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| recruiting employees for jobs in an organization |
11 Steps in recruiting employees for jobs:
People are an organizations most valuable resource. The effectiveness of an organization depends on its staff. Good quality work requires good quality people. An organization which uses a fair and effective recruitment process is more likely to employ the right person for the job. An organization that has a poor recruitment process is unlikely to recruit the right people. This may lead to poor performance, low quality projects and possible risks in areas such as child protection. This section research looks at the process of recruiting staff, from identifying a new role, to finding and recruiting the right person. In addition to permanent staff, it is wise to use this process as much as possible for the recruitment of casual staff and volunteers.
Step1: identify the need for recruiting
The recruitment process starts when a vacancy arises. This may be a new position or as a result of a staff member leaving the organization. For each vacancy it is important that someone with an overview of the organization considers:
1. Does the role fit with the organization’s mission, value and purpose? Does it fit with the organizations strategy and existing organization structure?
2. Does the role add value to the organization? Organizations should invest funds where the impact will be the greatest.
3. How will the role be funded? Organizations should always consider the cost of employing staff in their annual budget. Cost include: cost of recruitment; benefits; desk space; equipment such as a computer; other services.
The line manager would usually identify the vacancy within their own team or department. They should describe the job by writing a job profile. A job profile should be developed for a job whether it is to be filled by someone on an employment contract or by casual staff and volunteers.
Step 2: Describe the job- the job profile
The job profile usually consists of two parts; a job description and a person specification. To describe the job, two questions need to be asked:
1. What are the main role and responsibilities of the job? The answer to this question forms the job description. The job description outlines the job and the expectations of the person in the job and shows how the job fits with the rest of the organization.
2. What skills and quantities will the person need to carry out the job? The answer to the question forms the person specification. The person specification defines the type of person required and plays a big part in the process of selecting people to interview. It is important that the requirements in the person specification are directly related to the needs of the job. If the requirement is more than are actually needed for the job, someone might be disappointed and unhappy in a new job when they find they are not fully able to use their gifts.
Job description
Consider the main role and responsibilities involved in the job. Then write a job description based on them. A suggested structure for job description below:
Main purpose of job:
Up to two sentence stating why the job exists. For example, a job purpose for an administration might be, to provide administrative support to the finance director.
Line management /position in organization:
This indicates how the job fits into the organization. In which department will the job be based? Who line manager the person in the job? Does the job involve management of other staff? If so , which staff? Who will the person in the job work with closely? This section should also mention the decisions that the person in the job can make without asking their line manager such as:
1. Can they recruit and dismiss staff?
2. How much can they spend or allow other staff to spend
3. Can they be entrusted with funds? If so, what level of funds are they responsible for? For example, for an administrator role, this section may state; this role is based in the finance department and will be managed by the finance director. The main aspect of the role is to carry out administrative duties for the finance director. It also involves providing administrative duties for the finance director. It is also involve providing administrative support to the payroll officer during the last week of every month.
Scope of job:
This section is used to identify the major activities of the job. A maximum of eight major activities should be given. They should be prioritized in order of the time the person in the job will spend on the activity, starting with the activity requiring the most time. This section may not be necessary where there is only one major activity. For example for an administrator role there may be two key activities: providing administrative support to the finance director; and assisting the payroll officer with the payment of staff.
Duties and responsibility:
Underneath each major activity, list the specific duties and responsibility. Start each duty or responsibility with a verb. The box of verbs below may be helpful. There is no need to give a description of how the work is to be done.
For example, the duties and responsibilities of an administrator might include:
1. Maintain the calendar of the finance director.
2. Take accurate minutes at team meeting and distribute them
3. Make travel booking for team members.
Step 3: complete the recruitment request form
Once the job profile is written it is important to have a process where line managers make an official request for the new position of the human resources department or the leadership of the organization. A suggested template for a recruitment request is given below.
