History About The Importance Of Effective Recruitment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Effective recruitment attracts individuals to the organisation and increases the chances of retaining them. It can also improve productivity, reduce labor cots, and help the organisation stay competitive (Jackson et al. 2012 p.188).

2.3 Recruitment Process

A successful and effective programme to recruit the personnel requires a well defined recruitment policy, proper organisational structure, and procedures for locating sources of human resources, suitable methods and techniques for utilising human resources and even constant assessment and consequent improvements. Normally each organisation has its own recruitment policy. It may change year to year in the light of changing environments and situations.

The recruitment of a new team member is a major investment for hotels. Developing and adopting a recruitment process that yields solid returns is critical to the success of every organisation, as wrong hiring is very costly. The most effective recruitment process shares three goals:

Accuracy is the ability of your recruitment process to ascertain the interviewee’s job performance because you do not want to end up with an accountant who does not know accounting, a Trainer who does not know how to speak or a Secretary who does not know how to type.

Fairness is the assurance that your recruitment process gives every suitable candidate a fair and equal chance of being selected. A fair selection process is based on valid requirements that are applied throughout the recruitment process and uses the same job-related selection process applicable for all candidates.

Commitment is the extent to which the people involved in the recruitment process perceive its worth. Interviewers and interviewees are committed if the recruitment process does not drag, it is beneficial to everybody, the self-esteem of the interviewee is maintained and the image of the organisation is untouched.

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Source: The Recruitment Process by WAYNE et al., 2005.

Figure 2.1 The Recruitment Process

2.3.1 Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the first step of the recruitment process which management uses to determine overall goals and objectives for the organisation. This planning will ultimately have an effect on HR planning (Kleynhans et al, 2007, p.68).

Decenzo and Robbins (2005, p.21) have stated that human resource managers must engage during the strategic planning process to ensure that appropriate staff are available to meet the requirements set. The aim of this planning effort is to determine what HRM requirements exist for current and future supplies and demands for employees. They also emphasize on an organisation using innovative initiatives as strategic measures to show employees that their contributions to the organisation are valued and by doing so, influence their motivation, job satisfaction leading to increased job performance.

2.3.2 Human Resource Planning

Secondly, human resource planning determines whether there will be an excess of workers, a shortage or just enough employees to achieve these organisations goals.

2.3.3 Alternatives to recruitment

According to Kleynhans et al (2007, p.68) organisations search for alternatives to recruitment because of the cost of recruiting. Three such alternatives of recruitment are overtime, employee leasing and temporary employment.

2.3.3.1 Overtime

Firms seek to make existing employees work overtime instead of recruiting new hands. Overtime can provide employees with additional income. However overtime results in fatigue, increased accidents and more absenteeism. These developments and the need to pay double the wages add to the cost.

2.3.3.2 Employee Leasing

Also known as "staff outsourcing", employee leasing involves paying a fee to a leasing company or a consulting firm that handles payroll, employee benefits and routine HR functions for the client company. Leasing is particularly useful to small and medium sized firms which might not be able to maintain regular HR staff.

2.3.3.3 Temporary Employment

Today, "just-in-time" employees can be found staffing all types of jobs in hotelss, including professional, technical and executive positions. The benefits of using temporary employees include relatively low labour costs, easy access to experienced labour and flexibility in responding to future changes in the demand for workers. A drawback for hiring temporary help is that these people do not know the culture or work flow of the hotel. This unfamiliarity detracts from their commitment to organisational goals (Kleynhans et al. 2007).

2.3.4 Recruitment Policies and Procedures

Policies and procedures are guidelines which an organisation sets up to make sure that everyone in the organisation deals with recruitment in the same manner. Such policies should take into consideration internal and external factors that affect the recruitment process. Researchers indicate that effective recruitment practices and policies help boards to find the best candidate for their organisation.

2.3.5 Internal Recruitment

Internal recruitment is one of the most popular incentive systems and has an old tradition in the hotel industry, and is also mentioned by Merchant and Van der Stede (2007) as one of the non-monetary rewards.

2.3.5.1 Advantages of internal recruitment

The advantages with internal recruitment are that hotels gain a lot of advantages by using their existing employees, given that the latter know their job, understand the organisation and are competent. Molander (1996) states the main advantage of internal recruitment is its ability to create a culture of loyalty and job security among the employees, which could be hard to achieve otherwise. Another advantage is time-consuming and also a way of cutting training costs that an outside employee would need to become familiar with the company. By applying internal recruitment, employees will have incentives to stay within the organisation in order to climb the carrier ladder. This would add to their incentives for effectiveness and an improvement in productivity.

