Human Resource Management: Personnel Planning and Recruiting

Human Resource Management
Fifteenth Edition
Chapter 5
Personnel
Planning and
Recruiting
Copyright © 2017, 2015, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives (1 of 3)
5-1. Explain the main techniques used in
employment planning and forecasting.
5-2. Explain and give examples for the need for
effective recruiting.
5-3. Name and describe the main internal sources
of candidates.
5-4. Discuss a workforce planning method you
would use to improve employee engagement.
5-5. List and discuss the main outside sources of
candidates.
5-6. Explain how to recruit a more diverse
workforce.
5-7. Discuss practical guidelines for obtaining
application information.
I.
Explain the main techniques
used in employment planning
and forecasting.
Job analysis identifies the duties and human requirements for each
of the company’s jobs. The next step is to decide which of these jobs
you need to fill, and to recruit and select employees for them.
The traditional way to envision recruitment and selection is as a

series of hurdles (Figure 5-1):
1. Decide what positions to fill, through workforce/personnel planning

and forecasting.
2. Build a pool of candidates for these jobs, by recruiting internal or
external candidates.
3. Have candidates complete application forms and perhaps undergo
initial screening interviews.
4. Use selection tools like tests, background investigations, and
physical exams to screen candidates.
5. Decide who to make an offer to by having the supervisor and
perhaps others interview the
candidates.
Introduction
The recruitment and selection process is a series of hurdles aimed at selecting

the best candidate for the job.
Workforce Planning and Forecasting
• is the process of deciding what positions the firm
will have to fill, and how to fill them.
Towers Watson’s Internet software (“Towers Watson Workforce
MAPS”) helps clients manage this workforce planning process. It has
dashboards (see the following four exhibits) for monitoring key metrics,
for instance on recruiting and retention; a workforce scan that provides
detailed analysis of the client’s current workforce and historical workforce
trends; a workforce projection showing projected employment and skill
levels given the “status quo”; scenario modeling to let the employer
compare “what if” scenarios; and an external labor scan for analyzing
how the external labor market impacts the employer’s workforce.
Workforce planning embraces all future positions, from maintenance

clerk to CEO. However, we’ll see that most firms call the process of
deciding how to fill
Executive jobs succession planning.
Workforce Planning by Towers
Watson MAPS
Source: © Towers Watson 2012.

Used with permission.
Strategy and Workforce Planning
Workforce planning shouldn’t occur in a vacuum.

Instead, workforce/employment planning is best
understood as an outgrowth of the firm’s strategic and
business planning.
For example, plans to enter new businesses, to build

new plants, or to reduce activities will all influence the
number of and types of positions to be filled. At the
same time, decisions regarding how to fill these
positions will impact other HR plans, for instance,
training and recruitment plans.
Forecasting Personnel Needs
(Labor Demands) (1 of 2)
To answer the question “How many people with
what skills will we need?”, managers have to
consider different factors:
A firm’s future staffing needs reflect demand for

its products or services, adjusted for changes the
firm plans to make in its strategic goals, and for
changes in its turnover rate and productivity.
Forecasting workforce demand therefore starts
with estimating what the demand will be for your
products or services.
Longer term, managers will follow industry publications
and economic forecasts closely, to try to get a sense for
future demand. Such future predictions won’t be precise,
but should help you address the potential changes in
demand.
The basic process for forecasting personnel needs is to

forecast revenues first. Then estimate the size of the staff
required to support this sales volume.
However, managers must also consider other factors.
These include projected turnover, decisions to upgrade
(or downgrade) products or services, productivity
changes, financial resources, and decisions to enter or
leave businesses. The basic tools for projecting
personnel needs include trend analysis, ratio analysis,
the scatter plot, and managerial judgment.
Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor
Demands) (2 of 2)
1. Trend Analysis: Is a study of a firm’s past
employment needs over a period of years to
predict future needs.
2. Ratio Analysis: Is a forecasting technique for
determining future staff needs by using ratios
between, for example, sales volume and number
of employees needed.
Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor
Demands) (2 of 2)
3. Scatter Plot: Is a graphical method used to help
identify the relationship between two variables.
4. Managerial Judgment: Few historical trends,
ratios, or relationships will continue unchanged into
the future so managerial judgment is needed to
adjust the forecast.
Forecasting the Supply of Inside
Candidates (1 of 2)
The personnel demand forecast provides only half the staffing equation, by
answering the question: “How many employees in what positions will we
need?” Next, the manager must forecast the supply (availability) of inside
and outside candidates.
Most firms start with possible inside candidates. The main task here is
determining which current employees are qualified or trainable for the
projected openings.
Markov analysis involves creating a matrix that shows the probabilities
that employees in a chain of feeder positions for a key job. “Feeder”
positions are those to which a job incumbent may likely be promoted.
For example a junior engineer is a feeder position for an engineer. An
engineer is a feeder position for a senior engineer who might be
promoted to engineering supervisor, and so forth.
Candidates (2 of 2)
Personnel Replacement Charts
• Figure 5-3 Personnel or
Management Replacement
Chart Showing Development
Needs of Potential Future
Divisional Vice Presidents
Personnel replacement charts

