RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES

AND APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT

Chapter 1:
Diane Arthur book
+
Eric Garner book
 ABC GUIDELINES FOR
SUCCESSFUL RECRUITMENT
1. Attractive. Promote your organization as the kind
of place, employees will want to call their place of
work. Highlight your most generous and unique
benefits, have employees promote your attributes
amongst friends, and publicly pat yourselves on the
back for accomplishments.


2. Believable. If what you’re offering sounds too

good to be true, repackage your wares. Skeptical
applicants shouldn’t have to cross-examine
interviewers to determine if your hard-to-believe
advertised benefits package is real.
3.Centered. Identify and focus on anywhere from three to
six critical, job-specific competencies; that is, qualities or
traits that contribute to a person’s ability to effectively
perform the duties and responsibilities of a given job.
Clearly communicate and adhere to them in your
recruitment efforts.

4. Diligent. Effective recruiting requires a steady and energetic

application of effort.

5.Empathetic. Attempt to understand an applicant’s needs and

interests in relation to organizational goals, in order to strike a
balance between the two [needs and interests ]. i.e. if employee
want managerial role…..

6. Flexible. If you’ve tried one recruitment source and it’s not

yielding the kind of results you need, move on to others.
7. Greedy. Tell yourself that your company is entitled to be
staffed by the best possible workforce; seek out those
candidates that maximally meet your needs.

8. Hip [latest, trendy]. It stands for High Innovative

Professionals. Stay informed when it comes to the latest
developments in recruitment, as well as the sources and
techniques your competitors are using. i-e. e-recruitment.

9. Be Informative. Anticipate what applicants will want to

know about the job and your company and be prepared to tell
them, either verbally, in the form of some written material, in a
CD-ROM, or on-line.

10. Judicious. Exercise sound and careful judgment when

matching candidates with jobs. Avoid decisions ruled by
emotion.
11. Knowledgeable. Be thoroughly familiar with the parameters
of the job, how it interfaces with other positions, the department,
and the company. Also, be aware of how other organizations
view this job in terms of responsibility, status, and
compensation.
12. Linear. Think in terms of a series of straight lines connecting
the applicant, the job, and the company [integration or
alignment]. This will help keep you on track and accomplish
your goal of filling an opening as quickly as possible with the
most suitable employee.
13. More. Review your current recruitment efforts and think of
whether you could be doing more. In fact, take each of the key
words in these guidelines and ask yourself if you can be more
attractive, more believable, more centered, more diligent, and so
on.
14. Notorious. Strive to become the organization everyone talks
about. Your goal is to become the company that applicants want
to work for, the one that other companies want to imitate.
15. Open-minded. Whether you’re recruiting IT
specialists, engineers, or secretaries, view the job from the
applicant’s perspective. Ask employees in the classifications
you’re trying to fill to identify what’s important to them
so you can emphasize those significant aspects to
applicants.
16. Persistent. Continue exploring various recruitment
sources until you find the right employee. Resist pressure
to settle or compromise your standards if you don’t fill an
opening right away, rather reexamine the sources you’ve
chosen, applying the methodology described earlier.
17. Quick. The moment you discover you’re going to have
an opening, act on it. Spread the word among employees,
run an ad, do whatever you can to spread the word that
you have a job to fill.


18. Realistic. It’s one thing to seek out the best

possible applicant for a job and to be
persistent about it, another is to hold out for
the ideal employee who may only exist on
paper or in your mind.
19. Sensible. Carefully determine the best recruitment
source based on a number of factors, including the
nature of the job and the current job market.
20. Tireless. If you relax your recruitment efforts,
chances are another organization will grab the
candidate you failed to pursue.
21. Unified. Make certain everyone concerned with
the recruiting effort is working toward the same goal.
That is, that they are in agreement with regard to the
qualities and skills being sought.
22. Vocal. Openly and clearly express the qualities and skills
needed in a candidate to agencies or firms assisting your
company with a job search.
23. Watchful [controling]. Look for signs confirming that the
recruitment sources you’re using are producing the kinds of
results wanted, and that the candidates coming forth possess
needed qualities.
24. Xentigious. Writer made this word up (the last two syllables
rhyme with litigious; it means ‘keep it legal.’ Regardless of how
desperate you are to fill an opening, never, ever, step outside
the boundaries of what’s legal—it’s not worth it.
25. Youthful. In order to compete for top performers, especially
the scarce but vitally important group of younger workers, be
youthful in your thinking and in spirit.
26. Zealous. Applicants are more likely to be interested in
becoming part of a company if the recruiters are enthusiastic
and appear to genuinely enjoy working there.
 HOW TO ATTRACT AND COMPETE
FOR QUALIFIED APPLICANTS
 Recruiters continuously work hard to
attract and compete for top performers.
Applicants have their own personal lists
of ‘‘must haves,’’[during good time;
during bad time example].
 Go for applicants with effort, energy, and
enthusiasm during your most productive,
profitable times. Employer will earn
reputation for being fair, as opposed to
self-serving.
1.ALL THAT GLITTERS, IS NOT A GOLD

