The stages involved in recruiting new staff.

Letter of Application

Finally and third way of applying is letter of application also known as a cover letter. This is also produced by the applicant. Normally it is attached to a CV as it covers extra information of your skills and experience. In addition to this it will also provide detail regarding why you would like to apply for the job. Effective letters will normally explain exactly your reason about your interest in the organisation and the letter also identifies as mentioned before relevant skills and experience. It should also cover the position your are applying for, why you should be chosen for the next stage whether it be interview and how you will follow-up. The structure of the letter should be laid out generally in three paragraphs. The first paragraph should state what position and why you are applying for the job and also where you found the listing. Second or middle paragraph will cover your skills and experience this should be injunction with what you can offer. Finally the last paragraph will conclude what you will do in order to follow up and finished off with thanking the manager or whoever it may concern.

 

Accepting Application

At this stage all applications that have been put through will simply be taken in without looking for the most potential applicants. The accepted applications will be forwarded onto human resources department, managers or people with the same experience or someone above the hierarchy. Sometimes accepting application also means that they are taking in application for future uses. This means that they will take in application but will not be hiring because they need potential people who could fill in the positions in long term. Legally you can ask for a application form and the firm, organisation, business or company cannot stop you applying for the job.

Short Listing

This is an important step when hiring because not everyone will fit the job and personal specification therefore a certain amount of people will be accepted rather than everyone because accepting everyone and interviewing will take a very long time and will cost a lot of money as well. Keeping this in mind everyone will be checked against job and personal specification and the most potential applicants for the job will be asked to come in for an interview or something similar. At this stage everyone will not be told that they did not get the job because if none of the short listed people take the job than the process of accepting application will start all over again. The short listing will only take place per candidate as to who best fits the person specification as there will never be a perfect candidate as said before. After the short listing is done letter of invites will be sent out to the chosen candidates.

Interviewing

This is the stage where you will talk to the applicants and get to know them, which will result in allowing you to choose the best applicant.  The many methods of interviewing ranging from over the phone to having a formal meal with the candidate. It is made sure of that the correct technique is used so that the needed information is achieved from them. The technique to use depends on the job that they are recruiting for but can be done in anyway the employer feels it will work best. There are normally certain set of questions that are asked which allow the interviewer to compare the interviewees their response to find the best candidate.  Each of interviews would be best if done by the same person, so it is easier to compare each of the candidates easier. If done by different people than it will be harder because one person will have a different feedback to another person.  All interviews done by one person will also allow all the candidates to be marked equally meaning that one candidate will not be marked harsher than the other. This again is not vital but will definitely make the interviewing process easier. The other types of interviews can include having a panel of employee known as panel interview or committee interview at the interview. Commonly the interviewers would be supervisors and colleagues. They will take turns to ask the candidate a set of prepared questions. All the interviews will be asked the same questions so it makes sense when comparing. These types of interviews were common at academia & health care industries but getting more common in corporate sectors. The benefits of this type of interview technique is that more reliable and job-related since panel members are accountable to each other and the interviewers can make their decision on the same sample of behaviour. The candidate will find this less time consuming, and it gives them a opportunity to find out briefly how staff work together. However it could be more stressful as several interviewers are involved and the questions asked will be at a higher pace than normal.  Another technique used to interview is the ‘2 on 1’ type is where one of the two interviewers would be rude and other one would be polite to see how the candidate can handle them and cope with stress.  Some interviews will include test such as aptitude test to see how competent the candidate is at the job. The tests are normally applied to jobs where it is needed and employees will need to be trained to control equipment or vehicles. There are also face to face interviews; they are quite widely used for any type of job. Face to face is basically a type of meeting where it is direct face to face between interviewer and interviewee. This type of personal meeting will allow a lot of information to be extracted from the candidate, but you could also use visual materials such as pictures to encourage responses. Generally face to face interviews do not bore the candidate and it can be made sure of that complete and accurate data is gotten. This is because as mentioned before, there is the interviewer can physically see the candidate and see what he’s like in person such as body language. The other type of interview methods would include the candidate getting tested such as numeracy test. You could also get a candidate to work in a group to demonstrate team working skills. Testing the candidate will allow the employer to know, whether the person can think on spot and whether they have basically skills needed to a job.. E.g. a person could say he’s a very good problem solver and he is not a good solver. Testing a person for team working will let the interviewer find out exactly how the person is physically when working, so supposedly the person has been asked to work as a team to create a presentation it will let the employer find out how well he works in a team. The candidate could either be too powerful, too laid back or about right working and can corporate some good point to the team and can take lead when there is need to.  

