Why are recruitment and selection important?

The terms recruitment and selection as used in human resource management have been defined differently by several number of scholars according to their level of understanding, and the following are some of their views so far. Human resource recruitment is defined as any practice or activity carried out by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying an attracting potential employees while personal selection is the process by which companies decide who will or not be allowed into organizations (Noe et al, 2006).

Furthermore recruitment includes those practices and activities carried out by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees (Breaugh & Starke, 2000) Moreover selection on the other hand refers to the process by which an organization attempts to identify applicants with necessary knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that will help the company achieve its goal (Noe et al, 2006).

However these terms seems to be looking confusing but a clear cut can be made between them and this is according to (Gupta, 2006). Recruitment proceeds selection which means that organization first recruit employees ant then select them Recruitment is positive as it aims at increasing the number of applicants for wider choice or for increasing the selection for ration while selection is negative as it rejects a large number of applicants to identify the few who are suitable for the job.

Recruitment involves identifying the sources of manpower and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization while selection is the process of choosing the best out of those required. Recruitment involves prospecting or searching whereas selection involves comparison and choice of candidates According to Itika (2001), the recruitment and selection process starts with organizational analysis. This is the process of evaluating the total organization, its objectives, human resources, effectiveness and internal environment.

The most useful data and information is obtained from the corporate strategic plan or human resource strategy if available. Other sources are monthly or quarterly reports, management meetings decisions, government policies and laws, market trends and global patterns. The next step is job analysis. This is the process of analyzing and listing the tasks that are included in the job, all the steps taken to perform the different tasks and all the requirements the respective tasks put upon the jobholder.

The data on the nature of the job and requirements can be obtained from the available human resource manuals, job descriptions, making enquiries from departmental and section managers or supervisors, the person doing the job and moving around to observe how the job is done. The final step is individual analysis. This involves performance appraisal of individuals doing the job in order to compare individual knowledge, skills and competence requirements in relation to the job objectives and possible potential for development.

So both recruitment and selection are very important in an organization due to the following reasons The selection process helps a given organization to pick up the right person for every job, this is due to the fact that by selecting the organization has a decision over who to pick for the job and especially goes for the right person with all necessary requirements It is advantage to achieve the organization goals having the right person but if the organization has a lazy and the worker who does not fit for the job it means that the goals and objectives won’t be achieved any more.

Also selection increase effectiveness and productivity of the enterprise, due to the fact that the proper and wise selection of the employees would lead to the increase of achievement of the desired goal since people with high knowledge and skills perform better which means that to the organization, the production will increase and the enterprise and this can even be compared by a hardworking students who always will lead high performance since hard work pays.

Contrary to that but on the other hand of the same coin recruitment process plays a vital role to the organization and the employers at large and it is important as the following points explain this relevance. Act as a linkage activity, recruitment is very important because once it takes place then it brings together those with job (employer) and those who are seeking for the job (prospective employees). This help the organization to determine the and have a decision over the particular employee who can save different roles and also help the employee to either choose to apply or not.

Another is that it is an important function as it makes it possible to acquire the number and type of person necessary for continued function of an organization, for example careful recruitment of employees is particularly important in India because the chances of mismatching the job and the person are greater due to widespread unemployment, the job seeker tends to accept anybody irrespective of his/her suitability.

Moreover it seeks to develop a pool of eligible persons from which most suitable can be selected, which means that during the recruitment process many people tend to go the job process but after several steps and assessment only a few who are eligible are selected and who are most suitable and ignoring the unsuitable ones. Furthermore help in filling the vacancies left empty, this is due to the fact that due to different unprevailing circumstances some vacancy are left with nobody and so the only means to an end it through recruiting new personnel who can fill up the gap.

For example the retired civil servants and those who in one way or another are fired out as a result of unlawful act. On extending down the list it also leads to organizational effectiveness, this is because recruitment process makes the employees to work hard so that they can rescue their position as one when one goes around another comes over so this hardworking leads to organizational achievement of the intended goals and objectives.

