Dessler Human Resource Management 2015 (162 196)

5
Personnel Planning
and Recruiting
Source: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters Pictures Americas.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES Company s
1. List the steps in the recruitment and selection process. Strategic Goals
2. Explain the main techniques used in employment

planning and forecasting.
3. Explain and give examples for the need for effective
recruiting.
Employee Competencies
4. Name and describe the main internal sources of and Behaviors Required
candidates. for Company to Achieve
5. List and discuss the main outside sources of candidates. These Strategic Goals
6. Develop a help wanted ad.
7. Explain how to recruit a more diverse workforce.
ruitment an
Rec cemen d
Pla t
ent al
Environm Leg
Tra elopment
De
inin
v
Strategic and
A
g a nd
s its board of directors began reviewing possible HR Policies and Practices
candidates to be IBM s next CEO, their thoughts Required to Produce
Employee Competencies
turned to the sort of company IBM would be in
and Behaviors
the next few years. Some trends were clear. IBM
had already sold off several commodity businesses such as no
Co
s
ey itale
ep
m
personal computers and disk drives, replacing them with new olp R
e
mE o ita sn
software and service/consulting businesses. The new CEO n
would have to address new trends such as cloud computing.
More sales would come from emerging markets in Asia
and Africa. Strategic changes like these meant that IBM s
employees would need new skills, and that the firm needed WHERE ARE WE NOW . . .
new personnel and succession plans for how to staff its new In Chapter 4, we discussed job analysis and
businesses.1 the methods managers use to create job
descriptions, job specifications, and
competency profiles or models. The purpose
of this chapter is to improve your
effectiveness in recruiting candidates.
The topics we discuss include personnel
planning and forecasting, recruiting job
candidates, and developing and using
application forms. Then, in Chapter 6, we ll
turn to the methods managers use to select
the best employees from this applicant pool.
Access a host of interactive learning aids at

www.mymanagementlab.com to help strengthen
your understanding of the chapter concepts.
MyManagementLab 137
138 PART 2 RECRUITMENT, PLACEMENT, AND TALENT MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
1 List the steps in the recruit-
ment and selection process.
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
identify viable candidates.
5. Decide who to make an offer to, by having the supervisor and perhaps others
interview the candidates.
This chapter focuses on personnel planning and on recruiting employees.
Chapter 6 addresses tests, background checks, and physical exams. Chapter 7 focuses
on interviewing by far the most widely used selection technique.
2 Explain the main techniques

WORKFORCE PLANNING AND FORECASTING
used in employment plan- Recruitment and selection ideally starts with workforce planning. After all, if you don t
ning and forecasting. know what your team s employment needs will be in the next few months, why should
you be hiring?
Workforce (or employment or personnel) planning is the process of deciding
what positions the firm will have to fill, and how to fill them. It embraces all future
positions, from maintenance clerk to CEO. However, most firms call the process of
deciding how to fill executive jobs succession planning.
Strategy and Workforce Planning

In either case, as at IBM (see page 137), employment planning should reflect the firm s
strategic plans. Thus plans to enter new businesses or reduce costs all influence the types
of positions you ll need to fill (or eliminate). Strategic issues are always crucial. In the
short term, there s not much employers can do to overcome recessions, housing
bubbles, or increases or decreases in consumer spending. However, the managers
should control their strategy. So, knowing that the firm plans, say, to expand abroad,
means making plans for ramping up hiring in the firm s international division. The
accompanying Strategic Context feature illustrates this.
FIGURE 5-1 Steps in

Recruitment and Selection
Process Employment Recruiting: Candidates Candidate
planning and Build a pool
forecasting of candidates becomes
employee
Applicants Use selection Supervisors and

complete tools like tests others interview final
application to screen out candidates to make
forms most applicants final choice
The recruitment and selection process is a series of hurdles aimed at selecting the best candidate for the job.
CHAPTER 5 PERSONNEL PLANNING AND RECRUITING 139
THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT

IBM
IBM has been transitioning from supplying mostly computers to supplying software and
consulting services. Therefore, in terms of IBM s strategic workforce needs, in three
years, 22 percent of our workforce will have obsolete skills. Of the 22 percent,
85 percent have fundamental competencies that we can build on to get them ready for
skills we ll need years from now. The remaining 15% will either self-select out of IBM
or be let go.2
As at IBM, workforce and succession planning should entail thinking through the
skills and competencies the firm needs to execute its overall strategy. At IBM, for
instance, human resource executives review with finance and other executives the
personnel ramifications of their company s strategic plans.3 In other words, What
sorts of skills and competencies will we need to execute our strategic plans?
Figure 5-2 summarizes the link between strategic and personnel planning. Like
all plans, personnel plans require some forecasts or estimates, in this case, of three
things: personnel needs, the supply of inside candidates, and the likely supply of outside
candidates. The basic workforce planning process is to forecast the employer s
demand for labor and supply of labor; then identify supply demand gaps and
develop action plans to fill the projected gaps.
We ll start with forecasting personnel needs.
Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor Demand)

How many people will we need? Managers consider several factors.4 For example, when
Dan Hilbert took over staffing at Valero Energy, he reviewed Valero s demographics,
growth plans, and turnover history. He discovered that projected employment shortfalls
FIGURE 5-2 Linking

Employer s strategic plan
Employer s Strategy to Plans Diversify?
Integrate vertically?
Expand geographically?
On what basis should we compete?
Employer s Marketing and Production Financial HR plans

functional sales plans plans plans
plans
Personnel Training and Compensation Labor Security and

plans development plans relations safety
plans plans plans
Personnel Recruitment Employee

forecasts plans selection
plans
workforce (or employment or personnel)

planning
The process of deciding what positions the
firm will have to fill, and how to fill them.
were four times more than Valero could fill with its current recruitment procedures.
He turned to formulating new personnel plans for boosting employee retention and
recruiting and screening more candidates.5
A firm s 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. Short term, management
should be concerned with daily, weekly, and seasonal forecasts.6 For example, retailers
track daily sales trends because they know, for instance, that Mother s Day produces a
jump in business and a need for additional store staff. Seasonal forecasts are critical
for retailers contemplating end-of-year holiday sales, and for many firms such as
landscaping and air-conditioning vendors.
Looking out a year or two isn t so easy. Managers will follow industry publications
and economic forecasts closely, for instance from the Conference Board. Predicting a
rise or fall in business activity a year of two in the future may not be precise. However,
the planning process may help you to develop contingency staffing plans to address the
potential changes in demand.
The basic process of 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, strategic factors. These include projected turnover, decisions
to upgrade (or downgrade) products or services, productivity changes, and financial
resources. There are several simple tools for projecting personnel needs, as follows.
TREND ANALYSIS Trend analysis means studying variations in the firm s

employment levels over the last few years. For example, you might compute the
number of employees at the end of each of the last 5 years, or perhaps the number in
each subgroup (like sales, production, secretarial, and administrative). The aim is to
identify trends that might continue into the future.
Trend analysis can provide an initial estimate of future staffing needs, but
employment levels rarely depend just on the passage of time. Other factors (like
changes in sales volume and productivity) also affect staffing needs. Carefully
studying the firm s historical and current workforce demographics and voluntary
withdrawals (due to retirements and resignations, for instance) can help reveal
impending labor force needs.
RATIO ANALYSIS Another simple approach, ratio analysis, means making

forecasts based on the historical ratio between (1) some causal factor (like sales
volume) and (2) the number of employees required (such as number of salespeople).
For example, suppose a salesperson traditionally generates $500,000 in sales. If the
sales revenue to salespeople ratio remains the same, you would require six new
salespeople next year (each of whom produces an extra $500,000) to produce a
hoped-for extra $3 million in sales.
Like trend analysis, ratio analysis assumes that productivity remains about the
same for instance, that you can t motivate each salesperson to produce much more
than $500,000 in sales. If sales productivity were to rise or fall, the ratio of sales to
salespeople would change.
THE SCATTER PLOT A scatter plot shows graphically how two variables such
as sales and your firm s staffing levels are related. If they are, then if you can
forecast the business activity (like sales), you should also be able to estimate your
personnel needs.
For example, suppose a 500-bed hospital expects to expand to 1,200 beds over the
next 5 years. The human resource director wants to forecast how many registered
nurses they ll need. The human resource director realizes she must determine the rela-
tionship between size of hospital (in terms of number of beds) and number of nurses
required. She calls eight hospitals of various sizes and gets the following figures:
Size of Hospital Number of Registered

(Number of Beds) Nurses
200 240
300 260
400 470
500 500
600 620
700 660
800 820
900 860
Figure 5-3 shows hospital size on the horizontal axis. It shows number of
nurses on the vertical axis. If these two factors are related, then the points you plot
(from the data above) will tend to fall along a straight line, as they do here. If you
carefully draw in a line to minimize the distances between the line and each one of
the plotted points, you will be able to estimate the number of nurses needed for
each hospital size. Thus, for a 1,200-bed hospital, the human resource director
would assume she needs about 1,210 nurses.
While simple, tools like scatter plots have drawbacks.7
1. They generally focus on historical sales/personnel relationships and assume that
the firm s existing activities will continue as is.
2. They tend to support compensation plans that reward managers for managing
ever-larger staffs, irrespective of the company s strategic needs.
3. They tend to institutionalize existing ways of doing things, even in the face of change.
MARKOV ANALYSIS Employers also use a mathematical process known as

Markov analysis (or transition analysis ) to forecast availability of internal job
candidates. Markov analysis 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
FIGURE 5-3 Determining the (1,210)

Relationship Between Hospital 1,200
Size and Number of Nurses
Note: After fitting the line, you can 1,000
Number of registered nurses
project how many employees you ll

need, given your projected volume.
800
600
400
200
200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400

Hospital size (no. of beds)
trend analysis ratio analysis scatter plot

Study of a firm s past employment needs A forecasting technique for determining A graphical method used to help identify the
over a period of years to predict future future staff needs by using ratios between, relationship between two variables.
needs. for example, sales volume and number of
employees needed.
of engineering) will move from position to position and therefore be available to fill
the key position.
Whichever forecasting tool you use, managerial judgment should play a big role.
It s rare that any historical trend, ratio, or relationship will simply continue. You will
therefore have to modify any forecast based on subjective factors such as the feeling
that more employees will be quitting you believe will be important.
Improving Productivity Through HRIS

Computerized Personnel Forecasting
Computerized forecasts enable managers to build more variables into their personnel
projections.8 These systems rely on setting clear goals, such as reducing inventory on
hand.9 Other variables might include direct labor hours required to produce one unit
of product (a measure of productivity), and minimum, maximum, and probable sales
projections. Based on such input, a typical program generates average staff levels
required to meet product demands, as well as separate forecasts for direct labor (such
as assembly workers), indirect staff (such as secretaries), and exempt staff (such as
executives).
With programs like these, employers can more accurately translate projected
productivity and sales levels into personnel needs. Many firms particularly use comput-
erized employee forecasting systems for estimating short-term needs. In retailing, for
instance, labor scheduling systems help retailers estimate required staffing needs based
on sales forecasts and estimated store traffic. As one vendor says, [Our] Workforce
Forecast Manager analyzes your business drivers to produce an accurate forecast down
to 15 minute intervals. Seasonal variations, events, and current trends are consistently
accounted for . . . 10
Perhaps because the demand for electric power is relatively predictable, utilities tend
to do exemplary workforce planning. For example, at Chelan County Public Utility
District, the development manager used spreadsheets to build a statistical model encom-
passing such things as age, tenure, turnover rate, and time to train new employees. This
model helped them quickly identify five employment hotspots among 33 occupational
groups at their company. This in turn prompted them to focus more closely on creating
plans to retain and hire, for instance, more systems operators.11
Forecasting the Supply of Inside Candidates

