RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND RETENTION AT ABC UNIVERSITY

BY

KHUMALO, J. (21539677)

MODULE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

CODE: ADMM 819

THIS BEING

AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT FOR HRMS (ADMM 819)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents.....................................................................................................................1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY......................................................................................................1
1. Introduction .........................................................................................................................1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ABC University has experienced problems both with its recruitment and selection, as
well as retention. The delay in the selection process has often lead to high employee turnover,
as some staff feel that they are overloaded and not rewarded accordingly. One cause of high
staff turnover is that the university fails to offer competitive salaries. A good salary serves as
an incentive for the employee to staff in the institution. To attract and retain employees, it is
recommended that the university adjusts its salary grids and improve its non – financial
benefits, such as pension plan, spousal job opportunities. It is also recommended that
academic incentives be provided so as to retain employees. Finally, ABC should not offer
merit pay as a financial incentive, as it destroys the morale of the staff. The paper concludes
that ABC University needs to have strategies to use in order to attract, select and retain
employees.
INDEX

1 Abbreviations
HRM – Human resource management
HR – Human resource
HRS – Human resource strategy
WSCC – West Sussex Country council

2 Diagram 1: Selection process

1. Introduction
1.1 Recruitment, Selection and Retention
Recruitment, selection and retention form part of the human resource (HR) planning (which
is an ongoing process). Any organisation or institution strives to meet its organisational goals
and objectives, as long as the consumer needs are satisfied. It is through a good human
resource strategy that a company can achieve its HR outcomes. The HR outcomes being (i)
availability meaning people with necessary skills should be available at the right times. (ii)
Competent, people should be able to perform their required duties. (iii) Motivated, motivated
staff can perform their jobs very well and one of the motivators is a good salary. (iv) Healthy,
people are safe, well to perform at required places, times and levels. (v) Focused, line
managers and managers focus and empower people to perform at required levels. (vi)
Organised, a company with good organisational structures is likely to do well. (vii) Diversity,
the workforce shows demographic diversity and people can utilise diversity when performing
at required levels and finally, as long as people in an organisation are satisfied, they will work
towards achieving both individual and organisational goals.

1.2 Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment follows from the job analysis as one element of the HR planning. After
determining the type and number of employees needed through HR plan and identifying the
various elements of a job analysis, the next problem of the human resource management
(HRM) is to procure the employees.

1.2.1. Recruitment Defined

The overall aim of the recruitment and selection is obtain at minimum cost the number and
quality employees needed to satisfy the HR needs of the organisation/ institution. Noe et al
(2006) define recruitment as the process of seeking for prospective employees and
stimulating them to apply for a job in an organisation. In his module pack, Ehlers (2010)
defines recruitment as a set of activities that an HR manager uses to attract job candidates
who have skills and qualities have needed for the task to be performed. Recruitment includes
an examination of the vacancy by setting job description and job specifications, then
considering the various sources of employees/suitable candidates, making contact with them
and attracting applications from them. In this context, job description is defined as a
statement containing items, such as job title, tools to use, place of job, reporting line, job
summary and working conditions.
1.2.2. Purposes and Policies
The process of recruitment does not stop when it commences, it is a dynamic activity. The
purpose of it is to provide an organisation/institution with a pool of qualified candidates. Its
specific purposes are as follows:
- To assist augment the success rate of selection process by reducing the numbers of
obviously under – qualified and over – qualified applicants.
- To increase organisational and individual effectiveness in the short and long run.
Policies: To achieve the above objectives, it is necessary to have relevant recruitment policies
and also to ensure that they are effectively implemented by standardizing many routine
decisions clarifying the discretion a manager and subordinates can exercise in implementing
functional tactics. A recruitment policy defines the objective of the recruitment and also
provides a framework for the implementation of the recruitment programme. The policy
should be based upon corporate goals and needs.

1.3 Recruitment Process

Recruitment is the major function of the HR department and it is the first step towards
creating the competitive advantage for the organisation. It involves a systematic procedure
from sourcing the candidates to arrange and conducting interviews.

1.4 Sources of Recruitment

Sources of recruitment can be divided into internal and external. Internal recruitment is the
search for in – house personnel who have the abilities to fulfil the requirement needed and
help the organisation achieve its objectives. The internal source would be, transfers,
promotions, upgrading, dependents of relatives deceased employees, etc.

