A Critical Analysis of the Selection Process at XYZ Company

Introduction

Employees are the most important stakeholders in an organisational setting. They determine the performance of an entity through productivity and commitment to its operations. For this reason; it is important for any organisation, either for a for-profit or otherwise, to be conscious of the personnel engaged in its operations. Failure to pay close attention to the hiring process will imply that a firm engages the wrong employees, and this results in the collapse of the entity in the long run. The selection process for both the internal and external recruitment purposes has to cater to the best interests of the organisation. It is vital that the management team follows the selection process effectively to engage the most suitable candidates for the job. Effective management of the selection process results in the creation of talent in the company (Barrick et al. 2012, p.24). The essay examines the selection process of the XYZ company and the limitations that need to be eliminated in practice in the future. It also recommends the future practices that need to be embraced by human resource managers in the process of selecting personnel.

Key Issues

The first key issue regards the ability to attract the right candidates into the position. Ideally, there are limited options available for a suitable candidate to be selected. Therefore, the company is likely to encounter challenges especially if they are hiring from a pool of unqualified talent. However, in a situation where the organisation is selecting from highly qualified candidates, it may not be a challenge since nearly every candidate chosen for the job has the skills required.

XYZ Company equally needs to deal with the issue of engaging the most qualified candidates for the job. For example, the candidates who are chosen, have hard-to-find skills, meaning that they could be pursued by other companies. Therefore, XYZ Company has to establish the most appropriate way of persuading the candidates into accepting to join the firm.

Finally, there is the issue of improving the overall recruitment process. XYZ can opt to embrace the recruitment data and metrics to improve the process and enhance decision-making process. XYZ Company has the mandate of devising relevant techniques to promote the process of recruitment.

Type of Staff and Organisational Culture

The type of staff working at XYZ are those dealing with customers, service providers and managing stakeholders. The Organisational culture is based on cohesiveness, because of the nature of services which are provided to the customers. In particular, there is need to work in harmony as a way of ensuring maximal customer/client satisfaction and the attainment of identified goals and objectives. The managers are not using the selection and pay policies because of the effects that they have on the kind of employees who are selected. For example, it is evident that those chosen to join the organisation quit after a short duration of time. Therefore, it establishes the need to identify effective ways of recruitment. For example, the recruitment feeds into the selection because of the contribution it makes in attainment of qualified personnel to XYZ Company.

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The employees selected to fill the position are those involved in the provision of client and project handling  services. However, the problem is based on the use of the internal process which results in a limited pool of diversity. XYZ is using the internal resourcing system to get its employees. Consequently, they have a limitation regarding the kind of candidates selected for the position. The use of an external resourcing system can increase chances of getting highly qualified personnel.

Selection process

For both the internal and external recruitment purposes, there is a standard procedure that is followed in the selection process. The initial step is the announcement of the job opportunity to both the internal and external potential candidates. The management team in the firm first has to commission the human resource department to fill vacant or new positions and the former first decide on the qualifications needed for a candidate to fit in the role (Gusdorf 2008, p.13). For instance, the requirements could be that the candidate to be a holder of a university or college degree, have a certain level of experience, specific skillset and so forth. Once the management team establishes job qualifications, the hiring team publicises the vacancy to attract a pool of recruits from both the internal and external sources.

The second phase of the selection process is reviewing of resumes and matching the backgrounds of candidates to job requirements. During recession and depression economic situations, candidates could have job experience and high education qualifications that exceed the requirements of the job (Gusdorf 2008, p.13). Conversely, it could be difficult to attract qualified candidates during recovery and boom economic conditions. Pooling a very small number of candidates could imply that the company misses out on potential talents that will be available with the attraction of a larger number of applicants (Gusdorf 2008, p.13). However, interviewing an unrealistically high number of applicants may come with the element of confusion and lack of objectivity in the selection process. The criteria used in selecting the employees could be biased in a bid to favour a certain group of people.

The third phase of the selection process for both the internal and external recruitment is the initial screening, which provides a basis for interviews to narrow the field of candidates. At this stage, there is the assessment of a candidate’s suitability to assume the responsibilities that will come with taking up the new job in question (Heilman, Manzi and Braun 2015, p.90).

After screening, the hiring team conducts in-person interviews to determine the suitable candidate among those who have passed the screening test. Companies use different procedures for personal interviews in both the internal and external recruitments. For the internal recruitments, interviews could be based on the job performance of the candidates because the management team can easily determine the potential of such candidates (Kurtz and William 2017, p.7). However, for external recruitment, companies may prefer to conduct all-day interview sessions where applicants meet various people every hour. At this time, organisations could have the applicants meet with personnel, the hiring team, and other staffs in a bid to determine their fitness to assume the job opportunities. Candidates could also meet with key personnel in the organisation for the first day and then invite them back for a second time to meet executive members of the organisation (Kurtz and William 2017, p.7). In totality, the interview process has to indicate the suitability of a candidate to take up the new employment opportunity in an organisational setting.

The final step in the selection process involves the hiring team seeking feedback from the people who were involved in the interviewing process. The recruiting team could also review its notes and decide on the candidate that would fit best in the open position in the organisation (Farndale, Nikandrou and Panayotopoulou 2018, p.16). The selection process can be shorter and faster in the internal recruitment approach because there is a sense in which the management team is acquainted with the working of the candidates in question (Barry and Starr 2015, p.53). Internal recruitment provides an avenue for the management team to replace its employees fast and more efficiently.

