RECRUITMENT AND

SELECTION
A process of finding and attracting capable
applicants for employment
The process begins when new recruits are sought
and end when their applications are submitted.
The result is a pool of applicant from which new
employees are selected

Other definition cont..
It is a process of discovering sources of
manpower to meet the requirement of staffing
and to employ effective measures of
attracting that manpower in adequate
numbers to facilitate effective selection of an
efficient workforce

Other definitions cont
Recruitment is the act of filling a vacant
position. It Includes:
Examining the vacancy
Considering the source of suitable candidates
Making contacts with the candidates
Attracting applications from them
Selecting and recruiting the right candidates
Recruitment Types
Are of three types
Planned arising form changes in organizational
structure, policy of retirement etc
Anticipated movement in personnel which an
organization can predict by studying trends in
internal and external environment
Unexpected resignation, death, accident,
illness
Purpose and Importance of
effective recruitment
To ensure that an organization attracts the
right candidates for the jobs

To replace staff who have since left the
organization
purpose
Attract and encourage more and more
candidates to apply in the organization


Create a talent pool of candidates to enable
the selection of the best candidates for the
organization
cont
Minimize unwarranted cost of selection
Help increase the success rate of selection
process by eliminating the under qualified or
overqualified job applicants
Help reduce probability that job applicants
once recruited and selected will leave the
organization only after a short period of time
Meet the organization legal and social
obligation regarding composition of workforce
Recruitment process
Identifying the vacancy : - post to be filled,
number of persons, duties to be performed,
qualifications required

Determine whether to recruit internally or
externally
Place the advertisement
Interview possible candidates
Recruit
Factors affecting recruitment
Internal factors
Recruitment policy
HR planning and strategy
Size of the firm
Cost of recruitment
Growth and expansion
Factors affecting recruitment
External factors
Supply and demand
Labour market
Image/goodwill
legal environment
Unemployment rates
Competition
Sources of recruitment: internal
and external
Internal:
Seeks to fill positions from among the rank of
those currently employed

Best in succession planning
Cont
Advantages:
1. It is less costly than external recruiting
2. Organisations have a better knowledge of
internal applicants skills and abilities than
that which can be acquired of candidates in
an external recruiting effort

Cont
3. Through performance appraisal and other sources
of information about current personnel, decision
makers typically will have much more extensive
knowledge on internal candidates and thus make
more valid selection decisions
4. An organisation policy of promotion from within can
enhance organizational commitment and job
satisfaction, leading to lower employee turnover
and productivity
5. Best used for succession planning
6.It enhances employees morale
Cont
Disadvantages:
1. If the organisation has decided to change its
business strategy, entrenched managers are
problem not the best change masters since the
internal recruitment approach simply propagate the
old way of doing things
2. Departmental Complaints where employees are
poached from one department to another
3. Politics have a greater impact on internal
recruitment. Personal biased decisions towards
specific candidates not necessarily based on
performance or job requirements
Cont
4. Employees who apply for jobs and do not get them
may become discontented
5.Cases of nepotism. Although many times managers
post job opening and interviews to all candidates,
the manager often knows ahead of time exactly
whom he or she wants to hire . Interviewing a
stream of unsuspecting candidates can be a waste
of time for all concerned.
Cont
6. Groups are sometimes not as satisfied when their
new boss is appointed from within their own ranks
as when he/she is a newcomer. It may be difficult
for the insider to shake off the reputation of being
one of the gang
7. Inbreeding is another potential drawback. When all
managers come up through the ranks, they may
have a tendency to maintain the status quo, when
a new direction is what is required. Balancing the
benefit of morale and loyally with the possible
inbreeding problem can be a challenge
Sources of internal recruitment
Job posting/ internal advertising
The most efficient way to do it is to have a job-posting system
where announcement for positions is made available to all
employees through newsletters, bulletin boards and so on.
When properly done, job posting can substantially improve
quality of job placement that are made within the organizations
Personnel records
Another way is to examine personnel records which may reveal
employees who already have the right qualifications for the
opening
External recruitment
Can be important when:
A firm cannot get all the employees they need
from the current staff
When the firm wants to inject a new perspective
into running the organisation
EXTERNAL SOURCES
External sources
Media advertising
Employment agencies
Colleges
Head Hunters/executive recruiters
Referrals and walk ins
internet recruitment
Advertising
For this to be successful the firm must
address two issues:
The advertising media
The advert construction

