the role of personal specialists

the role of personal specialists

Chapter 1- General Introduction 1.1 Background to the Study Too little is thought of personnel specialists in Nigeria. The task of the personnel specialist plays a tremendous role in boosting the fortunes of any business organisation. The personnel specialist or personnel management has the prime responsibility for the following: • Formulating, proposing and gaining acceptance for the personnel policies and strategies of the organisation, • Advising and guiding the organisation’s managers on the implantation of personnel policies and strategies, • Providing personnel services for the organisations to facilitate the recruitment, motivation and development of sufficient and suitable employees at all levels, • Advising the organisation’s managers of the human consequences of change. These four responsibilities mustn’t be a hit and miss affair, but rather a systematic approach to getting the best out of a business organisation. Therefore the role of the personnel specialist cannot be overstressed. This research project will focus on the recruitment of personnel. The aim of recruitment is to ensure that the organisations demand for employees is met by attracting potential recruits in a cost effective and timely manner; and then afterwards identify from those who come forward, the individuals most likely to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. 1 Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and selecting qualified people for a job at an organization or firm. For some components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment agencies. The recruitment industry has four main types of agencies: employment agencies, recruitment websites and job search engines, "headhunters" for executive and professional recruitment, and in-house recruitment. The stages in recruitment include sourcing candidates by advertising or other methods, and screening and selecting potential candidates using tests or interviews. 1.2 Statement of the Research Problem 1. Over reliance on the class of a degree for assessing the worth of a recruit. 2. Unsystematic method of hiring workers. 3. Poor job descriptions. No criterion by which candidates for seeking jobs may be tested. 4. No real vacancies at the time of taking on fresh recruits. 5. Internal bureaucracy whenever vacancies arise. 6. Good information does not reach potential recruits such as where to apply or in what form. 7. Standard policies for recruitment non-existent. 1.3 Objectives of the Research I have often heard my elders in the society complaining about their staffs’ inability to do simple tasks like writing a memo. They often 2 complain how such unqualified people are engaged for service. This research intends to illustrate the proper of selecting new staff for service and different ways of testing the suitability of recruits. It is a reference for personnel specialists. I also feel this research will be a good learning experience for me. I believe my strong point is in motivating people. I intend to specialise in recruitments matters. 1.4 Significance of the Study Of course the quality of workers employed has a considerable effect on the morale of existing workers as well as the efficient running of the business. For example, a middle manager may not be so happy if his new personal assistant can’t speak very good English; the work of the personal assistant will be unsatisfactory and those around will be demoralized. Therefore it is rational to find out what works and what doesn’t work, what to fix and what to eliminate so as to identify what developments to make in future for the benefit of the company. 1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study From the title of the research project, the scope of this project is confined to the work of a personnel specialist in recruitment. Recruitment is a very wide subject. As with all studies, there is the problem of finding good and relevant information. The information in this project is restricted whatever relevant information the researcher can find that is related to the subject matter. 3 1.6 Hypothesis Hypothesis: Personnel Specialists are relevant in today’s business organisation. Null Hypothesis: Personnel Specialists are not relevant in today’s business organisation. 1.7 Chapterisation This project consists of 5 chapters namely General Introduction; Literature Review, Research Methodology; Data Presentation Analysis; Summary Conclusion and Recommendation. The first chapter which is the introduction gives a picture of what the rest of the chapters consists of. A little information about what recruitment is all about. Chapter 2 which is the literature review gathers all information about what a recruitment process should look like, as well as its challenges and prospects. Online recruitment seems to be acquiring a strong foothold these days so it was important to include some notes on it. Chapter 3 is the research methodology. All information about the way I intend to carry out my research is in there. For example, the type of sampling, population size etc. Chapter 4 is closely linked to chapter 3. The result of the research, after it has been conducted as specified, is found here. Finally, chapter 5 summarizes the project as a whole. It includes the summary, conclusions and recommendations. 