4. Evolution of Recruitment and Selection

According to Armstrong and Taylor (2014), the advantages of online recruiting are that it can reach a wider range of possible applicants. It is quicker and cheaper than traditional methods of advertising, more details of jobs and firms can be supplied on the site, and CVs can be matched and applications can be submitted electronically (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is the term used when an organization commissions a provider to take responsibility for the end-to-end delivery of the recruitment process, covering all vacancies or a selection of them (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Many organizations rely on the salary levels published in recruitment advertisements. But these can be very misleading as you will not necessarily achieve a good match and the quoted salary may not be the same as what is finally paid (Armstrong, 2010).

The 2013 survey of the Forum for In-House Recruitment Managers (FIRM), whose members tend to be bigger employers, established that 94 per cent used LinkedIn for attracting and recruiting candidates and the remaining 6 per cent intend to do so (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Moreover, advertising has traditionally been the most obvious method of attracting candidates and it is still fairly important, especially at the local level and in specialized journals. However, as the CIPD 2013 survey revealed, many organizations now prefer to use online recruitment, agencies or consultants (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Most recruitment agencies deal with secretarial and office staff who are registered with them. They are usually quick and effective but quite expensive (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Modern selection process

Selection tests are used to provide valid and reliable evidence of levels of abilities, intelligence, personality characteristics, aptitudes and attainments (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Psychological tests are measuring instruments, which are often referred to as psychometric tests: ‘psychometric’ means mental measurement. Psychometric tests assess intelligence or personality. They use systematic and standardized procedures to measure differences in individual characteristics, thus enabling selectors to gain a greater understanding of candidates to help in predicting the extent to which they will be successful in a job. The other types of tests described below are ability and aptitude tests (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

Resourcing plan

Armstrong (2005) identifies three main components to the resourcing plan: internal resourcing, i.e. the availability of suitable people from within the organisation and plans to make better use of existing employees; the recruitment plan (e.g. numbers and types of people required, sources of candidates, recruitment techniques, etc.) and the ‘employer of choice’ plan.

In succession planning, the focus is primarily on recruitment and retention and the ability of the organization to fill key posts. It is likely that this will relate to a relatively narrow group of people. There is nothing new about organisations identifying and grooming people to fill key posts; in fact, succession planning has always been an element of traditional HRP (Beardwell and Claydon, 2007).

Reference

• Armstrong, M. (2005) A Handbook of Human ResourceManagement Practice, 10th edn. London: Kogan Page.
• Armstrong, M., (2010). Armstrong's handbook of reward management practice. 3rd ed. 
• Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S. (2014) Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 13th ed. Ashford Colour press Ltd. London. 
• Beardwell, J. and Claydon, T., (2007). Human resource management. 5th ed. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times.