Strengths and Weaknesses of Recruitment and Selection Procedures

Introduction

Recruitment and selection procedures play a crucial role in helping obtain competent and talented individuals. For these procedures to be effective, they must be capable of attracting the right candidates. Moreover, recruitment and selection procedures influence other aspects such as retention and quality of services offered (Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni 2016). Therefore, it is important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of existing recruitment and selection procedures to establish ways to improve these procedures and be able to attract and retain the best talents. Having superior human resources is beneficial to ensuring competitive advantage (Sparrow 2007). This paper aims at reviewing the literature to answer the research question; What are the strengths and weaknesses of selection and recruitment procedures? This will entail reviewing and critiquing literature from six articles.

A Synopsis of the Methodologies Used To Obtain the 6 Articles

To obtain the six articles for the literature review, I utilized the EBSCO database. The databases comprise of a wide range of resources. Using the database home page, I first type the research question. Numerous articles were produced but not all related to my topic. I repeatedly altered the search terms and included terms such as “recruitment and selection procedures,” “how to conduct selection and recruitment.” This yielded a wide range of articles, and from each search, I selected those articles that related to the research topic. After selecting these articles, I read through the abstract to see if the articles focused on the research topic. Among the over twenty articles that I had initially identified, I was able to identify the six articles that best addressed the research question.

A Presentation of the Common Themes That Emerged From Critique of the Articles

There are various common themes that emerged in three different articles. Evidently, the recruitment and selection procedures are important determinants of the quality of workforce that any organization manages to get. Moreover, it is evident that the selection and recruitment procedures have been changing greatly over the recent past, especially with the widespread use of technology in the recruitment as well as selection processes. According to Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008), fields such as medical training in some countries such as the UK, begin the process of selection and recruitment as early as during the postgraduate medical training stage, where there are standardized selection criteria for all specialties. This helps in guiding career choices for specialty training and ensuring appropriate competencies for effective performance in the field of healthcare. Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) emphasized on the importance of having an appropriate job description highlighting the core specialty specific competencies to ensure that the description attracts applicants who are best qualified for the job. Moreover, the article emphasizes the need for rigorous recruitment procedures, especially when recruiting specialists to specialize in the different medical fields. This is because aspects such as behavioral competencies influence the performance of specialists in this field hence the need to identify appropriate candidates. Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) argue that the rigorous selection at the postgraduate stage is important since it is easy to identify an individual with the different skills relevant to the different specialties. Such skills include communication skills, critical and technical knowledge, empathy and sensitivity, to mention a few. The weakness of this early selection is that it can be limiting and prevent selection of adequate individuals from working in some specialties eventually. This is evident in the shortage of specialists in certain fields, particularly those that require many years of study (Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni 2016).

Baum and Kabst (2014) compared the effectiveness of utilizing printed recruitment advertisements versus recruitment websites. They found that with the growing use of the internet, websites have a significantly stronger impact in helping attract suitable applicants. However, Baum and Kabst (2014) also found that combining both websites and print advertisements is better when the print advertisements are used to supplement the websites. They argue that argue that recruitment websites must be used appropriately and must be able to provide adequate and important information in the most effective ways, to be able to attract appropriate candidates. Using high information recruitment and selection practices help indirectly attract appropriate applicants by enabling them adequately evaluate the employer brand. Melanthiou, Pavlou, and Constantinou (2015) explored the concept of e-recruitment, particularly the role of social network sites in the process. Their article identifies the benefits as well as pitfalls of using online recruitment. They assert that there are legal implications associated with the extensive use of social media for hiring purposes. However, they add that a well-designed system can enable appropriate utilization of information about potential candidates and assist in recruiting employees with suitable skills and competencies.

Cromheecke, Hoye and Lievens (2013) investigate how ‘strange’ recruitment medium can impact on the quality as well as quantity of applicant pool. The researcher found that using strange or unusual recruitment media such as postcard helps attract a high applicant pool quantity as compared to utilizing common medium. Moreover, strange and unusual medium often attracts high quality applicants. Sparrow (2007) evaluates how globalization has impacted on the recruitment and selection procedures and makes suggestions on how organization can harmonize their procedures to ensure they meet global standards. Sparrow (2007) that current international human resource functions, including recruitment and selection are characterized by shortcomings such as lack of standardized procedures and poor coordination. The article analyzes four UK based organizations to assess their international recruitment and selection process and asserts that thee international resourcing functions and policies in most organizations are complex and often substandard. He offers an example of British National Health Service (NHS), which often faces challenges attracting international applicants to fill specialties such as nursing, which have shortages.

Agreements and Disagreements within the Articles

Melanthiou, Pavlou, and Constantinou (2015), as well as Baum and Kabst (2014), agree that using internet for recruitment purposes offers numerous benefits. They assert that internets has become and inevitable platform where organizations can utilize to reach to target audiences, including potential applicants. According to Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni (2016), selection and recruitment procedures should not be limited to the hiring period but should be a component embedded in the organization culture. This argument is supported by Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) who asserts that the selection and recruitment process within the healthcare field should be a process that begins as early as during the training process whereby different trainers should be required to develop strategies to ensure qualified applicants are selected to specialize in different fields. This helps ensure that the candidates who graduate into different specialties have the appropriate qualifications and are prepared to work in the different fields from an early stage.