Knowing your staffing needs satisfies only half the staffing equation. Next, you have to
estimate the likely supply of both inside and outside candidates. Most firms start with
the inside candidates.
The main task here is determining which current employees might be qualified for
the projected openings. For this you need to know current employees skills sets their
current qualifications. Sometimes it s obvious how you have to proceed. When Google s
founders wanted a replacement for CEO Eric Schmidt, they chose one of their own.
Sometimes who to choose is not so obvious. Here, managers turn to qualifications
(or skills) inventories. These contain data on employees performance records, educa-
tional background, and promotability. Whether manual or computerized, these help
managers determine which employees are available for promotion or transfer.
MANUAL SYSTEMS AND REPLACEMENT CHARTS Department man-

agers or owners of smaller firms often use manual devices to track employee
qualifications. Thus a personnel inventory and development record form compiles
qualifications information on each employee. The information includes education,
company-sponsored courses taken, career and development interests, languages,
desired assignments, and skills. Personnel replacement charts (Figure 5-4)
are another option, particularly for the firm s top positions. They show the present
performance and promotability for each position s potential replacement. As an
alternative, you can develop a position replacement card. For this you create a
card for each position, showing possible replacements as well as their present
performance, promotion potential, and training.
FIGURE 5-4 Management Division

Replacement Chart Showing Vice President
Development Needs of Potential
Future Divisional Vice Presidents
Vice President Vice President Vice President

Production Sales Finance
Jones, D. Able, J. Smith, B.
Required development: Required development: Required development:
None recommended Job rotation into None recommended
finance and production
Executive development
course in strategic
planning
In-house development
center 2 weeks
PRESENT PROMOTION
PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL
Outstanding Ready now
Satisfactory Needs further training
Needs improvement Questionable
COMPUTERIZED SKILLS INVENTORIES Larger firms obviously can t track the

qualifications of hundreds or thousands of employees manually. Larger employers
therefore computerize this information, using various packaged software systems
such as SurveyAnalytics s Skills Inventory Software.
Such programs help management anticipate human resource shortages, and
facilitate making employment recruitment and training plans.12 Increasingly, they
also link skills inventories with their other human resources systems. So, for instance,
an employee s skills inventory might automatically update each time he or she is
trained or appraised.
The usual process is for the employee, the supervisor, and human resource
manager to enter information about the employee s background, experience, and
skills via the system. Then, when a manager needs a person for a position, he or she
uses key words to describe the position s specifications (for instance, in terms of
education and skills). The computerized system then produces a list of qualified
candidates. Computerized skills inventory data typically include items like work expe-
rience codes, product knowledge, the employee s level of familiarity with the employer s
product lines or services, the person s industry experience, and formal education.
KEEPING THE INFORMATION PRIVATE The employer should secure all its
employee data.13 Much of the data is personal (such as Social Security numbers and
illnesses). Legislation gives employees legal rights regarding who has access to infor-
mation about them. The legislation includes the Federal Privacy Act of 1974 (applies
to federal workers), the New York Personal Privacy Act of 1985, HIPAA (regulates use
of medical records), and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Employers should keep
their manual records under lock and key.
Internet access makes it relatively easy for more people to access the firm s
computerized files.14 One solution is to incorporate an access matrix in the database
management system. These define the rights of users to various kinds of access (such
qualifications (or skills) inventories personnel replacement charts position replacement card
Manual or computerized records listing Company records showing present A card prepared for each position in a
employees education, career and performance and promotability of inside company to show possible replacement
development interests, languages, special candidates for the most important positions. candidates and their qualifications.
skills, and so on, to be used in selecting
inside candidates for promotion.
FIGURE 5-5 Keeping

Since intruders can strike from outside an organization or from within, HR departments
Data Safe
can help screen out potential identity thieves by following four basic rules:
Source: HR Magazine by Perform background checks on anyone who is going to have access to personal
Caternicchia. Copyright 2005 by
Society for Human Resource information.
Management (SHRM). Reproduced If someone with access to personal information is out sick or on leave, don t hire a
with permission of Society for temporary employee to replace him or her. Instead, bring in a trusted worker from
Human Resource Management another department.
(SHRM) in the format Textbook via
Copyright Clearance Center. Perform random background checks such as random drug tests. Just because someone
passed 5 years ago doesn t mean their current situation is the same.
Limit access to information such as SSNs, health information, and other sensitive data
to HR managers who require it to do their jobs.
as read only or write only ) to each database element. (So, those in accounting
might read only information such as an employee s address.) Figure 5-5 summarizes
some guidelines for keeping employee data safe. A growing problem is that peer-
to-peer file-sharing applications jump firewalls and give outsiders quick access. Pfizer
Inc. lost personal data on about 17,000 current and former employees this way.15
Forecasting the Supply of Outside Candidates

If there won t be enough inside candidates to fill the anticipated openings (or you want
to go outside for another reason), you will turn to outside candidates.
Forecasting labor supply depends first on the manager s own sense of what s
happening in his or her industry and locale. He or she will then supplement these
observations with more formal labor market analyses, for instance, from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics and from O*Net. For example, unemployment rates
around 9% in the United States in 2011 signaled to HR managers that finding good
candidates would be easier.16
Information like this is easy to find, both online and in print format. For example,
look for economic projections online, for instance, from the U.S. Congressional
Budget Office (www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1824&sequence=0) and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.toc.htm). For hard-copy
formats, Bloomberg BusinessWeek presents a weekly snapshot of the economy on its
Outlook page, as well as a yearly forecast in December.
Your planning may also require forecasting specific occupations such as nurse,
computer programmer, or teacher. Recently, for instance, there has been an under-
supply of nurses. O*NET (discussed in Chapter 4) includes projections for most
occupations. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes annual occupational
projections both online and in the Monthly Labor Review and in Occupational
Outlook Quarterly. Beyond specific occupations, the emphasis on technologically
advanced jobs means many will lack basic skills such as communication, creativity,
and teamwork.17
Talent Management and Predictive Workforce Monitoring

Traditionally, employers engage in formal workforce planning perhaps every year or so.
However, this may not always provide enough time. For instance, having failed to do
much such planning for years, Valero almost didn t have sufficient time to gear up its
new employee development plan.
Applying a talent management philosophy to workforce planning requires being
more proactive. Specifically, it requires paying continuous attention to workforce
planning issues. Managers call this newer, continuous workforce planning approach
predictive workforce monitoring. Some examples follow.
Intel Corporation example. Intel conducts semiannual Organization Capability
Assessments. The staffing department works with the firm s business heads twice a
year to assess workforce needs both immediate and up to 2 years in the future.18
Amerada Hess example. Amerada Hess uses its Organizational Capability (OC)
group to monitor workforce attrition (such as retirement age, experience with
Hess, education, etc.) and prospective talent requirements. It then works with
the lines of business to better prepare them for meeting changing global talent
demands. The group considers how each line of business is evolving, examines
what jobs at Hess will look like in the future, identifies sources for procuring the
best talent, and assists in developing current and newly hired employees. 19
Valero Energy example. Valero created a labor supply chain for monitoring steps
in recruiting and hiring. It includes an analytic tool that predicts Valero s labor
needs based on past experience. It also includes computer screen dashboards
that show how components in the chain, such as ads placed on job boards, are
performing according to cost, speed, and quality. In 2002, it took 41 pieces
of paper to hire an employee and more than 120 days to fill a position. Each hire
cost about $12,000. Soon, with the new labor supply chain in place, little paper
was needed to bring an employee on board; the time-to-fill figure fell to below
40 days and cost per hire dropped to $2,300.20
ABB example. ABB s Talent Management process allows talent information
to be stored on a global IT platform. For example, the system stores perform-
ance appraisals, career plans, and training and development information. It also
shows a global overview of key management positions, including who holds
them, and their potential successors. Potential successors get two kinds of
assessments: by line managers, and against externally benchmarked leadership
competency profiles.21
Developing an Action Plan to Match Projected

Labor Supply and Labor Demand
Workforce planning should logically culminate in a workforce action plan. This lays out
the employer s projected workforce demand supply gaps, as well as staffing plans for
filling the necessary positions. The staffing plan should identify the positions to be
filled, potential internal and external sources for these positions, the required training,
development, and promotional activities moving people into the positions will entail,
and the resources that implementing the staffing plan will require. Resources might
include, for instance, advertising costs, recruiter fees, relocation costs, and travel and
interview expenses.22
The Recruiting Yield Pyramid

The manager should recognize that filling a relative handful of positions might require
recruiting dozens or hundreds of candidates. Employers therefore use a staffing or
recruiting yield pyramid as shown in Figure 5-6 to gauge the dimensions of the
FIGURE 5-6 Recruiting

Yield Pyramid 50 New hires
100 Offers made (2:1)
150 Candidates interviewed (3:2)
200 Candidates invited (4:3)
1,200 Leads generated (6:1)
recruiting yield pyramid

The historical arithmetic relationships
between recruitment leads and invitees,
invitees and interviews, interviews and offers
made, and offers made and offers accepted.
staffing issues it needs to address. In Figure 5-6, the company knows it needs 50 new
entry-level accountants next year. From experience, the firm also knows the following:
* The ratio of offers made to actual new hires is 2 to 1.
* The ratio of candidates interviewed to offers made is 3 to 2.
* The ratio of candidates invited for interviews to candidates interviewed is about
4 to 3.
* Finally, the firm knows that of six leads that come in from all its recruiting
sources, it typically invites only one applicant for an interview a 6-to-1 ratio.
Given these ratios, the firm knows it must generate about 1,200 leads to be able to
invite 200 viable candidates to its offices for interviews. The firm will then interview
about 150 of those invited, and from these it will make 100 offers, and so on.
3 Explain and give examples

THE NEED FOR EFFECTIVE RECRUITING
for the need for effective Assuming the company authorizes you to fill a position, the next step is to build up,
recruiting. through recruiting, an applicant pool. Employee recruiting means finding and/or
attracting applicants for the employer s open positions.
Why Recruiting Is Important

It s hard to overemphasize the importance of effective recruiting. If only two candidates
apply for two openings, you may have little choice but to hire them. But if 10 or 20 appli-
cants appear, you can use techniques like interviews and tests to screen out all but the best.
Even high unemployment doesn t necessarily mean that it is easy to find good
candidates. For example, a survey during an earlier slowdown (2003 2004) found
that about half of respondents said they had difficulty finding qualified applicants.
About 40% said it was hard to find good candidates.23
What Makes Recruiting a Challenge?