Advantages of internal recruitment

- It helps increase the moral of promoted candidate(s).
- It is easy to assess the abilities of the suitable candidate, since the candidate is already
in an organisation.
- It involves lower recruitment costs for some jobs.
- Serves as a motivator for the good performance.
- Causes a succession of the promotions.
Disadvantages of the internal recruitment
- It may cause possible morale problems of those not promoted.
- It may cause political infighting for promotion.
- The talent pool within the organisation might stagnate, so there is a need to bring in
fresh flow of ideas and opinions.

External Recruitment
External recruiting is done when the company lacks the internal supply of the employees for
promotions or when it is staffing entry level positions, managers must consider the external
supply of the manpower.

Advantages of external recruitment

- New employees bring new perspectives.
- It is cheaper and faster than training professionals.
- Less groups of the political supporters in the organisation already.
- May bring new industry insights.
Disadvantages of external recruitment
- May cause the morale problem for the internal candidates not selected.
- New employees may take longer adjustment or orientation time.
- May not select someone who will fit the job or organisation.
1.5 Selection
Once the recruitment process has taken place, the next step is the selection of suitable
candidates. Selection can be defined as the process by which an organisation attempts to
identify applicants with necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that
will help it achieve its goals (Noe et al, 2006). The primary objective of the selection decision
is to choose the individual who can most successfully perform the job from the pool of
qualified candidates. The selection procedure is a system of functions and devices adopted in
a given company to ascertain whether the candidates’ specifications are matched with the
requirements or not. The selection process cannot be effective until and unless:
- Requirements of the job to be filled have clearly been specified (job analysis)
- Employee specifications (physical, mental, social behavioural, etc.) have been clearly
specified.
- Candidates for screening have been attracted.
Thus, the development of job analysis, HR planning and recruitment are necessary pre –
requisites to the selection process. A breakdown of any of these processes can make even the
best selection system ineffective.
The importance of selection
The selection process can be successful if the following requirements are satisfied:
- Someone should have the authority to select.
- There must be some standard of personnel with which a prospective employee may be
compared, i.e. a comprehensive job description and job specifications should be
available beforehand.
- There must be a sufficient number of applicants from whom the required number of
employees may be selected.
The selection process typically consists of : 1. Initial screening interviews, 2. Completion of
application forms, 3. Employment tests, 4. Comprehensive interview, which involves a face –
to – face meeting with the candidate to probe areas not addressed by the application form/test,
5. Background checks, 6. Conditional job offer, 7. Physical examination and 8. Permanent
job offer. Therefore, the selection process can be pictorially represented as:

Diagram 1.
Establishing selection
process
Identifying and choosing selection
criteria

Gathering information about potential employees

Evaluating information for assessing applicants

Making decision to select or reject

Communicating decision

Thus the selection process should be planned such that the HR is efficiently used. The right
person for the right job and inducting him/her into the organisation or department
successfully is the basic criteria of the entire process.

1.6 Retention
This is the process of influencing the employees to stay in an organisation as their skills are
very valuable to the success of the business. It is interesting to note that pay is a “go” factor
than a “stay” factor, i.e. an employee may leave if pay is not sufficient, but beyond a certain
point it is not an incentive to stay. Once the qualified candidate has been employed, then
there is a need to make him/her to stay longer. The organisation has to have its own retention
strategy. Organisations are all uniquely different but the overall mission to have the best and
the brightest within a common goal, the Right person, for the Right job, at the Right time and
KEEPING Them. Therefore, recruitment, selection and retention is critical to effective HR
management but it must be practiced within the context of other HR subjects – Training and
development, succession planning.

2 The Problem
2.1 The HR department has a difficulty of finding out what aspects on an individual are to be
given importance, while recruiting him/her. The faculty of commerce and administration
of the ABC University has struggled to fill both the senior and junior positions. For
example, in 2007 two positions of lecturers were advertised but only one was filled early
2008 and the other was re – advertised several times until it was filled in July 2009. The
University competes with other universities and industry for good staff and one factor that
might be delaying the selection process is that the institution fails to convince the selected
candidates how they will benefit from the institution. In one instance, a professor of
finance was appointed at the Graduate School of Business and he apparently resigned
within three months. The university loses staff in every faculty, every school and every
department, including senior personnel in management. For example, the dean of the
faculty resigned in august 2009, not that he got a better job better. The staff turnover
might be in the range 50 – 70 percent, which is too high. A new senior staff in the
department of Economics (ABC University) was selected and made to sign the
employment contract the same day that he came for the interview. It was evident that that
was a “rush rush” process so that the candidate could not change his mind. Ultimately, the
HR personnel was ordered to inform/ send a job offer letter to the candidate, but the
wrong letter (regret letter) was sent. When the staff in the department asked when the new
senior staff would join, they were told that there was a mistake in communicating with the
preferred candidate. When HR tried to rectify the mistake, it was already too late.
 Apart from the fact that the selection process takes longer than expected, the retention
strategy also fails to retain staff as more of the experienced staff leave. The institution has
to make their HR strategy to be more competitive so that the university can enjoy
competitive advantage in the long run.

