RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND RETENTION AT ABC UNIVERSITY

BY

KHUMALO, J. (21539677)

MODULE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

CODE: ADMM 819

THIS BEING

AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT FOR HRMS (ADMM 819)

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................................iINDEX.......................................................................................................................................ii1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................1

1.1 Recruitment, Selection and Retention.........................................................................11.2 Recruitment and Selection...........................................................................................1

1.2.1. Recruitment Defined................................................................................................11.2.2. Purposes and Policies...............................................................................................2

1.3 Recruitment Process....................................................................................................21.4 Sources of Recruitment...............................................................................................2

External Recruitment.........................................................................................................31.5 Selection......................................................................................................................3

The importance of selection...............................................................................................41.6 Retention......................................................................................................................4

2 The Problem.....................................................................................................................52.2 Causes and effect of the problem................................................................................6

3 Literature review..............................................................................................................64 Proposals...........................................................................................................................8

4.1 Recruitment and Retention..........................................................................................84.2 Salary Incentives: the marketplace versus the collective grid.....................................8

Recommendation: on salary incentives to recruitment and retention................................94.3 Non – Salary incentives: Salary versus benefits..........................................................9

Recommendation on non – salary incentives to recruitment.............................................94.4 Academic incentives to recruitment: research versus teaching...................................9Recommendation: on ABC’s academic incentives to recruitment......................................104.5 Academic incentives to retention: research versus promotion..................................10

Recommendation: on academic incentives to retention...................................................104.6 Merit pay as a financial incentive: individual versus collective................................10

Recommendations............................................................................................................105 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................11References................................................................................................................................12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The ABC University has experienced problems both with its recruitment and selection, as

well as retention. The delay in the selection process has often lead to high employee turnover,

as some staff feel that they are overloaded and not rewarded accordingly. One cause of high

staff turnover is that the university fails to offer competitive salaries. A good salary serves as

an incentive for the employee to staff in the institution. To attract and retain employees, it is

recommended that the university adjusts its salary grids and improve its non – financial

benefits, such as pension plan, spousal job opportunities. It is also recommended that

academic incentives be provided so as to retain employees. Finally, ABC should not offer

merit pay as a financial incentive, as it destroys the morale of the staff. The paper concludes

that ABC University needs to have strategies to use in order to attract, select and retain

employees.

INDEX

1 Abbreviations

HRM – Human resource management

HR – Human resource

HRS – Human resource strategy

WSCC – West Sussex Country council

2 Diagram 1: Selection process

1. Introduction 1.1 Recruitment, Selection and Retention

Recruitment, selection and retention form part of the human resource (HR) planning (which

is an ongoing process). Any organisation or institution strives to meet its organisational goals

and objectives, as long as the consumer needs are satisfied. It is through a good human

resource strategy that a company can achieve its HR outcomes. The HR outcomes being (i)

availability meaning people with necessary skills should be available at the right times. (ii)

Competent, people should be able to perform their required duties. (iii) Motivated, motivated

staff can perform their jobs very well and one of the motivators is a good salary. (iv) Healthy,

people are safe, well to perform at required places, times and levels. (v) Focused, line

managers and managers focus and empower people to perform at required levels. (vi)

Organised, a company with good organisational structures is likely to do well. (vii) Diversity,

the workforce shows demographic diversity and people can utilise diversity when performing

at required levels and finally, as long as people in an organisation are satisfied, they will work

towards achieving both individual and organisational goals.

1.2 Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment follows from the job analysis as one element of the HR planning. After

determining the type and number of employees needed through HR plan and identifying the

various elements of a job analysis, the next problem of the human resource management

(HRM) is to procure the employees.

1.2.1. Recruitment Defined

The overall aim of the recruitment and selection is obtain at minimum cost the number and

quality employees needed to satisfy the HR needs of the organisation/ institution. Noe et al

(2006) define recruitment as the process of seeking for prospective employees and

stimulating them to apply for a job in an organisation. In his module pack, Ehlers (2010)

defines recruitment as a set of activities that an HR manager uses to attract job candidates

who have skills and qualities have needed for the task to be performed. Recruitment includes

an examination of the vacancy by setting job description and job specifications, then

considering the various sources of employees/suitable candidates, making contact with them

and attracting applications from them. In this context, job description is defined as a

statement containing items, such as job title, tools to use, place of job, reporting line, job

summary and working conditions.