It s easy to assume that recruiting is easy that all you need do is place a few ads on the
Web. However, several things make it more complex.
* First, some recruiting methods are superior to others, depending on the type of
job for which you are recruiting.
* Second, the success you have recruiting depends on nonrecruitment issues and
policies. For example, paying 10% more than most firms in your locale should,
other things being equal, help you build a bigger applicant pool faster.24
* Third, employment law prescribes what you can and cannot do when recruiting.
For example, managers can t rely on word-of-mouth dissemination of informa-
tion about job opportunities when the workforce is substantially all white or all
members of some other class, such as Hispanic.25
Organizing How You Recruit

Should you centralize your firm s recruitment efforts, or let each plant or office do their
own recruiting? For many firms, it s simply much easier to recruit centrally now that so
much recruiting is on the Internet.26 The accountants Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu
created a global recruitment site, thus eliminating the need to maintain 35 separate
local recruiting Web sites.27 Retailer 7-Eleven s site presents its worldwide job openings
and lets prospective employees apply online.
THE SUPERVISOR S ROLE The human resource 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 supervisor should therefore know what sorts of questions to expect, and here
your knowledge of job analysis should serve you well. For example, in addition to
what the job entails now and its job specifications, the recruiter might want to know
about the supervisor s leadership style and about the work group is it a tough group
to get along with, for instance?
INTERNAL SOURCES OF CANDIDATES

4 Name and describe the
main internal sources Recruiting typically brings to mind LinkedIn, employment agencies, and classified ads,
of candidates. but internal sources in other words, current employees or hiring from within are
often the best source of candidates.
Using Internal Sources: Pros and Cons

Filling open positions with inside candidates has several advantages. First, there is
really no substitute for knowing a candidate s strengths and weaknesses, as you should
after working with them for some time. Current employees may also be more
committed to the company. Morale may rise if employees see promotions as rewards for
loyalty and competence. And inside candidates should require less orientation and
(perhaps) training than outsiders.
However, hiring from within can also backfire. Employees who apply for jobs and
don t get them may become discontented; telling them why you rejected them and
what remedial actions they might take is crucial. And too often internal recruiting is a
waste of time. Many employers require managers to post job openings and interview
all inside candidates. Yet the manager often knows whom he or she wants to hire.
Requiring him or her to interview a stream of unsuspecting inside candidates can be
a waste of time for everyone. Inbreeding is another potential drawback. When all
managers come up through the ranks, they may have a tendency to maintain the
status quo, when a new direction is required.
Finding Internal Candidates

Hiring from within ideally relies on job posting and 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). These postings list the job s attributes, like
qualifications, supervisor, work schedule, and pay rate.
Qualifications skills banks also play a role. For example, the database may reveal
persons who have potential for further training or who have the right background for
the open job.
Rehiring
Should you rehire someone who left your employ? It depends. On the plus side,
former employees are known quantities (more or less) and are already familiar with
how you do things. On the other hand, employees who you let go may return with
negative attitudes. A 2009 survey found that about 26 percent of employers who had
laid people off recently planned to bring some back.28
In any event, you can reduce the chance of adverse reactions. After employees have
been back on the job for awhile, credit them with the years of service they had accumu-
lated before they left. In addition, inquire (before rehiring them) about what they did
during the layoff and how they feel about returning: You don t want someone coming
back who feels they ve been mistreated, said one manager.29
employee recruiting job posting

Finding and/or attracting applicants for the Publicizing an open job to employees (often
employer s open positions. by literally posting it on bulletin boards)
and listing its attributes, like qualifications,
supervisor, working schedule, and pay rate.
Succession Planning
Hiring from within is particularly important when it involves filling the employer s
top positions. Doing so requires succession planning the ongoing process of
systematically identifying, assessing, and developing organizational leadership to
enhance performance.30 About 36% of employers have formal succession planning
programs.31 As in IBM s search to eventually replace its CEO (outlined earlier in this
chapter), succession planning should conform to basic talent management practices.
In particular, the key is to profile the competencies that the firm s evolving strategy
will require the new CEO to have; then use that profile to formulate an integrated
development/appraisal/selection package for potential candidates.
Succession planning entails three steps: identify key needs, develop inside
candidates, and assess and choose those who will fill the key positions.
IDENTIFY KEY NEEDS First, based on the company s strategic and business
plans, top management and the HR director identify what the company s future key
position needs will be. Matters to address in this early stage include defining key
positions, defining high potentials , enlisting top management support, and reviewing
the company s current talent. (Thus, plans to expand abroad may suggest bulking up
the international division.32)
DEVELOP INSIDE CANDIDATES After identifying future key positions,
management turns to creating candidates for these jobs. Creating means providing
the inside or outside candidates you identify with the developmental experiences they
require to be viable candidates. Employers develop high-potential employees through
internal training and cross-functional experiences, job rotation, external training,
and global/regional assignments.33
ASSESS AND CHOOSE Finally, succession planning requires assessing these
candidates and selecting those who will actually fill the key positions.34

Succession and Talent Planning Systems
More large employers use software to facilitate succession planning and talent manage-
ment. These systems Capture and search for information about employee competencies,
skills, certifications, and experience . . . [and] Assess employees on key areas of leadership
potential, job performance, and risk of leaving; Target employees for future roles. 35 As the
user of one such system said, The [SumTotal] platform allows us to track and assess the
talent pool and promote people within the company. Our latest metrics show that 75% of
key openings are fulfilled by internal candidates. The succession module helps us to
identify who the next senior managers could be and build development plans to help
them achieve their potential. 36
Succession planning is an integral part of talent management. For example, when a
new president took over at Dole Food Co., Inc., Dole was highly decentralized. The new
president s strategy involved improving financial performance by reducing redundancies
and centralizing certain activities, including succession planning.37
Web technology helped Dole do this. It contracted with application system
providers (ASPs) to handle things like payroll management. For succession manage-
ment, Dole chose software from Pilat NAI, which keeps all the data on its own servers
for a monthly fee. Dole s managers access the program via the Web using a password.
They fill out online résumés for themselves, including career interests, and note
special considerations such as geographic restrictions.
The managers also assess themselves on four competencies. Once the manager
provides his or her input, the program notifies that manager s boss. The latter then
assesses his or her subordinate and indicates whether the person should be promoted.
This assessment and the online résumés then go automatically to the division head
and the divisional HR director. Dole s senior vice president for human resources then
uses the information to create career development plans for each manager, including
seminars and other programs.38
5 List and discuss the

OUTSIDE SOURCES OF CANDIDATES
main outside sources of Firms can t always get all the employees they need from their current staff, and sometimes
candidates. they just don t want to. We ll look at the sources firms use to find outside candidates next.
Recruiting via the Internet

For most employers and for most jobs, Internet-based recruiting is by far the recruit-
ing source of choice.39 For example, restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory gets
about a third of its management applicants via the Web. Most employers recruit
through their own Web sites, or use job boards. Figure 5-7 highlights some top online
FIGURE 5-7 Some Top Online

Recruiting Job Boards
Source: www.quintcareers.com/
top_10_sites.html, accessed April 28,
2009. Used with permission
of QuintCareers.com.
succession planning
The ongoing process of systematically identi-
fying, assessing, and developing organiza-
tional leadership to enhance performance.
recruiting job boards. Job boards account for about 12% of recent hires. Other
major sources include company Web site, referrals, plus others such as temp to
hire, rehires, and employment agencies.
The CareerBuilder.com iPhone application on the left offers a unique way to
search nearly 2 million jobs on CareerBuilder.com, the largest U.S. job site.40 Users
may search for jobs by keyword, read job descriptions and salaries, save jobs to a list
of favorites, and e-mail job links to anyone on their contact list. The application
also takes advantage of the iPhone s geo-location capabilities. Users may direct it to
search only for jobs in the region where they are located. Finally, the application
integrates Google Maps by displaying a map of the city each job is located in.
Recruiting for professionals and managers is shifting from online job boards to
social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. For example, Science
Applications International Corp. cut the job boards it uses from 15 to 6 or so. Instead,
its recruiters are searching for candidates on professional social networks instead.
The problem is that many applications received via job boards didn t meet the job s
qualifications. As one recruiter said, recruiters had to put in all this extra time to
read applications but we didn t get benefit from it. Instead, this company now hires
recruiters who specialize in digging through social Web sites and competitors
publications to find applicants who may not even be looking for jobs.41
OTHER ONLINE RECRUITING PRACTICES Again, in moving away from

major job boards such as careerbuilder.com, recruiters are also seeking passive
candidates (people not actively looking for jobs) by using social networking sites
Source: www.careerbuilder.com/ such as LinkedIn to find potential candidates.42 One Massachusetts staffing
MarketingWeb/iPhone/CBJobsAppli
cation.aspx?cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsi firm uses its Facebook and LinkedIn pages to announce openings. Other firms use
d=7fd458dafd4a444fb192d9a24cee Twitter to announce job openings to jobseekers who subscribe to their Twitter
d771-291142537-wx-6&ns_siteid= feeds.43 ResumePal, from the career site JobFox (www.jobfox.com/), is a recent
ns_us_g_careerbuilder_ iphone,
accessed March 23, 2009. recruiting innovation. ResumePal is an online standard universal job application.
Jobseekers submit it to participating employers, who can then use the standardized
application s keywords to identify viable candidates more easily.44 McDonald s Corp.
posted a series of employee testimonials on social networking sites like Second Life
as a way to attract applicants.45 Other employers simply screen through job boards
résumé listings.46
Sites such as Linkedin facilitate developing personal relationships for networking
and employee referrals.47 Accountants Deloitte & Touche asked employees to make
short videos describing their experiences with Deloitte. It then took the 14 best (of
400 submitted) and posted them on YouTube.48 Monster has a video product that
helps employers integrate streaming video into their job postings.49 Facebook makes
it easy to start a company networking site, which many employers use for recruiting
purposes.50 McDonald s posted employee testimonials on networking sites like
Second Life as a way to attract applicants.51
TEXTING Some employers use text messaging to build an applicant pool. For
example, at one diversity-oriented conference in New Orleans, consultants Hewitt
Associates displayed posters asking attendees to text message hewdiversity to a specific
five digit number. Each person texting then became part of Hewitt s mobile recruit-
ing network, periodically receiving text messages regarding Hewitt openings.52
THE DOT-JOBS DOMAIN The dot-jobs domain gives job seekers a one-click
conduit for finding jobs at the employers who register at www.goto.jobs. For example,
applicants seeking a job at Disneyland can go to www.Disneyland.jobs. This takes
them to Disney s Disneyland recruiting Web site.
VIRTUAL JOB FAIRS Virtual (fully online) job fairs are another option. For
example, the magazine PR Week organized such a fair for about a dozen public
relations employers. At a virtual job fair, online visitors see a very similar setup to a
regular job fair. They can listen to presentations, visit booths, leave résumés and
business cards, participate in live chats, and get contact information from recruiters,
HR managers, and even hiring managers.53 As one writer said, virtual career fairs are
appealing because they re a way to get your foot in the door without having to walk
out the door. 54 The fairs last about 5 hours. Attendee might find 30 or more employ-
ers recruiting. Specialist virtual fair Web sites include Milicruit (for former military
personnel) and Unicruit (for college students).
PROS AND CONS Web-based recruiting generates more responses quicker and
for a longer time at less cost than just about any other method. But, it has two big
potential problems.
First, fewer older people and some minorities use the Internet, so online application
gathering may inadvertently exclude disproportionate numbers of older applicants
(and certain minorities). To prove they ve complied with EEO laws, employers should
keep track of each applicant s race, sex, and ethnic group. The EEO says that, to be
an applicant, he or she must meet three conditions: he or she must express interest
in employment; the employer must have taken steps to fill a specific job; and the
individual must have followed the employer s standard application procedure.55
The second problem is Internet overload: Employers end up deluged with
résumés. There are several ways to handle this. Realism helps. For example, The
Cheesecake Factory posts detailed job duties listings, so those not interested need not
apply. Another approach is to have job seekers complete a short online prescreening
questionnaire. Then use these to identify those who may proceed in the hiring
process.56 Most employers also use applicant tracking systems, to which we now turn.
USING APPLICANT TRACKING Web-based ads tend to generate so many

