Chapter 3

Recruitment and Selection

In seeking to get the most from tour employee a key factor is to ensure that you are recruiting
those who have potential to make the greatest contribution.

Recruitment and Selection – General Principles

 The principle objective of the recruitment process should be to recruit, select and appoint
employees appropriate to the present and future needs of your business.

Recruitment and Selection Policy

 It is useful to prepare an overall policy to set the parameters for how you manage this vital area.
 Such policy provides for both internal and external communication of your commitments in this
are but also ensures fairness and transparency apply.

Recruitment and Selection Process

 Each element of recruitment and selection has a contribution to make in helping to find the
most suitable candidates for any given post and you should view recruitment and retention as
entailing the eight stages that follow.
 Each element of recruitment and selection has a contribution to make in helping to find the
most suitable candidates for any given post and you should view recruitment and selection as
entailing the following eight stages:
1. Job Vacancy – Before you move forward to the vacant position, you should consider
these questions :
 Do you know why the vacancy has arisen? Perhaps the previous employee left
due to problems in the business and unless these are resolved, the new
candidate will likely be unhappy too.
 As mentioned above, is there potential to appoint/promote an internal
candidate to the vacant position and then recruit externally for the lower post?
By promoting from within, where possible, you reduce the risks associated with
recruitment but you also let your existing employees see that there is a
potential ‘career path’ in your company which might encourage them to stay
longer with you.

2. Job Analysis
 What do you want employees to do?
 Don’t assume that your employees are on the same wavelength as you
when it comes to what their job involves and what results are expected.
 If you already have them, make sure they remain current and reflective
of what is required and adjust them where necessary.
 When using job descriptions as part of recruitment, keep the following points in
mind:
 The earlier that you give them to potential candidates during the
process the better, because before you interview them, you want to at
least be sure that they know what the job will entail and are
comfortable with that.
 Use the job descriptions to screen applicants based on what you want
the employee to do versus what each candidate can do based on their
CV.
 You may also develop specific technical or job-specific questions to ask
during the interview based on the job description.
 Job Description play an important role in
 Managing Employee Performance because how can you ever measure
an employee’s contribution if you haven’t clearly outlined to them what
they are supposed to do?
 Training and Development to help identify individual training needs, so
they are vital tools.
 Sample of a Job Description:
 Desired Profile
 Assist in the collection and/or creation of data sets
 Thoroughly understand the functionality and features of
research databases
 Play a role in the development of innovative data products
 This side is 100% editable. Adapt it to tour needs and capture
your audience’s attention.
 Qualification
 Must be post graduate
 Knowledge of Financial Models.
 This side is 100% editable. Adapt it to tour needs and capture
your audience’s attention.
 Skills Required
 Skills at drawing insights from data
 Excellent time management and org skills
 Distinctive problem solving, analytical and strategic capabilities.
 Remember: job descriptions only describe what you want a person to do; as
part of recruitment, you also need to know what type of person you want for
any given job.
 In developing a profile of the ideal candidate, you could consider headings such
as:
 Example of Job post