Selecting Best Candidate

Recruitment & selection take a long period of time to set up can become very costly process for a business and also setting up the process takes a great deal of time which includes drawing up a job description, advertising the position, sifting through applications, checking which application best meet criteria set down for the post, interviewing candidates and finally selecting the best candidate for the post. In summary selecting the best candidate will be collecting all the documents on the candidate and also documents provided from the candidate. The documents would range from starting such as application form, CV’s to interview marking documents made on the candidate. After all the documents are collected they are compared against the other candidates. This in theory could be the harder part as even the candidates have been short-listed and interviewed, it could be all the candidates are just as good as each other and it would be hard to justify why the selected candidate got the job.

Confirming Candidate Acceptance

The applicants have been decided therefore they will need to be offered the job or a contract, this does not mean that they are hired because they will have to accept the job or contract offer. So it would be best if the records of other applicant’s are also kept so that if the first applicant declines the offer than you can turn to the second best candidate and offer them the contract or the job. If the applicant accepts the offer than the employer must produce a contract document within four months which states that the candidate is working for them. If this document is not produced than the applicant is working illegally. As soon as the applicant replies for the job and if he/she has accepted the offer than the employer can move onto the induction process to find out how they he/she is coping with the new job.

Letters to Inform Successful & Unsuccessful Candidate

After the best candidate is selected letters are to be sent out to the successful and unsuccessful candidates. This means that the successful candidate will get a letter informing him about his success at the interview. The letter will include things like what the next step to take, what time does he need to be in for work and also it will also include commonly about his induction process. Writing a letter to a successful candidate is easier than unsuccessful candidate as you would not need to include why he didn’t get the job in the letter to successful candidate. On the other hand there are also letter sent out to the unsuccessful candidate which is harder as a justified reason needs to be made why they did not get the job, it has to be made sure of that it does not break any laws which can result in the prosecution of the company. The letter would also include future good luck and also if they would like more information who should they contact. Commonly the letter would also say something like their details are going to be kept on database just in case if a vacancy arises.

Induction

The induction process is the stage where the newly employed person will be introduced to the staff they will be working with and people that are important in the business like the department manager, supervision mentor, etc. Induction also provides information which is helps the employee to settle into the job. The induction programme is put together by the human resources (H&R) departments. The induction programme should include:

• An awareness of the workings and objectives of a business.
• An awareness of health and safety issues.
• Requirements when absent, ill or late.
• Introduction to management and workmates.
• Identification of any immediate training needs.

Line managers are the main people involved with induction programmes in most cases. The induction program will vary in nature, length of time, depth of detail dependant on the company and the job role. Some examples of people who may be part of your introduction:

Guided Tours are often one of the first things that are done on an induction so you have a feel for your surroundings that you will be working in. Some areas could be; Canteen, Toilets, Fire escapes, Offices and Parking. All the legal requirements are taken care of by the HR manager. Some more jobs the HR manager could be writing a manual for new employees about health and safety at work. There is usually some form of video/talk/presentation about the work place. These videos and talks also include information about the company’s core values and history. You are also informed about their aims and products/services.

A key part of an induction is letting the employee know about their rights and responsibilities. The terms and conditions need to be explained to them to make sure that they fully understand them. These include; salary, contracted hours, sick pay, pension. The clear outline role of the job needs to be reiterated to make the person confident and clear with what their exact job is within the company.

The above all needs to be done, if not it can have very bad effects on the company in many different ways.

• Employees won’t be sure of what they are doing so the chances of them making a mistake are greatly increased.
• Employee conductivity will not be as good as it can be.
• Damage to reputation could occur from the member of staff making mistakes.
• Low moral can occur if not fully introduced to every aspect of the job and staff member. They may feel confused and lonely in the job.
• If there is a poor induction there is an increased amount of staff leaving in the short term because they do not like the way the company is run. In turn this will cause extra expense through having to look for new applicants for that job role again.

An awareness of the workings and objectives of a business.

