Talent Attraction And Selection
Executive Summary
The paper talks about the latest recruitment process that is being followed in Australia. The Australian business scenario is quite developed and therefore requires skilled personnel. The paper discusses the aspects that creates attraction for people to join a particular firm. It also analyses the selection process that is being followed in the organisations across Australia. High potential women are an important part of work force and the paper discusses the ways in which the recruiters can target their skills. Also some of the common mistakes that are made by the recruiters are identified in the paper and recommendations have been put forward on how these can be avoided.
Introduction:
This assignment discusses the strategic selection process conducted by HR department of an organization. Along with this, this assignment highlights some of the best strategies to attract new potential candidate and defines the concept of selection decision. Another major aspect of the assignment is to discuss the difference between best and right candidate for a specific job profile. An important issue faced in recruitment processes is the use of general for unconscious bias against women during selection for recruitment procedures not only affects women and their chances of getting a much deserved job, but also affects the industry due to the fact that they lose out on a suitable candidate only based on their gender. Various organisations take the help of stringent policies of selection for several posts and also put several policies into actions to avoid biased or influence decisions that may affect the improvement of the industry.
Strategic nature of employee attraction and selection process:
The biggest assets of any well functioning organization are their workforce. It is based on the productivity and the hard efforts of their employees, an organization progresses smoothly towards their goal. Hence, recruiting right candidate for the job is given a very preference by the HR department of the organization. The process of selection and employee attraction holds even a greater priority for smaller business, as such organisations thrives on innovative solutions. It is critical to note that, the HR department of any organization only hires the right talent instead of best one. This is due to the fact; a right employee will always come up with unorthodox means to solve complex business problems (Acikgoz, 2019).
Before discussing the strategic selection process made up by HR department, it is important to discuss some of the most effective way to actually attract new suitable talents. Some of the most effective strategy to attract new candidates can be as follows:
- First of all it is crucial for the higher management any organization to make sure that they are exposing their employees in a positive working environment which allows them to enhance their productivity to a new level. The term positive working environment signifies that, all the employees are given an equal opportunity to express their opinion and they are only judged by their performance at the workplace only; without being discriminated by any means. Along with this, the higher management of the organization gives a higher priority to set up a long term relation with their employees and looks beyond making profit only. Employees working in such organization will be motivated to attract new talents for their current company and the organization might be saved from the problem of high employee turnover rate (Kim et al. 2018).
- An organization which leaves little to no room for unorthodox solution will be always looked down by innovative candidates. Thus, during any unexpected business crisis, the organization might have to bear a huge loss.
Although, the selection process might vary from every organization, however, the basic structure of the process is more or less similar. The selection strategy is discussed below:
- The first step towards hiring new talents start with the step of indentifying the requirements of the organization. It starts with the current and future workforce requirements depending on its future goals and business requirements. Until, this step is executed appropriately, the entire selection strategy might fail to deliver optimal results.
- The HR department of any organization needs to focus on its current recruitment activities in search for right candidates. However, it is important to note that, the selection process of the HR needs to be updated else it might fail to hire new talents.
- It is a known fact that, each time, an organization goes for the search of new candidates, it needs to spend additional capital on the process. However, it is very much possible to eliminate additional costs such as eliminating duplication of jobs by giving an entire new structure to the current workforce (Turner 2018).
It is important to understand the fact that, without effective hiring strategy, the entire process can never generate optimal result. Hence, only after discussing them, the process of hiring can be elaborated. The general process of hiring new candidates is as follows:
- Primary interview: the main aim of conducting primary interview is to shortlist those candidates who do not meet the minimal selection criteria. In this step, the skills, academic achievements and competency of the candidates are all assessed. Only after this, a handful of candidates are passed for following steps. Hence, this stage is also referred as screening process.
- Written test: the primary aim of introducing this step is to judge the actual potential of the candidates.
- Interpersonal interview: the candidates who have passed the written test are now subjected to personal interviews. This process is conducted to test the communication and other skills which are actually required for the candidates that make them fit for the job. In order to make sure that only the right candidates are chosen, this process should be entirely unbiased.
- Appointment letter: the final step is to provide the appointment letter to the candidates who have scored enough in the entire selection process.
Common mistakes in recruitment process
Normally common mistakes that anybody would come across in the HR recruitment process are not hiring the right talent, creating the right process for hiring, waiting for perfect candidate, improper hiring process. The importance of each one of them has been highlighted in the selection process. Apart from the above there are some unconscious bias and gender discrimination that exists in the process that hinders the selection of the appropriate candidate.
A major issue that is encountered in recruitment and selection procedures in various organisations is the use of bias and discrimination against women. Gender bias is a major issue that several women are victims of, in work cultures and this has impacted daily decisions and communications between women in work environments. Comparative evaluations of resumes of different candidates possessing the same qualities words coming from different genders give rise to the issue of selection of the best possible candidate in this regard. Results show that in case two candidates with identical qualifications apply for a job, the mail is always given higher preference and is more likely to be hired simply based on the gender (Robinson, 2015). This example throws light on the huge influence of gender bias on several decision making techniques. On the representation of women in all academic fields is the biggest consequence of casual buyers encountered in recruitment and selection process. The error in recruitment procedures that fall under the category of discrimination against women may be of various categories. Various lists of desired qualifications and criteria that are preferred in recruitment procedures also reek of unconscious discrimination. This includes making unnecessary assumptions about the kind of fits that a person needs to be to undertake the job, including base language for terms that show an unconscious and casual disdain against women. The issues with selection processes with respect to women include bias due to pregnancy, motherhood, balancing work and personal life, or the work hours that need to be put in. These issues that describe the process of recruitment assume that women are ill suited for the job and the job should go to a male who will have no career introductions and will put his job above everything else (Heilmann, Manzi & Braun, 2015). Gender bias in recruitment process is be also based on the assumption that women are not capable of doing as much work as men and meeting deadlines because they are the weaker gender, along with the fact that they are more committed to the families and likely to have restrictions with respect to work hours as well as job requirements.