Advertising media
The selection of the media depends on the
positions which the firm is recruiting for e.g.
Local newspapers for blue collar jobs and jobs
whose labor is in plenty supply
Specialized jobs will be adverted in trade and
professional journals like the economists , etc
Jobs with an international focus will be advertised in
international dailies or magazines as well as
reputable local dailies
Constructing an Ad
Should have the following four point guide (AIDA):
Attention must attract attention to the Ad or readers may
just miss it or ignore it
Interest create interest in the advertised post
Desire- create desire
Action - Make sure the ad prompts action
Constructing an Ad cont
The Ad should also contain the following
information:
Job content ( primary task and responsibilities)
A realistic description of the work conditions
The location of the job
The compensation including fringe benefits
Job specification (e.g. education and experience)
To whom one should apply

Employment agencies
Agencies that charge employees or
employers for the placement services
Major functions:
To increase the pool of possible applicants
and to do preliminary screening
Why turn to employment agencies
If a firm doesnt have its own HR department
If a firm has found it difficult in the past to generate a
pool of qualified applicants
Where a post must be filled quickly
Where there is need to reach currently employed
individual who might feel more comfortable dealing
with agencies than with competing companies
Where there is need to cut down recruitment cost
Where an organization lacks expertise in recruiting
Executive recruiters (
headhunters)
Are special employment agencies retained by
employers to seek out top management
talent for their clients

Usually for executive and technical positions




advantages of using head
hunters
The recruiters may have many contacts and are
especially experts and skilled at contacting
qualified, currently employed candidates who aren't
actively looking for a change in jobs
They can also keep the firms name confidential until
late into the search processes
The recruiters save top management's time of
advertising and screening

College recruiting
Sending an employers representative to
college campuses to prescreen applicants.
College graduating class is an important
source of management trainees.
Cont
Problems with on campus recruiting:
Its expensive and time consuming
schedules must be set well in advance,
company brochures printed, record of
interview kept, and much time spent on
campus.
Referrals and walk-ins
The firm posts announcements of openings and request for
referral's in its bulletin and on its wall boards and intranet.

Pros:
Current employees can and usually provide accurate
information about the job applicants they are referring,
especially since they are putting their own reputation
at risk
The new employee may come with more realistic
picture of what working in the firm is like after
speaking with friends there
Cons: employees bringing their friends who may not be
qualified
Recruiting on the internet
Firms post job description and vacancies on
their websites-what are the merits and
demerits ?
Developing and using application
forms
Once you have a pool of applicants, the selection
process can begin, and the application form is
usually the first step in this process
A filled application form provides four types of
information:
1. You can make judgment on substantive maters, such as
whether the applicant has the educational qualifications
required
2. Level of experience to do the job.
3. Applicants previous progress and growth, a trait that is
especially important for management candidates
4. Stability on previous work record e.g. frequency of
job changes

Employee selection
With a pool of applicants, the next step is to
select the best candidate for the job.
This can be done using tests, assessment
centers, background and reference checks
Why careful selection is important
Selecting the right employee is important for three
main reasons:
1.To ensure good work Performance:

Employees with the right skills and attributes will do a
better job in the organization.
Cont
2. It is costly to recruit and hire employees in
terms of interviewing time hence the need to
ensure right selection.
3. Legal implication of incompetent hiring can
be costly and lead to court redress. If you
hire a criminal who swindles customers, you
will be liable
Basic tests for selection
For effective recruiting, therefore, the
selection test must be valid and reliable
Validity:
The test should measure what is supposed to
measure. The evidence that is being tested
should be job related, in other words, the
performance on the test is a valid predictor of
subsequent performance on the job
Cont
There are two ways to demonstrate test
validity: criterion validity and content
validity
Criterion validity shows that those who do well
in the test also do well on the job and vise versa

Content validity show that the test constitutes a
fair sample of the content of the job
Reliability
Reliability refers to its consistency.
It is the consistency of scores obtained by
the same person when retested with the
identical test or with an equivalent form of
test
If a person score 90% on Monday, then they
should score the same on Tuesday for the
same test
Types of tests
We can classify test according to whether
they measure:
Cognitive (mental) abilities.
Psychomotor (motor and physical)
Personality tests
Interest or achievements tests
Test for cognitive abilities
These includes:
Test of general reasoning ability (intelligence)
Test of specific mental abilities like memory and
reasoning, verbal comprehension, numerical
ability
( these are normally referred to as aptitude
tests )
Cont
Test for motor and physical abilities
These includes test such as reaction time, speed of hands,
body coordination etc
Measuring personality and interest
These includes persons motivation and interpersonal skills
, attitudes, temperaments, introversion etc
Achievement tests
Measure what a person has learned and
achieved in various areas
Management assessment centre
Is a 2 to 3 days simulation in which 10 12
candidates perform realistic tasks (like
making presentations, meetings, case study
analysis each under watchful eye of
experts. Also included are leadership group
discussions, management games etc
Other selection techniques