2.2 Causes and effect of the problem

The problem at ABC University is due to several factors, like low competitive salary, low
incentives, no academic incentives, merit pay as a financial incentive, etc.. With salaries, a
staff member who has his/her services rated highly by some institutions, and even the
industry get attracted by high salaries offered by those institutions and for a rational human
being, who prefers more to less may not reject the offer. Sometimes it happens that a new
member gets more than one offer from different organisations/institutions at the same time
and this makes him to excise his rationality. In doing so, he/she will have to show interest
in working for the ABC university than at another institution. The candidate asks ABC
University to bit the industry’s offer, but most cases the university fails to bit the offer and
this makes the candidate to choose the other institution.

In some cases, a senior member of academic staff offered his resignation, stating one of the
reasons being that the university was taking long to promote him into full professorship,
while the other institution was employing him as a full professor. This, to some members
appears as if the university does not recognise the contribution they make to ABC. One
other cause of high employee turnover is that the faculty takes longer to recruit and as for
academic duties other staff have to take extra load, e.g. teaching module for whom there is
no to teach, this often overloads the available staff and who do not get rewarded.

The non financial incentives have since being cancelled/cut when the university was merged
with other campuses in the province. Someone who comes from an institution which
provided accommodation for free and staff had to pay only for the utilities like, water and
electricity, would expect to get something better here.

3 Literature review
The literature on selection recommends the development of job and person specifications and
the use of reliable and valid methods based on detailed job analysis (Hunter and Schmidt,
1982). In another study, Farnhar and Stevens (2000) found that both managers and personnel
and training were critical of the recruitment and selection system. It found that the system
used by the Social Services department of West Sussex Country Council (WSCC) UK was
subjective, inconsistent and lacked procedural and equity issues. Selection was focused on
interviews, application forms and reference checks and was not managed comprehensively,
by either line manager or the HR department. To curb this problem, there had to be a
partnership between the line managers and the HR department. In addition, the competent –
based recruitment and selection system was considered a number one initiative that an
organisation has introduced to form part of the overall HR strategy.

Staffing, which is concerned with the recruitment, selection, placement, evaluation and
promotion lies at the heart of how organisations procure HR (Peters et al, 2000). Much
literature on HRM has emphasized the importance of staffing (Plumbley, 1985, Smith and
Robertson, 1993, Tanova, 2003, Terpstra, 1996, Williamson, 2000). For instance, Plumbley
(1985) suggests that the profitability and survival of an organisation depends on the calibre of
the workforce.

On one hand, Roselius and Kleiner (2000) emphasized that hiring employees should be
regarded as more of a science than art. The goal when hiring is to hire the right person for the
right job the first time. To do this, the interviewer must be well prepared for the interview.
Failure to prepare leads to wasted time, wasted money and employee turnover. Some
companies have estimated that employee turnover due to ineffective hiring range from 35
percent to 100 percent of employee annual salary (Deems, 1995). A logical performance –
based process that is well documented is the best policy when hiring. There are steps done in
selecting a new employee (s). These include, determining necessary skills, education and
traits of successful candidates, pre – interview and preliminary checks, developing
performance – based questions, interviewing candidates, reference checking, making a
decision and notifying the candidate (Roselius and Kleiner). Good HR practices help
minimise staff turnovers and thus the company saves money. Deery (2008) advocates that
maintaining a stable workforce is a key element in effective talent management strategy.
Hughes and Rog (2008) also identified factors that are critical to talent management. Their
study found that the benefits of an effectively implemented talent management strategy is
associated with improved operational and financial performances. Bhattnagar (2007) found
that three factors of organisational culture, career development along with incentives and
organisational support were crucial in making employees to remain.

