Week 2

Recruiting and
Initial Selection
Methods
 Recruitment Strategies
Recruitment - activities taken by an organization in order to
identify and attract suitable individuals to the organization.
 Internal or external  Employment agencies
 Unsolicited/Direct applications  Professional associations
 Employee referrals and and meetings/journals
networks  Labour Department Job
 Advertisements Centre
 Recruiting online  Outplacement services
 Campus recruitment  Job fairs
 Internships/part-timers
 Others?
 Recruitment Strategies:
Choice of Sources
 Advantages and disadvantages of each method
 Sufficient quantity and quality
 Cost
 Past experience with source
 Impact on HR outcomes
 Effective sources (in terms of performance,
retention)?
 Least effective sources?
 Recruiting Online
 Job postings on company portals, job boards (e.g. monster.com,
cpjobs.com, JIJIS) or searching web-based databases on passive
job seekers (e.g. using LinkedIn).
 Advantages  Disadvantages
 24 hr-7 day access; shorten  Many unqualified applications
recruitment cycle, saving costs  Screening and checking
 Attract large no. of applicants authenticities of millions of
applications still time-
 Online screening
consuming
 Provides various company and  Lack of internet access by
recruitment information
some minorities
 Social Recruiting
 More than 50% of jobs come from networks; social recruiting
can reach out to “passive” candidates; companies can develop
employer branding.
 LinkedIn
 For networking and recruiting professionals
 Companies can create company pages; HR can connect with
current colleagues and other professional contacts; LinkedIn
groups connecting people with common interests.
 Paid services to post jobs
 Facebook
 Companies can create “fan pages”, share pictures and videos
 Micro-blogging (e.g. Twitter, Sina Weibo)
 Companies can post “headline” job postings
 Current Trends
 Social recruiting
 Applicant tracking system/Candidate Management
System
 a software application that enables the electronic

handling of recruitment needs, i.e. filtering

applications based on criteria such as keywords, skills,
former employers, years of experience and schools
attended (e.g. Jobscan, Taleo, Talview, Mettl, etc.).
 May use artificial intelligence (AI) to do shortlisting

(use of keywords is necessary) and chatbots.

 Candidate and employee experience is important.
 Current Trends
 Gamification/Game-based Assessment
 application of game-design elements and game principles in non-

game contexts, like recruitment or learning in order to enhance

engagement or learning. Using AI with large database.
 Broader skills and behavioural traits assessment, e.g. memory,

emotion detection, risk-taking, fairness and focus; also

enhancing branding and candidate experience.
 Claim to reduce faking and biases as well.

 But Cost, Content and Context issues - should be relevant to

the job description & requirements; top candidates prefer

personalized assessments instead.
 For example, Pymetrics (e.g. DBS), Arctic Shores (e.g. Big-4),

Knack (Meta Maze).

 Candidate & Employee Experience
99% of employers plan to invest more in their candidate
experience and they should focus on better communication.

Source: “The Candidate Experience” by Future Workplace & Career Arc, June 2016
Candidate & Employee Experience
Improve your candidate experience
1. Become more aware of online
reviews – e.g. Glassdoor

2. Let candidates know about their

application status

3. Keep your job requirements

updated

4. Promote your company culture to

close the experience gap

5. Humanize your interview process

and ask for feedback
 Recruitment using
Employment/Employer Branding
 Reflects what a company offers as an employer and helps manage
internal and external perceptions of what it is like to work there.
 A high positive relationship between perceptions of the reputation
of organizations (e.g. employer’s rankings) and how attractive
these companies are as (potential) employers.
 Opportunity for HR to be strategically focused, as strategic partner
involved in key functions such as marketing:
 Job = Product
 Terms = Product features/specifications
 Applicant = Customer
 Recruitment = Marketing and sales
 Retention = Customer service
 Recruitment = Marketing channels
channels
 The Benefits of Employer Branding

Source: Hewitt’s Survey on “Emerging Trends in Employee

 Employer Branding
Campaign Tools
Recruitment
campaign
manual for
HR & line Personal
Career management insight
brochure
brochure

Talking Campaign Manager as

about the Tools an
industry
ambassador
leaflet

Role
Video
preview
 Initial Selection
Methods
Screening: used to reduce the applicant pool to
a manageable size and to assess the
applicants with the greatest potential for being
hired.
• usually of lower validity, less time, by HR.
 Resumes and Cover Letters
 Information provided is controlled by applicant,
provides a good opportunity for candidates to sell
themselves.
 Major issues
 Large number received by organizations
 Falsification and misrepresentation of information
 Difficult to compare between candidates
 Lack of research exists related to
 Validity or reliability
 Costs
 Adverse impact
 Application Form & Telephone
Screening
 Application Form
 Key advantages -- organization dictates information
provided, comparison between candidates, allows
structured interview
 Major issue -- information requested should be
critical to job success, reflect KSAOs relevant to job.
 Problems
 very low predictive validity (r=0.10 to 0.20)
 difficult for candidates to differentiate themselves
 difficult to shortlist
 Telephone Screening/Video interview
 Concerns of Application
Letter/Form
Item Graduate Sample
In which sections did you
make up an answer to please
the recruiter? (% saying
“Quite” or “Very True”)
Subjects taken at university
Demographic details, i.e. age/sex/address
Hobbies and interests
Attitudes, skills, personal qualities
Career ambitions
Reason for choice of type of work
Reasons for choice of company
 Letters of Recommendation/
Reference Checks
 Approach involves verifying applicant’s background via
contact with immediate supervisor or HR department of
previous companies.
 Advantages – can verify factual information, provide
information on character and work experience, etc.
 Issues
 Inability to discern more-qualified from
less-qualified applicants
 Lack of standardization
 Company reluctant to provide information, data privacy issue
 Low validity from 0.16 to 0.26
 Now, may use telephone reference/other background checks
Biodata/Biographical Information
• “Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.”
• Predictive validity moderate: .32 to .37.
• But problems of low generalizability to other
companies/jobs, faking.
 Next Week Class Assignment
• Each individual to prepare a set of application form, CV and answer
online questions.
• Your cv will be shortlisted by an applicant tracking system/candidate
management system.
• Please read some tips on preparing your resume (file on “CV Preparation
Important Notes”) on Blackboard.
• Please go to CYT computer lab. 613 for next three weeks’ classes.

Job Vacancy - Either

1. Management Trainee in a Bank – Corporate Banking
Division
OR
2. Talent Acquisition Officer in the Bank