Manpower Recruitment and Selection Strategy in a Manufacturing Firm

Manpower Recruitment and Selection Strategy in a Manufacturing Firm

2.1 Meaning of recruitment

When a human capital department has successfully estimated the human capital need for a definite future period, the job requirement and human qualification requirements for specific jobs opening to be filled have been thoroughly analyzed, the next logical step is to search and attract qualitative and rightly, skilled human capital to fill the existing openings and vacancies. This is termed recruitment. Recruitment is actually geared towards creating a large pool of labour force from which organization can draw those with the requisite capabilities, potentialities, skills, abilities, knowledge, attitude, etc to fill the existing vacancies.

In this chapter, emphasis will be laid on different literature from different authors in relation to manpower recruitment and selection strategies in manufacturing firms.

According to Alan Price (2007), recruitment is the process of retrieving and attracting able application for the purpose of employment.

According to Aniemeka (2000), recruitment is seen as that process of assessing a job, announcing the vacancy arousing interest and stimulating people to apply.

2.1 Source of Employees Recruitment

There are many sources from which organization can acquire their labour. The source to explore however, depend on the category of labor required. Thus, the market for blue-color workers, (unskilled) is different from white collar workers.

Basically, there are two major sources of recruitment, these include;

1. Internal source
2. External source

Internal source of recruitment is done through searching within the organization to find appropriate staff and transferring or promoting them to the vacant position.

According to Aniemeka (2000), internal recruitment in some organization are recruiting or promoting from within the organization to fill up vacant position through promotion, transfer etc.

According to her, internal recruitment have its merits as well as its demerit

The merits or Advantages

1. It is usually less expensive to recruit or promote from within than to hire from outside the organization.
2. Promotion from with may foster loyalty and inspire greater effort among organization members
3. Also individuals recruitment from within is obviously acclimated to the organization and therefore perform more effectively.

The demerits or a disadvantage includes;

1. It limits the pool of talent available to the organization
2. It reduces the change for a fresh view to enter the organization
3. It encourages the complacency because employees are assured that their seniority will assure their promotion.

Most organization, however adopt both policies in acquiring their labour force. Ideally, management should consider the coast and benefit ratio of any option to be adopted in order to take rational decision.

External Sources of Recruitment

Most a time a firm goes for external source of recruitment for new entity, for expansion and for positions whose specifications cannot be met by present personnel. The major source of external recruitment is:

1. Advertisement
2. Unsolicited applicant

iii. Recommendations employees

1. Labour union
2. Professional bodies and their annual conference meeting
3. Employment agencies

vii. Management consulting firms

viii. Educational institutions

Advertisement

Organization can notify the general public of the existing job vacancies through various media such as national and local dailies, trade and professional journal, television, radio organization, notice board etc. The advertisement should contain enough information about the job. Some of these vital data are:

Job title

Description of job

Date of birth and marital status

Experience, skills, qualification required

Conditions of employment, salary, fringe benefits

Prospects or any particular attractive features about the job which distinguish it from other similar jobs.

Unsolicited Applicants

Many applicants make unsolicited approaches to firms because they have heard of the existing or future job opportunities through the grape vine. Unsolicited sources though may not yield very high percentage candidates, should not be totally ignored. The facts individuals take the initiative to apply for the job may indicate that they have a strong interest in the organization. In view of this and the need to maintain a good public relation every person who applies for job should be treated with courtesy and consideration regardless of whether or not his application has been directly solicited for. For unskilled job, most employers are able to get their labour force largely by means of direct hiring at the gate.

Recommendations by Employees

The serving employees may help organization acquire the desired labour force. Thus, personal recommendation by the present staff may provide satisfactory sources of labour supply.

Labour Unions

Labour unions help organization meet certain categories of manpower recruitment. They often maintain register of unemployed union members which are made available to management as the need arises. In some industries, labour unions have been known to maintain contain over most of the supply of particular type of labour. Thus, in industries where industrial relations are cordial, they serve as good source of recruitment.

Professional Bodies and their Annual Conference Meeting

Many of these bodies maintain records of members. An employer who utilizes this source can be sure that all candidates submitted to him are professionally qualified.

The annual conference meeting of this bodies serve as an ideal forum from employers (members that own accounting firm for example) to meet other members desiring to change jobs and discussing employment terms with them.

Employment Agencies

It may be possible at times for employer to take advantage of the assistance of employment agencies in recruiting applicant. They make available to organizations comprehensive files containing names of jobs seekers who have registered with them. Some even conduct interviews, administer test and subject the shortlisted candidates to other screening exercise to match the employers specifications and demands with the abilities and skills of the applicants. They are paid for their services.

