Hiring Process- The Complete Guide

HIRING PROCESS - THE COMPLETE GUIDE

The human resources (HR) department in any organization has basic functions that it undertakes on a daily or periodic basis. These functions can either be on a long-term or short-term basis and some duties are simple while others are complex. The functions are broadly categorized into three groups: Core Functions, Workforce Management, and Strategic Planning. Let’s discuss the Hiring Process.

The hiring process is a major function of the HR department since it determines the organizational talent pool. Hiring is the activity of employing staff members. Employment involves identifying and engaging members of the public to provide services based on mutual agreement. The hiring process consists of five stages namely: HR Planning, Recruitment, Selection, Placement, and Induction/Orientation. We will tackle each of them in this article.

Stage 1: HR Planning

This is the process of determining the current and future staffing needs of the organization. It involves establishing both the adequate and appropriate quantity and quality of staff to execute the organizational strategic plan. The objective of HR planning is not only to identify staffing needs but also to assist in the proper utilization of resources, introduce checks and balances in the process, promote team development, and design training programs.

Procedure in HR Planning

  1. Projections

The hiring manager tries to forecast the future talent needs based on the present demand in the company and supply in the Labour market. This will involve revisiting the overall company strategy and reviewing the corporate agenda about talent needs. For instance, the strategy may involve expansion to new geographical regions within 2 years; the hiring manager must identify talent needs and give proposals. The current hiring process should be in harmony with the 2-year expansion plan. Thus, the hiring manager should recruit based on this future need.

  1. Inventory

The idea is to substantiate the current workforce status in the organization. It is some kind of stock-taking only that it is now being conducted in the HR department as opposed to the procurement department. This involves identifying the total number of staff members in each department. The hiring manager needs to know their qualifications and experiences. Their historical and current performance levels will also be relevant here. The hiring manager needs to understand everything there is to know about the characteristics of the current workforce in the organization. This will help them decide whether or not there is a surplus or deficit in the talent pool before they fully commit the company to this process.

  1. Reconciliation

The reconciliation is between the company strategy and inventory report on completion of the “stock-taking” exercise. The hiring manager reports their findings and tries to relate them with the needs in the corporate strategy. This involves seeking advice from different internal stakeholders concerning the surpluses or deficits currently existing within the workforce. The aim is to obtain different perspectives from leaders, managers, and even other employees concerning the current state of affairs in the HR department. The other aim is to establish the quality and quantity of employees required in the organization. The hiring manager needs to establish whether or not it is feasible to pursue the hiring process immediately or in the future based on departmental demands. To achieve this, meetings with internal stakeholders need to be organized and their views on the matter reported.

  1. Formulation

This refers to the course of action to be taken based on the results of each of the above-mentioned steps to address the workforce needs of the organization. The hiring manager devises plans, policies, procedures, and programs to fulfill the organizational needs and decisions. For instance, if there is a deficit and stakeholders unanimously agree that replacements are required, the hiring process proceeds as scheduled. However, if there is a surplus, most probably the stakeholders will advise that the hiring process be put on hold until current circumstances change. The plans developed may affect the workforce both positively or negatively. For instance, restructuring, retrenchment, and downsizing are examples of plans that address workforce needs in the organization but they all have negative connotations.

Factors Influencing HR Planning

Several factors influence HR planning efforts. These are factors that are within the organization (internal factors) and those that are outside the organization (external factors). The former group of factors includes company policies and procedures, growth rate, information level, time, industrial relations, and employee relations. The latter group of factors includes government policies, national economy, business environment, technology levels, and international relations.

Benefits of HR Planning

There are several benefits of undertaking this process. These include risk management since it draws attention to the deficits and surplus, succession planning in case of deficits, establishing training needs, facilitating policy evaluations, enhancing diversification or growth, and assisting in proper utilization of resources.

Stage 2: Recruitment

This is the process of searching for prospective employees. It involves attracting, stimulating, or encouraging them to apply for vacancies in the organization. The hiring manager will need to conduct some form of advertising to this end. Recruitment aims to obtain the best possible candidate (at minimum cost and effort) to satisfy the specific talent needs of the organization.