2.3.5.2Disadvantages of internal recruitment

The main disadvantage of internal recruitment is, logically, the limited supply of candidates to choose from. Ahrnborg (1997) states that internal recruitment could be a trouble for sluggish companies, due to lack of new influences, and the fact that they maintain their sluggishness and limit their prospects for development. Another drawback is that the person, who fills the post, is leaving its position and therefore a new vacancy will be created. Another feature of recruiting internally is that staff may feel that they should be recruited owing of their experience although they are not qualified enough.

2.3.6 External Recruitment

If the list of possible internal candidates is assessed and no one is found to be suitable, the hotel should then advertise externally. In reality, employees should be fully aware of corporate recruitment policy as it relates to sourcing of employees (Compton et al. 2009).

2.3.6.1 Advantages of external recruitment

The main advantage of external recruitment is that the hotel has no limited supply of candidates. Recruiting externally may reduce training costs and help hotels get needed competencies. Also, new ideas or talent are brought into the hotel.

2.3.6.2 Disadvantages of external recruitment

According to Duggan and Croy (2004), a problem with external recruitment is that it can be hard to put words on what specific skills the company needs, and in this way cause problems because the consultants misunderstand and hire a person who does not fit for the task. Another disadvantage with external recruitment is that it could diminish the efforts of existing employees, due to lack of the possibility of promotion.

2.4 Job Analysis

Job analysis is the process by which job descriptions and person specifications are produced. Armstrong (1999, p.190) defines job analysis as "the process of collecting, analysing and setting out information about the contents of jobs in order to provide the basis for a job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management." Marchington and Wilkinson (2005) propose that conducting a job analysis may not be compulsory whenever a vacancy arises, particularly in organisations with high rate of labour turnover. Nevertheless they do recognise that job analysis permits for an assessment of whether existing person specifications and job descriptions are appropriate for future needs.

2.4.1 The purpose of Job Analysis

The aim of job analysis is to give the required information to write job descriptions. Job analysis information can even be utilized in the job evaluation process-the process to allocate value to a task for the principle of setting compensation. The variety of information gathered throughout job analysis will be precise to every hotel. Nevertheless typical kinds of information which are grouped are:

Summary of duties

Details of most common duties

Supervisory responsibilities

Educational requirements

Special qualification

Experience

Equipment/tools used

Frequency of supervision

Information about jobs can be collected by using qualitative or narrative techniques, for example, questionnaires, observations, interviews, and activity logs.

2.5 Recruitment Methods

In deciding what methods to be used to attract applicants, Armstrong (1996) refers to three criteria of speed, cost and the likelihood of supplying good applicants.

Numerous empirical studies have identified recruitment methods as being either formal or informal. Examples of formal recruitment methods are newspaper advertisements, job centres and other employment agencies whereas "word of mouth" methods such as "referrals" by existing employees are examples of informal recruitment methods (Carroll et al. 1999, Taylor. 1994). Any hotel would want to attract the "best suited" candidate and therefore has to decide on the best way to attract them. Various sources of recruitment can be explored in the recruitment process. These sources are divided into internal and external sources.

2.5.1 Internal sources

In some cases the filling of vacancies from within the hotel is accomplished by transfers or promotions. However, when promoting an employee, the seniority should not be the sole basis for promotion, as due regard should be paid to skills and competence- Cloete and Makgoro (1995).

2.5.1.1 Newsletters

Some hotels regularly produce in-house newsletters for their personnel to read. It is expected that newest news sheet is read by all staff thus ensuring everybody is conscious of the job opportunity advertised in it. Newsletters can be utilised as a source of recruitment if it is persuaded that everyone will view a copy.

2.5.1.2 Memoranda

Possibly the best way to circulate news of job vacancy is by sending memorandum to departmental managers to read out to the terms or to write all staff maybe including memoranda in wage packets if appropriate.

It should be kept in mind as to in which way the memoranda is phrased out so that the job appeals to likely applicants.

2.5.2 External sources

External sources of recruitment open up an opportunity to people who are not members of the organisation to apply for vacant positions. Beach (1980) contends that external sources can be utilised effectively provided there are proper assessment tools available. Some examples of external sources are:

2.5.2.1 Acquaintances/words of mouth

People might have heard from an acquaintance or through words of mouth that such suitable candidate is presently looking for a career change. Do not hesitate to contact the person, whether formally or informally.

