Introduction
In every organization, recruitment and selection of qualified candidates is crucial to efficient and strategic Human Resource management. As Tobias (1990) notes, “To achieve excellence, organizations must start with excellent people…It is easier and more cost-effective to approach excellence through better selection than through any other method” (p. 23). The process of figuring out in advance what kinds of people and skills will be needed in the future is one of the major strategic steps an organization can take to successfully recruit candidates, and it should actually take place prior to the need for recruitment for any particular position Pynes, (1997).
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As the CEO John Chambers, stated, “our philosophy is very simple, if you get the best people in the industry to fit into your culture and you motivate them properly, then you’re going to be an industry leader”. Lundy and coweling(1996) stated that, if organisation selection is informed by the organisation’s environment, linked to strategy, socially responsible, valid, periodically evaluated and maintained by knowledge of leading theory and practice, then selection is indeed, strategic. Other authors such as Edwin (1998), defined recruitment as the process of searching for the candidates and stimulate them to apply for jobs in organizations.
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Strategic Recruitment and Selection Process
According to porter (1985), the starting point is that organizations have arguably become more strategic in their behaviour in pursuit of competitive advantage in an increasingly turbulent business environment. Strategic behaviour involves an organization in matching its resources over the long-run to the demands of its changing environment Johnson and Scholes, (1999). Example of a strategic selection process is described in the case study Southco Europe Ltd. According to the case study, the HR function views its core responsibilities as ‘identifying the right pool of talent for establishing the right candidates. Candidates are meant to attend series of interviews, skills and competence assessments, and are psychometrically tested to identify whether or not they would be suitable for the Southco environment. It is also necessary to ensure that the person interact well in a team.
3.0 strategic Integration of SHRM
According to TeacherVision (2009), for strategic recruitment and selection model to be understood and applied, it should be carefully combined (strategically integrated) with what is already known and understands to produce a more generalizable, higher-order skill. Integrating new strategic with the traditional process increases the likelihood that new information will be understood at a deeper level, but it must be done strategically and the critical connections made clear so that the new information does not become confused with the traditional process already knows.
Example, from the case study, Suthoco HR shortlists candidates based on competence based approach. Applicant are expected to possess the skills and competence detailed in the job and person specification, in additions to these requirement, strategic selection focus on organizational fit, and well suited candidates for the job, who demonstrate a global outlook, identified through work experience and interest to travel. The strategic entails that candidates are not selected based on tradition recruitment process and interview but considered on the basis on their general personality. Therefore, the match between the technical skills and work experience of the applicant and what is described in the written specification is an important consideration.
4.0 Strategic Recruitment and Selection: A Conceptual Framework
According to Sparrow and Hiltrop (1994), for recruitment and selection to be classified as strategic it must exhibit three interdependent primary features: strategic integration; a long-term focus; and a mechanism for translating strategic demands into an appropriate recruitment and selection specification. Strategic integration envisages recruitment and selection as a powerful organisational mechanism for aligning the behaviour of employees with its corporate strategy. Several academics research show that strategic recruitment and selection process to take place candidates attributes must align with the mission, vision and organizational statement and integrate into the strategic planning process. This is a vital ingredient for organization wishing to remain competitive in this turbulent business environment and also for international business attainment. For Miller (1984: 68) the objective of strategic “staffing” is to identify and choose those “people who will best run the organization and its business in the long run”. To do this, however, involves a capacity to forecast those HR requirements necessary to ensure the successful implementation of an organization’s strategic plans and to develop a range of staffing programmes and activities to find such people.
Primary feactures of strategic recruitment and selection
According to Millmore (2003), the concern to meet current and future strategic requirements as well as facilitating organizational adaptation to cope with future uncertainties represents the starting point for a model of strategic recruitment and selection. Example, from a case study based on TGI Fridays, employees are expected to take responsibilities of customer stisfction through, meeting unsuaual service requests, resolving customer complaints and delighting customers. In UK, when recruitment and selection is based against these roles, several challenges might be posed ranging from lack of ethics and infringement into personal privacy or space. In the process of trying to please customers, the same customer may be offended and displeased. Some action may seem offensive to the customer, who also may feel disrespected. Some of the acts might appear to ridicule a customer. An executive of FGI Friday stated that too often service means servile. In order to solve these problems, FGI Friday dealt with these problems through SR&C process involving, multiply interviewing, psychometric testing and something tantamount to auditioning where candidates have to perform or act out role-play situations. Organization wishing to compete in the global business world undoubtedly, invest huge amount of money into training and development of their staff in order to equip them with the required skill and competence to continue to perform their job in the highest standard required of them.
According to Lawler (1994), these consequential outcomes of strategically driven recruitment and selection have the potential to impact significantly on organizational practice in a number of particular ways. First, the perceived critical role of recruitment and selection and concern to get it right is likely to lead to a front-loaded investment model. Adherents to this model would regard the expenditure of effort and cost to ensure effective recruitment and selection as preferable to incurring (end-loaded) costs associated with managing poor performers recruited as a result of inadequate investment in the process. Second, the greater financial expenditure demanded by a front-loaded investment model will almost certainly lead to concerted calls for its effectiveness to be rigorously evaluated, including the contribution recruitment and selection makes to the attainment of strategic objectives Lawler, (1994).