(illustrated here in Figure 5-3) are
another option, particularly for the
firm’s top positions. They show
the present performance and
promote ability for each position’s
potential replacement.
Candidates (2 of 2)
Markov analysis is also a method that involves creating a matrix that shows the
probabilities that employees in the chain of feeder positions for a key job (such
as from junior engineer, to engineer, to senior engineer, to engineering
supervisor, to director of engineering) will move from position to position and
therefore be available to fill the key position.
A transition matrix, or Markov matrix, can be used to model the internal flow

of human resources. These matrices simply show as probabilities the average
rate of historical movement from one job to another. Figure 2-12 presents a very
simple transition matrix. For a line worker, for example, there is a 20%
probability of being gone in 12 months, a 0% probability of promotion to
manager, a 15% probability of promotion to supervisor, and a 65% probability of
being a line worker this time next year. Such transition matrices form the bases
for computer simulations of the internal flow of people through a large
organization over time.
Forecasting the Supply of Outside
Candidates
Forecasting the Supply of Outside Candidates is done when
there is not enough skilled inside candidates to fill the
anticipated openings.
Predictive Workforce Monitoring
Most employers review their workforce plans every year or so,
but this isn’t always sufficient. Workforce planning therefore
often involves paying continuous attention to workforce
planning issues. Managers call this predictive workforce
monitoring.
Improving Performance: HR as a
Profit Center (1 of 2)
Predicting Labor Needs
• Predicting Labor Needs
• Valero Energy created a “labor supply chain” for improving the
efficiency of its workforce planning, recruiting, and hiring process. It
includes an analytic tool that predicts Valero’s labor needs based on
past trends. And, it includes computer screen “dashboards” that show
how components in the staffing chain, such as ads placed on job
boards, are performing according to cost, speed, and quality. Before
implementing the labor supply chain system, it took 41 pieces of paper
to bring on board an employee and more than 120 days to fill a
position; each hire cost about $12,000. The new system eliminated
most of the paper forms needed to hire an employee, time to fill fell
below 40 days, and cost per hire dropped to $2,300.
Matching Projected Labor Supply
and Labor Demand
Workforce planning should logically culminate in a workforce
plan. This plan lays out the employer’s projected workforce
and skills gaps, as well as staffing plans for filling these gaps.
Succession Planning
Succession planning is a process for identifying and
developing new leaders who can replace old leaders when they
leave, retire or die. Succession planning increases the
availability of experienced and capable employees that are
prepared to assume these roles as they become available.
Succession planning involves developing workforce plans for

the company’s top positions. Succession planning is the
ongoing process of systematically identifying, assessing, and
developing organizational leadership to enhance performance.
It entails three steps: identify key position needs, develop