1.2.2. Purposes and Policies

The process of recruitment does not stop when it commences, it is a dynamic activity. The

purpose of it is to provide an organisation/institution with a pool of qualified candidates. Its

specific purposes are as follows:

- To assist augment the success rate of selection process by reducing the numbers of

obviously under – qualified and over – qualified applicants.

- To increase organisational and individual effectiveness in the short and long run.

Policies: To achieve the above objectives, it is necessary to have relevant recruitment policies

and also to ensure that they are effectively implemented by standardizing many routine

decisions clarifying the discretion a manager and subordinates can exercise in implementing

functional tactics. A recruitment policy defines the objective of the recruitment and also

provides a framework for the implementation of the recruitment programme. The policy

should be based upon corporate goals and needs.

1.3 Recruitment Process

Recruitment is the major function of the HR department and it is the first step towards

creating the competitive advantage for the organisation. It involves a systematic procedure

from sourcing the candidates to arrange and conducting interviews.

1.4 Sources of Recruitment

Sources of recruitment can be divided into internal and external. Internal recruitment is the

search for in – house personnel who have the abilities to fulfil the requirement needed and

help the organisation achieve its objectives. The internal source would be, transfers,

promotions, upgrading, dependents of relatives deceased employees, etc.

Advantages of internal recruitment

- It helps increase the moral of promoted candidate(s).

- It is easy to assess the abilities of the suitable candidate, since the candidate is already

in an organisation.

- It involves lower recruitment costs for some jobs.

- Serves as a motivator for the good performance.

- Causes a succession of the promotions.

Disadvantages of the internal recruitment

- It may cause possible morale problems of those not promoted.

- It may cause political infighting for promotion.

- The talent pool within the organisation might stagnate, so there is a need to bring in

fresh flow of ideas and opinions.

External Recruitment

External recruiting is done when the company lacks the internal supply of the employees for

promotions or when it is staffing entry level positions, managers must consider the external

supply of the manpower.

Advantages of external recruitment

- New employees bring new perspectives.

- It is cheaper and faster than training professionals.

- Less groups of the political supporters in the organisation already.

- May bring new industry insights.

Disadvantages of external recruitment

- May cause the morale problem for the internal candidates not selected.

- New employees may take longer adjustment or orientation time.

- May not select someone who will fit the job or organisation.

1.5 Selection

Once the recruitment process has taken place, the next step is the selection of suitable

candidates. Selection can be defined as the process by which an organisation attempts to

identify applicants with necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics that

will help it achieve its goals (Noe et al, 2006). The primary objective of the selection decision

is to choose the individual who can most successfully perform the job from the pool of

qualified candidates. The selection procedure is a system of functions and devices adopted in

a given company to ascertain whether the candidates’ specifications are matched with the

requirements or not. The selection process cannot be effective until and unless:

- Requirements of the job to be filled have clearly been specified (job analysis)

- Employee specifications (physical, mental, social behavioural, etc.) have been clearly

specified.

- Candidates for screening have been attracted.

Thus, the development of job analysis, HR planning and recruitment are necessary pre –

requisites to the selection process. A breakdown of any of these processes can make even the

best selection system ineffective.

The importance of selection

The selection process can be successful if the following requirements are satisfied:

- Someone should have the authority to select.

- There must be some standard of personnel with which a prospective employee may be

compared, i.e. a comprehensive job description and job specifications should be

available beforehand.

- There must be a sufficient number of applicants from whom the required number of

employees may be selected.

The selection process typically consists of : 1. Initial screening interviews, 2. Completion of

application forms, 3. Employment tests, 4. Comprehensive interview, which involves a face –

to – face meeting with the candidate to probe areas not addressed by the application form/test,

5. Background checks, 6. Conditional job offer, 7. Physical examination and 8. Permanent

job offer. Therefore, the selection process can be pictorially represented as:

Diagram 1.

