OBM345

CHAPTER 6:
RECRUITING & SELECTING
OFFICE STAFF

Quible (pg. 132-147)

Kallaus & Keeling (pg.131-143)

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 Learning Outcomes

• Describe methods and procedures for recruiting and selecting office

employees
 Steps in the Recruitment Process:
Recruiting Sources
 Internal
• Employee Referral
• Employee Promotion
• Data Banks
 External
› Unsolicited Applications
› Advertising
› Educational Institution Placement Services
› Professional Organizations
› Employee Leasing
› Public Employment Agencies
› Private Employment Agencies
› Temporary Help Agencies
› Electronic Resume Banks
› Outsourcing
Quible (pg. 132-138) 3
 INTERNAL SOURCES
Advantages Disadvantages

• Provides tangible evidence that • Employees who are

employee competence is rewarded continuously passed over
tend to become discontent
• Organization is familiar with
qualifications of employees who • Organizations don’t have
apply for higher-level positions access to ideas brought in
from outside
• Current employees may require
less orientation and training than
new employees will

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 Internal Sources: Employee Referral
• Employees recommend individuals for open positions
within the organization
• Can cause a concern and considerable embarrassment
when a recommended/referred individual is hired and
does not perform satisfactorily
• Somehow, some organization gave bonuses to employee
if the individuals they recommend stay at a specified
length of time
• Typically, employees tend to refer others who have
similar demographic characteristic, which can create a
potential dilemma for organizations that are attempting
to create a more diverse workforce

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 Internal Sources: Employee Promotion
Is desirable for several reason: (Advantages)
• Employees are apt to perform better when
they know promotions are available
• Morale is likely to increase
• Turnover to decrease when employees can be
promoted
Disadvantages of promotion:
• Reduces the number of new
ideas that are brought in by
new employees
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 Internal Sources: Data Banks

• Involves maintaining in a computerized data bank a

list of employee qualifications
• To fill a position, the data bank is scanned to
determine which employees possess the
qualifications for the open position
• The information has to be continually updated to
remain a viable recruiting source

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 EXTERNAL SOURCES

Advantages Disadvantages

• Potential applicant pool is often larger • Tends to produce a large number of

than is available with internal sources applicants
• New ideas are brought in from outside • Applicants’ backgrounds are difficult to
check, which may result in less-than-
satisfactory employees

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 External Sources: Unsolicited

• Is used when applicants apply for a position not

knowing whether an opening is available or exists
• Some organizations view unsolicited applications
negatively because of the extra work they cause.

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 External Sources: Advertising

• Involves the use of electronic, print, and broadcast

media.
• Often produces a significant number of marginally
or unqualified applicants.
• Typically enables an organization to hire a large
number of employees in a short time period.

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 External Sources: Educational Institution Placement Service

• Is often viewed as a fairly costly recruiting source (recruiter

time & travel expenses).
• Is more likely to be used for filling salaried positions than
hourly positions.
• Educational institution placement services provide important
services for both the employer and the job seeker.
• Disadvantage: Lack of diversity in applicants’ backgrounds is
caused when an organization recruits at only a few
colleges/universities.
• Career fairs: Organized event attended by employers seeking
employees and individuals seeking employment

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 External Sources: Professional Organizations
• An increasing number of professional organizations
are developing and operating placement services
for their members.
• These professional organizations often provide job
placement services at their convention or meetings,
or list it in their journals & other publication
• They tend to produce a fairly homogeneous
(standardized/identical) pool of applicants.

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 External Sources: Employee Leasing

• Is also known as contract staffing.

• Employees of the leasing company are “leased” to
various community employers.
• Is an attractive arrangement for organizations that
have only a handful of employees.
• Leasing company handles all benefits, payroll, etc.,
for its employees.
• “Leased” employees are permanently assigned to
the organization in which they work.

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 External Sources: Public Employment Agencies
• Each state is responsible for operating its own
agencies. (In Malaysia, it is controlled by the
Kementerian Sumber Manusia).
• Common objective is to help job seekers locate
employment and to help employers find qualified
workers.
• By law, any individual who is receiving
unemployment compensation must register with
the state’s public employment agency.
• Any individual who receives a suitable employment
offer must be willing to accept it.

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External Sources: Private Employment Agencies

• Charge for the services they provided.

• Fee is largely determined by the nature of the open
position ( higher fees are usually charge for higher
level position), the location of the agency, and the
reputation of the agency.
• Full cost of the fee is often borne by the employer.

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 External Sources: Temporary Help Agencies
• Used to obtain employees on a short-term basis.
• Often used to deal with seasonal busy times of the year or to
cover for vacationing or ill employees.
• Temporary agency pays temporary employee and handles all
fringe benefits and salary details.
• Advantages:
– Cost of a temporary employee to be less than a cost of full-time
employee
– Decrease in the amount of time consumed by recruiting
applicants and filling the job
– An excellent way to obtain employees with specialized skills
– Provide greater staffing flexibility than hiring permanent
employee

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 External Sources: Electronic Resume Banks
• Maintain the resume of any individuals who wishes to pay the
fee to have their resume stored.
• Two types:
– Web-based employment services Online service that
enable employers to store information about their job
openings and job seekers to store their resume, which
facilities the employee selection process. Example:
Monster Board, careerWEB, JobHunt, etc.
– Non-Web based – accept resume – scanned using optical-
character process –stored in a database. Example:
Resumix
• Search process is often computerized.