2.5.2.2 Notices

Displaying notices in and around hotel premises is a simple method of advertising a job vacancy. They should be seen by a large number of passerbies, some actively looking for work.

2.5.2.3 Job Fairs

Annual job fair at Ecole Hôtelière Sir Gaëtan Duval is carried out whereby students and job seekers took advantage of the circumstance to find a job. It is an opportunity for employers to represent their hotel, looking for youth who are interested to work there. This is an optimal recruitment as it allows interviewers to interview students in a short time and evaluate them quickly.

2.5.2.4 Agencies and consultants

Recruitment agencies have a large databank of candidates and provide hotels with a selection of screened profiles. Some recruitment agencies can also conceive an attractive recruitment advertisement and have it inserted in selected media for their clients.

2.5.2.5 Media (press, radio, television)

Advertising is the most obvious methods of attracting recruits, but it may not always be necessary, as other sources of recruits, are available. Internal advertisement on the company’s Intranet system is being widely used, especially within large organisation, to promote from within.

2.5.2.6 The hotel’s Web Site

Hotel Le Cannonier has a web site which candidates can get accessed. This is more and more widely used to attract interesting candidates.

2.6 Cost of wrong hiring

Hotels are under increasing pressure to recruit suitable, high calibre candidates to achieve their organisational objectives. People change hotels and careers more frequently and ever and this trend is not about to change. It is estimated that in a near future, a candidate will change career five times during his working life. Hotels need an effective recruitment process that identifies candidates who can and will perform well in the job over a period of time. Without an effective recruitment process, organisations run the risk of:

2.6.1. Increasing Costs

Hiring the wrong person to fill a position can be costly. Consider the time and expenses associated with going through the whole recruitment process. It is estimated that it can be as high as 6 months of the candidate’s basic salary if he leaves after three months. This amount is higher if he stays longer with the organisation.

2.6.2 Worsening morale of employees

A candidate who is not motivated by working in teams or being part of a team may worsen the morale of the other team members.

2.6.3 Lowering customer service

A wrong customer services person can irritate customers who might shift to another hotel and it is far more difficult to recuperate a customer who has left the hotel, than it is to win new customers.

2.7 Common Recruitment Pitfalls

The reasons for wrong hiring, high employee turnover or mismatching are numerous. It is the responsibility of the Interviewer to be aware of them and try to overcome them. The most frequent ones are:

2.7.1 Lack of job profiling at the time of recruitment

What is the profile that would best fit the job to be filled?" This question not only includes qualifications and experiences but also a list of competencies that the candidate should be having. These competencies could have been developed in past jobs but often they are inborn.

2.7.2 Unstructured recruitment process

Without a structured recruitment process, important information may remain uncovered. As a result, the Interviewer takes insufficient notes.

2.7.3 Unfair selection process

The selection process must be equitable to all applicants from start to finish. When the interviewer talks too much during the interview or is rude and disorganised, this may put the applicant off the job forever and he seeks employment elsewhere.

2.7.4 Relevant questions are missing

Interviewers do not ask the right questions that would determine whether the candidate’s experience is relevant for the position to be filled. Past behaviour would predict future behaviour. It is only through asking pertinent and well-phrased indirect questions that the Interviewer will assess a candidate’s achievements in his past positions.

2.7.5 Excess of enthusiasm

Some candidates are excellent at selling themselves in job interviews with the result that the Interviewer thinks that he has found the perfect match and hires the candidate too quickly in the first job interview without seeing other potential candidates or asking probing questions.

2.7.6 The wrong fit

This is often referred to as motivational/job fit or "what is it in for me". A candidate could be entirely capable of performing the job; however, the vacancy might not fit with his personal motivation, family implications or cultural values – i.e. working overseas or management taking decisions too slowly thus tempering his drives.

2.7.7 Scarcity of suitable candidate

Hotels not finding the right candidate have to hire what is available on the job market presently. The other reason for not finding the suitable candidate is because hotels do not know where and how to advertise.

2.7.8 Slow decision-making

The recruitment process takes such a long time between the first interview and the final offer that the selected candidate has either found another job or is no longer interested to join that hotel.

Those reasons for wrong hiring or mismatching are not exhaustive. However, they consist of the most encountered ones. In today’s competitive marketplace to hire and retain high calibre candidates and avoid a high employee turnover are the greatest challenges that hotels have to face. Paying attention to and addressing these factors would save costs and contribute to the overall success of hotel industry.