Cromheecke, Hoye and Lievens (2013) and Melanthiou, Pavlou, and Constantinou (2015) agree that there is need for organizations to identify ways in which they can differentiate themselves, particularly in relation to their recruitment and selection activities. This is through ways such as utilizing different strategies, from those other organization use to communicate job vacancies and select the suitable candidates. However, Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) warn that frequently changing the selection and recruitment procedures can cause confusion and make it difficult for potential applicants to understand the job requirements as well as the culture of the organization involved.

An Evaluation of the Conclusions and Recommendations Presented In the Articles

Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) conclude that given the need to identify appropriate candidates for training as well as working in different healthcare specialties, it is important to have selection and recruitment procedure not just at the hiring level but at some stages during the training. Another conclusion is based on findings by Baum and Kabst (2014), who found that applicant attraction, is not directly impacted by the advertisement method but is influenced by how well the targeted applicants know the employer. Moreover, they found concluded that websites have significant influence on employer knowledge and attitudes related to a given employer. Melanthiou, Pavlou, and Constantinou (2015) recommend the need to review candidates’ social network profile activity, as a strategy to help identify the personality traits of individuals and determine if they are suitable to work in a given organization. However, Sparrow (2007) argues that internet based platforms, such as social networks, do not always reflect the actual behavior or how individuals would behave in a given work environment.

Cromheecke, Hoye and Lievens (2013) recommended that employers should often change things up in recruitment process ad utilize unusual recruitment strategies, especially if the strategies currently utilized by the organization prove ineffective. They argue that using unusual recruitment strategies may be inconsistent but it enhances the attention of potential applicants and ensures that only those who are really qualified and interested in a given job pay enough attention and apply for the job. Sparrow (2007) concludes that there is growing need for international recruitment and selection. However, the lack of standardized training procedures leads to challenges in attracting and identifying appropriate applicants from foreign countries. Sparrow (2007) thus recommends the need to develop appropriate procedures and standards to manage international recruitment and discourage inappropriate procedures that may damage the healthcare system of other countries or neglect the interests of applicants. According to Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni (2016) capacity building is increasingly becoming an approach in helping improve the recruitment and selection procedures. The strengths of capacity building as a recruitment and selection procedure include helping organizations adjust to the changing industry demands and trends. Through assessment, organizations can generate useful data regarding their performance as well as their staffing needs. The assessments thus provide important information on the capacity lag areas and come up with appropriate strategies to enhance the capacity in such areas, including ways to recruit and select the maximum capacity.

Commentary on the Relevance of This Review to Your Context of Nursing

Findings from researchers such as Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas (2008) highlight the significance of designing appropriate recruitment and selection criteria and procedures to ensure appropriate information on competency domains is provided and that the most suitable candidates are identified. This requires that the information is provided in and order of the most to the least important for the different specialties (Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas, 2008). Providing trainee in the different nursing and other healthcare fields with such information will help informal processes such as self-selection and career choice, to ensure that the trainee identify the fields most suitable for them, based on their personality and preferences. Research indicates that the selection and recruitment process is broach and should be aligned with other organizational practices. For example, Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni (2016) demonstrated the importance of capacity building to assess the effectiveness of existing recruitment and selection strategies in order to change or enhance them. This helps in identifying the weaknesses of the existing procedures and dealing with them as well as identifying the strengths of the procedures and enhancing them for better outcomes.

Conclusion: Potential Areas of Practice Review/Development

Conclusively, there is need for review of the recruitment and selection procedures in healthcare fields such as nursing. Given the growing shortage of nurses in certain fields, it is important to use strategies such as websites to develop employer as well as specialty brand. This will help convey information efficiently. This can be done through ways such as creating a job and career website to increase knowledge about different specialty fields and increase applicant attraction not just for employment purposes but also to train in these specialties (Aravamudhan and Krishnaveni 2016). Another potential area is on how to avoid negligent hiring, especially when recruiting and selection is done using online platforms. Using strategies such as reviewing applicants’ social media profiles can lead to privacy rights breach and employers should thus develop appropriate strategies to ensuring that using such online screening is done in an ethical and legal manner (Sparrow 2007). Another potential area of review is on the training versus recruitment and selection procedures. In the field of healthcare, it is important to ensure that learners are given an opportunity to specialize in the fields that qualify for as early as possible to ensure they gain relevant skills to work in these fields (Patterson, Ferguson, and Thomas 2008).

What the Literature Review Adds To the Body of Nursing Knowledge

This literature review offers important insights on how the selection and recruitment procedures for nurses can be enhanced through ways such as utilizing media with the highest demand hence high transmission capacity. Moreover, the review highlights how combining different strategies such as advertisement techniques can help attract a variety of applicant and thus have a large pool of applicants to choose from. The literature review also identifies how recruitment and selection of suitable candidates can be enhanced through improving e-recruitment to ensure that the privacy of applicants is respected while still enabling employers to identify the applicants with personalities that best suit their organization. The review also suggests that changing things up and avoiding repeatedly using the same recruitment and selection procedures can help organizations within the healthcare differentiate themselves and attract high-quality applicants, enhancing their competitiveness. The review also highlights how healthcare system can harmonize the recruitment procedures with international standards to help attract suitable applicants to help deal with ongoing shortages in different nursing specialties. The review also highlights the significance of aligning the training processes and goals with the selection and recruitment procedures in the field of nursing to ensure that individuals are offered specialized training and skills necessary for the specific field that they will work in.