Recruitment Flashcards
(16 cards)
Features of a Human Resource Plan
- Matching up the right type of the employees to the needs of the business.
- Method by which a business forecasts demand for employees – How many? What type? Where are they needed? When are they needed?
- Analyses current employees. What characteristics (age, qualifications, etc.)?
- Planning internal supply – promotion, training, retirement.
- Planning external supply – unemployment rates (local and national), government policy, skills,
population trends. - Can be both short term (e.g. maternity leave) and long
term (e.g. strategic) in nature.
Define workforce planning
Ensuring that there will be the right number of workers, with the right skills, doing the right jobs, at the right time and in the right place
Main factors that influence workforce planning
- Business objectives, such as increasing output or opening new branches, will invariably require more employees.
- Labour market changes – labour market trends have implications for the recruitment and retention of staff. Engineers are in increasingly short supply as less undergraduates are choosing to study in this discipline.
- Demographic and social change – demographic change, such as the ageing population in the UK, is affecting both the demand for products and services required by this age group, as well as workforce supply.
- Technological change – technological change is leading to large change in ways of working and the skills needed in the workforce. Many manual tasks can now be carried out by robotic technology, reducing the demand for certain types of labour.
Workforce planning helps a business
☑ decide how many employees are and will be needed
☑ manage employment expenditure by anticipating changes
☑ ensure that sufficient and appropriate training and development is provided
☑ cope with peaks and troughs in supply and demand for different skills
☑ deliver an improved service to customers
☑ reduce employee turnover
☑ implement diversity policies
☑ manage staff performance and sickness absence.
Importance of workforce planning
- Important to establish that sufficient numbers are being employed in order that all necessary tasks can be carried out.
- Helps a business to cost how many employees it will need in the future and whether they are part time or full time.
- It is important to identify the skills necessary for the vacancies they may wish to fill.
- It is important to know when these employees will be needed in order to put recruitment plans in place for the future.
- Where will these employees be needed? A multinational business will have many locations, both in UK and abroad. Which departments/functional areas might they be needed in?
- Important to identify who may need training to improve skills or who can be redeployed to fill gaps where certain skills are necessary.
- Important if business needs to rationalise – natural wastage, voluntary redundancy, compulsory redundancy, early retirement – the extent and cost of these.
- Important because the businesses need to establish the types of contracts to offer employees, e.g. part-time,
permanent, zero hours
Steps in the recruitment process
- Job analysis.
- Draw up job description.
- Draw up person specification.
- Advertise.
- Send out application forms, etc.
- Receive applications/CVs.
- Short list/reduce number called for interview.
- Interview.
- Selection/choosing the right person.
- Request references
Explain person specification
A profile of a person suited for a job/the type of person an employer is looking for.
Content: Qualifications skills experience/work history
personality/qualities/an example.
Define aptitude and ability tests
Aptitude and ability tests can take
a variety of forms and are designed to test the ability of the candidate to complete the core tasks of the job.
Explain work trials
A work trial is a way of trying out a potential employee before offering them a job. They are the ultimate extended interview.
* Work trials can last up to 30 days (but normally perhaps a week), and during the trial the potential employee will be introduced to the core tasks of the job and try to
complete them effectively.
* Work trials are often used to help people back into employment and are commonly used for unskilled work.
* A successful work trial is expected to lead to employment.
Define job analysis
The process that identifies and determines in detail the particular duties and requirements of the job, and also what the position requires in terms of aptitudes,
knowledge, and skills.
Selection techniques
- business’ own application form, often backed by a letter of application and a CV
- interviews
- psychometric tests (personality, aptitude and ability tests)
- assessment centres (simulations, variety of interviews,role-plays).
Define Personality Tests –
Psychometric Testing
A psychometric test is a way of
assessing a person’s personality in a measured and structured way.
This type of test is used by employers to help them identify candidates with suitable personality traits for the job. They help employers decide whether candidates have the enthusiasm and motivation that the employer is looking for and whether they are likely to fit in with the organisation’s culture and methods of working.
Benefits of Personality Tests –
Psychometric Testing
☑ Helps organisations recruit the right people with the right mix of abilities and personal qualities.
☑ Useful for ‘sifting out’ a large number of applicants at an early stage and so saving the employers both time and money.
Define Job description
Used in the job advertisement to show what the job entails and what the employee will be expected to do. The applicant can use the to decide whether to apply for job and whether they have the skills to carry out the tasks.
Content:
* job title/example of job title * pay
* nature of work * days worked
* part or full time – hours worked
* holiday entitlement
* superiors/who the worker
will be responsible to
* subordinates/will the worker have supervision over others
* location/address * date to start
* duties/responsibilities.
Drawbacks of recruiting internally
☒ The number of applicants may be limited.
☒ Better quality external candidates may have been lost – the best person for the position may be overlooked.
☒ Promoting internally means that another post now has to be filled.
☒ Internal candidates may find it difficult to manage former colleagues/friends who are now subordinates. Prejudices may exist.
☒ The candidate may not bring an innovative or fresh approach to the position, especially if they have been with the organisation for any length of time.
☒ If no internal candidate proves suitable the business will have to advertise externally anyway
Advantages of recruiting internally
☑ Employees within the organisation have a chance to develop their career – greater motivation.
☑ Familiarity with the organisation means that induction period will be much shorter.
☑ Internal candidates’ abilities are well-known – less risk of appointing a candidate who may not prove suitable.
☑ The process will be quicker and less expensive.
