UGB227 : Human Resource Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report consist of explanations, theories and definition as well as examples of recruitment methods and will be focusing more on the recruitment methods for AirAsia. Findings in this report shows that AirAsia focuses more on their e-recruiting strategies to pull in candidates to apply for their key positions and its advantages as well as disadvantages shall be the main point of the report. In this report, researcher will also focus on external factors that influence recruitment such as supply and demand, labour market, image of the company, political-social-legal, unemployment rate, competitors. Methods of recruitment is also included in this report.

CONTENTS
Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 1 Recruitment For AirAsia ............................................................................................. 2 Definition of Recruitment ........................................................................................ 2 Theories of Recruitment ......................................................................................... 3 External Environment ............................................................................................. 4 Supply and Demand ............................................................................................... 4 Labour market ........................................................................................................ 5 Image of the company ............................................................................................ 5 Political-Social-Legal .............................................................................................. 5 Unemployment rate ................................................................................................ 6 Competitors ............................................................................................................ 6 External recruitment method ................................................................................... 6 Internal Recruitment Method .................................................................................. 7 Air Asia ................................................................................................................... 7 Comments from The Research ............................................................................. 10 References ........................................................................................................... 12

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RECRUITMENT FOR AIRASIA

Recruitment need to serve many and sometimes conflicting goals. One of the most common goal is to attract large pool of applicants in order to fill empty positions may it be due to downsizing, firing, quitting or for any personal or non-personal reason. (Fisher, Schoenfeldt and Shaw, 2006) How large of candidates to attract is depending on the positions required to be filled or the size of the organisations. Recruitment is also design to acquire the people necessary to ensure continuation of an organisation's operation running smoothly (DeCenzo, A & Robbins, P. 2005). However, DeCenzo & Robbins (2005) wrote that it is better to have higher diversification in the large pool of applicants because it will generate more options and chances that the recruiter to find a suitable candidate for the job requirement. In this report, the researcher will concentrate on explaining what recruitment is and how Airasia recruits it's employees as well as the pros and cons of its recruitment method.

DEFINITION OF RECRUITMENT A company is as strong as its employees. Anderson (1994) wrote that identifying, attracting and choosing suitable people is vital in recruiting in order to achieve an organisation's human resource requirement. Dowling and Schuler (1990) wrote that by using properly appropriate methods to attract and acquiring potential candidates in adequate numbers and quality will only the organisation be able to select those who fit the job's need. In order to best recruit suitable candidates according to Hackett (1991) is to predict those who will make the most fitting Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1

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contribution to the organisation may it be now or in the future. Even if recruitment and selection are often considered together, Stephen Taylor (2008) wrote that they are in fact a distinct activities. One is to actively soliciting applications from potential employees, selection however is to decide which is best suited to fill the vacancy.

THEORIES OF RECRUITMENT One of the many benefits of recruitment is to identify raw talents and boost performance to chase for promotion. The traditional recruitment process

involves many interactions and is the most sensitive HR process with the value added for the company. The process involves managers, employees, Human Resources, recruitment agencies and candidates. All of them are aiming the same goal which is to fill the job vacancy and in order to achieve that, each participant needed to cooperate smoothly. A lot of organisations forget that it is the candidate that really makes the final decision. The company offers the job, but it is up to the candidate to take up the offer. The process of recruitment does not simply stop once it started for it is a dynamic activity which purpose is to provide an organization with a pool of qualified candidates (webcache.googleusercontent.com). A few of the recruitment methods that organisations are using according to Arboledas, Feraro and Vidal (2001) is newspaper advertisement, hiring professional help also known as "Head hunters", resumes received from fax or mailed resumes or recruitment agencies. Galanaki (2002) defined that all of these methods are traditional or better known as the olden ways of recruitment methods. Taken from a similar literature, the only way for candidates to see the announcement of an opening in a company is to flip through newspapers in the classified advertisements, relying information or recommendation Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1

