Recruitment & Selection

Physical Make-Up

• The characteristics and vocal skills of the applicant

Achievement

• The required education, qualifications, experience of the applicant

Specific Skills

• Necessary special skills or talents essential of the prospective employee

Interests

• The types of pastimes or hobbies that the ideal applicant would follow

 

Personality

• The type of motivation, temperament and attitude an applicant would possess

Personal Circumstances

• The ideal personal and domestic arrangements of a potential member of staff

Job Description

This recruitment document usually contains two types of information. A summary describing the duties involved in addition to necessary behaviour to carry out the essential duties and tasks effectively.

Once the job description and person specification are completed the next stage is usually to attract potential personnel fitting the company’s person specification will be done through the method of job advertising.

There are a number of factors to be considered when planning to fill a vacancy and carrying out interviews. To ensure attracting the most suitable of candidates for the job, the words should be chosen meticulously in job advertisements.

The four main features that a prospective applicant looks for in job advertisements are:

• A description or details about the organisation

• A coherent and logical explanation of the job including duties and responsibilities

• The location of the job or where the company is based

• The salary scale or remuneration package including perks such as subsidised meals

Another factor to consider is the cost of advertising especially for senior positions within the Marks & Spencer organisation in particular the management as it is essential that the company attracts the best candidates for the running and future success of the business. A quarter-page black and white advertisement in the Sunday Times costs in the region of £12,000.

After these have been considered carry out interviews from a short-list of candidates these factors to be dealt with is that firstly the candidate chosen for the interviews should be in the human resources department the most suitable applicant for the job.

In the progress of the interview the interviewer aim should be to investigate and delve into the candidates’ background and find out all relevant information and their experience. The information is more likely to be provided if the interviewee is put at ease and is comfortable so, every effort should be made to avoid intimidating the candidate.

Another factor for the Marks & Spencer Human Resources manager to consider is to allow the candidate to do the majority of the talking. Therefore the manager can evaluate the candidate by listening and observing body language. Clues about honesty, personality and levels of confidence can be gained from body language.

A factor the must be regarded as important is that all candidates must be interviewed before a decision is made thus allowing all short-listed candidates an opportunity to express themselves accurately. The following are considered good techniques and factors to be considered when interviewing:

• A seating arrangement beneficial to both parties for example one that does not put sunlight in the candidates eyes or the chair is lower than the interviewer
• A warm welcome of the candidate is essential to start the process positively
• If there is an interview panel then an introduction is required
• The purpose and structure of the interview must be explained so as to allow the candidate the knowledge of what to expect
• If any background information is necessary then it must be given
• Honesty about the job and what is required
• To put the candidate at ease start with easier or familiar questions covering relevant experience or qualifications thus resulting in a relaxed atmosphere
• The use of open questions is essential to enable the prospective employee to talk in depth about themselves
• The personal prejudices of the interviewer must be forgotten as this does not determine suitability to the vacancy
• An interview plan should be kept to insistently
• Irrelevant questions should be avoided

Key recruitment documents are the Job application, Curriculum vitae and the letter of application. The relevance of a job application is to indicate and facilitate the gathering of information about a potential candidate thus giving the impression of a person’s attributes, qualifications and experience.

The purpose of the application is to enable Marks & Spencer to short-list candidates by comparing this information to the person specification produced by Marks & Spencer itself.

A strength being that promising candidates are requested to attend an interview therefore contributing to the exclusion of less suitable applicants hence Marks & Spencer will send a letter of non-acceptance informing the unsuccessful candidate the reasons why they were not chosen to be short-listed.

A criticism can be that the interview process is expensive both in terms of time consummation but also is also disadvantageous because the manager is as a result preoccupied possibly disrupting the manager’s normal duties.

The importance of a clear elimination process cannot be understated and thus to minimise costs and to ensure that false expectations are not built up by less suitable applicants.

The benefit of a completed application form is seen as part of the contract of employment. Put simply any false claims or deliberate misinformation by the potential candidate will render the contract of employment void therefore resulting in an instant dismissal.

Curriculum vitae is also an essential part of recruitment documents. This document is submitted to Marks & Spencer Human Resources Department after the applicant has done careful preparation of the document. An advantage of curriculum vitae is that the Marks & Spencer as the prospective employer can gain an insight into a candidate’s details.

Any information that may persuade Marks & Spencer to grant an interview is most likely to be included in a Curriculum Vitae (CV). The corroboration of what has been claimed by the applicant can be confirmed by at least two referees one of which a character and work reference therefore providing a useful tool in terms of value and skills the candidate can offer the prospective employer.

Letters of application are useful as it is a letter from the prospective employee explaining why in their view they are the most suitable candidates for the job.

The value of a letter of application is illustrated by the fact that it is structured in the way the applicant believes is appropriate supporting the view that it is a useful selection tool.

The constraints are that when used as an assessment method a person of good letter writing abilities will be selected with not necessarily the most suitable candidate. The letter writer may leave out important information although; the subsistence of Curriculum Vitae can solve this problem.

It is debatable whether these shortcomings are significant as employers as shown by the frequency of their use expressly request them.