inside candidates, and assess and choose those who will fill the
key positions.
II.
Explain and give examples for
the need for effective recruiting.
Why Effective Recruiting Is Important
• The need for effective
recruiting
• What makes recruiting a
challenge?
• Recruiting is important. If only two candidates apply for two openings,
you may have little choice but to hire them. But if 10 or 20 applicants
appear, you can use techniques like interviews and tests to screen out
all but the best.
• Effective recruiting allows a company to fill open positions while their
competitors may have missed solid opportunities. If, for example, you
fill open positions 50% faster than industry average, you are more
likely to get better talent onboard more quickly.
• Some recruiting methods are superior to others, depending on the job
and depending on non-recruitment issues and policies such as pay.
• Even the employer’s “brand” or reputation will impact recruiting
success. Obviously it is futile to recruit if the employer’s reputation is
that it’s an awful place to work.
• For many firms, it’s simply much easier to recruit centrally now that so
much recruiting is on the Internet. Face-to-face interviewing is the
usual culmination of the preliminary recruiting done through the
internet.
• With respect to the role of the supervisor in recruiting, the HR manager
charged with filling an open position is seldom very familiar with the
job itself. Someone has to tell this person what the position really
entails, and what key things to look or watch out for. Only the position’s
supervisor can do this.
The Recruiting Yield Pyramid
FIGURE 5-5 Recruiting Yield
Pyramid
Similarly, one survey found that

28% of those surveyed found
their most recent job through
word-of-mouth. Nineteen
percent used online job boards,
16% direct approaches from
employers and employment
services, 7% print ads, and
only 1% social media sites
(although 22% used sites like
LinkedIn to search for jobs).
Know Your Employment Law (1 of 3)
• Recruiting Employees
numerous federal, state, and local laws and court decisions restrict
what employers can and cannot do when recruiting job applicants.
• Other laws are relevant. For example, it is illegal for employers to

conspire not to hire each other’s employees. Yet Apple and Google
recently paid over $400 million to settle a claim alleging that they did
just that.
The Supervisor’s Role
Line and staff cooperation in recruitment is essential. The

human resource manager charged with filling an open position
is seldom very familiar with the job itself. So, for example, the
recruiter will want to know from the supervisor what the job
really entails and its job specifications, as well as informal
things like the supervisor’s leadership style and how the team
gets along.
III.
Name and describe the main
internal sources of candidates.
Internal Sources of Candidates
• Finding Internal Candidates
In a perfect world, the employer will adhere to formal internal-

recruitment policies and procedures. These typically rely heavily on job
posting and on the firm’s skills inventories.
Job posting means publicizing the open job to employees (usually by

literally posting it on company intranets or bulletin boards).
IV.
Discuss a workforce planning
method you would use to
improve employee engagement.
Firms can’t always get all the employees they need from their
current staff, and sometimes they just don’t want to. We’ll look at
the sources firms use to find outside candidates next.
Employee Engagement Guide for
Managers
Many employers encourage
internal recruiting, on the
reasonable assumption that doing
so improves employee
engagement.
Promotion from Within
A manager interested in fostering his or her employees’ engagement

can draw several useful guidelines from FedEx’s promotion-from-within
system: show a genuine interest in your employees’ career aspirations;
provide career-oriented appraisals; see that your employees have
access to the training they need to develop themselves; and balance
your desire to keep good employees with the benefits of helping them
learn of and apply for other positions in your company.
V.
List and discuss the main
outside sources of candidates.
Outside Sources of Candidates
Employers can’t always get all the employees they need from
their current staff, and sometimes they just don’t want to. Next,
we look at the sources firms use to find outside candidates.
Informal Recruiting and the Hidden
Job Market
• Job openings aren’t publicized
• Jobs are created and become available when
employers come across the right candidates
Recruiting via the Internet
• Pros – Online recruiting generates more responses quicker and for a longer
time at less cost than just about any other method. And, because they are richer
and more comprehensive in describing the jobs, Web-based ads have a
stronger effect on applicant attraction than do printed ads.
• Most employers also use applicant tracking systems, to which we now turn.
• Cons – Online recruiting has two potential problems. First, older people and
some minorities are less likely to use the Internet, so online recruiting may
inadvertently exclude more older applicants (and certain minorities).
• The second problem is Internet overload: Employers end up deluged with
résumés. Self-screening helps: The Cheesecake Factory posts detailed job
duties listings, so those not interested needn’t apply. Another approach is to
have job seekers complete a short online prescreening questionnaire, then use
it to identify those who may proceed in the hiring process.
Improving Performance Through
HRIS: Using Applicant Tracking
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
A deluge of applicants means that most employers now use applicant

