A Business analysis in respect to Boots.

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Recruitment & Selection

Why recruit staff?

Boots will recruit staff for a number of reasons, which include:

  • The growth of the business
  • Changing roles within the business
  • Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal
  • Internal promotion 

The growth of the business

When Boots grows in size it will probably need more people to carry out existing jobs and new jobs.  When existing jobs are being expanded, human resource specialists simply need to copy existing practice on a larger scale.  In creating new jobs more detailed thought is required; particularly if the jobs are quite different from those that already exist within the company.

Changing job roles within the business

In recent years most British businesses such as Boots have changed their job structure. In particular, the country has seen the decline of many routine, standardised jobs. Increasingly, employers have sought to develop new jobs involving information and communications technology, and which involve ground-level employees taking more responsibility for decision-making through empowerment. Developing new jobs requires considerable research, often by examining best practice in an industry or by looking at the development of new jobs in other countries.

Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal

In many organisations people move on and also employees in Boots move on as well. People get older, they hand in their notice or they are dismissed.  In most cases it is necessary to replace the employee. However, the manager responsible for recruitment has to decide whether the firm wants a carbon copy of the previous job holder or whether the job has moved on, requiring new skills and competences. 

Internal promotion

In Boots there will be opportunities for internal promotion.  Internal promotion gives an employee something to aim for in the organisation, rather than looking elsewhere.  When one person is promoted, it is often necessary to replace him or her. 

Getting the recruitment process right

The recruitment process can be very costly.  It takes a great deal of time to set up an effective recruitment process. This involves deciding on what the jobs that are to be recruited for will entail, advertising, sifting through applications, checking which applications best meet the criteria set down for the post, interviewing candidates and, finally, selecting the best candidate for the post.

Waste and inefficiency can be very costly to any organisation.  If Boots were to advertise a job for a retail assistant and managed to get 100 applicants, by sifting through the application forms they may be in danger of choosing the wrong employee.  The personnel of Boots would probably cut the 100 applicant forms down to 10 by eliminating, from their point of view, the most unsuitable employees for the job.  But by doing this Boots could eliminate the best applicant, therefore, it is possible that the personnel may have to do the whole process all over again if that the applicant they do choose for the job is unsuitable.

Procedures for attracting and recruiting applicants

An organisation’s most valuable resource is its workforce; managers therefore need to give careful thought to the needs of employees.

The advantages of recruiting from within are as follows:

  • Considerable savings can be made. Individuals with inside knowledge of how the business operates will need shorter periods of training
  • Internal promotion acts as an incentive to all staff to work harder within the organisation.

The disadvantages of recruiting from within are as follows:

  • You will have to replace the person who has been promoted
  • An insider may be less likely to make the essential criticisms required to get the company working more effectively.

The Boots company strategy in recruiting employees

The Boots Company offers recruitment programmes for general entrance, and schemes focused on school leavers and graduates. The company looks for various qualities in potential Boots employees. In addition to academic ability, we look for people with extra-curricular competencies such as interpersonal ability and team-working skills.

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In addition to the requirements of individual positions, the boot's graduate scheme also requires applicants to fulfil three key criteria:

  • Leading the thinking
    See the big picture no matter how complex; offer and stimulate new ideas and turn complex issues into clear strategies.
  • When have you looked for and found solutions beyond the obvious?
  • How radical have you been?
  • In what ways have you challenged received wisdom?
  • When have you identified clear solutions to complex problems?
  • How do you manage ambiguity?
  • How logical are you in your approach?
  • ...

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