Objectives are strategic goals for a business. Employees need to know the objectives so they can help the business achieve them. Secondly knowing the objectives will also tell the employee of their position in the business and how they fit in.

An awareness of health and safety issues.

This includes everything that is associated with health and safety in a workplace. It is vital that it is included into the induction programme because it make sure of employee health & safety. If the regulations are known then the company can prevent itself from getting sued if something happens. Things that would be included under this would help employees know the fire regulations and emergency exits. Health & Safety at work Act 1974 is vital and compulsory for business to cover. It covers the following:

• Food Hygiene
• First Aid
• COSHH (Control of substances hazardous to health). This is commonly placed in places where chemicals are used.
• Lifting heavy objects. Commonly mentioned in warehouses because if lifting is done incorrectly than the back is affected.
• Stacking Shelf

Requirements when absent, ill or late.

Employees need to know this because if they cannot get into work or going to be late than they will not know how contact their supervisors. Employees under the law should do the following:

• Employees should phone in prior to work or shift if they are going to be late or not coming into work so this can allow plenty of time for cover.
• If employee is not going to be come in due to medical reasons then he/she should bring in a doctor’s note which legally allows them to take off time. (3 days – 5 days).
• If the employees are late unauthorized than they will get 3 verbal warning which can go to a written warning and if late can lead to suspensions and finally if they still come in late than it will result in dismissal.
• If employees are going on a holiday than a request need to be made therefore an approval can be given or not given.
• Finally approved sicknesses come out of yearly allowance of holidays.

Introduction to management and workmates.

This is an important part of the induction process as it is basically getting the new employee to meet his supervisor and people he is going to be working with.

Identification of any immediate training needs.

Adaption is important because if the new employed person is not settled into the work than his work performance will not be very good. As part of the induction process, new employees may be introduced to new processors or software that they are unfamiliar with. The employer should explain each of these processes to new employees, question them about their experience with the processes or software and listen carefully to their answers to discover their level of experience. For example an employee may be familiar with the Microsoft office software but may not have had the experience with spreadsheets. If this is the requirement of the role, then careful questioning will determine the skill level of the employee and the training required to enable them to do their job. Training may be carried out formally through a course r more informally by a colleague or with training in a timely needs and implementing training timely manner is important to ensure the new employees are equipped with the skills to properly carry out their duties.

Employee Motivation

It is important that the staff is motivated to do the job because it will keep them sustained and allow them to stay competitive. Candidates will need to know the methods commonly employed to keep them motivated. It also helps improve productivity and retention of the staff. The following methods are used.

• Financial Incentives

• Wages, Salaries & Bonuses
• Profit Sharing
• Share Options

• Non-Financial Incentives

• Goal Setting
• Perks & Status symbols
• Appraisal
• Meeting training needs.

Financial Incentives

Wages- time rate:

This is the standard wage scheme used by small business, basically wage will be set per hour, and any extra work done above the set time will be paid at an overtime rate. E.g. minimum wage per hour could be £5 and overtime rate could be £7.50.

Salary: flat rate:

It is fixed rate which is paid weekly/monthly, based on a set number of hours. This makes it easy to calculate and administer but main drawback of this scheme is that harder working employees will be paid the same as employees who are not working very hard.

Piece rate:

This system is commonly employed in the textile & electronics sector and many other sectors where employees are paid for the each item produced that meets quality standards. The benefit of system is that it obviously motivates workers to put in effort to produce higher quantity of items. It is not suitable for jobs where time and care is required. Many jobs particularly in the service sector produce outputs which are impossible to measure.

Bonus:

Bonuses are paid as an added encouragement & motivation towards employees. It is generally paid out of the additional profits earned by the employer as a result of the employee’s effort and hard work. Also paid as an incentive as a result of the employees might be inclined to slacken efforts at time such as Christmas or summer holiday times.

Commission:

Commission is a payment made as a percentage of sales a salesperson has made. Commission is commonly achieved at currency exchange points and car sales.

Output related schemes:

This type of system is generally used to reward manual labour workers. It combines time rate plus bonus or any other type of incentive. Standards are set in man Standards are set in many ways, varying from casual assessment to a detailed work study, based on method study and work measurement. A standard allowable time is set in according to the stages. The workers pay is then determined according to the success of the third stage.