Thus the selection process should be planned such that the HR is efficiently used. The right

person for the right job and inducting him/her into the organisation or department

successfully is the basic criteria of the entire process.

1.6 Retention

Establishing selection process

Identifying and choosing selection criteria

Gathering information about potential employees

Evaluating information for assessing applicants

Making decision to select or reject

Communicating decision

This is the process of influencing the employees to stay in an organisation as their skills are

very valuable to the success of the business. It is interesting to note that pay is a “go” factor

than a “stay” factor, i.e. an employee may leave if pay is not sufficient, but beyond a certain

point it is not an incentive to stay. Once the qualified candidate has been employed, then

there is a need to make him/her to stay longer. The organisation has to have its own retention

strategy. Organisations are all uniquely different but the overall mission to have the best and

the brightest within a common goal, the Right person, for the Right job, at the Right time and

KEEPING Them. Therefore, recruitment, selection and retention is critical to effective HR

management but it must be practiced within the context of other HR subjects – Training and

development, succession planning.

2 The Problem

2.1 The HR department has a difficulty of finding out what aspects on an individual are to be

given importance, while recruiting him/her. The faculty of commerce and administration of

the ABC University has struggled to fill both the senior and junior positions. For example, in

2007 two positions of lecturers were advertised but only one was filled early 2008 and the

other was re – advertised several times until it was filled in July 2009. The University

competes with other universities and industry for good staff and one factor that might be

delaying the selection process is that the institution fails to convince the selected candidates

how they will benefit from the institution. In one instance, a professor of finance was

appointed at the Graduate School of Business and he apparently resigned within three

months. The university loses staff in every faculty, every school and every department,

including senior personnel in management. For example, the dean of the faculty resigned in

august 2009, not that he got a better job better. The staff turnover might be in the range 50 –

70 percent, which is too high. A new senior staff in the department of Economics (ABC

University) was selected and made to sign the employment contract the same day that he

came for the interview. It was evident that that was a “rush rush” process so that the

candidate could not change his mind. Ultimately, the HR personnel was ordered to inform/

send a job offer letter to the candidate, but the wrong letter (regret letter) was sent. When the

staff in the department asked when the new senior staff would join, they were told that there

was a mistake in communicating with the preferred candidate. When HR tried to rectify the

mistake, it was already too late.

Apart from the fact that the selection process takes longer than expected, the retention

strategy also fails to retain staff as more of the experienced staff leave. The institution has

to make their HR strategy to be more competitive so that the university can enjoy

competitive advantage in the long run.

2.2 Causes and effect of the problem

The problem at ABC University is due to several factors, like low competitive salary, low

incentives, no academic incentives, merit pay as a financial incentive, etc.. With salaries, a

staff member who has his/her services rated highly by some institutions, and even the

industry get attracted by high salaries offered by those institutions and for a rational human

being, who prefers more to less may not reject the offer. Sometimes it happens that a new

member gets more than one offer from different organisations/institutions at the same time

and this makes him to excise his rationality. In doing so, he/she will have to show interest

in working for the ABC university than at another institution. The candidate asks ABC

University to bit the industry’s offer, but most cases the university fails to bit the offer and

this makes the candidate to choose the other institution.

In some cases, a senior member of academic staff offered his resignation, stating one of the

reasons being that the university was taking long to promote him into full professorship,

while the other institution was employing him as a full professor. This, to some members

appears as if the university does not recognise the contribution they make to ABC. One

other cause of high employee turnover is that the faculty takes longer to recruit and as for

academic duties other staff have to take extra load, e.g. teaching module for whom there is

no to teach, this often overloads the available staff and who do not get rewarded.

The non financial incentives have since being cancelled/cut when the university was merged

with other campuses in the province. Someone who comes from an institution which

provided accommodation for free and staff had to pay only for the utilities like, water and

electricity, would expect to get something better here.

