1.4.2 Recruitment training and selection

• What is recruitment?


  “the process of finding people to work for a company or become a new member of an organisation”
• Reason to recruit staff - business expansion

  • Increasing sales of existing products
  • Developing new products
  • Entering new markets
• Reasons to recruit - existing employees leave

  • To work with competitors or other local employers
  • Due to factors such as retirement, sick leave, maternity leave
• Other reasons to recruit

  • Business needs employees with new skills
  • Business is relocating – and not all of existing workforce want to move to new location
• How is the way we work changing?

  • Increase in part-time working
  • Increases in numbers of single-parent families
  • More women seeking work
  • Ageing population
  • Greater emphasis on flexible working hours
  • Technology allows employees to communicate more effectively whilst apart
  • People rarely stay in the same job for life
• What are the advantages of part time staff and flexible working

  • Cheaper to employ as entitled to less benefits
  • More flexible workforce (easier to reduce labour hours when sales fall or add hours when demand increases)
  • Wide range of potential recruits (e.g. working mothers who want to restrict the number of hours they work)
• What are the disadvantages of part time staff and flexible working

  • Employees feel less loyal to business and therefore less motivated 
  • Harder for managers to control and coordinate workforce
• Due to costs what are the main two elements for recruitment and selection process:

  • Lost output from replacing an employee
  • Logistical cost of running a recruitment & selection process
• What is internal recruitment?

  • Jobs given to staff already employed by business
  • Involves promotion and reorganisation
• What is external recruitment?

  • Job centres
  • Job advertisements
  • Recruitment agencies             
  • Headhunting
  • Personal recommendation
• What are the advantages of internal recruitment?

  • Cheaper and quicker to recruit 
  • Already familiar with business and how it operates
  • Provides opportunities for promotion with in business
• What are the disadvantages of internal recruitment?

  • Business already knows strengths and weaknesses of candidates
  • Limits number of potential applicants
  • No new ideas can be introduced from outside
  • May cause resentment amongst candidates not appointed
  • Creates another vacancy which needs to be filled
• What are the advantages of external recruitment?

  • People bring in new ideas 
  • Larger pool of workers from which to find best candidate
  • People have a wider range of experience
• What are the disadvantages of external recruitment

  • Longer process 
  • More expensive process due to advertisements and interviews required 
  • Selection process may not be effective enough to reveal best candidat
• How can the interviews happen?


  over the phone, virtual, in person
• What are assessment centres?

  Multiple tasks, exercises and meetings held over a period of time, often 2 days, where candidates are measured against a set of competencies
• What does psychometric testing involve?

  • Aptitude – measures the ability to develop skills and acquire knowledge
  • Attainment – measuring levels of understanding e.g. maths
  • Personality – measuring aspects of a candidate’s behaviour
• Costs and benefits of training:

  employers are prepared to incur these costs because they expect their business to benefit from employees' development and progress
• Possible benefits of training for the business:

  • Better productivity
  • Higher quality
  • More flexibility through better skills
  • Less supervision required
  • Improved motivation - through greater empowerment
  • Better recruitment and employee retention
  • Easier to implement change in the business
• Reasons for training:

  • Expansion
  • New legislation
  • Motivation
  • New equipment
  • Improve service and quality
  • New staff
  • Multi-skilling
  • Promotion and progress
  • Prep for staff leaving
• Business issues that training can't solve:

  • Poor management (although management training might help!)
  • Poor job design
  • Ineffective or inefficient equipment
  • Poor production organisation
  • Recruitment
• Reasons why business neglect training:

  • Fear employees will be poached by competitors (who will then benefit from the training)
  • A desire to minimise short-term costs
  • Not a justifiable investment case
  • Training takes time to have effect
  • Benefits of training can be more intangible (e.g. morale) than tangible (e.g. profit)
• Induction training:

  • What it involves
  • Introducing new employees to job, their new colleagues, premises and to values, and aims of business 
  • Length and type depends on:
  • Size and type of business
  • Complexity of job
  • Level or position of job within business
• Typical induction programme:

  • Learning about duties of job
  • Meeting new colleagues
  • Seeing layout premises
  • Learning values and aims of business
  • Learning about internal workings and policies of business
• On-the-job training:

  An employee receives training whilst remaining in the workplace
• What is demonstration/instruction?

  • howing the trainee how to do the job
• What is coaching?

  • a more intensive method that involves a close working relationship between an experienced employee & trainee
• What is job rotation?

  • the trainee is given several jobs in succession, to gain experience of a wide range of activities (e.g. a graduate management trainee might spend periods in several different departments)
• What are projects?

  • employees join a project team - gives them exposure to other parts of the business and allow them to take part in new activities.
• What are the advantages of on-the-job training:

  Generally most cost-effective

  Employees are actually productive

  Opportunity to learn whilst doing

  Training alongside real colleagues
• What are the disadvantages of on-the-job training:

  Quality depends on ability of trainer and time available

  Bad habits might be passed on

  Learning environment may not be conducive

  Potential disruption to production
• What is off-the-job training?


  Employee training that takes place away from the work place
• Methods of off-the-job training?

  • Day or part-time attendance at college
  • Professional development courses or conferences
  • Online training / distance learning
• Advantages of off-the-job training:

  A wider range of skills or qualifications can be obtained

  Can learn from outside specialists or experts

  Employees can be more confident when starting job
• disadvantages of off-the-job training:

  More expensive – e.g. transport and accommodation

  Lost working time and potential output from employee

  New employees may still need some induction training 

  Employees now have new skills/qualifications and may leave for better jobs
• Main types of job training:

  • Day release (employee takes time off work to attend a local college or training centre)
  • Distance learning / evening classes
  • Block release courses - which may involve several weeks at a local college
  • Sandwich courses - where the employee spends a longer period of time at college (e.g. six months) before returning to work
  • Sponsored courses in higher education
  • Self-study, computer-based training
• Link between training and motivation:

  • Assuming training is effective: then…
  • Employees feel more loyal to firm
  • Shows that business is taking an interest in its workers
  • Provide employees with greater promotional opportunities
  • Enables employees to achieve more at work – perhaps gaining financially from this