Socially Responsible Recruitment

A society is likely to be prosperous when business firms are innovative, competitive, productive, profit and socially responsible. Therefore, the business community is continuously challenged to inculcate all these characteristics.
Today, issues like environmental damage, unsafe working environment, and faulty products leading to customers’ inconvenience are getting attention. Customers are becoming conscious about the social image of the companies from which they buy their goods and services. This requires organizations to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally friendly manner.
With the introduction of the concept that there is something called “common good” or the general welfare of the society, the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged. The basic premise of the concept of CSR is the claim that business is also a social institution.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as a concept that requires companies to integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. Companies have a number of stakeholders like employees, suppliers, customers, creditors, shareholders, key government agencies, etc.
It also highlights that company’s need to answer two aspects of their operations:
• The quality of their management
• The nature and quantity of their impact on society in various areas.
“Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.”
CSR and Human Resources
Organizations are currently highlighting their focus on safety, health and training and development of their employees.
Telewest, a company of the UK declares, “We invest in the development and training of our people encouraging them to focus their learning around business needs and to pursue appropriate development opportunities. Telewest is committed to ensure that the safety of our customers and staff remains a top priority. It is paramount that safe working practices linked with a safe working environment are maintained at all times to protect the health, safety and welfare of all those affected by our activities.”
Recruitment – Social Implications
According to Edward Flippo recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organizations. He views recruitment as a positive activity of hiring because it increases the number of applicants per job opening. This is valid for corporate jobs in India too.
According to the literature on human resources, the aim of an effective recruitment program is to attract the best people for the job and aid the recruiter by making a wide choice available. Thus, at the time of recruitment, companies have to make attempts to attract as many applicants as possible so that it can hire the best people. If the recruitment effort is not effective, there is a possibility that the company may employ persons with less caliber even when persons with more caliber are willing to work in the company at the salary or wage levels that the company is paying. Hence, human resources professionals are suggested to utilize all possible channels to inform potential candidates regarding their requirement for employment.
At the recruitment stage, HR professionals should try to inform the public at large through all possible channels regarding their requirement of employees with specific competence potential. Such an open policy will encourage many candidates to develop their competence to higher levels so that they can get better jobs. When persons in a society develop their competencies to a higher level, the society will benefit due to the increased productivity, even though the concerned persons do not get a job with higher responsibility and higher pay immediately. This is because improvement in competence gets reflected in the present job also.
Today, companies are narrowing the choice to a group of persons based on religion, caste, region or educational institutes.
Hence, it is proposed that HR departments articulate a recruitment policy that aims at informing as large a number of persons as possible about the manpower requirements of the company and a selection process that is fair to all persons with competencies required for a vacancy in a corporate concern in the interest of the society.

Recruitment – Trends

Historically, in our country trade was either inherited or learnt from the master craftsman directly. Before the Industrial Revolution, the villages were self-sufficient. Business was carried out through the barter system. This division gave rise to the CASTE SYSTEM. The caste system gradually became deep-rooted due to the fact that the skills imparted were transferred from father to son. The Industrial Revolution in Britain created a need for both, the raw materials required to run the factories and a market for the finished products. For this, the raw materials were bought from the British colonies at cheaper rates, while the finished goods were sold back to the colonies at lower prices. The Industrialization era created greater employment opportunities.
Meaning of Recruitment
In Industrial terminology, to recruit has come to mean “to fill up a vacancy” and recruitment is the process involved in it.
With the rise of Industrial Revolution, the demand for skilled labor grew, giving rise to greater opportunities in terms of the number of skilled personnel required for the job.
People from all sections of society now learnt and pursued different trades of their choice. This was the beginning of a social transformation, which eventually rid the society of the evils of a deep-rooted caste bias.
Pre-Recruitment Stages
Recruitment is the function of the Personnel Department, which identifies the vacancies based on the need expressed by the concerned department.
The Personnel Department takes sanction for filling up he post from the management.
There is a fundamental shift from “the approved manpower planning” to the requirements of manpower and finance originating from the business plan.
This shift is due to the change in the operation of business. Today, the market is driven by consumer preference, and consumers no longer merely take what is produced. The need for a variety in the skilled manpower originates from the growing customer expectations.
Modes of Recruitment
The traditional system of recruitment depended upon the recent applications sourced from the company employees’ children. The application contained a column which required the prospective candidate to state whether she/he has any relative working in the organization.
The modern organizations scout for bright candidates across the globe.
Sourcing through Newspapers
The common method of sourcing prospective candidates is by advertising for positions in the newspapers.. The newspaper advertisement carries a short profile of the company and the position with a job description.
Tele-Recruitment
Tele-recruitment is a method wherein candidates are interviewed over the telephone, selected and recruited. The employers check the skills sets and experience of the prospective candidates before interviewing them.
Internet
The spread of Internet has enabled employers to search for candidates globally and has made the recruitment process easier. The employer can browse the profile of candidates from the Internet and the candidates can be accessed through e-mail.
Recruitment through Placement Consultants
The placement agencies invite resumes of prospective candidates. They also interview candidates and shortlist those according to the criteria laid down by the respective companies. This helps the employers to interview a limited number of potential candidates.