applicants that most firms use applicant tracking systems to support their on- and
offline recruiting efforts. Applicant tracking systems (from firms such as Taleo
Corporation and iTrack Solutions) are online systems that help employers attract,
gather, screen, compile, and manage applicants.57 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).58 Most
are from application service providers (ASPs). The latter are companies that provide
employers with online services by enabling the employer s applicants or employees
to use the ASP s servers as if they re using the employer s own. Thus, applicants who
log on to take a test at the employer are actually taking the test at the ASP s site.59
Major suppliers of e-recruiting services include Automatic Data Processing
(ADP.com), HRSmart (hrsmart.com), Silkroad Technology (silkroad.com), and
Monster (monster.com).60
SUTTER HEALTH EXAMPLE For example, with 10,000 job openings per year, Sutter
Health Corporation turned to online recruiting. But this actually complicated
things.61 Sutter Health had so many résumés coming in by e-mail and through its
Web site (more than 300,000 per year) that the applications ended up in a pile,
waiting for Sutter affiliates HR departments to get to them.
Sutter Health s solution was to sign on with Taleo Corporation of San Francisco.
Taleo is a recruiting applications service provider (ASP). It now does all the work of
hosting Sutter Health s job site. Taleo doesn t just post Sutter Health job openings and
collect its résumés; it also gives Sutter Health an automated way to evaluate, rank, and
match IT and other job candidates with specific openings. For example, Taleo s
system automatically screens incoming résumés, compares them with Sutter s job
requirements, and flags high-priority applicants. This helped Sutter cut its recruiting
process from weeks to days.
applicant tracking systems

Online systems that help employers attract,
gather, screen, compile, and manage
applicants.
FIGURE 5-8 Ineffective

Ineffective Ad, Recycled from
and Effective Web Ads
Magazine to the Web Effective Web Ad (Space Not an Issue)
Process Engineer Pay: $65k $85k/year Do you want to help us make this a better
world?
Immediate Need in Florida for a We are one of the top wastewater treatment
Wastewater Treatment Process Engineer. companies in the world, with installations
Must have a min. 4 7 years Industrial from Miami to London to Beijing. We are
Wastewater exp. Reply growing fast and looking for an experienced
KimGD@WatersCleanX.com process engineer to join our team. If you
have at least 4 7 years experience designing
processes for wastewater treatment facilities
and a dedication to make this a better
world, we would like to hear from you.
Pay range depending on experience is
$65,000 $85,000. Please reply in confidence
to KimGD@WatersCleanX.com
IMPROVING ONLINE RECRUITING EFFECTIVENESS Planning your online

recruiting effort is crucial. Most Standard & Poor s 500 companies place employment
information one click away from their home pages.62 Applicants can submit their résumés
online at almost all Fortune 500 firms Web sites. Fewer companies give job seekers the
option of completing online applications, although that s what most applicants prefer.63
One survey of 256 alumni from graduate business schools showed why many
firms Web-based recruiting turned them off. The objections included the following:
* Job openings lacked relevant information (such as job descriptions).
* It was often difficult to format résumés and post them in the form required.
* Many respondents expressed concerns about the privacy of the information.
* Poor graphics often made it difficult to use the Web site.
* Slow feedback from the employers (in terms of follow-up responses and receiving
online applications) was annoying.64
Furthermore, the best Web ads don t just transpose newspaper ads to the Web. As
one specialist put it, getting recruiters out of the shrunken want ad mentality is a big
problem. Figure 5-8 is an example of recycling a print ad to the Web. The ineffective
Web ad has needless abbreviations, and doesn t say much about why the job seeker
should want that job.65
Now look at the effective Web ad in Figure 5-8. It uses compelling keywords such
as make this a better world. It provides good reasons to work for this company. It
starts with an attention-grabbing heading and uses the extra space to provide more
specific job information. Many employers often include the entire job description.66
Ideally, an ad also should provide a way (such as a checklist of the job s human
requirements) for potential applicants to gauge if the job is a good fit.67
Finally, online recruiting requires caution for applicants. Many job boards don t
check the legitimacy of the recruiters who place ads. Many applicants submit per-
sonal details such as Social Security numbers, not realizing that ASPs are running the
sites, rather than the firm to which they re applying.68 U.S. laws generally do not pro-
hibit job boards from sharing your data with other sources. One job board reportedly
had personal information on more than 1 million subscribers stolen.69
Advertising
While Web-based recruiting is replacing help wanted ads, a glance at almost any paper
or business or professional magazine will confirm that print ads are still popular. To use
help wanted ads successfully, employers should address two issues: the advertising
medium and the ad s construction.
THE MEDIA The best medium the local paper, the Wall Street Journal, the Web
(or some other) depends on the positions for which you re recruiting. For exam-
ple, the local newspaper is often a good source for local blue-collar help, clerical
employees, and lower-level administrative employees. On the other hand, if recruit-
ing for workers with special skills, such as furniture finishers, you d probably want to
advertise in places with many furniture manufacturers, such as the Carolinas, even if
your plant is in Tennessee. The point is to target your ads where they ll reach your
prospective employees.
For specialized employees, you can advertise in trade and professional journals
like American Psychologist, Sales Management, Chemical Engineering, and Women s
Wear Daily. Help wanted ads in papers like the Wall Street Journal and the
International Herald Tribune can be good sources of middle- or senior-management
personnel. Most of these print outlets now include online ads with the purchase of
print help wanted ads.
Technology lets companies be more creative about the media they use.70 For
example, Electronic Arts (EA), a video-game publisher, uses its products to help
solicit applicants. EA includes information about its internship program on the back
of its video game manuals. Thanks to nontraditional techniques like these, EA has a
database of more than 200,000 potential job candidates. It uses tracking software to
identify potential applicants with specific skills, and to facilitate ongoing e-mail
communications with everyone in its database.
CONSTRUCTING (WRITING) THE AD Experienced advertisers use the guide

6 Develop a help wanted ad.
AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) to construct ads. Of course, you must attract
attention to the ad, or readers may just miss or ignore it. Figure 5-9 shows an ad from
one classified section. Why does this ad attract attention? The phrase next key player
certainly helps. Employers usually advertise key positions in display ads like this.
Next, develop interest in the job. You can create interest with lines such as are
you looking to make an impact? or use other aspects of the job, such as its location.
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.
FIGURE 5-9 Help Wanted Ad

That Draws Attention Are You Our Next Key Player?
Source: Giombetti Associates,
Hampden, MA. Reprinted with PLANT CONTROLLER Northern New Jersey
permission.
Are you looking to make an impact? Can you be a strategic business partner
and team player, versus a classic, bean counter ? Our client, a growing
Northern New Jersey manufacturer with two locations, needs a high-energy,
self-initiating, technically competent Plant Controller. Your organizational skills
and strong understanding of general, cost, and manufacturing accounting are
a must. We are not looking for a delegator, this is a hands-on position. If you
have a positive can-do attitude and have what it takes to drive our accounting
function, read oh!
Responsibilities and Qualifications:
Monthly closings, management reporting, product costing, and
annual budget.
Accurate inventory valuations, year-end physical inventory, and
internal controls.
4-year Accounting degree, with 5 8 years experience in a
manufacturing environment.
Must be proficient in Microsoft Excel and have general computer skills
and aptitude.
Must be analytical and technically competent, with the leadership ability
to influence people, situations, and circumstances.
If you have what it takes to be our next key player, tell us in your cover letter,
Beyond the beans, what is the role of a Plant Controller? Only cover
letters addressing that question will be considered. Please indicate
your general salary requirements in your cover letter and email or fax
your resume and cover letter to:
Ross Giombetti
Giombetti Associates
2 Allen Street, P.O. Box 720
Hampden, MA 01036
Email: Rossgiombetti@giombettiassoc.com
Fax: (413) 566-2009
Finally, the ad should prompt action with a statement like call today. (Of
course, the ad should also comply with equal employment laws, avoiding features
like man wanted. )
More information is usually better than less. Job applicants view ads with more
specific job information as more attractive and more credible.71 If the job has big
drawbacks, then (depending on your risk preferences) consider a realistic ad. When
the New York City Administration for Children s Services was having problems with
employee retention, it began using these ads: Wanted: men and women willing to
walk into strange buildings in dangerous neighborhoods, [and] be screamed at by
unhinged individuals. . . . Realism reduces applicants, but improves employee
retention.72
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 organiza-
tions; and (3) privately owned agencies.
PUBLIC AND NONPROFIT AGENCIES Every state has a public, state-run

employment service agency. The U.S. Department of Labor supports these agencies,
through grants and through other assistance such as a nationwide computerized job
bank. The National Job Bank enables agency counselors to advise applicants about
available jobs in other states as well.
Some employers have mixed experiences with public agencies. For one thing,
applicants for unemployment insurance are required to register and to make them-
selves available for job interviews. Some of these people are not interested in return-
ing to work, so employers can end up with applicants who have little desire for
immediate employment. And fairly or not, employers probably view some of these
local agencies as lethargic in their efforts to fill area employers jobs.
Yet these agencies are actually quite useful. Beyond just filling jobs, counselors
will visit an employer s work site, review the employer s job requirements, and even
assist the employer in writing job descriptions. Most states have turned their local
state employment service agencies into one-stop shops neighborhood training/
employment/educational services centers.73 One user said of the Queens New York
Career Center in Jamaica: I love it: I ve made this place like a second home. 74
At Oregon State s centers, job seekers can use iMatch skills assessment software,
while employers can get up-to-date local economic news and use the center s online
recruitment tools.75 More employers should be taking advantage of these centers
(formerly the unemployment offices in many cities).
Most (nonprofit) professional and technical societies, such as the Institute for
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), have units that help members find jobs.
Many special public agencies place people who are in special categories, such as those
who are disabled.
PRIVATE AGENCIES Private employment agencies are important sources of

