One of the most important jobs of HR management of Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch is recruiting and selecting new employees. It wont be possible for Superdrug Plc to operate their business successfully and to provide excellent service to customer if they cant recruit a good workforce.(Altenburg, 2009). With the proper recruitment and selection techniques, Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch would able to meet not only on branch demand of human resource, but also the standard of the brand of Superdrug Plc.
Every year Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street branch recruit people for several positions such as sales assistant, store manager, assistant manager, team leader, warehouse operative, accuracy technician, apprenticeships (Fuller, 2005). Superdrug Plc Oxford Street Branch needs people to cover changing job roles within the business, to fill the vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal and for internal promotion.
4. Literature Review
Recruitment and Selection process are two most important processes of Human Resource Department of any organization. Regardless of size and financial position, every organization needs to go through those two important processes. Moreover, apart from the products of an organization, employees are the second most important representative of the goodwill of an organization. Successful recruitment and selection procedures bring effective and efficient employees for a company.
4.1. Overview on Recruitment systems
4. 1. A. Recruitment
Cherrington (1995) defines recruiting as the process of attracting potential job applicants from the available labour force. Every organization must be able to attract a sufficient number of job candidates who have the abilities and aptitude s that will help the organization to achieve its objectives.
4. 1. B. Recruitment policy
Recruitment policy reflects the organizations general business strategy. As stated by Brewster, Dowling & Grobler (2000), usually, a company’s recruitment policy includes information on whether:
- Internal or external recruitment will take place
- Relatives of existing employees may be hired
- Part time or any type of flexitime workers will be considered
- People over retirement age may be employed
According to Brewster et al (2000), the ultimate goal of an organisation striving towards obtaining and retaining a sustained competitive advantage is to have a workforce that possesses a unique knowledge base. Munetsi (1998) believes that recruitment policy must take into account the corporate philosophy, organizational mission, strengths, and weaknesses of the company.
4.1. C. Recruitment sources and method
In the rush to fill a position, organizations sometimes lost sight of the fact that it may not be necessary to find a replacement or fill a new position at all. There may be other ways of dealing with the vacancy. It is important that other options are considered before the decision is taken to proceed with recruitment (Torrington & Hall, 19995). Some of the options are to:
- Reorganize the work so that the remaining employees do the total amount of work in a section without replacing the leaver.
- Use overtime if it’s a short-term problem.
- Mechanize the work if the time has arrived to introduce new equipment.
- Stagger the hours if flexible working arrangements can get the job done.
- Make the job part time by introducing job sharing.
- Sub-contact the work if possible.
- Use an agency to provide temporary personnel.
4. 2. Overview on Selection methods
4. 2. A. Selection methods
As mentioned by Foot et al (1999), Selection can be defined as the process of trying to determine which individual will best match particular jobs in the organizational context, taking into account individual differences, the requirements of the job and the organization’s internal and external environments.
4. 2. B. Selection procedures
Many tools are available for making a selection decisions. The tools differ mainly in the amount and type of information provided. Some, such as application blanks, collection information about an applicant’s past. While going through this types of predictions, it is being assumed that individuals previous behaviour might represent his future behaviour. Others, such as test, provide behavioural information about the present and are based on the assumption that present behaviour predicts future behaviour. As stated by Willams et al (1993), the selection process should not be undertaken without an awareness of the factors that influence the selection decision.
5. Justification for selecting the topic and the organization
While going through the study of Master in Business Administration courses, the author found the Human Resources Management course very interesting. The author realise that he has also gone through several procedures of Human Resources Department activities in his job life in United Kingdom as well as in his home country. Apart from that, the author also has future plan to start his career in the field of Human Resources Department of a well known organization. Beside, as the author himself applies for various jobs, he regularly goes through the selection and recruitment process of various organizations. When the author got a chance to do a research on any specific topic in relation to a specific organization, he feel interested to select the selection and recruitment topic as this research would give him an opportunity to go in depth of those processes.
While selecting an organization for research, the author collected information about recruitment and selection process of several organizations and discovered that at present most of the well established stores start their recruitment and selection process through online and it ends through a face to face interview. Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch is one of the stores like this. As the author has some personal networking with some employees of Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch the author feel that it would be easy for him to collect information for his research if he select the company.
6. Methodology
Research design
Research design is the plan stating in which way the collection of data and its analysis will be carried out. A research design is a master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information (Zikmund 2003, p.65). In general, the research must be designed properly and should avoid sensitive topics, such as religious, politics, age and salary and so on. Also, the actual purpose and benefits of the research or experiment must be identified and confidentiality, informed consent and freedom from harm must be promised. Before research, researcher needs to develop an effective research strategy or design which is the most suitable methods of investigation, the nature of research instruments, the sampling plan, and the types of data that is qualitative or quantitative.