To facilitate the advertising process, the hiring manager is expected to develop the following documents:

  1. Job Description

It is an organized and factual statement describing a specified role. The contents include job title, job purpose, job location, duties and responsibilities, working conditions, and resources.

  1. Job Specification

It is an organized and factual statement describing the preferred candidate or person for a specified role. It contains the minimum acceptable human traits required to perform the specified role. The contents include experience level, education level, qualitative traits, skills, abilities, personality, and quotient.

  1. Job Advert

It is an organized and factual statement that notifies employees, stakeholders, and members of the public of an existing job vacancy in the organization. It must be clear, comprehensive, depict a favorable corporate image and an appropriate graphical design. Other than the letterhead, company summary, application procedure, and deadline dates, the additional contents are a combination of the job description and job specification mentioned above in the appropriate order.

The hiring manager then determines their recruiting sources, that is, how and where to obtain the candidate pools and/or target population. This will also guide the hiring manager on the most suitable advertising channel to use to reach the required population. Thereafter, the previously prepared job advert is circulated using the preferred media option.

There are two main recruitment sources used by HR departments. They consist of the internal sources (found inside the organization such as promotions, transfers, and re-deployment, among others) and external sources (found outside the organization such as fresh graduates, retired experts, and professional consultants, among others).

Once the advertisement is shared with the appropriate recruitment source, it is time to sit back and wait for them to apply for the position as per the guidelines issued in the advertisement. These guidelines include hand delivery, postal delivery, use of emails, and completion of online forms, among others.

Factors Influencing Recruitment

  1. Expansion

The organization has extended its business scope due to the growth of the client base or merely wants to explore new business environments. This requires the workforce to cater to the operational needs of this growth.

  1. Separation

The existing employees may leave the organization due to a variety of reasons such as new opportunities, relocation, retirement, or death. With these cases, the company may need to replace the gaps left.

  1. Mergers and Acquisitions

The organization may join with another one of similar nature to form one entity through various financial transactions. This may simply be for competitive advantage in their industry or to preserve themselves due to financial challenges. In such a scenario, the newly fused entity may experience deficits or surplus in their workforce and appropriate action has to be taken.

  1. Restructuring and Insolvency

This involves adjusting the structure and/or operations of the organization to improve its financial stability and strategic position. In some cases, companies are unable to handle their debt burden, and intervention is required to salvage them otherwise the result is closure.

  1. Regulatory Compliance

Government intervention in the economy influences the Labour market. Some legislations favor the Labour market while others discriminate against it. For instance, tax regulations inhibit the Labour market activities and opportunities at company and national levels.

  1. National economy

Depending on the economic status existing in the country, the Labour market is affected at both company and national levels. There are two possible scenarios, either a booming economy characterized by high investment opportunities or a struggling economy characterized by depression and inflation. The former will increase employment opportunities while the latter will curtail them.

  1. Innovation

The company may develop new technology or methods of meeting customer needs. This leads to the development of new products and services in the market. The existence of new technology is often a threat in the labor market since machines replace human labor. On the contrary, technological advancements result in the demand for labor to produce the newly developed product or service.

Stage 3: Selection

This is the process of accessing or screening potential candidates to determine their suitability for a specific role in the organization. It is choosing the most suitable candidate for the opportunity based on certain pre-determined criteria. The idea is to secure additional information from the job applicants necessary for evaluating their potential. The following steps are used in this process:

  1. Sorting

This involves organizing application records using certain criteria. It can be done manually or electronically using software systems such as applicant tracking systems (ATS). The sorting process will yield the most eligible person based on the pre-determined criteria and percentage of preferred attributes registered by each applicant.

  1. Selection Tests

This evaluation assesses the applicant’s ability in performing a specific function. They include aptitude, proficiency, interest, intellect, and personality tests. The set of questions are predetermined and prepared for the applicants to undertake either manually or electronically. The electronic systems are more efficient and automatically calculate the results without bias.