Cultural Fit

Most HR professionals today recognize the importance of Cultural Fit. What is Cultural Fit? It becomes useful to first explore the broader concept of fit and the reasons why culture fit is particularly important.
Fit is typically defined in two ways:
• Job fit
• Organization fit.
Job fit refers to the degree to which the candidate’s skills and experience arerelevant to the job and the degree to which the candidate finds the role’s activities and responsibilities satisfying.
Organizational fit refers to the candidate’s compatibility with the organization’s values and mode of operation.
While organization fit covers a range of organizational attributes the most common and frequently cited element centers on the congruence between individual and organizational values. This is referred to as culture fit.
Research over the years has shown that individuals selected on the basis of culture fit will contribute faster, perform better and stay longer. In today’s business scenario knowledge, intellectual capital, individual and organizational qualities represent the competitive value proposition for most companies.
Culture fit cannot be developed in any individual. Provided someone fits into the organization, and demonstrates the ability to grow and develop, their knowledge and skills will change and grow over time. Values and motivations on the other hand are almost impossible to change.
Though most of the HR Managers understand the significance of Culture Fit, but the tight labor market often leads them to make decisions quickly and choose individuals who may not be right. Internally, they cite time pressures; lack of available tools, skills and resources as the reasons for not assessing cultural fit.
Assessing cultural fit is not as difficult as many would think. It requires establishing strong processes and tools that are understood and effectively practiced by all managers.
The first step is to secure the Top Management buying. This starts with demonstrating a sound return on investment.
The next step is to put in place sound and efficient processes that support the assessment of culture fit. This is where the HR function plays a critical role.
Finally, the individual’s rankings are compared with the organization profiles to identify areas of alignment and potential mismatch. This information is often carried forward to first or second interviews.
Recruiting for cultural fit is very important. Organizational culture today is being threatened by hiring processes. What is encouraging though is the recognition that the issue of culture fit is an important one. The HR function needs to take a strategic stance on the same.

Recruitment and Selection – An Overview

The role of talent in any economy raises various issues. In the early years, it was the employers who had dominated the market, and employees were in abundant supply with no shareholder’s activism. As we moved on, the financial power assumed more significance. However, the Human Capital is now becoming the most dominant force in the business.
Recruitment and Selection of the right candidate considering the vision, mission and strategy of the organization, is increasingly gaining significance.
Recruitment
Rynes defines recruitment as, “Recruitment encompasses all organizational practices and decisions that affect either the number or type of individuals who are willing to apply for, or to accept a given vacancy.”
The focus of recruitment and selection is on matching the capabilities and inclinations of prospective candidates against the demands and rewards inherent in a given job.
Effective Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment Strategy focuses on the following -
• When to recruit
• How many to recruit
• Where to recruit from
• Which channels to tap
When to recruit
The recruitment practice of any organization varies, depending on the life cycle and size of the organization. It also depends heavily on the Manpower planning.
How many to recruit
The quantum of recruitment varies according to the organizational structure. An organization with a long hierarchical structure might recruit large number of people at the time of its expansion. On the other hand, an Organization which has a relatively flat structure, might recruit lesser number of people, considering its resource constraints.
Where to recruit from
The larger organizations usually recruit internally across all the managerial grades. This is in contrast to their smaller counterparts. The larger organizations tend to have a larger pool of potentially suitable candidates. The newer entrants with little or no knowledge mostly involve in External recruitments.
Which channels to tap
The possible sources of attracting potential candidates for recruitment –
Newspaper
Organizations having less knowledge in the existing market tend to opt for newspaper to explain who they are and help people make a choice. As there is already a known domain competency for established organizations, they would not make much use of Newspaper as a possible source.
Magazine
Assuming the same logic as explained above, newer organizations in an existing market would make more use of this source.
Online Recruitment
The scope of online recruitment is wide open. It provides information on job vacancies, conduct online interviews, psychometric assessments, interactive tools for communication, interactive application forms, electronic mailing lists, etc. It is slowly becoming the most reliable source.
Word-of-mouth
Well established organizations use word-of-mouth promotion of the organization through its employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) where an employer outsources or transfers all or part of the staffing process to an external service provider. Many organizations lack the internal expertise and resources to acquire the talent needed to remain competitive.
RPO solutions achieve improvements in four areas:
• Quality
• Cost
• Service
• Speed
Selection
Selection involves screening applicants’ abilities and traits in order to assess the degree of success and compatibility of the individual in the organization. This is the phase of the recruitment strategy where the communication between the employers and job seekers is crucial.