Third, heavy investment in the process, the consequential emphasis on getting ‘it’ right and the demands of a more complex and diverse person specification will necessitate the use of a greater array of selection methods to assess potential recruits (Evenden, 1993; Bratton and Gold, 1999) in order to deliver acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Fourth, the complex and critical nature of SR&S makes untenable the limited stakeholder involvement associated with the traditional variant and arguably demands a multi-stakeholder approach).
Secondary features of Strategic Recruitment and Selection
According to Storey and Sisson (1993), if the primary feactures are developed to their logical conclusion, two consequential, interdependent outcomes arise. He continued by saying that, Firstly, recruitment and selection acquires greater organizational importance and secondly, it becomes more sophisticated and complex. The process becomes much valuable and strategic when organization target is focus on getting the right person rather than the mere intension of getting someone to fill an immediate vacancy. As a result of the complex nature of the process developed there is the tendency that the organization will require more strategically array of recruitment and selection procedures in order to meet this challenge. This is very exciting for HR Personnel requiring getting the right candidates to fill the role. The HR role becomes sophisticated for searching for the right candidates to fill the role not just temporarily for a long term into the future and meeting the person specification of the role.
Example, from the case study based on the recruitment and selection process at Pret a Manager, candidates undergo a sophisticated and complex recruitment and selection process which is meant at finding the right person to strategically integrate into the organizational business. This involves several stages of interviews, workshops, practices, and competence based assignment. Successful candidates progress to the next stage where a thorough assessment continued and candidates having to be exposed to different tasks in different team. Although the secondary recruitment process appear complex, this have proved to achieve results as organization involve in this rigorous stages of finding the right candidates are among the leading organization in business globally. In UK several organizations such as McDonalds, Ford, Tesco, ALDI to mention but a few adopt this process in their recruitment and selection process.
Example, I applied for a job as a salesman in ALDI Supermarket. The first stage was I received a letter for invitation for an interview. During the assessment day, we were meant to undergo an hour screening through different hands on work activities including working in the shop floor for an hour. The net stage was written exams on different scenario and case studies. I was successful in the second stages and progressed to the final stages. At the final stages, we were asked to work in a team of five candidates and were observed on different criteria including how we performed on the different team. Different scenarios were presented and individual contributions observed. At the end of the day I was exhausted by the complex and sophisticated process of going through a strange recruitment and selection process which I found bizarre compare to the process in my country Dubai. However, I feel satisfied because I acquired new skills and knowledge and feel am well informed and prepared to face the ever challenging job market on my gr
Figure 1: Strategic Recruitment and Selection: An Explanatory Framework
Source: (Journal of Management 2003)
5.0 Conclusion
Despite the conceptual logic of strategically based recruitment and selection and the clear business case advanced for its practice, academics research from various authors leads to the inescapable conclusion that in reality it is virtually non-existent in the companies surveyed. Even when evaluated solely against the ‘primary features’ associated with narrower definitions of the concept, there was not one case that met all of these conditions. At best, the studies found that, there was some limited evidence that primary and/or secondary features of SHR&S were reflected in a fragmentary way by practice in a few cases. It is therefore pertinent that Strategic Recruitment and Selection ensure that vision, mission, objectives and competency are met.
6.0 Reference
Tobias (1990) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach (3rd edn), Harlow: Pearson Education (FinancialTimes: Prentice Hall).
Pynes (1997) AMERICAN JEWISH UNIVERSITY formerly university Judaism and Brandeis-Bardin Institute
Lundy, O. and Cowling, A. (1996) Strategic Human Resource Management, London:
Routledge
Edwin (1998) Strategic management competivive an globalisaiong
Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press.
Johnson and Schools (1999) ) Strategic human resource management comtemporary issues financial times
TeacherVision (2009) www.teachervision.com
Mike Milmore et al (2007) Case study on Suthoco, Strategic Human Resource Mnagement
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Sparrow, P.R. and Hiltrop, J.M. (1994) European Human Resource Management in Transition, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall
Miller, E. (1984), “Strategic Staffing”, in D.J. Fombrun, N.M.Tichy and M.E. Devanna (eds) Strategic Human Resource Management, New York: John Wiley, pp. 57-86
Mike Milmore et al (2007) Case study on TGI Fridays Strategic Human Resource Mnagement financial times
Lawler, E.E (1994) ‘ From Job-Based to competency-Based Organisations’, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, Vol. 15,pp 3-15
Evanden (1993) “Strategic Human Resource Management in the UK Computer Supplier Industry”, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 61, pp. 25-42.
Storey and Sisson (1993) Strategic human resource management comtemporary issues financial times
Mike Milmore et al (2007) Case study on Pret a Manager, Suthoco, Strategic Human Resource Mnagement
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