Recruitment and Diversity
(Point 2) Organisation Benefits of attracting and retaining a diverse workforce: An increasing number of companies are realising the benefits of having a diverse workforce and as a result are incorporating equality and diversity objectives in their business strategies. Diversity is a widely-used concept which refers to visible and non–visible differences between individuals. There are six main strands of diversity: race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, and religion which are covered by UK legislation. Diversity also incorporates differences such as class, personality and working patterns What is meant by a diverse workforce?
Social diversity: Demographic diversity such as age, race ethics and gender Value Diversity: Psychological difference in personality and attitudes Information Diversity: Benefits are: * Diversity in employment promotes cost-effective employment relations: Employers have more choice from a greater skills base, improved employee satisfaction, reduced internal disputes, greater workplace harmony, improved retention and more effective and fairer promotion of talent * Diversity enhances customer relations: matching internal employee diversity to population diversity can provide performance benefits, which enhance awareness of consumer needs Diversity enhances creativity, flexibility and innovation in organisations: the flexibility, creativity and ability to innovate are enhanced by the existence of dissimilar mind sets * Diversity promotes sustainable development and business advantage: e. g. external recruitment of diverse top-team talent to inject new ideas and challenge the organisational mind sets and ways of doing things that can hinder change and organisational progress. (point 3) Factors that affect an organisation approach to Recruitment and Selection FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT (point 4)
Different recruitment and selection methods Recruitment and selection are usually considered as one process. However, I will make the distinction here between the initial actions and considerations when planning staff recruitment and the process of selecting an individual from a pool of applicants. Recruitment needs to be carefully planned in order to attract the right type of applicant. Recruitment The key to effective recruitment is preparation: knowing the job and what is required of someone to perform it well. The costs of recruiting the wrong person can be significant.
The cost of employing someone may be at least twice their salary when factors such as training, expenses and employer’s contributions to their pension are added. INTERNAL| AGENCY| EXTERNAL| Cheaper and quicker to recruitFamiliarity with the business and operationsBusiness already aware of strengths and weaknesses of candidatesProvides opportunity for promotion – motivational| Wider nets of targeted candidate attractionSaving management time interviewing only a top candidateProcess streamlining| Outside people bring in new ideasLarger pool of workers of which to find candidatesWider range of experience|
Selection Psychometric tests These are particularly useful if you want to assess candidates for Managerial or Senior appointments or candidates for appointments where there is a special need for the post – such as strong relationship building skills. These types of test are especially good at assisting with assessing how candidates are likely to behave, for example, towards a manager, towards their peers, and towards their subordinates. They will often provide a profile which should be discussed with the candidate to check validity, as they are self-perception questionnaires.
Candidates should also be given feedback on the profile. The profile should be a part of the assessment, contributing perhaps up to 10% towards the final decision. They should be used carefully as they need to be used in the right way by properly trained assessors. Interviews Interviews can take many forms and styles. A type of interviewing recommended is Criteria-Based Behavioural Interviewing. This type of interviewing is based around the criteria identified in the person specification – the essential and desirable criteria.
It is therefore really important to prepare a good person specification right at the start of the recruitment process. It is also important to identify how each of the criteria will be assessed. Some items in the criteria e. g. a qualification, can be assessed by reference to the application form, these can be called the “hard or factual criteria” and can usually be assessed on the application form or c. v. Presentations Presentations can be used in a variety of ways depending on how they relate to the job description and the normal working practices expected of the post.
In assessing presentations, it is important to have decided on the criteria against which each candidate will be marked. These could include criteria which will also be assessed at interview, but may take on a particular aspect – e. g. communications skills could be assessed in the interview but will be mainly looking at how the person communicates with the panel and gets their points across, as well as how they interact with the members of the panel. In a lecture style presentation, the candidates’ communications skills to a large group will be assessed, which is much more formal delivery.
