Recruitment & Selection
WHAT IS RECRUITING?
• Recruitment is defined as a process to discover the sources of
manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to
employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate
numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient workforce.
Features of recruitment
• Recruitment is a process or a series of activities rather than a single act or
event.
• Recruitment is a linking activity as it brings together those with jobs
(employer) and those seeking jobs (prospective employees).
• Recruitment is a positive function as it seeks to develop a pool of eligible
persons from which most suitable ones can be selected.
• The basic purpose of recruitment is to locate the sources of people
required to meet job requirements and attracting such people to offer
themselves for employment in the organisation.
• Recruitment is a pervasive function as all organisations engage in recruiting
activity. But the volume and nature of recruitment varies with the size,
nature and environment of the particular organisation.
• Recruitment is a complex job because too many factors affect it.
Process of Recruitment
• Recruitment process generally begins when the human resource department
receives requisitions for recruitment from any department of the company.
• Locating and developing the sources of required number and type of employees.
• Identifying the prospective employees with required characteristics.
• Communicating the information about the organisation, the job and the terms and
conditions of service.
• Encouraging the identified candidates to apply for jobs in the organisation.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of recruitment process.
• Recruitment process consists of five elements
• a recruitment policy
• a recruitment organisation
• developing sources of recruitment
• a method of assessing the recruitment programme
Recruitment Process
Sources of Recruitment
Internal sources: If the job is filled up out of the present employees of the company it is said to be
the internal source of the company.
• The internal sources of recruitment are- Promotions, Transfers, Internal notification
(advertisement), Retirements, Recalls, Formal Employees.
Advantages of internal recruitment
• It increases the morale among the staff members of the company.
• Training and recruitment expenses are reduced to some extent.
• Internal promotion helps the staff members to derive job satisfaction.
• It ensures the continuity of job to the staff members and stability of the organisation.
Disadvantages of internal recruitment
• When the higher post is filled internally the company will not be able to get fresh and original
ideas.
• The outsiders do not get the opportunity to showcase their talent.
• Employees may get promoted inspite of not being the deserving candidate.
External sources
When the vacancy in an organisation gets filled up from the suitable candidates available outside the
organisation.
Some external sources of recruitment are:
• Advertisements
• Recommendations
• Personnel consultant
• Educational institutions
• Employment exchange
Advantages of external recruitment
• New outlook
• Get to choose from large number of applicants
• Candidates have wider range of experience
Disadvantages of external recruitment
• Expensive
• Lack of cooperation from the existing staff members
• Time consuming
Techniques of recruitment
• Recruitment methods or techniques are the means by which an organisation
establishes contact with potential candidates, provides them necessary information
and encourage them to apply for job. These methods are different from the sources
of recruitment. Sources are the locations where candidates are available whereas
methods are ways of establishing link with the prospective employees.
Strategic Decisions in Recruitment
Selection
• The selection process can be defined as the process of selection and
shortlisting of the right candidates with the necessary qualifications
and skill set to fill the vacancies in an organisation.
Steps in Selection Process
• Application Form: Application form is a traditional and widely used device for
collecting information from candidates.
• Initial Screening: First of all, initial screening is done to weed out totally
undesirably unqualified candidates.
• Selection Test: A test is a sample of some aspect of an individual's attitudes,
behaviour and performance. It also provides a systematic basis for comparing the
behaviour, performance and attitudes of two more persons.
• Employment Interview: An interview is a conversation between two persons. In
selection, it involves a personal, observational and face-to-face appraisal of
candidates for employment.
• Reference Checks: Referred persons are requested to provide their frank opinion
about the candidate without incurring any liability.
• Final Approval: The candidates short listed by the department are finally
approved by the executives of the concerned departments/units.
Selection Testing
• Tests provide a systematic procedure for sampling human behaviour.
• Tests can be employed in decision concerning placement, promotion,
transfer, counselling and training of employees.
• Tests are based on the assumption that no two individuals are equal
in terms of intelligence, attitudes, personality and other traits.
Types of Tests
Types of Tests
1. Aptitude or Potential Ability Tests: These tests measure the latent ability or
potential of a candidate to learn a new job or skill. Peculiarities or defects in a
person's sensory or intellectual capacity can be detected through these tests.
(a) Mental or Intelligence Tests: These tests measure the overall intellectual capacity of a
person. Eg- Testing ability of vocabulary, math, and general knowledge
(b) Mechanical Aptitude Tests: These tests measure a person's capacity to learn a particular
type of mechanical work. Eg- tool knowledge, ability to understand mechanical drawings.