Management Consulting Firms

These firms engage the services of high caliber personnel for organizations at a fee. The growing need for persons with proven managerial ability and experience has encouraged the growth of consulting firms which specialize in the acquisition of management personnel. Consulting firms have an incentive to investigate and appraise very thoroughly, those persons they recommend for executive position. They can through a computer developed personal data file covering several thousand high echeloned personnel in this category.

Some of the firms conduct preliminary screening to identify those executive within the requisite skills and abilities and who can effectively adjust to efficiently. Possibly in their former jobs because their contributions were not appreciated (Ifeanacho, 2011)

Educational Institutions

This type serves as good sources to get qualified personnel. Many employers establish rapport with universities, colleges of technologies etc to get them informed about the existing or future job opportunities.

This recruitment practices tends to be adopted by large firms which can afford to send term of interviews throughout the country and who can see to the travelling expenses of most promising candidates for visits to the firm where the final decision is usually made.

However, this mode of recruitment is no longer in vogue in Nigeria, because our labour is saturated with varying classes of unemployed graduates.

2.2 Concept of Selection

Selection comes immediately after recruitment. To undertake selection exercise efficiently, personnel managers should have thorough knowledge of the position to be filled, the abilities, skills and other traits required for optimal performance as well as determining whether the prospective employee posses such qualities, competencies and qualifications.

According to Philip (2007), selection has to do with the screening of application forms, short listing of these with the basic qualifications for interview and finally interviewing and subjecting them to series of tests or screening exercise to ascertain the applicants who are best qualified to fill the existing job opening. Selection involves screening applications, short listing, inviting short listed candidates for an interview.

Selection is the process that leads the firms to choosing from a list of applicants, the person or persons who he thinks best matches the selection criteria or the vacant post, with consideration criteria or the vacant post with consideration of current environment candidates (Aniemeka, 2000).

The factor influencing the toughness of the selection sequence is the length of period, is the initial length of time. A new employee has to do the payroll during which he has absolutely no job security right. It is essentially a trial period which he has obscuring varies in length from one employer to maximum of one year.

According to Philip (2007), the selection system should attempt;

1. To get the best people with existing budget, that is tho with the most appropriate skills experience and attitude.
2. To select people who will stay with the firm for a reasonable time.
3. To minimize the cost of recruiting and selection relative to return.

2.3 Testing Method

Some organizations conduct task before applicants are selected. This is not usual for advanced jobs in the organization, such organization use these tests as a way of reducing the number of people who will be coming for the interview. Where the organization has already conducted initial screening, the test may be used to make the final decision whether to employ or not. When prop[erly used, test reduces guess work and it also help in making decisions that are objective and less biased than other devices that are used in the selection process.

Quality of Good Test

According to Armstrong (2005), good test has the following;

1. Measuring instrument which disseminate well between subjects
2. It would have been standardized on a representative and sizeable sample of the population for which it is intended, so that any individual scores can be interpreted in reaction to that of others.
3. A good test is reliable: it is reliable if it is consistent in its measuring ability, if an applicant takes the test now and repeats it few weeks after the scores obtained are not expected to a very great deal.
4. It measures accurately what it was designed to measure eg a typing test should measure the application ability to type, a dexterity test should measure findings.

Types of Test

Some of the test usually used for selection includes;

1. Aptitude test
2. Intelligence test
3. Achievement test
4. personality test
5. Interest test
6. Skill test
7. Situation test
8. Psychological test

All the above can be categorize into two, these are objective and subjective test i.e those that cannot be directly measured.

1. Aptitude test: This is an objective test; it measures whether the applicant has the capacity or talented ability to learn a given job, if given adequate training. The use of aptitude test is advisable when the applicant has a little or no experience along the line of the job opening. For examining, they can measure finger dexterity, color blindness, co-ordination.
2. Intelligence test: this is an objective test and the oldest and most frequently used standardized in business organization. It is assumed that intelligence test is a general trail capacity for comprehension and reasoning the difficulty based on a theory of what constitute intelligence.
3. Achievement test: is an active test, it is concerned with what one has accomplished, when an applicant cram to know something, an achievement test is given to measure how well they know it.
4. Personality test: this is a subjective test, the success or failure of people at work is strongly determined by their personalities and how they interact with other people. It seeks to evaluate such characteristics as emotionally, maturity, sociability, conformity, responsibility, nervous symptoms and objectivity.
5. Interest test: most manufacturing firms believe that a person who is interested in a job will do much well than who is uninterested.
6. Situation test: this is a subjective test; these are really combination test representing element of achievement of performance or element of personally about training development or counseling need.

