ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

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UNIT-V

RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND TRAINING

4.1. Nature and importance of Recruitment

The purpose of recruitment is to buy in, retain and develop the best people to meet the
organisation’s needs and requirements.

The process of attracting individuals on a timely basis, in sufficient numbers and with
appropriate qualifications, to apply for jobs with an organization.

It is extremely important for an organization to have a well defined recruitment process that
aligns with its goals, policies and compliance. This article outlines some of the goals of
recruitment and policies that organizations may attach with it.

Purposes and importance of Recruitment

 Determine the present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction

with the personnel planning and job analysis activities.
 Increase the pool of job candidates with minimum cost.
 Help increase the success rate of the selection process by reducing the number of
under qualified or overqualified job applicants.
 Help reduce the probability that job applicants, once recruited and selected, will
leave the organization only after a short period of time.
 Meet the organization's legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its
workforce.
 Start identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate
candidates.
 Increase organizational and individual effectiveness in the short and long term.
 Evaluate the effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types
of job applicants.

Organizations keep policies such as:

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 It should focus on recruiting the best potential people.

 To ensure that every applicant and employee is treated equally with dignity and respect.
 Unbiased policy.
 To aid and encourage employees in realizing their full potential.
 Transparent, task oriented and merit based selection.
 Weight-age during selection given to factors that suit organization needs.
 Optimization of manpower at the time of selection process.
 Defining the competent authority to approve each selection.
 Abides by relevant public policy and legislation on hiring and employment relationship.
 Integrates employee needs with the organizational needs.

4.2. Recruitment Process

1. Recruitment Planning:

The first step involved in the recruitment process is planning. Here, planning involves to
draft a comprehensive job specification for the vacant position, outlining its major and
minor responsibilities; the skills, experience and qualifications needed; grade and level of
pay; starting date; whether temporary or permanent; and mention of special conditions, if
any, attached to the job to be filled ”

2. Strategy Development:

Once it is known how many with what qualifications of candidates are required, the next
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step involved in this regard is to devise a suitable strategy for recruiting the candidates in
the organisation.

The strategic considerations to be considered may include issues like whether to prepare the
required candidates themselves or hire it from outside, what type of recruitment method to
be used, what geographical area be considered for searching the candidates, which source
of recruitment to be practiced, and what sequence of activities to be followed in recruiting
candidates in the organisation.

3. Searching:

This step involves attracting job seekers to the organisation. There are broadly two sources
used to attract candidates.

These are:

1. Internal Sources, and

2. External Sources

4. Screening:

Though some view screening as the starting point of selection, we have considered it as an
integral part of recruitment. The reason being the selection process starts only after the
applications have been screened and shortlisted. Let it be exemplified with an example.

In the Universities, applications are invited for filling the post of Professors. Applications re -
ceived in response to invitation, i.e., advertisement are screened and shortlisted on the
basis of eligibility and suitability. Then, only the screened applicants are invited for seminar
presentation and personal interview. The selection process starts from here, i.e., seminar
presentation or interview.

Job specification is invaluable in screening. Applications are screened against the

qualification, knowledge, skills, abilities, interest and experience mentioned in the job
specification. Those who do not qualify are straightway eliminated from the selection
process.

The techniques used for screening candidates vary depending on the source of supply and
method used for recruiting. Preliminary applications, de- selection tests and screening
interviews are common techniques used for screening the candidates.

5. Evaluation and Control:

Given the considerable cost involved in the recruitment process, its evaluation and control
is, therefore, imperative.
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The costs generally incurred in a recruitment process include:
(i) Salary of recruiters

(ii) Cost of time spent for preparing job analysis, advertisement

(iii) Administrative expenses

(iv) Cost of outsourcing or overtime while vacancies remain unfilled

(v) Cost incurred in recruiting unsuitable candidates

4.3 Selection Process

MEANING OF SELECTION:

Selection is the process of picking up individuals (out of the pool of job applicants) with
requisite qualifications and competence to fill jobs in the organization. A formal definition of
Selection is as under
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Definition of Selection:

“Selection is the process of differentiating between applicants in order to identify and hire
those with a greater likelihood of success in a job.”