clerical, white-collar, and managerial personnel. They charge fees (set by state law and
posted in their offices) for each applicant they place. Most are fee-paid jobs, in
which the employer pays the fee.
Why use an agency? Reasons include:
1. Your firm doesn t have its own human resources department and feels it can t do
a good job recruiting and screening.
2. You must fill an opening quickly.
3. There is a perceived need to attract more minority or female applicants.
4. You want to reach currently employed individuals, who might feel more
comfortable dealing with agencies than with competing companies.
5. You want to reduce the time you re devoting to recruiting.76
Yet using employment agencies requires avoiding the potential pitfalls. For
example, the employment agency s screening may let poor applicants go directly to
the supervisors responsible for hiring, who may in turn naively hire them. Conversely,
improper screening at the agency could block potentially successful applicants.
To help avoid problems:
1. Give the agency an accurate and complete job description.
2. Make sure tests, application blanks, and interviews are part of the agency s
selection process.
3. Periodically review EEOC data on candidates accepted or rejected by your firm,
and by the agency.
4. Screen the agency. Check with other managers to find out which agencies have
been the most effective at filling the sorts of positions you need filled. Review the
Internet and classified ads to discover the agencies that handle the positions you
seek to fill.
5. Supplement the agency s reference checking by checking at least the final candidate s
references yourself.
Temp Agencies 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. In 2010, about 26% of all jobs private-sector employers added were tempo-
rary positions, two to three times the comparable figures for the last two recessions.
Several things contribute to the trend toward using more temporary employees. One
is continuing weak economic confidence among employers. Another is the trend
towards organizing around short-term projects. For example, Makino, which manu-
factures 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.77
The contingent workforce isn t limited to clerical or maintenance staff. It includes
thousands of engineering, science, or management support occupations, such as tem-
porary chief financial officers, human resource managers, and chief executive officers.
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.78 The other approach is to have a temp agency supply the employees. Here the
agency handles all the recruiting, screening, and payroll administration for the temps.
Thus, Nike hired Kelly Services to manage Nike s temp needs.
PROS AND CONS Employers have long used temps to fill in for permanent
employees who were out sick or on vacation. But today s desire for ever-higher produc-
tivity also contributes to temp workers growing popularity. Productivity is measured in
terms of output per hour paid for, and temps are generally paid only when they re
working not for days off, in other words. Many firms also use temporary hiring to give
prospective employees a trial run before hiring them as regular employees.79
The benefits don t come without a price. Temps may be more productive, but
generally cost employers 20% to 50% more than comparable permanent workers
(per hour or per week), since the agency gets a fee. Furthermore, people have a
psychological reference point to their place of employment. Once you put them in
the contingent category, you re saying they re expendable. 80
When working with temporary agencies, ensure that basic policies and procedures
are in place. For example, with temps, the time sheet is not just a verification of hours
worked. Once the worker s supervisor signs it, it s usually an agreement to pay the
The numbers of temporary and

freelance workers are increasing
all over the world.
Source: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy.
agency s fees. What is the policy if the client wants to hire one of the agency s temps as
a permanent employee? How does the agency plan to recruit employees? Did you get a
document from the agency stating that it is not discriminating when filling temp orders?
Checking a temporary agency s references and its listing with the Better Business Bureau
is advisable.81
WHAT SUPERVISORS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES

CONCERNS To make temporary relationships successful, managers supervising
temps should understand these employees main concerns. In one survey, six key
concerns emerged. 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).82
LEGAL GUIDELINES 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 after-hours store cleaning.83 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 both
of the agency and of the employer.84 The employer s liability basically comes down
to the degree to which its supervisors control the temp employee s activities. For
example, ask the staffing agency to handle training. Let it negotiate and set pay rates
and vacation/time-off policies with the temp.
ALTERNATIVE 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).
Offshoring and Outsourcing Jobs

Outsourcing and offshoring are perhaps the most extreme examples of alternative
staffing. 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 is a narrower term.
It means having outside vendors or employees abroad supply services that the company s
own employees previously did in-house.
Outsourcing and offshoring are both contentious. Particularly in challenging
economic times, employees, unions, legislators, and even many business owners feel
that shipping jobs out (particularly overseas) is ill-advised. That notwithstanding,
employers are sending more jobs out, and not just blue-collar jobs. For example, GE s
transportation division announced that it was shifting 17 mid-level drafting jobs
from Pennsylvania to India.85
Sending out jobs, particularly overseas, presents employers with some special
challenges. One is the potential for political tension in countries such as India. Others
include the likelihood of cultural misunderstandings (such as between your home-
based customers and the employees abroad); security and information privacy
concerns; the need to deal with foreign contract, liability, and legal systems issues; and
the fact that the offshore employees need special training (for instance, in using
pseudonyms like Jim without discomfort). Rising overseas wages, higher oil prices,
and quality issues are prompting more U.S. employers to bring their jobs back
home.86 The bottom line is that neither outsourcing nor offshoring always brings all
the savings one would have hoped for, and both require careful consideration
of human resource issues.
Executive Recruiters
Executive recruiters (also known as headhunters) are special employment agencies
employers retain to seek out top-management talent for their clients. The percentage of
your firm s positions filled by these services might be small. However, these jobs include
key executive and technical positions. For executive positions, headhunters may be your
only source of candidates. The employer always pays the fees.
There are two types of executive recruiters contingent and retained. Members
of the Association of Executive Search Consultants usually focus on executive posi-
tions paying $150,000 or more, and on retained executive search. They are paid
regardless of whether the employer hires the executive through the search firm s
efforts. Contingency-based recruiters tend to handle junior- to middle-level manage-
ment job searches in the $50,000 to $150,000 range. Whether retained or contingent,
fees are beginning to drop from the usual 30% or more of the executive s first-year
pay.87 Top recruiters (all retained) include Heidrick and Struggles, Egon Zehnder
International, Russell Reynolds, and Spencer Stuart.88
Executive recruiters are using more technology and becoming more specialized.
The challenging part of recruiting has always been finding potential candidates to
find, say, a sales manager with experience in chemical engineered products. Not
surprisingly, Internet-based databases now dramatically speed up such searches.
Executive recruiters are also becoming more specialized. The large ones are creating
new businesses aimed at specialized functions (such as sales) or industries (such as oil
products). So, it s advisable to look first for one that specializes in your field.
PROS AND CONS Recruiters bring a lot to the table. They have many contacts
and are especially adept at finding qualified employed candidates who aren t actively
looking to change jobs. They can keep your firm s name confidential until late into
alternative staffing
The use of nontraditional recruitment
sources.
the search process. The recruiter can save top management s time by finding and
screening an applicant pool. The recruiter s fee might actually turn out to be small
when you compare it to the executive time saved.
The big issue is ensuring that the recruiter really understands your needs and
then delivers properly vetted candidates who fill the bill. As an employer, it is essential
to explain completely what sort of candidate is required and why. Therefore, be pre-
pared for some in-depth dissecting of your request. Some recruiters also may be more
interested in persuading you to hire a candidate than in finding one who will really do
the job. Understand that one or two of the final candidates may actually just be
fillers to make the recruiter s one real candidate look better.
GUIDELINES In choosing a recruiter, guidelines include:89

1. Make sure the firm is capable of conducting a thorough search. Under their ethics
code, a recruiter can t approach the executive talent of a former client for a period
of 2 years after completing a search for that client. Since former clients are off
limits for 2 years, the recruiter must search from a constantly diminishing pool.90
2. Meet the individual who will actually handle your assignment.
3. Make sure to ask how much the search firm charges. Get the agreement in writing.91
4. Make sure the recruiter and you see eye to eye on what sort of person you need
for the position.
5. Never rely solely on the executive recruiter (or other search professional, such as
employment agency) to do all the reference checking. Certainly, let them check the
candidates references, but get notes of these references in writing from the recruiter
(if possible). And, in any event, make sure to check at least the final candidate s
references yourself.
On-Demand Recruiting Services

On-demand recruiting services (ODRS) provide short-term specialized recruiting
assistance to support specific projects without the expense of retaining traditional
search firms. They are recruiters who are paid by the hour or project, instead of a
percentage fee. For example, when the human resource manager for a biotech firm had
to hire several dozen people with scientific degrees and experience in pharmaceuticals,
she used an ODRS firm. A traditional recruiting firm might charge 20% to 30% of each
hire s salary, a prohibitive amount for a small company. The ODRS firm charged by
time, rather than per hire. It handled recruiting and prescreening, and left the client
with a short list of qualified candidates.92
College Recruiting
College recruiting sending an employer s representatives to college campuses to
prescreen applicants and create an applicant pool from the graduating class is an
important source of management trainees and professional and technical employees.
One study several years ago concluded, for instance, that new college graduates filled
about 38% of all externally filled jobs requiring a college degree.93
The problem is that on-campus recruiting is expensive and time-consuming.
Schedules must be set well in advance, company brochures printed, interview records
kept, and much time spent on campus. And recruiters themselves are sometimes
ineffective. Some recruiters are unprepared, show little interest in the candidate, and act
superior. Many don t screen candidates effectively. Employers need to train recruiters
in how to interview candidates, how to explain what the company has to offer, and
how to put candidates at ease. And even more than usual, the recruiter needs to be
personable and preferably have a history of attracting good candidates.94 GE hires
800 to 1,000 students each year from about 40 schools, and uses teams of employees
and interns to build GE s brand at each school. Similarly, IBM has 10 recruiting staff
who focus on improving the results of IBM s on-campus recruiting efforts.95
ON-CAMPUS RECRUITING GOALS The campus recruiter has two main

goals. One is to determine if a candidate is worthy of further consideration. Usual
traits to assess include communication skills, education, experience, and inter-
personal skills. The other aim is to attract good candidates. A sincere and informal
attitude, respect for the applicant, and prompt follow-up letters can help sell the
employer to the interviewee. Employers who send effective recruiters to campus and
build relationships with opinion leaders such as career counselors and professors
have better recruiting results.96
Building close ties with a college s career center can help employers achieve
these goals. Doing so provides recruiters with useful feedback regarding things like
labor market conditions and the effectiveness of one s on- and offline recruiting
ads.97 Shell Oil reduced the list of schools its recruiters visit, using factors such as
quality of academic program, number of students enrolled, and diversity of the
student body.98
THE ON-SITE VISIT Employers generally invite good candidates to the office or
plant for an on-site visit. There are several ways to make this visit fruitful. The invita-
tion should be warm and friendly but businesslike, and should give the person a
choice of dates to visit. Have someone meet the applicant, preferably at the airport or
at his or her hotel, and act as host. A package containing the applicant s schedule as
well as other information regarding the company such as annual reports and
employee benefits should be waiting for the applicant at the hotel.
Plan the interviews and adhere to the schedule. Avoid interruptions; give the
candidate the undivided attention of each person with whom he or she interviews.
Have another recently hired graduate host the candidate s lunch. Make any offer as
soon as possible, preferably at the time of the visit. If this is not possible, tell the
candidate when to expect a decision. Frequent follow-ups to find out how the
decision process is going may help to tilt the applicant in your favor.
A study of 96 graduating students from a major Northeastern university reveals some
other things for which to watch out. For example, 53% said on-site visit opportunities
to meet with people in positions similar to those applied for, or with higher-ranking
persons had a positive effect. Fifty-one percent mentioned, Impressive hotel/dinner
arrangements and having well-organized site arrangements. Disorganized, unprepared
interviewer behavior, or uninformed, useless answers turned off 41%. Forty percent
mentioned unimpressive cheap hotels, disorganized arrangements, or inappropriate
behavior of hosts as negatives.99
INTERNSHIPS Many college students get their jobs through college internships.
Internships can be win win situations. For students, it may mean being able to hone
business skills, learn more about potential employers, and discover their 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.100
Referrals and Walk-Ins