HR professionals view retention practices as based on long – term HR policy, preventive and
tailor – made to individuals that are still able and willing to work. Zheng (2009) postulates
that very few papers examined the pattern of HR and talent management practices that helped
retain competent employees among service multinationals in Asia. It was discovered that
there was a linkage between HR practices, talent retention and firm performance. Lockyer
and Scholarios (2004) in their paper considered the nature of “best practices”, recruitment
and selection in the hotel sector. It found that large and chain hotels notwithstanding more
sophisticated HR, were finding difficulty meeting the demands imposed by labour markets.
The study suggests an alternative approach to best practice, which is based on development
of reliable, valid techniques and more attention to the social process of selection. Lockyer
and Scholarios (2004) further stressed that more attention should be paid to the internal
management structure of the organisation, to ensure that there is integration between heads of
departments, with respect to HRM strategy and how this shapes selection decisions.

4 Proposals
4.1 Recruitment and Retention.
The university is not a corporation, but neither is it immune from the market – place. To
render its services as an academic institution, the university must hire and pay for
administrators, faculty and staff. To hire and retain the best it can afford, it must make its best
offer. The faculty expect remuneration for their services; staff must subject themselves to the
job market. Employees compete for job opportunities, while universities compete for
employee services. We, as staff of the university, look for the best salary and the greatest
benefits, some financial, some non – financial; the universities seek the most promising
candidates by making the most competitive offers. Problems with recruitment and retention
arise when a university finds itself unable to compete effectively in the market – place. It
cannot make an offer that can compete with other offers; it cannot recruit new staff; it cannot
keep existing staff. The problems of recruitment and retention are a sign of institutional
weakness that affects the university as a whole.

4.2 Salary Incentives: the marketplace versus the collective grid.

The most common proposal for a solution to the problem is salary – based: let the market
determine an initial salary offer via market differentials, usually met by way of initial grid
placement. But market differentials cause salary inversions, i.e. inequities in the pay grid,
which is based on seniority rather than market differentials. The faculty suffering the grid
inequality of salary inversion threaten to leave if the inequities created by market differentials
are not corrected.

Recommendation: on salary incentives to recruitment and retention

a) The most equitable salary incentive is to bargain for an improved grid,
b) Another alternative is to adjust the grid to make it more attractive to junior staff.
c) The grid inequity produced by market differentials limits their effectiveness as a
solution to the problem of recruitment and should only be used in extreme instances
where other solutions are inadequate.

4.3 Non – Salary incentives: Salary versus benefits

The leading assumption that lies behind proposing salary – based solutions to the problems of
recruitment and retention is that since the problems are market – driven, they are also salary
based. The problem of recruitment is not entirely salary – based; non – salary incentives are
equally important. ABC may not offer the highest salary but it can offer a low cost of living
and a high quality of life.
Recommendation on non – salary incentives to recruitment
a) Improve on non – salary financial benefits such as pension plan, spousal job
opportunities, health plan, etc.
b) Provide low cost accommodation for staff who would like to stay at the university
flats or houses. In some universities, staff members who stay in university flats /
houses pay only for electricity and water (but not the market rent)
c) Impress on potential candidates the advantages of working with ABC’s innovative
environment, and any specific advantages in their field.

4.4 Academic incentives to recruitment: research versus teaching

Universities cannot compete with the salary offers made by corporations, but neither can
corporations compete with the job offers made by universities. ABC offers a position with
opportunities for teaching and research as well as academic freedom and tenure. The
implication is not only that ABC’s marketplace is limited to other universities, but the
academic marketplace is not driven by the same financial incentives as the corporate world.
What drives the university marketplace are the unique, non – corporate, academic
opportunities for teaching and research. The most commonly proposed non – financial
incentive to recruitment of professors is to reduce teaching load for new professors and
therby increase their opportunity for research.