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from friends or family from the inside or even approached by a recruiter or head hunters. Only a selected lucky few candidates who happened to came across the announcement would submit his or her resume. Studies shown that the most effective ways of traditional method of recruitment is still the newspaper. (Arboledas, Ferrero & Vidal, 2001). According to Ri5 (2007), well over a billion pound is spent every year on recruitment advertising in the United Kingdom. There are alternative methods using internally to recruiting new candidate such as outsourcing, contingent workers, professional employer organisation, overtime, re-organising the company structure, sharing work among existing employees and many others. These methods are to be group in two which is Internal Recruitment method and External Recruitment method. Some of the internal Recruitment methods are employee database, job posting, job bidding, intranet and company's online newsletter. External recruitment are such as high schools, community college, fresh graduates, former employees, unemployed and many others.

EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT There are six external factors which could not be controlled by the

organisation. These factors affect greatly towards how the organisation recruit candidates. (Naukrihub.com , 2007) Even if the external factors could not be controlled, it does not necessarily means that these factors only brings negative results. An organisation should research these external factors and determined

which factors can bring a positive effect to the company.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

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The demand for manpower is currently high as the baby boomers generation are slowly being replace by the next generation. Thus decreasing the availability of special talents, expertise and experienced manpower. This shortage could prove disastrous to an organisation if replacements are not to be found. If the company requires more professionals while there are limited supply in the market for the professionals demanded by the company, then the company should opt to consider internal sources by providing them special training and development programs from the older generation to guide the new employees. (scribd.com, 2009)

LABOUR MARKET The location in a community will have a great impact in the influence of the recruitment for an organisation. If there are no shortage of manpower at the time of recruitment, even informal attempts like notice board display or general meeting will attract more than enough participants. (scribd.com, 2009)

IMAGE OF THE COMPANY An organisation with positive image and goodwill will find it much easier to attract and maintain employees than an organisation with bad or tarnish image. It is mainly base on what the organisation does in the industry. For example, a company that favours more internal recommendation rather than the ability a candidate possess will drop the will of potential candidates. (scribd.com, 2009)

POLITICAL-SOCIAL-LEGAL Plenty of government regulations prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment have direct impact on recruitment practices. In India for example, their

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government has introduced legislation that reserve for scheduled castes, tribes and those who are physically handicapped. (scribd.com, 2009)

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE One of the major factors that influence the availability of applicants is the situation of the economy. During the economic downfall, many of the organisation do not have sufficient resources to employ workers. When companies do not create new job, there are often an oversupply of qualified labour which in turn lead to unemployment. (scribd.com, 2009)

COMPETITORS Competitors may also effect the recruitment function of the organisation. In order to face the competition, most of the time organisation have to either change their recruitment policies or adapt to the situation whichever that give a positive impact to the organisation. (scribd.com, 2009)

EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT METHOD There are more method for external than internal. Some of the methods found in Stephen Taylor (2008) are job centres, outplacement consultants, head-hunters, employment agencies, forces resettlement agency and recruitment consultants. Although these external methods are proven to give exceptional results as the quality given by these agencies are above average, it usually comes with a high price and might be used during desperate times or as a temporary solution. These method also are commonly used to fill up higher vacancies such as managers or CEO for bigger company as the candidates chosen requires higher qualification. Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1 Page 6

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INTERNAL RECRUITMENT METHOD The internal recruitment taken from simplehrguide.com wrote that internal recruitment is the passive career tool. Rather than the organisation select employees to promote them, the employees themselves can apply for the position they desire. This give the employees as well the employers trust and long term positions filled up. The downfall to this method is that the managers might not be too fond to lose their team that has been build up over time or to gain someone inexperienced and to share their wisdom all over again as it might be troublesome or tiring. Normally internal recruitment methods does not require a lot of resources and is considered the most cheapest method there is.