tracking software to screen applications. Applicant tracking systems
(ATS) are online systems that help employers attract, gather, screen,
compile, and manage applicants. They also provide other services,
including requisitions management (for monitoring the firm’s open jobs),
applicant data collection (for scanning applicants’ data into the system)
and reporting (to create various recruiting-related reports such as cost
per hire and hire by source). Most systems are from application service
providers (ASPs).
Trends Shaping HR: Science in Talent
Management
Google’s People Operations (HR)
Let’s take a look …
Improving Online Recruiting
Effectiveness
Ineffective Ad, Recycled Effective Web Ad
from Magazine to the Web (Space Not an Issue)
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Trends Shaping HR: Digital and
Social Media
Recruiters Use of Social Media
Let’s take a look …
Trends Shaping HR: Digital and
Social Media
• Recruiters use social media recruiting in several ways:
1. They dig through social websites and competitors’ publications to find

applicants who may not even be looking for jobs.
2. They seek passive candidates (people not actively looking for jobs) by using
social networking sites such as LinkedIn Recruiter Lite (a premium service) to
browse members’ résumés and to find such candidates.
• 3. Many firms use Twitter to announce job openings to job seekers who
subscribe to their Twitter feeds.
4. Theladders.com’s Pipeline™ networking tool lets recruiters maintain a dialogue

with prospective job seekers even before they’re interested in seeking a job.
5. Others use Facebook’s friendfinding search function, and Twitter, to learn more
about prospective and actual candidates.
Advertising
• The Media
• Constructing (writing) The
Ad
Advertising
Experienced advertisers use the guide AIDA (attention,
interest, desire, action) to construct ads.
First, you must attract attention to the ad, or readers may
ignore it. Why does the ad in Figure 5-9 attract attention?
The phrase “next key player” helps.
Next, develop interest in the job. For instance, “are you
looking to make an impact?”
Create desire by spotlighting words such as travel or
challenge. As an example, having a graduate school nearby
may appeal to engineers and professional people.
Finally, the ad should prompt action with a statement like
“call today.”
Constructing (writing) The Ad
Figure 5-7 Help Wanted Ad
That Draws Attention
Source: “Help Wanted Ad That Draws
Attention”, in Giombetti Associates,
Hampden, MA. Reprinted with permission.
Employment Agencies
• There are three main types of
employment agencies:
(1)public agencies operated by
federal, state, or local
governments;
(2)agencies associated with
nonprofit organizations; and
(3)privately owned agencies.
Recruiting Process Outsourcers
Recruitment process outsourcers – Are special

vendors that handle all or most of an employer’s
recruiting needs. They usually sign short-term
contracts with the employer, and receive a monthly
fee that varies with the amount of actual recruiting the
employer needs done.
Temporary Workers and Alternative
Staffing
• Employers increasingly supplement their permanent workforces by
hiring contingent or temporary workers, often through temporary help
employment agencies. Also known as part-time or just-in-time workers,
the contingent workforce is big and growing.
• Alternative staffing
• Reason for using
• The Temp Agency
• Temp Employee’s Concern
Staffing
Temporary employees are examples of alternative staffing—basically,
the use of nontraditional recruitment sources. Other alternative staffing
arrangements include “in-house temporary employees” (people
employed directly by the company, but on an explicit short-term basis)
and “contract technical employees” (highly skilled workers like
engineers, who are supplied for long-term projects under contract from
an outside technical services firm).
Employers use temps for many reasons. One is continuing weak
economic confidence among employers. Another is the trend toward
organizing around short-term projects. For example, Makino, which
manufactures machine tools, now outsources the installation of large
machines to contract firms, who in turn hire temps to do the installations.
Flexibility is another concern, with more employers wanting to quickly
reduce employment levels if the economic turnaround proves short-lived.
Employers have also long used “temps” to fill in for employees who were
out sick or on vacation.
Staffing
The Temp Agency – Employers can hire temp workers either through
direct hires or through temporary staff agencies. Direct hiring involves
simply hiring workers and placing them on the job. The employer usually
pays these people directly, as it does all its employees, but classifies
them separately, as casual, seasonal, or temporary employees, and
often pays few, if any, benefits.
The other approach is to use a temp agency. Here the agency handles
all the recruiting, screening, and payroll administration for the temps.
Staffing
Temp Employees’ Concerns – To make temporary relationships
successful, those supervising temps should understand their concerns.
In one survey, temporary workers said they were:
1. Treated by employers in a dehumanizing and ultimately discouraging
way.
2. Insecure about their employment and pessimistic about the future.
3. Worried about their lack of insurance and pension benefits.
4. Misled about their job assignments and in particular about whether
temporary assignments were likely to become full-time.
5. “Underemployed” (particularly those trying to return to the full-time
labor market).
Contract Employees
• Several years ago, federal agents rounded up
about 250 illegal “contract” cleaning workers in 60
Walmart stores. The raid underscores the need to
understand the status of the contract employees
who work on your premises handling activities like
security or afterhours store cleaning. The fact that
they actually work for another, temp-type company
is no excuse. For purposes of most employment
laws, with certain limited exceptions, employees of
temporary staffing firms working in an employer’s
workplace will be considered to be employees
Therefore, the more the agency does the
better. For example, have the agency handle
training. Let it negotiate and set the pay rates
and vacation/time-off policies.
Employers can take other steps. Require the
agency to follow the employer’s background
checking process, and to assume the legal
risks if the employer and agency are found to
be jointly responsible.
Carefully track how many temporary
employees the company actually has. Screen
and supervise temporary employees with care
if they may have access to your intellectual
property and computer systems.
Trends Shaping HR: The New
Extended Workforce
Freelance Programmers, Designers or Marketers
• Many employers today build their staff wholly or in part around an
extended workforce consisting, for instance, of freelance
programmers, designers, or marketers. Freelancer community
websites enable such employers to recruit the right freelance team
based on the freelancer’s reputation and work product.
• For example, Elance.com (see www.elance.com/) reports its members’
skills assessments, and lists detailed project work experience, making
it easier for prospective employers to decide who to hire. Similarly, the
TopCoder.com (see www.topcoder.com/how-it-works/) programming
community site enables employers to identify top programmers based
on the reputations they earned within the community. New hiring sites
like these may have a big impact on HR. Some employers may well
use them to democratize HR, by letting their line managers recruit and
hire
Copyright new2015,
© 2017, employees directly.
2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs
Rather than bringing people in to do the company’s