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION:

Recruitment Selection

1. Recruitment refers to the process of 1. Selection is concerned with picking

identifying and encouraging prospective
employees to apply for jobs.
2. Recruitment is said to be positive in
its approach as it seeks to attract as
many candidates as possible.
up the right candidates from a pool of
applicants.
2. Selection on the other hand is
negative in its application in as muc h as
it seeks to eliminat e as many
unqualified applicants as possible in
order to identify the right candidates.

PROCESS / STEPS IN SELECTION

1. Preliminary Interview: The purpose of preliminary interviews is basically to eliminate

unqualified applications based on information supplied in application forms. The basic
objective is to reject misfits. On the other hands preliminary interviews is often called a
courtesy interview and is a good public relations exercise.

2. Selection Tests: Jobseekers who past the preliminary interviews are called for tests.
There are various types of tests conducted depending upon the jobs and the company.
These tests can be Aptitude Tests, Personality Tests, and Ability Tests and are conducted to
judge how well an individual can perform tasks related to the job. Besides this there are
some other tests also like Interest Tests (activity preferences), Graphology Test
(Handwriting), Medical Tests, Psychometric Tests etc.

3. Employment Interview: The next step in selection is employment interview. Here

interview is a formal and in-depth conversation between applicant’s acceptability. It is
considered to be an excellent selection device. Interviews can be One-to- One, Panel
Interview, or Sequential Interviews. Besides there can be Structured and Unstructured
interviews, Behavioral Interviews, Stress Interviews.

4. Reference & Background Checks: Reference checks and background checks are
conducted to verify the information provided by the candidates. Reference checks can be
through formal letters, telephone conversations. However it is merely a formality and
selections decisions are seldom affected by it.

5. Selection Decision: After obtaining all the information, the most critical step is the
selection decision is to be made. The final decision has to be made out of applicants who
have passed preliminary interviews, tests, final interviews and reference checks. The views
of line managers are considered generally because it is the line manager who is responsible
for the performance of the new employee.
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6. Physical Examination: After the selection decision is made, the candidate is required
to undergo a physical fitness test. A job offer is often contingent upon the candidate passing
the physical examination.

7. Job Offer: The next step in selection process is job offer to those applicants who have
crossed all the previous hurdles. It is made by way of letter of appointment.

8. Employment Contract:

The basic information that should be included in a written contract of employment

will vary according to the level of the job, but the following checklist s sets out the typical
headings;

 Job title

 Duties

 Date when continuous employment starts and the basis for calculating service

 Rate of pay, allowances, overtime and shift rates, method of payments .

 Hours of work

 Holiday arrangements

 Sickness

 Grievance procedure

 Disciplinary procedure

 Work rules

 Arrangements for terminating employment

Like this there are number of points included in the contract of employment.

 Evaluation: Periodic audits will be done to evaluate the process of selection.

4.4. Barriers to effective selection:

The main objective of selection is to hire people having competence and commitment. This
objective is often defeated because of certain barriers. The impediments which check
effectiveness of selection are perception, fairness, validity, reliability, and pressure.

PERCEPTION: Our inability to understand others accurately is probably the most

fundamental barrier to selecting right candidate. Selection demands an individual or a group
to assess and compare the respective competencies of others, with the aim of choosing the
right persons for the jobs. But our views are highly personalized. We all perceive the world
differently. Our limited perceptual ability is obviously a stumbling block to the objective and
rational selection of people.
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FAIRNESS: Fairness in selection requires that no individual should be discriminated against
on the basis of religion, region, race or gender. But the low number of women and other less
privileged sections of society in the middle and senior management positions and open
discrimination on the basis of age in job advertisements and in the selection process would
suggest that all the efforts to minimize inequity have not been very effective.

VALIDITY: Validity, as explained earlier, is a test that helps predict job performance of an
incumbent. A test that has been validated can differentiate between the employees who can
perform well and those who will not. However, a validated test does not predict job success
accurately. It can only increase possibility of success.

RELIABILITY: A reliable method is one which will produce consistent results when
repeated in similar situations. Like a validated test, a reliable test may fall to predict job
performance with precision.