  1. Interviews

They are factual conversations aimed at determining the suitability of the applicant for a specific role. The person is invited for a scheduled session with a panel or panelist and they are subjected to a series of questions related to the role or the applicant. The panelists score the applicant based on how well they expressed their ideas and confidence level during the session. There are several types of interviews including screening, structured, semi-structured, unstructured, group, stress, and endurance interviews.

  1. Shortlisting

This is ranking the results obtained from all or any of the selection techniques employed by the hiring manager to determine between the most to the least suitable applicant. The ranking is done using a continuum from the highest to the lowest or vice versa as the criteria were pre-determined. The top-ranking applicants proceed for negotiations to establish which of them will accept the engagement terms.

  1. Background checks

These are reviews conducted to clarify the status of an applicant. They are a variety of exercises undertaken by the hiring manager to verify that indeed the applicant is genuine in terms of experience, education, behavioral and physical tendencies. The different types of verification processes or checks conducted by the hiring manager include a reference check, medical exam, drug screening, and criminal history, just to mention a few. If these checks are favorable the hiring manager proceeds to give an offer, if not they move to the next ranking applicant for a similar exercise.

  1. Job offer

The hiring manager establishes the best and successfully verified candidate. Thereafter, they proceed to invite this applicant to be part of the organization. This can be done via phone initially then followed by an email or letter. The offer contains details of the job and engagement terms. It can be accompanied by a job description and employment contract. The successful applicant is meant to read and understand the contents before accepting the new position. If favorable to the applicant, they will follow acceptance instructions as outlined in the offer. If unfavorable to the applicant, they can decline the offer via email or in a response letter stating their reason for declining.

Stage 4: Placement

This refers to assigning a recruit their new role in the organization based on the following criteria:

  1. Skills

They refer to the talents, specialization, or expertise of an employee. They are often acquired through a learning process either as an apprentice or formal schooling. They are nurtured over a long period of time for them to be useful and have an impact. There are three broad categories of skills namely: conceptual, human (soft), and technical (hard) skills.

  1. Abilities

They also refer to talents, specialization, or expertise of an employee that are naturally acquired or innate. Unlike skills, they are not learned through external efforts; rather the person was born with these characteristics. There are two broad categories of abilities namely: physical (body function) and intellectual (mental function) abilities.

  1. Qualification

This refers to the academic and professional certifications acquired over a period of time by an employee. Academic qualifications refer to the education background such as elementary or high school learning while professional qualification refers to the field background such as legal, accountancy, and catering just to mention a few. 

  1. Experience

The number of years an employee has spent in either a formal or informal occupation forms their work history. This is often determined by the corresponding qualifications of that particular person. The assumption is that the employee will have more mastery of the role compared to others if they have more experience in a certain specialization area.

Stage 5: Induction and Orientation

The two terms are often used synonymously but they are technically different. Induction is the process of welcoming the recruit in the organization through introductions, workplace facility tours, highlighting processes and procedures, providing organization structure, familiarizing with products and services, completing documentation and registration, attending group meetings, among others. Orientation (or on-boarding) comes after the person has been inducted and is concerned with the adapting process of the new environment and role. While induction is a one-off short-term process, orientation is a continuous long-term process.

The two processes are necessary to familiarize the employee with the culture and operations of the organization. It enhances performance and confidence levels with the recruits. They can better understand their job description and its execution-style. It also enhances rapport between the recruit and their supervisor as the recruit makes inquiries and receives direction from the supervisor. As a result, they are at ease with each other boosting the communication and teamwork levels. These processes also contribute to staff retention and reduce staff turnover in the long run. These are some of the benefits of the induction and orientation stage.

Conclusion

The hiring process is a critical function of the human resources department. It is a complex process undertaken in five stages. Each stage has its own set of procedures that must be followed for the process to be successful. Following through with all the stages appropriately enhances the experience for both the applicant and the hiring manager.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is meant by the Labour market?

It is an economic concept rather than a physical location implying the demand and supply of human resources. It is also known as the job market.

  1. What is the difference between a recruiter and a hiring manager?

The hiring manager oversees the entire process of acquiring a suitable candidate (all five stages above) while the recruiter specifically focuses on identifying and implementing techniques to attract the target population (stage two above).

Hiring Process- The Complete Guide

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