Recommendation: on ABC’s academic incentives to recruitment

a) Reduce professors’ standard load course.
b) Reduce course load and increase research funds.
c) Increase funds for professional development, research and travel for all staff
members.
4.5 Academic incentives to retention: research versus promotion.
Under the present system, academic promotions are tied to only incremental increases and
extensions in the salary grid. There is no relationship between promotions and the primary
academic incentives of teaching and research. Academic promotions should be rewarded with
entitlement to a reduction of the standard load and an increase in research opportunities by
way of enhanced research and travel funds. However, while research is essential for all
academic staff, some may prefer to give their teaching and/or teaching innovation higher
priority than research, and there should be increased flexibility in striking an appropriate
balance between research and teaching and innovation.
Recommendation: on academic incentives to retention
a) Reward promotions with entitlement to a reduction of the standard teaching load and
increase research opportunity.
b) Recognise the merit of teaching by establishing clear and flexible guidelines for
promotions.
4.6 Merit pay as a financial incentive: individual versus collective
Merit is defined as a financial incentive to reward exceptional performance. The problem
with merit pay is that it engenders a factitious spirit dangerous to collegiality and works
against the principles of collective bargaining. For example in 2009, ABC paid some staff
merit bonuses, which some of the staff had no clue on how it was given. One department in
the faculty (transport economics), only two lecturers teach 16 modules because there is staff
shortage but they are not rewarded for their hard work.
Recommendations
Despite its adoption into some universities, merit pay is a corporate tool that should not be
introduced into an academic environment. It will be more harmful to the collegial and
collective culture of the university than helpful to the individuals who benefit.

5 Conclusion
The University’s recruitment, selection and retention procedures have not been successful
and thus, could not support key institutional objectives and core values. This led to high
employee turnover. This paper therefore tried to investigate the problems associated with
recruitment, selection and retention and the causes at ABC University. It was found that the
problem of recruitment and selection lied in with the management. University could not
attract candidates by offering high and competitive salary and benefits. This resulted in
longer recruitment and selection process. Apart from that, the university did not have sound
retention strategy. The retention strategy is very important in reducing staff turnover, thereby
reducing the costs associated with recruitment of new staff.
References
• Bhatnagar, J. (2007). “Talent management strategy of employee engagement in
Indian ITES employees: Key to retention”. Employee Relations, Vol. 29, No. 6. pp
640 – 663.
• Claes, R. and Heymans, M. (2008). “Long – term career development and
Employability: Human Resource professionals’ views on work motivation and
retention of old workers: a focus group study”. Career development International,
Vol. 13, No. 2. pp 95 – 111.
• Eihlers, L (2010). Human Resource Management Systems. Unpublished module
pack for MBA students, North West University, Graduate School of Business and
Government Leadership.
• Noe, R., Hollenbeck, B., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P, (2006). Human resource
management: Gaining competitive advantage. 5th ed. Mcgraw – Hill/Irwin, New
York.
• Lockyer, C. and Scholarios, D. (2004). “Selecting hotel staff: why best practice does
not always work”. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality management.
Vol.16, No.2, pp125 – 135.
• Zheng, C. (2009). “Keeping talents for advancing service firms in Asia.” Journal of
Service Management. Vol. 20, No. 5, pp 482 – 502.
• Farnha, D. and Stevens, A. (2000). “Developing and implementing competence –
based recruitment and selection in a social services department: A study case of West
Sussex Country Council”. The International Journal of Public Sector Management.
Vol.13, No. 4, pp 369 – 382.
• Peters, L.H., Greer, C.R. and Youngblood, S.T. (2000). The Blackwell
Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Human Resource Management. Blackwell, Oxford.
• Plumbley, P. (1985). Recruitment and Selection. Institute of Personal Management,
London.
• Smith, M. and Robertson, T. (1993). The theory and practice of systematic staff
selection. Macmillan, London.
• Tanova, C. (2003). “Firm size and recruitment: Staffing practices in small and large
organisations in North Cyprus”. Career Development International, Vol. 8, No. 2. pp
107 – 114.
• Terpstra, D. (1996). “ The search for effective methods (employee recruitment and
selection)”. Human Resource Focus, Vol. 17, No. 5. pp 16 – 18.
• Williamson, I. (2000). “Employer legitimacy and recruitment success in small
business”. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, Vol.25, No. 1. pp 27 – 42.
• Hunter, J.E. and Schmidt, F.C. (1982). “Fitting people to jobs: the impact of personal
selection on national productivity”. In Dunnette, M.D. and Fleishman, E.A. (eds).
Human Performance and productivity: Human capability assessment, Vol.1,
Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
• Roselius, W. and Kleiner, B.H. (2000). “How to hire employees effectively”.
Management Research News, Vol. 23, No. 12. pp 17 – 23.
• Deems, R.S. (1995). Hiring: more than a Gut feeling. Career Press, Franklin Lakes,
N.J.
• Deery, M. (2008). “Talent management, work – life balance and retention strategies”.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 20, No. 7. pp
792 – 806.
• Hughes, J.C. and Rog, E. (2008). “Talent management: A strategy for improving
employee recruitment, retention and engagement within hospitality organisations”.
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 20, No. 7. pp
743 – 757.