Thursday, May 31, 2018

THE KEY IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES IN SRI LANKA

According to Costello, (2006) “Recruitment and selection, as a human resource management function. It is one of the human resource management activities that make the impact on organization performance to achieve target goal” (Costello, 2006). Gold, (2007) defines that “Recruitment is the process of making a pool of capable candidates applying to an organization for employment” (Gold, 2007) and According to Eze (2002), “Recruitment is the process of finding and attempting to attract job candidates who are suitably qualified and therefore capable of filling vacancies in job positions effectively” Eze (2002).

Effective recruitment and selection provides benefits for an organization to perform the duties effectively. Recruitment and selection is important aspect for every organization in getting the right employee for the right job (Noe, 2012). According to (Stewart and Carson 1997) the goal of recruitment and selection process should get suitable employees with minimum cost.

Benefit of Effective Recruitment and Selection

  • Accurate selection from a strong pool of applicants-
Having a proper recruitment process provides with a strong pool of applicants from which you can select the most suitable for the current vacancy. In applying the selection process various techniques such as interviews, tests and other techniques can be used in evaluating the candidate’s qualification and traits (Trevor, 1997).

  • Reducing cost of recruitment, training by retaining the employees-
Proper selection and recruitment process enables aligning the abilities of the new employees to the demands of the job. Selection of the correct candidate to the correct job creates the job satisfaction and thus reduces the employee turnover (Trevor, 1997). Retention of employees will reduce the cost of repetitive recruitment for the same position and the training cost of the selected vacancy (Shar, 2011)

  • Complementing the business strategy
The strategic human resource management is a proactive method where company identify and maps out the positions required and the timing of such recruitments according to the strategic plans of the company. According to Forbes (Shar, 2011), Strategic human resource is a proactive approach to talent management when compared to traditional reactive or transactional HR systems.

  • Reduces potential legal issues
When you have a proper recruitment process, the selection is unbiased and there is a scientific method used for recruitment. This reduces the business in recruitment and wrong selection which can lead to subsequent action being taken. The said scenarios can lead to legal issues which can be very expensive and time consuming (Compton, 2010).

Methods of Recruitment and Selection

There are two methods of recruitment and selection. Armstrong (2000) suggested that first consideration should be given to internal candidates, though some organizations with powerful equal opportunity policies (often local authorities) insist that all internal candidates should apply for vacancies on the same footing as external candidates, and second being entered recruitment and selection. According to (Beardwell, 2007; Cober & Brown, 2006), the external recruitment mentions that getting the applicants from outside of the organization.  The vast ranges of methods are used for the external recruitment when compare to internal recruitment. Due to the external sources, the organization should require to consider that what positions need to be filled. Sources of external recruitment contain e-recruitment, advertisement, labour office, education and training.

Due to the selection criteria, the organization focuses on planned workers’ “hard” specialized abilities and their ‘soft” behavioral skills. In any case, it was debated that frequently organization processes and determination forms emphasize prospective employees “hard” skills and concentrate less on their “soft” skills (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2002). During the selection process of Ceylinco Insurance, HR managers reveal the fact that various factors such as ability, personality, motivation, and attitude are some other personal attributes covering both “hard” skills and “soft” skills necessary for the job.

Further, when comparing listed and non-listed companies in Sri Lanka, interview is rated as the most often used method followed by written examination and psychometric tests by both listed and non-listed companies. AIA Insurance company uses the psychometric test of the employee selection other than interview and written test. AIA, further examines the effectiveness of Psychometric test to understand of the traits of selected employees.

Many organizations the selection process involves obtaining information on every job applicant for application forms, background checks, performance simulations, and interviews (Noe, 2012). The interview is a critical factor of the selection process. To identify this concern in Assetline Leasing Company conducts the recruitment and selection as follows. They initially publish the advertisement via online and the newspapers and they conduct the preliminary interview at the initial stage. When the candidates successfully completed the successful preliminary interview, there is a second interview conduct by the company and finally, they select the candidate for the employment, based on market references on the individual candidate. Assetline Leasing company is a leading organization in the equipment leasing market in Sri Lanka.