Performance related pay:

In recent year, the emphasis in a number of organisations has shifted towards performance related pay. Performance is assessed against working objectives and ‘company goals’ scoring systems are then worked out to assess performance against objectives and these distinguish levels of attainment, e.g. high, medium or low. Managerial jobs are commonly affected by performance related pay. Performance related pay is based upon performance appraisal techniques, such schemes have been adopted in a wide range of occupations, including the police force, universities, insurance and banking. Evidence indicates that up to three quarters of all employees are now using some form of performance appraisal to set pay levels. One way of rewarding performance is to give increments as targets are met, with the employee progressing up an incremental ladder each year.

Profit sharing:

This is an incentive which involves the process of giving paying employee based on profit or bonuses based on profit performance of a business. This scheme motivates employees are they will be able to see that if the business is succeeding than it will lead to personal rewards.  

Share options:

Share options is simply where employees are encourage to take up shares in the company they are working in, this often would be part of a reward scheme. When employees take out shares then they are rewarded according to the performance of the business.  If the business does well than the value of the shares and dividends do well.

Attribution theory:

All business have a need to explain the world, both to themselves and to other people, attributing cause to the events around them. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behaviour, it can affect the standing of people within a group (especially ourselves).

When another person has erred, the business will often use internal attribution, saying it is due to internal personality factors. When they have erred, they will more likely use external attribution, attributing causes to situational factors rather than blaming ourselves. And vice versa. They will attribute our successes internally and the successes of our rivals to external ‘luck’.

When a football team wins, supporters say ‘we won’. But when the team loses, the supporters say ‘they lost’.

Business attributions are also significantly driven by our emotional and motivational drives. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination are very real self-serving attributions. They will also make attributions to defend what they perceive as attacks. businesses will point to injustice in an unfair world.

They will even tend to blame victims (of us and of others) for their fate as we seek to distance ourselves from thoughts of suffering the same plight.

They will also tend to ascribe less variability to other people than ourselves, seeing themselves as more multifaceted and less predictable than others. This may well because they can see more of what is inside themselves (and spend more time doing this).

In practice, we often tend to go through a two-step process, starting with an automatic internal attribution, followed by a slower consideration of whether an external attribution is more appropriate. As with Automatic Believing, if we are hurrying or are distracted, we may not get to this second step. This makes internal attribution more likely than external attribution.

Non-Financial:

Goal setting:

Establishing goals for employees to work towards can be an important motivational factor as the achievement of these goals then creates a sense of achievement and personal fulfilment. Goals can be established for an individual, team or for the whole organisation and achievement may be related to promotion at work.

In order to direct ourselves we set ourselves goals that are:

• Clear (not vague) and understandable, so we know what to do and what not to do.
• Challenging, so we will be stimulated and not be bored.
• Achievable, so we are unlikely to fail.

If goals are set by other people without our involvement, then we are much less likely to be motivated to work hard at it than if we feel we have set or directed the goal ourselves.

When we are working in the task, we need feedback so we can determine whether we are succeeding or whether we need to change direction. Naturally positive feedback (if it is sympathetically done) is found to be encouraging and motivating. Negative self-talk is just as de-motivating as negative comments or feedback from peers. The technique we use to achieve a goal will depend on the goal itself.

A directional goal is one where we are motivated to arrive at a particular conclusion. We will therefore narrow our thinking, selecting beliefs, etc. that support the conclusion.

There are also accuracy goals; these are ones where we are provoked to arrive at the most accurate possible conclusion. These types of goals are mostly used when the chances of being inaccurate are high. Naturally, people will tend to put in more effort in achieving accuracy goals, as any deviation costs, and a large deviation may well more. Using these types of goals deliberately will make sure that they known that there is a chance that the goal cannot be met. When using these goals and we cannot come to a good enough conclusion we will keep on searching for improvements.

Both of the methods mentioned above will work as they will influence or choices of belief and decision making rules.

Goal setting can be compared, in a financial sense with performance related pay as employees are given incentives in accordance with goals set by the company.

Perks and status symbols:

They are handy motivational tools used by companies. Generally a perk is something extra given, so in a business sense it is extra incentive provided by the company form motivational purposes. E.g. if you work for a business which provides football tickets and you position is quite important than you might get free football game ticket.

Status symbols are also important motivators. Most evident status symbols are things like having big office, having a sign outside your office door with your name on it possibly. People will tend to react very positively to status symbols because these mark them out as being special therefore employees will be motivated to work harder in order for them to be the special person.  

