Effective Recruitment and Selection
Before you read this article, try your hand at the first activity. Though all of us have our own sets of experiences and opinions, we must not place our organizations in a situation of liability due to our individual biases, as they may not be strategically aligned with the organization's best interests. You must learn to work through personal perceptions and make strategic business decisions when recruiting and selecting human capital.
Effective Recruitment and Selection
Activity 1
Basing your ideas on your initial reactions to the characters outlined below, complete the table to describe what would typically be the characteristics associated with them. Do not take too much time to think – just jot down ideas as they come to you. To demonstrate, we have suggested how some people might see the first example; you may not agree with the stereotyping evident in the suggested characteristics!
| Job | Age range | Gender | Politics | Hobbies | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Social worker | 27–43 | Either | Liberal or Green, left-wing | Camping cycling rambling | Old Volvo or Saab |
| Supermarket checkout operative | |||||
| Building laborer | |||||
| Accountant | |||||
| Senior civil servant/ government official |
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| Personal secretary to managing director |
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| Police inspector | |||||
| Salesperson | |||||
| Fundraiser for a charity |
We all harbor stereotypes of what types of people are suitable or unsuitable for particular jobs, and everyone will complete the table differently. However, let us look at a couple of examples. Did you think that the supermarket checkout person would be male or female? The majority of people completing this exercise would have an expectation that a checkout person would be either a young single female or an older woman who works part-time. They would be unlikely to associate working on a supermarket checkout with a middle-aged man.
What cars did you suggest the building laborer and accountant might drive? Which one was more likely to own an executive car? What would you expect the senior civil servant's hobbies to be – gardening or sky diving? The point of this simple exercise is to make you aware of the stereotypes and expectations that may exist about people associated with particular jobs. When recruiting for any job, take care that you are not simply looking for a certain type of person because they are normally associated with the work of the vacant post.
When recruiting people, be alert to any personal prejudices or preferences you have which are not linked to the ability to do the job. Try to set these aside in favor of objective criteria of suitability related to the skills, experience and ability needed to perform the job. But should these criteria relate solely to the job or task requirements? We consider the issue of fit with the wider organization in the next section.