Recruitment request
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Job title |
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Location |
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Line manager |
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Needed from |
Start date |
End date (if not permanent contract) |
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Reason needed (give justification relevant box) |
Replacement for current position |
New positions with reasons |
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Funding (tick as appropriate ) |
General funds |
Specific donor funds (please give details) |
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Job profile |
attached |
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Child protection |
Does the job involve work with children? |
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advertisement |
Suggestions of appropriate places to advertise the job |
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Requested by |
Name |
Signature |
Date |
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Approved by |
Name |
Signature |
Date |
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Step 4: Agree the grade salary for the job
Once the job profile has been developed and approved, it is necessary to agree what the grade and salary of the job should be.
Step 5: Advertise the job
Once the job description, person specification and salary have been finalized, it is time to let people know about the vacancy. There are many ways to advertise a job. Consider sending an advertisement by email to staff or other organization, putting an advertisement on an office or community notice board, and advertising on the internet or in newspapers. It is worth thinking carefully about targeting places where people with the right skills and personnel qualities are likely to see the advertisement. For example, a Christian organization may send the advertisement to local churches. These may be particular websites that will advertise jobs related to relief, development and advocacy work. Word of mouth is often the best method. Where the job is being advertised, the principles of developing the advertisement are the same. The job advertisement should be clear and well presented as it may be the first time that people have come into contact with the organization. It should include the following information:
1. Brief description of the organization what kind of work it does and where organizations values.
2. How the role fits into the wok organization
3. Location of jobs
4. What the role involves this is taken from the job description. To get people’s attention, this could be written in personalized form, such as, you will be an excellent communicator
5. What kind of person the organization is looking for – this has already been identified in the person specification?
6. Salary- the salary range of the job
7. Start date if the vacancy needs to be filed urgently.
8. Closing dates for application – some organization interview candidates when ever they apply for the job, but it is helpful to set a deadline for application and consider a few candidates at once.
9. How to apply – some organizations provide an application form while others ask for a curriculum vitae (CV) with a letter. Some organizations enable people to apply for positions using the internet. Others prefer receiving applications by email or post.
Step 6: select candidates to interview
When the closing date for application has passed, it is time to review the application in order to select candidates to interview. It is not appropriate to interview everyone who applies for a job because:
1. Often the application form shows that people are not suited to the job. Rather than being interviewed, these applications should be told that their application has not been successful.
2. There is rarely time to interview all the applicants. An interview usually lasts for one hour so it is only possible to carry out six interviews in one day. It is therefore appropriate to select only four or five people to interview.
The people who select candidates to interview should ideally be the people who will carry out the interview to avoid bias.
To select candidates to interview, compare each application against the person specification. Go through the application forms and put a score in each applicant’s column against each criterion, using the scoring system below:
When scoring, it is important to be strict. Therefore is no point in interviewing people who may not be suitable for the job. If no one is good enough to be interviewed, it is better to re advertise the job. Once every applicant and their score have been added to the form, cross out any candidate who has a score of “f” against any of the essential criteria. These candidates should not be considered further.
For remaining applicants, add up each person scores for the desirable criteria. From these scores, it is possible to see who strongly meets the essential criteria and who strongly meets the desirable criteria. Spend time discussing then information given in the table to decide which of the candidates should be interviewed for the job.
1. Ensure that when doing so, only the applicant ability to meet the criteria is discussed. Be careful not to discriminate against people due to their sex, race ,disability.
2. Look carefully at the employment section of the form. Check that there are no long gaps in employment. There may be valid reasons for such gaps, but these can only be investigated during the interview.
3. Consider how likely the application is to stay in the job for longer than a few months, it is unlikely that they will stay for a long time in this job. This means that time and money would need to be spent recruiting and replacement within few months. If only one person meets all the essential criteria, and is therefore the only person who can be selected for interview, they should still be asked to attend an interview. Some application forms make people appear perfect for the job, but during the interview it might become clear that the applicant would not be appropriate.
4. Personal qualities, such as having a positive attitude and being a strong team player, can be more important than the right experience on the application form. The interview provides an opportunity to question the applicant face to face.
5. It is common for people to exaggerate their skills and experience on the application. The interview provides an opportunity to question the applicant to know his or her potentials.
