Recruitment Policy/ Selection Process of Officer Level Staff

Recruitment Policy

Recruitment policy defines recruitment programme, a proper organization structure, and procedures for locating sources of manpower resources suitable methods and techniques. Recruitment policy should be very sound so that capable and efficient employees are hired. A good recruitment policy consists of the following points.

• The number of employees to be recruited must be determined will in advance according to the need of enterprises.
• The qualification, experience, terms of service, salaries etc. must be determined well in advance.
• The whole process of the recruitment must be completed by a senior responsible and reliable officer.
• Recruitment policy must be fair and flexible.
• The selection of employees must be strictly in accordance with the merit.

The Selection Process for Officer Level Staff in Nepalese Organization

Although an effective recruitment programme can provide numerous job applications, there still remains a crucial problem of selection of the most suitable human resources with a view to placing them in vacant position in the enterprise. The selection procedure is concerned with securing relevant information about an applicant. The objective of selection process is to determine whether an applicant meets the qualification for a specific job and to choose the applicant who is most likely to perform well in that job. Selection means rejection of candidates for position can it is considered a negative process accordingly.

According to Dale Yoder, “Selection is the process in which candidates for employment are divided into two classes those who are to be offered employment and those are not. Selection means a process by which the qualified personnel may be chosen from the applicants offering their services to the organization for employment.”

Steps in Selection Procedure

The hiring procedures are not a single act but it is essentially a series of methods or steps or stages by which additional information are secured about the applicant. Selection processes or activities typically follow a standard pattern beginning with an initial screening interview and conducting with the final employment decision.

Although selection procedures changes from one organization to another in term of size, industry, location and scalar level or jobs are filled, the selection process depends upon effective job analysis and recruitment. According to Yoder, the selection process involves the following steps.

Step: I Preliminary Screening of Application: Selection procedure starts with the preliminary screening of the applications. The applicants are screened on the basis of standards set out by the organization.

Step: II Review of Application Blank: Application blank is a brief written resume of the name, age, address, education, occupation, interests, experience etc of the candidates. Through the application blank, the candidates provide the useful information to the employer in the areas of identification, education, experience, expected salaries, and community’s activities, reference etc. Application blank is an important stage in selection procedure. It provides basic information about the prospective employee, which is helpful at the time of interview. After screening application blank, promising candidates are called for further screening.

Step: III Checking Reference: At the end of the application blank, reference of two known persons or previous employers is given by the applicant. The various information give in the application blank can be verified with the help of reference. A reference is potentially on important source of information about the helps in verifying the accuracy of the applications and in getting the proper rating of the candidates’ skills and abilities.

Step: IV Physical Examinations (medical tests): It is an optional step in the selection procedure and depends mainly on the type of job to be done by the applicant. Some organizations ask for a certificate of physical fitness from a medical expert. Conducting of physical examination serves the following purposes.

• It serves to protect the organization against unwarranted claims under the workman compensation act.
• It helps to prevent the communicable disease entering the organization.
• A proper medical examination ensures high standards of health and physical fitness of employees and will reduce the rates of accident, absenteeism and labour turnover.
• It serves to ascertain whether the candidates are physically fit to perform the job.

Step: V Psychological Testing: Psychological test are devised to measure the psychological characteristics of individual applicants for a position. A psychological test is an objective and standard measure of a sample of human behavior. Psychological tests act on the principal that individuals differ from one another by degree. Some of the important psychological tests, which are used as follows:

• Personality Tests: Designed to judge the emotional balance, maturity and temperamental qualities of a person.
• Dexterity Tests: Measure an individual’s capacity to use his hands in industrial work.
• Intelligence Tests: Measure the mental capacity of a person to graph and put together the elements of a novel or abstract situation.
• Aptitude Tests: Measure the aptitude of applicants, which is their capacity to learn the skills, required on a particular job.
• Achievement Tests: Measures the level of knowledge and proficiency in certain skills already achieved by the applicants.

The psychological tests serve the following purposes.

• They provide a measurement of candidate ability, personality, aptitude, intelligence etc.
• Test help to reduce employee turnover through a better fit between the candidates and the job.
• Tests help to improve the accuracy and objectivity of the selection process.

The main problem with the psychological test are that they do not provide the clear picture of how well supplementary method of selection. The user of the test must be familiar with the limitations of the tests and he/ she should determine the effectiveness to the test before using them.

Step: VI Employment Interview: The purpose of employment interview is to find out the candidate’s mental and social makeup and to know the qualities possessed by him make him suitable for a job in the concern. It must be conducted in the friendly environment. The questions should better be asked on the basis of job specification. It is face-to-face communication and involves a brief personnel contact with the candidate to judge his suitability for the job.

Step: VII Final Approval: If the candidate successfully overcomes all the obstacles or tests given above, s/he is declared selected. An appointment letter is given to him mentioning the terms of appointment, pay scales, post on which selected tec.

Steps in selection procedure are not rigid. They may vary from organization to organization or in the some organization from job to job. The arrangements of the steps may also be disregarded or steps may be reduced or some other new steps may be added. This all depends upon the size of the enterprise, nature of the company and the nature of the job, job description and the objective of the organization.

Placement of Employees

After the selection of candidates, they are placed on the job. According to Pigors and Myers, placement should consist of matching what the supervisor has reason to think can do with the job demands, imposes (working conditions, degree of stress involved) and offers (in the form of pay, allowance, incentive, etc). Placement is the assignment of employees to jobs for which they generally decides the final placement after the initial training is over. Placement is the determination of the job to which determination of the job to which an accepted candidate is to be assigned and his assignment to that job. Generally, the employee is placed as a probationer and the probation period generally ranges between six months to one year until the trial period are over.

Advantages of using Selection Tests

1. Organizations using or planning to use tests for selection should view the whole exercise as an economy of scale.
2. Selection tests are quantifiable and they yield themselves to scientific and statistical analysis.
3. Selection test uncover qualifications and talents that cannot be detected by interviews or by using education and job experience.
4. Tests are standardized and unbiased tools. They can be administered to a group and to that extent they save on time and cost.