As stated by Hussey & Hussey (1997), research design can be categorized in following three groups: :
Exploratory Research
This research mainly concern to get original nature of a problem or issue. Collection of primary data is the main source of this exploratory research. This reserach is more investigative in nature. Exploratory research is investigation informal studies to provide background information. It is not intended to provide conclusive evidence from which to follow a concrete direction, rather it provides a basis that subsequent research will be a requirement to achieve final results. The basic purpose behind exploratory research is to exhaust inexpensive readily available data which may help to prevent mistakes like rushing into expensive detailed surveys (Zikmund, 1997).
Descriptive Research
Descriptive research accurately describes certain aspects. The descriptive research is used in order to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation. Hypothesis testing is undertaken to explain the nature of certain relationship. For example, research undertaken to find the market share of different companies, or demographics of the people of the city can be classified as descriptive research.
Casual research or Conclusive research
The purpose of a casual research is to study causal links between two groups whose are named as control group and experimental group (Hakim, 2000). One of the groups is known as dependent variable and another group is known as independent variable. The purpose of this research is to find out change in one variable because of the change in another variable.
Obtained Method: Justification for Descriptive Design
The author is going to do the critical evaluation of existing recruitment and selection methods to satisfy the human resources need of Superdrug Plc Oxford Street Branch. While going through the research it would be needed to look at the existing employee and potential employee’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, fears towards existing recruitment and selection method of this organization. Exploratory research and casual research would limit the area of this research as positivistic approach would emphasize more on causality and fundamental laws of recruitment and selection method rather then peoples approach to the recruitment and selection method of Superdrug Plc. As mentioned by Kumar (1999), In order to know different opinions about people towards an issue descriptive research method is best. That’s why; the author would select descriptive design for this research.
Data collection method
Secondary data
The data which are used for a research project that were originally collection for some other purposes are known as secondary data (Lewis, 2009). Hussey and Hussey (1997) mentioned about the following two sources of secondary data:
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Internal: library or desk research is known as a established method of collecting secondary data as internal records and published records are often cable to of giving useful information, sometimes which is sufficient enough to made the discussion.
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External: These types of data include statistics or report issued by the government, trade association or other reputed organizations and the useful information are circulated by the advertising / research companies.
The secondary sources which will be used for the research are:
Books & Magazine
Books and Magazines on Human Resources Management should be used for having a deep idea about literature on recruitment and selection process. The author would collect those books from University of Wales Library and from some other public library such as Ideal Library.
Internet
The author would use internet to collect journal and article on selection and recruitment process and to collect information from Superdrug Plc. Through Internet the author would also go through the selection process of Superdrug Plc. Besides, the author would also use online library of University of Wales.
Newspaper
During the research period, the author would also keep an eye on various business related newspapers to collect updated information about Human Resource Management Issues.
The data acquired from the secondary source will be used to cross examine with the literature reviews in favour of supporting the primary data towards an in depth analysis of the projected subject.
Primary Data
This is the original data collected by the research. Here the researcher approaches the respondents either directly or indirectly i.e either the respondent is met personally or through mail or telephone. These data are analytical in order to get result of the research. Primary data always produces some new information which creates way for further investigation for the researchers (Schoonhoven & Romanelli, 1994). Primary data can be collected through the following ways:
Surveys & Questionnaires
The survey method draws most of its data from the present. Someone conduct a survey in order to establish people’s views of what they think, believe, value or feel, on order to discover these views for their own sake, or to support an argument that the researcher is presenting, sampling a population of potential respondents in order to generalize conclusions more widely (Schein, 1999).
Observations
This is the way of gathering information without any interference or manoeuvring. For example, a recorded video of retail store show that how the customers are walk around the displays. This specific method generally employed in social research, where some kind of social behaviour and situation entering when a researcher wants to observe any group. Researcher could collect different activities with the impressions. Basically observation means examination something or someone and taking note of anything it does.
Experimentation
In this process considered by constantly hold condition scientific enquiries are carried out to find out particular factor or variable which will be studied and measured. Any changes relating to the constant position is measured and and checked statistically and the result might held as attributable to the intervention of the independent variable (Chishnall, 1997))
For this research the following sources will be used for gathering primary data:
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The author would use email contact as a mean of observation with store manager, hr manager, departmental managers and several employees of Superdrug Plc in order to collect as much as data possible for the research.
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The author would attend events arranged by Superdrug Plc such as open recruitment day, or events arranged by any HR groups in relation to their recruitment and selection process.
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Observation will be followed to gain knowledge neutrally about the strategic direction of the company.
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Interviews will be the most vulnerable part of primary data by which the findings will be established. The author would conduct an interview on around twenty existing employees of Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch. The author would try to find out the procedures through which they were recruited by the organization and whether they are satisfied on the existing recruitment and selection process of Superdrug Plc. Apart from that, the author would try to find out ten potential employees who are either recently applied for a jobs in Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch and waiting for their result, or who regularly goes through the website of Superdrug Plc to look for job.