In some case it meet the requirements of the staff schedule, this happen in case that a certain staff lacks enough workers who can be scheduled according to organizational day to day activities whereby recruitment then lead to increase of the staff and hence its requirements are taken into consideration of which the number is maximized. Why is selection viewed as a two way process is another part that follows after the discussion on advantages of the recruitment and selection process.

It is true that selection is viewed as a two way process based on decision and time. According to Torrington et al. (2011) the various stages of the selection process provide information for decisions by both the employer and the potential employee. While employment decisions have long been regarded as a management prerogative, it is acknowledged that selection is increasingly being viewed as a two-way or ‘social’ process. Lievens et al.

(2002) suggest that labour market shortage have promoted a concern for the organization’s image and the treatment of applicants during the recruitment and selection process. Though the selection process applicants choose between organization by evaluating the development relationship between themselves and the prospective employer and this takes place with correspondence from potential employers in their experience of the selection methods used by the employer and the information they gain during interview.

Applicants will decide not to pursue some applicants because either they will have accepted another offer or find something in their organization that discourage them and they withdraw. when the large number of applicants withdraw it may be because of several reasons including the organizational provision of sufficient detailed information and on the other hand for the recruits might be lost due to lack of information or the way information was represented.

If candidates are selected for interview they will also be influenced by recruiter behavior in deciding whether to accept a job offer, if one is made. Papadopoulou et al. (1996), for example, demonstrated that candidates were influenced by the recruiter’s ability to supply adequate and accurate information, as this is what they had expected form the interview as well as the way recruiter managed the interaction and content. Therefore the main reason towards the view that selection is a two way process lies on the correspondence and interaction between the employer and employee.

Which means that it is not only the question of the manager or employer who is involved in the selection process but also applicants though the employer make and decide who to select or not. The applicant on the other hand may decide to apply or not depending on one’s determined goal. Generally selection is not a one way process because it involves more than one person during the actual process. Not only that but also why should selection criteria be used in employee selection marks the last part of this question.

Selection criteria are typically presented in the form of a person specification representing the ideal candidate, and covers such areas as skills, experience, qualifications, education, personal attributes, special attributes, interests and motivation (IRS 2003). Though lievens et al. (2002) challenge the use of traditional personal specifications as jobs become less defined and constantly change. Torrington et al. (2011) explain that selection criteria need to be explicitly defined for the following reasons.

In order to choose the most appropriate selection procedure and approach, that by using the selection criteria the organization can be able to apply the best procedure and approach because the selection process itself has several stages that it pass before the final which means without the criteria then it will result into inappropriate measurement. Another is to make credible selection decisions, which means that during the whole process of selection it is important to use the selection criteria with the aim of making decisions which have credit to the organization including the employee who have the required credits.

Also to validate the selection process, this means that without the use of selection criteria one would not have provided the selection with the value and choice of employees required and so it is necessary to go for the selection criteria. Also Torrington et al. (2008) identified three perspectives that can be used to determine selection criteria which are; Fit with the organization, these are the organizational criteria that the organization considers valuable in its employees and that affect judgments about a candidate’s potential to be successful within an organization.

For example, the organization may be expanding and innovating and require employees who are particularly flexible and adaptable Another is functional and team fit, this is all about the defition of appropriate interpersonal skills for all members of Human Resource department. Criteria may also be important when the new appointee will have to fit into a pre-existing work team. The other is individual job criteria, it divided into ‘job first-person later’ and ‘person first-job later’ according to Van Zwanenberg and Wilkinson (1993).

The first start with analyzing the task to be done, presenting this in a form of a job description and the later focuses on the personal qualities and attributes or competencies that are necessary to do the task. Generally recruitment and selection entails both positive and negative impact for instance if not carefully done may result into inappropriate organizational results also selection stand to be a two way process due to the two sides relationship and eventually selection criteria should be used in order to have the organizational desire and employee personal fit.