Employee referral campaigns are an important recruiting option. Here the employer
posts announcements of openings and requests for referrals on its Web site, bulletin,
and/or wallboards. It often offers prizes or cash awards for referrals that lead
on-demand recruiting services (ODRS) college recruiting

Services that provide short-term specialized Sending an employer s representatives
recruiting to support specific projects to college campuses to prescreen applicants
without the expense of retaining traditional and create an applicant pool from the
search firms. graduating class.
to hiring. For example, health care giant Kaiser Permanente says, Our employee
referral program encourages you to introduce your talented friends, family
members, or former colleagues to career opportunities at Kaiser Permanente.
Referring someone for one of its award-eligible positions can produces bonuses of
$3,000 or more.101 The Container Store uses a successful variant of the employee
referral campaign. They train their employees to recruit new employees from among
the firm s customers.
PROS AND CONS The big advantage here is that referrals tend to generate more
applicants, more hires, and a higher yield ratio (hires/applicants). 102 Current
employees will usually provide accurate information about the job applicants they are
referring, since they re putting their own reputations on the line. The new employees
may also come with a more realistic picture of what the firm is like. A survey by the
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that of 586 employer
respondents, 69% said employee referral programs are more cost-effective than other
recruiting practices and 80% specifically said they are more cost-effective than
employment agencies. On average, referral programs cost around $400 $900 per hire
in incentives and rewards.103
There are a few things to avoid. If morale is low, you probably should address that
prior to asking for referrals. And if you don t hire someone, explain to your
employee/referrer why you did not hire his or her candidate. And we saw that relying
on referrals might be discriminatory.
WALK-INS Particularly for hourly workers, walk-ins direct applications made

at your office are a big source of applicants. From a practical point of view, simply
posting a Help Wanted sign outside the door may be the most cost-effective way of
attracting good local applicants. Treat walk-ins courteously and diplomatically, for
both the employer s community reputation and the applicant s self-esteem. Many
employers give every walk-in a brief interview, even if it is only to get information on
the applicant in case a position should be open in the future. Particularly in
challenging times, you ll also receive many unsolicited application letters from
professional and white-collar applicants. These can be good sources of leads. Good
business practice requires answering all letters of inquiry from applicants promptly
and courteously.
Telecommuters
Telecommuters are another option. 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.104
Military Personnel
Returning and discharged U.S. military personnel provide an excellent source of
trained recruits. Several military branches have programs to facilitate soldiers finding
jobs. For example, the U.S. Army s Partnership for Youth Success enables someone
entering the Army to select a post-army corporate partner for an employment
interview as a way to help soldiers find a job after leaving the Army.105
Recruiting Source Use and Effectiveness

Research reveals several guidelines employers can use to improve their recruiting
efforts effectiveness (see Table 5-1). For example, referrals from current employees yield
applicants who are less likely to leave and more likely to perform better.106
TABLE 5-1 Recruitment: Practical Applications for Managers
Recruitment Research Findinga Practical Applications for Managers
The recruitment source affects the characteristics of applicants Use sources such as referrals from current employees that yield
you attract. applicants more likely to be better performers.
Recruitment materials have a more positive impact if they contain Provide applicants with information on aspects of the job that
more specific information. are important to them, such as salary, location, and diversity.
Organizational image influences applicants initial reactions. Ensure all communications regarding an organization provide
a positive message regarding the attractiveness of the organization
as a place to work.
Applicants with a greater number of job opportunities are more Ensure initial recruitment activities (e.g., Web site, brochure,
attentive to early recruitment activities. on-campus recruiting) are attractive to candidates.
Realistic job previews that highlight both the advantages and the Provide applicants with a realistic picture of the job and
disadvantages of the job reduce subsequent turnover. organization, not just the positives.
Applicants will infer (perhaps erroneous) information about Provide clear, specific, and complete information in recruitment
the job and company if the information is not clearly provided materials so that applicants do not make erroneous inferences about
by the company. the job or the employer.
Recruiter warmth has a large and positive effect on applicants Choose individuals who have contact with applicants for their
decisions to accept a job. interpersonal skills.
Recruitment source also has a significant effect Individuals recruited through personal recruitment sources such
on reducing turnover. as employee referral programs are less likely to terminate their
employment early.
a
Selected research principles from M. S. Taylor and & C. J. Collins (2000), Strategic Recruitment. In C. L. Cooper & E. A. Locke. (Eds.) I/O
Psychology: Practice and Theory Book. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sources: Adapted from Ann Marie Ryan and Nancy Tippins, Attracting and Selecting: What Psychological Research Tells Us, Human Resource Management 43,
no. 4 (Winter 2004), p. 311; and Ingo Weller et al., Level and Time Effects of Recruitment Sources on Early Voluntary Turnover, Journal of Applied Psychology
94, no. 5 (2009), pp. 1146 1162 (1157). Reprinted by permission of Society for Human Resource Management via Copyright Clearance Center.
Evidenced-Based HR: Measuring Recruiting Effectiveness

Even small employers may spend tens of thousands of dollars per year recruiting
applicants, yet few firms assess their recruitment efforts effectiveness. Is it more cost-
effective for us to advertise for applicants on the Web or in Sunday s paper? Should we
use this employment agency or that one? One survey found that only about 44% of the
279 firms surveyed made formal attempts to evaluate their recruitment efforts.107 Such
inattention flies in the face of common sense.108
In terms of what to measure, one question is How many applicants did we
generate through each of our recruitment sources? 109 Possible recruiting metrics
include new hire job performance, new hire failure rate, new hire turnover, training
success, and manager s satisfaction.110
The problem is that more applicants is not always better. The employer needs
qualified, hirable applicants, not just applicants. An Internet ad may generate
thousands of applicants, many from so far away that there s no chance they re viable.
Even with computerized prescreening and tracking software, there are still more
applicants to correspond with and screen.111
The applicant tracking system should help compare recruiting sources, but about
30% of them lack the necessary tools to effectively pinpoint source of hire.112 And
realistically, the manager looking to hire five engineers probably won t be twice as
selective with 20,000 applicants as with 10,000. So, it is not just quantity but quality.
It s therefore wise to compare your recruiting sources with measures of how employees
from these sources did after about a year on the job. The accompanying HR as a Profit
Center illustrates the role human resources can play.
HR AS A PROFIT CENTER
GE Medical Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Example
GE Medical hires about 500 technical workers a year to make sophisticated medical
devices such as CT scanners. GE Medical must compete for talent with the likes of
Microsoft. However, it has cut its hiring costs by 17%, reduced time to fill the positions
by 20% to 30%, and cut in half the percentage of new hires who don t work out.113
GE Medical s HR team accomplished this in part by applying some of its pur-
chasing techniques to its dealings with recruiters. For example, it called a meeting
and told 20 recruiters that it would work with only the 10 best. To measure best,
the company created measurements inspired by manufacturing techniques, such
as percentage of résumés that result in interviews and percentage of interviews
that lead to offers. Similarly, GE Medical discovered that current employees are
very effective as references. For instance, GE Medical interviews just 1% of appli-
cants whose résumés it receives, while 10% of employee referrals result in actual
hires. So GE Medical took steps to double the number of employee referrals. It
simplified the referral forms, eliminated bureaucratic submission procedures, and
added a small reward like a Sears gift certificate for referring a qualified candidate.
GE also upped the incentive $2,000 if someone referred is hired, and $3,000 if he
or she is a software engineer. GE is also moving to use recruitment process
outsourcers. These RPOs handle tasks such as setting up interviews, making
flight and hotel reservations and providing weekly reports on all open positions.113.

An Integrated Approach to Recruiting
Ideally, an employer s computerized recruitment system should include several
elements: a requisition management system, which facilitates requisition, routing,
approval, and posting of job openings; a recruiting solution, including job advertise-
ment, recruitment marketing, applicant tracking, and online recruitment vendor
management, to increase and improve applicant pool quality; screening services,
such as skills and behavioral assessment services; and hiring management software to
capture and manage candidate information.114
7 Explain how to recruit a

RECRUITING A MORE DIVERSE WORKFORCE
more diverse workforce. As we explained in Chapter 2, recruiting a diverse workforce isn t just socially responsi-
ble. Given the rapid increase in minority, older worker, and women candidates, it is a
necessity. The recruiting tools we have described to this point are certainly useful for
minority and other applicants, too. However, in general, recruiting a more diverse
workforce requires several special steps, to which we now turn.115
Single Parents
In 2010, there were almost 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, and three-fourths of those fathers were employed. Being a single parent isn t easy,
and recruiting and keeping them requires understanding the problems they face in
balancing work and family life.116 In one survey,
Many described falling into bed exhausted at midnight without even minimal time
for themselves. . . . They often needed personal sick time or excused days off to care
for sick children. As one mother noted, I don t have enough sick days to get sick. 117
Given such concerns, the first step in attracting (and keeping) single parents is to
make the workplace as user friendly for them as practical.118 Many firms have family
friendly programs but these may not be extensive enough for single parents. For exam-
ple, flextime programs provide employees some flexibility (such as 1-hour windows
at the beginning or end of the day)

around which to build their work-
days. The problem is that for many
single parents this limited flexibility
may not be enough in the face of the
conflicting work home pressures
that many face. CNN even offered a
Work/Life Balance Calculator (www.
cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/
04/balance.calculator/) to assess how
far out of balance one s life may be.119
Flexible work schedules and
Source: Mel Yates/Getty Images USA, Inc.

child-care benefits are thus just two
big single-parent magnets. In addi-
tion, surveys suggest that a supportive
attitude on the supervisor s part can
go far toward making the single
parent s work home balancing act
more bearable.
Older Workers
When it comes to hiring older work- Not just single parents, but also their children
ers, employers don t have much may occasionally need some extra support.
choice.120 Over the next few years,
the fastest-growing labor force segment will be those from 45 to 64 years old. Those
age 25 to 34 will decline by almost 3 million, reflecting fewer births in the late 1960s
and early 1970s. 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.121 Firms like Home Depot capitalize on this by hiring
older employees, who serve as a powerful draw to baby boomer shoppers by
mirroring their knowledge and perspective. 122
It therefore makes sense for employers to encourage older workers to stay (or to
come to work at the company). Doing so involves several things. The big one is prob-
ably to provide opportunities for flexible (and often abbreviated) work schedules.
One survey found that flexibility was the main concern for 71% of baby boomers,
with those who continue working preferring to do so part time.123 At one company,
workers over 65 can progressively shorten their work schedules; another company
uses mini shifts to accommodate those interested in working less than full time.
Other suggestions include the following:
* Phased retirement that allows workers to ease out of the workforce.
* Portable jobs for snowbirds who wish to live in warmer climates in the winter.
* Part-time projects for retirees.
* Full benefits for part-timers.124
As always in recruiting, projecting the right image is essential. For example, one
study found that writing the ad so that it sent the message we re older-worker
friendly was important. The most effective ads emphasized schedule flexibility, and
accentuated the firm s equal opportunity employment statement. This was much
more effective than adding statements alluding to giving retirees opportunities
to transfer their knowledge to the new work setting.125
Recruiting Minorities
The same prescriptions that apply to recruiting older workers apply to recruiting
minorities. In practice, this requires a three-part effort: Understand the recruit-
ment barriers, formulate the required recruitment plans, and institute the specific
day-to-day programs.126
UNDERSTAND First, understand the barriers that prevent minorities from apply-
ing. For example, many minority applicants don t meet the educational or experience
standards for the job, so many companies offer remedial training in basic arithmetic
and writing. For others, lack of role models is a problem. For example, in one retail
chain, it was a lack of role models (plus what the one manager called a rather macho
culture ) that stopped women from applying. Sometimes (as we saw) it s a lack of
schedule flexibility, given the responsibility for caring and schooling of the children.
PLAN After recognizing the potential impediments, you can turn to formulating
plans for attracting and retaining minorities and women. This may include, for
instance, developing flexible work options, redesigning jobs, and offering flexible
benefits plans.
IMPLEMENT Finally, translate these personnel plans into recruitment programs.

