Mcdonalds also ensures its anti-Discrimination policy towards the disabled by introducing the post of Diversity Development Manager in 1997.
The Equal Pay Act is shown in the McDonalds policy where it states “staff pay should reflect performance”. As well as obeying the Equal Pay Act it proves that it does take matters of wage for employees seriously.
Ethical Constraints give the guideline of unbiased interview questions which McDonalds successfully complies with in their application form, but during an interview some questions are ignored according to the applicant’s gender; the assumption that only women would need maternity leave, as opposed to men needing paternity leave etc.