If unmotivated by their jobs, employees will probably grow

restless and simply require more stuff. To avoid earning the
reputation of being long on talk and short on substance, as
well as incurring high turnover costs, Organization should
put as much energy and thought into keeping employees
motivated as you devote to your efforts to attract them. If
employers determined to offer tangible goods as a means
of attracting applicants, follow these two simple rules:
a. Find out what your competitors are giving away.
Recruiters should match the benefits what other
companies are offering. Be careful not to get caught up in
a game of who can ‘‘out-gift’’ whom.
b. Offer these perks regardless of market conditions.
Organization should be perceived as generous when the
economy favors employers, and consistent when it favors
applicants and employees. i-e. economic recession
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

 Negative first impression story about employer

scenario.
 Negative impressions can have a lasting effect,
especially if they occur during the initial contact
with an expected employer. Consider these
examples of poor first impressions, and imagine
being on the receiving end:
 A recruiter for a top financial services firm
schedules a recent graduate from a top school
for a series of interviews, keeps her waiting, and
then, without explanation or apology, has the
receptionist announce that the interview needs
to be rescheduled.
 An interviewer for an insurance company eats
lunch during his meeting with a prospective
employee, stating that he doesn’t have time for
both lunch and the interview.

 An applicant for a printing/graphics company

has to compete with the radio as her interviewer
explains that he wouldn’t miss for anything an
important announcement concerning his
favorite team.
 A recruiter excuses herself to discuss fabric
swatches with her interior decorator during the
course of an interview.
IMPRESSION CAN BE
ACCOMPLISHED IN THESE TEN
EFFORTLESS WAYS:
1. Allot a sufficient amount of time so interviewers do not
appear rushed.
2. Apologize if you’re running late.
3. Be courteous.
4. Be prepared.
5. Display a sense of pride in and involvement with your
company.
6. Exhibit enthusiasm and interest.
7. Keep appointments.
8. Promptly acknowledge and respond to e-mails, snail mail,
and phone messages.
9. Remain professional at all times.
10. Stay focused on the applicant during interviews.
APPROACHES TO
RECRUITMENT
 When recruitment is carried out hastily, it is full
of dangers. When it is carried out with skill, it
can be one of the most important investments
you ever make. Here are some of the key
considerations in your approach to recruitment.
1. Your Aims in Recruitment
2. Being Fair
3. Personal Liking
4. The Systems Approach
5. Personal and Systematic
6. Roles and Methods
7. Weighing Costs and Benefits
1. Your Aims in
Recruitment

The chief aim of recruitment is to appoint

someone to your team who can do the job you
want filled to the required standard of
performance. While this is the chief aim of
recruitment, there are 5 other aims which affect
the way you meet the chief aim. These are:
 
 to be cost-effective
 to be fair [equal opportunity]

 to meet future needs as well as present ones

 to be consistent

 to manage the public face [reputation] of the

organization.
2. Being Fair

 Whether you work in a country where non-

discrimination [gender, religion] in
recruitment is illegal or not, there are good
reasons for opening up your recruitment
process to the widest possible choice. A
fairness policy in recruitment
 attracts a wider and better choice of candidate,
retains your best talent, (and so reduces your
turnover and the need to re recruit), and creates
better teamwork.
Being fair is not a choice but good business
sense.
2.1 An Equal Opportunities Policy

 An equal opportunities policy starts at the highest

levels with the formulation of a statement such as
the following: “The organization is an equal
opportunities employer.”
 The aim of the policy is to ensure that no job
applicant or employee receives less favorable
treatment on unjustifiable or irrelevant grounds.
These include: gender, color, race,
nationality, age, religious belief. Selection
criteria and procedures will be kept under review
to ensure that individuals are selected and
treated on the basis of their relevant merits and
abilities.”
3. Personal Liking or Personal
recruitment