PRESSURE: Pressure is brought on the selectors by politicians, bureaucrats, relatives,

friends, and peers to select particular candidate. Candidates selected because of
compulsions are obviously not the right ones. Appointments to public sector undertakings
generally take place under such pressure.

4.5 DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER MANAGEMENT

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4.6
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4.7. The Training Process:

Organizational Objectives and Strategies :

The first step in the training process is an organization in the assessment of its objectives
and strategies. What business are we in? At what level of quality do we wish to provide this
product or service? Where do we what to be in the future? Its only after answering these
and other related questions that the organization must assess the strength and weakness of
its human resources.
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b) Needs Assessment :

Needs assessment diagnoses present problems and future challenge to be met through
training and development. Needs assessment occurs at two levels i.e. group level and
individual level, an individual obviously needs training when his or her performance falls short
or standards that is when there is performance deficiency. Inadequate in performance may be
due to lack of skills or knowledge or any other problem

c) Training and Development Objectives :

Once training needs are assessed, training and development goals must be established.
Without clearly- set goals, it is not possible to design a training and development programme
and after it has been implemented, there will be no way of measuring its effectiveness. Goals
must be tangible, verifying and measurable. This is easy where skilled training is involved.

d) Conducting Training Activities:

Where is the training going to be conducted and how?

 At the job itself.

 On site but not the job for example in a training room in the company.
 Off site such as a university, college classroom hotel, etc.

e) Designing training and development program :

Who are the trainees? Who are the trainers? What methods and techniques? What is the
level of training? What are the principles of learning? Where to conduct the program?

f) Implementation of the training programme :

Program implementation involves actions on the following lines :

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 Deciding the location and organizing training and other facilities.

 Scheduling the training programme.
 Conducting the programme.
 Monitoring the progress of the trainees.

g) Evaluation of the Results :

The last stage in the training and development process is the evaluation of the results.
Since huge sums of money are spent on training and development, how far the programme
has been useful must be judge/determined. Evaluation helps determine the results of the
training and development programme. In the practice, however organizations either
overlook or lack facilities for evaluation.

4.8.
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4.9. Definition: Career Development

Career development is the series of activities or the on-going/lifelong process of developing

one’s career. It usually refers to managing one’s career in an intra-organizational or inter-
organizational scenario. It involves training on new skills, moving to higher job
responsibilities, making a career change within the same organization, moving to a different
organization or starting one’s own business.

Career development is directly linked to the goals and objectives set by an individual. It
starts with self-actualization and self-assessment of one’s interests and capabilities. The
interests are then matched with the available options. The individual needs to train himself
to acquire the skills needed for the option or career path chosen by him. Finally, after
acquiring the desired competency, he has to perform to achieve the goals and targets set
by him.
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Career development is directly linked to an individual’s growth and satisfaction and hence
should be managed by the individual and not left to the employer.
Benefits of a Career Development System

Career development programs are most effective when they are integrated with the
organization’s ongoing training and development strategies. For being able to do this, an
organization must have a carefully designed career development system especially designed
to meet its own unique needs and requirements. An automated and well- designed career
management system not only benefits organizations but also help employees and managers
or supervisors in establishing effective c ommunic ation with each other. All the parties gain
different benefits and combining which they can together set an organizational culture that
supports such types of activities in an organization.

Benefits of a Career Development System to Organization

 Once organization has a fair idea about employee’s strengths and weaknesses,
attitude and behaviour, values and future aspirations and skills and competencies,
they are able to make better use of employee skills and put them at the right place.
 The organization can disseminate all important details and information at all
organizational levels in order to ensure effective communication at all levels. It
fosters and lays emphasis on better communication within the organization as a
whole.
 It also helps organization retain valued employees by providing them what they
want. Since the organization is able to collect all necessary information about a
specific individual, it can make efforts to retain them.
 It establishes a reputation of the organization in the market . More and more working
professionals see it as a people developer and get attracted towards it.