 Another similar approach to drawing up an employee profile is to use the seven

headings below:
 Education Qualifications/ Training - are there any specific educational or
training requirements?
 Work experience - does the candidate need to have any particular level
of previous work experience?
 Skills and Knowledge - are there any particular skills and/or knowledge
which are required for the job?
 Physical Attributes - does the work involve strenuous lifting etc.?
 Personality/Disposition - what type of personality might be most
appropriate for this position? Will they be required to work as part of a
team?
 Communication Skills - does the position require the candidate to
communicate with the public?
 Personal Circumstances - are there unsocial working hours? Does the
position involve travel?
 After those consideration, an interview is supposed to help determine whether
the candidate is the right person for the job.
  Example: You were looking for someone who was a team player.
 Give me some examples of where you felt you made a positive
contribution to your team in the past?
 What do you think your previous team mates would say about working
with you?
 What can you bring to our team that would set you apart from other
candidates?
3. Attracting Candidates
 The purpose of analyzing the vacancy is to have a clear picture in mind of the
job requirements and the type of person you wish to recruit. Then you must set
about trying to attract suitable applicants for this position.
 When attracting candidates we have two sources of recruitment:
 Internal Recruitment
 As mentioned, it is important to think about whether the
position can be filled internally before looking externally.
 Advantages:
o Reduces recruitment costs.
o Internal candidates are already familiar with your
organization, its aims, objectives etc.
o Can act as a motivating factor for others in the business
by showing them that it is possible to move ‘up the
ranks’.
o A candidate from outside the company will always be an
‘unknown quantity’ no matter how effective your
selection process.
o A person promoted from within is already known to
you.
 The important message is not to overlook a potential applicant
already working for you as it can have a detrimental effect on
their morale and their commitment to the organization.
  External Recruitment
 There are many sources of external recruitment including:
o Websites.
o National/local newspapers/trade journals.
o Recruitment agencies/consultants.
o Employment fairs/seminars/open days.
 The source(s) of recruitment you use will be dependent upon a
number of factors such as:
o The type of position you are seeking to fill.
o The amount of money you wish to spend on filling the
position.
o What has worked well in the past
o The nature of the job market at the time you are recruiting.
 Advertising - is an expensive source of generating interest in available positions,
it is important that the content of the advertisement achieves the following
objectives:
 To reach the desired target audience.
 To attract the required number of suitable candidates.
 To send out the right image about your company.
 The AIDA principle can guide you here, and your advertisements should:
 Gain the Attention of the right people.
 Create Interest in the minds of those people.
 Instil a Desire in them to apply for the position.
 Provide them with information on how Apply for the position.
 Content of the advertisements:
 Brief promotional description of the company.
 Job title.
 Location
 Description of the post.
 Qualifications and experience required.
 Conditions of employment including salary.
 Relocation expenses, if applicable.
 Promotional prospects, if any.
 Closing date.
 The type of language used in your advertisement should always reflect the
nature of the position you are seeking to fill.
 Ex:
4. Screening Application (Candidates)
 Narrow down the field
 When you receive a large number of applications for an advertised position, the
golden rule should be to interview less people for longer, so you need to screen
the applications to select the most suitable candidates for interview. This can
involve:
 Using the job description and employee specification to compare
against the CV.
 If telephone techniques are important for the advertised position, then
you can also assess their telephone manner.
 Conducting short telephone interviews to gauge an individual’s
suitability. This can often be a useful exercise as the candidates are
frequently less ‘prepared’ so you get a better feel for their natural self.

5. Interviewing Candidates
 The old saying of ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’ is particularly true in
relation to interviewing.
 Preparing the Candidate (To help the candidate to be fully prepared for the
interview you should:)
 Ensure that adequate notice is given of the date and time for the
interview.
 Ensure that the candidate is aware how to get to your premises.
 Ensure they are clear where to go and who to contact upon arrival.
 Ensure they are aware of any information, documents etc., you would
like them to bring with them to the interview.
 “Be prepared for the interview”
 Preparation by the Interview (To ensure that you are fully prepared you must :)
 Review all the relevant information beforehand - job descriptions,
employee profiles, application forms etc. You should examine each CV
or application form to identify areas to question during the interview.
Application form:
Recruiter (candidate information sheet):
Sample of Final Interview Sheet (operations manager)
  Prepare a plan of how you intend to conduct each interview -
consistency is important. This should include an outline of similar
questions to ask all candidates based on the job description, employee
profile and CVs, so that you can compare like with like.
 Prepare a suitable venue for the interviews. The choice of location and
the layout of the room will have an impact on the outcome.
 Make sure you are free from disruptions when you are interviewing and
do not schedule too many interviews on the same day.
 Allow adequate intervals between each interview, giving yourself
sometime after each one to finalize your notes.
 Provide a list of candidates and their interview times to your
receptionist. This will help to present a professional image to candidates
on arrival.
 If two or more of you are conducting the interviews this obviously
increases the preparation required so that each knows what role they
will play during the interview.

