Organizations are formed with the aim of achieving their missions through effective use of key elements of an organization which include technology, processes and human resources. An organization brings right human resources on board through an effective recruitment process.
An effective recruitment process involves the attraction, selection and appointment of qualified and right people to vacant positions within an organization. The recruitment of right people is critical to sustainable growth of an organization as right people give an organization a competitive advantage. The recruitment process is very important to an organization because of the following reasons;
- Employees are ambassadors of the organization and they link the organization to the outside world.
- Employees are responsible for implementing the policies of the organization
- They are the most effective link with customers
- They are the only active component of the three key processes of people process, technology process and business process.
Brian Tracy says the following on importance of employees;
“The smartest business decision you can make is to hire qualified people. Bringing the right people on board saves you thousands, and your business will run smoothly and efficiently.”
Recruitment process
In order to recruit the right people an organization’s recruitment policy should incorporate or consider most of the following;
Business strategy and human resources plan
The business strategy refers to an agreed upon plan to achieve the mission or goal of an organization through effective use of resources including human resources. The human resources plan involves identifying current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals. The organization’s recruitment process must therefore be guided by its strategy and the human resources plan.
Job description and job specification
The recruitment must take into account the job description and specification. .Job description defines the function and responsibilities of a position and job specification refers to employees’ characteristics and qualifications necessary for satisfactory performance of given tasks.
Evaluation criteria
The short listing or evaluation of candidates must be based on an evaluation criteria or a yardstick formulated from the job description and specification. This will enable the evaluation of the applicants to be conducted in a consistent manner. It is extremely difficult to identify right applicants without an evaluation criterion.
Advertisement
The vacant position must be made known to all who may be interested through various means including the media, head hunting and recommendation of current staff among others. The advertisements should reach as many people as possible to ensure right candidates are not left out.
Short listing
The applications received should be short listed using the evaluation criteria as discussed above to ensure all applicants are consistently dealt with.
Interviews
Interviews may take various forms including written interview and oral interview among others. Written interview allows greater precision in conveying ideas to the interviewers. On the other hand face-to-face interviewers enable the interviewers to obtain clarification on various issues and also to note nonverbal expressions from the interviewees.
Obtaining reference
The organization should send a request for reference to the referees of those interviewees who passed the interviews. For better results you need to follow up the reference with a telephone call to reconfirm the written reference given
Medical examination
Depending on the nature of the job the candidates should be taken through various medical tests.
Vetting of candidates
This involves carrying out a background check on the candidates before they are given their offer letters to ensure that they have a clean history since they joined formal school to date.
Engagement process
The candidates who have passed the interview are given employment letters including terms and conditions of service. Those who accept the offer return a signed copy of the offer letter to the organization.
Employee induction
The new employees are taken through a formal induction program which welcomes them to the organization and prepares them for their new position
Documentation
It is also important that records of each recruitment process are kept in case a need arises to revisit the whole or some aspects of the recruitment process.
Conclusion
The recruitment of staff is a very costly exercise in terms of money and time spent. It should therefore be treated as a key important process of the organization and should be carried out by competent and experienced people. You should always remember that right people are an asset and wrong people are a liability to the organization. The right people enable the organizations to achieve their missions
“Often the best solution to a management problem is the right person.”
Edwin Booz
“You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.”
Renee West
You’re not just recruiting employees, but are sowing the seeds of your reputation.
Author: John Muhaise Bikalemesa
Director: Big Drum Advisory Services Limited
johnmuhaisebikalemesa@yahoo.com