XYZ effectiveness in the selection process

XYZ Company has been ineffective in the selection process, considering the kind of personnel management issues that it is having with its workforce. The fact that employees are being terminated during their probation process due to the inability to perform well indicates that there is an error in bringing them onboard (Shailashree and Shenoy 2016, p.32). The company may not have followed the selection process which involves specific competencies that the role required. The selection process is supposed to identify the most suitable contenders for the job opening in question. Where the management team hires and fires employees at short spans indicates that there is a problem with the hiring process. It is not a problem with the employees, but rather with the hiring manager in the company. According to the validity approach, a selection process is valid if assists the company of hiring the right people for the job (Gamage 2014, p.39).

In the selection process, reliability is all about the manner in which consistently or dependably the procedure measures the characteristic of potential employees. If candidates go through the process, they should get a similar score. Competency framework assessment will help the hiring managers to achieve this outcome. Assessments that yield similar scores for candidates relating to potential job placement when the process is repeated are deemed to be characteristic reliable as compared to those giving different results (Kumari 2012, p.41). For the case of XYZ, it is sensible to argue that the company’s selection process is unreliable. The company’s members of staff could fail in their second attempts to be employed by the entity. It, therefore, indicates that the firm’s selection process could come with different results on the side of the employees (Klotz et al. 2013, p.106). With an unreliable selection process, XYZ will continue to hire candidates who are unsuitable for different job functions in the organisation.

The hiring managers at XYZ Company are not keen on following the standard selection process. Pay anomalies uncovered by the functional director imply that the hiring team was ineffective in pursuing the selection process properly. There is a lack of serving the best interests of the organisation in its selection process (Klotz et al. 2013, p.108). Overseeing a selection process that is characterised by pay anomalies means that the company is incurring losses because of the negligence of the hiring managers. Failure to align the hiring procedure with the long-term objectives of the entity implies that the organisation does not realise the full potential of its employees (Klotz et al. 2013, p.108). In this regard, the hiring managers at XYZ Company are responsible for the poor selection process that results in the hiring of unqualified employees who cannot function properly in the firm.

Employee referral comes as an internal form of recruitment used by companies in the identification of potential candidates from the extant employee social network. It encourages a firm’s current employees to recommend potential workers for the firm with the acquisition of referral bonus for compensation (Klotz et al. 2013, p.108). XYZ Company has experienced growth in the workforce from 180 to 450 within a period of three years. It means that the firm has been hiring massively in the past three years. The employee referral approach at the company has been ineffective because it has caused an influx of incapable workers in the entity. Employee referral is done in tandem with the social exchange theory.

Effective selection process

An effective selection process aims at satisfying the personnel needs of the organisation. One of the elements of an effective selection process is the organisational evaluation. It starts with the assessment and definition of organisational culture, values, goals, beliefs, and practices on which to assess the role of person requirements for given job placement (Rees and Rumbles 2010, p.171). The organisational evaluation looks out for the leader’s skills, knowledge, ability, and personal characteristics matched to the organisational context. The process has to have role requirements in a bid to attract suitable candidates.

In tandem with the social identity theory, it is important that the potential employees take up jobs which they are prepared to execute competently. People adopt the identity of the groups to which they deem themselves to belong (Zaharie and Osoian 2013, p.86). In a bid to enhance the individual sense of belonging, people compare differences and similarities to other groups. Personal requirements are an important element of an effective selection process and in line with the social identity theory. An effective selection process also has search pools that involve the completion of comprehensive analyses of specific client-driven factors and outlines the key companies, considering different options to access the optimal executive talent for the job (Zaharie and Osoian 2013, p.86).

Impact of the Selection Process and outcomes in relation to TM

The selection process is critical because of the impact on the nature of personnel chosen for the job. In particular, if the selection process is not rigorous, chances are that the employees chosen to fill in the position will not be adequately equipped to deliver on their mandate. Consequently, XYZ Company needs to take appropriate measures that would be critical in selecting the right pool of candidates to join the organisation. The process needs to adopt the most recent approaches of human resource management as a way of ensuring that the employees attracted to the organisation meet the established standards. In addition, the selection process should take into consideration the fact that the candidates selected must have goals which align to those of the organisation. Consequently, in the process of selection, significant efforts must be undertaken to ensure that XYZ ends up with the most qualified employees to replace those who may have left the organisation.

Conclusion and recommendations

XYZ company is running an ineffective selection process that is counterproductive and in contravention of the firm’s best interests in hiring. It has come with operational costs for the entity, and this is undesirable for the management team. The company has to adopt more effective, efficient, and potentially profitable selection practices. The first recommendation for the entity’s hiring managers is that they are supposed to follow the standard selection process involving the same competencies required for each role they would like to hire. The employees have to go through the entire screening process for there to be a determination of their suitability to serve in the company in different capacities (Cook 2008, p.4). Both of these elements should match so that individuals are fitted for the jobs that they will perform the best (Cook 2008, p.4). When job requirements and personal traits are compatible, it is more likely that the employees will perform better as compared to where the employees’ personalities and job requirements are incompatible.

XYZ company should invest in continuous training for its employees. When the selection process is clearly defined, supervisors and hiring managers are supposed to be trained on the requirements of the entire process (Baporikar 2017, p.284). The training process is supposed to include both the steps of recruiting and selecting employees and the way to interview candidates effectively and appropriately. Effective and appropriate interviews attract the best candidates because they indicate the nature of the potential employees. XYZ Company is supposed to involve senior members of the entity in the selection process. Senior managers are responsible for making high-level decisions, and since the selection process is a vital element of organisational operations, it is important that senior leaders in the entity are engaged in the recruitment process (Baporikar 2017, p.284). In totality, the XYZ company has to invest in an effective selection process in a bid to avoid the personnel issues that it is facing at the moment.

References

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