jobs, outsourcing and offshoring send the jobs out.
Outsourcing – means having outside vendors supply services

(such as benefits management, market research, or
manufacturing) that the company’s own employees previously
did in-house.
Offshoring – means having outside vendors or employees

abroad supply services that the company’s own employees
previously did in-house.
Executive Recruiters
• Working with
Recruiters
• Internal Recruiting
Improving Performance: HR Tools for
Line Managers and Small Businesses
Recruiting 101
Let’s talk about it…
Recruiting (1 of 2)
1. Referrals and Walk-ins
– Employee referral campaigns are a very important recruiting
option. Here the employer posts announcements of openings and
requests for referrals on its website, bulletin boards, and/or
wallboards. It often offers prizes or cash awards for referrals that
lead to hiring.
Walk-Ins – Particularly for hourly workers, walk-ins—direct
applications made at your office—are a big source of applicants.
Sometimes, posting a “Help Wanted” sign outside the door may be
the most cost-effective way of attracting good local applicants.
Treat walk-ins courteously, for both the employer’s community
reputation and the applicant’s self-esteem.
• 2.On-demand recruiting services (ODRS) are recruiters who are
paid by the hour or project, instead of a percentage fee, to support a
specific project.
• 3.College recruiting—sending an employer’s representatives to

college campuses to prescreen applicants and create an applicant
pool from the graduating class—is important. One study several years
ago concluded, for instance, that new college graduates filled about
38% of all externally filled jobs requiring a college degree.
4.Internships – Internships can be win–win situations.
For students, they can mean honing business skills,
learning more about potential employers, and
discovering one’s career likes (and dislikes). And
employers can use the interns to make useful
contributions while evaluating them as possible full-time
employees. A recent study found that about 60% of
internships turned into job offers. Unfortunately, some
internships turn into nightmares. Many interns,
particularly in industries like fashion and media, report
long unpaid days doing menial work.
Recruiting (2 of 2)
5. Telecommuters – Telecommuters do all or most of their
work remotely, often from home, using information
technology. For example, JetBlue Airways uses at-home
agents to handle its reservation needs. These JetBlue
employee “crewmembers” live in the Salt Lake City area and
work out of their homes. They use JetBlue-supplied
computers and technology, and receive JetBlue training.
6. Military Personnel – Returning and discharged U.S.