6. The date and location of the interview, with map.
7. Details about any test and presentation that they will be expected to carry out as part of the interview. They should be informed of the length of times these will take.
8. Document that will need to bring with them, such as passport, work visa and education certificates.
Step 7: interview the candidates
The aim of an interview is to discover how well suited someone is to the job. The interview pro
Aides an opportunity to meet the candidate and further explore what they wrote on their application form. Interview should be carried out within a week or two after candidates were selected. Identify date when all the interviewers can attend and ensure that an appropriate venue can be booked.
It is good practice for at least two interviewers to be present at each interview. Usually this would be the line manager of the vacancy and a member of the human resource department. To ensure that the interviews are fair, an interviewer should not interview a relative. For senior roles, a bigger panel of interviewers, including another senior manager, is a good idea.
Preparation for interview
Each interview should ensure that they read and familiarize themselves with the interview papers, including the application forms of those to be interviewed and reference if these are available. The interview panel should meet before the interviews to prepare the questions that will be asked. These should relate to the job description, person specification and application forms. In the interviews, try to find out about the following:
1. Gaps in employment
2. Experience relevant to the job
3. Reason for leaving a particular job
4. Personal abilities
5. Relevant academic qualification
To ensure fairness and consistency try to ensure that each candidate is asked the same questions, but be aware that further question may need to be asked to explore issues raised in the candidate’s answers or on their application form. Before the interviews, the interview panel should agree responsibilities for:
1. Chairing the interview
2. Welcoming the candidates
3. Introducing the interview panel
4. Ensuring the interview keeps to time
5. Asking the question – each interviewer could be responsible for a set of questions
At the interview
Remember that interviews are two way. While the organization is assessing the candidates suite able for the job, the candidate is deciding whether they want to work for the organization. The candidate is relaxed; they are more likely to give honest and realistic answers to the questions. Here are some tips;
1. Offer the candidate a drink
2. Check that the candidates are able to sit comfortably.
3. Ensure that the interviewers are introduced
4. Explain the format of the interview, including when the candidates will make their presentation if relevant.
Step 8: collect reference
Reference plays a very important part in the steps of recruitment employees for jobs. Information from the past employers is often the best way to understand how a new staff member will fit into the role and the organization. Reference should also raise any issues of concern. Reference is normally collected after the interview for the successful candidate or candidates. Although having reference before interview can be helpful, they can take a long time to reference can be collected in written form or by or by telephone. Be aware that written reference rarely says bad things about people because reference is usually diplomatic and consider carefully what to write. When reviewing reference, it is worth noting whether referees have avoided answering any question. Consider whether this could be because they have doubts about the candidates in that area. It is important to telephone referees who have provided a written reference to confirm that the reference was genuine
Step 9: offer job
Where possible, the line manager should telephone the successful candidate to offer them the job. A decision from the candidate on whether to accept the job should not be expected immediately, but a timeframe should be agreed. If the specifically requires someone who is fit, the job offer could be conditional upon a successful medical examination. If the candidate does not accept the job, there may be a second choice candidate who could be offered the job. If there are no suitable alternative candidates it is necessary to re advertise the job. When a successful candidate accepts a job, the starting date should be agreed. A job pack should then be prepared and sent to them. The job pack contains all the paper work needed for the successful candidate to start working with organization.
Step 10: inform unsuccessful candidates
Candidates who were unsuccessful must be told as soon as the successful candidates accept the job. It is necessary to state why they were unsuccessful, but be prepared to provide constructive feedback if requested. Interview notes and test completed by unsuccessful candidates should be kept in a file for as long as local law requires. This file may be useful in the decision is questioned by the candidate or if the candidate asks for feedback on their interview.
Step 11: open a personnel file
A personnel file should be set up for each new staff member. This file is confidential, and only the human resource department and line manager should have access to it. It should therefore be stored in a locked cabinet. The personnel file should contain all information relevant to the staff member. It is important that it is kept up to date and it is the responsibility of the human resources department or line manager to ensure that it is maintained in accordance with local laws. Each personnel file should hold some or all of the following items for each staff member. The amount of information held will depend upon the persons role.
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