Appraisals:

Appraisals are common motivators whether it is at home, school, at work anywhere. Appraisals make a person feel good or proud about themselves. Generally staff will be appraised directly or indirectly, here are some of them stages:

1. Line managers meet with the job holder to talk about what is expected. The decided expectations may possibly be expressed in terms of targets, performance standards or required job behaviours such as attributes, skills and attitudes.
2. Outcome of the meeting is then recorded and signed by both parties.
3. Then the job holder will carry out the job for half a year.
4. Finally at the end of the six months period the job holder and the line manager will get together to discuss and review progress achieved. A new action plan may be drawn up which will be designed in such a way that it deals with the identified problems as well as agreed targets and standards for the next period.

 

Meeting training needs:

There are two types of methods which allow achievement of training needs. First method is the mentoring needs and second method is coaching needs. These methods are seen as essential ways of motivating employees so that they feel valued as well as cared for in their work.

Mentoring needs:

This involves an employee who is experienced paired with a trainee. The trainee will carry out jobs and the ‘mentor’ will be used to discuss problems and the best way of solving that problem. This type of method is highly used in many lines of work. E.g. Common practice for a trainee teacher would be to work with a mentor who’s responsible for their early training and development. The trainee teacher will match the mentor teacher before starting his or her own teaching. The mentor will then give fragmentary guidance to the apprentice teacher on how best to advance his or her performance. If the apprentice teacher has any problems or difficulties he or she can talk to the mentor for advice.

Coaching needs:

This is the second method used when providing personal coaches to individuals in a workplace. Coaching skills is required to be learnt for the person doing the coaching not only this but he/she will also need to have timeslot for the coaching to be able to take place.

Rating

Within the context of appraisal requirements, rating means evaluating employee performance against the elements and standards in an appraisal plan. The rating of record is based on work performed during the entire 12-month appraisal period. The rating assigned reflects the level of the employee’s performance as compared to the standards established.

Legislation Acts

There are many different types of legislation acts that businesses need to make sure that they abide by when they go through the recruitment and selection process. The four acts that come into play are:

• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995/2004
• The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006

Discrimination can occur in two ways direct and indirect. Direct discrimination is when discrimination takes place on factors unrelated to merit, capability or potential of a person or group. Due to a person’s race, sex, marital status, beliefs, sexual orientation or gender reassignment they will be treated less favourably. Direct discrimination is less obvious. E.g. when two gender of people apply for a job, one being a female with high level qualifications and lots of experience and other gender being a male with not many high level qualifications and less experience than the female candidate, than due to discrimination the male candidate still has a higher chance of getting the position than the female. Finally with direct discrimination, an employer is not able to argue the fact that it was not in their intention to discrimination as law takes over and considers the outcome. On the other hand indirect discrimination takes place when rules, regulations or procedures are consigned to have an effect of discrimination on certain group of people. It is less obvious form of discrimination. When investigation is done by Employment Tribunal they will need to take a look at three factors which might have caused discrimination:  

1. First factor is looking at the ethnic minority of people meeting the job criteria is significantly small than the rest of population.
2. Secondly there is a job criteria set by the employer which cannot be justified, because candidate who is not able to meet the criteria can still the job just as competently as anyone else.
3. Finally if a candidate cannot comply with the set job criteria and have suffered in some way, whilst this might seem quite obvious, the candidate can only complain if they have lost out in some way or the other.

There might be some circumstances where a employer can argue their case of discrimination but only if it is required for a job. This is known as “Genuine Occupational Requirement” (GOR). It does not always take place but in occupations such as acting where a certain ethnicity person is needed to play a character for authenticity.  It can be the same for a restaurant where a Chinese background candidate is needed just to emphasis and authenticity. Or genuine occupational qualification such as race/gender is needed such as Female, police officers needed to search female criminal.

Sex Discrimination Act 1975 – Amended 2008 (SDA)

It was legislation put down the British government in 1975 which stopped discrimination between genders whether it is male, female or transgender. Sex, marital status or gender reassignment became illegal to discriminate under this law. When recruiting and considering the terms and conditions offered to the staff then this law comes into play, also when deciding on the promotion, transferring or receiving training as to decisions made about termination of someone’s job contract.

