4.5: Cases and Problems

Chapter Summary

• The recruitment process provides the organization with a pool of qualified applicants.
• Some companies choose to hire internal candidates—that is, candidates who are already working for the organization. However, diversity is a consideration here as well.
• A job analysis is a systematic approach to determine what a person actually does in his or her job. This process might involve a questionnaire to all employees. Based on this analysis, an accurate job description and job specifications can be written. A job description lists the components of the job, while job specifications list the requirements to perform the job.
• IRCA stands for Immigration and Reform Act. This law requires all employers to determine eligibility of an employee to work in the United States. The reporting form is called an I-9 and must be completed and kept on file (paper or electronic) for at least three years, but some states require this documentation to be kept on file for the duration of the employee’s period of employment.
• The Patriot Act allows the government access to data that would normally be considered private, for example, an employee’s records and work voice mails and e-mails (without the company’s consent). The HR professional might consider letting employees know of the compliance with this law.
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency charged with ensuring discrimination does not occur in the workplace. They oversee the EEO set of laws. Organizations must post EEO laws in a visible location at their workplace and also include them on job announcements.
• Related to the EEOC, the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) makes it legal to discriminate in hiring based on special circumstances, for example, requiring the retirement of airline pilots at a certain age due to safety concerns.
• Disparate impact refers to a policy that may limit a protected EEO group from receiving fair treatment. Disparate impact might include a test or requirement that negatively impacts someone based on protected group status. An example is requiring a high school diploma, which may not directly impact the job. Disparate treatment refers to discrimination against an individual, such as the hiring of one person over another based on race or gender.
• HR professionals must have a recruiting plan before posting any job description.
• Many organizations use recruiters. Recruiters can be executive recruiters, which means an outside firm performs the search. For temporary positions, a temporary or staffing firm such as Kelly Services might be used. Corporate recruiters work for the organization and function as a part of the HR team.
• Campus recruiting can be an effective way of recruiting for entry-level positions. This type of recruiting may require considerable effort in developing relationships with college campuses.
• Almost every profession has at least one professional association. Posting announcements on their websites can be an effective way of targeting for a specific job.
• Most companies will also use their own website for job postings, as well as other websites such as Monster and CareerBuilder.
• Social media is also a popular way to recruit. Usage of websites such as Twitter and Facebook can get the word out about a specific job opening, or give information about the company, which can result in more traffic being directed to the company’s website.
• Recruiting at special events such as job fairs is another option. Some organizations have specific job fairs for their company, depending on the size. Others may attend industry or job specific fairs to recruit specific individuals.
• SIGs or special/specific interest groups are usually very specialized. For example, female project managers may have an interest group that includes a discussion board for posting of job announcements.
• Employee referrals can be a great way to get interest for a posted position. Usually, incentives are offered to the employee for referring people they know. However, diversity can be an issue, as can nepotism.
• Our last consideration in the recruitment process is recruitment costs. We can determine this by looking at the total amount we have spent on all recruiting efforts compared to the number of hires. A yield ratio is used to determine how effective recruiting efforts are in one area. For example, we can look at the number of total applicants received from a particular form of media, and divide that by the number of those applicants who make it to the next step in the process (e.g., they receive an interview).

Chapter Case

Recruitment Statistics

• As the assistant to the human resources director at Tally Group, you normally answer phones and set appointments for the director. You are interested in developing skills in HRM, and one day, your HR director presents you with a great opportunity for you to show what you can do. She asks you to analyze last year’s recruitment data to determine which methods have worked best. As you look at the data, you aren’t sure how to start, but you remember something on this from your HRM class in college. After reviewing the data in your book, you feel confident to analyze these numbers. Please go ahead and perform calculations on these numbers, then provide answers to the questions that follow.

  Table \(\PageIndex{1}\) Tally Group Recruiting Numbers, 2012

  Method	Total Number Recruited	Yearly Cost ($)
  Temporary placement firms	8	3,200
  Campus recruiting	2	1,500
  Professional association ads	10	4,500
  Social media/company website	33	300
  Job fair	3	500
  Referrals	26	26,000

  1. Prepare a report summarizing your findings for the recruitment cost per hire and yield ratio for each type of recruiting method.
  2. Make a recommendation to your human resource director on where the department should spend more of its time recruiting.

Team Activities

1. Students should be in teams of four or five. Choose a recruitment method from Table 4.2 “Tally Group Recruiting Numbers, 2012” and perform research on additional advantages and disadvantages of that method and then present ideas to the class.
2. Visit the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (http://www.occupationalinfo.org) and view the list of job titles presented on the website. Create a sample job description for a job title of your team’s choice.