2.3 Recruitment, selection and training of employees

2.3.1 Recruitment and selecting employees:

• Recruitment and selection methods
• Difference between internal recruitment and external recruitment
• Main stages in recruitment and selection of employees
• Recommend and justify who to employ in given circumstances
• Benefits and limitations of part-time employees and full-time employees

2.3.2 The importance of training and the methods of training:

• Importance of training to a business and to employees
• Benefits and limitations of induction training, on-the-job training and off-the-job training

2.3.3 Why reducing the size of the workforce might be necessary:

• Difference between dismissal and redundancy with examples
• Understand situations in which downsizing the workforce might be necessary, e.g. automation or reduced demand for products
• Recommend and justify which employees to make redundant in given circumstances

2.3.4 Legal controls over employment issues and their impact on employers and employees:

• Legal controls over employment contracts, unfair dismissal, discrimination, health and safety, legal minimum wage

‌Why recruit?

‌Before we start to learn this topic, we need to know Why do businesses recruit? They recruit because of the followings:

• To replace staff who have left or been promoted
• Bring in staff with new skills
• Recruit more staff as business expands
• To complete a specialised project or job in the organisation
• when an employee resigns from a job or is dismissed by the management
• When someone in the company retires.

I have explained this lesson in the video below, if reading is not your thing!

‌Recruitment

‌Overall process of attracting, shortlisting, selecting and appointing suitable candidates for jobs within an organisation.

• ‌Job Analysis – A study of the tasks and activities to be carried out by the new employee
• Job Description – This describes the main duties and responsibilities of the job
• Job Specifications – The qualifications and qualities necessary to perform the job (e.g. educational requirements, experience needed)

‌Type of recruitment

‌Once we have done the job analysis, created a job description and job specification we need to Advertising the vacancy

‌Internal Recruitment

‌Promoting or moving workers from one job to another within the company.

Advantages

• Saves time and money – Don’t need to spend money on advertising the job vacancy
• Applicants ‘know’ the firm – the firm know the applicant
• Motivates other workers (chance for them to get promoted)

Disadvantages

• Applicants may not bring in new ideas
• Promoting an employee may make other employees jealous and demotivated

‌Recruiting channels:

• Noticeboards
• Company Newsletters
• HR sends to all Email

‌External Recruitment

‌Recruiting someone who is not an existing employee and will be new to the business.

Advantages

• New ideas from new workers
• More likely to hire someone who matches job specification

Disadvantages

• Expensive – need to advertise job
• Demotivating for internal candidates

‌Recruiting channels:

• Local newspaper
• National newspaper
• Recruitment agencies
• Job centres
• Careers websites

‌Selection process

‌Review Application and CV of all applicants

Testing – we can ask them to take one of the below test to identify their suitability

• Skill test
• Aptitude test
• Personality test
• Group situation test

Interviews – to find out more about the applicant

Selection – picking the best candidate

Making offer

You can watch this lesson here

‌Benefits and limitations of full-time employees

‌A full time contract is where the employee works around 36-40 hours a week.

Ups

• Full time workers tend to have better performance
• Better knowledge of the service or product
• More commitment to the business – as they feel part of belonging
• Better communication within the team

Downs

• Organisation will be paying wages even if it is very quite or not busy.
• Can be expensive having too many full time workers

‌Benefits and limitations of part-time employees

‌This is where the company employs people to work less hours than a full time worker. Normally around 16-20 hours a week.

Advantages

• Have more employees during busy periods
• Flexible working hours
• Less expensive than hiring full-time employees

Disadvantages

• Workers are less trained than full-time employees (because their job is temporary)
• Less committed to the business (temporary job)
• More difficult to communicate with part-time workers when they are not at work

‌Importance of training to a business and to employees

Training is important to a business as it will improve the worker’s skills and knowledge and help the business be more efficient and productive, especially when new processes and products are introduced. It will improve the workers’ chances at getting promoted and raise their morale.

• ‌Trained workers are more productive
• Decrease the amount supervision required
• May lead to job satisfaction
• Reduce accidents and injuries
• Improve chances for internal promotion

‌Induction training

‌an introduction given to a new employee, explaining the firm’s activities, customs and procedures and introducing them to their fellow workers.

Advantages:

• Helps new employees to settle into their job quickly
• May be a legal requirement to give health and safety training before the start of work
• Less likely to make mistakes

Disadvantages:

• Time-consuming
• Wages still have to be paid during training, even though they aren’t working
• Delays the state of the employee starting the job

‌On-the-job training

‌This occurs when a more experienced worker doing the job trains an inexperienced member of staff on certain task. Some organisation will bring an external trainer to train employees on the job.

Advantages:

• It ensures there is some production from worker whilst they are training
• It usually costs less than off-the-job training
• It is training to the specific needs of the business

Disadvantages:

• The trainer will lose some production time as they are taking some time to teach the new employee
• The trainer may have bad habits that can be passed onto the trainee
• It may not necessarily be recognised training qualifications outside the business

‌Off-the-job training

‌This involves being trained away from the workplace, usually by specialist trainers in a college or university.

Advantages:

• A broad range of skills can be taught using these techniques
• Employees may be taught a variety of skills and they may become multi-skilled that can allow them to do various jobs in the company when the need arises.

Disadvantages:

• Costs are high
• It means wages are paid but no work is being done by the worker
• The additional qualifications means it is easier for the employee to leave and find another job

You may watch this lesson here:

‌Difference between dismissal and redundancy

‌Dismissal:

Where a worker is told to leave their job because their work or behaviour is unsatisfactory.

Redundancy:

When an employee is no longer needed and so loses their work, through not due to any fault of theirs. They may be given some money as compensation for the redundancy.

‌Downsizing the workforce

‌Here is why might a business need to reduce the number of employees.

• ‌Automation – technology takes over.
• Reduced demand for products – meaning less people needed to make the product
• Factory/shop closure
• business relocating
• business merging
• Some jobs are no longer needed

‌Legal controls over employment contracts, unfair dismissal, discrimination, health and safety, legal minimum wage

‌All countries have laws to ensure that employees are treated equally, fairly and are not discriminated because of their age, colour or beliefs.

‌So businesses are required by law to treat their employees equally in the workplace and when being recruited and selected- there should be no discrimination based on age, gender, religion, race etc.

‌Here in the UK employees are protected from:

• Unfair discrimination at work and when applying for job
• Wage protection minimum wage)
• Health and safety standards
• Unfair dismissal
• And many more

‌H.R. (Human Resource) Department

‌Normally all organisations have a deportment called HR and they are responsible for the whole of the recruitment process:

• Recruitment and selection:
• – attracting and selecting the best candidates for job posts
• Wages and salaries:
• – set wages and salaries that attract and retain employees as well as motivate them
• Industrial relations:
• – there must be effective communication between management and workforce to solve complaints and disputes as well as discussing ideas and suggestions
• Training programmes:
• – give employees training to increase their productivity and efficiency
• Health and safety:
• – all laws on health and safety conditions in the workplace should be adhered to and they will ensure right training is provided
• Redundancy and dismissal:
• – the managers should dismiss any unsatisfactory/misbehaving employees and make them redundant if they are no longer needed by the business. HR will help and assist with this.