Direct/Indirect Discrimination:

Direct discrimination occurs when a candidate is taken into less consideration due to their sex/gender. E.g. male applicants are not considerate as they are applying for a position where all the staff is females and it is thought that the male candidate will not fit in. Another example is a woman is not appointed for a job because she might get or might be pregnant and this would mean she would need to take off time. Harassment is also considered to be direct sex discrimination.

Indirect discrimination on the other hand takes place where provision, criterion/practice is applied equally to men/women and it’s a detriment of a significantly larger proportion of one gender. Indirect might take place without a knowing and it needs to be justified to shown it is essential for the job. Examples of indirect discrimination would include things like not allowing a woman to work part time, discrimination without justification against a successful candidate who has a beard.

Race Relation Act 1976 (RRA)

Under this legislation it is unlawful or illegal to discriminate against a individual or a group due to their race, colour, nationality, ethnicity or national origin. This covers a wide area which includes recruitment, promotion, transfer and training and also dismissal. The RRA covers direct/indirect and victimisation in addition to this it also covers free standing right not to be harassed on grounds or race.

Direct/Indirect Discrimination:

E.g. if two candidate apply for a position one being English and the other being Welsh and they both have similar experience and qualification which matches a job description and the Welsh person is chosen over the English because of his national origin this is a  form of direct discrimination.

On the other hand indirect discrimination would be insisting on British qualification or that a certain level of English is spoken and this is not required for a job. Word of mouth recruitment in an organisation where the ethnic minority is either under represented or over represented, this is also a kind of indirect discrimination. Likewise a business which promotes staff internally into higher levels such as managers and they are all or majority are white and working under them are all other race, than this is also indirect discrimination.

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 – Amended 2005

This act covers a lot of types of disabilities which cannot be discriminated against. The things that are covered are sensory disabilities whether it be visual or hearing impairment, mobility impairments, learning difficulties, mental health problems such as depression and also progressive conditions such as cancer, muscular dystrophy, etc. Due to the DDA it makes it illegal to make less considerable judgments which results disabled people from getting employed. Employers must take into consideration adjustments they can make to the premises or the working practices which can allow people with disability be employed or remain in employment. In addition to this there is a free standing order which makes it against the law that a person cannot be harassed in relation to their disability.

Direct/Indirect Discrimination:

Example of direct discrimination is where a person uses a wheelchair and the employer take this negatively because it will result in obstruction another example of direct discrimination is a person using clutches and he needs them to get around and the employer thinks that it will take the person slightly longer to get around and eventually result in loss of time. On the other hand a person with arthritis is not employed for the post for an administrator as due to his disability he will type slower, but depending on the actual requirement of the job justified discrimination can take place. Reasonable adjustments could be made which can solve the requirement needed such as changing location of the task, allocation of the job/duties to another person or even getting additional aid equipment.

Indirect discrimination previously before the amendment of the act in 2003 took place when a person applied for a position and a ‘condition or requirement’ had been set which would affect everyone equally, but in more specifically people from a particular racial group at disadvantage. The redefined definition from the 2003 documents replaces the words ‘condition or requirement’ with the words ‘provision, criterion or practice’. This means that general formal and informal practices are both covered by the Act which will allow more circumstances in which claims of indirect discrimination can be put forward.

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006

This law obviously makes it illegal to discriminate against age based on their age. It’s unlawful to discriminate directly or indirectly because a complaint has been made on the grounds of actual or perceived age. There are two types of discrimination that place that we know of. Direct and Indirect discrimination based on grounds of age.

Direct/Indirect Discrimination.

Direct discrimination takes place when two people person A and B. Person B is simply considered less favourably by person A simply because the employer as he prefers over 30 people, therefore B is less favoured as he is 25 as person A is 35, unless A can objectively justify this discrimination. This means that the employer will have to show or put forward a god reason for treating person B less favourably. The greater the effect of discrimination on the person the greater burden it puts on the employer to justify or show it was necessary. It is up to the Employment Tribunal to take decision whether the discrimination that has taken place is justified.  Direct discrimination includes discrimination which takes place simply due to the person apparent age, therefore some if someone is discriminated against due to incorrect assumption about their age than it is possible to being a claim and if someone puts the claim forward than they will not be required to disclose their age and it is enough to know that they have been treated less favourably due to their age. It is definitely not possible to discriminate on their physical looks; this means that you could not defend yourself saying that someone looked older than they looked. Examples of direct discrimination would be:

• Manager or anyone higher up in the company hierarchy is not included in an meeting simply because he/she it too old.
• Decision taken against a person based on their age not to employ them.
• Finally a person is dismissed or anything similar based on their age.