Finally according the researchers’ definition, recruitment and selection is an important function for the organization and it gives the organization to attract – competent – employees to meet organization objectives.


References

Armstrong M. (2005), A Handbook of Human Resources Management Practices, 9th edition, London: Kogan Page

Costello, D. (2006), Leveraging the Employee Life Cycle, CRM Magazine, 10 (12), pp.48-48.


Dessler G. (1991), Personnel/Human Resources Management, 5th ed, New Jersey: Prentice Hall

Dessler, G. (2013). Human resource management. (16th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill

Implementing recruitment & retention strategies that enhance employee commitment, performance and financial payoff, < http://www.lawson-intl.com/strategicstaffing2.html> (Accessed on 24th May 2018)

Noe, R. A. (2012). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage (7thed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Price A. (2004), Human Resource Management in a Business Context, 2nd edition, Florence; Thomson Learning

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Stewart, C. J. (2011). Interviewing: Principles and practices. New York, NY: McGrawHill.

Shar R, Shifting HR From A Reactive Process to a Proactive Business Service, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/rawnshah/2011/10/31/shifting-hr-from-a-reactive-process-to-a-proactive-business-service/#7aaaf32a1040> (Accessed on 24th May 2018).
Trevor, C. et. al., Voluntary Turnover and Job Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 1997, Vol. 82, No. 1, pp. 44-61.

10 comments:

  1. You mention that the retention of employees helps reduce the cost of repetitive recruitment for the same position. However, what happens if there is a need to reduce costs for the recruitment of different positions?

    One solution that comes to mind is an online recruitment and selection process, which is becoming increasingly accessible in this day and age. To offer an example, the UK grocery retailer Tesco uses different methods of online recruitment such as their website for managerial vacancies, and the wider internet for other vacancies such as pharmacists and bakers. According to Gopalia (2011), the positive outcomes of online recruitment not only saved costs, but also reduced time to hire, assisted in faster data collection, and helped provide Tesco with a competitive edge in terms of industry recruitment and selection.

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    Replies
    1. I agree with your suggestion.let me add few more into your thoughts. Point of your question is how to reduce the cost of recruiting for different positions by employee retention.Every organization runs with a hierarchy of positions.every position except the lowest in the hierarchy has a successor.It is quite easy and beneficial for every organization to recruit the immediate successor in the hierarchy to the vacant position as he/she is most of the times the best suited in many angles.
      Compared to a new comer, an existing employee is aware of the company and the dynamics of the upper and lower sides of his/her hierarchy.He/she has lived with those and understands the art of working and strategies of getting things done from the organization.
      Hence, I believe even for different positions, Companies can reduce the cost of repetitive recruitment by longer retention of employees in their existing positions.

      Delete
  2. Gamage (2014) explains the selection practices will figure out who is hired. On the off chance it will determine skilled applicants and precisely coordinate them to the job. The utilization of the best possible selection device will build the likelihood that the ideal individual is selected to fill the post. At the point when the best individuals are chosen for the job, productively rises. Rauf (2007) found that advanced recruitment and selection approaches are decidedly identified with performance in organisations.

    Some of the challenges that are faced in the recruitment and selection criteria as István in 2010 perceived that there are a lot of procedures utilized as a part of recruitment and hiring today among which are a few techniques not acknowledged by specialists universally, or not prescribed for the recruitment process (Ekwoaba,Ikeije & Ufoma 2015). As argued by István (2010), selection methods can be assessed in a few different ways. One conceivable approach is to think about hiring techniques based on their legitimacy, fair-mindedness, extent of use, and cost.

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  3. I may half agree with your statement on internal recruitment, external recruitment has more advantages than the internal, because it brings fresh minds to an organization which can think differently rather than the regular brains. New recruiters are not enmeshed in office politics or making them less susceptible to unproductive influences by others. The number of potential candidates is high compared to internal employees (DeVaro, 2016). So an external recruitment has higher potential, it could turn to be a more successful recruitment making external hiring worth a risk.