 Conducting an Interview
  There is a well-known and easy to apply structure for conducting
interviews known as the WASP approach. It enables you to offer a
similar format to each candidate, thereby ensuring consistency in the
interviewing process and assisting your evaluation at the end.
 Welcome – During his initial phase of the interview you should:
o Establish Rapport - Break the Ice. A relaxed candidate will
perform better.
o Explain the purpose of the interview.
o Outline the format for the interview with approximate
timings.
o Inform the candidate that you will be taking notes.
 Acquire Information – In this phase of the interview you are seeking
to gather as many relevant details from the candidate as possible so
that you can make an informed decision about their suitability
o Begin with general questions before moving to the more
specific.
o Use your question technique to explore background,
attitudes, suitability etc., relevant to the employee profile
and job description.
o Probe to explore any ‘gaps’- but do not interrogate them.
o Let the candidate speak, use your listening skills!!! They
should speak for 80% of the time.
o Remember as you assess the candidate they are also
assessing you and making some judgments about you and
the company.
 Supply Information – Once you have obtained all the relevant
information you need, then you should allow the candidate to ask
you questions about the position. You should ensure that you:
o Outline the job description in greater detail giving an
overview of their potential role in the company.
o Provide the candidate with details on the salary and
conditions associated with the position.
o Answer any remaining interviewee questions.
 Plan and Part – The final part of the interview is designed to ensure
that both parties leave the interview fully aware of the next steps in
the selection process. You should:
o Ask to check references – you do need permission to do so.
o Discuss salary if not mentioned already.
o Give timetable for your decision and how they will be
notified.
o Thank them.
 Question Technique
 You will use questions in an interview to:
 Relax the candidate.
  Encourage them to open up.
 Probe their background.
 Identify candidate’s strengths/weaknesses.
 Gauge their overall suitability.

 Questions should be:

 Open (in most cases).
 Clear.
 Relevant.
 Well worded - What, Why etc.
 Not leading.
 Asked throughout the interview.

 The types of questions that are used in an interview can be classified as

follows:
 Open Questions – Designed to get the candidate to open up and
express themselves. They will generally begin with the words “Tell
me” or “Who” “What” “Why” “When” “Where” “How”.
 Probing Questions – These questions are designed to delve more
deeply into something the candidate has done or said. For example
the candidate might have included a training course that they had
attended on their CV. Always probe to find out more, particularly if
you feel it is relevant to the job.
 Comparison Questions – These questions are designed to get
participants to compare past experiences. They are designed to see
if the candidate gives some thought to the work that they do and
how this job fits in with their thinking.
 Behavioral Questions – These questions are designed to examine
how a candidate reacts in a certain situation, or to explore their
character in greater detail. Questions should not be:
o ‘Quick-fire’ interrogation type questions.
o Critical or disparaging.
o Long winded
o Of an overly personal nature.
o Closed questions, for example: “Can you tell me…?” There
may be some occasions where you want a Yes/No answer
but most of your questions should be open.

 Listening Skills
 Listening is a skill designed to encourage the candidate to speak up
more and to prevent you from doing all the talking.
 We need to actively listen and this can be done by using the following
simple techniques:
  Eye contact – shows you are listening and encourages the
candidate.
 Nodding – gives encouragement.
 ‘Mirroring’ – matching your body posture with that of the candidate
subconsciously relaxes them.
 Encouraging - ‘Yes, go on’ or ‘Mm, yes’ is another form of prompting
them to continue.
 Paraphrasing - ‘So, what you are saying is...’ shows you have the gist
of what they said.
 Summarizing – may be useful when you want to be very clear what
they said.
 Minimal Note-taking – taking too many notes means you break eye
contact and can be off-putting for the candidate in any case.

 Common Reasons for Interviews Failing

 Lack of preparation – If either party is unprepared then the interview is
unlikely to be successful.
 Judgment made too early – Too often the interviewer makes up his or
her mind too early (often in the first few minutes).
 Unstructured interviews – If the interviewer has no set format to follow,
then each interview will be conducted differently.
 “Improve your interviewing skills”
 Interview environment - If the interview is conducted in a location that
is uncomfortable for one or both parties then this will affect the
outcome of the interview.
 Too many interviews – If too many candidates are interviewed on the
same day, then those arriving later in the afternoon will have to work
harder to create a good impression.
 Poor interviewing skills – Many interviewers do not work to improve
their skills. In addition to these, other common problems are that they
often:
 Ask badly worded questions which don’t allow the candidate to
open up.
 Do too much talking during the interview.
 Become confrontational with candidates.
 Allow prejudices to influence their decisions.