Leadership qualities and assertive nature of women are questioned, as well as their high emotional question which acts as a negative while considering them for any post in an organization. These factors stop recruitment panels from selecting women for any post, when a man of similar or lesser expertise is available.
Recommendations
To mitigate all the issues that are associated with gender biased recruitment processes in various sectors, general neutral approach of recruitment needs to be undertaken. This minimises the various risks of various discriminations that come up in relation to the gender while hiring of staff (Choo et al., 2016). A level playing field for both men and women who are applying for a certain position is to be created to allow both the genders to have equal chances of getting recruited. Programs need to be structured and presented that help employees to understand the issues based on bias during various selection procedures. One recommendation that may prove to be fruitful is the anonymous application procedure and removal of applicants’ personal details such as gender and name for the initial elimination process (Butler & Preece, 2016). Since this process is impossible in case of interviews which are conducted in all departments for recruiting, other methods should be undertaken to ensure gender neutral selection procedure. For a general neutral recruitment process, the job advertisements need to be made in such a manner that an inclusive language is used and gender neutral manner of advertising is encouraged to do away with stereotyping and downgrading women. The use of inclusive language in job adverts ensures that no women are made to feel less acceptable in the work environment. Several tools such as the Gender Decoder tool may be used to check and guarantee that unconscious male language discouraging women applications are not included in the advertisement. Another technique is the use of a flexible arrangement of work to assure the applicants that women who need to pay attention to their families or their personal life outside of work are able to apply (Choo et al., 2016). Guidelines must be followed for publishing of advertisement related to recruitment so that they are gender inclusive in nature and display a acceptance of both genders equally and not discriminating one from the other. The most widely used practice to remove gender biased against women applicants is the use of the blind recruitment technique. This technique removes all kinds of bias related to gender, cultural diversity or race (Robinson, 2015). It has to be ensured that the evaluation of the resume of the individual and the interview of the individual is only based on the criteria and merit by analysing the hierarchy of jobs within the organization as well as their ranking. Regular checks need to be done as feedback mechanism to identify unchecked or casual bias is presently the recruitment sector and to apply stringent policies against the use of these discriminatory values. One technique of knowing whether a gender-neutral atmosphere is built around recruitment is by being accountable and organizing a detailed presentation of the method of recruitment. Maintaining complete transparency about the selection procedure enables both the genders working within the organization or appliance organization to know and pay attention to the fact that gender is not given priority (Beaman, Keleher & Magruder, 2018). This can also be done by keeping women in the recruitment panel and thereafter asking for feedback from all female staff on achieving the gender inclusive organization.
Conclusion:
In order to finally conclude, it needs to be stated that, there is a huge difference between selecting right candidate and best candidate. Most often, even though the best candidate has a higher academic background or better technical knowledge, it is not enough for the overall growth of the organization. In order to make sure that the HR department selects the right candidate needs to make sure that they have a better approach towards solving complex business situations and is also compatible with the current organisational culture. Only depending on the computerized selection process is not the only way; mixing with human experience can improve the selection process.
Reference List:
Acikgoz, Y., 2019. Employee recruitment and job search: Towards a multi-level integration. Human Resource Management Review, 29(1), pp.1-13.
Beaman, L., Keleher, N., & Magruder, J. (2018). Do job networks disadvantage women? Evidence from a recruitment experiment in Malawi. Journal of Labor Economics, 36(1), 121-157.
Butler, D. M., & Preece, J. R. (2016). Recruitment and perceptions of gender bias in party leader support. Political Research Quarterly, 69(4), 842-851.
Choo, E. K., Kass, D., Westergaard, M., Watts, S. H., Berwald, N., Regan, L., … & Abbuhl, S. (2016). The development of best practice recommendations to support the hiring, recruitment, and advancement of women physicians in emergency medicine. Academic Emergency Medicine, 23(11), 1203-1209.
Heilman, M. E., Manzi, F., & Braun, S. (2015). Presumed incompetent: Perceived lack of fit and gender bias in recruitment and selection. Handbook of gendered careers in management: Getting in, getting on, getting out, 90, 90-104.
Kim, Y. and Ployhart, R.E., 2018. The strategic value of selection practices: antecedents and consequences of firm-level selection practice usage. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), pp.46-66.
Robinson, S. (2015). Rethinking recruitment in policing in Australia: Can the continued use of masculinised recruitment tests and pass standards that limit the number of women be justified?. Salus Journal, 3(2), 34.
Turner, P., 2018. Attraction, recruitment and resourcing of talent. In Talent Management in Healthcare (pp. 221-252). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