(c) Psycho-motor or Skill Tests: These tests measure a person's motor & muscle movement. Eg-
Assesses hand-eye coordination and dexterity tasks like placing and turning blocks quickly.
2. Achievement or Proficiency Tests: These tests measure what a person can do.
These determine the skill or knowledge already acquired through training and
on the job experience. These tests are of two types:
(a) Job Knowledge Tests: Also known as trade tests, these are used to judge proficiency in
typing, shorthand and in operating calculating, adding machines.
(b) Work Sample Tests: In these tests, a candidate is given a piece of work to judge how
efficiently he does it.
Types of Tests
3. Personality Test: To assess how well an individual might fit the company culture.
These probe deeply to discover clues to an individual's value system, emotional
reactions and maturity, and his characteristic mood. These are of three types:
(a) Objective Tests: These tests measure neurotic tendencies, self-sufficiency, dominance-
submission and self-confidence. Eg-measuring the presence and severity of depressive
symptoms
(b) Projective Tests: In these tests, a candidate is asked to project his own interpretation on to
certain stimuli like ambiguous pictures, figures revealing underlying thoughts and unconscious
motivations.
(c) Situation Tests: These tests measure a candidate's reaction when placed in a peculiar
situation, his ability to undergo stress and his demonstration of ingenuity under pressure. Eg-
Simulates a customer service call and directly assesses the candidate's skills.
4. Interest Tests: These tests are inventories of a candidate's likes and dislikes in
relation to work. These are used to discover a person's areas of interest and to
identify the kind of work that will satisfy him. Interest tests don't predict success in
a particular role, but they highlight areas where an individual might find
satisfaction, motivation, and long-term engagement.
Developing a Test Programme
(i) Deciding the Objectives: First of all, the objectives of the testing program are
spelled out.
(ii) Analysing Jobs: Jobs are analysed to identify the characteristics considered
necessary for job success.
(iii) Choosing Tests: Appropriate tests are chosen to measure the identified
characteristics. Tests may be chosen keeping in view the reliability, validity, ease of
administration.
(iv) Administering the Tests: The chosen tests are applied on the desired group of
persons to measure the predetermined traits.
(v) Establishing Criteria of Job Success: Success criteria may be laid down in terms
of quality and quantity of output, attendance record, rate of accidents, speed of
promotion, professional achievements, etc.
(vi) Analysing Results: The test scores are carefully analysed in the light of success
criteria.
Precautions in using test
• Validity: Only valid tests should be used. Validity means the degree to which a
test measures what it is designed to measure.
• Reliability: Test reliability is the consistency of scores obtained by the same
person when re-tested again and again.
• Standardisation: A test must be standardised so that test scores become
comparable. Test should in other words, be administered under standard
conditions to a representative sample of persons.
• Weightage: Each test should be assigned a weightage in the selection process to
reflect its importance.
• Competent Persons: Tests should be designed, administered, interpreted and
assessed only by trained and competent persons.
• Tailor-made: Each organisation is unique in terms of its needs and circumstances.
Therefore, tests should be validated for the given organisation before use.
Selection Interview
• An interview is a procedure designed to obtain information from a
person through oral responses to oral inquiries.
• An interview is the way of face to face conversation between the
interviewer and the interviewee, where the interviewer seeks replies
from the interviewee for choosing a potential human resource.
Purpose of interview
• To cross-check or verify the information obtained in earlier steps i.e
application form and tests.
• To judge the candidate's qualification and characteristics so as to
decide whether or not to select him.
• To give the candidate essential facts about the job and the company.
• To establish a rapport or mutual understanding between the company
and the candidate to promote the company's goodwill
Types of interview
• Informal Interview
• Formal Interview
• Structured Interview
• Unstructured Interview
• Group Interview
• Depth Interview: It is a semi-structured approach wherein details
concerning one key area are sought. It is designed to intensively examine
the candidate's proficiency in his area of special interest.
• Stress Interview: The purpose of such interview is to find out how a
candidate behaves in stressful situation
Limitations of interview
• Personal Bias
• Halo Effect: Under this type of error, a single prominent characteristic of
the candidate affects the judgement of the interviewer on all other traits.
• Constant Error: Such error arises because the interview of previous
candidate unduly influence the interviewer in favour or against the
candidate.
• Leniency: It implies the tendency to assign high scores. The opposite of
leniency is toughness, i.e., the tendency to consistently give low scores.
• Projection: Error of projection arises when an interviewer expects his own
knowledge, skills and values in a candidate.
• Stereotyping: This error arises when the interviewer believes some
association between a particular type of personality and a particular trait,
commercial origin or cultural background.
