Employee Selection: Recruiting and Interviewing Job Analysis
As discussed in Chapter 2, job analysis is the cornerstone of personnel selection. Remember, unless a complete and accurate picture of a job is obtained, it is virtually impossible to select excellent employees. Thus, during the job analysis process, in addition to identifying the important tasks and duties, it is essential to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform the job.
Therefore, the methods used to select employees should tie in directly with the results of the job analysis. In other words, every essential knowledge, skill, and ability identified in the job analysis that is needed on the first day of the job should be tested, and every test must somehow relate to the job analysis.
Recruitment
An important step in selecting employees is recruitment: attracting people with the right qualifications (as determined in the job analysis) to apply for the job.
The first decision is whether to promote someone from within the organization (internal recruitment) or to hire someone from outside the organization (external recruitment).
To enhance employee morale and motivation, it is often good to give current employees an advantage in obtaining new internal positions.
Internal promotions can be a great source of motivation, but if an organization always promotes employees from within, it runs the risk of having a stale workforce that is devoid of the many ideas that new employees bring with them from their previous employment settings.
Heavy reliance on internal sources is thought to perpetuate the racial, gender, and age composition of the workforce. Thus, a balance between promoting current employees and hiring outside applicants is needed.
Media Advertisements
Newspaper Ads
Running ads in periodicals such as local newspapers or professional journals is a common method of recruiting employees. Although many organizations use newspaper ads, especially for local positions, in 2007 recruiters considered print advertising as one of the least effective recruitment methods.
Newspaper advertisements typically ask the applicant to respond in one of four ways: calling, applying in person, sending a résumé directly to the organization, or sending a résumé to a blind box. Calling. Applicants are asked to respond by calling when an organization wants to either quickly
screen applicants or hear an applicant’s phone voice (e.g., for telemarketing or receptionist positions).
Apply-in-person ads. Organizations use apply-in-person ads when they don’t want their phones tied up by applicants calling (e.g., a travel agency or pizza delivery restaurant), want the applicants to fill out a specific job application, or want to get a physical look at the applicant.
Send-résumé ads. Applicants are asked to send a résumé directly to the company (send-résumé ads) when the organization expects a large response and does not have the resources to speak with thousands of applicants.
Blind box. The fourth type of ad directs applicants to send a résumé to a blind box. Organizations use blind boxes for three main reasons.
First, the organization doesn’t want its name in public. This might be the case when a well-
known company such as AT&T or IBM has a very specific job opening and is concerned that rumors will spread that there are many openings for a variety of positions. This could result in an avalanche of résumés, many from unqualified applicants.
Second, the company might fear that people wouldn’t apply if they knew the name of the company. For example, an ad for sales positions would probably not draw a large response if applicants were asked to send their résumés to a funeral home (even though selling burial plots can be a lucrative job).
Third, on rare occasions, a company needs to terminate an employee but wants first to find a replacement. As you can imagine, running an ad containing the name of the company would not be smart if the current employee were not aware that he or she was about to be fired.
Writing Recruitment Ads
Ads displaying the company emblem and using creative illustrations attract the greatest number of applicants, but ads that include the salary range and a company phone number attract the highest- quality applicants.
Ads containing realistic information about the job, rather than information that is “too good to be true” increase applicant attraction to the organization.
Ads containing detailed descriptions of the job and organization provide applicants with an idea of how well they would fit into an organization and result in positive thoughts about it.
Ads containing information about the selection process affect the probability that applicants will apply for a job. For example, ads stating that an in-person interview will be used to select employees result in applicants being more likely to apply for a job than ads indicating that grade point average (GPA) will be a factor.
Electronic Media
Whereas 96% of organizations run recruitment advertisements in newspapers, only 26% use television and radio to advertise job openings.
The potential advantage to using electronic media for recruitment is that 95% of Americans listen to the radio at least weekly, and the average person spends four hours a day listening to the radio compared with 45 minutes reading the newspaper.
Situation-Wanted Ads
Situation-wanted ads are placed by the applicant rather than by organizations. Some list extensive qualifications, some give applicants’ names, and some are generally more creative than others.
Situation-wanted ads appear to be a useful way of looking for a job, and given that they don’t cost an organization any money, they may be a beneficial method of recruitment.
Point-of-Purchase Methods
The point-of-purchase method of recruitment is based on the same “POP” (point-of-purchase) advertising principles used to market products to consumers.
In employee recruitment, job vacancy notices are posted in places where customers or current employees are likely to see them: store windows, bulletin boards, restaurant placemats, and the sides of trucks.
The advantages to this method are that it is inexpensive and it is targeted toward people who frequent the business. The disadvantage is that only a limited number of people are exposed to the sign.
Recruiters
Campus Recruiters
Many organizations send recruiters to college campuses to answer questions about themselves and interview students for available positions. Not surprisingly, the behavior and attitude of recruiters can greatly influence applicants’ decisions to accept jobs that are offered.
Due to cost considerations, many employers have cut back on the use of on-campus recruiting. As a result, an increasing number of colleges are organizing virtual job fairs, in which their students and alumni can use the Web to “visit” with recruiters from hundreds of organizations at one time. In a virtual job fair, applicants can talk to or instant-message a recruiter, learn more about the company, and submit résumés.
Outside Recruiters
More than 75% of organizations use such outside recruiting sources as private employment agencies, public employment agencies, and executive search firms. Private employment agencies and executive search firms are designed to make a profit from recruitment activities, whereas public employment agencies are operated by state and local public agencies and are strictly nonprofit.
Employment Agencies and Search Firms
Employment Agencies
Employment agencies operate in one of two ways. They charge either the company or the applicant when the applicant takes the job. The amount charged usually ranges from 10% to 30% of the applicant’s first-year salary.
From an organization’s perspective, there are few risks in using an employment agency that charges the applicant for its services. That is, if the employment agency cannot find an appropriate candidate, the organization has not wasted money. But if the employment agency is successful, the organization gets a qualified employee at no cost.
Employment agencies are especially useful if an HR department is overloaded with work or if an organization does not have an individual with the skills and experience needed to select employees properly.
The disadvantage of employment agencies is that a company loses some control over its recruitment process and may end up with undesirable applicants.
Executive Search Firms
Executive search firms, better known as “head hunters,” differ from employment agencies in several ways. First, the jobs they represent tend to be higher-paying, non–entry-level positions such as executives, engineers, and computer programmers. Second, reputable executive search firms always charge their fees to organizations rather than to applicants. Third, fees charged by executive search firms tend to be about 30% of the applicant’s first-year salary.
A word of caution about both employment agencies and executive search firms: Because they make their money on the number of applicants they place, they tend to exert tremendous pressure on applicants to take jobs that are offered. But applicants are not obligated to take jobs and should not be intimidated about turning down a position that appears to be a poor match.
Public Employment Agencies
The third type of outside recruitment organization is state and local employment agencies. These public employment agencies are designed primarily to help the unemployed find work, but they often offer services such as career advisement and résumé preparation.
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