AIR ASIA AirAsia, an award winning and largest low fare airlines in the Asia expanding rapidly since 2001. With more than 72 aircrafts, AirAsia destinations are set for 61 domestically and internationally with 108 routes. More than 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Over 55 million guests are flown by AirAsia across the region and more route network are continually to branch out through its associate companies. AirAsia believes in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and in order to commit to its low cost flight policy requires high efficiency in every part of its business. AirAsia's most proud trademark Now Everyone Can Fly, has sparked a revolution in air travel with an increase of people around the region selecting or even changing their favourite flight services to AirAsia as their preferred choice of transport. (arpi79, 1993) The rapid advances in technology have changed dramatically in the way business is conducted and its reliance on the technology have increased so much Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1

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that its clearly shown by the sheer number of organisation and individuals or group who utilise the internet and electronic mail. The impact is further shown by the increase in amount of literature exploring the effects of new technology development and implementation on the efficiency of business, including the impacts on human resource practices. (Cullen, 2001 ; Dessler, 2002, Dineen, Noe & Wang, 2004; Smith et al., 2004) inAirAsia's current strategy is through their IT strategic implementation. Information technology has driven many fundamental changes of technology in business. AirAsia's IT implementation provides powerful strategic and tactical tool in its value chain. AirAsia uses the internet strategically to integrate the operations and coordinate all the business and management functions. This include on how they attract potential employees with a click of a button. In their website airasia.com, they have the ability to reach a wider audience and target much of the advertising. Online advertising also costs a fraction of print. A fast and efficient way to identify and categorise nearly unlimited number of job is through online recruitment. (Millman ,1998 ; Rozelle & Landis, 2002). E-recruitment also allows employers to widen the search criteria and selecting only standards that the organisation is looking for from gender, age, skills and so on (Mohamed Othman, R. & Musa, N (2006) ; Markevieius, 2000). Thomas & Ray (2000) agreed that e-recruitment will increase the amount of applicants as well as its effectiveness and efficiency. Online applications such as Facebook and twitter is one of the main methods that AirAsia uses. Even though these two giant social media network is one of the best social online options one company can think of, the only drawback is that applicants might miss the information posted due to high amount of "posts on walls" or "tweets & retweets" in facebook or twitter. These important information might be lost at the bottom of the page where applicants have to scroll the entire website page just to Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1 Page 8

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catch a glimpse of the information. But it does cost far less then publishing it in other media such as radio, television advertisement or the newspaper thus save the spending to the maximum. The only downside to e-recruiting is that someone need to be searching for the job (darthmouth.edu , 2010) and are able to access to the website via the internet. Bussler & Davis, 2002 One that have relied on computer technology and the one that has grown the most of its usefulness is recruiting through the internet otherwise known as e-recruitment (Mottl, 1998). Knowing that most of the applicants are younger as they are more computer literate than the older generations (Ganalaki, 2002 : Zall, 2000), recruiting better quality applicants online are proven to be much more easier and reach applicants worldwide compared to the newspaper which could only attract those in the local level (Chaskelson, 2000; Ganalaki, 2002). Using e-recruitment, Airasia can save themselves in these three areas, direct costs of newspaper advertisements ( which means more budget for their airline fares) job fairs and head hunter fees as well as workload for human resource department (Mohamed Othman, R. & Musa, N. (2006). E-recruiting system can significantly reduce hiring time by two-thirds according to Bussler & Davis (2002) It gives faster recruiting cycle and feedbacks are near to immediate. Studies done by Pearce & Tuten (2001) ; Hogler (1998) showed that an organisation with a strong brand name and strong geographical presence should be easier to attract applicants online. AirAsia also came up with The Next Generation Leaders (NGL). It is basically a program that hire intelligent, young professionals who lead active lifestyles and breathe passion into all endeavours. This program is one of the ways AirAsia created to build up their own future employees that fit their criteria.