military personnel provide an excellent source of trained and
disciplined recruits. Yet all too often they have trouble getting
placed.
VI.
Explain how to recruit a more
diverse workforce.
Recruiting a More Diverse Workforce (1 of 2)
1. Women
Given the progress women have made in getting and
excelling in a wide range of professional, managerial, and
military occupations, one might assume that employers need
no special recruitment efforts to recruit women, but that’s not
necessarily the case. For example, women still face
headwinds in certain male-dominated occupations such as
engineering. Women also carry the heavier burden of child-
rearing, fill proportionately fewer high-level managerial posts,
and still earn only about 70% of what men earn for similar
jobs. Many employers therefore focus particular efforts on
recruiting qualified women.
2. Single Parents
• Recently there were about 10 million single parent families

with children under 18 maintained by the mother, about
two-thirds of whom were employed. There were about 1.25
million single parent families with children under 18
maintained by the father, three-fourths of whom were
employed. Being a single parent isn’t easy, and recruiting
and keeping them requires understanding the problems
they face. (And keep in mind that many of these issues
also apply to families in which both parents are struggling
to make ends meet.)
3. Older Workers
• When it comes to hiring older workers, employers don’t

have much choice. The fastest-growing labor force
segment is those from 45 to 64 years old. On the positive
side, a survey by AARP and SHRM concluded that older
workers tend to have lower absenteeism rates, more
reliability, and better work habits than younger workers.
Diversity Counts
Older workers are good workers. A study focused on the validity of six
common stereotypes about older workers: that they are less motivated,
less willing to participate in training and career development, more
resistant to change, less trusting, less healthy, and more vulnerable to
work-family imbalance.
They actually found not a negative but a weakly positive relationship

between age and motivation and job involvement (suggesting that as age
goes up, motivation actually rises). They did find a weak negative
relationship between age and trainability. Age was weakly but positively
related to willingness to change, and to being more trusting. Older
workers were no more likely than younger ones to have psychological
problems or day-to-day physical health problems, but were more likely to
have heightened blood pressure and cholesterol
. Older workers did not experience more work-family imbalance. So there

was little support for the common age stereotypes.
Recruiting a More Diverse Workforce (2 of 2)
4. Minorities
Understand the barriers that prevent minorities from applying.
For example, some minority applicants won’t meet the
educational or experience standards for the job; many
employers therefore offer remedial training. In one retail chain,
a lack of role models stopped women from applying.
Sometimes (as we saw) it’s insufficient schedule flexibility.
After recognizing the impediments, one turns to formulating
plans for remedying them and for attracting and retaining
minorities and women. This may include, for instance, basic
skills training, flexible work options, role models, and
redesigned jobs. Finally, implement these plans.
5. The Disabled
• Employees with disabilities are capable workers.

Thousands of employers in the United States and
elsewhere have found that disabled employees provide an
excellent and largely untapped source of competent,
efficient labor for jobs ranging from information technology
to creative advertising to receptionist.
VI.
Discuss practical guidelines for
obtaining application
information.
Developing and Using Application
Forms (1 of 2)
• Purpose of Application Forms
• Application Guidelines
• Purpose of Application Forms
Application forms are a good way to quickly collect
verifiable and fairly accurate historical data from the
job candidate. The form provides information on
education, prior work record, and skills.
Application Guidelines:
• Ineffective use of the application can cost the employer

dearly. Employers should carefully review their application
forms to ensure they comply with equal employment laws.
Questions to review include those asking about:
• Employment History
• Education
• Job Experience
Ensure each applicant signs the application form as an

indication that information is true and form is completed.
Application Forms and EEO Law
• Application forms must comply with equal employment laws.
Problematical items include:
• Education. A question on dates of attendance and graduation is a

