Professional & Enterprise Development

CT024-3-1

Recruitment Strategy

Learning Outcomes

Identify the key features of graduate job advertisements

Describe the purpose of jobs descriptions and person specifications

Compare & contrast different approaches to selection and recruitment

Prerequisites for This Module

Introducing the Career Element

Recruitment strategies

Job descriptions / person specifications

Key Terms You Must be Able to Use

If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to use the following terms correctly in your
assignments and exams:

Job description

Person specification

Career Elements

Having a degree does not guarantee

- An employment or a successful career

So, why have a degree? How about that employment?

Apart from looking at the award from a purely technical viewpoint, students must also seek to develop
and improve their employability skills.

Hence, this PDT module

Examples of employability skills

Interpersonal skill

Team working, managerial, supervisory, leadership

Communication skill

Verbal, writing, presentational

Professionalism skill

Ethical, appearance, timeliness, punctuality, client focus

Personal skill

Analytical, numeracy, critical thinking, problem solving, independent work, enquiry

Recruitment Strategies

Step 1: Begins with identifying an unmet need - a task that needs to be accomplished.

Step 2: Translate unmet needs into a job description

Step 3: Define the person specifications

Step 4: Decide approach for selection/recruitment

Step 5: Advertise Select advertisement medium and platform

Step 6: Interview interaction between the decision maker and candidate (objective - find out if the
candidate has the necessary skills, can fit in culturally)

Recruitment Strategies

It is important to hire the right person the first time. Why?

Good planning strategies are required

Hire the Right Person the First Time

1. Cut cost

2. Save time

3. Maximize productivity

4. Maintain competitive edge

 5. Staff morale

Step 1: Identification of Unmet Needs

Identification of needs by the organization

Could be in terms of

1. Lack of resources

2. Business expansion

3. Environmental forces (eg government policy females at managerial level)

Step 2: Job Description

Imagine expecting an employee to do a job without telling them what you expect?

You need up-to-date, accurate job descriptions to maximize the effectiveness and productivity
of all your employees

Job Description

Translate the unmet need into a job description

The job description says what the person will be doing

This is important as it allows a person to properly commit and be responsible for a role

Job specification allows a good opportunity to frame the role according to the organizations
needs.

Job Description (contd)

To write a job description, you must:

Understand the job and what it involves

- Talk to people in a similar position, find out what their jobs involve

- Talk to immediate supervisors of this position, and find out what they are looking for

Job Description (contd)

To write a job description, you must:

Identify the tasks and responsibilities assigned to the position:

 1. Managing other employees

2. Being responsible for decision making

3. Following established guidelines

4. Dealing with other departments

5. Dealing with customers/public

Job Description (contd)

Job Description should not include:

Details on how the tasks should be carried out

Targets (e.g. must achieve sales target of RM60K)

Why?

Job Description (contd)

Be clear that the post holders have ultimate responsibility distinguish from those tasks in
which they have involvement but not responsibility

Provide flexibility for future developments of position add in as the last itemized duty other
comparable duties as may be required by the Head of the Department

Identify principle equipment to be used

Special conditions eg traveling, weekends

How to Write a Job Description

A job description should specify:

Title: The title of the post

Purpose or aim: A brief description of the purpose of the job. This can probably be limited to
one sentence.

Responsible to (Person): Title of the post(s) to which the post holder will be immediately and
ultimately responsible to.

Duties:
Start with the elements which take up most of the post holder's time. It may be helpful to distinguish
between regular, intermittent, and emergency duties, and/or to assign an approximate percentage of
time to each specific duty.
Sample of Job Description

Title: Sales and Marketing Executive

Reports to: Sales and Marketing Director, Johor Baru.

Based at: Sparkly New Products Sdn Bhd, Technology House, Kuantan.

Job purpose: To plan and carry out direct marketing and sales activities of SNP's
machinery range to the East Coast major accounts

Key responsibilities and accountabilities:

Maintain, develop a computerised customer and prospect database.

Plan and carry out direct marketing activities (principally direct mail) to agreed
budgets, sales volumes, values, product mix and timescales.

Develop ideas and create offers for direct mail and marketing to major accounts by
main market sector and SNP's ABC products.

Respond to and follow up sales enquiries by post, telephone, and personal visits.

- Participate in company road shows

The NEGATIVE SIDE OF JOB DESCRIPTION

Employee job descriptions become out dated as soon as you write them in a fast-paced,
changing, customer-driven work environment.

Poorly-written employee job descriptions can serve as evidence of wrong-doing or wrong-

telling in a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Poorly written job descriptions:

Workplace confusion

Hurt communication

Lowers morale

Step 3: Person Specifications

The person specification says what employees need, to be able to do the job (what skills,
experience, qualifications, attitudes, etc)
 A profile of the personal skills, qualifications, abilities and experiences required for the job

Person Specifications

Suggestions for a person specification:

From job description, pick out duties, grouping similar ones together, translate duties
into abilities and skills

Identify specific knowledge requirements for the job

Where relevant, indicate qualifications as precise as possible

- Identify experience

Person Specifications

Decide on the essential and desirable specifications

Person Specifications

Essential

Essential means that this is the minimum criterion needed to carry the job cannot be done without
these criteria. No one without this criteria should be offered the job, regardless of other attributes.

Desirable

Desirable refers to those criteria that are not essential, someone could do the job without this.

Person Specifications
 Junior Software Developer

Essential Desirable

Qualifications Diploma in any Computing related Bachelor Degree in any Computing

field related field

Experience 1 year experience 2 years experience

Skills Knowledge of C# or VB.NET Knowledge of SQL server or ORACLE

Personality Can work with minimum Good communication skill, team

supervision player
Person Specifications

Junior Frontline IT Support

Essential Desirable

Qualifications Diploma in any Computing related Bachelor Degree in any Computing

field related field

Skills Familiarity with Windows operating Familiarity with other operating

systems and networking systems

Personality Willingness to learn, team player Ability to thrive in a busy and

challenging environment

Experience Fresh graduates are encouraged Experienced in helpdesk support

to apply environment
Step 4: Recruitment Approach

Recruitment agencies

Job Placement at the University

Job Centre

Newspaper/Specialist Magazines

Asking people you know/taking on family members

Discussion Question: Identify other Recruitment Approaches and discuss the suitability of each
approach to a relevant industry.

Examples of Recruitment Approaches

Reputation & Corporate branding:

Shell enjoys a formidable reputation when it comes to attracting exactly the people it wants.

Corporate brand advertising and media campaigns

Hit the streets to find the 'right' people for Shell Walk In Interviews

Innovate, Impress or Lose Talent to Competitors

Stephane Le-Camus, global talent director at Unilever

Strong employer brand - old-school recruitment practices

Differentiate and adopt more innovative tactics

Attracting early and mid-career recruits competitive markets

Leverage the experience and

expertise of skilled people

Innovate, Impress or Lose Talent to Competitors

Ashley Farren, director of recruitment Unilever Asia

Partnering with the right people to discover the right talent

Providing your partners (such as recruiting agencies) with real

insight into your organisation

 Engagement

South Africa, it runs an 'Introduction to Business Management Course

150 of the best students are invited to the two-day event."

Netherlands - and ordinary individuals rely on the organisation's products as consumers

UK YouTube

Roadshow

Nike, Sony

campus roadshows & speak to students.

Citibank

conducts an interview open day,

Pitch Talent CV

Any Drawbacks ?

Recruitment Strategy Activity

Reminder: Please print your assignment for Lecture this Friday

Choose one company in Malaysia or Worldwide

Do a research on its recruitment strategy and present it

Group - max 5 in a group

10-15 minutes presentation