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In conclusion, it is highly important to identify which methods used are the most efficient tool for recruiting. Since AirAsia is known for its website which is user friendly, it is a good idea to combine both recruiting and advertising in ways that benefits each other. Even if e-recruitment are one of the important methods of recruiting, an organisation must not disregard the traditional ways of recruiting but must improvise the method to suit the new generation's needs. An important thing for recruiters to acknowledge is that more and more people are starting to understand and accept internet as their main source of social interactions and needs thus creating new methods to attract new talents through the interest of younger generation. It is about the recruitment system being able to attract the right candidate, the selection process being based on sound and credible criteria, and the tracking process being able to integrate with existing systems. Perhaps most significantly, e-recruitment is about cultural and behavioural change, both within HR and at line management level. (indianmba.com , 2008 ; onstopmba.com, 2012)

COMMENTS FROM THE RESEARCH From the findings, it can be concluded that in order for AirAsia to be the cheapest fare compare to other competitors such as Malaysia Airlines and Firefly, they have to reduce the cost and one way for them to cut their cost in expensive recruitment methods. Since they have high number of followers in social media online such as twitter.com and facebook.com which are free to create, AirAsia can simply post information about positions that are needed. It is cheap, easy and most of all very effective. Another lesson learned is that it is very effective to have an open office which AirAsia have implemented. Having an open office means that AirAsia will not have Syed Faisal Bin Syed Mahmor 109083674/1 Page 10

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the problem of insufficient internal manpower. Each person have the chance to prove themselves useful to the company and promoted easily. The only problem that AirAsia might have is the lack of external methods of recruiting. Despite having their e-recruitment methods to generate pools of applicant, they have to consider those who are qualified but currently do not have the access of internet will be unable to apply for the positions in AirAsia. AirAsia should then consider to expand their search by means other than e-recruitment. AirAsia might consider to open up their own academy that recruits potential candidates from high school or colleges as well as anyone that are interested to apply for a position. This might be the solution for those who do not possess the ability to go online. 2672 words

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Markevieius, R. 2000, Online recruitment: the beginning of important changes in the labor market, http://www.dtmedia.lv/raksti/EN/BIT/ 200101/01010504.stm Accessed date: 17 Feb 2003. Millman, H. 1998, Online job sites boom, InfoWorld, vol. 20, pp.119-120. Mohamed Othman, R. and Musa, N. (2006) E-recruitment practice: Pros VS. Cons. Public Sector ICT Management Review, 1 (1). Mottl, J. 1998, Want to find workers? Go online many IT job seekers flock to the Web; managers may soon follow, Internetweek, vol.728, pp. 20-21. Onestopmba.com (2012) Article on E-Recruitment | MBA- General Articles | MBA Articles | Best Articles on MBA- General | Online Articles. [online] Available at: http://www.onestopmba.com/mba-articles/mba-general/details/e-recruitment62.asp?&lang=en_us&output=json [Accessed: 26 Mar 2012]. Pearce, C.G. & Tuten, T.L. 2001, Internet recruiting in the banking industry, Business Communication Quarterly, vol.64, no.1, pp.9-18. Rozelle, A.L. & Landis, R.S. 2002, An examination of the relationship between use of the Internet as a recruitment source and student attitudes, Computer in Human Behavior, vol.18, pp.593-604. Scribd.com (1998) Human Resource (Chapter 6). [online] Available http://www.scribd.com/doc/54608594/Human-Resource-Chapter-6 [Accessed: Mar 2012]. at: 29

Scribd.com (2009) External Factors Affecting Recruitment. [online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20358534/28/External-Factors-AffectingRecruitment?&lang=en_us&output=json [Accessed: 21 Mar 2012]. Webcache.googleusercontent.com (1980) RECRUITMENT AND PROCESS. [online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Z8feBArSUtUJ:hrera.com/ contri&lang=en_us&output=json [Accessed: 21 Mar 2012]. Smitch, A. D. & Rupp, W.T. 2004. Managerial challenges of e-recruiting: extending the life cycle of new economy employees. Online Information Review, 28(1): 61-74. Taylor, S. (2008) People Resourcing. 4th ed. London: Charted Institute of Personnel and Development. Thomas, S.L. & Ray, K. 2000, Recruiting on the web: High-tech hiring, Business Horizons, vol.43, no.3, pp.43-57

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