 Other Selection Methods (further enhance the recruitment process)

 Assessment centers – they often consist of a ½ or full-day event where
candidates are presented with a number of structured assessment
activities which are designed to really test their motivation and
suitability for the post. These events may involve a combination of
activities, including:
 Psychometric tests
  Individual/Group exercises
 Case study analysis
 Formal presentations
 Role Plays
 Behavioral interviews

 Role plays/Presentations/Group Exercises

 Always possible for you to integrate role plays, presentations and
exercises into your recruitment process and they can be particularly
suitable when seeking to fill sales or customer facing positions.
 Setting them an exercise to work upon in groups, whilst monitoring
their performance, could help in ‘screening’ candidates to ensure
that you only interview those with the greatest potential.
 Equally, having a sales candidate make a short presentation as part
of the interview process makes good sense as you want to see how
they can communicate to potential clients.
 Psychometric Tests
 Designed to assess an individual’s reasoning abilities or to gauge
their likely behavioral responses to a variety of situations.
 You can compare their score to accepted norms and the results can
then support the decision making process during recruitment.
 Generally, you will come across two main types of tests:
o Ability Tests - seek to measure a candidate’s skills in areas
such as numeracy, verbal reasoning, analytical capabilities
and so on. Frequently conducted under time constraints, so
they can also demonstrate how well an individual can cope
under pressure.
o Personality Inventories - Personality questionnaires, on the
other hand, can be used to evaluate a candidate’s likely
behavior and attitudes according to a variety of situations
such as their ability to interact with other team members or
how they might deal with a range of work based scenarios.
 Behavior Interviewing
 Always ensure that the majority of your questions posed during the
interview have a behavioral component to them, which are linked
to the employee profile you are searching for.
 This can be achieved by presenting candidates with scenarios
related to the role and asking them to explain how they would deal
with the situation.
 Ask potential candidates to work with your team for a short period,
so that you can better judge how they actually perform onsite and
whether they integrate well with your team.
6. Selecting and Appointing Candidates
 It has already been established that interviews are a very subjective method of
evaluating the suitability of a candidate and some guidance has been provided
above on how you might reduce the subjective nature of your interviews.
 Whatever selection method you use, at the end of the process, you must still
make the decision as to who you feel is the most suitable candidate.
 To maximize the potential for selecting the best candidate the following steps
are worth noting:
 As stated, prepare a job description and employee profile at the outset
of the recruitment process. These are then the criteria against which
you will measure each candidate.
 Prepare a simple assessment form incorporating these criteria. This can
be based on a numerical or descriptive scale and could follow the
format below:

 During each interview take only brief notes on candidate responses.

 After each interview complete the assessment form for the candidate in
question while the details are fresh in your mind.
 When you have completed all the interviews compare the assessment
forms to identify the most suitable candidate.
 For more senior positions it is important to conduct a second interview,
with more than one interviewer seeing the candidate.
 Appointing Candidates
 The procedure will generally entail these steps:
1) Candidates selected.
2) Verbal offer of appointment made.
3) Medical completed if appropriate.
4) Letter of appointment sent.
 5) Contract signed.

7. Induction and Training

 Every employee remembers their first few days in a job and if that experience is
below standard, you may quickly find that you will have a disgruntled or at least
a less than happy employee on your hands.
 Induction is the process of receiving and welcoming employees when they first
join your business and giving them the basic information they need to settle
down quickly.
 Induction has three (3) aims:
 To smooth the early stages when everything is likely to be strange and
unfamiliar to the new employee.
 To establish quickly a favorable attitude to the company in the mind of the
new employee so that he or she is more likely to stay.
 To obtain effective output from the new employee in the shortest possible
time.
 Induction process has two components:
 Company Induction – The first stage of induction is when the employee
receives a detailed introduction to the company and their job. An
employee handbook is useful for this purpose, but there should also be a
face-to-face induction given which covers things like:
 A brief description of the company – its history, products, organization
and management.
 Basic conditions of employment – hours of work, holidays, pension
scheme, insurance.
 Pay – pay scales, when paid and how, deductions, queries.
 Sickness – notification of absence, certificates, pay.
 Leave of absence.
 Company rules.
 Disciplinary procedure.
 Grievance procedure.
 Promotion procedure.
 Union and joint consultation arrangements (if relevant).
 Education and training.
 Health and safety arrangements
 Medical and first-aid facilities.
 Restaurant and canteen facilities.
 Social and welfare arrangements.
 Telephone calls and correspondence.
 Travelling and subsistence expenses (if relevant).