Specifically, decide what the ads will say, and what recruiting sources you will use.
Many job seekers check with friends or relatives as a strategy for looking for jobs, so
encouraging your minority employees to assist in your recruitment efforts makes
sense. Diversity recruitment specialists include www.diversity.com, www.2trabajo.
com, and http://recruitersnetwork.com/resources/diversity.htm.
Other firms collaborate with specialist professional organizations. These include the
National Black MBA Association (www.nbmbaa.org/home.aspx?PageID=637&),
the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (www.nshmba.org/) and the Organization of
Chinese Americans (http://ocanational.org/).
Welfare-to-Work
Some companies report difficulty in hiring and assimilating people previously on wel-
fare. Applicants sometimes lack basic work skills, such as reporting for work on time,
working in teams, and taking orders. The key to a welfare-to-work program s success
seems to be the employer s pretraining program. Here, participants get counseling and
basic skills training over several weeks.127
The Disabled
The EEOC estimates that nearly 70% of the disabled are jobless, but it certainly doesn t
have to be that way.128 The research is quite persuasive regarding the fact that in terms
of virtually all work criteria, 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.
Employers can do several things to tap this huge potential workforce. The U.S.
Department of Labor s Office of Disability Employment Policy offers several pro-
grams, including one that helps link disabled college undergraduates who are looking
for summer internships with potential employers.129 All states have local agencies
(such as Corporate Connections in Tennessee) that provide placement services and
other recruitment and training tools and information for employers seeking to hire the
disabled. Employers also must use common sense. For example, employers who only
post job openings online may miss potential employees who are visually impaired.130
DEVELOPING AND USING APPLICATION FORMS

Purpose of Application Forms
With a pool of applicants, the prescreening process can begin. The application form
is usually the first step in this process (some firms first require a brief, prescreening
interview or online test).
A filled-in application provides four types of information. First, you can make
judgments on substantive matters, such as whether the applicant has the education
FIGURE 5-10 FBI Employment

Application
Source: www.fbijobs.gov/
employment/fd646c.pdf, accessed
April 28, 2009.
and experience to do the job. Second, you can draw conclusions about the applicant s
previous progress and growth, especially important for management candidates.
Third, you can draw tentative conclusions about the applicant s stability based on
previous work record (although years of downsizing suggest the need for caution
here). Fourth, you may be able to use the data in the application to predict which
candidates will succeed on the job and which will not.
Most employers need several application forms. For technical and managerial
personnel, the form may require detailed answers to questions about education
and training. The form for hourly factory workers might focus on tools and
equipment. Figure 5-10 presents one employer s approach to collecting application
form information the employment application for the FBI. In practice, most
employers encourage online applications.
application form
The form that provides information on edu-
cation, prior work record, and skills.
Application Guidelines
Managers should keep several practical guidelines in mind. In the Employment
History section, request detailed information on each prior employer, including the
name of the supervisor and his or her e-mail address and telephone number; this is
essential for reference checking. Also, in signing the application, the applicant should
certify his or her understanding that falsified statements may be cause for dismissal, that
investigation of credit and employment and driving record is authorized, that a medical
examination may be required, that drug screening tests may be required, and that
employment is for no definite period.
APPLICANT EXAGGERATION Job applicants often exaggerate their qualifica-
tions. Estimates of how many applicants exaggerate range from 40% to 70%.131
The most common exaggerations concern education and job experience. A majority
of graduating seniors reportedly believe that employers expect a degree of exaggera-
tion on resumes. Much of this exaggeration occurs on resumes, but may occur on
application forms too. Therefore, always ensure applicants complete the form and
sign a statement on it indicating that the information is true. The court will almost
always support a discharge for falsifying information when applying for work.132
Furthermore, doing a less-than-complete job of filling in the form may reflect poor
work habits. Some applicants simply scribble see résumé attached on the application.
This is not acceptable. You need the signed, completed form.
Application Forms and EEO Law

Carefully review application forms to ensure that they comply with equal employment
laws. Questions to be aware of include:
Education. A question on the dates of attendance and graduation from various
schools is one potential violation, insofar as it may reflect 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 the applicant 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 phys-
ical 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 whether the applicant has ever 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 also 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. About half of responding employers in one survey
thought video résumés might give employers a better feel for the candidate. The
danger is that a video résumé makes it more likely that rejected candidates may claim
discrimination.133 To facilitate using video résumés, several Web sites compile for
applicants, usually for a fee, multimedia résumés.134
Using Application Forms to Predict Job Performance

Finally, employers can use analyses of application information ( biodata ) 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.135 Examples of biodata items might
include quit a job without giving notice, graduated from college, and traveled
considerably growing up. 136
Choose biodata items with three things in mind. First, of course, equal employ-
ment law limits the items you ll want to use (don t use 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 legitimate, and not
invasive. Other items such as birth order and frequent dates in high school were
more invasive, and unacceptable. Finally, consider that some applicants will fake
biodata answers in an effort to impress the employer.137
Mandatory Arbitration
Many employers, aware of the high costs of employment litigation, require applicants to
agree in writing to mandatory arbitration should a dispute arise. The practice is a
matter of debate.
Different federal courts have taken different positions on the enforceability of
these mandatory alternative dispute resolution clauses. The basic situation now is
that they are generally enforceable, with two big caveats.
First, it must be a fair process.138 For example, the agreement should be a signed
and dated separate agreement. Use simple wording. Provide for reconsideration and
judicial appeal if there is an error of law.139 The employer must absorb most of the
cost of the arbitration process. The arbitration process should be reasonably swift.
The employee, if he or she prevails, should be eligible to receive the full remedies that
he or she would have had if he or she had had access to the courts.
Second, mandatory arbitration clauses turn some candidates off. In one study,
389 MBA students read simulated employment brochures. Mandatory employ-
ment arbitration had a significantly negative impact on the attractiveness of the
company as a place to work.140
REVIEW
MyManagementLab Now that you have finished this chapter, go back to www.mymanagementlab.com to
continue practicing and applying the concepts you ve learned.
CHAPTER SECTION SUMMARIES

1. The recruitment and selection process entails five main scatter plots, or computerized software packages. The
steps: decide what positions to fill; build a pool of other side of the equation is forecasting the supply of
candidates for these jobs; have candidates complete inside candidates. Here employers use manual systems
application forms; use selection tools; and decide to and replacement charts, and computerized skills inven-
whom to make an offer, in part by having the supervisor tories. Forecasting the supply of outside candidates is
and others interview the candidates. important, particularly when entering periods of
2. Recruitment and selection starts with workforce plan- economic expansion where unemployment is low and
ning and forecasting. Workforce planning is the process good candidates are more difficult to come by.
of deciding what positions the firm will have to fill, and 3. All managers need to understand why effective recruit-
how to fill them. This often starts by forecasting person- ing is important. Without enough candidates, employers
nel needs, perhaps using trend analysis, ratio analysis, cannot effectively screen the candidates or hire the best.
Some employers use a recruiting yield pyramid to alternative types of employees, such as contract
estimate how many applicants they need to generate in employees for special projects.
order to fill predicted job openings. Executive recruiters, a special type of employment
4. Filling open positions with internal sources of candi- agency, are invaluable for finding and helping the
dates has several advantages. For example, you re probably employer hire top-level professionals and executives.
already more familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, However, the employer needs to ensure that the
and they require less orientation. Finding internal candi- recruiter is conducting a thorough search and
dates often utilizes job posting. For filling the company s carefully checking references.
projected top-level positions, succession planning the Other outside sources include college recruiting,
ongoing process of systematically identifying, assessing, referrals and walk-ins, and military personnel.
and developing organizational leadership to enhance
6. Understanding how to recruit a more diverse workforce
performance is the process of choice.
is important. Whether the target is the single parent,
5. Employers use a variety of outside sources of candidates
older workers, or minorities, the basic rule is to under-
when recruiting applicants.
stand their special needs and to create a set of policies
Of these, recruiting via the Internet using job boards and practices that create a more hospitable environment
such as Monster.com represents the leading source. in which they can work.
It is quick and cost-effective. One downside is too 7. The recruitment process inevitably includes developing
many applicants from too far away, but employers and using application forms to collect essential back-
use applicant tracking software to screen online ground information about the applicant. The application
applicants. should enable you to make judgments on substantial
Other sources include advertising and employment matters such as the person s education and to identify the
agencies (including public and nonprofit agencies, person s job references and supervisors. Of course, it s
and private agencies). important to make sure the application complies with
Employers increasingly turn to temporary agencies equal employment laws, for instance with respect to
and other alternative staffing methods to hire questions regarding physical handicaps.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the pros and cons of five sources of job 4. What should employers keep in mind when using Internet
candidates? sites to find job candidates?
2. What are the four main types of information that appli- 5. What are the five main things you would do to recruit
cation forms provide? and retain a more diverse workforce?
3. How, specifically, do equal employment laws apply
to personnel recruiting activities?
INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTIVITIES

1. Bring to class several classified and display ads from the workers, and single parents. Discuss what they re doing
Sunday help wanted ads. Analyze the effectiveness of to be family friendly.
these ads using the guidelines discussed in this chapter. 5. Working individually or in groups, interview a manager
2. Working individually or in groups, develop a 5-year between the ages of 25 and 35 at a local business who
forecast of occupational market conditions for five manages employees age 40 or older. Ask the manager
occupations such as accountant, nurse, and engineer. to describe three or four of his or her most challenging
3. Working individually or in groups, visit the local office of experiences managing older employees.
your state employment agency (or check out their site 6. The HRCI Test Specifications appendix at the end of this
online). Come back to class prepared to discuss the follow- book (pages 633 640) lists the knowledge someone study-
ing questions: What types of jobs seem to be available ing for the HRCI certification exam needs to have in each
through this agency, predominantly? To what extent do you area of human resource management (such as in Strategic
think this particular agency would be a good source of pro- Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource
fessional, technical, and/or managerial applicants? What Development). In groups of four to five students, do four
sorts of paperwork are applicants to the state agency things: (1) review that appendix now; (2) identify the
required to complete before their applications are processed material in this chapter that relates to the required knowl-
by the agency? What other services does the office provide? edge the appendix lists; (3) write four multiple-choice
What other opinions did you form about the state agency? exam questions on this material that you believe would be
4. Working individually or in groups, find at least five suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time
employment ads, either on the Internet or in a local permits, have someone from your team post your team s
newspaper, that suggest that the company is family questions in front of the class, so the students in other
friendly and should appeal to women, minorities, older teams can take each others exam questions.
EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE
The Nursing Shortage
As of August 2011, U.S. unemployment was still disappoint- How to Set Up the Exercise/Instructions: Set up groups of
ingly high, and employers were still holding back on their four to five students for this exercise. The groups should
hiring. However, while many people were unemployed, that work separately and should not converse with each other.
was not the case with nurse professionals. Virtually every Each group should address the following tasks:
hospital was aggressively recruiting nurses. Many were turn- 1. Based on information available on the hospital s
ing to foreign-trained nurses, for example, by recruiting Web site, create a hard-copy ad for the hospital to place
nurses in the Philippines. Experts expected nurses to be in in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. Which
very short supply for years to come. (geographic) editions of the Times would you use,
Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to give you experi- and why?
ence in creating a recruitment program. 2. Analyze the hospital s current online nurses ad. How
Required Understanding: You should be thoroughly familiar would you improve on it?
with the contents of this chapter, and with the nurse recruit- 3. Prepare in outline form a complete nurses recruiting
ment program of a hospital such as Lenox Hill Hospital in New program for this hospital, including all recruiting
York (see http://lenoxhillhospital.org/careers_default.aspx). sources your group would use.
APPLICATION CASE
FINDING PEOPLE WHO ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT THEY DO
Trilogy Enterprises Inc. of Austin, Texas, is a fast-growing Trilogy makes finding the right people (it calls them
software company, and provides software solutions to giant great people ) a company-wide mission. Recruiters actively
global firms for improving sales and performance. It prides pursue the freshest, if least experienced, people in the job
itself on its unique and unorthodox culture. Many of its market, scouring college career fairs and computer science
approaches to business practice are unusual, but in Trilogy s departments for talented overachievers with ambition and
fast-changing and highly competitive environment, they entrepreneurial instincts. Top managers conduct the first
seem to work. rounds of interviews, letting prospects know they will be
There is no dress code and employees make their own pushed to achieve but will be well rewarded. Employees take
hours, often very long. They tend to socialize together (the top recruits and their significant others out on the town
average age is 26), both in the office s well-stocked kitchen and when they fly into Austin for the standard, 3-day preliminary
on company-sponsored events and trips to places like local visit. A typical day might begin with grueling interviews but
dance clubs and retreats in Las Vegas and Hawaii. An in-house end with mountain biking, rollerblading, or laser tag. Execu-
jargon has developed, and the shared history of the firm has tives have been known to fly out to meet and woo hot
taken on the status of legend. Responsibility is heavy and prospects who couldn t make the trip.
comes early, with a just do it now attitude that dispenses One year, Trilogy reviewed 15,000 résumés, conducted
with long apprenticeships. New recruits are given a few weeks 4,000 on-campus interviews, flew 850 prospects in for inter-
of intensive training, known as Trilogy University and views, and hired 262 college graduates, who account for over
described by participants as more like boot camp than busi- a third of its current employees. The cost per hire was
ness school. Information is delivered as if with a fire hose, $13,000; Jeff Daniel believes it was worth every penny.
and new employees are expected to commit their expertise
and vitality to everything they do. Jeff Daniel, director of Questions
college recruiting, admits the intense and unconventional 1. Identify some of the established recruiting techniques that
firm is not the employer for everybody. But it s definitely an apparently underlie Trilogy s unconventional approach
environment where people who are passionate about what to attracting talent.
they do can thrive. 2. What particular elements of Trilogy s culture most likely
The firm employs about 700 such passionate people. appeal to the kind of employees it seeks? How does it
Trilogy s managers know the rapid growth they seek convey those elements to job prospects?
depends on having a staff of the best people they can find, 3. Would Trilogy be an appealing employer for you? Why
quickly trained and given broad responsibility and freedom or why not? If not, what would it take for you to accept a
as soon as possible. CEO Joe Liemandt says, At a software job offer from Trilogy?
company, people are everything. You can t build the next 4. What suggestions would you make to Trilogy for improv-
great software company, which is what we re trying to do ing its recruiting processes?
here, unless you re totally committed to that. Of course, the
leaders at every company say, People are everything. But Sources: Chuck Salter, Insanity, Inc., Fast Company, January 1999, pp. 101 108;
they don t act on it. and www.trilogy.com/sections/careers/work, accessed August 24, 2007.
CONTINUING CASE
CARTER CLEANING COMPANY
Getting Better Applicants resources planning and trend analysis, says Jennifer. We re
If you were to ask Jennifer and her father what the main prob- fighting an economic war and I m happy just to be able to
lem was in running their firm, their answer would be quick round up enough live applicants to be able to keep my
and short: hiring good people. Originally begun as a string of trenches fully manned.
coin-operated laundromats requiring virtually no skilled help, In light of this problem, Jennifer s father asked her to
the chain grew to six stores, each heavily dependent on skilled answer the following questions:
managers, cleaner/spotters, and pressers. Employees generally
have no more than a high school education (often less), and Questions
the market for them is very competitive. Over a typical week- 1. First, how would you recommend we go about reducing
end, literally dozens of want ads for experienced pressers or the turnover in our stores?
cleaner/spotters can be found in area newspapers. All these 2. Provide a detailed list of recommendations concerning
people usually are paid around $15 per hour, and they change how we should go about increasing our pool of acceptable
jobs frequently. Jennifer and her father thus face the continu- job applicants so we no longer face the need to hire almost
ing task of recruiting and hiring qualified workers out of a anyone who walks in the door. (Your recommendations
pool of individuals they feel are almost nomadic in their regarding the latter should include completely worded
propensity to move from area to area and job to job. Turnover online and hard-copy advertisements and recommenda-
in their stores (as in the stores of many of their competitors) tions regarding any other recruiting strategies you would
often approaches 400%. Don t talk to me about human suggest we use.)
TRANSLATING STRATEGY INTO HR POLICIES & PRACTICES CASE

THE HOTEL PARIS CASE
The New Recruitment Process took the path of least resistance when a job became available,
The Hotel Paris s competitive strategy is To use superior guest such as by placing help wanted ads in their local papers.
service to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to There was no sense of direction from the Hotel Paris s
thereby increase the length of stay and return rate of guests, and headquarters regarding what sorts of applicants the com-
thus boost revenues and profitability. HR manager Lisa Cruz pany preferred, what media and alternative sources of
must now formulate functional policies and activities that recruits its managers should use, no online recruiting, and
support this competitive strategy by eliciting the required no measurement at all of recruitment process effectiveness.
employee behaviors and competencies. The company ignored recruitment-source metrics that other
As a longtime HR professional, Lisa Cruz was well aware firms used effectively, such as number of qualified applicants
of the importance of effective employee recruitment. If the per position, percentage of jobs filled from within, the offer-
Hotel Paris didn t get enough applicants, it could not be selec- to-acceptance ratio, acceptance by recruiting source,
tive about who to hire. And, if it could not be selective about turnover by recruiting source, and selection test results by
who to hire, it wasn t likely that the hotels would enjoy the recruiting source.
customer-oriented employee behaviors that the company s It was safe to say that achieving the Hotel Paris s strate-
strategy relied on. She was therefore disappointed to discover gic aims depended on the quality of the people that it
that the Hotel Paris was paying virtually no attention to the attracted to and then selected for employment at the firm.
job of recruiting prospective employees. Individual hotel What we want are employees who will put our guests first,
managers slapped together help wanted ads when they had who will use initiative to see that our guests are satisfied, and
positions to fill, and no one in the chain had any measurable who will work tirelessly to provide our guests with services
idea of how many recruits these ads were producing, or which that exceed their expectations said the CFO. Lisa and the
recruiting approaches worked the best (or worked at all). Lisa CFO both knew this process had to start with better recruit-
knew that it was time to step back and get control of the Hotel ing. The CFO gave her the green light to design a new
Paris s recruitment function. recruitment process.
As they reviewed the details of the Hotel Paris s current
recruitment practices, Lisa Cruz and the firm s CFO became Questions
increasingly concerned. What they found, basically, was that 1. Given the hotel s stated employee preferences, what
the recruitment function was unmanaged, totally. The previ- recruiting sources would you suggest they use, and why?
ous HR director had simply allowed the responsibility for 2. What would a Hotel Paris help wanted ad look like?
recruiting to remain with each separate hotel, and the hotel 3. How would you suggest they measure the effectiveness
managers, not being human resources professionals, usually of their recruiting efforts?

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5

2. Explain the main techniques used in employment

Access a host of interactive learning aids at

2 Explain the main techniques

Strategy and Workforce Planning

FIGURE 5-1 Steps in

Applicants Use selection Supervisors and

THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT

Forecasting Personnel Needs (Labor Demand)

FIGURE 5-2 Linking

Employer s Marketing and Production Financial HR plans

Personnel Training and Compensation Labor Security and

Personnel Recruitment Employee

workforce (or employment or personnel)

TREND ANALYSIS Trend analysis means studying variations in the firm s

RATIO ANALYSIS Another simple approach, ratio analysis, means making

Size of Hospital Number of Registered

MARKOV ANALYSIS Employers also use a mathematical process known as

FIGURE 5-3 Determining the (1,210)

project how many employees you ll

200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400

trend analysis ratio analysis scatter plot

Improving Productivity Through HRIS

Forecasting the Supply of Inside Candidates

MANUAL SYSTEMS AND REPLACEMENT CHARTS Department man-

FIGURE 5-4 Management Division

Vice President Vice President Vice President

COMPUTERIZED SKILLS INVENTORIES Larger firms obviously can t track the

FIGURE 5-5 Keeping

Forecasting the Supply of Outside Candidates

Talent Management and Predictive Workforce Monitoring

Developing an Action Plan to Match Projected

The Recruiting Yield Pyramid

FIGURE 5-6 Recruiting

100 Offers made (2:1)

150 Candidates interviewed (3:2)

200 Candidates invited (4:3)

1,200 Leads generated (6:1)

recruiting yield pyramid

3 Explain and give examples

Why Recruiting Is Important

What Makes Recruiting a Challenge?

Organizing How You Recruit

INTERNAL SOURCES OF CANDIDATES

Using Internal Sources: Pros and Cons

Finding Internal Candidates

employee recruiting job posting

Improving Productivity Through HRIS

5 List and discuss the

Recruiting via the Internet

FIGURE 5-7 Some Top Online

OTHER ONLINE RECRUITING PRACTICES Again, in moving away from

USING APPLICANT TRACKING Web-based ads tend to generate so many

applicant tracking systems

FIGURE 5-8 Ineffective

IMPROVING ONLINE RECRUITING EFFECTIVENESS Planning your online

CONSTRUCTING (WRITING) THE AD Experienced advertisers use the guide

FIGURE 5-9 Help Wanted Ad

PUBLIC AND NONPROFIT AGENCIES Every state has a public, state-run