Benefits of a Career Development System to Employees

 The major benefit of career development system to employees is that they get
helpful assistance and guidance with their career decisions. They get to know about
their own aspirations, objectives and desires and understand how to shape their
career.
 By using this system, they can set more realistic goals and objectives that are
feasible to be accomplished over the span of one’s life.
 It fosters better communication between the employee and the manager as well as
at all levels of the organization.
 The best part is that they can get feedback on their performance. This helps them
improve their working style and compels them to upgrade their skills.
 The process leads to job enrichment and enhanced job satisfaction.

Benefits of a Career Development System to Managers/Supervisors

 A career development system helps managers and supervisors in improving and

upgrading their skills in order to manage their own career. Even they get to where
they are heading to and what their aspirations are.
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 It fosters better communication between managers and employees.

 It helps them in retaining valued employees as they get to know about t heir skills
and competencies and future aspirations as well.
 It helps in discussing productive performance appraisal of employees and planning
their promotions as well as their career graph.
 It leads to greater understanding of the organization as a whole and cultivate a
supportive and conducive culture in the organization.
 It helps managers in understanding the hidden aspects of employees and guides
them to allocate employees the right job that matches to their skills and
competenc ies.

Components of a Career Development System

A career development system includes a variety of components for use in the organizations.
In order to increase the efficiency of the system, the HR mangers must have complete
knowledge about these tools since they play a role of consultant when employees and
supervisors use this system. Plus, they are responsible for designing and developing an
effective career development system for their organization. Some activities or components
are known as individual career planning tools while some are used for organizational career
management. To achieve greater efficiency, most organizations use a right combination of
both types of activities. Let us understand these tools and activities to learn in-depth about
career development system:

 Self Assessment Tools: This is the first technique that is widely used by
organizations in their efforts to career management of their employees. This is a
career exploration tool where individuals complete self-assessment exercises and fill
information about their skills, interests, competencies, work attitudes and
preferences, long and short term goals and obstacles and opportunities. The whole
exercise helps them understand their own desires and aspirations and likes and
dislikes.
 Career Planning Workshops: Once employees are through their self-assessment,
they share their findings with other individuals and their supervisors in career-
planning workshops. It allows them to receive feedback from others and check the
reality of their plans and aspirations. They may change their plans if they find them
unrealistic and move in new direction.
 Individual Counseling: It is one of the most common activities that are undertaken
by almost all people developing organizations. Generally, individual counseling is
provided by career development specialists, HR specialists or life skills development
trainers. Some organizations hire them from outside while some have their own full
fledged departments where they recruit and hire trainers for full time. It helps
employees in understanding their own goals, making a change in them if required and
working on improving their skills and competenc ies.
 Organizational Assessment Programs: Organizational assessment programs
include tools and methods for evaluating employees’ potential for growth within the
organization. Johnson & Johnson is one company that uses these programs to
assess the careers of their employees and evaluate their potential in order to
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facilitate the staffing and development of special teams known as “tiger teams”.
These special teams are formed to speed up the development of new products. The
most popular programs under this category include assessment centers,
psychological testing, 360 degree appraisal, promotability forecasts and succession
planning.
 Developmental Programs: Developmental programs are used by an organization
to develop their employees for future positions. They can be internal as well as
external and can be performed under the supervision of human resource staff or
trainers and specialists from outside. These programs include assessment centers,
job rotation programs, tuition refund plans, internal training programs, external
training seminars and formal mentoring programs.

In addition to these programs, there are several other components of a career development
system such as career programs for special target groups, fast -track or high potential
employees, supervisors, senior-level employees, women, technical employees, minorities and
employees with disabilities, etc.

4.10. Business process outsourcing (BPO): is a subset of outsourcing that involves the
contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-
party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as
Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.

BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing, which includes internal
business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front
office outsourcing, which includes customer-related services such as contact center
services.

 BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing.

BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called near
shore outsourcing.

 Often the business processes are information technology- based, and are referred to
as ITES-BPO, where ITES stands for Information Technology Enabled Service.
Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) are some
of the sub-segments of business process outsourcing industry.