3 Literature review

The literature on selection recommends the development of job and person specifications and

the use of reliable and valid methods based on detailed job analysis (Hunter and Schmidt,

1982). In another study, Farnhar and Stevens (2000) found that both managers and personnel

and training were critical of the recruitment and selection system. It found that the system

used by the Social Services department of West Sussex Country Council (WSCC) UK was

subjective, inconsistent and lacked procedural and equity issues. Selection was focused on

interviews, application forms and reference checks and was not managed comprehensively,

by either line manager or the HR department. To curb this problem, there had to be a

partnership between the line managers and the HR department. In addition, the competent –

based recruitment and selection system was considered a number one initiative that an

organisation has introduced to form part of the overall HR strategy.

Staffing, which is concerned with the recruitment, selection, placement, evaluation and

promotion lies at the heart of how organisations procure HR (Peters et al, 2000). Much

literature on HRM has emphasized the importance of staffing (Plumbley, 1985, Smith and

Robertson, 1993, Tanova, 2003, Terpstra, 1996, Williamson, 2000). For instance, Plumbley

(1985) suggests that the profitability and survival of an organisation depends on the calibre of

the workforce.

On one hand, Roselius and Kleiner (2000) emphasized that hiring employees should be

regarded as more of a science than art. The goal when hiring is to hire the right person for the

right job the first time. To do this, the interviewer must be well prepared for the interview.

Failure to prepare leads to wasted time, wasted money and employee turnover. Some

companies have estimated that employee turnover due to ineffective hiring range from 35

percent to 100 percent of employee annual salary (Deems, 1995). A logical performance –

based process that is well documented is the best policy when hiring. There are steps done in

selecting a new employee (s). These include, determining necessary skills, education and

traits of successful candidates, pre – interview and preliminary checks, developing

performance – based questions, interviewing candidates, reference checking, making a

decision and notifying the candidate (Roselius and Kleiner). Good HR practices help

minimise staff turnovers and thus the company saves money. Deery (2008) advocates that

maintaining a stable workforce is a key element in effective talent management strategy.

Hughes and Rog (2008) also identified factors that are critical to talent management. Their

study found that the benefits of an effectively implemented talent management strategy is

associated with improved operational and financial performances. Bhattnagar (2007) found

that three factors of organisational culture, career development along with incentives and

organisational support were crucial in making employees to remain.

HR professionals view retention practices as based on long – term HR policy, preventive and

tailor – made to individuals that are still able and willing to work. Zheng (2009) postulates

that very few papers examined the pattern of HR and talent management practices that helped

retain competent employees among service multinationals in Asia. It was discovered that

there was a linkage between HR practices, talent retention and firm performance. Lockyer

and Scholarios (2004) in their paper considered the nature of “best practices”, recruitment

and selection in the hotel sector. It found that large and chain hotels notwithstanding more

sophisticated HR, were finding difficulty meeting the demands imposed by labour markets.

The study suggests an alternative approach to best practice, which is based on development

of reliable, valid techniques and more attention to the social process of selection. Lockyer

and Scholarios (2004) further stressed that more attention should be paid to the internal

management structure of the organisation, to ensure that there is integration between heads of

departments, with respect to HRM strategy and how this shapes selection decisions.

4 Proposals

4.1 Recruitment and Retention.

The university is not a corporation, but neither is it immune from the market – place. To

render its services as an academic institution, the university must hire and pay for

administrators, faculty and staff. To hire and retain the best it can afford, it must make its best

offer. The faculty expect remuneration for their services; staff must subject themselves to the

job market. Employees compete for job opportunities, while universities compete for

employee services. We, as staff of the university, look for the best salary and the greatest

benefits, some financial, some non – financial; the universities seek the most promising

candidates by making the most competitive offers. Problems with recruitment and retention

arise when a university finds itself unable to compete effectively in the market – place. It

cannot make an offer that can compete with other offers; it cannot recruit new staff; it cannot

keep existing staff. The problems of recruitment and retention are a sign of institutional

weakness that affects the university as a whole.

4.2 Salary Incentives: the marketplace versus the collective grid.

The most common proposal for a solution to the problem is salary – based: let the market

determine an initial salary offer via market differentials, usually met by way of initial grid

placement. But market differentials cause salary inversions, i.e. inequities in the pay grid,

which is based on seniority rather than market differentials. The faculty suffering the grid

inequality of salary inversion threaten to leave if the inequities created by market differentials

are not corrected.

