Recruitment And Selection 

Types of Employment 

➔ Full-Time Employment – Full time usually refers to an employee working more than 35 hours per week, often spread over five days each week. Full-time employees work in all job roles. Examples of job roles that include full-time employees are teachers, office workers, pilots, police officers, doctors and nurses. 

➔ Part-Time Employment – employee that works fewer hours than a full-time worker. 

Advantages 

• Have more employees during busy periods 
• Flexible working hours 
• Less expensive than hiring full-time employees 

Disadvantages 

• Workers are less trained than full-time employees (because their job is temporary) 
• Less committed to the business (temporary job) 
• More difficult to communicate with part-time workers when they are not at work 

➔ Job Share – Job sharing involves dividing a single full-time job between two people who share the responsibility, pay and benefits. A minority of businesses provide opportunities for job sharing. This is where two part-time workers share the work and pay a single full-time post. This arrangement might suit employees who want to reduce their work hours, to provide more leisure or family time, for example. 

➔ Other Types of Employment – Job sharing involves dividing a single full-time job between two people who share the responsibility, pay and benefits. 

Casual employment – Casual work is the engagement of workers on a very short term or on an occasional and intermittent basis, often for a specific number of hours, days or weeks, in return for a wage set by the terms of the daily or periodic work agreement. 

Temporary employee – is usually hired to cover the absence of a permanent employee on a temporary basis. This may be due to a leave of absence for maternity or perhaps a disability on the part of the permanent employee. 

Seasonal employee – is hired on a temporary basis during a time of year when extra work is available. For example, seasonal work may be available during the Christmas season or perhaps during the time of year when a certain type of food is being harvested. 

Recruitment 

Without the right staff with the right skills, a business cannot satisfy customer requirements. 

Stages in the Recruitment Process

Stage 1 – Carry out a job analysis – Identify the type and number of staff needed 

When a vacancy becomes available in an organisation it is important that the tasks and skills required for the position are identified. This is known as a job analysis. 

A job analysis is important as it can be used to identify whether a vacancy needs to be filled or whether the tasks and duties can be redistributed to other staff. It is used to help write the job description and person specification. 

Stage 2 – Prepare a job description and person specification 

A job description is a document that states the tasks and responsibilities of the job. It contains information on: 

• duties 
• pay 
• location 
• hours 
• conditions of work 

This sets out clear expectations for whoever applies to fill the vacancy. 

A person specification is a document that states the skills and qualifications needed to do the job. These skills and qualities can be listed as either essential or desirable. This will provide a series of measures against which the organisation can judge people who might take on the vacancy. 

Stage 3 – Advertise the job using appropriate media. 

Stage 4- Evaluate applications and select a shortlist for the interview. 

It would be too costly and time consuming to interview every candidate that applied for a position so a shortlist is made to reduce the number of candidates who will be interviewed. 

The application forms or CVs are compared to the person specification and job description. This is used to draw up a shortlist of the most suitable candidates. These candidates will be invited to interview. 

Stage 5 – Hold interviews/testing 

An interview allows the organisation to ask potential candidates a series of questions. This means each candidate can be compared and the organisation can assess the candidates’ appearance and personality. 

Stage 6 – Evaluate interviews and appoint the best candidate. 

Inform successful candidates. Once the selection process has been completed the successful candidate will be informed. Internal candidates may be told in person but it is more usual for candidates to be informed by telephone, email or letter. 

Stage 7 – Provide feedback for unsuccessful applicants. 

Recruitment Documents 

During the recruitment process, a range of information has to be exchanged between applicants and a business.

• A Job description – is another document produced by a business that wants to fill a vacancy. Its main purpose is to list all of the duties that are required in the role. A job description may include the job title, rate of pay or salary, hours of work, location of work, all duties included in the role and whom the new employee would report to in the business. 
• A person specification is a document created by a business that wants to fill a vacancy. This document provides information about the type of person the business wants to hire. A person specification includes details about the educational background, skills and experience the business wants applicants to have. 

Often, a person specification is split into two sections – ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’. If a skill or experience is essential, a person must have it in order to apply for the role. An example could be experience in a similar role or a certain qualification. However, if something is classed as desirable, it is not a necessity for the role, although it may give applicants a better chance of getting the job. An example could be having a master’s degree. 

• An application form – is completed by a potential employee applying for a job. Application forms include a series of questions for an applicant to answer, and a section for applicants to write about why they are suited for the job. This allows a business to learn more about the applicants and their experiences. Sometimes, instead of completing an application form, a potential employee is asked to write a letter of application (also known as a cover letter). In a letter of application, applicants must demonstrate why they should be employed to fulfil the job role. 
• A CV (or ‘curriculum vitae’) – is a document that applicants complete and submit alongside a job application. It is a personal document that includes information about an applicant’s skills, experience, qualifications and hobbies. This document is used by a business to decide whether applicants match the requirements of the person specification. Some roles only require a CV, with no application form, as this may encourage more applicants to apply. 

Internal and External Recruitment

Attracting Applicants for a Job

• Advertising: Job adverts are placed in local or national newspapers, specialist publications or online
• Headhunting: This is where specific people are targeted for a vacancy – usually at a high level
• Job Centres: In the UK, these are run by the government and are used to advertise certain jobs free of charge
• Word of mouth: People apply after finding out that a vacancy exists from friends or other contacts from the business
• Employment Agencies: These are specialists that help recruit staff for businesses. They charge fees for their services
• Direct Applicants: Businesses may keep all speculative applications made by jobseekers

Internal recruitment 

Internal recruitment is when a business fills a job vacancy with an existing member of staff. This could be as a promotion to a higher position or transferring of an employee to a different area of the business. Job vacancies may be advertised via word of mouth, employee newsletters, staff notice boards or internal emails or intranet. 

Advantages of internal recruitment 

Some of the advantages of internal recruitment might include: 

• applicants already have an understanding of the business and how it works 
• applicants already know their co-workers 
• promoting employees to a more senior role may increase motivation 
• no need for expensive advertising, recruitment and selection processes 

Disadvantages of internal recruitment 

Some of the disadvantages of internal recruitment might include: 

• limited number of applicants, so the firm may miss out on a better applicant externally
• the business may have to pay for training to ensure the employee has the skills needed for the job 

External recruitment 

External recruitment is often carried out through external job adverts published via external emails, job websites, recruitment agencies, the business’ own website, newspapers and trade magazines. 

Advantages of external recruitment include: 

• may bring new ideas into the business 
• fresh enthusiasm and skills 
• larger pool of potential applicants 

Disadvantages of external recruitment include: 

• may take the new employee time to settle into the business 
• expensive to recruit 
• new employee not previously known to the business 
• can take more time than internal recruitment 

Shortlisting 

Small business – A shortlist is often not required for a small business, as they may not have a large amount of applicants

Medium and large business – More likely to receive a large amount of applications, shortlisting will be done by sifting applications from all applicants

Interviewing 

Small business – Likely to undertake face to face interviews with a business owner. 

These may also be completed over the phone, as this is often easier and quicker 

Medium and large business – Could use any type of interview from face to face, telephone or online. Larger businesses that operate around the world are increasingly using online interviews