potential violation, since it may reveal the applicant’s age.
• Arrest record. The courts have usually held that employers violate
Title VII by disqualifying applicants from employment because of an
arrest. This item has an adverse impact on minorities, and employers
usually can’t show it’s required as a business necessity.
• Notify in case of emergency. It is generally legal to require the name,
address, and phone number of a person to notify in case of
emergency. However, asking the relationship of this person could
indicate the applicant’s marital status or lineage.
• Membership in organizations. Some forms ask to list
memberships in clubs, organizations, or societies.
Employers should include instructions not to include
organizations that would reveal race, religion, physical
handicaps, marital status, or ancestry.
• Physical handicaps. It is usually illegal to require the
listing of an applicant’s physical handicaps or past
illnesses unless the application blank specifically asks only
for those that “may interfere with your job performance.”
Similarly, it is generally illegal to ask if the applicant has
received workers’ compensation.
• .
• Marital status. In general, the application should not ask
whether an applicant is single, married, divorced,
separated, or living with anyone, or the names,
occupations, and ages of the applicant’s spouse or
children.
• Housing. Asking whether an applicant owns, rents, or
leases a house may be discriminatory. It can adversely
affect minority groups and is difficult to justify on business
necessity.
• Video résumés. More candidates are submitting video
résumés, a practice replete with benefits and threats. To
facilitate using video résumés, several websites compile
multimedia résumés for applicants. The danger is that a
video makes it more likely that rejected candidates may
claim discrimination
Developing and Using Application
Forms (2 of 2)
• Using Application Forms to Predict Job
Performance
• Some employers use analyses of application
information (“bio data”) to predict employee tenure
and performance. In one study, the researchers
found that applicants who had longer tenure with
previous employers were less likely to quit, and
also had higher performance within 6 months after
hire.
Choose bio data items with three things in mind.
First, equal employment law limits the items you’ll want

to use (avoid age, race, or gender, for instance). And,
noninvasive items are best. In one study, subjects
perceived items such as “dollar sales achieved” and
“grade point average in math” as not invasive.
Items such as “birth order” and “frequent dates in high

school” were more invasive. Finally, some applicants
will fake bio data answers in an effort to impress the
employer.
Mandatory Arbitration –
Many employers, aware of the high costs of employment

litigation, require applicants to agree on their applications to
mandatory arbitration should a dispute arise. Different federal
courts have taken different positions on the enforceability of
such “mandatory alternative dispute resolution” clauses.
They are generally enforceable, with two caveats. First, it

must be a fair process. Second, mandatory arbitration clauses
turn some candidates off. In one study, 389 MBA students
read simulated employment brochures. Mandatory
employment arbitration had a significantly negative impact on
the attractiveness of the company as a place to work.

Human Resource Management: Personnel Planning and Recruiting

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Human Resource Management: Personnel Planning and Recruiting

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Human Resource Management

The traditional way to envision recruitment and selection is as a

1. Decide what positions to fill, through workforce/personnel planning

The recruitment and selection process is a series of hurdles aimed at selecting

Workforce planning embraces all future positions, from maintenance

Source: © Towers Watson 2012.

Workforce planning shouldn’t occur in a vacuum.

For example, plans to enter new businesses, to build

A firm’s future staffing needs reflect demand for

The basic process for forecasting personnel needs is to

Personnel replacement charts

A transition matrix, or Markov matrix, can be used to model the internal flow

Succession planning involves developing workforce plans for

It entails three steps: identify key position needs, develop

Similarly, one survey found that

• Other laws are relevant. For example, it is illegal for employers to

Line and staff cooperation in recruitment is essential. The

In a perfect world, the employer will adhere to formal internal-

Job posting means publicizing the open job to employees (usually by

A manager interested in fostering his or her employees’ engagement

A deluge of applicants means that most employers now use applicant

Google’s People Operations (HR)

Let’s take a look …

Recruiters Use of Social Media

Let’s take a look …

1. They dig through social websites and competitors’ publications to find

4. Theladders.com’s Pipeline™ networking tool lets recruiters maintain a dialogue

Recruitment process outsourcers – Are special

Rather than bringing people in to do the company’s

Outsourcing – means having outside vendors supply services

Offshoring – means having outside vendors or employees

Let’s talk about it…

• 3.College recruiting—sending an employer’s representatives to

6. Military Personnel – Returning and discharged U.S.

• Recently there were about 10 million single parent families

• When it comes to hiring older workers, employers don’t

They actually found not a negative but a weakly positive relationship

. Older workers did not experience more work-family imbalance. So there

• Employees with disabilities are capable workers.

• Ineffective use of the application can cost the employer

Ensure each applicant signs the application form as an

• Education. A question on dates of attendance and graduation is a

First, equal employment law limits the items you’ll want

Items such as “birth order” and “frequent dates in high

Many employers, aware of the high costs of employment

They are generally enforceable, with two caveats. First, it

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