1.4.3 Recruitment, Selection and Training

Recruitment, Selection and Training

Key Definitions

Recruitment: The process a business goes through to fill a job vacancy by selecting the most appropriate candidate or candidates for the job.

Training: The process in which employees learn or develop the skills they already possess in work-related education.

Internal Recruitment: When a job position is filled through the use of candidates within the business. 

External Recruitment: When a job position is filled through the use of candidates sourced from outside of the business. 

Induction Training: Training done to familiarise new workers with key aspects of their job, such as health and safety training, holiday entitlement and payment arrangements in order to make them fully productive as soon as possible. 

On-the-Job Training: Where employees are trained in their job whilst carrying out their work duties, guided through it by a more experienced employee. 

Off-the-Job Training: Where employees are trained in their job away from their workplace. often trained by an external training organisation.

Labour Turnover: The number of staff that leave a company as a percentage of the number of people who join the company.

The Need for Effective Recruitment 

Every service business relies heavily on its staff to present the face of the organisation to the customer. All service businesses want to have a positive image delivered to their customers, so it helps if a business hires cheery, positive people that suit their intended image. 

The Recruitment Process

 A number of events may trigger the recruitment process. such as an existing employee leaving due to a better job opportunity elsewhere. The company would need to consider and establish its human resource needs in order to draw up a job description (information released that relates directly to the job) and a person specification (information released identifying the abilities, qualifications and qualities needed by the recruit). The recruitment process happens over 7 stages:

1. Determine the number of and type of employees needed for the job.
This can be determined from the number of people who have left the company that did the job.

2. Conduct job analysis for each vacancy to identify the various duties and responsibilities involved in the job.
This information needs to be sourced in order to fill out the job description and person specification.

3. Create a job description and person specification.
These documents will then be used to advertise the job needed, the job description will describe what the job is, and the person specification will describe what the recruit needs to be like. 

4. Advertise the vacancy internally and/or externally to attract suitable applicants. 
This is more commonly done on job-seeker websites and platforms such as LinkedIn.

5. Draw up a shortlist of the most suitable applicants for the interview. 
The shortlist will be based on the information given by the applicants in their CV.

6. Decide on the most suitable candidates using appropriate selection methods.
"Appropriate selection methods" includes testing the applicants using psychometric profiling, assessments in assessment centres and so on.

7. Appoint the successful candidate and inform those who have been unsuccessful. 

At this point the job search is finished and the advertisement will be removed. 

Internal Recruitment

A business may choose to fill a vacant job with people from its existing workforce. This can be done through redeployment or promotion. It is a useful way of keeping the peace in the workforce and motivating staff to work harder, but it is also not useful to the business when they need to expand their workforce in response to an increase in demand for the business. 

Advantages	Disadvantages
Quicker and cheaper than external recruitment	Existing workers may not have the required skills, especially if the business wants to develop a new product or market
More variety and opportunity for promotion can motivate employees	Relying on existing employees could create a stagnation on new ideas and approaches within the business
Avoids the need for induction training, cutting down training costs	It may create a vacancy elsewhere in the business, only postponing the use of external recruitment
The business will already know of the employee’s skills and work ethic

External Recruitment

A business may need to fill a vacant job with people currently not working for the business. There are 5 main methods of external recruitment companies use:

1. Media Advertising

Firms can place adverts for the job in media such as newspapers, specialist magazines, on the radio, on the television, on social media, or on employment websites such as monster.co.uk

2. Job Centres

These are government-run organisations that offer free advertising services to firms, tending to focus on vacancies for the less-skilled manual and administrative jobs. 

3. Commercial Recruitment Agencies

A recruitment agency that will carry out a number of human resources job, such as recruitment for new vacancies, for a fee. 

4. Executive Search Consultants

These are people that are paid to directly approach people who are usually in relatively senior positions (this is also known as headhunting).

5. Firm's Own Website

Many businesses also have their own careers page on their website that they use to advertise current vacancies.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Should result in a wider range of candidates than internal recruitment	Can be expensive and time consuming, whilst also using up valuable resources
Candidates may already have the skills needed for the job, so it avoids the need for training and cuts down training costs	Can demotivate employees as they may have missed out on a potential promotion

Factors Influencing the Choice of Method

• The cost of the recruitment method 
• The size of the recruitment budget
• The location and characteristics of potential candidates

The Selection Process

The selection process can begin once a suitable number of candidates have applied for the job. This involves choosing the applicant who matches the criteria set in the person specification. There are a number of existing selection techniques out there, however you just need to know about the following 3:

1. Interviews

Still the most frequently used technique, these are relatively cheap to conduct and allow a wide variety of information to be obtained by both sides - whether this information is useful or not depends on whether it has been influenced by consumer bias or prejudice. This means that they are rarely used on their own, and paired with another selection method 

2. Testing and Profiling

Aptitude tests measure the candidate's level of ability, such as their IT ability. Psychometric profiling examines personality and attitudes to work - for example, to see if they can work well in different situations under pressure. It is commonly questioned whether profiling and hiring a specific personality type for the job is desirable, as recruiting a wider range of personalities can lead to a more interesting and innovative environment.

3. Assessment Centres

This involves subjecting the candidates to 'real-life' role plays and simulations, giving the company a more in-depth assessment of the candidate's suitability for the role. Assessment centres tend to be more expensive, and are often reserved for recruiting candidates for the more senior management positions. 

Costs of Recruitment and Training

Recent research has shown that the average training cost per employee is approximately £1850. This is only a small loss of money from the business, which includes hiring temporary workers to fill in on the job before the employee starts work, and the 28 weeks it takes for the employee to reach their optimum productivity. These costs will vary over time, especially the advertising costs, especially as a business goes digital.

The main costs come from:

• Management time spent interviewing candidates
• Recruitment agency fees
• Advertising the job
• HR time spent administering the recruitment process

Overall, the cost of recruitment and training is not huge in relation to the potential losses from high labour turnover if the process is done incorrectly.

Training

Training is done to help employees develop their existing skills or to be taught new ones in order to excel at their job. There are 3 main types of training:

1. Induction Training

Training done for new recruits to the business in order to share and familiarize the recruit with the ways of the business - such as its culture, health and safety policies, payment arrangements etc. It also includes a tour of the business and an introduction to their new colleagues. 

2. On-the-Job Training

Training that is done in the workplace with employees receiving instructions on what to do at the same time as they do their job. This means that the employee is still being productive whilst receiving their training, using methods such as coaching and mentoring. The key benefit to this is that the training is specific to the business.

3. Off-the-Job Training

Training that is done away from the workplace, often using training facilities that are within the business, such as seminar rooms. External training companies are also sometimes used, and the recruit would be sent to a facility not owned by their employer, but owned by the agency used. This method allows the trainee to focus on learning the ways of their new job, potentially due to access to more experienced instructions, however it can also draw away from productivity.

Advantages	Disadvantages
It increases the skill range and level within the business, leading to improvements in production and quality	Can be expensive in the provision of training and the cost of evaluating its effectiveness
It increases the flexibility of the business, allowing it to respond quicker to changes in technology and demand	Can disrupt production during the training, which reduces the business’s output
It can increase workforce motivation by creating opportunities for development and promotion	Newly trained workers may be persuaded to leave and get a new job elsewhere

Costs of Training

The cost of training new staff should be accepted as a valuable and responsible part of the role of an employer, however not every employer would agree. It depends on how the management view their staff; either as an asset or a cost.