Strategies For Effective Selection And Recruitment In Human Resource Management

Answer 1

1. The effectiveness of various selection practices such as interviews and skills testing, vary dramatically with a company’s recruitment practices.Discuss how recruiting effort can generate a pool of potential qualified candidates.If you are a human resource manager of a company, decide which technique of recruitment you would choose for your company. Justify your decision with reference to the industry type.Identify potential interview problems and discuss ways to fix these problems.

2. Write an introduction on the organization background. The introduction should include a general overview and understanding of the organization’s environment (competitive or otherwise), industry, business and operations. You can obtain all the information from your interviewee(s) as well as from other secondary sources such as official websites, company annual reports, and newsletters.Explore and explain the general existing HRM practices in the organization. Analyze the “beliefs” and “feelings” of the organization’s leaders, managers and the sentiments of the employees as far as HRM is concerned in their organization. This may be an opinion of the interviewee(s) or any organizational statements such as the mission, vision, shared values or even press statements and speeches.Highlight the challenges faced by the organization’s leaders, senior management, HRM and line managers, and/or related departments in their day-to-day running of their duties in relation to HRM initiatives and how they handle those challenges.Identify the future plans as far as HRM is concerned in the organization.Analyze and interpret your observations of the organization in “what is being said” and “what is actually being practiced” as far as HRM initiatives are concerned. Provide evidence, not just feelings.  Review the HRM practices in relation to the Labor Law or Civil Law in Bahrain.

Human resource management refers to official systems enhanced in an organization to help in management of people. Human resource manager is the leader in charge of the department with various roles among them selection and recruitment of employees and enhancing their wellbeing while at workplace.  Selection and recruitment refers to a process of identifying applicants of specific job opportunities, testing their skills by use of quizzes or interviews to enable select who is to be hired. Different organizations use different methods of recruitment processes depending on the type of job requirements, industrial sector, objectives, goals and rules of the organization.

Selection and recruitment process of new employees in to an organization is important as it ensures only the qualified are hired, this is important to enhance organizational growth and development. Though there are various techniques used while carrying out the process, some are curbed by many challenges that at times affect the credibility of the process. Example, while using interview method, language barrier is a major challenge that affect the main procedures. This can result to misunderstandings between the interviewee and the interviewer and can be solved by ensuring both parties share a common official language to help them understand each other through out the process.

Answer 2

In this case, Batelco Telecommunications Company is the case study to be used in analyzing selection and recruitment process of employees. As a principal and main influential telecommunication company in Bahrain, it has a large base of employees who are well skilled to ensure the company remains as one of the favorites in the country. Selection and recruitment of employees in to the company involves ‘passing the psycho metric tests and technical interview’, a process carried out by the human resource department encompassing skilled individuals who are also part of the leadership team (Saleh, 2012).

Recruitment is a practical process of human resource management in an organization that includes identifying employment candidates for specific job opportunities, selecting and testing their skills qualification to know who to hire. A well strategized process enhances use of the best methods to help reach the applicants. This includes advertising the position and stating the required skills, gender if any specification is required and age. There are various methods of advertising or rather reaching the applicant that includes use of newspapers and magazines, use of broadcasting channels both television and radios. This should be done for a good duration of time to ensure all the applicants get the message to evaluate their chances. The human resource should also ensure that the list of qualifications given is in simple and official language for easy understanding, use of unofficial and complicated language results to biasness of information given (Chehade & Hajjar, 2016).

High number of applicants should be engaged so that no skilled applicant is left out of the recruitment process. This gives the human resource manager and the team concerned to have a wide range of options of who to select depending on their qualifications. If the number of applicants is low, the number of selected applicants will also be low making it hard for the team to compare their level of qualifications. To ensure this, the method of advertisement used should be one covering a wider region to enable reaching a high number of potential employees who are interested. This can be a broadcasting station that is available in all regions, use of posters at every corner of the region, use of face to face delivery of posters to interested parties in all regions.

Incentives and motivation of the applicants. This refers to activities done by the human resource manager in charge of the recruitment process to attract skilled applicants (Ekuma, 2012). This includes incentives like providing their means of transport to the recruitment center and back or reimburse their transport cash that they have used. This will enable those qualified but cannot afford to get to the recruitment station to get there and those that can are compensated.  Motivation factors include giving the value of payments for each position of the hired individual and other allowances relating to that position. This is important to ensure that only those applicants that are highly skilled and are comfortable with the value of payments given apply for the position. Allowances given also ensure the applicants relate with the kind of responsibilities and duties they have to carry out before they are even involved.