Data handling, analysis and interpretation
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research refers to studies in which the findings are mainly the product of statistical summary.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative data refers to intangible features. It generates non numerical data. This research is used to discover and realize people's attitudes, philosophy, experiences, actions and interactions. Qualitative research techniques such as focus groups and in depth interviews are a guideline to develop groups to find out more about their views and experiences. Qualitative research data are most obtained from both observations and interviews and such data is usually used to describe individuals, groups and social movements.
Justification for Quantitative Research
As from the topic it is clearly understandable that this research will be based on a survey which would be done on around twenty- thirty existing and potential employees of Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch. While doing the survey, the author would design his questionnaire in such a way so that he can quantify it later on. For example, the author would ask the interviewee to rank their satisfaction level on the existing recruitment and selection process of Superdrug plc.
The author would follow the rules of University of Wales’ dissertation presentation procedures. The author would present the dissertation through the following two methods:
- Two printed written form of the dissertation with a binding cover would be submitted to Institute. Apart from the main dissertation, those sealed books would contain references, appendix, table and graph related to the presentation of dissertation. A copy of TurnitinUK plagiarism report would also be submitted with this.
- A soft copy of the dissertation would be submitted with the hard copy submission through a DVD. Apart from that, the author would also submit the dissertation through an email to the supervisor, but it will be an informal submission.
7. Limitations
The author would get only three months time for his dissertation. But the field of Human Resource Management is so vast to cover in this short time. Besides, the rules and regulation on selection and recruitment are updating very frequently. So, it might be hard for the researchers to go in depth of the selection and recruitment theory.
For this research work, some internal information about Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street Branch might be needed. For example, the number of stuff under each position, whether personal networking can help someone to get a job in this store. But it might be hard or impossible also to get permission for all this issues from Superdrug Plc, Oxford Street. However, the author would try his best by using his academic reference letter and personal networking.
8. Ethical Issues
The author would be highly morale while going through the dissertation. As mentioned by Cooper and Schindler (2008), a research should be ready to accept any refusal during research time. Ethical issues are likely to be importance throughout research. At the initial stage, the author would request his education institute for a reference letter as the institute is his research administrator. The author uses this reference letter while collecting data to ensure the interviewee that the author is authorized by his educational institute for collecting those data.
9. Contingency plan
In order the ensure that the author is going through the right way while doing the dissertation, the author would keep regular contact with the supervisor. He would maintain contact through electronic mail and face to face appointment with supervisor. The author believe that unorganized work would lead him to a last minute hassle, that why the author planned for his dissertation from now. The author already made a Gantt chart for his dissertation. According to Henry (1917), a Gantt can be described as a time chart of a research where a researcher write down his planning of several research tasks again time. Here is the contingency plan of the author:
Gantt chart for the Research.
10. References
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Barnett, V., 1991. Sample survey principles and method. London: Edward Arnold.
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Baruch, Y. 1999. Response rates in academic studies- a comparative analysis. Human Relations. Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 421-438.
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Blumberg, B., Cooper, D. & Schindler, P., 2008. Business research methods. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education.
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Brewster, C., Dowling, P. & Grobler, P. 2000. Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Management: Gaining a competitive advantage. UK: Oxford University Press.
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Caroline, C., 2010. Exhibiting: Superdrug Testimonial. [Online] Career Forums. Available at: [Accessed: 10 June 2010].
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Cascio, W.F., 1995. Managing Human Resources: productivity, quality of work life, profits. New York: McGraw- Hill.
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Fuller, G. 2005. Superdrug moves its recruitment online. [Online] Personnel Today. 26 October. Available at: [Accessed: 10 June 2010]
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Glaser, B. & Strauss, A., 1967. The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: IL Aldine.
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Hussey, J. & Hussey, R., 1997. Business Research. UK: Macmillan Business.
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Kervin, J., 1999. Methods for Business Research. 2nd ed. New York: Haper Collins.
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Leap, T. & Crin, M., 1993. Managing resourceful people: Human resource policy and practice. Kenwyn: Juta.
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Obiago, D., 1992. Recruitment and selection: a good practice guide. Luton : Local Government Management Board.
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Patton, M.Q., 2002. Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3rd ed. CA: Sage.
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Raimond, P. 1993. Management project. London: Chapman & Hall.
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Roberts, G., 1997. Recruitment and selection. London: Institute of Personnel and Development.
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Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A., 2009. Research Methods of Business Students. 5th ed. England: Pearson Education Limited.
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Schein, E. 1999. Process consultation revisited: building the helping relationship. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
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Superdrug Plc. 2010. Superdrug history. [Online] Superdrug Plc. Available at: http://www.superdrug.com/About-Us/Superdrug-History/page/superdrughistory [Accessed: 10 June 2010].
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Superdrug Plc. 2010. Welcome to the Superdrug Careers Site. [Online] Superdrug Plc. Available at: [Accessed: 10 June 2010].
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Torrington, D. & Hall, L., 1995. Personnel Management. 3rd ed. London: Prentice-Hall.
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Wright, M. & Storey, J. 1997. Recruitment and Selection. 2nd ed. London: Pitman.