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 External Sources: Outsourcing

• Outsourcing : Practice of some organizations to

turn over certain work functions to an outside
agency that specialized in the types of functions
they perform for their client
• Advantages:
– Cost reduction to the organization
– The quality of work processes it provides
– The organization’s elimination of the need to supervise or
manage the outsourced functions.

Quible (pg. 138)

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 JOB SPECIFICATION & JOB DESCRIPTION

 Job Specification – documents that identify the knowledge,

skills and abilites the job holder needs to posseses
 Job Description – identify the duties and responsibilities of
specific positions.

Quible (pg. 140)

Kallaus & Keeling (pg. 136-143)

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› Applicants who are shown the JS and JD for a particular
job can readily determine whether they a both qualified for
and interested in the position
› This step can provide and important screening funciton
because individuals who decide they lack either or both
qualificationsor interest in the job can terminate the
application process at this point
 Selecting Office Workers

The selection process begins when a position becomes vacant

or a new position is created
Steps in the employee selection process
Application form
Interviewing (direct, indirect and patterned interview,
record of interview)
Checking references and letters of recommendation
Pre-employment testing (types of tests and purposes

Kallaus & Keeling – 136 - 143

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 The Selection Process:
Application Form

• Careful use of application forms permits a preliminary

screening of applicants for a position, thus saving the
interviewers’ time.
• The application form consist information regarding –
personal information, education, business experience,
references and general remark.
• In designing applications forms, employers should request
only data that are useful in predicting job-relevant behavior.
• Employers should not ask questions that may become the
basis for charges of discrimination under the fair
employment practices regulations.
• For example – questions on sex, religion, age, race, marital
status

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 The Selection Process:
The Interview

• Is often considered as the most crucial step in the

selection process as well as the most widely used
tool in the hiring process.

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 The Interview: Types of Interviews

Kallaus & Keeling (pg. 142-143 ) 24

Types of Interview:
Patterned Interview
• Is type of interview that uses a form containing a
list of questions to be asked of the interviewee.
• Requires the use of a form on which the interviewer
records the interviewee’s responses to each
question.
• Is helpful when a number of people are applying for
the same position.

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 Types of Interview:
Direct Interview
• Type of interview in which only questions directly
related to the interviewee’s background and his or
her qualifications for a particular job are asked
during the interview
• Is a quickly conducted interview.
• Interviewee is asked questions that are related only
to his/her particular job.

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 Types of Interview:
Indirect Interview
• Covers a much broader range of topics than the
direct interview.
• Is basically unstructured in format.

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 Record Interview
• The record of interview contains in an organized format all the
information acquired during the interview.
• This record aids the interviewer in remembering all the facts
and in making a thorough analysis regarding an applicant’s
employment.
• If the personal interview was favourable and there is a
possibility of employment, you may schedule a follow-up
interview.

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 The Selection Process:
Checking References
• Used to:
– Verify information provided by the applicants
– Obtain information about applicants’ backgrounds
– Obtain information about applicants’ performance while
employed elsewhere
• Guidelines to be consider when requesting the
information:
– Request only related information
– obtain written release from applicants before requesting
information about them from their references
• Method of References Checking
– Telephone calls – excellent means of checking references

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 Letters of Recommendation
• Fairly effective
– Job applicants name those persons who are likely to write
favourable letters of recommendation
– Fearful of potential lawsuits - may person decline to give
information to a prospective employer unless that
information are often vague

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 The Selection Process:
Pre-employment Testing

• The selecting office workers is based on these two principles:

– Test for selecting, placing, evaluating and promoting office
employees must be administered and interpreted in an
unbiased, objective manner
– Test are not exclusive devices but supplemental tools in the
total assessment of personnel

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 Major Kinds of Pre-employment Test
• Some professional testers maintain that a group of test is
necessary in order to test the variety of abilities required for a
specific job
• Whether the testing program should be administered by
someone within the company, such as the office manager, or
handled by an outside professional organization depends upon
the number of workers who must be hired.

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 Types of Tests
• Performance or Achievement Tests
– Determine how well an applicant can perform those tasks
for which he or she is being considered
• Aptitude Tests
– Determine the potential a person has to learn the tasks for
which he or she is being considered or the tasks he or she
might be expected to perform in the future
• Intelligence Tests
– Determine one’s mental and reasoning abilities
• Personality and psychological Test
– Determine whether an applicant possesses certain
characteristics needed for job success
• Interest Test
– Designed to identify a person’s likes and dislikes to aid in
career counseling

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 Implications for The AOM

• The responsibility of the AOM for selecting process

will be varies from organization to organization
• Sometimes AOM will involve at end of the selecting
process or at the beginning of the process
• The AOM need to become knowledgeble about all
the elements of the process
• Poor hiring decisions are costly to the organziation
in a variety of ways

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