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    Replies
    1. I too have to half agree with your statement as external recruitment too has limitations and disadvantages despite the advantages pointed out. As same as external recruitment brings fresh minds to an organization it can bring the worst if the recruitment process is unsuccessful and biased.Interviewing cannot be a full judgement of a person or cannot guarantee the freshness in mind and further, external recruitment may be the basis for bringing in office politics for a highly successful entity.

      Similarly, we cannot comment that the internal staff is not equipped with fresh minds and positive attitudes.External recruitment can sometimes bring negativity to a positive mind when company practices in recruiting solely externally since it hampers the career progress of lower level employees in the company. That attitude will demoralize the internal staff and as a result, skilled employees will not retain in the company.

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  4. In the CIPD (2009) article ,it is argues that effective recruitment is central and crucial to the success of day -to-day functioning of any organization. The success of recruitment depends upon finding the people with the right skills, qualification and expertise to deliver organization objectives and the ability to make a positive contribution to the values and aims of the organization. Further strategic human resources management practices are being considered as most relevant HR practices in modern organizational context.
    So strategic recruitment and selection should starts with organizational vision ,mission ,objectives and strategy . Based on the organizational strategy, methods of recruitment & selection should be identified very specifically.
    So even in your organization rather than align in to traditional HR recruitment and selection procedure ,I believe using most appropriate and up to date process would help to select the best candidate also should assess the challenges .Chandani Shrivastava on linkedin (2009) identified 5 major challenges in recruitment and selection .
    1. Companies need to make a speedy hire
    2. Not having enough resources
    3. Being unable to find the perfect candidate for a certain position
    4. Understanding and using analytics effectively
    5. Finding workers who fit the company culture
    If you assess above and consider when you proceed with your HR process
    & find better solutions , I believe you will get the best results out of recruitment and selection.

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  5. According to Vyas (2011) the current trend is that organizations are looking for ways to reduce time and effort in hiring and selection processes. However Munyon, Summers, Ferris and Gerald (2011) admonished recruitment and selection methods should convert to competitive advantage of an organization. Devaro (2008) indicate Recruitment strategies can have positive results for organizations. Using quality systems in recruiting and selection helps organizations grow as they can find the right talent to fill that gap. In addition, relevant channels can help your organization obtain multiple sources and turn them into effective hires (sinha & Thaly, 2013) The success of any organization or the efficiency of service delivery depends on the quality of the people hired by the organization, so recruitment and selection of all organizations is a serious problem (Ezeali and Esiagu, 2010).

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  6. You are mainly focusing here on insurance industry recruitment and selection. Since you have highlighted the necessity of background check i would like to direct you to the modern recruitment and selection methods and tools such as Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter) and also other sophisticated methods (Judith,2012). Such media not only provide passive information about the person's characteristics, skills and also provides chances to read the recommendations from that person's previous superiors. It is similarly important to companies to appear with their profiles in social media because according to the interesting studies done by Robert Walters(no date) 67% jobs seekers gain insight into company culture. I believe it is high time to Lankan context insurance companies to use the social media and modern technologies to represent in cyber space.

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  7. I believe that the Insurance sector in Sri Lanka has the highest employee turnover percentage than the other industries. Retention of employees also important as recruiting right people. As per Tse & Lam (2008), and many researchers showed that high employee turnover can produce highly negative outcomes to the companies (Abbasi & Hollman, 2000; Waltrous, et al, 2006). As correctly said retention of employees reduces the cost of recruitment and time. Online recruitment and other alternative such as social media also can be used for this process.

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  8. Human resource management involves a observation that employees are human resources, not unlike other organizational resources such as finance and technology, who need to be managed in similar and different ways in order to accomplish productivity and profitability effects. Exact human resource management functions then provide the means by which employees are human resource planning, job design, recruitment and selection, human resource development, reward and remuneration system, performance and career management, dismissal, retirement, redundancy programs according to organizational requirements. It thus involves a human resource management strategy and a human resource management plan, consistent with overall organizational strategies, which subsequently feed into each of the related human resource roles. (Compton, Morrissey and Nankervis 2011)

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THE KEY IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES IN SRI LANKA

According to Costello, (2006) “Recruitment and selection, as a human resource management function. It is one of the human resource manageme...