Qualified and competent team of recruiters. This is important to ensure that individuals in charge understand all the rules and requirements of the vacant positions and the language to use while reaching and selecting the applicants. If the language used is attractive and with positive sentiments about the positions, many applicants will apply. This ensures that, in case information given on the advertising directorates is not clear, the applicants can reach the team for more clarification. With qualified and competent team, language used may be attractive hence attracting more qualified applicants.

As a human resource manager in a health organization, I would use online job boards to and posts on job ads. This is a recruitment technique that involves identifying the existing job boards in the various online platforms, add your job ads for interested applicants to see the details. Health sector requires skilled employees who are willing to offer services to people in need. Unlike many other recruitment techniques in the market, using online job boards is very convenient especially with the increasing levels of technical advancement. People especially the elites are using the various existing online platforms to enquire about any information and also pass information to other individuals. As a result, online content has enhanced recruitment process as most of the skilled individuals looking for employment opportunities do it online.

Health sector requires skilled, experienced and willing people to offer health care services. By using the online job boards to advertise on a job opportunity, it’s important to reach a wide range of skilled health practioners. It gives a chance to the recruitment team to analyze the listed applicants in relation to job requirements and contact them for live interviews.  This helps to hire only the most appropriate and qualified applicant important for effective health care service delivery.

Increasing number of new and existing health care issues have become a threat to health care sector and requires adequate relevant attention that will ensure the solutions given help to solve the problems. Examples, increased number of HIV and AIDs infection virus patients, child mortality and cancer patients are some of the health threats that requires adequate and competent attention. Using online job boards to advertise this employment gaps in the health sector is important to help get skilled and experienced applicants to help come up with probable solutions to these threats.

Language barrier. This is a problem that can be experienced during the interview process of applicants to a given job opportunity. It’s enhanced by use of language that both the interviewer and interviewee does not understand or one that only either the interviewer or the interviewee understands but not both of them. This in most cases happen if the requirements of the interview are set somewhere else and delivered to the interviewing seen by a different personnel rather than the interviewer or in cases where both lack a common language they can use during the process (Saunders & Kitzinger, 2015). It can also be as a result of use of complicated language by the interviewer making it hard for the interviewee to understand.  This can be solved by ensuring that interview process is enhanced using a common and simple official language for easy understanding.

Difficult interviewers. Interviewers have many and different personalities depending on the nature of the process. Some may have content the right content while others may not, this makes it for the interviewer to carry out a process that is not competent. An interviewer may be talking too much about personal issues rather that carry out the process, incases that the interviewer is not competent enough they are likely to talk too much about their personal issues in the interview  room. A disorganized interviewer also makes the process to be challenging as they have no idea on the best way to conduct the interview but keep on repeating themselves. This is a serious challenge and can solved by ensuring there is vetting of interviewers before the process begins. The vetting process can be carried by the senior management of the organization to ensure competency of the interviewers.

Improper questions. An interview is a process of asking questions and answering. There is a set of questions that the interviewer should ask the interviewee regarding the job specifications and not personal questions. Examples of improper questions include; one’s race or ethnicity background, age number, sexuality, marital status of the interviewee. These questions are not in any way supposed to be asked during the process if they are not required as they make the interviewee uncomfortable of the proceedings. This is a serious problem and can be solved by ensuring that, all the interview questions are well specified to prevent embarrassments during the process.

More than one interviewer in an interview. This may be a challenge to the interviewee as they require to pay attention to two people at the same time. Questions asked may be different, many and biased resulting to a biased process. An interview room should only have one interviewer and interviewee at a time unless there are specifications on including more interviewers. This is a serious challenge and can be solved by ensuring that the interviewee is made aware of the situation before they get in to the interview room (Potter & Hepburn, 2012).

Time limitation. An interview process requires adequate time to ensure all details about the job specifications are relevantly captured. In cases where time is not enough and interviewers are forced to reduce the questions administered to the interviewee, the skills required may not be identified or selected as it should be the case. In cases where the interviewee is bombarded with many questions due to lack of enough time, they are likely to give biased information. To solve this, interviewers should ensure there is adequate time for each interview session (Roulston, 2014).

Batelco is a telecommunication company that was established in the year 1981. It was started as a joint public company of Bahrain and has BD200 authorized share capital. The government of Bahrain is the main shareholder of the company with other major public organizations. With its headquarters in the kingdom of Bahrain, the company is one of the major public utilities that has highly developed. It’s controlled and managed by a board of directors who have power to make decisions and initiate changes within the organization for development. The company enhances corporate governance and ensure consumer service delivery to the people of Bahrain.