Background investigation and reference
check
Polygraph (lie detector) and honesty testing
physical examination
Substance abuse screening
Background investigation and
reference checks
Purpose is to verifying job applicants
background information and references:
These include making telephone enquiries,
use of reference letters
Commonly verified data include legal
eligibility for employment, dates of prior
employment, education and identification
(dates of birth, address to confirm identity)
Reasons to conduct
background check
Two main reasons to conduct employment
background investigation and/or reference
check:
To verify information previously provided by the
applicants
To uncover damaging information such as
criminal records
Physical/medical examination
Takes place before the person is hired or sometimes
after the person is hired
Reasons:
To verify that the applicant meets the physical
requirements for the job

Discover any medical limitations you should take into
account in placing the applicants

To establish a record and baseline of the applicants
health for future insurance or compensation claims
Interviewing candidates
An interview is a procedure designed to
obtain information from a person through oral
responses . On the basis of these responses
the interviewer is able to predict future job
performance
Interview is by far the most widely used
personnel selection method

Types of interviews
We can classify selection interviews
according to:
How they are structured -structured or
unstructured
content type of questions they contain
How the firm administers the interview
Unstructured or non directive
There is generally no set format to follow so the
interview can take various direction
Lack of structures allow the interviewer to ask
follow up questions and pursue points of interest
as they develop-Allows probing
Structured or directive interviews

The questions are specified in advance and the
responses rated for appropriateness of content
All interviewers generally ask all applicants the same
questions, and hence:
Tend to be more reliable and valid
It increases consistency across candidates
Enhances job relatedness
Reduces overall subjectivity ( and thus the potential
for bias)
May enhance ability to withstand legal challenges
On the other hand structured interviews do not provide
opportunity to pursue points of interest as they develop
Interview content type of
questions
These could be situational interview
questions - asking candidates how they
would behavior in a given hypothetical
situation and evaluating the applicant based
on the choice made
Examine how they reacted to an actual
situation in the past
Cont
Job related interviews the interviewer
tries to deduce possible applicants job
performance based on questions relating to
the job in question.
Cont
Stress interview seeks to make the
applicant uncomfortable with occasionally
rude questions
Aims is supposedly to spot sensitive
applicants and those with low or high level of
stress tolerance
Stress interviews may help unearth
oversensitive applicants who might overreact
to mild criticism with anger and abuse
Administering interviews
Personal interviews (one on one) - two people meet
alone and one interviews the other by seeking oral
responses to oral inquires
Sequential several persons interview the applicant in
sequence, before a decision is made. This can be
structured or unstructured
Panel a group of interviewers question the candidate.
This may have advantage over the others because in
sequential, candidates may cover the same ground over
and over again with each interviewer. But panel format
lets the interviewers ask follow up questions based on
the candidates answer. This may elicit more responses
Cont
Computerized interview -

A candidate is presented with a series of specific
computerized questions regarding his/her background,
experience, education, skills, knowledge and work
attitudes that relate to the job for which the person has
applied
What can undermine an interviews
usefulness pitfalls/errors
First impression which one gets from the
interviewees application form and personal
appearance could mislead
Misunderstanding of the job - interviewers
who do not know precisely what the job
entails and what sort of candidate is best
suited for it usually make their decisions
based on incorrect stereotype of what a good
applicant is
Cont
Candidates-order (contrast) error and -
The order in which you see applicants affect
how you rate them. After first evaluating
unfavorable candidates, an average
candidate can score quite highly
Pressure to hire now may also lead to
errors
Cont
Non verbal behavior eye contact, energy levels , low voice etc can
influence the interviewers decision
Body language, smile, posture may interfere with the interviewers
judgment



stereotyping
Involves categorizing groups according to general traits then attributing
those traits to a particular individual once the group membership is
known.e.g.Some see men or women as more suitable or a certain
race as more suitable
Cont
Interviewers behavior - some interviewers
talk so much that the applicant have no time
to answer questions. On the other extreme,
some interviewers let the applicant dominate
the interview and so dont ask questions.
Neither is situation.
Designing and conducting an
effective interview steps
The structured situational interview procedure:
1. Job analysis -write a job description and list of duties,
knowledge, skills and abilities
2. Rate the job duties
3. Create the interview questions situational questions, job
knowledge questions etc
4. Create benchmark answers with a five point rating scale
5. Appoint an interview panel
6. Allocate interview responsibilities and train if need be.
Conducting an effective
interview cont
Prepare for the interview
7.The interview should take place in a private room
with minimum interruptions
8. Establish rapport put the person at ease
greet the applicant, drop in some courtesy words
and start interview with non related question,
e.g.. About the whether
9. Ask questions follow your list of questions.


Conducting an effective
interview cont
10. Close the interview leave time to answer any
questions the candidates may have. End the interview
with a positive note, tell the applicant the next step and
make any rejections diplomatically.


11. Review the interview review notes and fill in the
structured interview guide to help select the most
suitable candidate