(If your business is not large enough to justify a printed handbook, the least
that should be done is to prepare a typed summary of this information. You
may not personally deliver the full induction but you should spend time
 with all new starters so that they understand your philosophy and what is
expected of them.)

 Department Induction - When the initial briefing has been completed, new
employees should be taken to their place of work and introduced to their
manager or team leader for the departmental induction programme. This
can involve working through a checklist of training and other information
which might span their first month in the role.
 “training should be regular”
 On-going Training & Development
 Training should not stop at induction and all employees should receive
appropriate on- and off-the-job training on a regular basis which balances
the needs of the business and the individual.
8. Employees evaluation
 Monitoring employee performance is of course an on-going activity, but for new
employees, evaluation should have the following defined phases:
 End of first day/week – a quick ‘how are you getting on’ chat should take
place at the end of the first day, and week, to ensure they are settling in
well.
 End of first month – a more detailed job chat should take place where the
employee’s early performance is reviewed in detail and positives
highlighted. Where difficulties are identified, the employee should be
made aware of any issues, offered remedial coaching and support, and
then this should be followed up again at weekly intervals.
 End of probation period – given that you will have addressed any problems
by this point, this stage should represent the employee’s first formal
appraisal at the company where his or her strengths are identified and
praised and future goals are established.
 The evaluation process can of course also tell you whether your
recruitment process is working effectively.
 By viewing ‘recruitment’ as an eight stage process, you attach
greater importance to it and by taking the necessary action within
each of those stages you ensure that you are maximizing the
quality of employees you bring into the business.
 Conclusion
 The information provided in this guide is designed to help you find the right people in the first
instance then to lead and manage them in a way that maximizes their levels of engagement.

XYZ COMPANY

Recruitment and Selection Policy

1. Introduction

This document outlines the procedures and overall policy for recruitment and selection at the XYZ
COMPANY. The purpose of this policy is to inform managers and staff of the processes required to find
the best candidate for a vacant post. It incorporates best practice and follows equal opportunity
guidelines. Applicants must not receive more or less favorable treatment on the grounds of gender,
race, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, family responsibility, ethnic origin, trade union
membership and political and religious beliefs.

The 5 commitments which the XYZ COMPANY must follow are:

1) To interview all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and
consider them on their abilities.
2) To ensure that there is a mechanism in place to discuss at any time, but at least once a year,
with disabled employees what you and they can do to develop and use their abilities.
3) To make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment.
4) To take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness
needed to make the commitments work.
5) Each year, to review the 5 commitments and what has been achieved, to plan ways to improve
on them and let employees know about progress and future development plans.

2. Establishing a vacancy

Once a vacancy has been established either through a member of staff leaving or a new post that has
been created, a budget control/establishment form must be filled in by the Department Manager and
sent to Human Resources. A copy must also be sent to Management Accounts.

With an established post it gives managers the opportunity to review the post and carry out a thorough
analysis before automatically proceeding to recruitment.

When analyzing a post it is useful to talk to the outgoing post-holder and colleagues within the
department as to whether the post could be changed or the way that the team works could be re-
organized

Issues to consider before advertising a new post are:

1) Allocating duties to other team members (although consideration would have to be given to up-
grading staff who’s responsibilities are changed).
 2) Is there any reason why the role cannot be considered for a job-share and is there any scope for
other flexible working practices?
3) Training other members of the team to create a multi-skilled workforce.
4) Taking on a part-time employee if the post doesn’t warrant a full time employee.

Another factor to consider is job evaluation to make sure that the job description is recent and up to
date. The purpose of job evaluation is to ensure that consistent decisions are made about grading and
rates of pay. It is also helpful to compare with other existing, similar posts within the organization with
regards to equal pay between comparable jobs so that equal pay is provided for work of equal value.

