Part 2 of the Project – Recruitment Cristina LUCA

24th October 2019 HUMAN RESOURCES

MANAGEMENT
6N3750
RECRUITMENT

Student: Cristina Luca

TUTOR: JACKIE LYNCH
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Part 2 of the Project – Recruitment Cristina LUCA

1. Explain briefly, the process of recruitment and selection, and generate the
appropriate documentation to include the following:
 Job description
 Person specification
 Interview marking sheet

Recruitment is a systematic process of identifying and defining skill needs and attracting
suitable skilled candidates. It is the part of the process concerned with finding
applicants: it is a positive action by management, going into the labour market (internal
and external), communicating opportunities and information, and generating interest.
According to Michael Armstrong, ‘Recruitment is the process of finding and engaging
the people the organisation needs. Selection is an aspect of recruitment concerned
with deciding which applicants or candidates should be appointed to jobs’.
Before starting the actual process of recruitment, the manager/supervisor needs to go
through the following stages: analyse, attract and then select candidates.
The first step is to define the requirements of the company in terms of knowledge, skills
and attitudes as in the number of people needed, or for example the number of people
that need to be replaced. This is the Analyse stage where the recruiter has to prepare a
job description, a person specification and set out the terms and conditions of a contract
of employment in accordance with the legislation.
The job analysis provides the necessary information to create a job description.
Armstrong says that ‘Job descriptions are prescriptive and inflexible, giving people the
opportunity to say ‘It’s not in my job description’, meaning that they only need to do the
tasks listed there. They are more concerned with tasks than outcomes, and with the
duties to be performed rather than the competencies required to perform (technical
competencies covering knowledge and skills, and behavioural competencies)’. This
means that the manager/supervisor needs to set out very carefully the duties and
special duties that the potential employee would have to carry, what are the outcomes
that are expected of him in terms of standards and to whom he needs to report.
Person specification, as Armstrong says ‘will set out the qualities required in the shape
of behavioural and technical competencies and the type of qualifications and experience
that are likely to generate these competencies’. The manager/supervisor will have to set
out the essentials and the desirable requirements in terms of knowledge, skills and
competencies, attitudes like: essential and desirable qualifications, education, essential
competencies and experience, desirable skills. The overall aim of the person
specification is to describe the suitable candidate for the job.
Based on the job description and the person specification the advertisement of the job
will be created. This is a legal document that will have to contain a short description of
the company, a summary of the job/role that will have to be filled and a description of
the desired candidate. As Armstrong says ‘These provide the information required to
draft advertisements, post vacancies on the internet, brief agencies or recruitment

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Part 2 of the Project – Recruitment Cristina LUCA

consultants, and assess candidates by means of interviews and selection tests.’ The
recruiter must be very careful that the advertisement does not contain any
discriminatory statement and it must be in line with the relevant legislation.
In order to make a quick assessment of the candidate, during or immediately after the
interview, the recruiter can use Rodger’s seven points plan that includes:
1. Physical make-up required for effective performance of the job: appearance, health,
fitness, manner and voice;
2. Attainment refers to education and previous employment – covers qualifications,
type and amount of work experience;
3. General intelligence is assessed, as jobs requiring complex work patterns require a
different level of general intelligence to those which are repetitive and routine;
4. Special aptitudes cover: already-acquired knowledge or skills needed for effective
performance in the job and the ability of applicants to adapt existing skills and
knowledge;
5. Interests refers to relevant out-of-work activities which support the application for
employment;
6. Disposition covers relevant personal characteristics, such as an ability to: meet tight
deadlines or to work well in a team or on own initiative;
7. Circumstances covers those which will have to be met by the successful applicant on
a regular basis e.g. shift work, working away from home.

After the advertisement has attracted candidates, the applications have been sifted, and
the persons that presented in their application the essentials and some/all of the
desirables will be invited for the interview. The candidates that do not meet the essential
requirements will receive a regret letter and those candidates that have the desirables
and not the essentials will receive a letter stating that their application will be held for a
stated period.
Selection then is made through interviews and it aims as Armstrong says, ‘to assess the
suitability of candidates by predicting the extent to which they will be able to carry out a
role successfully. It involves deciding on the degree to which the characteristics of
applicants in terms of their competencies, experience, qualifications, education and
training match the person specification. It also involves using this assessment to make a
choice between candidates.’
Interviews can be one-to-one, panel, group and they can be held through phone, skype,
video conference (Tutor’s notes).

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Part 2 of the Project – Recruitment Cristina LUCA

2. Devise an interview strategy for a stated vacancy, and show that you
 Designed a structured interview
 Selected your questions appropriately (refer to legislation in your answer)
 Conducted the interview suitably

Before I interviewed the candidate for the Trainee Accountant position, I made sure that
the interview room was private, quiet and there was an appropriate atmosphere. I
removed any unnecessary formal barriers – like a desk between me and the interviewee,
in order to put the candidate at ease and facilitate communication.
I decided to do a one-to-one interview because it allows direct face-to-face
communication, giving me the opportunity to use both verbal and non-verbal cues to
assess the candidate. The attention was this way focused to each other and it helps the
candidate to feel less nervous.
After I prepared all my documentation (job description, person specification,
advertisement and curriculum vitae of the candidate), I invited the candidate, we
introduced ourselves and we had a handshake. I gave the candidate a short description
about the shape of the interview, about the organisation and about the job. After that I
started the interview asking the candidate open, probing, clarifying, summarizing and
leading questions that were in accordance with the legislation (Employment Equality Act
1998-2008). After finishing all my questions, I gave the candidate the opportunity to ask
questions, as I consider the interview is a two-way communication process.
At the end I informed the candidate about the stage of the recruitment process, and that
they will be informed in a short time about the results of the interview, thanking the
candidate for attending.