4 Chapter 2-Literature Review 2.1 Introduction Finding and hiring competent, capable and quality staff is a constant challenge facing large, medium and small businesses. Many companies find that it is even tougher today to compete for talent and that as a result; many hire new staff quickly just to have somebody fill a position. This often leads to the expensive consequences of a bad hire - workplace disruption, lost productivity, increased stress, and deceased morale. In addition, firing a "bad hire" creates workplace anxiety and legal and personal complications and expenses. To make the best hiring choice, companies must make a commitment to the importance of the hiring process, instead of rushing through it. Creating Recruitment Policies is the first step. Companies who develop common-sense recruitment policies are the most effective at identifying, attracting and retaining quality employees. However, few companies and recruiters have policies in place that address issues surrounding effective recruitment. Good personnel managers will help a company develop sound policies that will eliminate expensive errors of judgment and procedure. As organizations begin to recognize the importance of effective recruitment to the bottom line, the need for clear and concise policies that outline how new staff are treated become paramount. High orientation, recruitment and turnover costs can be avoided if all new staff are treated equitably. Constantly hiring new staff hinders production which in turn 5 hurts the bottom line. This can easily be avoided if new employees are hired using the same criteria and if they know how they will be treated as new employees Recruitment is the premier major steps in the selection process in the Organizations. It has been explained as an activity directed to obtain appropriate human resources whose qualifications and skills match functions of the relevant posts in the Organization. Its importance cannot be over-emphasized and can also be best described as the ‘heart’ of the organization. It will be helpful to distinguish recruitment sub processes from selection sub processes. The aim of recruitment is to ensure that the organisations demand for employees is met by attracting potential employees (recruits) in a cost-effective and timely manner. The aim of selection is to identify, from those coming forward, the individuals most likely to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. To put it another way, recruitment is concerned with assembling the raw materials, and selection is concerned with producing the right blend for the organisation, at a particular point in time. 6 • The Purpose and Importance of Recruitment are summarised below: •Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in the organisation. • Create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of best candidates for the organisation. • Determine present and future requirements of the organization in conjunction with its personnel planning and job analysis activities. • Recruitment is the process which links the employers with the employees. • Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost. • Help increase the success rate of selection process by decreasing number of visibly 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 organizations legal and social obligations regarding the composition of its workforce. • Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be appropriate candidates. •Increase organization and individual effectiveness of various recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job 7 applicants 2.2 Recruitments: Policies and Procedures. Recruitment policies constitute the code of conduct which the organisation is prepared to follow in its search for possible recruits in the marketplace. Some examples of reputable policies in this field are as follows. In matters of recruitment, this company will: - advertise all vacancies internally before making use of external sources, - Always advertise under the company name when advertising externally, - endeavour to ensure that every applicant for a position in the Company is informed in advance about the basic details of the vacancy, and the basic conditions of employment attached to it - Endeavour to ensure that applicants are kept informed of their progress through the recruitment procedures, - seek possible candidates on the basis of their ability to perform the job required. ‘In matters of recruitment, this Company will not: 8 - Knowingly make exaggerated or misleading claims in recruitment literature or job advertisement, - discriminate unfairly against possible candidates on the grounds of sex, race, age, religion or physical disablement.’ The recruitment activities of an organisation are carried out mainly by Personnel staff. These activities represent the marketing role of Personnel, reaching out across the organisation’s external boundaries in the labour market. It is important, therefore, that such activities are conducted in manner that sustains or enhances the good reputation of the organisation. People who are treated well when they seek employment with the organisation are potential ambassadors for the organisation, whether they are successful in their application or not. Conversely, those who are treated badly in this situation are quick to spread their criticism. Examples of bad treatment of applicants include omitting to reply to a letter or form of application, keeping applicants waiting for an interview, and failing to inform applicants who have been unsuccessful. Well-organised Personnel departments work to a checklist of recruitment procedures designed to minimise errors and thus avoid marring the organisations image externally and Personnel’s reputation internally. A typical checklist is shown below. It helps to ensure a rational and logical approach to the recruitment of employees throughout the organisation. Questions to be considered 1 Has the vacancy been agreed by the responsible manager 2 Is there an up-to-date job description for the vacant position? 