3. Advertising

Human Resources will then write the advert and send the current job description for that post to the
Department Manager for approval. When the advert and job description are approved by the
Department Manager the advertisement will be publicized to all internal staff for one week in order to
allow permanent staff to apply for posts before they are advertised externally to the public.

The post will be sent to all staff via email, it will also be available on the Intranet and also on the
vacancies notice board.

If there are no internal applicants then the post will be advertised externally. If there are internal
applicants then they will be shortlisted and interviewed before the post is advertised externally.

If managers require a temporary member of staff to cover until the post is filled they must fill out a
‘Request for agency staff’ form held in Human Resources. HR will then arrange a temp for that
department.

4. Shortlisting

Managers must only shortlist against the criteria from the person specification and job description and
not from personal opinion.

The person specification should contain the essential criteria required to carry out the post, if an
applicant does not have all of the essential criteria then they must not be shortlisted. The person
specification should also contain desirable criteria that would be of benefit to the post if the applicant
has those skills, but are not essential to carry out the post.

Human Resources will send copies of the application forms and the shortlisting criteria to all members of
the shortlisting panel. Managers must shortlist against these criteria only and not from personal opinion.

Shortlisting must be returned to Human Resources within two weeks of the closing date of the post. HR
will then organize a convenient interview date and will be responsible for booking the venue and inviting
the candidates. HR will also send out regret letters to unsuccessful candidates who have not been
shortlisted.
It is imperative to remain objective throughout the recruitment and selection process, therefore anyone
who knows that someone they are related to or know personally, is considering applying or has applied
must declare this.

No one is permitted to shortlist or interview a member of their family or a close personal friend and
must withdraw from the selection process.

5. Interviewing

Panel members must treat all information on application forms and information from the interview as
strictly confidential.

A pre meeting should be held before the interviews to discuss which areas of questioning will be
delegated for each panel member.

Best practice requires the person asking the questions to maintain eye contact and encourage the
interviewee whilst the other panel members make notes.

Interviewers must be aware that the candidates must all be asked the same questions.

Explain to the candidate at the beginning of the interview the format and process e.g. who will be asking
questions and in what order and that they will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout the
interview and at the end.

Remember to be clear before questioning what answer you will expect applicants to give in order to
meet the criteria. If you aren’t clear about a ‘correct’ answer to your question then subjectivity is likely
to result. Therefore you could be swayed by the candidate’s conviction in their answer rather than them
answering correctly.

Remember to check each application form for gaps and ambiguity in employment history.

All panel members should be aware of equality procedures regarding recruitment and selection and be
familiar with these.

No one should interview alone and each panel member must take notes during the interview to assess
the candidate’s responses and as a reminder when deliberating with the panel.

In case of complaints, the notes taken during interview will be used to justify the decision reached by
the panel.

When each panel member has completed their assessment of each candidate, they should discuss with
the other panel members and compare their conclusions.

The appointed candidate will meet all the essential criteria on the person specification and the panel
should agree that they are the best person for the role.

Assessment forms and interview notes should be handed back to Human Resources where they will be
stored confidentially.
6. Offer of Employment

Once a suitable applicant has been decided upon, Human Resources will telephone the candidate to
offer the position, subject to satisfactory references.

The Department Manager must fill in an Appointment Form before HR can offer the post, detailing
salary and hours for the post.

Once the candidate has accepted the post, Human Resources will contact the candidates’ references
and send out the occupational health questionnaire.

At least one reference must be an employment reference, preferably from the present or most recent
employer. One personal reference can be accepted but the referee must NOT be a relative or friend.

Panel members should not be referees, other than when they are the current line manager of an
existing employee.

Human Resources will write to unsuccessful candidates informing them of the decision. They will be
given a contact name and telephone number for detailed feedback should they request it.

7. Appointment

Once Human Resources have received satisfactory references (copies to line managers for verification)
and health clearance then a start date will be arranged with the new employee.

The Contract of Employment will be issued to the new employee prior to starting with the XYZ
COMPANY or where this is not possible within eight weeks of taking up the appointment.

If any areas of this policy are unclear please contact the Human Resources Department for verification