I.

Executive Summary

The Fil-Am museum is planning to hire an administrative assistant to

handle logistics and assist in organizing the museum’s events which are mostly

held outside the museum premises. The HR manager is choosing between two

candidates who have already undergone the pre-employment tests

(intelligence and personality test), and a series of interviews with the HR

supervisor, events manager, and the museum curator.

After evaluating the qualifications and the result of the ranking, I

recommend to hire Jenny as the administrative staff. Fresh graduates are eager

to make their mark! They are excited to learn new things and often don't object

to putting in extra hours when necessary, if it helps them to make a good

impression and advance their career. Hiring a candidate with little professional

experience can reduce your costs. A more seasoned professional would surely

require a higher starting salary. The time you must dedicate to training will likely

be offset by these lower compensation costs.

II. Statement of the Problem

Considering the candidates qualifications, who is more strategic and

competent to hire among the three candidates for the position of administrative

staff to handle logistics and assist in organizing the museum’s events?

III. Causes of the Problem

 In a global economy, companies are in quest of new growth opportunities

and hiring new staff as a pace to support them achieves this growth. In the

midst of these noteworthy environmental changes, the staffing function,

including recruitment and selection, has appeared as debatably the most

perilous human resource function for organizational survival and success. The

increasing importance of employees in driving competitive advantage,

mistakes in selection have potentially catastrophic consequences for

organizational success and survival (Collins & Smith, 2006).

Despite the theoretical importance of recruitment and selection to

organizational competitive advantage and performance, there are number of

issues that limit practitioners regarding the components of staffing.

The case company is a Fil-Am museum and held its events outside the

museum premises. The museum is planning to hire an administrative assistant to

handle logistics and assist in organizing the museum’s events. The HR manager is

choosing among the three candidates who have already undergone pre-

employment tests (intelligence and personality test) and a series of interviews

with the HR supervisor, events manager, and the museum curator. Since, we do

not live in a perfect world so it is unlikely to find a candidate that fits the required

profile perfectly.

The main problem is to identify selection methods and personnel retention

strategies in choosing the best candidate for a given position. The first objective
is to scrutinize the qualifications of the applicants from the HR point of view. The

second one is to point out the most effective selection methods. The third one is

to select the most strategic applicant for the position. The final one is to make

suggestions for the employee retention.

Selection is a process of choosing the most appropriate and competent

candidate for a particular position from a group of applicants. The main

objective of the selection decision is to decide who can most successfully

perform the job and be a great asset for an organization. Finding and putting a

candidate in a position is an expensive process, therefore, it is important for a HR

manager to be sure that a candidate is interested in the offered position and

has the required qualifications and skills (Rao, 2009).

Each phase helps an employer to get better information about a

candidate, his or her abilities, motivation, background and supplementary

information which is beneficial for making a decision. However, not every

employer uses every step, omitting some of them due to high costs or needless

information.

According to the Resource-Based View Theory, firms should persistently

appraise their workforce to ensure that they have the right people with the right

skills in the right places to warrant sustained competitive advantage (Barney,

2001). If that is not the case, firms should make-up for the shortfall by retaining

suitable recruitment and selection criteria.

IV. Decisions Criteria and Alternative Solutions

Decision Criteria

The company must establish a Recruitment and Selection Policy. It is useful

to formulate an overall policy to set parameters. It provides both internal and

external communication of the company’s commitments in this area and

ensures that fairness and transparency apply.

Employee recruitment is potentially a very subjective process and unless

you take active steps to reduce the levels of subjectivity, you will find that more

times than not you will make poor recruitment decisions based solely on gut

feeling; and as a result you will be frequently caught out by people who ‘do

good interviews’. Equity Theory highlights the principle of fairness. According to

the principles of the Equity Theory, the best recruitment and selection criteria in

the organization is that which portrays the firm as Equal Opportunity Employer

(Adams, 1963).

Although it depends on the job you are recruiting for, in developing a

profile of the ideal candidate, you could consider headings such as:

 Educational Qualifications/ Trainings - are there any specific

educational or training requirements?

 Work experience - does the candidate need to have any particular

level of previous work experience?

  Skills and Knowledge - are there any particular skills and/or

knowledge which are required for the job?

 Physical Attributes - does the work involve physical strength?

 Personality/Disposition - what type of personality might be most

appropriate for this position? Will they be required to work as part of

a team?

 Communication Skills - does the position require the candidate to

communicate with the public?

 Personal Circumstances - are there unsocial working hours? Does

the position involve travel?

Establishing a scoring system to rank candidates, you can be safe in the

knowledge that the candidates you’re sending through to the hiring manager

are the most qualified to excel in the job at hand.

Alternative Solutions

1. Hiring Susan as an Administrative Assistant

2. Hiring Jenny as an Administrative Assistant

3. Hiring Frankie as an Administrative Staff

V. Recommended Solution, Implementation and Justification

Recruitment and selection in any organization is a serious business as the

success of any organization or efficiency in service delivery depends on the

quality of its workforce who was recruited into the organization through

recruitment and selection exercises (Ezeali and Esiagu, 2010).

After evaluating the qualifications and the result of the ranking, I

recommend to hire Jenny as the administrative staff. Fresh graduates are eager

to make their mark! They are excited to learn new things and often don't object

to putting in extra hours when necessary, if it helps them to make a good

impression and advance their career. Hiring a candidate with little professional

experience can reduce your costs. A more seasoned professional would surely

require a higher starting salary. The time you must dedicate to training will likely

be offset by these lower compensation costs. It can be challenging to take on a

team member without any industry experience, as you have to initially invest a

great deal of time training them. More experienced workers may be able to hit

the ground running, while new grads will require significant guidance initially. It

can be difficult for new grads to find a job, as they’re often competing for the

same positions as more experienced candidates. Not only are these young

professionals grateful for a chance to prove themselves professionally, The HR

Manager can start them in a position where they can grow their skills, learn

everything about the business and eventually advance within the company.