Chapter 5

PERSONNEL PLANNING AND

RECRUITING

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WHERE WE ARE NOW…

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The Recruitment and Selection Process
• Job analysis identifies the duties and human requirements for
each of the company's jobs. The next step is to decide which of
these jobs you need to fill, and to recruit and select employees
for them.
1.Decide what positions to fill through personnel planning and
forecasting.
2.Build a pool of candidates for these jobs, by recruiting internal or
external candidates.
3.Have candidates complete application forms and undergo initial
screening interviews.
4.Use selection tools to identify viable candidates.
5.Decide who to make an offer to, by having the supervisor and
others interview the candidates.

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• Recruiting
 The process of seeking sources for job candidates.
 Finding and/or attracting applicants for the employer's open positions.
 Recruiting is discovering potential applicants for actual or anticipated
organizational vacancies.
 It involves seeking viable job candidates.
• Recruiter
 Represents employer to prospective applicants at colleges and job fairs.

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Goals of Recruiting
• The two goals of recruiting are
 To generate a large pool of qualified applicants and to provide
enough information for individuals
 To self-select out of the process.

• The more applications received, the better the recruiter’s

chances of finding an individual best suited to the job
requirements.

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FIGURE 5–1 Steps in Recruitment and Selection Process

The recruitment and selection process is a series of hurdles aimed at selecting the best candidate for the job.

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FIGURE 5–2 Linking Employer’s Strategy to Plans

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Factors That Affect Recruiting Efforts
• Constraints on recruiting efforts: Factors that can limit
recruiting outcomes.

 Image of the organization,

 Attractiveness and nature of the job,
 Internal policies,
 Government requirements, and
 Recruiting budget.

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• Organization Image
 A prospective candidate may not be interested in pursuing job
opportunities in the particular organization. The image of the
organization can be a potential constraint. A poor image may
limit its attraction to applicants.

• Job Attractiveness
 If the position to be filled is difficult, distasteful, or unattractive,
recruiting a large and qualified pool of applicants will be difficult.
In recent years, for instance, many employers have been
complaining about the difficulty of finding suitably qualified
individuals for manual labor positions.

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• Internal Organizational Policies
 Internal organizational policies, such as “promote from within
wherever possible,” may give priority to individuals inside the
organization. Such policies, when followed, typically ensure that
all positions, other than the lowest-level entry positions, will be
filled from within the ranks. Although this looks good once one is
hired, it may reduce the number of applications.

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• Government Influence
 The government’s influence in the recruiting process should not
be overlooked. An employer can no longer seek out preferred
individuals based on non–job-related factors such as physical
appearance, sex, or religious background. An airline that wants
to hire only young, attractive females for flight attendant
positions will find itself breaking the law if comparably qualified
male candidates are rejected on the basis of gender—or female
candidates are rejected on the basis of age.
• Recruiting Costs
 The last constraint, but certainly not lowest in priority, centers on
recruiting costs. Recruiting efforts are expensive. Sometimes
budget restrictions put a time limit on searches.

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Planning and Forecasting
• Employment or Personnel Planning
 The process of deciding what positions
the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.
• Succession Planning
 The process of deciding how to fill the
company’s most important executive jobs.
• What to Forecast?
 Overall personnel needs
 The supply of inside candidates
 The supply of outside candidates

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 Forecasting Personnel Needs

Forecasting Tools

Trend analysis Ratio analysis Scatter plotting

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• Trend analysis
 Study of a firm's past employment needs over a period of years
to predict future needs.
 Trend analysis means studying variations in the firm's
employment levels over the past few years.
 Trend analysis can provide an initial rough estimate of future
staffing needs.
 However, employment levels rarely depend just on the passage
of time.
 Other factors (like changes in sales volume and productivity)
also affect staffing needs.

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• Ratio analysis
 A forecasting technique for determining future staff needs by
using ratios between, for example, sales volume and number of
employees needed.

• Scatter Plot
 A scatter plot shows graphically how two variables—such as
sales and your firm’s staffing levels—are related.
 If they are, and then if you can forecast the business activity (like
sales), you should also be able to estimate your personnel
needs.

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FIGURE 5–3 Determining the Relationship Between
Hospital Size and Number of Nurses

Hospital Size Number of

(Number Registered
of Beds) Nurses

200 240

300 260

400 470

500 500

600 620

700 660

800 820

900 860

Note: After fitting the line,

you can project how many
employees are needed,
given your projected volume.

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Drawbacks to Traditional Forecasting
Techniques
• Managers obviously need to consider other factors too.
These include projected turnover, decisions to upgrade
(or downgrade) products or services, productivity
changes, and financial resources.
• They focus on historical relationships.
• They do not consider the impact of strategic initiatives on
future staffing levels.
• They support compensation plans that reward managers
for managing ever-larger staffs.

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Using Computers to Forecast Personnel
Requirements
• Computerized Forecasts
 Computerized forecasts enable the manager to build more
variables into his or her personnel projections.
 Whichever forecasting tool you use, managerial judgment
should play a big role.

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• Knowing your staffing needs satisfies only half the staffing
equation. Next, you have to estimate the likely supply of
both inside and outside candidates. Most firms start with
the inside candidates.
• The main task here is determining which current
employees might be qualified for the projected openings.
• Here, managers often turn to qualifications (or skills)
inventories. These contain data on employees'
performance records, educational background, and
promotability.
• Whether manual or computerized, these help managers
determine which employees are available for promotion or
transfer.
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 Forecasting the Supply of
Inside Candidates

Qualification
Inventories

Manual systems and Computerized skills

replacement charts inventories

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• Department managers or owners of smaller firms often
use manual devices to track employee qualifications.
Thus a personnel inventory and development record
form compiles qualifications information on each
employee.

• Computerized skills inventory data typically include items

like work experience codes, product knowledge, the
employee’s level of familiarity with the employer’s
product lines or services, the person’s industry
experience, and formal education.

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• Personnel replacement charts are another option,
particularly for the firm's top positions. They show the
present performance and promotability for each
position's potential replacement.

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FIGURE 5–4 Management Replacement Chart Showing Development
Needs of Potential Future Divisional Vice Presidents

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• Markov analysis
 Employers also use a mathematical process known as Markov

analysis (or "transition analysis") to forecast availability of

internal job candidates.
 Markov analysis involves creating a matrix that shows the

probabilities that employees in the chain of feeder positions for a

key job (such as from junior engineer, to engineer, to senior
engineer, to engineering supervisor, to director of engineering)
will move from position to position and therefore be available to
fill the key position.

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