3 What are the conditions of employment (salary, hours, etc) for the vacant position? 4 Has a candidate specification been prepared? 9 5 Has a notice of the vacancy been circulated internally? 6 Has a job advertisement been agreed? Have details of the vacancy been forwarded to relevant agencies? 7 Do all potential candidates (internal or external) know where to apply and in what form? 8 What arrangements have been made for drawing up a shortlist of candidates? 9 Have the interviewing arrangements been agreed, and have the shortlisted candidates been informed? 10 Have unsuitable candidates or candidates held in reserve, been informed of their position? 11 Have offer letters been agreed and despatched to successful candidates? Have references been taken up, where necessary? 12 Have suitable rejection letters been sent to unsuccessful shortlisted candidates, thanking them for their attendance? 13 Have all replies to offer letters been accounted for? 14 Have the necessary procedures for placement, induction and follow-up of successful candidates been put into effect? Figure 1. Recruitment checklist The job description referred to in item 2 would usually contain at least the following information about the job concerned. o Title of job o Grade/salary level of job o Title of immediate superiors job o Number of subordinates o Overall purpose of the job o Principal responsibilities of the job o Limits of authority o Location of job 10 [...]... because of the problems associated with the validity of such tests Where they are employed in work situations, they usually take the form of personality inventories – list of multiple choice questions in response to theoretical situations posed by the test designers – or of projection tests – where the candidate is required to describe a series of vague pictures or a series of inkblots The aim of personality... description of the situation, making sure that there is minimum bias in the collection of data and to reduce errors in interpreting the data collected The questionnaire with 10 questions in all The case study is the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria The questions have been kept simple and straight to the point Many of the workers over there are quite busy and already have much thinking to do Nevertheless, the. .. beforehand how they will allocate questions, and then they rely on the discretion of the chairman to deal with the allocation of supplementary issues The advantage of this type of interview is that it ensures the fairness of the proceedings There are several disadvantages, however – the candidate will find it difficult to feel at ease in such a formal atmosphere than being concerned to listen to what the candidate... information as the interview progresses and to round off the final stage of the interview with any routine information about condition of service Candidates’ questions may be left to the end or dealt with during the course of the interview In general, the more information that can be supplied before the interview, the better Ideally, the time available for the interview should be spent in assessing the candidate... on the role of application forms and letters of application in the selection process 2.4 Application Forms An application form or a letter of application tells an organisation whether or not an applicant is worthy of an interview or a test of some kind This initial information constitutes the bedrock of the selection process, i.e prima facie evidence of an applicant’s suitability of unsuitably for the. .. attract them to the organisation Selections task is to cream off the most appropriate applicants, turn them into candidates and persuade them that it is in their interests to join the organisation, for, even in times of high unemployment, selection is very much a two-way process – the candidate is assessing the organisation, just as much as the organisations is assessing him The main objective of selection,... analysis of the job In some cases it may be less formally expressed, but nevertheless covers the points noted above The candidate specification, or personnel specification, as it is frequently called is a summary of the knowledge, skills and personal characteristics required of the jobholder to carry out the job to an acceptable standard of performance This is an extremely important feature of the recruitment... listen to what the candidate is 21 saying; and there is also the problem that the interviewers are often not able to follow up points with the candidate because they are under pressure from their chairman of their colleagues to move on to the next question Taken as a whole, interviews are most useful for assessing the personal qualities of an individual They help to answer questions such as ‘Is this... interviews are frequently neither reliable nor valid The measure of the reliability of an interview is the extent to which conclusions about candidates are shared by different interviewers; the measure of the validity of an interview is the extent to which it does measure what is it supposed to measure, i.e the suitability of a particular candidate for a particular job The main reasons why so many... The second method helps trainees to experience the process by means of role- playing exercises, and to understand how they may need to adapt their behaviour in order to meet the aims of this kind of interview Questioning plays a vital role in a selection interview, as it is the primary means by which information is obtained from the candidate at the time Questions have been categorised in a number of