Recommendation: on salary incentives to recruitment and retention

a) The most equitable salary incentive is to bargain for an improved grid,

b) Another alternative is to adjust the grid to make it more attractive to junior staff.

c) The grid inequity produced by market differentials limits their effectiveness as a

solution to the problem of recruitment and should only be used in extreme instances

where other solutions are inadequate.

4.3 Non – Salary incentives: Salary versus benefits

The leading assumption that lies behind proposing salary – based solutions to the problems of

recruitment and retention is that since the problems are market – driven, they are also salary

based. The problem of recruitment is not entirely salary – based; non – salary incentives are

equally important. ABC may not offer the highest salary but it can offer a low cost of living

and a high quality of life.

Recommendation on non – salary incentives to recruitment

a) Improve on non – salary financial benefits such as pension plan, spousal job

opportunities, health plan, etc.

b) Provide low cost accommodation for staff who would like to stay at the university

flats or houses. In some universities, staff members who stay in university flats /

houses pay only for electricity and water (but not the market rent)

c) Impress on potential candidates the advantages of working with ABC’s innovative

environment, and any specific advantages in their field.

4.4 Academic incentives to recruitment: research versus teaching

Universities cannot compete with the salary offers made by corporations, but neither can

corporations compete with the job offers made by universities. ABC offers a position with

opportunities for teaching and research as well as academic freedom and tenure. The

implication is not only that ABC’s marketplace is limited to other universities, but the

academic marketplace is not driven by the same financial incentives as the corporate world.

What drives the university marketplace are the unique, non – corporate, academic

opportunities for teaching and research. The most commonly proposed non – financial

incentive to recruitment of professors is to reduce teaching load for new professors and

therby increase their opportunity for research.

Recommendation: on ABC’s academic incentives to recruitment

a) Reduce professors’ standard load course.

b) Reduce course load and increase research funds.

c) Increase funds for professional development, research and travel for all staff

members.

4.5 Academic incentives to retention: research versus promotion.

Under the present system, academic promotions are tied to only incremental increases and

extensions in the salary grid. There is no relationship between promotions and the primary

academic incentives of teaching and research. Academic promotions should be rewarded with

entitlement to a reduction of the standard load and an increase in research opportunities by

way of enhanced research and travel funds. However, while research is essential for all

academic staff, some may prefer to give their teaching and/or teaching innovation higher

priority than research, and there should be increased flexibility in striking an appropriate

balance between research and teaching and innovation.

Recommendation: on academic incentives to retention

a) Reward promotions with entitlement to a reduction of the standard teaching load and

increase research opportunity.

b) Recognise the merit of teaching by establishing clear and flexible guidelines for

promotions.

4.6 Merit pay as a financial incentive: individual versus collective

Merit is defined as a financial incentive to reward exceptional performance. The problem

with merit pay is that it engenders a factitious spirit dangerous to collegiality and works

against the principles of collective bargaining. For example in 2009, ABC paid some staff

merit bonuses, which some of the staff had no clue on how it was given. One department in

the faculty (transport economics), only two lecturers teach 16 modules because there is staff

shortage but they are not rewarded for their hard work.

Recommendations

Despite its adoption into some universities, merit pay is a corporate tool that should not be

introduced into an academic environment. It will be more harmful to the collegial and

collective culture of the university than helpful to the individuals who benefit.

5 Conclusion

The University’s recruitment, selection and retention procedures have not been successful

and thus, could not support key institutional objectives and core values. This led to high

employee turnover. This paper therefore tried to investigate the problems associated with

recruitment, selection and retention and the causes at ABC University. It was found that the

problem of recruitment and selection lied in with the management. University could not

attract candidates by offering high and competitive salary and benefits. This resulted in

longer recruitment and selection process. Apart from that, the university did not have sound

retention strategy. The retention strategy is very important in reducing staff turnover, thereby

reducing the costs associated with recruitment of new staff.

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