As the major telecommunication company in Bahrain, Batelco has many competitors who try to level in service delivery but still cannot reach the standards. The company’s greatest competitor is Viva, in line with revenue production, Viva produces less revenue compared to Batelco. This makes it the largest digital communication company in the country and with the highest number of employees. With technological advancement, the company has managed to remain relevant by enhancing its various digital platforms.

In line with the company’s industrial business operations, the company has grown from being a regional service provider to becoming a major and most digitalized solution provider in the sector. It has enhanced growth and shaping of the local consumer market in Bahrain by expanding its services to markets that are less observed especially in MENA area. This is a region where growth factors and activities have been highly supported, consumers in the area are able to access services and participate in development activities. In the year 2006 the company was recognized and awarded as the best operator of fixed line in the region and recognized as the best internet service provider in the year 2007. With Sh. Hamad bin Abdulla as the chairman to the company’s board of director, the company has relevantly scooped many awards as the best telecommunication firm in Bahrain consequently.

Human resource management practices refers to various aspects put in place by organization to enhance employee motivation. It’s important to ensure they remain productive as they enhance organizational growth and development. Batelco as one of the most influential and highest growing company in the region, it has enhanced the best HRM practices. Employees to the company are well paid as it’s a public corporation, they follow certain rules and code of conducts to ensure they remain relevant in accordance to the set rules and objectives. In the year 2011, the company’s human resource management team worn a prestigious award known as GCC for best ‘Talent Management’. This is just among the many awards that the team has worn as a result to service devotion over self-interest to ensuring the company’s employees, customers and other stakeholder’s needs are catered for appropriately (Valavi, 2014).

Talent management is a HRM practices that enhances management of talents within the organization to enhance sustainable levels of effective performance management. Batelco has enhanced this by ensuring that all employees’ abilities to deliver are recognized and awarded respectively. Recruitment and selection of employees is another major HR practice that has been enhanced in the company. In case the management identifies a gap in service delivery sector, it develops a list of employee requirements or qualification to help search for an applicant to fill the gap. The process involves identifying the applicant, selecting and interviewing to know who to hire. Training of new employees is done by the HR to ensure they understand their roles and expectations from the company. Existing employees are also trained from time to time to ensure they advance their skills for effective service delivery.

Performance management plan analysis. In order to remain productive and relevant in the sector, human resource manager in Batelco has a role to ensuring a complete analysis of employee’s performance. As a leadership development practice, it ensures that all employees carry out their duties as expected, gives an opportunity to employees to share their challenges and experiences to get support from others. According to the analysis, employees with the best results are awarded as a way of motivating others to be more productive (Usrof & Elmorsey, 2016).

Senior management leaders  of Batelco company has a belief that , services delivered to its people in each market are innovative with high value to ensuring the company remains the best in digital solutions service delivery. From the company’s mission statement, Batelco and its stakeholders are determined to remain relevant in the market by ensuring valuable service delivery through high competitive resolutions and excellence of the people. Human resource has a value to ensure customer satisfaction by serving both internal and external customers appropriately, listening and respecting their taste as they serve them as required (Ter Bogt & Scapens, 2012). This enhances a positive relation between the customer and the company, high professional levels with honesty and transparency skills while offering service.

The company is founded at the basis of trust, that is, leaders and employees trust each other as they desire to give relevant and adequate service in the market. HR ensures that all the company stakeholders work as a team as they believe teamwork is the most effective and productive in such a sector. Leaders led by the chief executive officer of Batelco believe in creativity as new ideas are welcomed and encouraged for development, share meetings to give experiences and challenges for support. This encourages open mindedness for people to think outside the box, in line with HRM practices, this encourages high performance analysis important for company’s growth. Talent management in the company has grown as a result of hard work from both the employees and leaders in the company. Leaders provide conducive environment for employees to exercise their skills, this ensures employees remain relevant in the company as they are also bound to benefit from this developments (Njoroge & Yazdanifard, 2014).

Establishing an organizational culture. This is a leadership role that includes coming up with a common way of doing things following the set organizational goals and objectives. Senior leadership management in Batelco has a challenge of developing a culture that best fits the organizational requirements. This is because the many existing departments have different ways of doing things as a way of enhancing productivity. As required by HRM initiatives, an organization is required to have a culture that is practiced and followed by the organizational stakeholders. To deal with this challenge leaders of various departments ensure that the various ways in which they carry out development activities are in line with the set goals and objectives. This is important to enhance a common ending though the company lacks a common culture (Grabner & Moers, 2013).  