 The recruitment process is a personalized

one. Under the personal liking, recruiters’
motto is: “We like to get to know candidates;
we like to find out about their life and work
histories; we want to know what sort of
employees they will make; and we want to be
as sure as we can that this will be a
relationship that will benefit both of us.
 However, to be fair and to be effective,
personal liking must be balanced by a system
that avoids biasness and favoritism.
3.1. A Flexible Approach

 One private business in the world of high technology talks

like this about its approach to recruitment:
 
 “It’s a demand market at present so we have our pick of
the best. We’re always on the lookout for talented people.
We keep our ears to the ground and like to know who’s
dissatisfied, who’s looking for a move. We see nothing
wrong in luring good people from our competitors.”
 
 “More often than not we’ll approach the person first. If we
have to use a public advertisement, we use an open
advert and see what response we get. We are quite
prepared to adjust the job to suit who’s available.
Everyone needs to be flexible.”
4. The Systems Approach
 The systems approach is at the opposite end of
the scale to personalized recruitment, where
people are taken on if they seem right and are
liked.
 In a systems approach, there is a procedure for
every step in the process from job analysis to
person specification, from marketing the job to
short listing candidates; from selection to making
an offer.
 In the extreme, such an approach takes human
bias out of the equation and selects according to
scientific matching of job and person.
4.1. A Rigid Approach

 This is how a public organization approaches the

recruitment of staff using the systems approach.
 
 “Our recruitment procedures are all laid down in our
selection and equal opportunities policies. There is a
procedure for the authority to recruit, for writing job
descriptions, for interviewing and for making
selections.”
 
 Nobody is authorized to recruit unless they have been
fully trained in the procedure.
 
 “A committee oversees the process. Every step, every
action, even what is said at interview is open to public
scrutiny”
5. Personal and Systematic

 It is not necessary to make a choice between

the highly-personalized approach to recruitment
of some organizations and the systems
approach of others. You can aim for both, the
personalized approach of “gut feel” and the
systems approach of matching people to jobs.
You simply need to recognize that organizations
are more than just logic. They are dynamic
systems based on how people feel about each
other and build this in to your recruitment
approach.
6. Roles and Methods
 The matching process that is at the heart of
recruitment and selection has always reflected in the
times. In the past, workers were chosen at hiring fairs;
today it is likely to be high-tech. Using modern
technology can reduce costs, speed up administration,
and even carry out the selection process.
  At the same time, the recruiter’s role has become even
more multi-functional, ranging from manpower planner
to job designer; lawyer to psychologist; project
manager to negotiator.
 He or she needs to be knowledgeable about policy and
legislation and have skills ranging from job analysis to
interviewing.
7. Weighing Costs and Benefits

  The benefits of the recruitment process are

always delayed ones:
 1. They come in the shape of having made
correct choices about people who then go on to
make valuable contributions to the organization.
 2. The costs on the other hand can be high. It is
thought that it costs 2.5 times annual salary to
recruit a new manager. To that figure must be
added the costs of getting it wrong, such as poor
performance, the cost of putting things right, the
cost of recruitment re-runs and the cost of legal
action.
 7.1. The Peacock & the Magpie

 Aesop tells the following story which illustrates the dangers

of personal liking over the competence-based approach of
selection.
 
 The birds of the forest convened to choose a new king. A
number of candidates stepped forward to promote their
cause but the favored contender was undoubtedly the
peacock. He strode in front of the judges displaying his long
tail of brightly-colored feathers. The judges were dazzled and
so were the crowd. Just as the birds were about to crown him
king, the magpie spoke up. “Just one moment,” he said. “If
you were to become our king, how would you defend us
against the birds of the mountains such as the eagle and the
kite?” There was a long silence. The peacock didn’t know
how to answer. The judges put their heads together once
more and decided not to choose him for their king.
Key Points

 The chief aim of recruitment is to appoint someone who

can do the job to a required standard.
 Recruitment needs to comply with the spirit and letter of
anti-discrimination legislation.
 The recruitment process presents an organization's
public face.
 Pursuing an equal opportunities selection approach
results in better selection decisions.
 At one end of the spectrum of approaches to selection is
the highly personal approach; at the other is the highly
systematic approach.
 The costs of getting recruitment wrong are as great as
the benefits of getting it right.