Benefits and limitations

 The main advantage of any BPO is the way in which it helps increase a company's
flexibility. However, several sources have different ways in which they perceive
organizational flexibility. In early 2000s BPO was all about cost efficiency, which
allowed a certain level of flexibility at the time. Due to technological advances and
changes in the industry (specifically the move to more service-based rather than
product-based contracts), companies who choose to outsource their back-office
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increasingly look for time flexibility and direct quality control. Business process
outsourcing enhances the flexibility of an organization in different ways:

Most services provided by BPO vendors are offered on a fee-for-service basis, using
business models such as Remote In-Sourcing or similar software development and
outsourcing models. This can help a company to become more flexible by transforming fixed
into variable costs. A variable cost structure helps a company responding to changes in
required capacity and does not require a company to invest in assets, thereby making the
company more flexible.

Another way in which BPO contributes to a company’s flexibility is that a company is able to
focus on its core competencies, without being burdened by the demands of bureaucratic
restraints. Key employees are herewith released from performing non-core or administrative
processes and can invest more time and energy in building the firm’s core businesses. The
key lies in knowing which of the main value drivers to focus on – customer intimacy,
product leadership, or operational excellence. Focusing more on one of these drivers may
help a company create a competitive edge.

A third way in which BPO increases organizational flexibility is by increasing the speed of
business processes. Supply chain management with the effective use of supply chain
partners and business process outsourcing increases the speed of several business
processes, such as the throughput in the case of a manufacturing company.

Finally, flexibility is seen as a stage in the organizational life cycle: A company can maintain
growth goals while avoiding standard business bottlenecks. BPO therefore allows firms to
retain their entrepreneurial speed and agility, which they would otherwise sacrifice in order
to become efficient as they expanded. It avoids a premature internal transition from its
informal entrepreneurial phase to a more bureaucratic mode of operation.

A company may be able to grow at a faster pace as it will be less constrained by large
capital expenditures for people or equipment that may take years to amortize, may become
outdated or turn out to be a poor match for the company over time.

Although the above- mentioned arguments favour the view that BPO increases the flexibility
of organizations, management needs to be careful with the implementation of it as there are
issues, which work against these advantages. Among problems, which arise in practice are:
A failure to meet service levels, unclear contractual issues, changing requirements and
unforeseen charges, and a dependence on the BPO which reduces flexibility. Consequently,
these challenges need to be considered before a company decides to engage in business
process outsourcing.

A further issue is that in many cases there is little that differentiates the BPO providers
other than size. They often provide similar services, have similar geographic footprints,
leverage similar technology stacks, and have similar Quality Improvement approaches.
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Threats

Risk is the major drawback with Business Process Outsourcing. Outsourcing of an Information
System, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy
perspective. For example, security of North American or European company data is more
difficult to maintain when accessed or controlled in the Indian Sub-Continent. From a
knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs
and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship
between an organization and its contractor.

Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In
order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximising positive outcome, minimising
risks and avoiding any threats, a Business continuity management (BCM) model is set up.
BCM consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control the business
processes that are, or can be outsourced.

Another framework, more focused on the identification process of potential out source able
Information Systems, identified as AHP identify several contracting problems companies
face, ranging from unclear contract formatting, to a lack of understanding of technical IT -
processes. BPO is a sector which is processed business from outsources.
Technological pressures

Industry analysts have identified Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software as a potential
threat to the industry and speculate as to the likely long term impact. In the short term,
however, there is likely to be little impact as existing contracts run their course: it is only
reasonable to expect demand for cost efficiency and innovation to result in transformative
changes at the point of contract renewals. With the average length of a BPO contract being
5 years or more and many contracts being longer - this hypothesis will take some time to
play out.

On the other hand, an academic study by the London School of Economic s was at pains to
counter the so-called "myth" that RPA will bring back many jobs from offshore. One possible
argument behind such an assertion is that new technology provides new opportunities for
increased quality, reliability, scalability and cost control, thus enabling BPO providers to
increasingly compete on an outcome based model rather than competing on cost alone. With
the core offering potentially changing from a "lift and shift" approach based on fixed costs to
a more qualitative, service based and outcomes -based model, there is perhaps a new
opportunity to grow the BPO industry with a new offering.

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