2.4 Interview Process

An interview has been described as“conservation with a purpose”. It is conservation because the candidates should be drawn out to talk freely with his interviewer about himself and his career. The conservation should be planned, directed and controlled to achieve the main purpose of the interview which is to make accurate prediction of candidate’s future performance on the job.

Objectives of Interview

1. Used in obtaining information of interest to the interviewer so that the suitability of the candidates for the organization can be determined.
2. It tends to find out more about the applicant as an individual
3. To determine whether the new employee should fit into the organization or not.
4. To serve as an important factor in the organization decision to make a job accept or decline the offer.

Types of Interview

These are basically two types of interview;

1. Patterned or structured interview: their pattern lend itself to the use of a detailed checklist of items that probe the complaint background, knoeledge, attitude and motivation and no other issues believed to be crucial and essential by the organization.
2. The unstructured interview: this does not make use of the questionnaires, this type of interview is largely unplanned and the interviewee most of talking.

Ways of Conducting Interview

1. Individual interview
2. Interviewing panels
3. Group interview

Individual Interview: this is when an interview is interested by an individual interviewee

Interviewing Panels: this is when an applicant are interviewed by a group of people. In this instance, the members of the panel ask questions to the applicants.

Group Interview: in this instance, group of applicants are interviewed together either by a panel or by one interviewer. This type of interview is deal for university recruitment and selection. Sale man, initiative, courtesy, enthusiasm, tactfulness and sense of humor are one another in lead of with interview.

2.5 Investigation of Applicant Background

This has the purpose of obtaining in confidence factual information about job. Examples of the information to be gathered through this means are:

1. The period of time in employment
2. The reason for leaving

iii. The salary or rate of pay

1. Attendant record

Background information could be obtained from the following sources:

1. School and colleges officials
2. Previous employer

iii. Preference supplied by applicants

1. Other sources like neighbors, police record and trade union.

Personnel references are often not very reliable or dependable. This is because very often, applicants nominate their friends as referee. Previous employers if willing can supply vital information but at time they are unreleased eg manager can allow personal conflict or biases to influence their information. School and colleges can also supply information on extra curriculum activities of one’s behavioral background.

2.6 medical Examination

This is important in selection process, the company gives instructions to the applicant where he or she can go on physical examination; it serves five different main functions;

1. For rejecting candidate who are not physically or medically qualified for the job
2. Obtain record of the physical condition of the applicants at the time of leaving in the event of a possible future claim for workmen compensation as a result of injury.
3. To avoid employing those with contagious diseases.
4. It helps to fish out applicant who might be real liabilities because of excessive absenteeism rate due to illness.

2.7 Employment Decision

Following the outlined procedure, we should now be of the opinion that a candidate who has successfully completed all the steps, so far should be hired. The decision is taken by the manager to whom the applicant will report. At this point in the process, a third interview is conducted; the information objective of this interview may well overlap those of the proceeding interview.

This overlap is not undesired for the fact that the organization relationship often require that the supervisor be given the right to pass upon personnel otherwise he or she cannot be held accountable for their performance.

2.8 Job Offer

The offer of employment is the accumulation of all the event that originated from the identification of position for employment to employment decision.

This is perhaps the most important step in the selection process when the decision is made to hire the individual they should be written to as possible. Applicants appreciate prompt action from employers. Job offer entails offering the job to the applicants that meet requirement of the company. This is done by communicating to the applicant through letter appointment which states the following;

1. State of the person i.e his or her position
2. Salary
3. Concision of service
4. Dates of effective appointment.

2.9 Summary of Literature Review

A crucial part of the recruitment and selection process is ensuring the continuity of management by proving an adequate flow of information will be determined by the differences between the forecast personnel requirements and the talent within the organization as revealed by the skill inventory.

Since the growth and development of any organization lies solely in the hands of the employees, the employer should take proper care in the recruitment and selection of manpower because if the wrong persons are selected to fill any vacant position in the Rock Tama Spring Water Company, the mistake will be far more serious and can lead to the downfall of the organization

In a nutshell, the employee should employ those who have the requisite, capabilities, potentialities, skills, abilities, knowledge and attitude to fill the existing job vacancies for the benefit and growth of the company and the society at large.

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