Chosen Business – ASDA

ASDA is the chosen business for our recruitment and selection process. It is basically a superstore which is based all around the U.K and its parent company is Wal-Mart which is a American based company. ASDA provides very big range of products. E.g. vegetable, biscuits, electronics such as T.V., music player, clothes, etc. ASDA provides home delivery. There are many jobs currently available at ASDA. There are jobs such as store manager which looks at managing a particular store. The chosen job role for our group was a ‘Pharmacy Assistant’. It is basically a role/job of just assisting the pharmacist serve and take orders. The job also includes keeping records, stocking shelves, answering telephone calls and taking inventory.

Recruitment & Selection Process

The recruitment and selection process ASDA current uses is as follows:

Finding vacancies for ASDA can be done online via the ASDA website or the local job centre or by asking for a application form from one the ASDA stores. The application form can be gotten from the reception or customer service desk.  It is best to ask for the application form on a weekday rather than weekend because ASDA stores normally tend to very busy so waiting times will be long.  

After the application form is taken in for processing, it is the same process for everyone; because it allows us to see some of the person’s basic skills and that the person meets the basic criteria skills and it the person meets the basic set criteria  than the candidate is invited to a group selection event which is quite enjoyable because you get to meet new people. This process is called ‘ASDA Magic’, and it takes around two hours to complete, the main purpose of this process is to help the candidates find out more about ASDA and also allows ASDA to find out more information about the candidate. The event also allows or gives the candidates the opportunity to have a go at the job and find out what the job is like. It can let the candidate decide whether they will be able to carry out the job. If a applicant passes this stage and selected for the job than he is simply sent a letter to let him/her know about the job and the first day of the job includes induction as well along with a booklet about the process.

If a candidate is applying for a more high level job such as a management or a head office job, than the process if slightly different. Because you will need to apply online through ASDA’s website, application form is to be filled in online but also test is to be done. Depending on the job applied for the test can vary from verbal, numerical or personality tests. This test allows ASDA to gather information which allows them to understand whether the job is right him/her or he/she is right person for ASDA. To complete the process above takes around 35 minutes or more. It is to be made sure of that the test and application form is to be done best of ability. If a candidate successfully passes the stage above than depending on job applied for, the candidate might be asked to come in for a interview or invite them for a group assessment centre. The group assessment centre is basically where the candidate is asked to take part in couple of exercises which allow the candidate to show his/her strengths and also allow ASDA to identify opportunities for the candidate. In specific detail ASDA normally does not look for the perfect candidate, which in fact is never true but for people who are self aware, have the right attitude toward the job and also help make a difference to the business.

Finally the recruitment for pharmacy and optical professional is again a different process. The application process the job is similar to the process mentioned above, but instead of test you will be asked to upload your CV. If a candidate is successful than the next step is simply calling the candidate in for an interview with either the general store manager or a pharmacy or optical professional.

Induction Process

The induction process at ASDA has five aims they are:

• Awareness of the workings & objectives of a business
• Awareness of health & safety issues
• Requirements when absent, ill or late
• Introductions to management & work colleagues
• Identification of any immediate training needs

When a candidate is successful and has achieved the job than he or she will be told about the induction process. They will be told about ASDA’s aims and objectives, so that they know how their job role fits in and what they can do in order to help ASDA and also do their job properly. The induction process would include basic training about the job which will allow the candidate to complete their job.  The induction process will also allow the supervisor to identify any immediate training needs for the candidate. The tailored training that ASDA provides is as follows:

• Colleague to manager training
• New retail managers
• New distribution managers
• ASDA House colleagues

For more complex job or higher level job such management the tailored training mentioned above is used. This training lasts for three months because these jobs are a lot harder and involve a lot more responsibilities and duties. The training process takes place at ASDA as well as offsite training centers. The process involves the new employee being supervised for the three months and being told of every aspect of their job. They are also told of “What If” aspect. This means that what if something happens, what they should do, etc.

Motivational Package and Process