Lack of non-traditional work arrangements. Batelco management has up to date enhanced the office job routine in most cases rather than incorporating field activities more often. HRM initiatives require that, for an organization to register massive success activities it has to incorporate non-traditional work arrangement system (Wang & Li, 2012). Leaders and senior management officials have experienced this challenge as most of the productive activities are done in the office and not in the field as it should be. To deal with this challenge, leaders ensure a digital interaction with the stakeholders to ensure they are incorporated in all development activities taking place (Mittar & Mathew, 2014).

Increased management focus on succession. Though Batelco has a functioning management, there is a section of the senior leaders who still focus on succession. It’s normal for leaders to be succeeded by others after their tenure of leadership is over. This is a challenge as it may result to conflicts between leaders and lead to low productivity as some are concerned with matters of succession rather than enhancing levels of productivity. To deal with this challenge, the senior management ensures to keep track of every leaders roles and responsibilities as they allocate leadership positions to those who perform well (Klenke, 2016).

Top talent relevancy. Batelco is among the companies whose human resource management departments or teams have been awarded for enhancing positive talent management within the organization. The challenges comes in where the battle begins, when there is a question on which talent is more relevant than the other and why in order to be classified as the best. This is a major challenge within the organization as failure to manage it may result to conflicts and low productivity. To deal with this challenge, the HR department team has come up with strategies of identifying the best by enhancing talent mix in Batelco (Costen, 2012).

In regard to Batelco, HRM has a bright future. In terms of development, HRM has the best chance to highly develop and also enhance organizational development. This is because human resource initiatives have been enhanced in the organization development activities some including, section and recruitment of employees as well as talent management. Human resource management in Batelco has plans of ensuring a smooth learning of organizational activities and empowerment of employees. The company directors together with other senior management officials have a vision to ensure HRM activities remain relevant by supporting its vision and mission to offer the best digital solutions platform to its customers. By enhancing customer centered organization, it’s a sign that human resource function of enhancing the wellbeing and management of organizational people is paramount (Bhoganadam & Rao, 2014).

Batelco is an organization that support talents of various individuals, this is evident from the awards the human resource team has been receiving. Selection and recruitment activities carried out by the HRM ensure a successful process of recruitment as employees within the company are highly skilled. Being the most influential organization offering communication services, with the highest number of employees, huge number of social media followers is a sign that services offered by the employees in charge are relevant. With the highest number of shareholders, the company is the most productive public utility that enhances development of both stakeholders and the company itself. This is evident from the scale given of Batelco having released more revenue than its main rival Viva. Employee’s needs and requirements are highly observed as their labor levels are compensated as required by human resource initiatives. This is evident from the performance analysis carried out showing that Batelco has the best employees. This also means that, the company’s human resource management is responsible enough to ensuring that all employees’ remains productive as their needs are well catered for (Almossawi, 2012).

According to Civil Law in Bahrain, employment contracts between an individual and company come to an end when the agreed terms are violated. This violation have consequence’s that are punishable by law. Employment is completed by the employee declaring that they are okay with all the terms given. In regard to declaration of intention act Article 33’ A declaration of intention becomes effective from the time that it comes to the knowledge of the person for whom it was intended’. Batelco Company in regard to human resource management function has enhanced all these civil laws respectively. Development of the company has been as a result of successful recruitment of well-equipped employees an initiative by the human resource management (Harris, et al, 2013).

Conclusion

Human resource management is a very important aspect of development in every profit or non-profit making organizations in the market (Hendry, 2012). It enhances measures, strategies and procedures of people management in an organization important for enhancing positive productivity. Among the many recruitment techniques used by human management is interview which is the most used but is faced by many challenges that affects its credibility but can be solved. Batelco as a major telecommunication company has a role of ensuring effective service delivery to its consumers as it ensures to remain relevant in the industry. Organizational development is enhanced by positive performance management of both the employees and leaders, to ensure this, HRM has to ensure a clear role definition in an organization setup.

Civil laws enhanced by Bahrain country are important to ensure employment opportunities created and offered to individuals follow the right procedures. This ensures that illegal contracts are not offered to employment applicants against the set law. It’s important for organizations in Bahrain and outside in the global market to enhance observation of set civil laws and other employments acts. This ensures that employment sector remains relevant and productive to enhance organizational development. Human resource management is a key factor of employee management that enhances relevance of the set employments act at both local and global levels (Hawaldar, Shakila & Pinto, 2017).

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